Episode 4: Not the Trail of Tears (or Episode 3)

Nicholas Palazzo

Nicholas Palazzo

Well-Known Member
Ok, this is an important one with a lot to do, plus I have a hard stop tonight. My wife has been very gracious to me on this matter, but we made some plans for late this evening. I'm going to try to call it at 9:30, but if that is impossible, I will leave the Hangout running when I leave.

As a result, however, I am beginning promptly at 7:30, barring technical issues (which I think I have more or less figured out). I would greatly appreciate whatever level of punctuality is possible, so I'm not staring down the internet alone for too long. The Google Hangouts event is at the link below, but next time around, we'll be working with YouTube Live, as Hangouts on Air is being moved over.

https://plus.google.com/events/cm46a54rm3q0o3c4ieifv878fpg
 
I will be there early! We can do this!

(Translation: Home now, phone charging, computer on....)



Pssst: This is Episode 4!
 
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Outline, first pass:

Episode 4: Climb Every Mountain

Teaser: Frame - Arwen looks into the Mirror of Galadriel and witnesses her mother's rescue from the den of the orcs at the hands of her brothers?
Main - Elves journey across Middle Earth - sweeping vistas and awesome music! The Elves are singing as they traverse majestic terrain under starlight.

1. Disorganization in Teleri camp - no one knows the plans, everyone is doing their own thing, impossible to get the group to work together.
Elwë expresses frustration to Lenwë, urging him to get his people together.

2. Lenwë is organizing his 'lost tribes', but while journeying to and fro, he comes upon a walking tree. In wonder, he stops to investigate. The tree (actually Treebeard) makes some 'Hoom, hoom' noises, but fails to talk. After the first attempts at communication reveal that the creature is sentient, the elves are delighted. (There are multiple elves and ents present, including Treebeard's wife!)

3. Lenwë informs Elwë that moving now is out of the question. They've just met the tree-people and have to stay to learn to talk with them!

4. The rest of the Sindar press on, crossing the Misty Mountains. Elwë decides he better tell Finwë about this development, that he has 'lost' some of his people. He leaves Olwë in charge and sets out with Celeborn, Beleg (and Mablung?) to journey to the Noldor camp.

{Tom Bombadil cameo here?}

5. We catch up with the Vanyar, who are a small, organized group far ahead of the others. They reach the shores of the Sea, and are bewildered what to do next. Ossë has an 'aha!' moment and fetches the island that Melkor made when he was showing off his volcano skills last season. The very large island is brought near the shore, and we see the elves board the 'ferry.' The island leaves the bay.

6. In the Noldor camp, Elwë is happy to see his friend Finwë. One of the Noldor (Mahtan?) makes a disparaging remark about the disorganized, lagging behind Teleri - Finwë defends his friend. Elwë is also frustrated with his group, and wants to know how Finwë keeps the Noldor on task. The ingenious timekeeping device of the hourglass is revealed, and Finwë gifts one to Elwë to help. Elwë is none-to-pleased when he has to share Finwë's attention with Míriel, but their tension is mild.

*Halfway point*

7. On the return, the Teleri party is nearing the camp in Estolad when they reach the forest of Nan Elmoth. They hear nightingale singing. They approach a glade in the forest, but only Elwë can enter. The others are turned around and stumbling, confused, and unable to see what is in the glade. Elwë sees a beautiful woman and reaches out for her. Suddenly, she is beside him, and lays her hand in his. They both stop, frozen in time.

8. Elwë's party searches and calls for him, but to no avail. They decide they have to report back to Olwë (who is in the camp nearby). When Olwë hears the news, he is stricken, immediately assuming his brother is lost forever. He thinks this the work of the Dark Hunter. Celeborn speaks up, assuring him that this was *nothing* like the Hunter, and that there is still hope if they keep searching for Elwë. Olwë announces that those who wish to stay and search for Elwë are free to do so, but that the rest of them will soon be leaving to continue the journey (as Elwë would have wanted).

9. Angband update: Sauron visits the dungeons, and chastises Tevildo for his harsh methods. 'They're no good to me dead' type of complaints, and that Tevildo is pushing them too hard. Sauron show him how it is done, and brings an elf in for a 'good cop' interrogation. He wipes away the blood, tells him it doesn't have to be this way, and starts preaching the cult of Melkor. The elf is obviously terrified of Tevildo (who is prowling in the corner), but responds hesitantly to Sauron's overture.

10. The Nandor have succeeded in teaching speech to the ents! It's still slow going, and their communication is limited, but the entwives are in turn teaching the Nandor farming. Best inter-species collaboration ever!

11. Olwë leaves camp, and is dismayed that only half the Teleri are coming with him; the other half have chosen to remain behind in the camp and be part of the effort to search for Elwë. Círdan gives Olwë a bit of a pep talk.

12. Climax 1: The Noldor have arrived at the Bay and are waiting on the shore. Suddenly, the massive island returns! They are excited to see it, but Finwë is now upset, because the Teleri are nowhere in sight. He asks some of his companions if there has been any news, or if anyone knows where the Teleri camp is at present. There is no information. Mahtan(?) speaks some kind words about the Teleri, suggesting they will be along shortly. Reluctantly, Finwë agrees that it is time to go, and gives the order to board the island. As it sails away into the sea, he has a moment of doubt and panic, a premonition that he will never see Elwë again, and almost suggests stopping the island or going back to wait. Míriel reassures him.

13. Climax 2: We see the glade where Elwë and Melian are transfixed. The nightingales are still singing. We see a timelapse of the forest growing up around them.

Denouement: Frame - Arwen explains to Celeborn that knowing what happened doesn't give her the peace she thought it would - she still feels the same as she did before seeing the vision in the Mirror. She still misses her mother.


