Feanoreans

Another actor that I think should be mentioned here (although I have conflicting feelings about casting him here) is Aidan Turner.
 
Maedhros can wear a copper circlet without jewels and still look quite regal, I think ;). Also, we're going with 'pearls aren't jewels' so he might have some of those.

Celegorm ... is a bit vague in my mind. There must be something noble about him, in the beginning, in order for Huan to have bound himself to the elf lad in the first place, and I don't know if we want him ever to descend into black-and-white, mustache twirling villainy. I see him as someone who would argue "the ends justify the means" -- in Nargothrond, for example, we could have him arguing against Finrod because he honestly doesn't want anyone else "interfering" in the Sons of Feanor's quest. And then, well, everyone can see that Orodreth is a disaster, why not let the experienced and charismatic sons of the mighty Feanor take charge? And then he's smitten with Luthien, but he knows her father is a jerk, and especially doesn't like him and his brothers, so why not cut out that headache and get her somewhere Thingol can't reach, then woo her?

Celegorm is definitely someone Treebeard would label 'hasty' - he's impetuous, and acts before he thinks. He's probably someone who gets along better with animals than people, because the animals are more direct. He is...not a diplomat. At all. The only brother who is a worse diplomat than he is would be Caranthir. He's physically strong, but also more than a bit head-strong.

We will have to figure out why he's so taken with Lúthien. Yes, sure, she's drop-dead gorgeous, and so suddenly coming upon her would turn anyone's head. The only reason Curufin isn't going after her himself (presumably) is because he's already married. Lúthien is a foil, and everyone who meets her falls into the 'love or lust[possessiveness]' test. Huan passes and chooses love; Celegorm obviously fails, though one could argue he's no worse than Thingol, and isn't it true enough that girls with overprotective fathers can wind up with domineering/controlling husbands for some reason? So maybe he would be her type, if she were more of an idiot :p

But. It's not like Celegorm has never seen a pretty girl before. He's hundreds of years old by that point...he certainly would have had the opportunity to marry earlier if he wanted to. Was there 'one who got away'? Maybe some other dark-haired girl he liked, but she married someone else and he rebounds with Lúthien? *cough*Aredhel*cough* Just teasing, we don't need to go there, but we probably do need *some* background to why he thinks kidnap is an acceptable form of wooing someone, and it can't just be 'Curufin told me to.'

Speaking of....they are a pair. Depending on which list you go by, the order of the sons puts Curufin 4th, but more usually 5th. So, while Maedhros and Maglor are all buddy buddy, and the twins are clearly a set....what's the deal with Celegorm skipping over Caranthir and going for Curufin? My guess is that Celegorm is someone who needs some 'handling'...and Curufin knows how to handle him. Curufin has his father's gift of persuasion, and can use it on his brother as easily as on strangers. That, and Caranthir is a weird unhappy loner anyway. So Celegorm is someone who has an ego and needs attention (presumably), and Curufin is happy enough to indulge him. Curufin is also the cleverer of the two, so Celegorm is used to taking his advice.

If I'm not careful, I'm going to talk myself into Chris Hemsworth for Celegorm, so I'll stop right here!

Celegorm character study: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/reference/characterofthemonth/celegorm.php
 
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You will never sell me on Rheon as Curufin. Never. I have a very visceral negative reaction to the entire idea. Among other things, he's not nearly pretty enough for a Son of Fëanor.

Jenny Dolfen's "The Oath Has Been Awakened" is probably a good gauge of how 'pretty' I want these boys to be. They don't have to all be make up models or anything. But they should be quite handsome elves. Sure, they're not nice people. That will come out in their personalities and the way they treat others. But there shouldn't be anything wrong/off in their looks (unless it's from scowling too much *cough* Caranthir). We're not trying to cast Peter Pettigrew here!

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Someone like Cillian Murphy (Scarecrow in Batman, age 40) can play a villain and look pretty while doing so. That's all I mean. I'd much rather see someone like him as one of the sons of Fëanor.

