[ SECRET POST #2429 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2429 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.
[Arrested Development]


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03.
[George R.R. Martin]


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04.
[Bee and PuppyCat]


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05.
[Harry Potter]


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06.
[Resident Evil 6]


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07.
[The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings]


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08.
[Naruto]


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09.
[Jin, Hanzawa Naoki]


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10.
[Neverwinter Nights]


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11.
[Shina Dark]


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12.
[Thomas Gibson from the series Criminal Minds]












Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 044 secrets from Secret Submission Post #347.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

One of my only problems with Tolkien himself is his women. Eowyn had her moment of glory and then "I'm giving up violence to be a healer and homemaker!" Arwen was an afterthought.

Honestly, PJ is doing better than JRRT.

[(Anonymous)]

In the moral universe of the book, being a healer and guiding your kingdom to peace (which is what Eowyn is going to do in Ithilien) are superior to being a warrior. The Rohirrim are considered lesser than the Númenóreans because they've learned to love fighting for its own sake. So while I personally love to see Eowyn swordfight, in the context of the book she's following the same path as the male leaders who are being both rewarded and elevated by their victory. Faramir is clearly looking for a partner in restoring Ithilien, not "a homemaker," or else he sure as hell wouldn't have picked Eowyn.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh the horrors of giving up on violence! Is this how we do feminism now - violence is awesome (because the men do it?)

[vongroovy]

Tolkien does a lot better with women outside LotR - there are so many excellent women in the Silmarillion and all the history stuff.

That said, I've never had a problem with Eowyn's ending. For Tolkien, who had experienced the atrocities of war, what better reward could he give her than a family and a life of healing when the need for violence was over? I don't think there's any implication that she settled down and never did anything interesting again. Deciding to turn to a more peaceful life doesn't mean she didn't continue to have an important life - and the world, at that time, was more in need of healers than warriors. Tolkien also treats many of his male heroes the same way, so I've just always read her ending as a reward for her heroism, not necessarily as a woman being put in her supposed place or something. I feel like she and Faramir would be pretty equal partners, so I like to imagine they worked together to heal their part of the world and that she continued being badass forever, just in a different way.

I just have a lot of feelings about Eowyn, especially about her ending.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think there's any implication that she settled down and never did anything interesting again.

This, exactly

[(Anonymous)]

Tolkien does a lot better with women outside LotR - there are so many excellent women in the Silmarillion and all the history stuff.

Hehe, since the OP mentioned damsels in distress, Tolkien's take on the trope in the story of Beren and Lúthien is definitely refreshing...

And yeah, I love the women of the Silm, and while you can tell that most of the time Tolkien defaults to male for his characters (all those motherless people in the family trees, dammit), I find that the two main stories (lay of Leithian and the Children of Húrin) are surprisingly decent in terms of female characters.

[(Anonymous)]

This is a great comment and I agree with every part of it.

In particular, the point about a peaceful family life of healing and Tolkien's experience of war is really well made.

[(Anonymous)]

J.R.R also wrote his books in the fucking 40s.
If you consider the time period, the most of his female characters are well-written people.

Eowyn's arc also reflected Tolkien's own experiences during the war.
Do you really think Tolkien would glorify warfare and violence in his works? Especially through one of his most (socially) intelligent and aware characters? LOL

[(Anonymous)]

J.R.R also wrote his books in the fucking 40s. If you consider the time period, the most of his female characters are well-written people.

I love Tolkien and his female characters but come on. Even then people had been writing novels with more female characters, including complex ones, for a good few centuries. I'm pretty sure even contemporaries noted that his writing was at least short on women.

[(Anonymous)]

You know, once I had the exact same problem.

Then I started writing (ok, mostly making up)an essay about Shieldmaidens of Rohan to help out a friend and it got me thinking about Eowyn.
Remember how she says she fears the cage? Well, Edoras had been turned into her gilded cage - her role as Shieldmaiden extremely limited, a prisoner in her own house, no way to stop or counteract Grima's influence... She wants to *do* something for her family and her kingdom, but *can't*. It's an extremely frustration situation.

Fast forward to her falling in love with Faramir: as things stand in that moment, if Aragorn survives the battle, Faramir is going to be is Steward and if Aragorn doesn't return, he'll have to take over running Gondor. By now Eowyn has learned something very important about herself: forced inactivity is Very Bad for her.
As a foreigner and a woman, it's doubtful she would be able to influence the Gondorian political life - so she turns to something else that requires persistance and energy, i.e. healing.
Of course, when they go off to colonize Ithilien, she's probably going to need both of her skills.