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a-lover-of-cinema · 4 years ago

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Thank you so much for tagging me. It was very interesting to read your post. I like the thoughts you make about the characters and events in the film. And as I mentioned to you, Andromache is also my favorite female character! Amazing! ❤️

Women of Troy appreciation post

I realized i kinda started a small series of posts about this film because of my excitement about it and the big lack of content there is about it. I’m trying to make my small contributions to fill this gap. Since i already did one fangirling about the men i want to make other a bit more serious to talk about the female characters.

I have only three ladies to talk about here, the female characters were very few and in their story arcs they condensed the roles other women had in the original story. I understand a bit that, since they already had a three hours long film, they needed to cut some stuff. Even when i understand that, i would had liked to see at least a few more women. To be fair i think the character cut is not gendered, for example, the rest of the very extense list of brothers of Hector and Paris were cutted out in the same way of their sisters. We also don’t see a lot of important greek captains that are not mentioned, in the same way we don’t see other greek queens besides from Helen. I think it was an issue of lack of time for development of more characters.

For this post i will talk from the movie’s perspective and i will add some of my personal headcanons for this version. Since Troy is pretty much Wolfgang Petersen’s Iliad fanfiction i will ramble from that perspective. In the dvd extras he said he read the iliad in greek , what makes me think he basically created his own fanfict in this movie and,as flawled as it is, i’m here for it. The characters, the costumes, the locations, everything gives you an amazing scense of inmersion. In that spirit, i want to talk a bit about the trojan princesses.

I don’t own the images i will use.

Sorry for my terrible english

Helen

I had to start with her since she is the first woman we are introduced to in the film and she is the most famous female character of this story. I like the approach her story has, she is never blamed for the war.The film picks sides and a moral compass, the narrative is with the trojans and it assumes Priam’s morals. In the context of this adaptation is pretty much impossible to blame Helen. How could somebody blame her for wanting to scape from that husband? Even in the case of her not being sure of her love for Paris she saw a chance to scape and took it. She was a prisoner of a husband who didn’t cared for her, as she clearly states in the talk with Paris “ Before you came to Sparta, I was a ghost”. She was forced to marry a man who didn’t cared for her, she felt invisible and unimportant. Despite being the queen of the damn city, she felt worthless.

Having this in consideration i also believe that, in this approach, the reasons of why Helen could had fallen so fast for Paris are more understandable. He is not only a man that shows interest in her, Paris is such a non threating guy. I can imagine him as this womanizer who is used to win over all the ladies wherever he goes but, when he meet Helen, he fell so hard that he ended up as a dorky mess at least at first. I think he was very different from the sort of guy she used to see in Sparta. Being used to all the rough warriors there Paris is a literal dork in comparison and i think that’s exactly what she liked of him. The tenderness and softness of this non threating reckless dork absolutely head over hills for her.

Most of her story arc is setted by this romance, i would had liked to see more of her in the city once the war starts. Did the trojans blamed her for the war? Did they support their king’s choice of letting her stay? How was she like as a princess? Did she ever felt like a princess of Troy? She supported the people in any form? How did the rest of the trojan elite recieved her?

The only hints of interactions we see of her without Paris are with Priam and Hector. The closesness in which they always are makes me think she got close to Andromache as well. I would had loved to see how Briseis reacted to her. Was she upset with Paris for it? Did they got along? I can imagine her yelling at Paris when she found out, not upset with Helen but with him.

I love the friendship she has with Hector. We saw only a few interactions of them but i think they developed a frienship and it’s nice how he makes her feel part of the family once the fate of war is decided and there is no chance to avoid it. Priam seems to make efforts as well and i think that she eventually felt part of the family at least with them.

I would had loved to see at least one scene of actual interaction between Helen and Andromache. I picture them bonding over all the shit arround them and comforting each other but i would had liked to see if they actually got close as i imagine by the hints in the movie, how was their relationship like.

I would had wanted to see more of Helen’s relationship with the trojans and her story arc expanded besides from her love for Paris and the role it had in the war. Besides from that i love and enjoy her character, i empathize with her and i would protect her against anyone who could dare to blame her for the war.

Briseis

Storywise speaking she is a mix of story arcs from different women of the original. She assumes the roles of the original Briseis, Chryseis,Cassandra,Polyena and (at the end) Clytemnestra. Despite this fact I have to say I love this girl. From when I watched the movie for the first time as a child I remember how much I used to love the scene where she is taken to Agamemnon and, while Achilles tries to defend her, she calls everyone out on their bullshit even when her own safety is at risk. Briseis is so unapologetically herself, even in the worst possible context, and I love that.

