Thank you for your replies,
Huinesoron and
Inziladun!
Huinesoron, you have a point here:
The trouble with Aldarion and Erendis is that it's so unrelentingly bleak.
But I would say that it's far from being as bleak as some stories in
Game of Thrones.
It would be an interesting challenge for a film maker, who wouldn't have as props drugs (including alcohol), swearing, violence (including war) and illicit sex...
When you mentioned this:
Forget about A&E themselves, Ancalime has a horrible life, and even her grandchildren are affected by the events (her granddaughters feared her and refused the throne on account of her). That's five generations, counting from Meneldur, who just can't catch a break on account of one bad romance.
I would have to add another generation to this, making a total of six. Tar-Ancalimë's great-granddaughter was Tar-Telperiën, the Second Ruling Queen. What is interesting is that she refused to marry and had no children, being succeeded by her nephew, Tar-Minastir, son of her younger brother Isilmo. Her decision to not marry may have been influenced by her great-grandmother's doing so as a matter of policy, not love.
I agree with you,
Inziladun, in that an adaptation of the story could point this out:
After all, if not for Aldarion, first as the King's Heir, giving legitimacy and respectability to the Venturers and their Middle-earth voyages, and establishing the first non-Eldarin ports, would it have been possible for the much later defeat of Sauron by Tar-Minastir?
However, I'm inclined to also agree that this could be a possible result of an attempt to film the story:
I can more easily see a chastened Aldarion renouncing his 'toxic masculinity' and foregoing his seafaring, then putting forth Erendis as a much wiser, 'caring' person for Ruling Queen, and then dedicating his life to shepherding and tree-planting.
That already reads like a mess.