#but as the hobbit movies showed

[spookyjarchivist]

literally dying over here that someone enjoyed my tags this much but i have realized that im not done here

btw it’s important to note that im using the books for my tolkien analysis bc jackson’s movies made eowyn’s storyline in particular a misogynistic late 90s/early 2000s “Girl Power” story as opposed to tolkien’s original surprisingly feminist narrative that, as my previous tags note, breaks down the gender binary without ignoring the biological necessities of the “time” insofar as middle earth having a recognizable time frame in terms of our reality, there’s also the low-key transphobic handling of dwarrowdam when gimli is talking to eowyn about about them

also ive never seen a bond film or read the books, i just know how famous their “bond girls” are for being prop prizes and damsels in distress

BUT let’s first talk about bond

The first Bond book was published in 1953 (a year before LotR in fact) and the first movie was released 1962. After WWII women were more interested than ever in working outside the home, though there had been strong steady movements on that front since the lates 1800s in terms of college education. The main difference is that middle class women wanted to enter the workforce in more traditionally men’s spaces. And they did. Including spy work (Here is an article I read on the topic. Warning, it is in fact thinly veiled marketing and recruitment propaganda for MI6, but it DOES include interesting history from first-hand accounts and talks a bit on the influence of James Bond on spy work in the UK). This influx of women in the workforce gives the James Bond stories absolutely zero excuses not to include women in their stories. Even if we go with the classic strong female lead that uses her femininity to her advantage, there are ways outside of the classic misogynistic honeypot trap (a strategy that the linked article notes is extremely ineffective).

Okay, we’ve established the lack of excuses for Bond. Let’s talk Tolkien.

Like I said previously, there’s just not a lot of excuses for Tolkien to bring in more women than he does. It’s a war story from the perspective of soldiers. His writing style restricts him to main points of the story, and he’s working in a perceived time frame where women were unlikely to be in positions of power due to traditional inheritance laws. On top of that the societies we’re talking about need to be careful about putting childbearing people in dangerous situations or else there will be no people.

We’re working with roughly middle ages level of healthcare (maybe 1800s for certain countries if we’re being VERY generous), so birthing is a hard and dangerous process that’s likely to kill people. Miscarriages, which can also be dangerous, are most likely going to happen fairly often as well. They’re still extremely common, so suffice to say there would be even more.

Keeping childbearing people out of military service is one of those things that, yeah isn’t all that great in terms of personal autonomy, but is explicitly necessary in terms of survival. We can’t even take the elves magical healing stuff into account because they’re not exactly going out into other kingdoms and if they did it would most likely be for royalty or at least nobility. The only thing the birthing process has going for it right now are the fact that they’re most likely using midwives to help with the actual labor. When medical care developed historically, involving doctors actually made the process more dangerous because they weren’t properly trained like midwives were and were unaware of stuff like germs. Hell, going to a midwifery is not a bad idea even now, just make sure it’s close to a hospital or works with one incase there’s an emergency (Here is a link to the Sawbones episode on birth, it’s a good overview and in my opinion is a great way to understand this particular issue when considering why and how we need to think about this particular biological function when world building in fantasy and historical or history-based fiction)

So we’ve established why there are so few women in LotR. Now let’s talk about how Tolkien actually addresses women narratively. It should be noted that I’m going to be pulling from two specific examples, mostly because of how salty I am about how Jackson handled them. Eowyn and dwarrowdams.

Before I go into depth on the women I actually have to touch on the men. Funnily enough, one of the things Jackson changed on purpose was giving pretty much all of the royal and nobility characters major character flaws they didn’t have previously in order to make them more relatable (or hate-able if you’re Denethor). This is actually Kinda Bad in terms of Tolkien’s themes because he uses royalty as a metaphor for ideal virtues and character traits. That’s not to say they’re perfect. They have weaknesses and many of his royalty characters fall to those weaknesses, but the ones we’re shown in LotR are expected to have learned from the mistakes of their forebears and even their own. They aren’t expected to be perfect, but they are expected to show a strength of character above other people because of their responsibilities. Aragorn in particular is held to an even higher standard because of his role as King of Gondor. He is, in essence, the ideal man, thematically speaking.

