Keeping in mind that the frame narrative for Season 1 will be centered on Aragorn, sketch out how the narrative will "lay" into the main story throughout the season
I wrote this earlier today before reading your posts. I love that we are thinking so similarly. I think pinning everything to Iluvatar strongly can give the characters and the audience hope in the midst of Melkor's chaos.I am not sure I agree with the conversation in the podcast, because it doesn't seem to start with Iluvatar. I am thinking that the first episode could go like this: an unnamed father sitting at fireside reading a treasured volume to his small son, a story that has been handed down from generation to generation. As he reads, we fade into the story of the ainulindale... And though it seems to be about Melkor, it is really about Iluvatar, how he allowed Melkor's evil into the universe, only to redeem it, to bend it for good, and to result in greater beauty. Soon after his young son falls asleep, the father is brutally killed, and the child's mother escapes to Rivendell, where the father's death will create an opportunity for the training of the future king. Of course, the ancient, well worn book goes with them and is part of the child's heritage.