The Life and Opinions of Andrew Rilstone

  My reviews of Rings of Power Season II, complete without outtakes, extras and lots of digressions is now available as a smart little PDF. ...

The Rings of Power is a talisman and a surrogate for a certain kind of toxic fan schism. I think that you think that I am a gatekeeper; you ...

The Rings of Power plays fast and loose with the imaginary history of Middle-earth. But  historical TV shows and movies play fast and loose ...

Does Tolkien contradict himself?  Very well: he contradicts himself.  He contains multitudes. He never finalised his meta-narrative; at any ...

T hen we are decided. Pointy eared people talking posh and furry footed people living down holes are in the cold light of day, every so slig...

The Rings of Power abandons Tolkien's internal chronology.  The opening credits claims that the series is "adapted from the Lord of...

People who had read Lord of the Rings -- and even people who had read it twice -- were mostly okay with what Peter Jackson did to Fellowship...

There is nothing wrong with loving Dogtanian and the Three Muskhounds and having not the slightest intention of ever reading Dumas.  You rea...

Some time ago I confessed that I didn't particularly like comic books. What I like is superheroes. I grok that Heartstopper is marvellou...

It is often said that Tolkien never finished the Silmarillion. It would perhaps be truer to say that Tolkien finished the Silmarillion sever...

I've been listening to Bart Ehrman's podcasts about the Bible, provocatively entitled Misquoting Jesus. Prof Ehrman has forgotten mo...

My mother went to the opera all her life: as a young woman she used to queue to get cheap back row tickets at Covent Garden ('the gods...

I must not digress. Digression is the blog-killer. Digression is the general point which brings total excursus. I will ignore my digression....

RINGS OF POWER AFTER PARTY Digression I: Gatekeeping II: Canon III: Canon IV: Fantasy V: Gatekeeping VI: Adaptation VII: World Buidling VIII...

ANDOR Disney + Everyone agrees that the first Season of the Mandalorian is marvellous, but thereafter the Star Wars Television Universe seem...

  Hi, I'm Andrew. For the last month my lovely Patreon subscribers have been getting early access to my essays on the Rings of Power and...