Earlier this week, Tesla CEO and wannabe Twitter owner Elon Musk chose to deliver his scathing review of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Claiming that author J.R.R. Tolkein would be "turning in his grave," the billionaire went on to criticise the series for making "almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both."
He'd add that 90% of the replies he'd received to those comments on Twitter were bots, no doubt hoping to take a shot at the social media giant as part of the legal battle he's currently engaged in with them. For those of you who are unaware, Musk recently terminated his supposed intention to purchase the site for $44 billion (and they're not happy about it).
Regardless, there were those who agreed with the SpaceX founder and plenty who didn't. The Sandman's Neil Gaiman most definitely falls into the latter camp, something he's made evident on social media.
As you can see below, he responded to someone who asked for his take to say, "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." That led to Musk's fans taking aim at the author, prompting him to remind them that he isn't involved with The Rings of Power in any way.
This isn't the first time Gaiman has defended the series, as he recently pointed out that those complaining about Black characters in Middle-earth "[are] either racist or [haven't] read their Tolkien" due to how the Harfoots, for example, are described on the page.
The third episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Prime Video this Friday.