Worth pointing out that we've neglected the role of Oromë in this episode. Also, I have some concerns about logistics/geography. And the Frame might not work best as a bookend this time - we may need to interrupt somewhere else with Arwen, and end with Finwë and the final shot of Elwë and Melian in Nan Elmoth.

Nightingale song sounds like this:
 
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Here is Bre's map of Middle Earth, with the outline of Europe super-imposed in purple for scale (latitudes don't match up, I don't think). She used scales provided on Tolkien's maps to try to match the sizes up. I figure it's as good a starting point as any:

index.php


So we start far in the East, at Cuiviénen, which the elves left at the end of Episode 3. At the opening of Episode 4, the Nandor are in the Rhovanion area, east of the Misty Mountains, while the Vanyar and Noldor have already crossed the Misty Mountains into Eriador. The Vanyar will be the first to cross the Ered Luin into Beleriand. Do we want to show that? The Noldor camp, Nan Elmoth, and the Teleri camp (in the middle of the episode) will be in north-east Beleriand (much closer to Angband!). Once the various groups come to the River Sirion, they follow it down to the Bay.

You see what the problem is - it will be very easy for the audience to conflate these two mountain ranges. They will think that when you cross the Misty Mountains, you are in Beleriand. The idea of the Misty Mountains and Ered Luin being two different mountain ranges (when literally nothing of interest happens in the land between them) will be difficult to convey, even if the mountains look very different - snow-capped Misty Mountains and smaller, older-looking Ered Luin (or something). What do we do about that?

Middle Earth is currently much more forested than these maps show. The Old Forest and Fangorn Forest are both 'very old'....but they used to be connected - they were the same forest.
 
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To be honest, while we can show different mountain ranges in the different locations, I don't think the differentiation will matter much storywise. It might be ok if the audience don't realize it.
 
Okay - we can justify it by saying we want to keep the drowning of Beleriand at the end of the First Age a secret - by having the Misty Mountains still there, people won't see that coming.
 
Wonderful outline! I really have no special comments. Genius idea to bring in the Mirror. Also great to let Ossë make a small fake start with the Vanyar.

One thought - I know we don't want the Nandor to stay out of fear, but wouldn't it be cool if someone mentioned that there is a danger, maybe an evil entity, in the Misty Mountains? (Caradhras)
 
It's not a false start; we currently have 2 separate ferry rides in place. That might not be ideal, but the reason for it is that there is no story for the Vanyar, so having them show how the island ferry works sets up for the Noldor to take it later and the idea that the Teleri will catch...the next ride. It can be changed.

Keep in mind that there is no balrog under Caradhras until the end of the First Age, so it's not a particularly evil mountain yet. There are dwarves in both sets of mountains, and the elves aren't supposed to meet them yet, but we could consider a glimpse/cameo.

Literally the only thing that happens in Eriador is the Tom Bombadil cameo at this point, so......
 
MithLuin said:
It's not a false start; we currently have 2 separate ferry rides in place.
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Ok, but in the PubSil (if I'm not misremembering) the Vanyar and the Noldor leave together. I interpreted the outline in a way that meant Ossë turned back and fetched the Noldor while the Vanyar were still on the ferry. But ok they've gone all the way to Valinor?
 
MithLuin said:
Keep in mind that there is no balrog under Caradhras until the end of the First Age, so it's not a particularly evil mountain yet.
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I am of course aware that there is no Balrog there yet. I am referring to what Dr Olsen said in the session (which one? Sorry) regarding local spirits. The spirit of Caradhras might not be evil, but troublesome, and potentially dangerous.
 
Yes, in the published Silmarillion, the Vanyar and Noldor go together. It was just if we did it that way, there would be absolutely nothing for the Vanyar to do in this episode, so we have their subplot being 'how will we cross the ocean - oh look, a floating island ferry'. Finwë is (understandably) upset to be leaving without the Teleri, so we have to have some reason for everyone to think that the Teleri will get another chance.
 
Fair enough that Caradhras could be dangerous on its own, and the elves would seek another pass. Is Oromë guiding them? We haven't mentioned him, so it's not clear to me which parts he is present for. I do think that a good transition between Frame and Main story would be to have Arwen look up at the Misty Mountains (after her time with the Mirror), and then transition to the Teleri looking up at those same mountains (maybe from a slightly different angle, but still). And since Lorien is right next to Caradhras....sure, that can feature.

The other thing we did not do was to pick a single protagonist to take us the whole way through this episode. Elwë might seem the obvious candidate, but he's frozen in place halfway through. And Lenwë and Finwë are more minor characters. We have way too many subplots to juggle, so the idea of a single protagonist didn't really seem feasible. Is that true? Or did we miss someone?
 
Elwë and Olwë seem the best candidates at this point. We have to make certain to have Olwë present at all of Elwë's conversations prior to the trip to the Noldor camp, and highlight their relationship. Our protagonists here are Elwë, Olwë, and Finwë.
 
The protagonist problem is really tricky because of the split nature of the episode... Perhaps I lean towards Elwë. This is about the athletic (EDIT: what did I mean by this?? 😀), and he tries to lead them, and deal with the Nandor situation. This is where he finds his purpose. We can make Olwë protagonist when the Teleri leave for Valinor under his leadership, perhaps.
 
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Well, the meeting of Elwë and Melian is the centerpiece of the episode, which means that we will lose sight of him for most of the second half. The focus will have to shift to our more supporting characters, which means Olwë has to carry some of the weight, as does Finwë. They are both faced with the decision to stay or to go. They both decide to go.
 
So we are forced to split the protagonist role on two characters. Perhaps the brothers, then. We could put some emphasis on the brotherhood of Elwë and Olwë, bringing in Olwë a bit more in the first half of the episode, showing more of their relationship.
 
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