#What else do you expect from Gríma?

[celeluwhenfics]

pHORSEuasion Chapter 3 - Wolf and Snake

pHORSEuasion: A retelling of Jane Austen's masterpiece set in JRR Tolkien's realm of the Horse-Lords, starring Éomer Éadig as Captain Wentworth!

Ready to hop on this wild ride? Start at Chapter 1!

Already caught up with the story? Chapter 3 is coming out today as part of @janeuary-month, for Day 16 and the prompt: "Gossip"!

As Rowena meets young family members and old enemies, they allude to past secrets much more frequenty than she would have wished.

‘Well, you should find a few passable dresses in there. None of them fit me anymore, not after two babies, and certainly never again after this one.’

The maids had brought large baskets of clothes and fabrics down from the attic. Wylfrun laid feet up on a chaise lounge, assailed by persistent heartburn and by her giggling, grasping son Lydric. The boy was a remarkable stout, forward child, of eighteen months. The remedy Rowena had administered to him against teething pains had worked wonders, putting an end to days of howls and fits. It had been more immediately successful than Wylfrun’s myrtleroot infusions, which for the time being left her as achy, queasy, and lightheaded as ever. With her son now in high spirits and ready to let all of the hill of Edoras appreciate the might of his small lungs through his excited shrieks, she could only lay and moan before the fire of the parlor.

Rowena had awoken early, roused by little Elfswitha, who could not contain her joy of having gained an attentive and patient aunt. She relished in the presence of an adult keen to partake in her games, as her papa Elfhelm was kept away or busy by the growing troubles in the Mark, and her old nursemaid Jemima was ever burdened with a bad back and too much to do in too little time.

Indeed, the two manservants who had long been employed by Elfhelm had been recently requisitioned to fill the ranks of a sorely depleted éored, and they had been too happy to leave the capital hill, where somber mood and constant discord spread amongst men. These circumstances had nearly doubled the charge of the three maids remaining in the general’s household. From dawn to late after dusk they struggled to keep the great Ufe-ród house in order, with an absent master, an indisposed mistress and two rollicking toddlers.

This did not keep Elfswitha from ordering them about with all the authority of a three and a half year old lady crowned with bright red pigtails. She now busied herself as her aunt’s helper in the patching up and refreshment of a dress somewhat suitable for the king's hall. She claimed ownership over the pin cushion, herded buttons across the floor, and babbled merrily through it all.

‘Oh, I wish Elfhelm were here…’ sighed Wylfrun as Lydric crawled and drooled over her. ‘Why do I always feel sicker when he’s away? I am so ill I can hardly speak. Elfswitha does not mind a word I say, and Lydric is growing quite as bad.’

‘I am sorry to find you unwell, and I too wish Lord Elfhelm were there. I am impatient to see him.’

‘He said his éored should not stay out long; but they have not been back, and now it has been four days.’

‘Didn’t last night’s couriers report them all, horses and men, safe and sound?’

‘Oh, I do not think I ever was so ill in my life as I have been since he left.’

‘Well, you will soon be better now. You know I can always cure you, and I brought all of Mama’s best remedies with me. And I am glad to see that you have come to tolerate Lord Elfhelm’s presence enough to miss him when duty calls him away.’

Wylfrun hummed. ‘I must admit that there are merits to being married to a man of respectability and large fortune...’

Rowena recalled the cries, groans and yelling matches that had agitated the family home four years earlier when her sister’s engagement with Elfhelm, almost fifteen years her elder, had been arranged. Trouble was already brewing in the Mark, and it had been a precipitated, lacklustre wedding. She was relieved to see that their father’s firm trust in the general of the riders of Edoras as one who could provide safety and domestic contentment to one of his daughters had been justified, after all. She was pulled out of her thoughts by the giggles of Elfswitha as she wrapped her stuffed horse in ribbons and fabric scraps in guise of a bridle and saddle.

‘Hey Wena,’ said Wylfrun suddenly, and half sitting up, ‘I just recalled, didn’t you have something going on with Éomer at some point? I hear he’s in town, aren’t you desperate for a comfortable standing of your own?’

Rowena felt the hair rise on her scalp and her ears burn in indignation.

‘Mama!’ called Elfswitha. ‘Mamaaa!’

‘Hey Wylf,’ said Rowena with feigned detachment, ‘it reminds me, didn't you have something going on with Gárulf at some point?’

