Yeah I just wish the Bill the Pony thing was expanded upon in the movie, however I understand entirely there was far too much to be in a movie from the books. Nowadays though? LotR being a show itself would be super cool. Then they could include nearly everything, I assume.
I think it’s important that things like this remain their own entity and are not guidelines for every fantasy writer. I like how Blizzard takes their own direction and lore, and while there’s a lot of inspiration from it, doesn’t follow it like some sort of template.
There are some fantasy elitists that take LotR as the one true guide for fantasy, and that’s it–that’s incredibly uncreative for me.
Relating to vampires in general, too, we can see this trend. “They need to be this way” or “That way”, and creativity isn’t rewarded if you don’t follow the ‘meta’ in fantasy (See what I did there? )
Of course, there is, simply put, bad lore out there. Looking at you, Twilight. The vampire lore in that series is an abomination, what with the sparkling in the sun that makes everyone take vampires and their fans less seriously. There’s a way to do paranormal romance, and that? That’s not it.
I enjoy the concept of daywalkers, like how L. J. Smith did so in Night World. But the thing about lore and fantasy in general is that it’s flexible. We’re not all going to agree on certain things, like I am adamant (aside from a very few exceptions) that:
-Vampires should drink blood and target humanoids for it
-Vampires should have fangs and probably claws
Those are two things that I will always hold important when it comes to those of which I prefer, anyway. I know there’s non-fang vampires, like Cirque du freak (TERRIBLE movie by the way, but I think I enjoyed the books. Dunno, was a long time ago.)
So yeah! I like when fantasy can deviate from the norm and be its own thing–while still honoring classics like LotR. LotR is very important for establishing the genre and should be honored as such. Of course, it has its flaws and started-cliches that I personally hate, but as an entity on its own? I really enjoyed it. Especially the ents, those were really neat to see. I think those and the Nazgul (not sure if I’m getting them right) were my favorites.
Edit: ALSO there was hair jewelry that actually looked nice for the elves in that. Why couldn’t we have gotten that jewelry for blood elves?