So I finally got around to listening to this episode, and there's a lot of stuff going on in it, particularly some threads that we will probably need to be cutting back and for between; like, Eonwe's torture, Manwe's powwow with Iluvatar, Varda's star making, Melkor's first sight of the constellations, and Eonwe's eventual return Valinor all seem to need to be going on at roughly the same time, and I think there's a good opportunity to do some cool scoring and voiceover work as we cut around all of these and maybe a few other things while Manwe's having his heart to heart with Iluvatar to really hit all the themes we've dealt with throughout the season that culminate in that final choice to go to war with Melkor.
Now when Professor Olsen first said that Manwe should have a vision and discussion with Iluvatar, my gut reacted pretty negatively. "Aren't we wrecking Manwe's, and by extension the Valar's, agency by having literal capital-G God give the marching orders, here? Shouldn't Manwe make this choice, as King?"
And I realized today after a lot of thinking that I wasn't considering all the angles. Instead of a sort of Jehova-to-Noah, build-me-an-ark moment, maybe what we have here is a teachable moment for Manwe. Maybe instead of giving a directive or order, Iluvatar should be more of a teacher, and help him understand why war is the right thing to do here.
So I was hoping we could have some chats here about what that conversation might actually look like themes to explore, and Iluvatar's perspective. And one of the angles I realized is kind of interesting is that we've created sort of a tantalizing parallel by having our Valar be of different minds about the whole thing. We've had Manwe resist multiple suggestions to enter into conflict with Melkor because he sees it as a failing, an abandonment of the harmony that was supposed to be in the Music as Iluvatar had intended before Melkor's rebellion. But what this has done, if you think about it metaphorically, is put Manwe in a position not terribly dissimilar from Melkor's in the Ainulindale. Melkor's whole deal was that he had his own theme he wanted to play, and he was gonna play it no matter what was going on around him, and everybody near him could either align their theme with his or just be overpowered. When you do harmony, you have to listen to everyone around you, or your notes are never going to match: you can't hit the chords properly when you sing unless you listen carefully to the exact notes other people are hitting and adjust as you go.
Manwe is being pulled in the direction of war by a lot of the other Valar, but his stubborn resistance is starting to look a little familiar. His heart is in the right place, but he's at risk of pulling a Melkor because he's refusing to listen to those around him and, though not out of any sense of personal pride, is in danger of creating exactly the sort of dischord among the Valar that he's trying so hard to mend by trying to avoid war with Melkor. I think it would be extremely poetic (and the narrative seems to support this theme) to have Manwe, as a result of his own nature, come to a very Melkor-ian place and then choose a different path; the parallel should be pretty obvious, maybe explicit, and it would give us a really great opportunity to not only see more clearly just how Melkor went bad through comparisons I Manwe, but also illustrate how he and Manwe are different, not the least reason being that Manwe asks for help in his time of crisis.
Does that sound like a good way for Iluvatar to characterize the issue here? I want Manwe to have an epiphany, not have him be ordered to bring Melkor to justice. I want him to gain wisdom and choose the correct course of action freely as a result of speaking with his father, to exercise his gift of free will rather than be given permission to make war, and not have somebody say "remember the music" as if it's all pre-ordained and written in stone.
Edit: like how great would it be if Manwe goes "it's all falling apart, they're all turning into Melkor" and then Iluvatar goes "don't you see by not listening to them that you're the one most in danger of becoming Melkor?"
well maybe I over-emphasised. Anyway it seems we're on the same page.