Possible Sequels...

[Gurthang]

Don't know if anyone has started a thread like this already, but here goes anyway.

If Tolkien had written a sequel to LotR, I think that the two blue wizards, Alatar and Pallando, returning from the East and trying to take over Middle Earth would be cool. Not much is know about them, so who's to say they didn't become kings in the East? And, them being wizard's and all, Gandalf would have to come back to fight them!

Do you think that would be good for a sequel? Or do you have a better sequel in mind?

[Celebuial]

I think that'd be a great sequal! Not sure if Gandalf would come back and 'fight' them though... Do they have to 'take over Middle-Earth'? I can see that turning out nearly exactly the same as LotR ... Hmmm, ok, maybe a better sequal would be just about the adventures of the Blue Wizards and what they found. I think that would be much more original and interesting. What if it was kinda like The Sil and describing what they'd learnt about the history and ways of the East? Maybe then a new story could be created afterwards like TH or LotR. Maybe this wouldn't have as much history or depth though. Since ther's no mention of the East in the Sil you couldn't include The Valar or any Maia in the story. Then you'd be left with the problem of there being no 'big evil'. Would the story be as interesting as Lotr without this, or without the feel that there are other hands involved?........

If only Tolkien had written more!!!! I think we should just be greatful for what we have. Its hard not to ponder "what if?" though......

[Maeggaladiel]

Sheez, we should be glad that LOTR wasn't a bad B movie. Can you imagine the sequel to THAT?!

Oh dear, I can see it all now:

From the makers of Lord of the Rings comes a terrifying tale of magic, love and deceit...

TERMINATOR OF THE RINGS!

Sauron returns from the grave as a floating eyeball-zombie with a taste for hobbit flesh. As Sauron goes on a killing rampage across Hobbiton, Merry and Pippin discover a time-space rift in Frodo's backyard. Upon entering, they discover a realm inhabitited by robo-hobbits. They hire a robot hobbit, called the Hobbinator, to come and fight Sauron in return for Merry's soul. There's a thrilling battle between Sauron and Hobbinator, ending as a dynamite-induced avalance buries them both in snow and dumps them into the sea. They end up in (where else) Japan and spend the rest of their lives happily wreaking havoc alongside Godzilla. Frodo marries Ms. Hobbitton and everyone has a good laugh before they are killed in a sneak attack by zombie Smaug. The end.

[the guy who be short]

I know this is meant to be Mirth but...

Tolkien already had a sequal in mind, so it would almost certainly be that. I can't remember exactly what it's called, but the first chapters can be found in HoME XII.
The sequel is set in Aragorn's children's or grandchildren's age, I think there's some sort of rebellion...

You'll have to go and check

[Lalwendë]

The sequel to Lord of the Rings - set in 'modern times'. Written by the team who brought you Footballers' Wives.

Lord of the Blings.
Set in the seventh age of Men. DJ Sauron had a nifty piece of ice hand made for him by Guffi; it was so blindin' that everyone fell before it and praised his superior taste in bling. But alas, it was lost in a scrap outside a nightclub one night, and he never found it again. He was so embarrassed that he didn't leave the house for weeks.

It was found one day by a passing chav who kept it hidden until a sneaky little tyke broke into his house one night and nicked it. Unfortunately, he'd left it on the shelf by the back door, and this tyke pinched it by means of 'fishing' with a bent coathanger through the letterbox. He was after the car keys really, but never mind, it was a nice trinket...

Several weeks passed. DJ Sauron meanwhile, had been on the phone to every pawnbrokers, to cash converters, everything he could think of, trying to see of someone had tried to sell his beloved bit of bling. In the end he got his 'crew' out and instructed them to get heavy with anyone they saw toting the bling.

Meanwhile, the little tyke's kindly uncle came round to visit and on seeing the trinket he had suddenly acquired, became alarmed. "This must belong to someone with a lot of money, my lad," he said. "You want to be careful with that. Now, where on earth did you get the money to buy it? Surely it did not come from Argos?" The little tyke shifted uncomfortably and looked at the floor. His kindly uncle knew something was up, and next time he was down at the Seven Stars, the pub behind the High Street, he put some feelers out. Next day he went back to see his nephew and asked to see the trinket.