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Or Matt Bomer (from White Collar, Age 39)

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Maybe those two are a little on the older side to play these particular elves, but I really don't think anyone can argue that they're not pretty enough.

I realize that the Richard Armitage-look alike requirement for Curufin is an extra hurdle, and I don't have any suggestions there yet.

But not Rheon.

(You are, of course, entitled to your own opinion in the matter.)
 
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As for my initial views on the other sons:

Caranthir can be the black-and-white villain, if we need one, either for plot reasons or because we don't have time to give everyone a full story-arch. But we could alternatively have him just be incredibly suspicious by nature, assuming everyone's plotting against his family, so he has to move first. But by his actions, he turns more people into enemies, so now he has to counter-plot against their new plots... until he is defined by treachery and deceit. Remember Eomer's line, that the Rhohirrim do not lie, and therefore are not easily deceived? Caranthir could be the reverse: someone who sees his role as the dissembler and spymaster of his family, and therefore is often deceived into thinking the worst of others, by his own fears and, perhaps, the whispers of the servants of the Enemy...

Yes - if one of them is going to be a straight-up villain, it's Caranthir. He has...fewer...redeeming qualities than the rest. But not none! Just...much harder to spot ;)

He is the proudest, which translates as he is someone who does nothing to hide the fact that he is looking down his nose at you. This is incredibly off-putting, so he has no luck at making friends - he's a complete loner, even within his family (which is more or less tight-knit by necessity). He also has a rather bristly unpleasant personality in general. His brothers tolerate him, of course, but that doesn't mean they like hanging out with him. They give him his space, and try to do damage control to stop him from ruining any chance of an alliance with anyone. Maedhros definitely maintains an 'I'm in charge here, listen to me' stance with him, so there is little friendship there. He likely bounces between hanging out with the twins and hanging out with Celegorm and Curufin, but he's the extra tag-along in either case.

Catherine_Chmiel_-_Maedhros_indeed_rebuked_Caranthir_sketch.jpg

"Maedhros indeed rebuked Caranthir" by Kasiopeia (Catherine Karina Chmiel)
http://kasiopea.art.pl/en/home

He's not a great judge of character. The whole Ulfang-the-Accursed fiasco (the one time someone actually did betray the Fëanoreans!) can be laid firmly at his feet. So, yes, I can see building him up as a suspicious character who sees lies everywhere....and then the one time that is truly the case, he totally misses it. Ulfang likely recognizes that flattery and obeisance will get you everywhere with a proud socially awkward guy like this.

He does, however, have a few unique and positive interactions. He is the first one to befriend the dwarves, though 'friendship' isn't really how I'd characterize that relationship. The dwarves are eminently practical, and willing to overlook his personal failings in order to do business with him. He, in turn, recognizes their skill and usefulness, but doesn't manage to hide the fact that he thinks them short and ugly. [SO not a diplomat, this guy!]

He also is the one who shows up to save Haleth's people after the fact, and is very impressed with her courage and fighting spirit. He never really thought about Men before (well, not in any positive way), but once he saw her, he was all like, 'Hey, do you guys need a home? You can live in my lands....' He wanted to get to know her better. Obviously, that never happened (his invitation wasn't all that gracious and she wasn't interested), but he did make it and I think one could say that Haleth/Caranthir is one of those might-have-been mortal/elf relationships (not even hinted at, but at least from his side, the respect is there, which is so unusual for him as to be noteworthy...and she never married, which fits her character but also leaves open a possibility that there was no one among her people for her). This is *far* from the situation with Aegnor/Andreth (which is mutual, but bad timing) or Túrin/Finduilas (which is mostly one-sided); this is so not-even-there that neither of them are thinking about it. More of an alternate history might-have-been.

