With the Lord of the Rings “brand” reverting back to Warner Brothers, they’re taking it for a spin themselves before loaning it out to anybody. The result, as you might already have heard, is Aragorn’s Quest: a cooperative action adventure romp for the Wii, manufactured with “kids and their families” squarely in mind. The strip talks specifically about the art style you’ll see in some of the screens, a delivery one might describe as being almost incandescent in its enthusiasm, but in general we think this is unexpected and kind of interesting.
There are certainly opportunities here for heresy, but that sort of thing doesn’t bother me the way it used to. Policing the output of our cultural apparatus for wrongthink is a pleasant occupation for young men with surplus energy. When I have energy, perhaps after eating the remainder of a Luna bar I found in the park, perhaps I will invest it in the perfect chastity of my favorite fantasy contexts. As it stands, I’m curious what (if anything) this lens might reveal. So, no. Not worried, though I reserve the right to be if Sauron has three distinct stages and must be struck with nuts to reveal some hidden weak point.
What does worry me is that the comic we did will be made into a show somehow, weaponizing someone who does care, and I’ll be murdered as a result - most likely with some replica of a legendary weapon. The last thing I’ll ever see will be the price tag, still dangling anachronistically from the haft. I’ll make a note of this price.
It will seem steep.
With an apparently rejiggered Electronic Entertainment Expo now unfolding in its fluid neon origami trick, here in the foyer of its imminence I have found my joy returning. This purgatorial, runway-bound nightmare phase - this I am sick of. This weekend’s crazy “leaks” capped what has been a months long nibbling at an increasingly bruised and dilapidated amuse-bouche. I am exhausted by the careful skirting and fan language. I am starving. And I am ready to feast.
(CW)TB out.