"Turn it over," he said. And there, only revealed under UV light, was DJ Sauron's postcode (for he had the sense to have his ice laser etched). "Here, you have it, you'll keep it safe," said his nephew. Recoiling with a look of horror, his uncle blanched "No!" he declared. "I'm not being seen out with that. I don't want my nose punching, ta." His nephew said "Well what am I to do with it?" His uncle had considered this. "The only thing you can do, I suppose, is somehow get it to the dumpsters on the council tip. For there the crushers will deal with this and pulverise it into many pieces. But the trip is perilous. You must go past Maccy D's, KFC and right past the very block of flats where DJ Sauron lives. Even now his crew are out looking for someone like you."

And so the journey began...

[Celebuial]

No fair I only have the first three volumes of HoME!!!!!!! Arrrrrrrghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been meaning to get the rest but my book shop doesn't have them and I hate ordering books and waiting for them!!!!!!!!!

*runs off to all her Tolkien fan friends to see if she can steal their copies*

[Beanamir of Gondor]

I'm waiting for the commercial with Ben Stein advertising Clear Eyes... with Sauron the Eye waiting in the background. Come on, I need some of that!

But a sequel would definitely be The Arrival of the Jedi. A time-rip, once again, would open up in Lothlorien. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo would crash-land in the Millenium Falcon, closely followed by Princess Leia in her Rebel ship. Luke would join the Elves in the battle against the orc-stormtroopers...

Too much parody. I quit.

[Snowdog]

The successful Lord of the Rings movies have led to marketing the franchise to television. Two shows to come are called Swords of the West which is an action thriller of swords and conquest as the forces of Elessar subdues the south and east. Stars would be Faramir and Eomer, with Aragorn being on sometimes when he rides out or there is council in the city.

The next one is a trashy faire called Desperate Palacewives, which focus on the domestic side of Éowyn and Arwen, and their encounters with the cooks, stablehands, gardeners, each other's husbands, etc.

[THE Ka]

i can't resist...

Boromir comes back from the dead + Disco = Gondor Night Fever...

Definately going to be a classic...


~ Seeing big Ka

[lothlorien]

HAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!! that really cracked me up Gondor fever ha ha ha!

I can just imagine Boromir storming up to Aragorn and saying "I demand you hand over this throne to the king of disco himself" then he busts a move and Aragorn dies laughing so Boromir gets the throne anyway .

[THE Ka]

Well thank you,
I enjoy laughs...

Here's another one I would love to see, because, this guy really deserves just ONE line at least!

Radagast makes a trainning video for falconiers/ bird phychic video were people bring in their birds to ask him what's their problems... (You know, like off of animal planet, but he's much cooler than that freaky lady...)

Hope you will agree...

~ Rasputina-listening-believeing Ka

[Gurthang]

Originally, I wanted this to be a serious thread, but I did place it in Mirth, so...Here goes everything.

Sauron, ashamed at his humiliating defeat in Lord of the Rings, decides to star in his own action movie. It would be called The King and Eye. Sauron comes back and seeks revenge on Gondor's King.

The movie flops, and Sauron is completely ruined.

[narfforc]

After the fall of Sauron, an ancient pact between Morgoth and Pallando swings into motion. Beneath the Mountains of the East live The Fathers of the Orcs. These are The Moredhil, and they are the Elves that Melkor stole as they awoke beside Cuivienen. They reside with their leader Morwe, in a huge delving inside the Orocarni. Inside this cavern is another great treasure the Melkor took from Valinor. As is told in The Black Book of Melkor, he took a flower from Telperion, then bathing it in the unlight of Ungoliant and putting forth his dark power into the seedlings, he later planted The Dark Tree. From the light of this Tree would be made a Black Silmaril. It is Pallandos task to gather The rods of Three Wizards (His own, Radagasts and Alatars), The Ring of Saruman and find the Silmaril that Maglor threw into the sea. The reason for all this, to secure the release of Melkor Lord of Arda, and fight The Dagor Dagorath.

