1 1 Tolkien Society Seminar 2021 ‘21 st Century Receptions of Tolkien’ Jelena Filipovic, M.A. Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf Middle-earth: Shadow of War as the new shadow The video game Middle-earth: Shadow of War (2017) takes place in an alternate storyworld that depicts events preceding LotR and yet it does testimony to the very danger Tolkien had envisioned for a possible sequel to LotR when he said, “it is inevitable that we should be concerned with the most regrettable feature of [man’s] nature: their quick satiety with good” (Letters, No. 256). 1 SoW sheds a new ‘light’ on Tolkien’s conception of morality throughout the legendarium, but threatens it at the same time. The problematic that gradually articulated itself in Tolkien’s The New Shadow (and which the author had predicted) occurs on a structural and thematic level. One way of looking at Tolkien’s assertion that the narrative would not be worth doing is that the structure of the new narrative would follow too much that of LotR; there would be an evil once again which would need to be defeated and although it might be situated in a different place, at a different time, with different protagonists, the story would have a similar outcome. On the thematic level, The New Shadow would not be worth pursuing because after Sauron’s defeat in LotR there is no longer a divine, angelic enemy in Middle-earth and all future conflicts in Middle-earth would be tedious. SoW tells the story of Talion, a non-canonical Ranger, who is brought back from the dead by the wraith of Celebrimbor. By using Talion as his vessel, Celebrimbor aims to get revenge on Sauron for having deceived the Elves in matters concerning the making of the Rings of Power and ultimately free Middle-earth from the Dark Lord. In the first game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014), Talion/Celebrimbor uses his powers to start a civil war among the Orcs in an attempt to take the throne from Sauron. 2 In SoW, it becomes clear that Celebrimbor’s priority is to amass power to use against Sauron rather than save lives, as Talion struggles to do. Talion and Celebrimbor begin the second game on Mount Doom, where they have forged a new ring to challenge the One Ring. Both games apply a deconstructive approach to Tolkien’s storytelling. They explore the idea of fighting Sauron from within Mordor, using his means, his creatures, and his weapons. This involves enslaving the Orcs by magic, and encouraging 1 Middle-earth: Shadow of War is hereafter abbreviated to SoW. 2 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is hereafter abbreviated to SoM.