Gandalf is the character who connects this season's frame to last season, so beginning with him is all the hand-off we need. Certainly, he can discuss with the ship-captain where he has come from, indicating that he was spending time in the north (he can reference the Lonely Mountain and the commemoration in Dale, possibly), and express his desire to travel south now. That will tell the audience what they need to know about where in Middle-earth we are. If you begin with a montage before anyone has spoken, you do have to keep it *very* brief, so the focus can be on getting to the story. So, perhaps showing Gandalf travelling from Minas Tirith to Pelargir and then taking ship might be all we need, rather than a full-blown travel montage.
I like stories about brothers, so I wouldn't mind keeping the two youths in Harad as brothers, and I think the idea of making the leader their mother rather than their father gives us more parallels to the Season 1 frame, with Gilraen and Elrond. Also, this is the season with Haleth and Andreth, so having this one city-state in Harad ruled by a queen might allow for some nice connections.
As for the missing moms of Tolkien's stories - yes, it's very common, but it doesn't mean that *every* family dynamic has to involve an orphan or a motherless child! We don't have to copy the death of Finduilas from the Boromir/Faramir story if we don't want to. I also hesitate to draw any sort of conclusion like, because Tolkien grew up without a mother, he could only write characters who also grew up with that loss. George MacDonald had a very good relationship with his own father, but that doesn't mean he couldn't write stories about characters with distant or troubled relationships with own fathers. Similarly, while J.R.R. Tolkien was quite familiar with the experience of witnessing the death of a mother and then living without her, that doesn't mean that the only way to tell a story set in his world is to reiterate that.
I do want to make sure we give the 'traitor' a motive beyond personal power grab or a bitterness or resentment. Something about this choice has to feel as though it is for the best for their people - he's making the difficult but right choice in his own mind. But the dynamic is there that this person would not be in charge without challenging the rightful heir and usurping. Gandalf doesn't have to be guiltless in this eventual decision.
I like stories about brothers, so I wouldn't mind keeping the two youths in Harad as brothers, and I think the idea of making the leader their mother rather than their father gives us more parallels to the Season 1 frame, with Gilraen and Elrond. Also, this is the season with Haleth and Andreth, so having this one city-state in Harad ruled by a queen might allow for some nice connections.
As for the missing moms of Tolkien's stories - yes, it's very common, but it doesn't mean that *every* family dynamic has to involve an orphan or a motherless child! We don't have to copy the death of Finduilas from the Boromir/Faramir story if we don't want to. I also hesitate to draw any sort of conclusion like, because Tolkien grew up without a mother, he could only write characters who also grew up with that loss. George MacDonald had a very good relationship with his own father, but that doesn't mean he couldn't write stories about characters with distant or troubled relationships with own fathers. Similarly, while J.R.R. Tolkien was quite familiar with the experience of witnessing the death of a mother and then living without her, that doesn't mean that the only way to tell a story set in his world is to reiterate that.
I do want to make sure we give the 'traitor' a motive beyond personal power grab or a bitterness or resentment. Something about this choice has to feel as though it is for the best for their people - he's making the difficult but right choice in his own mind. But the dynamic is there that this person would not be in charge without challenging the rightful heir and usurping. Gandalf doesn't have to be guiltless in this eventual decision.