If we treat Tolkien as The Translater he calls himself, then it is the Elvish version of history he is passing on to us, lets pretend there is a Middle-Earth version of the Dead Sea scrolls, written by the other side. Then we see that Melkor knew of his captivity and expulsion, and left behind a few insurance policies to help him escape. The first in the form of Sauron failed, so in comes someone else, why not a Blue Wizard. Melkor has to escape for The Dagor Dagorath to take place. Tolkien states "When Melkor shall come again". I wrote a large piece of this for myself and my friends, I never finished it because I started work on The Lord of the Grins (A parody that will be released sometime soon).

[Herenya]

It seems unwise of me to break the silence that has been kept in this thread for more than sixteen years, given the fact that the story I would like to share isn't even a sequel, as the title of this thread suggests. Although the story in question that I accidentally came up with turned out to be not a sequel at all, but a prequel, I hope there is a chance that submission of that story to this thread might be withstood.

In hope to avoid submitting an off-topic post, I searched on the forum for a long time, but I could not find a suitable thread intended specifically for discussions of prequels. Moreover, for some reason I'm feeling too reluctant to create a separate thread dedicated specifically for that story. Thus I came to the conclusion that the only solution available to me was to try to revive this thread.

I've decided that although my writing skills are not excellent, I should nevertheless try to save that story from complete oblivion publishing it on the web, in case there's actually a faint chance for it to be of any value to someone else. However, it seems to me that there is absolutely nothing special about it and if it can be of interest, then only for those who, for some reason, pay special attention to that period of time and those regions within which the events of the story took place - the last years of the existence of Arthedain; the northern regions of Middle-earth - Eriador and Rhovanion.

I was about to spend the next few weeks trying to compose a detailed summary of the story I was talking about in order to post it to this thread. However, I finally realized I couldn't afford to do that without the community's permission. Leaving aside the fact that the story that I composed is actually for a prequel and not for a sequel, I'm really confused by the fact that it could possibly have commercial value. I can easily imagine how it could be used as a plot for a novel or perhaps for a video game.

My concern is, whether publication of such a document would be an unwise decision that could have undesirable consequences for this place? Besides that, I'm wondering how would the ultimate fate of this thread alter if it suddenly got a very long post describing that story, which likely wouldn't seem to be pleasant to read. (Since my first language is not English, and thus I'm not really accustomed to speaking English.)

I would not mind if someone would use that story - the result of numerous executions of the brainstorming routine that I've performed over the past few years - in a commercial or other context, if there is anyone who could be interested in this. However, the outcome of all those attempts to figure out what the story for a sequel could be seems to be modest, and also, I should repeat, that story turned out to be a prequel, not a sequel.

Nevertheless, it may be worth to mention that the story does contain a number of details that reveal a few of my ideas about what the future of Arda and the Reunited Kingdom could have been in the Fourth and even in the Fifth Age. But I'm not sure that these ideas would be enough to compose a script for a sequel based on them.

Thankfully, after several attempts to find logical inconsistencies in that story relative to the original sources, I could not find such inconsistencies. I believe that its plot is passable from beginning to end and there are no logical contradictions or ambiguities visible from my point of view.

So, I hope that for this reason that story can get a chance to be embodied in a more permanent form than just my memories of it. However, unfotrunately, I doubt that I personally will have the opportunity to try to complete this creative project on my own.

So I would like to ask for an advice on whether posting a very long post describing that story to this thread would be harmless to it? Maybe I should refrain from doing this and venture to create a separate new thread intended for discussions of possible prequels? Or maybe I should cancel my current intentions to post that story on this forum?

If I do not get the community's permission to post the story for a prequel that I composed to this or another thread, I will probably try to find another forum where I would be allowed to do this. However, I really hope that I may have a chance to get the permission and possibly additional instructions on how to safely post that story.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Herenya

So I would like to ask for an advice on whether posting a very long post describing that story to this thread would be harmless to it? Maybe I should refrain from doing this and venture to create a separate new thread intended for discussions of possible prequels? Or maybe I should cancel my current intentions to post that story on this forum?

