I have some further thoughts regarding Adanel.
Our main struggle with her story is that we do not have time to develop an Adanel-centric plot or storyline. We cannot very easily have two scenes where we are trying to tell this individual story with her in this episode. She's too peripheral to warrant her own little mini-story. The focus of her story is on Bëor, and on how he is training her as his replacement.
It was suggested during the session that we show the process of Adanel being trained - perhaps at first, she could be undertaking a responsibility that she's not ready to handle, and then fail in some way. By the end of the episode, we would return to her, to see her now competently carrying out her tasks. While that does give her an arc of sorts - learning how to lead - it also introduces other problems. She's such a minor character; we won't see very much of her. If one of the only things we *do* show is her young and inexperienced ineptitude, it will be difficult to establish this character as a wise woman in the minds of the audience. And we do need that, as she is going to be the one vouching for Andreth later. While characters can certainly make mistakes, she has too little screen time to truly redeem herself from any major flub up. And what crisis would we want to introduce in the 'life is idyllic in Nargothrond' episode, anyway? Nothing too seriously bad, and so it would be a sit-com level mistake, nothing too serious, or a comedy of errors.
The real reason the idea of 'Adanel makes a mistake' was introduced, though, was to solve the problem of why Finrod would complain about how Bëor is training his replacement. After all, if Finrod says something along the lines of 'But I like working with you! Why do I have to deal with her???' he sounds whiny and petulant. So, he should have a valid reason to complain, and Adanel making a mistake would be a valid reason. It's not the only possible reason for him to complain, though. Adanel is quite young at this time - maybe 19-20 years old. Old enough to be viewed as an adult in her culture, certainly, but still quite young to be taking on serious responsibilities. What if Finrod's complaint is that Bëor is pushing her too hard? Why is Bëor putting such heavy responsibilities on this young woman? Can't Bëor do this work himself? If Finrod is chiding Bëor for 'shirking' his leadership responsibilities, and suggests that Adanel should remain 'in training' for longer, then we have an opportunity to showcase the different perspectives of Men and Elves. Elves remain 'apprentices' for longer than a human lifetime, and elven lords can have heirs as an emergency contingency, but they don't *expect* to need a replacement. Finrod's leadership style might include some measure of delegation, but he's not expecting to have to train someone to do his job in his (permanent) absence. He does not expect his kingdom to outlive him.
Bëor can explain to Finrod, look, I have to train my replacement. I need to know that she'll be able to do this when I am gone. And...I am 80 now. I don't necessarily want to do all the work of running around organizing things myself. I'm content to trust her to oversee it, and if there's an issue, she can come to me about it...for now. Fingolfin and Finrod both will have the opportunity to think about the implications of training a replacement in their own lives.
So, what is Adanel's story in this episode? There is likely some event being planned for Fingolfin's visit. Perhaps a feast/banquet. Perhaps a 'cultural showcase' with song and dance. Perhaps some official ceremony where Fingolfin the High King is officially welcomed by the House of Bëor and given gifts as tokens of their goodwill and friendship. Whatever this event is, she's the organizer. She's running around a bit harried, doing her best to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. If there are any glitches, she is putting in the work to fix the situation. Finrod sees her doing all this work, and thinking she looks a bit overworked, chides Bëor for sitting down on the job and leaving this young person to do his work for him. That is when Bëor explains to Finrod, as explicitly as he can, that he will die someday, and he must train a replacement to lead his people after he is gone. Finrod hears this as a prophecy - he too has made ominous statements about his own fate! - and doesn't understand how imminent and inevitable death is for Bëor. Fingolfin, who has not been living with the Men in Nargothrond, gets it...and his own take-away is to consider what it means that Fingon is his heir.
So, if others like this idea, here is what Adanel's story would look like:
In Episode 1, she is a 4-year-old child entering into Beleriand with Bëor.
In Episode 2, she is a 19-20 year old woman. We are introduced to her again in Scene 6, when Finrod returns to Nargothrond from his travels, and tells Bëor that the High King of the Noldor will be visiting soon. He and Adanel begin planning a series of events: welcoming ceremony, cultural showcase, etc, type of things to greet Fingolfin. Bëor is very much involved in the planning process, guiding the decisions made as Adanel suggests things. We see Adanel briefly in Scene 8. She is directing things among the Men when Fingolfin arrives, but this scene is told from his viewpoint, and he does not notice or interact with her. Scene 10 is a bit more of a 'behind-the-scenes' look at how the elvish lord's visit has disrupted life for the Men, and this is where we see Adanel running around harried, doing her best to keep everything running smoothly. She's got it handled, but she does not make it look easy; she's about at the limit of what she can handle. Bëor is there to 'supervise' or troubleshoot, but he is sitting down, very clearly not running around busy. Finrod sees this dynamic, and is unhappy that his friend seems to be shirking his responsibilities and leaving too much to his young helper.
And...that's it. We'll see Adanel again in Episode 3, as Bëor quite literally passes his mantle to her, but her role in Episode 2 is a minor one - she will be a subject of Finrod and Bëor's conversation, rather than having her own independent story. What do people think of this?
I have added my ideas here to the outline as 'suggested edits' - anyone is welcome to suggest their own edits or make comments directly on the outline. In general, we would like to have outlines finalized about a week after the script discussion, so that the script writer knows what ideas we are all settled on. I know that not everyone can join us 'live' for the script discussions, but I do want to make sure we incorporate ideas from people here on the boards - so make sure to speak up and let us know your thoughts!
