I've watched all but 20 mins of #8, I may or may not be able to finish tonight, but I really want to add that I'm not at all happy with the decision that Celeborn is going to tell Annael everything Galadriel told him in confidence. The whole point of that story was to show that Celeborn is trustworthy and respects and loves Galadriel, not that he lies to her and then callously betrays her huge act of trust at his first opportunity. That turns their romance from an example of trust and love into an awful, contemptuous, destructive betrayal. Please, please no. Don't make Celeborn screw over Galadriel like a total creep, and don't make Galadriel a dupe who ignorantly marries somebody who treats her like this. Is she so clueless that she still hasn't figured it out 7000 years later in the Third Age when she's still happily married to him? We're going to make Galadriel that monumentally clueless, gullible, and easily exploited? (Wow, Luthien is the only strong woman left in the show at this point, now that Galadriel is an easily abused fool.)
Also, Annael doesn't live anywhere near Doriath. The Elves who go to Nevrast and Mithrim need to be from the Falathrim. This doesn't even make any sense, besides destroying the entire point of that moment between Celeborn and Galadriel. This trashes the whole storyline we wrote for Galadriel and Celeborn. And it's totally unnecessary. Morgoth is far more likely to learn about the Kinslaying from Noldorin captives, obviously.
We took a lot of effort to write Celeborn and Galadriel's romance story arc. There's no reason to wantonly ruin it for this.
The main reason I chose Curufin’s wife
I'm not upset at you, Ange1. Corey made a
requirement that wives have to be used for all the Never seen again/totally broken forever roles. And I don't think he or anyone realized how messed up this is becoming. I don't think the Hosts mean it on purpose. But we just can't do it this way, it's too awful.
Having 2 men and 2 women captured wouldn't be a problem, if that wasn't a large proportion of our female cast "fridged". Some characters will die without much character development - we did it to Denethor and kind of Amrod. But this should not happen to the
majority of our females. And it's a huge contrast when the majority of male characters are fully developed, many seasons before they die.
Curufin's wife (we haven't even named her!) and Eldalote can't be developed as characters if they're captured right after the Mereth Aderthad and never seen again. That's clearly fridging.
Male Elves -- not going to try counting.
Female Elves --
Celeborn's mom - unnamed, current plan is that she was fridged in Season 1
Miriel - developed character, had to die
Nerdanel - developed character, had to stay behind
Indis - had to stay behind, I don't know how much she was developed
Anaire - had to stay behind, I don't know how much she was developed
Irime - written out, I don't know how much she was developed
Elenwe - had to die, but got almost no characterization
Curufin's wife - fridged, probably won't be characterized
Eldalote - fridged, probably won't be characterized
Maglor's wife - unnamed, and the current plan is she doesn't even exist
Caranthir's wife - unnamed, and the current plan is she doesn't even exist
Aredhel - has to die next season, hopefully will be developed before then, but I find it hard to call a willing abuse victim "strong"
Finduilas - has to die, hopefully will be developed before then
Luthien - strong woman
Galadriel - strong woman? or gullible fool easily manipulated and exploited by Celeborn?
Celeborn's sister - ?
So of 16 female Elves, 1 hasn't been born yet, and 12 will be written out by mid-Season 5. That's 75% of all our female characters, eliminated... 1/5 of the way through the show? 1/6? And we can't introduce any more women, because "there are too many characters already" according to Corey.