First off, welcome to the Downs! New blood is always appreciated.

I never paid any attention to this thread, apparently having simply missed it. That isn't surprising, since I've personally had no interest in writing my own ME stories, and wouldn't even if I were an accomplished (or even semi-talented) author.

This thread seems to be rather for comedic value rather than serious consideration of a fan-created work (hence its placement in Middle-earth Mirth).

I'm sure you did notice the Fan Fiction subsections that are said to be "under construction". I see a post there as recent as February this year, maybe that should be your starting point.

Good luck!

[Herenya]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I'm sure you did notice the Fan Fiction subsections that are said to be "under construction". I see a post there as recent as February this year, maybe that should be your starting point.

Thank you, sir, for taking the time to answer my questions! The guidance you were so kind to provide really means a lot to me!

[Galadriel55]

Welcome, Herenya! It's always good to see new people here, and have new ideas and interests!

I second what Inzil said. This thread seems long-abandoned, and many of us here haven't even seen it before. You could post your proposal here, though it's not a perfect fit, or you could make a new thread for it.

Although we have a newly-made fanfic forum, I think it is quite literally still "under construction" and there are some limitations about posting there. However, you could try the Mirth forum if your story is more of a light entertainment or comedy, or Novices and Newcomers (a forum where various odds and ends tend to get shoved if they don't fit elsewhere) or even Books if it is more serious or more scholarly.

But again, welcome to the Downs, take a cup of your beverage of choice, kick back, and enjoy! Go wherever your fancy takes you. It is much like Rivendell in that everyone is free to wander where they like and take part in all that they enjoy about Tolkien - and there are always more unexplored threads and corners, if you have the time to explore them.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

After the fall of Sauron, an ancient pact between Morgoth and Pallando swings into motion. Beneath the Mountains of the East live The Fathers of the Orcs. These are The Moredhil, and they are the Elves that Melkor stole as they awoke beside Cuivienen. They reside with their leader Morwe, in a huge delving inside the Orocarni. Inside this cavern is another great treasure the Melkor took from Valinor. As is told in The Black Book of Melkor, he took a flower from Telperion, then bathing it in the unlight of Ungoliant and putting forth his dark power into the seedlings, he later planted The Dark Tree. From the light of this Tree would be made a Black Silmaril. It is Pallandos task to gather The rods of Three Wizards (His own, Radagasts and Alatars), The Ring of Saruman and find the Silmaril that Maglor threw into the sea. The reason for all this, to secure the release of Melkor Lord of Arda, and fight The Dagor Dagorath.

Which would still be better than what Amazon is making.

[Herenya]

Inziladun, Galadriel55, thank you both so much for welcoming me, and for your councelling! The advice you gave me helped me see more clearly the path that I will have to take, and discern its final destination, that is, the forum which seems most appropriate for posting of my prospective proposal.

I expect that following the way that would lead me to the Fan Fiction forum would require me to actually write a fanfiction, if my guesses are correct that requests for new fanfics are currently inadmissible. Although it might be an exciting adventure, an attempt to write a fanfiction of such length and detail as that story supports would likely take me a few years of study and trying to improve my writing skills, before I could make it. It's a pity that due to my current circumstances I won't be able to spend that amount of time in the future on writing for my own pleasure alone.

Nevertheless, following your valuable advice, I already seriously thought about asking another question here, namely, whether requests for fanfics are really not permitted in the Fan Fiction forum, or is it just in my imagination. Fortunately, I was finally able to remember the fact that other forums do exist.

Following on, as for the story itself which I talked about, that prequel story is not of a light entertainment or comedy, to my regret. I would honestly not mind to be able to come up with a story taking place in the Fifth Age, the beginning of which was a safe and peaceful period of time according to my version of events. If I could come up with such a story, which I was once almost able to fulfill, and if I was an author confident in their writing abilities, then I would try to write a fanfiction based on that story. Perhaps I would try to make it resemble in some of its features such literary works as, for instance, "Nightmare Abbey" by Thomas Love Peacock, which I had found simultaneously lightly entertaining and humorous after I first got the chance to read it.