As stated in my previous tags, Tolkien uses Eowyn to further this narrative and twists that ideal man into an ideal person instead. He shuns the toxicity of violent masculinity and focuses instead on the valor of protection and healing, even though it’s an unseen one as opposed to the “glory” found in war. People will sometimes get upset that Eowyn becomes a healer in the end because they feel that it’s a traditionally feminine role that punishes her for her wanting fight as a man, but they’re missing that it’s only then that she actually fulfills the wish she’s had from the beginning to BE Aragorn. “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.” SHE is now the ideal man. The ideal person. Not only is Tolkien saying that traditionally feminine roles are just as important as traditionally masculine ones, but by making both Eowyn and Aragorn skilled fighters and healers he’s also saying that they are not inherently gendered either.

As for dwarrowdams, I know this seems like such a small thing when compared to how I went on about Eowyn, but it’s the thing that makes it all come together for me. We’ve established that Tolkien is recognizing the need for childbearing people to stay safe in times of war and the unfortunate necessities of the time that enforces a certain amount of lack of autonomy due to the dangers. We’ve also established that he recognizes the ability of women to still perform those “masculine” duties regardless. However, I believe the thing that cinches LotR as one of the most feminist works of our time (and certainly of Tolkien’s) is that when he talks of how the dwarves are only about a third women, he explicitly states that part of the reason their population growth is even slower than that would suggest is because they often simply choose not to have husbands. This is not framed as crazy or weird. It’s not demonized. It’s a simple fact that sometimes women just don’t want to marry and that’s okay. If even a “population struggle” doesn’t overwrite someone’s right to choose whether to marry or not, then certainly nothing else can. And this was written during a time when women were still heavily pressured and expected to get married and have children!

So of course LotR is more welcoming of women than James Bond. They’re allowed to be people with wants and desires. They’re not belittled for doing traditionally masculine things. They’re not arm candy or a prop. They’re not punished for not devoting themselves to a man. They’re just people.

the Lord of the Rings is a story about some guys. There are women in the story, but they are not for the most part the main characters. James Bond, likewise, is a story about guys where women are side characters. But the Lord of the Rings does not exclude women from the narrative or give the impression of a “boys club” in the way that James Bond does, despite the fact the James Bond has more women in it. The problem is not with how many women are represented, but whether women are welcome in the worldbuilding. There is no more issue with writing a story about a group of guys than a group of girls, both of which are groups it is okay to have. But the men in James Bond are a group because they are misogynist, whereas the fellowship is a group of guys because they like hanging out with each other, and when women show up they’re thrilled to hang out with them too. In this essay I will…

[galstelperion]

The strangest Tolkien fandom history rewrite I've seen lately from people who make hating the show their entire personality is this shift in pretending that The Hobbit films were just as lauded as the original trilogy.

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

I've seen plenty of bonkers criticisms of Rings of Power, but this is certainly the most baffling so far.

Tolkien was never about the elves?

Tolkien?!

J.R.R. Tolkien?!

The guy who wrote The Silmarillion?!

That Tolkien?!

[pilkypills]

older fili and kili, requested by @aimless-passerby

kili is bragging about his wife

[nellarw95]

Happy Birthday Benedict 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch

July 19,1976

Buon Compleanno 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

19 Luglio 1976

[velvet-games]

shipping jayvik out of spite now smh

[fantasydreamland]

Welcome to my little dreamland 🏰

This blog is 18+ only !!!