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The First Meeting of Haleth and Caranthir by Kasiopeia (Catherine Karina Chmiel)
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Category:Images_by_Catherine_Karina_Chmiel

Caranthir character study: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/reference/characterofthemonth/caranthir.php
 
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I thought Curufin and Celegorm were the worst, since they tried to force Luthien into a marriage, which is a big no-no in Elvish society, and Celegorm was never given any points where he had standards, like Curufin refusing to kill Eol.
 
Curufin has to be charming enough to get a wife, and I think his status as the only son of Feanor with a child gives him some motivations we can play with. But like Celegorm, his details are a bit fuzzy in my mind.

Curufin is clever and knows it. He can play people, and enjoys stirring things up. It would be natural to see him with a smirk on his face. His super power is talking people into really terrible ideas. He looks just like dad, and has dad's gift for oratory. He can sway a crowd strongly, almost to magical hypnotic levels. He has Celegorm firmly in hand. He is also likely the most pro-Fëanor of the Sons - he might not have been his dad's yes man, but was quite possibly a 'how high?' person when dad said 'Jump!' He is the *only* one of them who chose to be known by his father-name. The rest of them all go by their mother-name. Of course, his mother-name means 'little father' and his father-name....is also Fëanor's father-name: Curufinwë, 'clever-Finwë'. I'm not saying Fëanor played favorites, but....if he did...I think I know which kid was 'it'. (In our story, the favorite is likely the grandson Celebrimbor, but whatever.) He is Fëanor's mini-me.

He keeps it to himself, but he's likely not too keen on Maedhros' leadership. Maedhros' determination that they should none of them ever be a king of anything seems like a huge concession to him. Maedhros sees it as...if you are king in all-but-name, who cares if you don't have the title? But Celegorm and Curufin would really like the title, please. (Caranthir too, but just as a matter of pride - he wouldn't make a good ruler or anything). So his motivation in taking over Nargothrond is....can we just be king of something for once in our lives? Also, while motivations for the attack on Doriath aren't clear, it seems that Celegorm's resentment of Dior (son of Lúthien) plays a part in it. No doubt Curufin is responsible for feeding that resentment and pushing for that attack.

Curufin is a piece of work. We never hear about him having any particular talent with artistry (or any other skills really), so he might feel the need to prove himself to his brothers. But his son Celebrimbor is a truly Fëanor's heir when it comes to his skills as a smith. Prior to the betrayal of Finrod in Nargothrond, Curufin hadn't gone *particularly* bad. Sure, there was that whole kinslaying and shipburning, but those weren't entirely personal choices. Not surprisingly, after the whole 'kidnap Lúthien and betray Finrod to his death' fiasco, Celegorm loses his dog and Curufin loses his son. From that point on, his choices are all pretty much terrible, and whatever resentment he's been building makes everything worse. Much, much worse.

He also very thoughtfully carries around the dwarvish knife Angrist, which can cut through even Morgoth's steel. This seems to be a preventative measure so no one else would need a hand amputated in the future ;).

Celegorm and Curufin in Nargothrond

By Jenny Dolfen
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And by Ankë Eissmann:
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Character study of Curufin: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/reference/characterofthemonth/curufin.php
 
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Amros and Amrod are indistinguishable in my mind. I can never remember which one dies, even. But they could be more carefree than their brothers, at first, treating the return to Middle Earth almost as a game/grand adventure, sort of the Merry and Pippin of the Season... until the Burning of the Ships.

Yes - these two should always be a matched set, always seen together. If *any* of our twins are going to be identical twins, it should be these two. We can give one of them slightly darker hair, but they should otherwise look exactly alike. We will probably want to cast real-life twins for them (either of the two sets not cast as Elladan and Elrohir could work.)

It has yet-to-be-determined if we're killing off one twin in the Ship burning - that will be an important Season 3 discussion, for sure.

Ambarussa character study: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/reference/characterofthemonth/ambarussa.php
 
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I thought Curufin and Celegorm were the worst, since they tried to force Luthien into a marriage, which is a big no-no in Elvish society, and Celegorm was never given any points where he had standards, like Curufin refusing to kill Eol.


