Episode 1-2

Trish Lambert

Administrator
Staff member
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
 
One important question, I think, is what the rough story arc will be for Aragorn for this first season. After all, we're planning on coming back to him in future seasons, so we're not telling his whole story in one go!

Personally, I would love to see Aragorn's story in the first season be a story of self-discovery. At the beginning of the series he is uprooted from his home and raised in a foreign culture. This would raise a lot of identity issues, which we could center around his search to learn what his true heritage is. The climax of his arc in this season would be Elrond's revelation to him of his true identity.

What do you guys think? Would this be a workable story arc? How could we flesh it out a bit more?

Also, I'm not the best at integrating the narrative into the main story on a scene by scene basis, so I shall leave that work to others more skilled than I! I look forward to reading what everyone else thinks.
 
I agree with most of what you have here but for one thing. I'm not sure how we'll relate the revelation of Aragorn's identity to the final episode of the season if that's going to be the Chaining of Melkor.
 
It's a bit difficult since we know roughly what the last episode will contain but not in detail, so the full message of the story is still a bit unclear to me. But the Valar will go to war, and we have the awakening of the elves - and I guess also some of them will be captured and perverted? - and then Melkor will be chained. (Perhaps a longer episode?)
I agree with what you've written so far. My thoughts on this: Maybe we can make a connection between Aragorn trying to understand the death of his father, the nature of evil and the story of how the Valar finally decided to go to war. Perhaps we don't need to have the revelation of his true identity be told all at once but instead make it sort of a journey. We could begin the frame narrative with the death of Arathorn, and Aragorn would first have to be old enough to be told this, and he would struggle to understand it, and telling him the story of how Melkor became the great enemy is a way of helping him with that (although I could imagine a more straightforward way...but hey, elves have time). Telling him about the Valar and the music and the beginning of everything is also a way of giving him a persepective, and giving him a place in history. So, it's a way of helping him heal wounds and a way of preparing him for his destined future. If he wonders about how the Valar could not see how evil Melkor was and why they were so reluctant to wage war against him, the chaining at the end of the season is a way to make clear that their politics were in fact well measured and not blind, spineless or overly soft.

Apart from Aragorn, I think we need to see Gilraen of course, and (briefly) Arathorn (getting killed). In Rivendell we should obviuosly have Elrond, but he might have some of the education done by someone else, like Erestor or Glorfindel. It would be fun to introduce Gildor Inglorion.
 
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Yes, this is more or less the same thing I was picturing the entire time. And I love the idea of seeing Aragorn as a child before he becomes the archetypical character that we want to see in him by the time LOTR rolls around. As far as the end-point, I think we need to make sure we keep in mind that we should be setting up the next season, and especially it's frame story. A kind of passing of the torch, if you will. This way, viewers are not completely mystified when season 2 doesn't begin where it left off with the framing narrative.
 
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If we're kinda coming up with these scenes, more or less whole cloth, are we going to include any female elves in Rivendell, especially ones with names and speaking roles? I know lots of people have an issue with Tolkien being kinda female-lite, and I'm not saying we need to shoe-horn women in just to pass the Bechdel test, but there's only a handful of Rivendell elves named, and by this time at least one is dead or "dead," so, personally, I can see this being a place to help out. Especially since this is a safe haven and we're not really in a time of war.

ETA: I mean, beyond Gilraen. Not that it's good to flesh her out. Just that she's the only female (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), and she's human.
 
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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.
 
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.
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.
 
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