Is Shadow of Mordor/War Canon?

[ReBootXD]

It's such a great premise, and the story fits well with the lore. And it's fun to think that one of the Nazgul from Fellowship is Talion

[judy~ bday today]

The shortest answer is no. Tolkien never wrote about a Gondorian who was possessed by any Elf, much less Celebrimbor. Indeed, Tolkien never says anything about the fate of Celebrimbor’s spirit.

[Daelight]

I asked this question in the past to one of my very old friends who grew up reading Tolkien's stories and been a fanatic in the movies of LotR.

His answer was and I quote: "Tolkien would never write something like that. As far as I know, it is not canon." searching and looking around it online on my own found the same negative answer, so, I can definitely say it is not canon.

[Derek]

no its not but as an avid fan of the books and movies for years now i feel that the story is quite interesting and imo i take it as canon. Obviously it is not but seeing as tolkien is dead and will never produce any more lotr content then im fine with it.

[Darth Revan]

I mean when you look at shelob in this game I highly doubt that this is canon.

[Casual Cucumber]

Shadow of Mordor/War should essentially be treated as fan fiction. It is so out of what Tolkien would write as others here have stated but you can still enjoy the game for what it is.

[Tonesz586]

Shadow of Mordor could be considered as canon if you disregard some minor issues, Shadow of War most definitely cannot. The lore of the Ringwraiths is all over the place, for starters.
Only one thing that can be absolutely canon: the way it depicts Uruk societies. That is great in both games.

[Hika Elm]

SoM and SoW could be canon with the movies. But clearly not about the books.

You shoud see it as a good fanfiction, made by someone who saw Peter Jackson's movies and wanted to use the books as he wants.

[dlo.dirtyjobs]

Not just no.... but hell no. It breaks the lore from the first second. Best not dwell on it or it will ruin the game.

[game127253]

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[game127253]

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[Fake_Emo_Jace]

The game creates it's own canon based heavily on the book canon. There are a lot of contradictions or retcons, whatever you want to call them. Things like She-Lob's powers, the identities of the Nazghul or how much Celebrimbor had to do with the rings. The way I see it is that it's canon with the movies, as the movies themselves played with the lore quite a bit, either way I personally love a lot of the lore breaks in the games as they create a sense of a more developed narrative instead of a history book. I like how Celebrimbor actually forged the rings since it gives Sauron more of a trickster god and schemer persona, or making Isildur one of the 9 which feels narratively satisfying.


TLDR: It's not canon but I like the changes enough to not care