Wylfrun opened wide eyes and remained speechless, despite Lydric slapping his little palms on her neck and chest with ear-splitting squeals.

‘Wena!’ erupted Elfswitha, ‘Gárulf he got a big hooorse! WENAAAAA! Gárulf he… Gárulf he got a BIIIIIIG HORSE!’

Continue reading on AO3!

Dividers by @quillofspirit

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

god help me i'm going insane about dickson xenoblade again

[morwensteelsheen]

@tinacharles replied to your post:

where would the kings of rohan essentially having to hold together the east and west fold fit in do you think? makes it seem even more precarious than gondor which despite the provinces etc feels a bit more centralized?

Yes!!!! I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately (and holy shit I am NOT a military historian so please forgive however many inaccuracies I'm about to include here, BUT…), and one of the things I’ve been wondering about is if this popular vision of Gondor as structured as a Western European feudal state is a little misleading. Insofar as I can see it now, the fanon take on Gondor’s governance is a little bit like England post-Magna Carta, which is to say it looks like this:

You have a King/Steward at the top, who is imbued with some element of divine justification for his rule. The land of the kingdom is his (in essence--and I mean that definitionally, the essence of the land is his), and is rented out to various other actors, namely...

The aristocracy beneath him. Though the land is technically the king’s and leased to them, in practicality the land (and the peasants attached to it!) is theirs, and because of that, they have an immense amount of power. The bigger and the more resource-rich the land, the more important and wealthier the lord who maintains it. The landed aristocrats (because it is possible to have non-landed aristocrats!) have enough power to effectively “check” the King—and a big part of that power comes from their ability to raise armies. As far as raising armies are concerned, they are led by the aristocrats who raise them, and those aristocrats are in turn loyal to the King (but can just as easily not be, hence the somewhat weakened power of the central authority).

Then you have the non-landed aristocrats, so these are mostly perfunctory titles given to make people feel good.

And lastly the soldiers, the peasantry, the urban poor, etc.

I think that that take is wrong for Gondor—if it’s not technically canonically wrong, then it’s certainly less interesting—but right for Rohan. Importantly, that level of inequity engendered between the power of the aristos and the power of the King would explain, for example, why Éomer (as heir to the Lordship of Aldburg, according to the UT) could be leveraged so effectively by Gríma as a threat to Théoden and Théodred’s power, and it would explain why (at least in part) all of Théoden’s family were so hesitant to do anything public with getting Gríma the fuck out: admitting the King had shown any weakness at all could be seriously risky business. Plus, as you point out, it fits in nicely with the Eastfold and Westfold pulling away from one another—different areas, different interests, and less overall allegiance to a central authority (and a weakened “national” narrative to boot) meaning the King himself really needs to have a vise grip on the regions to keep it all together.

The one place where this falls down somewhat is the decentrality of the army (sorry I'm just making up words every five seconds here lol)—we know Rohan’s army is at least somewhat centralised based on, well, every description of it that we get. We can account for it in this model by saying that while the army is centralised, the economics (grain production, taxation, etc.) are not, so the Kings are still fairly beholden to their vassal lords, AND, we can point to Folcwine having substantially reorganised the Éoherë and say that while he split it into roughly three-ish columns of riders, all he actually did was shift around the numbers for the regional lords to muster and institute an unlanded title (the Marshals of the Mark) to take up the task of administering the army, without substantially rebalancing power within the kingdom. So the bulk of the power to raise the Éoreds still rests with the regional lords, meaning keeping them happy and in line is a major part of the work of the king.

So that set-up works for Rohan, but not for Gondor. Gondor, I think, is probably best organised around [byzantine gondor klaxon] the Eastern Roman themata system. After the 600s-ish, the Byzantine Empire began to make more extensive use of a system put in place by Diocletian that is, as far as I can tell, basically a variation on the US Homestead Acts with a military component. It goes something like this:

Land is granted to soldiers (and it’s important here to note that they start as soldiers first, not farmers), to farm. The soldiers’ pay was docked for having the land, but the farming land was typically more valuable anyway, so it was a good deal. As long as the soldiers agreed that their descendants would continue to farm the land AND serve in the military, all was good. And this descendant stuff is important because it means even the people on the lowest rung of the power structure have some sort of emotional tie to the state—they grow up expecting to be part of it in some small way, and so generally feel a greater sense of allegiance to Gondor™ than, for example, in Rohan where they’re tied to the land that’s owned by, say, Lord Erkenbrand of the Deeping Coomb, who is broadly loyal to the Kings but could at any moment flip, leaving the peasantry functionally disconnected from the King and the Riddermark generally.

