The story of the earliest times after creation can be summed up as a fight between the gods turning the lights on and a lucifer type fallen god character called Melkor being a spiteful dick and turning them off again. First it was the lamps, and he broke them. They the reestablished the light in two trees (WTF?) and then Melkor and big spider demon killed those. Prior to that, the light of one of the trees had been captured in the jewels made by Feanor, the silmarils. And so Melkor stole them.
One tree was called Telperion (golden light) the other Laurelin (silver light). With their last dying effort, one produced a glowing flower and the other a glowing fruit. And the Sun and the Moon were created from those (the third sources of light another the lamps and the trees were trashed by Melkor)
Sorry to disrupt discussing the latest money-grabbing exercise from Amazon but have I ever mentioned a TV show called Barry and how bloody great it is?!
Tolkein was always very resistant to sell the rights, but made a limited sale in the 70s to United - only two main books, and only for film adaptations. By the time Jackson made those films decades later the rights were at Werner Bros (the films were made by New Line, which is a subsidiary of Werner). For as powerful as Werner is it has been tossed back and forth over the last decade or so in multiple mergers and acquisitions and so has constantly been in positions where itâs looking for ways to spin off its IP. Apparently they pushed the Tolkein estate to accept bids for tv adaptations. This was a completely separate deal to the one Werner owned, but apparently they had some say in it, presumably as a way to protect their IP and get compensated for it. The deal was very explicitly though only a TV adaptation of the same books with no release of any other tolkein material.
The result is the credit on the screen of these episodes saying it is an adaptation of the Appendix of the LotR. There is obviously considerable overlap between this and the two chapters at the end of the Silmarilion that focus on the second age that will allow to tell the story of those chapters. However, even short narratives have more detail than a timeline and its not clear how much licence they have use to use narrative detail only mentioned in the Silmarilion to tell bits of the story. However, as the Tolkein estate is a partner on it Im sure theyâd rather allow that than have the show contradict canon.
They showed the light of the two trees of Valinor go out suddenly. With a shadow that suspiciously looks like Melkor/Morgothâs armour based on many popular artistic depictions.
I always imagined the trees being drained of their glowing sap by Ungoliant much slower than that.
The trees are mentioned in writings outside of The Silmarillion so I guess they got to get away with that but not with actually showing Ungoliant and Melkor in the flesh.
Itâs back to GoT season 8 kind of stuff, plot armor, spectacle over story or sensible strategy and suddenly whoever they want becomes stupid for the sake of story.
3 year time jump. You know that drama we set up by having the newly named heirâs best friend marry her dad, and in turn likely make a child that will rival your claim? Yeah, we just skipped over all of that to a point down the line where theyâve all got over it. Hey, but hereâs a new Lannister we throw in front of you to make you remember what show this is.
Who the fuck was riding the dragon while Matt Smith was on the beach? Iâve read reviews that claim it was Corlyisâ son, but, uh, how? They dont have dragons, and so did this kid just jump on a spare one? Did he pull an Anakin and accidentally get in a space ship and shoot all the bad guys without getting of his own people? You bet your fucking fucks he did.
And now next episode theyâre going forward another 10 years so half the actors have to be replaced with more age appropriate ones.
I believe itâs a decade old now. excellent show, good characters. but I think it hit a bit too close to home in the realm of US politics and they were pushed to shut it down.
