Session 2.01

Phillip Menzies

Phillip Menzies

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Staff member
So here we are. A new season and a new post to kick it off.
The next session of the Silmarillion Film Project on Friday 20th of May 2016 will be the first for season 2, Session 2.01. This session will be a big picture discussion of the overall shape of Season 2.
  • Homework is to read the Silmarillion Chapters 3 to 8, from the captivity of Melkor and the waking of the Elves at Cuiviénen to the Darkening of Valinor. How should a 13 part series play out?
  • What elements need to be included?
  • What is the overall theme for season 2 and how is that woven into the season?
Let's keep Frame discussion to a separate thread.
 
Just some things I'd like to see in the season (very brief, hopefully understandable):
Oromë finds the Children and names them eldar. The elf-fathers (War of the Jewels).
The evil deeds of Melkor. The necromancy of Sauron. Flashback to the War of season one. The war from the perspective of the elves. The cataclysmic effects on the geography. Imprisoned Melkor. The power struggle between Sauron and Gothmog. The Valar decide to summon the elves to Valinor. Ulmo objects. Mandos: 'So it is doomed'. The three ambassadors. The great journey and sundering of the elves. The Nandor. The friendship of Elwë and Finwë. Elwë and Melian. Ulmo speaks to the eldar. Olwë, Ossë and Uinen. Finwë begs Ulmo to bring the Teleri. The sadness of Ossë. The falathrim and Círdan. Eldamar and Tol Eressëa. Túna/Tirion. The Vanyar and Noldor in Aman. The house of Finwë. Alqalondë and the swan ships. Celegorm and Oromë. Huan. Fëanor and Mahtan; Nerdanel. The release of Melkor. Creation of the Palantíri. Creation of the Silmarils. Melkor's poisonous words. The making of weapons. Unrest among the Noldor. Fëanor's exile. Slamming the door in Melkor's face. Melkor escapes. Ungoliant. The Feast. Darkening of Valinor.
 
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Here was the breakdown I tentatively put forward in the Frame Narrative thread, but I'll move it here to keep things together. Also, hopefully there will be updates to the website, so people can sign up for the new Season on the Webinar/Netmoot before Friday! I want to publicize the beginning of a new season, but I need a link to do that....

Season 1 (already planned out)
  1. Ainulindale
  2. Foundation of Almaren
  3. Melkor
  4. Melkor meets the Valar in Almaren
  5. Nessa meets Ungoliant; the Lighting of the Lamps
  6. Wedding of Tulkas and Nessa; the Destruction of the Lamps/Almaren
  7. Foundation of Valinor
  8. Diplomatic overture from Valinor to Utumno; Lighting the Trees
  9. Ossë's Rebellion/Fall of Mairon
  10. Ossë's Rebellion, Part II
  11. Aulë creates the dwarves
  12. Setup for the Finale
  13. War of the Powers
Season 2 - The big question here is how much time to spend in Middle Earth, and thus how far into the Valinor storyline to get in this season?
  1. Awakening of the Elves/Meeting Oromë
  2. Ingwë/Finwë/Elwë go to Valinor
  3. The Great Migration of the Elves; the Avari remain in Cuivienen; Tom Bombadil cameo
  4. Elwë meets Melian; Vanyar and Noldor arrive in Valinor; Teleri left behind (Ossë again); introduce Círdan
  5. Split of Sindar/Teleri; Noontide of Valinor; birth of Fëanor, death of Míriel
  6. Feuding House of Finwë I: Marriage of Finwë and Indis; birth of Fingolfin and Finarfin; Courtship of Fëanor and Nerdanel
  7. Feuding House of Finwë II: Creation of the Silmarils; Adult Fingolfin and Finarfin have their own children now, and we meet the (half-)cousins; Melkor is released from prison
  8. Middle Earth Interlude: Thingol and Melian in Menegroth, Sauron making orcs, elves accidentally hunt petty dwarves (oops!), death of Denethor of the Laiquendi (after Miriel), meet Eol the Dark Elf [probably better to intersperse this with other episodes]
  9. Banishment of Fëanor
  10. Darkening of Valinor [end here?]
  11. Death of Finwë and the Oath of Fëanor (Melkor named Morgoth)
  12. Kinslaying at Alqualondë
  13. Doom of Mandos; Finarfin turns back, Fëanor steals the ships, and Fingolfin is abandoned - burning of the ships at Losgar
As I see it, there is a question of whether or not we have enough riveting material to fill three additional episodes prior to the Darkening of Valinor. The 'peacetime is boring' problem is likely to strike if we try to spend too much time on the Noontide of Valinor. Then again, developing Noldor backstory now can only pay off later. [We have a whole generation to introduce - we need time to see Celegorm hunting with Oromë and getting Huan, Aredhel hanging out with Celegorm and Curufin, Maglor being married, Finrod having a Vanya girlfriend, Turgon marrying and having a baby girl, Fingon being given the nickname 'The Valiant' and being BFFs with Maedhros, the naming of Amrod and Amras where the concept of FATE rears its head, Curufin becoming the father of Celebrimbor, Galadriel's desire to see Middle Earth, the infamous scene where Fëanor asks her for 3 strands of her hair, and when she refuses, goes off and makes the silmarils instead :) etc.] Also, ending a season with several episodes that build up to a finale is preferable to just cutting off the story. But, let's see what the next season looks like....