The theme system is also important because it means you don’t need to do conscription (which is kinda sucky and unpopular) and you have guarantees on both farmers and soldiers, which is an excellent way to occupy your able-bodied population pretty much round the clock, reducing both the likelihood of rebellions and maximising your population’s general efficiency—sounds to me sort of like what Faramir’s on about in Window on the West! It’s also great because it means you can settle conquered lands quickly and easily.

Above these farmer-soldiers in the power schema was something like a regional governor, who was in charge both civilly and militarily. This looks a lot like your classical Western European feudal lord, and is functionally pretty similar, except in that they don’t own ALL of the lands the peasants work, most of that actually belongs to the central authority and is leased directly to the peasantry. This sort of explains how Faramir can credit the expansion/maintenance of Gondor explicitly to the Stewards (“but the Stewards were wiser…” in TTT) instead of having to acknowledge the underling lords—and assuming he’s not just being a blowhard about it—because that leasing of the land would actually be the prerogative of the Steward (in the name of the King) and not the Lords of the Pinnath Gelin or the Prince of Dol Amroth or whoever.

Then there’s an ENORMOUS bureaucracy and administrative wing to the central state. Genuinely enormous, filled with lots of vanity titles (Warden of the Keys, anyone?) and basically helps to keep the administrative state running, reducing the amount of actual clerical work both the central authority and the outlying lords/governors have to do. This makes the bureaucracy quite powerful, but makes the central authority (King/Steward/whoever) even more powerful because he leads it.

Then there’s the interesting pseudo-democratic element inherited from the Roman Empire, which actually goes some of the way to explaining some of the subtext to my initial question about Faramir’s behaviour at the coronation; there's the remnants of the Senate, which technically elected the emperors of the Byzantine Empire (though had waning influence as the centuries wore on). A senate, obviously, is quite different to whatever the fuck it is that Faramir does, but that sort of popular approval for the king is nonetheless interesting and notable, and we can probably assume Tolks knew something of it when he was writing.

Sorry I wrote... way too much here, I am procrastinating v hard from work lol. Anyways yeah I think this is basically where I'm at vis a vis their relative governmental structures. I'm having a bit of a moment as well because Dante Alighieri has this whole take on the Empire and Catholicism, and I think that's actually probably influencing Tolkien somewhere along the line (and is definitely relevant, if nothing else, for how I think about the governments in LOTR), but I haven't had the brain energy to try to incorporate that yet lol

[dammitimagines]

Leads of Fate - Part Two

Éomer x Reader

Intro: The reader helps Éomer to get his horse back and they find out that they have a something more in common.

Word count: 1.375 (Part 2 of 3)

Warnings: none

Writer’s notes: English is not my main language, but i wanted to share this with you anyway. =) Hope you enjoy it!

Read Part One

Read Part Three

*****

Both wandered without saying a word. You were too worried to say something worse, and he was looking tense for somehow. You can see your wooden house by far, the sun is almost set, and you call your animals by the name as you walk among them until you get to the stables where there was water for his horse.

He noticed you were quiet for a bit, and says the first thing that came to his head “Uh, Nice place you got here...”

You smile a bit tense “Thank you, my father and I bought it some years ago, it was a devastated land, the house was falling apart.” you laugh as the memories returned to your head when you and your father had to sleep on the outside scared that the house would fall apart while you sleep.

“Your father was an honorable man, he had great respect for the land” he laughs as he say “He hit me so hard on the head every time I missed a throw with the spear he always said ‘the prey deserves a clean death, so, to miss the throw would be a dishonor to the animal’s life’, he believed no one deserves to suffer even our enemies” He noticed he was talking about death while you father had just passed away…. “I’m sorry, milady, not the best of the stories”

You smile knowing how dear your father was to him “Don’t be sorry, it was the only thing he loved anyway, the training, the battles, serving the King and his family… I never knew why he left Rohan if he loved there so much”

Éomer remembered that his tutor left the palace some time after his parents passed away and his uncle had a new advisor, he was banned the same way as he was days before he met you “I wish I could have listened to him sooner about my uncle’s advisor...”

