Season Breaks and Narrators

Arthur Harrow

New Member
1) I like the idea of season 1 being Valar, season 2 being Elves; break points being the awakening of the Elves and the Rising of the Moon (because in S3E1 the Rising of the Moon is followed 7 days later by the Rising of the Sun and we know who wakes up then!)

2) I like the concepts being discussed regarding narration. In the name of being creative, I would like to propose the addition of a narrator who is not seen in any of the films or later books, but whom we are not specifically told is dead, and who can provide a unique perspective for narration in some of season 2: Maglor. Bending canon a little, he can perhaps interrupt the current narrator and talk about Feanor from a "he's not such a bad guy" perspective, with rebuttal from others ("that's not the way I remember it...").
 
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That seems a stretch if the intention was to go more or less from the 3rd Age. I like the idea of his rejoining "polite" society, especially at the beginning of the fourth age, maybe to hop on a boat with Celeborn and finally go home, but having him assert himself as Maglor, long-lost and suffering son of Feanor in the middle of the Third Age seems not to fit well with the resolution of his arc at the end of the Silmarillion. Furthermore I sort of think that he makes a poor narrator, or at least not altogether appropriate for presenting the heyday of the Noldor. It seems more in keeping with character that he would be a nameless vagabond who would want to keep his identity secret, or at least ambiguous. I can't imagine he would be altogether welcome at either Imladris or Lothlorien.
 
Well, his arc wasn't really resolved----he hit the road, wandering and singing sadly, rather like an Elvish Waylon Jennings on an unending road tour. There is a reference (I think it was related to a song written by Maglor "before he was lost") but that is vague. I like the idea of him "coming in from the cold" and telling his story originally from the distorted Feanorean pov as a way of earning that one-way ticket on the ship home...

I propose this because

1) with the possible exception of Galadriel, there are no other eyewitnesses to the events prior to the Noldor arriving in Beleriand
2) it allows for a narrator to have a redemptive arc
3) it fits with JRRT's theme of having unreliable narrators and
4) it goes along with my whacky theory that he has been disguised as Thranduil (thus explaining the Elf-king showing up with an army as soon as the dragon is no longer guarding the famous jewel that glows in the dark and everyone who sees it becomes obsessed with it...)
 
That all sounds fun, but none of it has anything to do with the problems I pointed out. Why would any elves suffer to let him through their gates, let alone sit at their hearths? How on earth would "let me tell you the REAL story of Feanor" make having one of the Oathtakers close to you for any length of time worth it? These are people who brought ruin upon themselves and anybody within 500 yards on a pretty regular basis. You've come up with a whole bunch of thematic reasons why you want to do it, but I'm asking you what are the functional story beats you're going to use to make something that to my mind sounds really unfeasible within the context of providing a frame for a (totally different) story.
At best he might make some kind of sense for being a latter narrator after we've already watched him do tons of awful things and have a good idea of who he is. Dropping him into season 2 seems like it would require a ton of focus on him both within the frame and outside of it, and at a time in the story when he isn't really given much to do outside of his association with Feanor and the Oath.
 
Ah, the practicalities that derail the concept...

I would argue for the sake of this purely hypothetical film that:

1) By definition Maglor would have been in disguise since he tossed the Hot Potato into the sea; perhaps a minor character, say, Pointing Elf, joins in the conversation around the campfire and slowly starts revealing more of the history than he has any right to know; the reveal of who he is could be a Narrator Cliff-hanger. Obviously if he starts out telling the story of Feanor (who at that point in the story has no kids) by saying "Hi, you don't know who the Angband I am but I'm going to tell you about my dad" would make absolutely no sense. But having a minor/mysterious character slowly reveal more about the history and eventually his own role in it may make for a more interesting narrative frame than just using well-known characters simply because everyone knows them...

2) In terms of how he gets into the picture, much less not getting kicked out immediately, I would note that the Elves have been growing in wisdom and understanding over the ages of their exile (although a Feanorean might consider the time in Valinor the exile, but that's a whole different discussion) and their response to the presence of an Oathtaker might be a test of their ability to change and factor into their narrative arcs, much like JRRT explicitly says that Galadriel's response to the presence of the Ring (i.e., "thanks, but no thanks") was a factor in her being forgiven and being allowed to come back into the West.
 
This is just a quick idea that came to mind—what about using the Blue Wizards as narrators? There could be some amazing opportunities there for framing and tension; maybe it's not even apparent who these mysterious narrators are until well into the series.
 
There are any number of "off-screen" characters that have potential for being narrators to provide an otherwise unavailable perspective who we have every reason to believe are still lurking out there somewhere: Maglor, the Blues Brothers, Cirdan (seen only on essentially the last page of the LOTR), Ar-Pharazon (interviewed via palantir from his subterranean hideout under the coast of Valinor, and who knows how many others we may come up with...all could be fun to throw in as curve balls, with dramatic reveals, revelation of hidden plot points, and general merriment (Pointing Elf reveals that he is Maglor, spent time in disguise over the years as numerous characters [Celebrimbor's head of R&D, Anatar's chief of Gift Fulfillment, Thranduil, etc]); the possibilities are limited only by our fevered imaginations...
 
I feel like the frame story needs to have some overall consistency. It would get way to confusing if we are jumping characters, places and times during a season. I do feel like you should connect the frames together. Either by introducing the narrators in the same place and time and then letting them part ways following them on different paths, or by having one lead to the next handing off the audience.

Also I feel like we are very focused on narrators but not as much on the person or people the story is being told to, you could pretty easily have merry or some one traveling around middle earth collecting tales.

The first season is a very mythic story and will probably need to rely more heavily on the frame than others unless you want to get into creating stories about yavanna getting pissed at ulmo about using up all the hot water. 13 hours is a pretty large amount of time to fill with cgi gods types. Probably you want a time share similar to the show lost.
 
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