Season 3 - How do you end a season with 'So, it's peacetime now?'
  1. Death of Fëanor; Fingolfin undertakes the crossing of the Helcaraxë
  2. Imprisonment of Maedhros; death of Elenwë on the Helcaraxë
  3. Creation of the Sun and Moon?
  4. Fingolfin arrives in Middle Earth; Fingon rescues Maedhros
  5. Maedhros awards Fingolfin the High Kingship and removes his brothers to the East
  6. Feast of Reuniting
  7. Dreams of Turgon and Finrod; foundation of Nargothrond and Gondolin?
  8. Dagor Aglareb
  9. Siege of Angband begins; we see some tower construction and havens fortifying going on
  10. Children of Finarfin spill the beans in Doriath (we meet Luthien?); Quenya becomes the language of the kinslayers
  11. Completion of Nargothrond and Gondolin. Caranthir meets the Dwarves
  12. First sight of Glaurung
  13. ???
This all wraps up as the Long Peace is beginning, and before Finrod meets Men. We will have to decide if we want to see Morgoth tampering with the fathers of Men in real time, or if we're just going to get a flashback later (after they meet the elves). While having Men come over the Mountains and meet Finrod at the end of this season could be interesting, I'd rather save that for the next season, which will be Men-centric. Also the Sun and Moon/Hiding of Valinor question will bring up how much we want to see the Valar acting as Powers this far into the show, and whether or not we're willing to have the sun and the moon introduced into the world late (as fruit/flower of the dead Trees, no less). How much of that do we show, and do we see Arien in the Sun? That whole episode is going to feel very Season 1 and might seem out of context here...

(I definitely had to look at the timeline based on the Annals to remember what happened when:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Arda#First_Age )

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that where we end Season 2 will have a huge impact on how we plan out Season 3. Because having the Long Peace happen between Seasons 3 and 4 is really our only option, and you either cut off Season 2 right after the destruction of the Trees (possibly including Finwë's death and the Thieves' Quarrel of Morgoth and Ungoliant complete with balrog rescue)....or you go straight through to the burning of the Ships at Losgar. There really is no good place to break off once you start in with Fëanor's Oath and the Kinslaying and the Doom of Mandos.
 
Thematically, we have at least two possibilities:
  1. The loss of innocence. The elves move to the paradisal Valinor, but the journey is in fact sort of like eating the fobidden fruit and the knowledge the Noldor gain lead to disaster. If we're making this theme prominent we should consider including the first kinslaying and the Doom of Mandos.
  2. Hubris and conceit. The conceit of the Valar, thinking their care is better than the world Eru has conceived. The conceit of Ossë, claiming elves for himself. The hubris of Fëanor. Melkor is of course full of hubris and conceit, but he also takes the role of a punisher of the conceited, which is interesting. If we choose this theme, I think we could end with the darkening and death of Finwë, including the Thieves' Quarrel of Morgoth and Ungoliant with the balrog rescue.
These alternatives are obviously two aspects of the same process, but the two perspectives would lead to two different kinds of stories, I believe. The first one focuses on some kind of inherent bad thing about desire for knowledge. The second is more about the dangers of putting oneself in a special place, giving oneself a status above others.
 
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Fëanor, arguably the main character of the entire Silmarillion, will only be in about 10 episodes total (and that includes the one where he's a baby and the focus is really on the post partum depression of his mother).

I think that Season 2 should mostly revolve around him; the story of the Noldor is really the story of Fëanor and his family. And no one really cares about the Vanyar and the Teleri anyway.