“What do you mean?” you asked as it looks like an important deal

“He was expelled from Rohan the same way I was, for not agreeing with Gríma Wormtongue, the King’s advisor. I’m sure that bastard has something to do with the King’s son’s death as well...”

You look shocked for a bit “The King’s son is dead?” you ask, only now the idea of he being the heir of the throne hits you. Éomer doesn't seem like a man that would do something that bad to be banished from his own kingdom.

“If I ever hear that bastard touched my sister I...” he says with anger on his eyes, and for a moment he scared you.  “I’m sorry milady… I didn’t mean to yell, but I caught that bastard looking at my sister with lust on his eyes, I must assume that I almost killed the man for that”

“Is Éowyn safe there?” you ask concerned.

He remains silent, worried about his sister, but then smiled thinking of her stubborn attitude. “You know her… She knows how to take care of herself.”

You both didn’t notice as the sun went down while you talked. “Do you want to stay for the night? These woods are dangerous after the sun goes down. You and your friend here look tired of running” you pet his horse that finish drinking water and now was eating the hay by the stables.

“I don’t mean to bother you….”

“Please, stay.” You ask again without thinking of your words, but on the other hand, it would be nice to have someone to cook to after gathering all those roots and herbs during the day.  “I was just about to make dinner. I insist...”

“It would be an honor, milady” He closes the door of the stable where his horse was, and follow you inside the house.

“Please, make yourself comfortable” You say as you entered the house.

He take a look around, it is a small place, with a table and some old chairs around it. The small oven was on the same room as the table, there was no kitchen, and there are only two more doors that probably take to the bedrooms. He spots a portrait on the wall of your father and some horses paintings as well. “It’s like looking at a mirror to the past” he says nostalgically as he looks at the painting of your father. He walks by the living room he kept amazed by the horses on the wall “I wish I knew the artist… they look so happy and free”

“You’re talking to her...” You giggle as you clean the roots you gathered on a bow of water. “I���m glad someone else then my father liked them.”

“I did not know you also painted” He approaches the table where you’re cleaning the vegetables for dinner. He holds your hands by impulse and looks into your eyes enchanted by its unique color pattern. “If only I knew where you were before…” You both blush and he let go your hands “I mean… you’d surely be the main artist of Rohan’s Palace” he lower his head and his cheek looks as red as the pepper you were holding.

You smile at him, you can’t say if he was amazed by your work or by you. You couldn’t think of what to say to him after that “Oh where are my manners? There might be some old clothes on my father’s bedroom, if you want to put some comfortable pieces to sleep. Feel free to choose anything that suits you while I finish the dinner” you show your hands full of dirt of the roots, so you wouldn't be able to help him for a while. This would give you some time to think on his absence. You also offer him a bow of warm water for a simple bath. “It’s not a royalty bath, but it’s what I can offer by now”

“Thank you, milady” He gets the bow of water as you point the door of your father’s bedroom.

Almost half an hour goes by, you’re finishing your vegetables soup, he steps out of the door, with a dark green shirt that belonged to you father, it surely matches his eyes. His face was clean of the dirt and sweat from running in the woods before. It comes to your mind that he absolutely became the most gorgeous man you ever met. Without the heavy armour you could see his muscles under the shirt that was a bit small to fit him. You remain speechless as you look at him.

“I remembered him bigger” he smiles while opening his arms showing you the shirt.

“You were a kid…” you laugh and clean your hands on your own dress as you get closer, asking him to turn around. “I could remove the sleeves to fit you better” you say as you use a kitchen knife to remove the sewing of the sleeves, it was only for one day anyway, and it’s not like your father was going to wear it again. “The night isn’t that cold, and you can get any blanket as you feel like.”

“Isn’t it wrong to get his clothes like that…? I feel...”

You hold him by his arms and look him in the eyes “He’d be honored to see the man you became...” His arm’s skin was hot, and you could feel his muscles contracting as you got closer.

