Femme fatale et mauvaises femmes

[Haakon]

My feeling exactly.

 

[Faelivrin]

I'd prefer her to be like Draugluin, physically imprisoned.

If she is never physically imprisoned in a real body, then she simply can't be skinned -- her body will evaporate. So in that case she has to have a shapeshifting "item" that Luthien can steal. I know that happens in myth, but strikes me as a thing Mortals would do, because... she's a Maia. She shouldn't need such a device to shapeshift.

EDIT: If she were imprisoned in a real physical body, I suppose maybe she'd need a talisman, but Morgoth's not dumb enough to do such a thing if he still wants her to be able to shapeshift.

 

[MithLuin]

Tolkien moved away from the description of Beren and Lúthien wearing actual skins to disguise themselves. In the Lost Tales, Lúthien sews Beren into the wolf skin and teaches him how to walk like a wolf. This is absent from later versions - for a reason. Tolkien learned to portray magic with less time spent on logistics and physical technical details, and more focus on force of will and use of words.

So, we should learn from that and not revert to the earlier version. There is *no* reason for us to show enough of the transformation process for people to be taking 'how to' notes. The Hosts' advice was that there should be nothing on screen that answers the question of whether the elves are doing science or magic. Lúthien's story will have plenty of overt magic, and she does have a Maiar background that lends itself to magic beyond what elves can do - but that should be via singing magic songs or using her magic cloak (which she made by singing).

In other words, we can show Lúthien finding Thuringwethil's dead body...and we can show her transformed. Getting from A to B doesn't need to be clear.

We are portraying Thuringwethil as one of the original Ainur who came down to Arda, essentially. Her shapechanging ability should be natural/inherent, despite her being a servant of Melkor. Her thing is secrets and finding all of the information. So, no, not 'sexy' and her relationship with Sauron is a business one, so to speak.

 

[Faelivrin]

After showing Finrod singing the Orc disguise... I'd like to at least show some of Luthien's singing.

I agree that what she did involved far more singing and magical physical transformation, and far less mundane disguise skills, even compared to what Finrod did. But I don't feel ready yet to give up on the actual skins being somehow involved.

I will retract "Thuringwethil's legs need to be large enough for Luthien to fit hers in side." That didn't make sense in the first place.

 

[Meaghan]

Next, female Balrog. It's a bit obnoxious in colored pencil, but I wanted to have the costume be the various colors of flame, so orange, gold, yellow, and blue. Boot are currently brown, but I'm not sold on that. The outfit is meant to be vaguely militaristic, like a medieval squire. There's an emblem on the front of the tunic and the back of the short cloak, which is an abstract representation of the six-winged seraph. Did we decide that the pre-fall Balrogs had wings? If so, we might drop the cloak.

So, I know I’m exceedingly late to this, too, but I really liked your color scheme and six winged seraph idea for the pre-fall balrogs/the kind of spirit Arien is and decided to play with it.




The second one is super rough, and it’s four wings, not six, with the secondary pair being extensions of the arms (sort of like a humanoid version of hoatzin wings). And I agree with Nick, multiple sets of wings have the potential to be a nightmare on screen, but it was fun to think draw out.

 

[MithLuin]

I think the third pair of wings can be small, and found on the head (feathers instead of hair) or feet (like Mercury!)

 

[Haerangil]

Cool!

 

[Faelivrin]

Pretty! The blue surprised me.

And I agree with Nick, multiple sets of wings have the potential to be a nightmare on screen, but it was fun to think draw out.

But probably less so if you don't have to worry about bone and muscle structure.