Season 1 Script Discussion: Session 3

Homework is, of course, Session dealing with the episode in Question, which is 1.05, available here. I was less prepared than I wanted last time; this time I plan to know the relevant session backwards and forwards by heart.
 
So it looks like I proooobably can't make it this week, I'm on my way to Taipei right now rather unexpectedly and not for entirely positive reasons: if I could've, I'd have chosen to spend this weekend in my apartment in Tainan, but no dice. This also means I will be spending the majority of Monday morning on a train, so that makes attending the meeting a little bit inconvenient. Maybe I can listen in and do some typing in the chat via my phone, but no promises.

Sorry about that, guys, sometimes real life gets in the way for my fun nerdy stuff. I'll see you next Friday for the podcast and we'll hit it hard next Sunday. Hope I can stop by and at least listen!
 
Honestly, we had many fewer characters to deal with this time. It was literally all about Melkor, so showing his interactions with Varda, Ungoliant, and the proto-balrogs while hanging out in the Void and looking for the flame imperishable...is really all there was to it ;). I suspect that the next session will be much longer, as we return to our cast of (most of) the Valar: Manwë, Varda, Aulë, Yavanna, Ulmo, Nienna, Oromë, Vana, and Nessa will all have to react to Melkor's presence within Arda..
 
Alright, help me out here. According to the outline, is Melkor suppose to enter the void twice (and he only meets Ungoliant the second time?) Or does he only go in once?
 
Yes - enters the Void twice, only meets Ungoliant the second time. I think I re-did this one, let me go find it...
 
Here is a more detailed version of what is supposed to be happening in Episode 3. I see we left the Music out of the outline entirely - no wonder it was confusing! It still needs work, but hopefully this is somewhat helpful.



Episode 3: He Who Arises in Might

Cast: Estel, Elrond, Gilraen, Melkor, Valaraukar, Varda, Ungoliant, Ilúvatar (voice)

Estel learns the origin story of the most powerful of the Valar, and Elrond is left to explain why there is evil in the world.


Frame Setting: Library of Rivendell – Elrond begins Estel’s next lesson. Very little frame setup this time; just a recap of ‘where were we?’ and then we’re off. Elrond explains that this part happens before the Music of the Ainur.

Timeless Halls: We begin with Melkor and Manwë and very few other Ainur in the Timeless Halls. This is while Ilúvatar is still creating the Ainur, so not everyone is ‘born’ yet. As the Ainur are created, they join into small groups and begin singing. Melkor approaches the Valaraukar (Proto-balrogs) and instructs them in how they should sing. They enthusiastically respond to his instruction. Melkor then approaches another group and tries to do the same...but confusion results and they cease singing. Melkor awkwardly leaves. He is clearly frustrated by those who do not think like he does, but sympathetic as the audience should see him as someone whose attempts at conversation at a party have failed.

The Void: When Melkor leaves the Timeless Halls, which are brightly lit (if indistinct in form), he finds himself in a strange dark nothingness. He himself glows faintly, but the light bleeds off of him, blurring his form. He is searching for something, silently.

Timeless Halls: When Melkor returns to the Halls, they should seem bright and loud in comparison to where he just was. The transition is jarring. He sees Varda. She asks him where he was, and he explains that he was looking for something, but he’s not sure what it was. There is something more, he thinks, that Eru is not sharing with the Ainur. Varda tells him that it sounds like he means the Flame Imperishable, and she explains to him what that is – [a light that gives thought substance, or something like that]. Intrigued, Melkor returns to the Void to renew his search more eagerly.

The Void: Melkor meets Ungoliant, the first being he has encountered in this dark blank space. She is intrigued by him, as she has never met another being before. He is somewhat unnerved by her, but explains what it is he is looking for, thinking she might know where it is (or even be hiding it). She is *very* interested in his description, and expresses hunger for this Flame he speaks of. It is clear she does not have it, and he flees from her, back towards the Timeless Halls.

Frame: At the end of the lesson, Estel is quiet, pensive, disturbed. He returns home to Gilraen, who notices the change in his demeanor and asks the reason for it. When he tells her, she is visibly displeased.

[Gilraen is standing at the gate to Imladris, looking out at the very road that brought her and Estel to the Last Homely House. Elrond approaches, sensing her disquiet. Gilraen confronts him on teaching her son about Melkor, worrying about how that might influence/terrify him. Elrond convinces Gilraen of the importance of understanding how the darkness takes its victims. It is the lack of knowledge and wisdom that lead the Numenoreans to their fall.] (Feel free to adapt this conflict).

Estel returns to the Library for his next lesson. Elrond brings up whatever needs to be said after the conversation with Gilraen, and then gets into the story.

Timeless Halls: Melkor returns from the Void. In his conversation with Varda, he is passionate about his desire to make things, perhaps even describing them. When Varda expresses agreement with him, Melkor is elated, takes her hand, asking her to return to the Void with him to find the Flame Imperishable. She retreats from him, insisting that the Flame Imperishable is not in the Void, but it is with Iluvatar. When Melkor says that Iluvatar is taking no thought for the Void, Varda sees through him, sees his pride.

[The Music happens here – not a ‘redo’ of the whole thing, but whatever key Melkor-perspective moments we need. We can perhaps cut from Varda and Melkor’s conversation, to the call to assemble for the Music, and then an overall image of the Music filling the Timeless Halls.]

We get the aftermath of the Vision, when Ilúvatar says ‘Ea!’ and when he tells Melkor that nothing can be done without fitting into his own themes. We definitely get Melkor’s reaction to this statement.

Frame: In Imladris, Estel asks where Melkor is now. Elrond seems somewhat uncomfortable, but answers that he is in the Void, but that he cannot come there.

Void: We cut back to Melkor looking down over Arda from the Void. The camera rotates to show the proto-Balrogs ranged behind Melkor, looking to him for leadership. Melkor tells them to await his call, then descends to Arda by himself. When he arrives in Arda, he begins to walk away from the camera, as the ground becomes dried and cracked beneath his feet. (See the Giants’ Causeway, Northern Ireland).
 
I like the way Ungolianths origin is left open for speculation. It seems possible that she was an Ainu who slipped out early and did not pay attention to Eru and did not take part in the song but its also still possible that shes entirely a creature of the void - whowever that works. Like it, we still need a few mysteries left.
 
I believe there was some discussion of how to write the speech of the Ainur considering that they communicate solely in song. My solution was to put all their dialogue in roughly the same meter as Bombadil uses, as if Bombadil had preserved an older, truer way of speaking. When Melkor begins to think strange thoughts and introduce discord into the Timeless Halls, he falls out of this meter into regular speech.
 
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