So what is Fëanor's story? Obviously, there is a fall. But if we paint Fëanor as a villain, or as someone duped by Morgoth into doing what he does, then we're telling the wrong story (ie, boring). Fëanor is, without a doubt, a creative genius. In a community of artists and inventors, he stands out as the most daring and accomplished of all of them. Like Melkor, his pride is *justified* - he is indeed the best. And, yes, he gets into conflict with the Valar...but why? He is in part rebelling against their contrived home for the elves - he is one of the voices wanting to be free to go back to Middle Earth (and thus openly challenging his own Father's decision to come to Valinor in the first place). He sees the Valar's protection as too limiting. Fëanor has his father's love, but he doubts this. His father's remarriage has always appeared to him as a betrayal of his own mother, whose memory he sees being forgotten by the Noldor. She died when he was only 1; he never knew her. His father Finwë tries to prove, time and again, that he dearly loves his eldest son, but Fëanor still suspects that his half-brothers intend to usurp him. Finwë choosing to go into exile with Fëanor to Formenos was Finwë's last desperate attempt to silence that fear...but do we think it worked? Fëanor was still pretty stuck on the wrong committed against him, and probably hadn't really taken the time for a heart-to-heart with his father over all of this.

And then Morgoth murders Finwë.

Fëanor's madness that leads to both the Oath and the Kinslaying is often seen as an over-reaction to Morgoth stealing the silmarils. And, well, clearly that is a strong part of the motivation. But Fëanor's grief over the murder of his father is what is fueling his fey unreasonable reaction. In a land without death, he has suffered the deaths of his mother and his father. No one around him understands what he is going through (though of course everyone is grieving the loss of the Trees and the King). We know that grief and guilt are weighing on him, because he goes through the, 'if only I had been there, this never would have happened' thought process.

I think it would be best to paint Fëanor as someone who is mostly good, has a prideful streak mixed with a surprising amount of self-doubt, and who lets his fears overrule him in the end. Also, it would be good if what Fëanor is saying is all fine and good...until he forces the issue and tries to steal the swan-ships. The idea to return to Middle Earth should not be part of his fall - it should be a noble sentiment caught up in this fear/grief/anger that turns very ugly when you put a torch-lit mob behind it.

So what is this story? One of a family breaking down, destroyed by loss and grief and separation? (Very few of the wives go along.) Or is it something uglier, more akin to, 'see, this is what happens when you try to hoard everything for yourself?'
 
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I think that when given the opportunity to do a longer series like this it would be a pity to ignore the full, broad tapestry. Obviously a lot has to do with Fëanor and the house of Finwë, but I think we should take some time to tell the tale of the Teleri, a story I will gladly fight for.
 
Well, sure - but the climax of the story involves the Teleri becoming the victims of the Noldor. We want to be invested in them....but 'their' story is not the driving force there.
 
No it isn't. That's why, to include them, I'm trying to find a broader theme. I think though that the second theme I mentioned earlier (which is the one I think I prefer of the two) is easily combined with the sort of theme you are suggesting.
 
I do have a strong Fëanorean bias, of course, but if Celeborn is our narrator, he is unlikely to share it. ;) I agree that the overarching theme should apply to:

1) Our main narrative of the Noldor in Valinor
2) Our secondary stories of the Teleri and Sindar back in Middle Earth
3) Our frame narrative

The more we tie together, the better.
 
Well, we could be doing a similar thing with Celeborn's telling of Feanor's story to what we did with Elrond telling Melkor's. Celeborn could be giving Feanor the benefit of the doubt. After all, he made enough sense for Galadriel to buy into his rebellion. She is probably the one through whom Celeborn heard the full story.
 
The storyteller/storytellers will influence the story, absolutely. But that's another dimension, a different layer of the taletelling. The main story must convey a theme by itself as well, without support of the frame.
 
Galadriel was part of the rebellion, of course, but I don't think she was exactly pro-Fëanor. (There are also multiple versions of Galadriel to choose from, so....)
 
Well, yes. One of the issues we ran into in season 1, though, was the voice of the narrator. Would Elrond be ok telling a story that portrayed Melkor in a positive light? I think we might run into that issue here as well if we are not careful.
 
I think that we should stick to the questions that were put to us at the start of the thread. There are lessons we have learned from season one, definitely. But let's take this one step at a time.
 
Arwen has a good deal of Noldor heritage; I don't know what her views are on the rebellion, but they could be different from Celeborn's.

Arwen does not seem terribly sympathetic to those faced with difficult choices she is not familiar with, though - she basically says she didn't get Numenor at all until she had to face Aragorn's death.
 
I'm not sure how hasty it was - Trish stated on the Frame Narrative thread that the Execs were considering this frame for this season.

But feel free to be the ent in this discussion, as I will inevitably be a Son of Fëanor in all Season 2 discussions :p
 
Well I just meant that Phillip explicitly says that we should keep Frame discussion to a separate thread.
 
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