However, due to some reasons I couldn't finish my work on the sequel taking place in the Fifth Age which I was just talking about, but I suddenly came up with a story for a prequel while pondering on the confusing plot of the sequel's story. The prequel story which I composed would take place in the midst of the Third Age starting from as early as T.A. 1965. It is a long and sad story the protagonist of which was a Half-elf ranger who dedicated his life to protecting Arthedain from the threat of Angmar, and as a member of a small company of heroes undertook a perilous journey to the east of Middle-earth in a vain attempt to fulfill his most cherished dream.

I'm struggling now with the temptation to provide more details about the events of that story, in case if anyone might be interested in them. However, as my prequel story doesn't fit to this thread, I will make myself not to do spoilers.

So I will most likely try Novices and Newcomers' forum, as my prospective essay is going to be based on my original research, the subject of which is events not described in any of the original sources. I really hope these events don't contradict the official history of Middle-earth set out in the published works of the professor.

As I just noticed that this thread went completely off-topic because of my intrusion, I would like to promise that I will take the liberty to submit another post to this thread someday, particularly concerning the incomplete story for a sequel which I was just talking about.

[Galadriel55]

The fan-fin forum is a relatively new creation and still pretty limited. I don't think you'd be able to able to recruit an author for your fanfic there.

However, as to the second part of your question - the Downs is definitely a good forum for having people fact-check your outline and point out canonical sources. There are plenty of very smart Tolkien erudites and scholars here, you would get some good feedback on the canon aspect. But, saying that - fanfics aren't expected to always be perfectly 100% canonical, that's not their purpose. They build on the canon, and some might even deviate from canon, and that's okay. That's why they are fan-fics.

[Herenya]

Thank you so much for taking some of your invaluable time to answer my question!

Of course, that is most likely not possible. I understand the reasons why that is usually not possible free of charge, so I would never try to impose my own ideas on other users that way.

Now, to be clear, if someone else would be so kind as to take the time to fact-check those two stories for inconsistencies in relation to the canonical sources, that would be amazing. That might actually require some research, and very possibly a lot of it. However, I did not intend to ask other users to fact-check stories which are my personal projects and hence may be of little interest and value to those users. The main outcome that I desired to achieve when I resumed this thread was to try to make those two stories accessible to other scholars and fans of professor Tolkien, in hope that they might be of any value to someone else.

[Herenya]

So after spending some of my free time over the past couple of days immersing myself into reflections on the plot of that prequel story, I'm now starting to wonder if it would be better for the world if it remained untold? The point is that it reminds me more and more of the Professor's trilogy in terms of plot, except that it's already clear now that my story lacks some of the appealing qualities that the latter arguably has, mostly the main character's constrained optimism and belief in getting better.

A company of heroes consisting of a wizard (Gandalf,) an Arnorian half-elf, two Arnorian Dúnedain and two hobbits gathers and sets off on a long and dangerous journey in the hope of being able to find the One Ring in the wetlands of the Gladden Fields, and then take it to Mordor in order to try to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom. Only that, in their opinion, can save their kingdom of Artedain from impending doom and it has to be done before Angmar has gathered enough forces to start a new devastating war with Artedain.

But their mission is complicated by the fact that Mount Doom was dormant at the time (that is, its caldera was frozen,) as well as by other confusing circumstances. Further events are not developing in the most favorable way for their mission and for the main character himself, as a result of which the protagonist is forced to suffer first from serious anxiety, and then from depression and extreme guilt for the entire second and third parts of the story.

Since at some point it was actually his personal responsibility to decide what the future of Middle-earth would be, and he made this decision alone, on his own, hence for almost the entire remaining two-thirds of the story he is forced to suffer from post-traumatic syndrome and doubts whether the choice he made was the right one. Alongside their ineffectual long journey, events develop in such an unfavorable way that finally it turns out that both the company and the main character personally achieve nothing in terms of their initial task.

