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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42665
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42665
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **Yes.** Both of the examples you gave (more so the LotR one) "work" in their own right without the need to "get" the reference in order to continue understanding the story.

The more likely a reader/viewer/etc is to "get" a reference the more you can lean on it in the story, the same is true for pop-culture references.

To use a recent-ish example in _Avengers: Infinity War_ Spider-Man makes a reference to _Aliens_ as an oblique suggestion as to a way to deal with a given enemy, now given the overlap in likely audience demographics and the cultural awareness of _Aliens_ in general there's a fair chance that a good chunk of the audience are going to get the reference.

But crucially if you _don't_ get the reference it doesn't actually mean you can't understand the scene - understanding it just means you get a few seconds heads up as to what's coming next. The gag is even crafted in such a way as to give humorous value even if you don't:

> Did you ever see this really old movie _Aliens_?

You know that Spider-Man is _making_ a pop-culture reference and it riffs on his relative young age vs Iron Man.

This is hard to test yourself because _you_ will get the references. So make sure you have a beta reader (ideally more than one) who _won't_ - if they don't have trouble parsing the scene then you're doing fine.

Specifically regarding _religious_ references these tend to be more subtly done - mainly because religion is a more sensitive subject in general.

Original score: 10