He bends closer to you and his face is so close to yours that you could feel his breath. Suddenly he gives you a soft kiss on the lips. He was afraid of what you would think of that. Even he didn’t know what he was doing, to kiss a girl he practically just met, where was his mind on? For his surprise you extend the kiss getting even closer to him. He wraps his arms around you, the kiss gets more passionate as if you knew each other for a long time and were expecting to do this for years. You both stop slowly, with raptly soft kisses on each other’s lips. You hear his stomach make a noise of hunger. You laugh, and caress his face “We should eat now, before the soup gets cold”. ***** Read Part One Read Part Three 

Thank you for reading

[alcyone2305]

Answer the following questions :3 | Frodo, Bilbo, Samwise, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf, Elrond, Arwen, Galadriel, Celeborn, Celebrían, Haldir, Éomer, Éowyn, Théoden, Gríma Wormtongue, Faramir, Denethor, Saruman, Sauron, Melkor, Shelob, Thror, Thráin, Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Óin, Glóin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur

Frodo: What is your deepest wound, anddo you still hurt from it?I don’t think I’ve ever had a wound you’dconsider deep enough to be called deep. And considering I can’t remember forsure, I doubt I’m still hurting.

Bilbo: When did taking a chance improveyour life?Just three months ago when I decided togo against my mother and prove I can withstand my life at university, my relationshipas well as everything else involving my private life. Ever since, I’m filledwith eagerness to finish my studies, more than I usually felt.

Samwise: Have you ever done somethingfor a friend that you would never have done on your own?For sure, though my brain is too tiredto remember such an event.

Merry: Who would you swear loyalty to,or to whom have you already done so?I don’t swear loyalty to anyone since I’m convinced everything will eventuallypass. So I don’t see the need to do so.

Pippin: Tell me about when you didsomething that no one thought you could do.I doubt people expected me to go upagainst my mother. I followed my heart.

Aragorn: What is your heritage? Do youembrace or reject it?Honestly, I couldn’t care less where Icome from. I’m interested in where I’m going instead.

Boromir: Did your father leave an impacton your life?My father left a lesser impact than mymother, but I still visit him whenever I need honest advice.

Gimli: Have you ever had an opinionabout someone that turned out to be completely wrong?I expected one of my fellow students tobe a snobby asshole, but he turned out to be just as much of a nerd as I am. Weeventually became friends.

Legolas: What has been your mostunlikely friendship, and did it last?See the question above. So far, it isstill lasting, though I barely have any intention on taking proper care of it.

Gandalf: Has your public appearance everchanged radically?The only radical changes I can come upwith are me going against my mother (and everyone being surprised/shocked) aswell as me making a name for myself at work.

Elrond: Do you have overprotectiverelatives, or do you fill that role?I rarely become actively overprotective –instead I glare from afar, but my mom used to be overprotective. When I turnedthirteen years, I still wasn’t allowed to take any public transportation on myown.

Arwen: Did you ever make a decision yourfamily didn’t agree with?Me deciding to go against my mother andfight for my relationship.

Galadriel: Would you consider yourselfwise?I connect “wise” to “having a lot ofexperienced” so no, I’m not wise.

Celeborn: Are you content with being theless-popular one in a relationship?I wouldn’t mind.

Celebrían: Have you ever done somethingthat took a turn for the worse that you weren’t prepared for?Absolutely, but again, my brain is tootired..

Haldir: Has your popularity ever changedunexpectedly because of something minor?Nope.

Éomer: What are the things you considerto be worth fighting the system for?The system exists for a reason, thoughwhenever the system becomes too stiff and leaves no freedom at all, you shouldgo against it.

Éowyn: Have you ever overcome prejudicein a significant way?Absolutely.

Théoden: When have you been wrong butrefused to see it?During my work as a teacher forstudents, I had a heated argument with a student who wanted some additionalpoints on her exam, but I was so stubborn, I refused to accept any explanation.I insisted her argument was bullshit when in fact, she was right.

Gríma Wormtongue: Do you sometimes makebad choices for selfish reasons?It depends on the situation, but I hopemy rationality takes over so I’m not selfish.

Faramir: Has someone ever been unfair toyou because they play favorites?Not that I remember.

Denethor: Do you sometimes seek outknowledge that might be dangerous?I doubt any knowledge I seek is dangerous.

Saruman: Do you want power?I want responsibility and structure.Does that count as power in particular..?

Sauron: What is your greatest weakness?Hard to tell, but I tend to be pissed atmy jealousy.

Melkor: Has greed or the desire formaterial goods ever backfired on you?No.

Shelob: Are you afraid of the dark?Not of the dark, but of what lingers inthere.

Thror: Do you value wealth?No.

Thráin: Do you consider yourself aselfish person?When it comes to emotions, yes.