There is one monkey wrench in this: Huan. Huan is loyal to Celegorm, and even returns to him after his initial adventure with Luthien. Orome also sees Celegorm as someone worthy of one of the Hounds of the Valar. Just because we don't _see_ Celegorm doing something positive, doesn't mean that he never does.
 
I thought Curufin and Celegorm were the worst, since they tried to force Luthien into a marriage, which is a big no-no in Elvish society, and Celegorm was never given any points where he had standards, like Curufin refusing to kill Eol.

I certainly agree with you that a case could be made that Celegorm and Curufin are worse due to their actions in Nargothrond. Caranthir isn't particularly evil.

It's just that he's also not particularly a nice guy, so he was just as nasty back in Valinor as he is in Middle Earth. There's not much story arc to him - ugh, such a jerk, so proud, nobody likes him, loner....pretty much sums up his personality. He's Snape...if there were no Lily Evans quadruple agent subplot. That is why he makes for a very straightforward villain. There's little to do to develop him into villainy. We start with him as a bearer of tales, and end with him inviting Ulfang into their alliance and being gung-ho to attack Doriath.

Whereas with Celegorm and Curufin....we are going to have to show how they got to the point of what happened in Nargothrond. They very clearly *didn't* start there. Huan has been following Celegorm since Valinor. He's been a very loyal companion. No doubt he disapproved of some of Celegorm's actions along the way, but he did not disagree with Celegorm himself...until Lúthien.

So there is a story in how that all happened. We can't make Celegorm a complete jerk from the beginning the way we can with Caranthir.
 
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To understand the 'evilness' of the Fëanoreans, one has to have the perspective that they very much think they are in the right, but they are willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to follow through on the Oath, and they are not messing around about that at all.

Westley: "Give us the gate key."
Yellin: "I have no gate key."
Inigo: "Fezzik, tear his arms off."
Yellin: "OH, YOU MEAN THIS GATE KEY?"

Obviously, that scene is played for humor. At no point in the film do we ever see Fezzik do anything as violent as tearing a person's arm off. He accidentally hits the albino man so hard he is knocked unconscious, but that's about it. However...the threat works because it is very much believable that he is not only capable of that but also has probably done things like that before.

Fëanor uses threats like that and means them.

Maedhros uses threats like that, banking on the person thinking better of it and handing over the requested item. But for whatever reason, the threats don't quite work out as planned, and the Fëanoreans are put in a position of being shown to be bluffing....or following through on their threat. And as everyone knows, you should never make threats you don't intend to carry out. They always choose the latter, which is why you would *think* that people would learn. But no.

Prince Humperdink: "I knew he was bluffing!"


Yeah...that didn't work out so well for Olwë. Or Finrod. Or Dior. Or Elwing.
 
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I'm throwing in Bill Skarsgård. He's fairly unknown but will soon hit the cinemas playing Pennywise in the remake of It. I think he has the look of a son of Armitage and Blunt. He can play bad guys, obviously, but hasn't always done that, and has a boyish and almost naive look that could work very well for one of the younger sons.
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Another Swede! Joel Kinnaman, who's been in House of Cards and The Killing. 37 years old. He is pretty tall, over 6'2". He can play arrogant quite well. Maybe a candidate to play Maedhros. Or Celegorm? I'm not sure about his hair colour, I think it's brown, maybe somewhat blonde, but could be dyed of course. upload_2017-4-6_9-2-52.jpeg
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I have a suggestion for the whole set of sons:
Maedhros the Tall. Pål Sverre Hagen. upload_2017-4-6_9-29-6.jpeg
Maglor: Aaron Lazar. upload_2017-4-6_9-29-32.jpeg
Celegorm: Joel Kinnaman.
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Caranthir: Dominic Cooper. upload_2017-4-6_9-30-45.jpeg
Curufin: Aidan Turner.
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Amrod+Amras: Sean Berdy.
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Yes, I know, Turner isn't exectly an Armitage look alike...
 

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