Once again, I shall refrain from writing my post solely about Pratchett. Mostly because I’m in the middle of a really good series of his and I’d like to finish the entirety of Witches before I write a review, but also because I can’t be that redundant without seeming hyperfixated (I am, but I’d like not to SEEM like it). Instead, I’ll talk about my favorite character in my other well known obsession – Eowyn from Lord of the Rings. She is so often mischaracterzed as the trope of “Girl in love triangle”, even by die-hard fans. Well, I love her with my heart and soul, and Miranda Otto is amazing, so here’s my 2 cents:
Spoilers for Lord of the Rings. Mostly ROTK, but really all, considering it includes Aragorn.
Eowyn, having spent her whole life as a woman in a country where they are more constrained, wants so desperately to be who she can at her fullest potential. When Theoden King is put under the curse of Wormtongue/Saruman, this position of caretaker and ‘traditional woman’ is doubly enforced. She sees Aragorn, and very clearly enjoys his attention if nothing else. She sees him as the savior of her uncle, and by proxy her. In both book and movie, this extends on the implications of this to be a crush. When she is told she must fulfill her duty by Aragorn, instead of finding her own freedom, she is crushed. Not only did he free her uncle Theoden, but he is freeing Middle Earth of the scourge that brought such ruin on Rohan in the first place: Sauron. To be denied her chance at heroic deeds by the man that, to her, embodies the concept of freedom itself is heart-wrenching. So, she follows him anyway.
Dressing like a man Mulan-style and going as the code name Durnhelm so that she could go to war and fight, she got to see war. She got to see her own ideals of freedom in true fashion. She thought she loved Aragorn, and that to her was simply another reason to fight. When the war was over and she was recovering from her fight with the Nazgûl, she realized that she didn’t truly love Aragorn, she loved the IDEA of him. The idea that he was the perfect fighter and could bring that to her, that he was the bringer of war. She wanted that glory, that fame, not him. As she realized war was not glorious, that it was only pain and destruction, she fell out of love with Aragorn. She fell in love with Faramir because he was representative of all the good in the world – enjoying music and love over things like war and death. True freedom. He was representative of her realizing that war is not her key to freedom, that war only takes away every freedom there could be. His love being proclaimed in the halls of healing, while she recovers from her wounds, only propagates this fact. She has seen war. Not only that, she is the slayer of the witch-king. She is a good fighter, her newfound disdain for it cannot be written off as her realizing she isn’t good enough. It’s her realizing no one is above death, and therefore one must instead choose life. Life can only be for the living, anyhow.
Can you tell I’m anti-war,
– Elanor S.
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