Thorin: What have you lost that you wishto regain?Nothing in particular.

Balin: Are you older or younger thanmost of your friends?We’re actually the same age.

Dwalin: Do you have any hobbies?Astronomy, Mathematics, solving riddles,enjoying a cup of coffee, cuddling my cat.. Do those count as hobbies?

Fili: Do you have a good smile?I personally don’t think so, ask theother people who see me smile.

Kili: Have you ever suddenly beenconsidered attractive where before you were just sort of there?Yes.

Dori: Are you a musician?No.

Nori: Is it common for you to noticethings others have forgotten or missed?It really depends on what it is about.If it’s something I’m interested in, it’s more likely for me to remember.

Ori: Do you write or speak multiplelanguages fluently?English for sure.

Óin: Would you consider yourself asuperstitious person?No.

Glóin: Are you skilled at something mostwould consider unusual or esoteric nowadays?Mathematics..?

Bifur: What is your most interestinginjury, and how did it happen?That’d be me fracturing my nose when Iwas walking around the corner, slipped and crashed against the door frame.

Bofur: Do you consider yourself anoptimist or a pessimist?When it comes to me, a pessimist, but Iexpress optimism when it comes to others.

Bombur: What is your relationship withfood?It keeps mealive..?

[morwensteelsheen]

Can I hear more about the similarities between Eowyn and Denethor? I had never thought of it then you mentioned it and now I see it more and more....And does Faramir notice too?

Also, wrt Grima: He's obviously nothing like Faramir at all, but both of them are sort of wizard pawns being used to different ends. Does this ever cause Emotions for Eowyn? I know it's a pretty small thought but I like the parallel...

oh god, yeah, so, in short i think they are people who are fundamentally incapable of imagining their lives outside of war and self-sacrifice.

practically i think they’re both people who don’t justify their actions or their beliefs in terms of hope. they have both completely given up on hope — and well before everybody else around them gives up on hope, so they have to look elsewhere for a reason to continue living. and both of them look to duty. it’s a hopeless duty, they don’t necessarily think what they’re doing is going to make things Better or Save The World, but they know that they’re expected to do certain things, so they’re going to do it. whereas, I think, everybody around them is still clinging to this idea of hope until basically the end. for both denethor and éowyn, what breaks them is not the destruction of their hope, but the realisation that their duty is failing them at a spiritual and emotional level. for big D it’s the realisation that his duty has led him to sacrificing his son, and for éowyn it’s the realisation that her duty has led to her sacrificing her right to Exist As She Wants. either way, both of them sought to replace hope with duty, and both of them realised — too late — that it just wouldn’t do the job for them psychologically. and that was a brutal injury for them.

but also i think the instinct to go to emotional isolation — as you pointed out earlier — is important for both of them. neither of them are capable of fully hiding their misery (such is the extent of their misery), but neither of them make any attempts to reach out to others and seek communion/healing before reaching their breaking point. the level of intended emotional catharsis in éowyn riding to the pelennor and denethor building his pyre is basically the same for me, it’s just that éowyn’s is incidentally morally good whereas denethor’s is morally bad.

Also i think there’s the relationship to war that both of them have. Both of them use it to seek approval and justification for their existence, both of them find it ultimately lacking in that.

I don’t know if Faramir notices the similarities tbh. I think he probably does, that’s my gut instinct. but also i think my gut instinct with faramir is regularly wrong, so i’ll probably revise that take in a few days. anyways, the extent to which he’s willing to openly acknowledge it is an entirely different question. I think if anything he probably sees in Éowyn (in canonverse) the chance for life and happiness that his father never had — and the chance for reconciliation that he never sought. But I think he’s probably also defensive of his psychological autonomy enough that he’s like… nah, not opening that particular Pandora’s box lol. subconsciously though, I think he’s certainly recognising the chance for a happy and emotionally open family life and wanting to jump at that, which I don’t think you can divorce from his relationship to his father.

The Gríma thing!!!!!! I had never thought of that but I am YELLING mentally about it because it’s SUCH a brilliant point. I think if Éowyn is ever forced to confront it after she is committed to having a relationship with faramir she probably IMMEDIATELY shuts it down as a self-defence mechanism. but that’s as far as I can get on instinct wrt to that characterisation. Okay wow actually that is such a good point im gonna have to go away and think about that more.