We already see something similar in her meeting with Achilles. Let’s think about it for a second, she is there as a captive, her freedom was taken away and all she knows is that she is going to be a slave owned by the most fierce greek warrior in the entire army. Instead of being terrified she confronts him,she raises her voice at him like it’s nothing. Briseis is so used to speak her mind that she does it without hesitation.

Right after, she stops Achilles from fighting Agamemnon’s men because she doesn’t want to see another bloodbath. To me it’s such a powerful moment because, if we remember that to every man in that room she is nothing but a slave, that action is so fucking brave and awesome. The first time i saw it i was shocked, Briseis calling them out was super badass to me. Also, whatching her killing Agamemnon at the end is so satisfying.

Since her backstory is not detailed much i have a few headcanons.i can mention. Her parents are not there, i can imagine her growing up raised by her uncle and being very close with her cousins. I would had liked to see more of her relationship with her family but, since her part of the story gets a startpoint with her capture, we didn’t had much time to see her in Troy.

Some interaction between her, Helen and Andromache before or after her time as captive would had been great to see, specially because this three women are awesome and it sucks to never have time to see them interacting. I can see Helen and Briseis having at least a small bonding moment after she comes back. I can imagine her being the bridge between Briseis and Andromache after Hector’s death. Briseis must had feel so terrible and guilty. The man she fell in love with killed her cousin.Andromache’s husband. I think she would have a hard time in procesing her own grief but at the same time she would find hard to approach Andromache because of how guilty she feels for what happened. In that context, Helen would help her to get close to her again. At the same time, nothing is mentioned on how people reacted to her return. What if her reputation got questioned? Rumours about her and Achilles affected her life there? I can imagine that, in the case of her getting questioned or judged by some people, Helen would had encouraged her.

Other character i would had wished to see her interacting more with is Patroclus. I think the would get along very well considering that both are morally calling out Achilles all the time. He is such a sweet boy, his presence could had been comforting to her. That would make everything more tragic. if she cares for Hector but also for Patroclus then the war upon them would had made her witness how her cousin killed her friend, then the man she loves killed her cousin and got killed by her youngest cousin afterwards. I can see Patroclus and Briseis being friendly to each other and maybe being friends. It hurts like fuck to think about it but it is something that could had been.

Andromache

My favourite female character in this film. Andromache is the best, I love her so much. She is such an empowering character despite being the most traditional woman on this list. Actually that is something I love, she is a traditional mother and wife character and a strong female character as well, a proof that one doesn’t exclude the other. Just by seeing how her husband asks for her advice all the time you can think that, if Hector would have been crowned king after Priam, this lady would have been the actual ruler of Troy. She is so clever, an amazing strategist Hector himself is impressed by. When he says to her that she would be a good general you can see it’s totally true. She’s amazing, more clever than lots of trojan noblemen in Priam’s council.

All the family moments between Hector, Andromache and their son warm my heart. They are such a cute family. Hector and Andromache are perfect for each other. In this version I headcanon them being friends or knowing each other long before marrying, Andromache as the woman Hector always knew he wanted to marry and when he finally does he feels like the happiest man alive. That’s the vibe they give me, a couple that has been in love for a very long time and they know each other better than anyone else. Hector is the best husband ever, so loyal and loving to his wife. They are a lovely couple.

I had already described a few of the interactions I would have liked to see between her and other characters. As I said, I can see her getting close to Helen, bonding and becoming friends and I would have loved to see that explored. Since Clytemnestra is not in this version we don’t know if Helen had any siblings and I imagine Andromache adopting a sort of older sister role to Helen, even without realizing it directly and more towards acts than words. As we see in hints of the few city scenes they must have spent a lot of time together and, since Andromache has the same caring nature of her husband, I can imagine her ending up caring for her more than what she may had expected at first. Regarding her relationship with Briseis and what i said before i think she didn’t blame her for what happened, Briseis felt guilty about it and may have tried to avoid her because of that guilt for a while until Helen helped them to get close again.

My biggest complaint to the movie in terms of this character is that I would have appreciated to see more of her interacting with the other women. Also, more of her clever badass self involved in the war like from a tactics perspective or something. Honestly, Andromache should had been in the council of Priam. She and Hector would had been awesome calling out that old priest giving always the wrong advice. Also, i can totally see her leading the group of trojan survivors we see at the end in the director’s cut.

This is all for now, i hope you enjoyed this very long post and my headcanons for this awesome women in the universe of this movie. If you want to add more i’m always open to discussion.

Thanks for reading this long ramble

@hrisity12 I tag you since you already told me you are interested in this post.

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