The story also features a number of secondary characters, some of whom initiate the main character into secret lore about the structure and history of that "flavour" of Middle-earth in which the events of this story take place. Perhaps some details of the main character's conversations with those supporting characters might seem slightly interesting to someone else. Despite that, I have doubts that the possible readers of my story would be happy to spend so much of their valuable time examining the story that seems so unbearably depressing even to me, differing in this from The Lord of the Rings so strikingly. Perhaps the bitterness of that story could only ruin the mood of its readers for the day, and it would also conceal some of the positive qualities that the story arguably possesses.

Thus I should first try to do something to improve the plot of that story to make it more optimistic and hopeful, and make the bitterness of that story more moderate. I really hope that I will be able to amend the plot in this way somehow, since I have already given much thought to that story, and I've also become too attached to some of the secondary characters. Otherwise, I could only humbly recommend watching some old anime from the mid-90s instead, as I believe that the plots of many of those anime may be more promising than my story's.

[Inziladun]

Well, Herenya, I think if I were in your place, I would ask a friend or two to read my story.
Even if they aren't rabid Tolkien fans, odds are they've at least seen the movies, and could judge whether they think your work derivative.

[Herenya]

(Un)fortunately for me, I decided to suspend my work on that possible prequel to The Lord of the Rings just yesterday. I finally lost patience and started to feel exhaused because of the high number of failed attempts to discover a viable version of that story. I would really like to apologize to the followers of this thread for making the false promise of posting that prequel story that I'll probably be unable to fulfill! However, I still continue my long-term work on composing the story for an unofficial sequel to The Lord of the Rings set in the beginning of the Fifth Age. I can see its scheme of events quite clearly right now as a whole thing, but it still lacks detail and some prettiness that seem to be optional and yet necessary. It seems so much easier and safer for mental health to think over that sequel story instead of that suspended prequel story! Most importantly, I will certainly try to contact a friend of mine who has watched the movies in order to ask them to read that story after I complete it.

[Herenya]

So I'm posting again accepting the risk of getting shunned since I would like to inform anyone else who could be interested to know this that it seems that I've finally succeeded in my self-imposed task of developing a story for an unofficial sequel to TLotR. Ayyy! However, I'm afraid there are few such people here if any at all, since my communication skills seem poor to me now and everyone has probably seen that. Anyway, I believe I've been able at last to find the correct ideas needed to complete a story for such an unofficial sequel. I expect if nothing suddenly makes me suffer acute amnesia over the next few weeks then I will most likely be able to submit its summary to Middle-earth Mirth that soon, if I could still afford to think that was safe and appropriate.

[Galadriel55]

Many people here on the Downs are not native English speakers. And even though English was already my primary language when I joined, I attribute my development in written expression (and my ability to type, lol) to hanging out here. So never worry about still working on communication skills, on whichever level you are at with them.

Please post away! If you have a story to share, I am only in favour of sharing it!

[Herenya]

I'm afraid that a reply posted after such a long pause may be against the generally accepted rules of communication on the Web, but pitily, this time I just failed to immediately understand that it might be appropriate to reply.

To be honest, I can't even imagine how much being on this forum could help me improve my fluency in English if I had enough time to read all the threads that are of immediate interest to me. This forum seems to me one of those few places on the modern Internet that I have discovered by now, the existence of which I would be really glad to be aware of much earlier, ideally on the very day when I first got access to the network. (Sometime in the distant shining 2002.)

Then I had more than enough time compared to these days, and so I could try to learn English at a native level on this forum, having fun and at the same time being in an environment that seems to be safe for kids.

Concerning the story that I wanted to share, honestly I'm concerned right now about whether sharing it publicly would mean cancellation of that my personal project at the same moment. The point is, the events of the story are so distant in time and conception from the events of The War of the Ring that I'm afraid the plot might be easily adopted (possibly without even making an attempt to receive my consent to it) for a fiction novel taking place somewhere else, not in the Middle-earth.

Thus, I'll have to find out a way around that obstacle before I can proceed with this project, since being a long-term fan of the Middle-earth I now see the risk of such an Intellectual Property leakage as something that has to be taken into account too.