Elon Musk Slams ‘The Rings of Power’ for Making ‘Almost Every Male Character a Coward’ or ‘Jerk,’ Reigniting Jeff Bezos Feud

Elon Musk has reignited his longstanding rivalry with Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, this time over Amazon’s buzzy new series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” The first two episodes of “The Rings of Power” debuted Sept. 2 on Prime Video to strong reviews from critics and 25 million global viewers during their first 24 hours available to stream. Musk is not a fan of the series.

“Tolkien is turning in his grave,” the Tesla CEO and founder wrote on Twitter. “Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice.”

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Some of the “Lord of the Rings” fandom is upset with the show for turning Galadriel, played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy as a serene and regal elf, into a full-blown action hero. Galadriel is played by Morfydd Clark in the Amazon series. Clark previously defended her interpretation of the character.

“I would say that her serenity is hard earned,” Clark told Variety. “I don’t think you get to that level of wisdom without going through things. She actually speaks about [how] with wisdom, there is a loss of innocence, which was a really good thing for me to find in the lore. Because, like, how young are you when you’re still thousands of years old? So it was thinking of what innocence she lost during this time.”

Clark continued, “The elves by the Third Age have evolved to a certain degree. The elves in the First Age are really messy and screw each other over a lot, and fight and mock each other also. They are the history of Middle Earth, and so they are forever changing. It was really interesting for all of us playing canon characters to be exploring how these characters become what we know them to be.”

Musk’s tweet drew backlash from many Twitter users, including “The Sandman” author Neil Gaiman. He replied, “Elon Musk doesn’t come to me for advice on how to fail to buy Twitter, and I don’t go to him for film, TV or literature criticism.”

Musk and Bezos have been business rivals for several years, so it’s not shocking to see the former be so critical of Amazon’s “The Rings of Power.” Their rivalry currently extends to their competing spaceflight businesses, Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin.

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