Comments on The Silmarillion TV Series

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.

Oh, wow! It's good to see someone taking on 'try something new'! I'm not sure how qualified I am to comment on the scripts, as they're not something I usually read, I'm intrigued by the concept and curious to see where it goes. (I will, however, be imagining that your show is airing on a channel or service that allows me to watch commercial-free...)



This idea is so interesting! I followed your line of thought about the main narrator, that should be able to tell the story from the start, someone who was there from the beginning of the world until the end of the First Age (and Second and Third), and the only possible character that comes to my mind is Sauron. Of course, that puts things under a difficult light since in many outcomes he is ~the~ villain. But the possibility thrills me! 



Thanks!

You're spot on with the constant villain - I hadn't considered that originally, but I wonder if my unconscious did: Sauron being the Dark Hunter and he's come up in most outlines of future episodes as well, with a larger role than in the published Silmarillion (with minimal extra invention, though - I'm trying to illustrate what we've already been told he was doing "behind the scenes")

Oh this is SO GOOD! I could totally see this being done! The dialog was really dynamic and put the viewer right into the action. And, of course, the production design would have to do a fabulous job with the environment, showing their way of life (instead of useless expositive dialog). The only thing, though, is that I feel there must be a scene of Elves waking up. Literally. I think this concept would be difficult for the general public to understand. They didn't spring from the Earth like a tree but from the stars. So I think that's the only thing missing. As for the rest, I really loved it. Who would you cast as all these people?



-Blushes-

Thank you.  I avoided showing the very beginning because when I thought of it, the challenges of inventing too many people and addressing the very beginnings of the culture and even invention of language did rather overwhelm me - but on further consideration, we could always do it as a very brief flashback (maybe when Ingar is briefly speaking of it in Part 3 of this episode).

Casting - oh, that could be an entire lengthy debate!  I've not dwelt on it, but when I know of an actor who would possibly be ideal for the role (so far, invariably for a Vala), I've mentioned it.  

The language is so outrageously modern that I can't help but love it lol. I imagine Tolkien purists gauging their eyes off, but it fits so well. Elves ate not fairies! Anyway, somehow the dialogue makes me think of the series Rome - the bantering and all. I also loved the camera movements, the fadings in and out to intertwine the action - again, I could see it perfectly! Plus, I loved Oromë's arrival! Can't put a face into any of them yet - no human actor is aa beautiful as I paint them in my mind xD



Thanks again :)

My defence is that to everyone in every era, their own dialogue is always modern.  There's a historian on tor.com (the website of Tor books) who insists that his favourite historical film is A Knight's Tale" - anachronisms and all.  because, in his wrods: "

there is a truth of historical reality, and then there is a truth of historical relationship — a difference between knowing the actual physical feel of the past and the relative emotional feel of it. This is not to say that anything goes and facts are no longer facts. As I’ve noted before, that’s pretty much my idea of Hell. Rather, facts have contexts, and that context drives our emotional responses to the facts.

Because we don’t live in the fourteenth century, we don’t have the same context for a historically accurate jousting as a person would have had back then. A tournament back in the day was like the Super Bowl, but a wholly accurate representation of the event would not give us that same sense. Rather than pulling us into the moment, the full truth would push us out of it: rather than fostering the connection between the present and the past, it would have emphasized the separation"

JRRT did the same with his translation convention - Hobbits spoke in a modern way (for his own time), and other areas with different levels of archaism (Pippin's culture clash with Gondor was a source of such - as the "thee/thou/you/ye" options had evaporated in favour of simply "you" in Shire (modern) dialect while they hadn't in Gondor, he was talking informally with literally everyone up to Denethor himself.  Leading people to assume he had to be basically a prince himself to be that informal and relaxed...

Oh yes, I completely agree with him. Especially the second paragraph you shared, and especially for adaptation to other media such as television. I would never say anything against it. In fact, it gets on my nerves that soup operas in my country insist on using "literary" language rather than the spoken one (they're VERY different). It feels unrealistic and it pushes me out of it every single time!

I really like what you did here! I also liked your suggestion for actors, I think they could really work - although Jeremy Irons also popped in my mind to play Mandos haha. Anyway, it's possible to make it less exposition-heavy (I'm thinking one scene specifically), but is it worth it? I mean, things need to be very clear from the start, and you did such an amazing job so far!