Script Discussion: S02E09 - Suddenly Silmarils

So... apparently YouTube is having an issue where videos longer than an hour do not appear in the video editor, which is why I haven't released the final segment. Until this is fixed, I won't be able to do tonight's episode either, so I'll be leaving the raw video up until they get it worked out. They assure me that they are working on it 24/7.
 
Those three acts of Valinor scenes are some of the best i've read so far. I like how Morgoth is subtle making references on how things could be preserved and this is likely what inspires Feanor to try on preserving light in the Silmarils.

I like the Ideas about Tirion where a possibly different smithing-guilds have their own quarters, I definitely think there should be something of a market place like, i know i mentioned before, that in Gondolin.

I really would like the idea that father and mother names could on and off be used like nicknames when Elves are discussing matters in private.
 
The names in this project are going to be *very* confusing. No character gets 2 names unless the Hosts approve it, I don't think. So far, that means we have Melkor --> Morgoth and Mairon --> Sauron.

Maedhros' brothers calling him Russandol (copper-top) in private might be fun, but we're going to have enough trouble getting the audience to remember the name Maedhros. Let alone go from Maitimo (well-shaped one) to the implications of his maiming and the choice of Maedhros for his Sindarin name in Middle Earth.

I say all of this as someone who actually wants to use the Quenya names in Valinor, and the Sindarin names in Middle Earth...but know that it would *never* fly with the Execs.
 
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true enough. Would be a nice giveway for fans, but might be confusing to a normal audience. That would also bring up the topic which names would be proper, Feanáro for example was the original form, he became Feanor in the Noldorin-Sindarin dialect of Beleriand , much later. But if you begin such a thing that would cause even more confusion. So I guess, with respect for the ausience, we should probably stick to the names as they have become popular by now.
 
Right - we are sticking with the names as they appear in the published Silmarillion, unless we have a reason to change them.

After watching Prof. Olsen stumble through the Finwë-Fëanor-Fingolfin-Finarfin mess, though, I am tempted to use the Quenya names *just* to avoid the situation of everyone's name starting with F. Finwë stays the same, but his sons become: Fëanáro, Nolofinwë and Arafinwë. Wouldn't that be so much nicer? And we'll never need the Sindarin versions of Fëanáro and Arafinwë anyway, so the only changing name there is Nolofinwë --> Fingolfin.

But like I said...it's not happening, because that would be a *huge* fight!
 
Nick, if it were just you, I would tease you for it. But it's you. And Brian. And Dave. And Corey Olsen. I don't know if I've done it yet, but I *have* taught a biology class where I kept switching 'transcription' and 'translation' so that an entire class of students could never figure out the difference between them... because I would write one and say the other, and when I tried to correct myself, I still got it mixed up. I *know* the difference between those two processes, and certainly have it clear in my mind that transcription is when you rewrite DNA into RNA (in the nucleus), and translation is when you form a protein from amino acids using the RNA code (in the ribosomes), so it's not an issue of mixing up the ideas....it's just that the words are too similar and my tongue trips. [Whereas if I mixed up hypertonic and hypotonic, I was likely to be genuinely confused as to which one was which, the transcription/translation fiasco was not that.]

All of the 'Fin's cause tongue-tripping. Keeping the characters clearly delineated is *not* helped by their seemingly interchangable names. The ways around that are to: eliminate some characters, rename some characters, or just fail to introduce some characters by name until they have an episode all to themselves (probably easiest to handle for Finrod, who is a nobody in Valinor, but one of the most awesome elves ever in Middle Earth - and we can always call him Felagund there). I am not suggesting we pull a Bakshi, who renamed Saruman 'Aruman' (inconsistently) because it sounded too similar to Sauron. But we should probably consider our options and see if we have any palatable alternatives.

I do think that Finwë-Fëanor-Fingolfin-Finarfin-Fingon is a real problem in this episode, though. *sigh*

Edited to add: So I did mix up Finwë and Fëanor at least once in the script discussion of the episode at Formenos. These names are insanely easy to trip over.
 
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I just got fed up. I found a forum where a bunch of people have been complaining of the same issue and decided I couldn't wait any more.
 
An acquaintance of mine posted this passage on facebook, and it was really hard not to think of Fëanor and his silmarils while reading it....

"I stood in the darkened monastery chamber, its far reaches painted with pools of black where the light did not wander. I sat on the floor, thinking of that dark, that Unseen. I could not know, for certain, what was hidden in that night. I suspected there were walls, sturdy and thick, but could I know without seeing? When all was hidden, what could a man rely on as true?

Candle Flames. A dozen candles burned themselves to death on the shelf before me. Each of my breathes made them tremble. To them, I was a behemoth, to frighten and destroy. And yet, if I strayed too close, they could destroy me. My invisible breath, the pulses of life that flowed in and out, could end them freely, while my fingers could not do the same without being repaid in pain.

I understood in a moment of stillness. Those candle flames were like the lives of men. So fragile. So Deadly. Left alone, they lit and warmed; let run rampant, they would destroy the very things they were meant to illuminate. Embryonic bonfires, each bearing a seed of destruction so potent it could tumble cities and dash kings to their knees.

In later years, my mind would return to that calm, silent evening, when I had stared at rows of living lights. And I would understand. To be given loyalty is to be infused like a gemstone, to be granted the frightful license to destroy not only one's self, but all within one's care."


~The Way of Kings​

Now, that might just be because when immersed in a fandom, *everything* I come across reminds me of the characters, but...I think that in this case it's more than that. I hope that, in the moment of creation of the silmarils, we can achieve something like that moment of contemplating light in the darkness, and the combination of power and fragility and destiny.....
 
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