Amros can't get time alone with Feanor, that's right. But he can say something and be shushed by his older brothers.
Then we can have Feanor's vision.
I thought in one of the texts (maybe Grey Annals?) he also warns them never to treat with Morgoth.
So would the episode end on Feanor’s death? And the next episode open with an envoy from Angband? Because in the Silmarillion it’s mentioned that the envoy that leads to Maedhros’ imprisonment comes within an hour of Feanor’s death.
The parley negotiations should at least start in this episode.
I think Feanor should die at the very start of the epsode. Then we have more ability to get the parley done this episode. If we can get all the way to Maedhros' capture in this episode, there's time to do a dramatic attack on the Moon (or other demon vs. Tilion fight) in episode 12.
Killing off a major character in Act 1 will also be a dramatic shock to the viewers, and a warning that
anyone can die in this show, at any time. (After all, we'll kill nearly every major character.)
The difficulty with the Valar sitting idle is a real one. As a reader I've wondered "what were they doing?" Part of it is that they don't want to cause a zillion innocent deaths by destroying an inhabited subcontinent, so they wait until all the free Elves and Men have been driven out onto the Isle of Balar. Part of it is that the Noldor demanded the right to fight Morgoth
without help. But that's not a good reason to abandon the innocent Sindar, Laiquendi, Dwarves, and Edain.
During the Siege of Angband, the Noldor did effectively keep Beleriand's inhabitants mostly protected. Ulmo (with Manwe's knowledge and permission) helps establish safe havens at Gondolin and Nargothrond, while Melian keeps Doriath safe. But again, that isn't any help to the Falathrim, Dwarves, Dorthonion, and Hithlum/Dor-lomin. The folk of Dorthonion can retreat to Nargothrond and the Falathrim can retreat to the Isle of Balar and Mouths of Sirion (protected by Ulmo) but the Valar aren't trying to prevent all possible deaths, or losses of their homes.
After the Dagor Bragollach in 455, it was 90 years of widespread slaughter before 545 when the Valar started the War of Wrath. So, from their perspective, 90 years was short and perhaps they didn't need to do anything until then. They did send warnings to Turgon and Orodreth, who ignored them. Ulmo continued to protect the Havens and Balar.
So the Valar were doing things at some of the most desperate moments, but the viewers may still feel they aren't doing enough. A ton of people die, and not just Rebels and Feanorians. It doesn't help that both the book and our series will spend only a comparatively short time on the Siege of Angband, and a whole lot of time on the Dagor Bragollach and the 90 years of destruction after.
I do think that in this episode we can show the council of the Valar deciding
not to directly attack Melkor, specifically to avoid destroying an inhabited subcontinent and especially because they have no idea where Men will awake, but know it will happen soon and don't want to kill them. We can discuss Melian, talk about sending Eagles (but not show it happening), and vaguely foreshadow Ulmo's later actions.
I'll reread the HoME 10 text about their motivations.
EDIT: So, there's the literary symbolism of Manwe not personally fighting in any battle (not even the War of Wrath) until the End, because then you can keep "the issue of any particular event... in literary suspense."
Fighting Morgoth required a much vaster destruction: "Unless swiftly successful, War against him might well end in reducing all Middle-earth to chaos, possibly even all Arda." because Morogth had spread his will and power into the whole Earth. "Arda could only be liberated by a physical battle; but a probable result of such a battle was the irretrievable ruin of Arda."
"[T]he heroic Noldor were the best possible weapon with which to keep Morgoth at bay, virtually besieged ... without provoking him to a frenzy of nihilistic destruction." And keeping him occupied with only a small physical fraction of Middle-earth, leaving the rest unmolested.
"The last intervention with physical force by the Valar, ending in the breaking of Thangorodrim, may then be viewed as not in fact reluctant or even unduly delayed, but timed with precision. The intervention came before the annihilation of the Eldar and the Edain. Morgoth ... had neglected most of Middle-earth ... " and Morgoth had finally reduced himself in power to the point that he could be physically defeated without destroying (for example) all of Europe or Eurasia. He had also by then lost control over the parts of his spirit he had invested in the matter of Middle-earth.
The Hiding of Valinor: "It is possible to view this as, if not an actually bad action, at least as a mistaken one. Ulmo disapproved of it." But closing Valinor against the Rebels was "just."
As for integrating the shadow - demon attack into the cosmology, the suggestion was made in the session that these can be the future original dragons.
But it's more likely that Glaurung and the other dragons were made with fire demons, not shadow demons.
Why is it difficult for shadow demons to just exist as themselves? If the viewers will wonder what happened to them after Tilion chased them off, and we don't want them to keep chasing him in the sky and cause ecplipses, they can come back to Angband and appear in another episode, one of the battles. There need not be more than 2-3 of them anyway. If they were sent as scouts (more likely) rather than advance
guards expected to fight the Valar (extremely unlikely) they also need not be very powerful. Tilion can completely overpower them.
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