at the end of the day, the hair and the costume design are just surface ripples, the very tip of the iceberg.
thereal problem I have with the Amazon series, at this point, is that even if you can’t use the Silm and the Histories, even if you’re trying to be visually distinct from Jackson, there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t read them, and why you shouldn’t adhere to them in your production design. It’s a signal, it’s no green M&Ms, it’s proof you’ve grounded yourself in the canon. (yes, I said canon, @symphonyofsilence did a lovely post citing only some of the canonical mentions of long hair, this is in the books, there is no excuse for not having it)
if you aren’t preserving LaCE’s statement that to human eyes elven men/néri/ellyn look basically exactly like elven women/níssi/ellyth, how can I trust that you’ve read The Mariner’s Wife? how can I trust that you’ve studied Númenor’s ethnic groups? will you be visually signaling the differences between the Bëorians and the others? how are you handling the languages? what about the decline of Taliska into Adûnaic? what about the non-Edainic Middle Men and other people living in Middle-Earth? what about the legacy of the First Age, which is massively important and cannot be overstated and should not be ignored? can you talk about Fëanor? are you going to?
“but Celebrimbor doesn’t necessarily have to be Fëanorian!” the showrunners cry hypothetically, and my answer is that you’re right, he doesn’t, but if that’s the version of the story you’re going with, then his massive age difference with Galadriel becomes even more glaringly obvious, and also, inventing a brand new backstory instead of just having him be who he’s stated to be in LotR’s Appendices is never going to be as good as the original. where’s the work being done on that? how are you going to avoid talking about Gondolin if you take that tactic, because that’s what the drafts say? how are you going to handle Narvi? and speaking of Narvi, why is your lone dwarrowdam Like That? why are any of the elves white? why is any of the cast white? you want visual distinction from Jackson that’s a hell of a way to do it!
nothing that this show does, at the end of the day, has convinced me that it cares about the details, and the details build the whole world.
You know, the way you imagine a character’s appearance is directly related to how you interpret their personality.
From what we’ve read of Celebrimbor I think he was good-hearted, had a strong moral backbone, had a strong will, was hardworking, strong, brave, selfless, had a desire for knowledge & a desire for building, he was full of ideas, hopes, dreams & plans, he was open to everyone and was eager to make bridges & friendships, he was deeply lonely and alone & sad & he was determined to make up for the wrongdoings of his family & restore their name.
& I know it would underestimate Sauron’s deception skills but compared to the ‘the wise’ (Gil-Galad, Elrond & Galadriel) Celebrimbor looked rather naive.
So all the reasons listed above, make me imagine Celebrimbor as a very young man. (Other than the fact that elves don’t look old. But even among the elves some like Elrond at the end of the third age look “neither old nor young”. But I think Celebrimbor straight-up looked young. Like he was in his twenties.)
And you know, a youth full of hopes & dreams & plans & ideas, fighting alone & dying horribly under torture because he trusted and welcomed someone and because he was eager to learn & to build is a real tragedy.
That the Amazon series now can’t show.
Idk what they’re going to do with the character but as I said, how you imagine him to look is related to how you imagine him to be.
And how vastly different we imagined Celebrimbor to look, makes me think how vastly different we imagine his character is. So far, the only word the showrunners have used to describe him has been “mysterious”. Which is not at all what I’d use in a million years to describe Celebrimbor. What about him is mysterious?
And with “politically ambitious” Elrond & “brash” Galadriel…Idk I worry how they’re going to write him.
I keep seeing people say “ToLkiEn NeVER sAiD tHaT tHe ElvEs haD LoNG HaiR!”
Didn’t he?!
It seems like he very much did!
(Sources: The Nature of Middle-earth, The People of Middle-earth, The ring of Morgoth, Fall of Gondolin, the Fellowship of the Ring)
That short hair is not even historically correct! If you look at portraits of Northern European men before 18th century or watch period pieces you’ll see that they usually have chin-length or shoulder-length hair!
