There is an awesome event happening on Tumblr this month (and hopefully, even longer). The Middle-earth POC Design Challenge largely stems from the desire to move beyond Middle-earth character design that is based solely on the actors who took on the roles in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. Because you know who doesn’t get enough representation in the films? People of color.
This awesome character redesign of Eomer and Boromir by Matt Lara is one of the few representations of POC in Middle-earth I have seen. I’m so excited that this Tumblr challenge will inspire more!
Throughout the month of June, participants are encouraged to re-imagine their beloved characters from Tolkien’s stories of Middle-earth–whether that means The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, or The Lord of the Rings–as people of color. If you’re artistically unaccomplished, like I am, don’t despair! This challenge is not limited to just drawings; photo edits, gifsets, cosplays, even writing and meta are fair game!
Here are the guidelines for this challenge:
basically, your design can be anything and of anything in the tolkien universe! but i ask, we all ask, that your designs be representative of people of color; people outside of the presumed present-day-earth area where much of middle-earth’s history took place – which means not looking at things from a european perspective. that’s the point of this challenge after all!
this includes cultural changes, such as giving certain types of elves headwear in honor of elbereth, or dwarves a certain set of personal rules that they adhere to in honor of mahal, or hobbits traditional dances or courting rituals.
it also includes changes of environment – basically anything you can make different design-wise, go for it. remake the golden hall, minas tirith, the grey havens!
since this is technically fantasy, go ahead and add things that don’t appear/aren’t based off of things in the real world as well! a character can still be a person of color and have, say, green skin. example.
please be considerate of appropriation and do the required research for any design you may come up with! some guides if you need help. if you know of better resources i’d be glad to hear from you as well.
designs you’ve already made are welcome! i understand that some people don’t have the time/capabilities to make their own designs, and that’s fine! the main idea is still to create new ones, but to create new art with designs you already have and maybe haven’t showcased much/yet is very welcome too!
designs of characters not necessarily of canon are also welcome! you can redesign tauriel, or design the descendants of sam gamgee. additionally, characters from regions that were never explained in much detail by tolkien, such as the far east and the south, are worthy game, whether they as a character were ever mentioned or not.
feel free to get together and discuss aspects related to this challenge, and to help each other out, or construct meta, etc! i can set up a chatroom if anybody is interested.
and basically, don’t be an a******! anybody coming in just to rant about how upset tolkien would be about whatever and such and such will promptly be shown this picture and the door.
The official tag is #mepocdc2014. If you make a Tumblr post in participation, please tag it with mepocdc2014 within the first five tags, so it shows up in the tag and can reblogged to the main blog. If you’re active on other social media, remember to use the hashtag there as well. I really hope you will join in!
Are there any particular characters you are looking forward to seeing? Share your hopes and inspirations in the comments!
