Monolith on Shelob as a Woman in Shadow of War: We Don't Do Insane or Unjustified Things

Monolith's Bob Roberts commented on Shelob's appearance as a woman in Middle-earth: Shadow of War, saying that the developers are huge fans of Lord of the Rings and don't do unjustified things.

[Aurenar]

Don't know about insane but it is unjustified for sure.

[KaiPow]

Right? I don't recall transformation being in their skill set.

[thekhurg]

Because it wasn't. Shelob always was a spider, was born a spider, and died as a spider.

[rainslacker]

Tolkein was against licensing out his work, although he did once where his apprehensions were only proven justified. I'd imagine he'd probably be rolling over in his grave over this regardless of the justification. He took great care to craft his world and mythology, and seems the only reason to make shelob a woman was for some narrative purpose, because I suppose making up a new character would have been too hard compared to just having some sort of fan service.

That being said, the whole building an army of the undead or converting orcs to your own army is enough of a bastardization of Tolkeins work to make this change pretty much as bad as the rest, regardless of the devs reasons for doing it.

There was only one shape shifting species in the Tolkein mythos, and the spiders weren't part of it. They were their own species of sentient and intelligent beings.

It's odd how Peter Jackson can take great care to craft 6 movies which actually do justice to Tolkeins work(mostly), compared to these games which barely bother to remain true to the source material, which is overly abundant enough to make an actual game, or tons of games out of.

[AizenSosuke]

Unjustifiable definitely though.

[-Foxtrot]

Since when can they transform? Oh yeah when you need a pair of tits to sell your game

[rainslacker]

Fan service sells. We all know there are millions of tolkein fans who fantasize over Shalob.

Making a new character is apparently hard....because apparently there just aren't enough female characters in the tolkein universe or something.

Next game, it turns out that Rosie Cotton is actually a transgendered orc who identifies as coniferous tree ent.

[-Foxtrot]

Which is a shame when even Peter Jackson can make brand new female characters in this Universe

https://vignette2.wikia.noc...

[ccgr]

Interesting take on it...

[gamer7804]

I like that she's a woman, the trailer looked amazing.

[Alexious]

Yeah, except that Shelob was never a woman in Lord of the Rings.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Who cares?

[-Foxtrot]

@343_Guilty_Spark

Lore and continuity that's who

[gamer7804]

Shelob wasn't, they take a good amount of liberties with the lotr games, but as long as the intent of the character is there and the dialogue and story are well crafted that's what matters.

[rainslacker]

@343

Well, I kind of care. I'm fine with taking creative liberties with the lore to create some interesting story, but to take established lore and completely changing it to throw in some fan service when it would have been just as easy to create a new character or just use what Tolkein intended with a rather well explained race within his universe is just too much.

If one is looking for a game that tries to say it exists within a franchise, then it should follow that franchise as closely as possible, and not find some contrivance to make a story by throwing in some fan service.

particularly when Tolkein was very particular about his own creation, and wasn't all that keen on licensing out his work just because he didnt' like the way other forms of media tended to bastardize original work.

@gamer

The intent of the character? Shalob could talk and communicate, and the spider race as a whole has their own place in the universe through the other works in Tolkiens universe.

Why did she need to be a woman? So they could convienantly put a well known character in a place where they could somehow have a place in the story?

What was the intent of Shalob? The character was reclusive. Keeping to her cave, and waiting for the hapless victim to wander in. She had a connection to Mordor as a kind of gaurd, and victims were often sent there to appease her. The character did not go out to do anything for the story otherwise. She had no agenda to the great middle-earth story.

How is changing her to a woman for any reason somehow the original intent of the character? how is changing a rather well explained race within the universe and changing their very core of what they are keeping the intent of the character?

How can the intent of the character actually be useful unless it's done in the same way as it was in LOTR as she never left her domain? If they're sending the characters there, then why change a spider to a woman, when the spider is much more menacing and provides more game play oppurtunity?

[mafiahajeri]

Lol you are shoehorning your SJW agenda in this game. Gotta cater to them huh? First it was a black character now this crap.

Since when was shelob a shapeshifting chick? Pathetic.

Also the black character is not the problem the problem is that there were no black characters in the lotrs, or middle earth rather.

Doing what you are doing just undermines black people more, it doesnt show how open minded you are, or how much you care about representing them in games.

The way it looks is, yeah lets put a black character in the game so we can look like were so progressive and caring to all races.

In reality you are using them as a pawn to cater to SJWs and get more sales. The same goes for ubisoft with their stupid ass skin colour option for factions in for honor. Instead of actually creating factions that are actually from said race that people csn realate to.

Assassins creed origins is on the right track it makes sense for the main character to be black, this crap is just stupid. Stick to the lore or GTFO. And dont give me that ficitional universe BS its not part of the source material then it doesnt make sense.

[BenjaMan64]

Shelob as a dark, sexy femme fatale, that could apparently come to blows with Talion and Celebrimbor, hardly sounds like a SJW's dream character.

Ecthelion II, to protect Gondor, was interested in hiring foreigners that proved themselves worthy, so it's not that farfetched to think that a Haradrim (the black man in the trailers) could be in the game. Besides, Shadow of Mordor already featured plenty of white characters: Talion, his wife and son, Hirgon and his wife, Lithariel, the Queen, and if we count them despite not being humans, Celebrimbor and Torvin. Varied casts are more interesting in my opinion.

[mafiahajeri]

The Haradrim were implied to be middle eastern, why is he black? Or do all we coloured people look alike? Im Arabic, now im offended...

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entri...

[343_Guilty_Spark]

So triggered.

The Haradrim from the East were darker races so they definitely could have been black, brown, or both.

Keep crying.

[mafiahajeri]

Lmao, nice try kid. That troll pic didnt give it away that I was making a jk about all this BS?

I could stoop low and act like a victim and explain with valid points on why I was "offended" but I dont give a shit about him being arabic or black. All I Know is dont put other races in games or lores were they abviously dont fit.

Next thing you know well get a black viking whos main mission is to raid some caucasian ninja master in Japan... All for the sake of political correctness.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Stop making shit up.We're more likely to get a white Samurai become the best swordsman in Japan, learn the code of Bushido and be a better Samurai than any Japanese person that ever lived.

Wait...

[mafiahajeri]

Lol you talking about william adams? Good job knit picking. My point clearly went over your head...

And better Samurai then any Japanese person my ass...

[rainslacker]

There was a race of black people in LOTR. The southron were described as such. They didn't have any specific characters in LOTR, but there was at least one in the extended works, but I believe it took place in a time well before this game is supposed to take place.

Middle-earth was set during a time when there wouldn't have been that many black people in the area where the story took it's inspiration from, but they were known to exist through war and trading.

[Mr_Luke]

Unjustified. Shelob is a spider, NOT a woman. I hate things like that. Then i guess we'll meet Aragorn, princess of the dwarves? Or Gandalf, the eagle.

[Skuletor]

Gandalf, the eagle sounds cool, lol.

[Goldby]

Didn't we learn anything from Eddie the Eagle.

Gandalf would have to take up ski Jumping to become an eagle

[Mithan]

lol, this is stupid.

[stokedAF]

To be fair, it does have "she" in the name. But it is insane to assume one's gender.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Why didn't Monolith/Warner Bros Games, just create a new character, if they wanted a femme-fatale?

[Skuletor]

Lies, you put micro transactions in a primarily single player game, with a tacked on multiplayer mode.

[lizard81288]

lol, each time I hear about this game, the worse it gets.

[Snakefist30]

This game is gonna flop!