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https://ift.tt/3dIdwCArthstewart:
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Set
Give us your Eowyn meta because you know you have it.
Me at 14: oh god I love Eowyn so much. She’s awesome. GURL why did you hang up the sword to go plant a garden? So dumb. I want to be you! GO KILL
Me at 24: Aragorn saying he doesn’t love you is a really stupid reason for a death wish but you’re still awesome.
Met at 34: Faramir is totally great and non-toxic ( that whole I would not pick up the Ring if it were lying on the road is amazing) but it’s still weird he dresses you in his mother’s cloak and that pity vibe is kinda off-putting. But why couldn’t you have the guy and the sword?
Met at 44: Uhh, GURL, you were responsible for leading the people of Rohan and you just left because you had a death wish and a guy you knew for a day said he didn’t love you? WTF, Eowyn, that was not cool. They needed you and if the Rohirrim had all died at the gates of Minas Tirith you would have been the leader of one of the few human remnants in ME. You had important responsibilities, you were their queen, and you can’t just up and leave.
Met at 54: My friend, you should not have abandoned your people but I understand better why you did. I hope you found healing and happiness. Blessed be the gardeners for it is harder to grow than it is to kill. May you be esteemed as among the greatest gardeners of Middle Earth – Samwise Gamgee and Galadriel of Lothlorien.
glumshoe:
As a kid I was so angry that she stopped being Dernhelm, but that was mostly because I wanted to be Dernhelm. Her desire for battle-glory is also in the context of ‘the world is ending and I have little hope for its survival’. She doesn’t have much anchoring her to the world and a lot of her motivations seem to come from the desperation of seeing it falling apart and feeling helpless to save it, and seeing any duty other than glorious martyrdom defying evil as a pointless waste. Aragorn gives her hope, but I think when she falls in love with Faramir she is also falling in love with the idea of a world that she can actually be happy existing in.
I think the writing regarding her is unsatisfactory, but Tolkien was very critical, even outright hostile, of war as a thing of glory. She doesn’t choose to abandon battle to settle down and start a family and be a Proper Woman—she chooses to abandon it to instead become a healer, like Aragorn, and find purpose and fulfillment helping people. I certainly don’t think that weakens her character and is in line with the values of the other heroic characters.
volumenviridem:
All of this!!
I DO like Eowyn and (book)Faramir settling down together (movie Faramir is kind of a a lil bitch). A girl I follow, can’t remember who, said that Eowyn choosing to marry and give up the sword was her choosing to LIVE - her culture, the Rohirrim, valued dying in battle as the greatest good, and mostly denied that option to women. And she marries the guy who doesn’t “love the sword for its sharpness,” who thinks the Shire must be a wonderful place “where gardeners are held in high esteem.” She wasn’t being made into a “proper” woman or some such nonsense. She experienced a value shift.
glumshoe:
I didn’t so much mind her marrying Faramir, even though I felt it was handled clumsily and written from Faramir’s perspective far more than hers. I try to make allowances for the time period it was published, so while you can certainly see it as Eowyn giving up on her dreams and settling down, you can also read it as two people on the edge of certain doom, who’ve known only sorrow and yearning their whole lives, finding brightness and comfort and peace in each other despite the hopelessness of their world. Tolkien was Not Great at writing women so you kind of have to protect to fill in the gaps sometimes.
fauxsmilesforall:
I have owned and watched the extended edition so many times i forgot about it not being in the theatrical release.
Good, cause i was about to get REAL MAD
But yes in general they did Eowyn dirty, i hated movie Eowyn- which sucks cuz i felt Book Eowyn was great, and on the film they relegated her to ‘the angry caged bird’ and fucking hell do i hate that trope
Though in the book inwas really mad she married Faramir, cause she didnt NEED a man but you know whatever shes a dummy and its a book but
Auuugh
glumshoe:
YEAH! I always felt that the movies did Eowyn a tremendous disservice and reduced her into a clingy and eager-to-please character with a schoolgirl crush. If I hadn’t already imprinted on her from the books I don’t think I would have liked her in the movie sat all.
Eowyn is competent and well-rounded and can cook just fine if she wants to, and Aragorn has enough willpower to eat anything that will fit in his mouth without flinching, and the class not to show his displeasure to his host. I’m glad it was cut from the theatrical release.
linguisticparadox:
Part of the thing is it shows her being incompetent at Womanly Things while also being desperate to be competent at the Womanly Thing in question and uh….nah
glumshoe:
I never liked that the Two Towers movie had Aragorn grossed our and unable to eat Eowyn’s cooking.
First of all, I refuse to buy the idea that Eowyn cannot make edible food—if it’s meant to show that she spurns domestic womanly tasks in favor of being a warrior, it does so badly, because that woman has absolutely been a Girl Guide all her life and knows how to prepare trail food, even if just for herself.
Secondly, how bad can it be that Strider can’t eat it, even to be polite? He’s a Ranger. He’s survived off grub he’s found under rotting logs while going months without bathing. He’ll eat anything that offers nutrients and he’ll do it with a smile.
#lotr#my tldr take on eowyn is that she had a great and thematically essential character arc#of learning to favor not the glory of war but the honor of rebuilding and growth#and it would be a lot more obvious if there were ANY OTHER WOMEN WITH CHARACTER ARCS#*obvious and appreciated#rather than feeling a bit like a woman learning her place™
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