Here to share the fantasy worlds I love & write a little smut. There’s simply not enough wlw fanfics. I’m bi so I love to share all my fictional crushes 🤍

Thank you everyone for all the support so far! Y’all inspire me to keep writing 🖤 I had planned on only writing the ONE Margaery fic & now here we are lol

My stories:

GAME OF THRONES

Lonely Nights - Khaleesi 🤍🔥⭐️

Queen in the North - Sansa Stark 🤍🔥

Handmaiden - Margaery Tyrell 🤍🔥⭐️

Gossip - Margaery Tyrell 🔥 (sequel)

Secret Admirer - Margaery Tyrell

My Saviour - Jon Snow 🤍🔥⭐️

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

Unspoken Love - Rhaenyra x Alicent 🔥

Fun Wife - Aegon Targaryen 🤍🔥⭐️

Betrothed - Cregan Stark/Aemond Targaryen 🤍🔥⭐️

Mine - Aemond Targaryen 🔥 (sequel)

VIKINGS

Answered Prayers - Ragnar Lothbrok 🤍🔥

Touch of a Goddess - Ivar Ragnarsson (COMING)

VIKINGS VALHALLA

New Friend - Leif Eriksson 🤍

LORD OF THE RINGS

Angel - Arwen Evenstar (COMING)

Sorceress - Legolas Greenleaf (COMING)

🤍 = personal fav 🔥 = extra smut ⭐️ = popular

they all have a little fluff & smut

(always open to requests - any shows/movies listed in the hashtags - I don’t write modern)

🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇨🇦🇮🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇵🇱

[lesbianfakir]

Mytho fans id like to issue a formal apology. I realized I, too, know how it feels to have your special little guy mischaracterized and trampled over by his own damn media and now everyone hates him but YOU understand you understand him and they’re wrong they’re all wrong and also there’s this other guy everyone insists is better like it’s a competition and it’s really annoying and you just want everyone to see your pookie bear the way you see him. I understand. I’ve always understood. I am a better man now.

[fictionalfantasytraveler]

I haven’t read The Silmarillion yet but in Peter Jackson’s movies the elves can’t love, date, and remarry after their spouse dies but it seems like in Rings of Power they can? Galadriel falling for Adar’s and Sauron’s flirtation is the biggest example. Was the former something Peter came up with or is that actually canon?

[succubusdivinity]

Hmmmmmmmmmm..... I may have a type

[girlscience]

i am so goddamn tired of every single fantasy story being about men. i am so goddamn tired of women being side characters and love interests and set dressing and an afterthought. i am so goddamn tired of women who are powerful but feminine. women who are "dressed to kill" and they are wearing eyeliner and a dress and heels. i am so goddamn tired of women always being healers and having water magic. i am so goddamn tired of men going on adventures and dying nobly. i am so goddamn tired of never being able to find a story about women that i can fall in love with. i am so goddamn tired of all fandom being about men.

[anneangel]

Bilbo in the book tells all the dwarves that he has a "magic" ring. But he doesn't tell It to Gandalf.

Bilbo in the movie doesn't tell anyone he has a "magic" ring. Much less Gandalf, even after the wizard openly asked about it.

—

Gandalf: Do you had a problem with me, Bilbo?

Bilbo: well, I didn't want you to know about it, and thinking about it now, maybe the ring didn't want too. But for someone so shifty, you took a long time to arrive out about this.

Gandalf: but then how could LotR be a race against time and most dangerous, if it weren't like that? We have had many honorable trials of willpower and sagas of heroes for the bards to tell. And The king returned, so all's well that ends well.

Bilbo: So is this how you intend to justify all the time you took to find out about the Ring?

Gandalf: Even because, at the time, The Ring wasn't even my task.

Bilbo: It doesn’t look good for the book. We need a better excuse than that.

Gandalf: We just need to polish the plot better with some good old philosophical flourishes. So put something like this "everything happens at the time it has to happen".

Bilbo: Even because 'A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he mean to'.

Gandalf: Exactly. You got the rhythm of the idea, now remind Frodo of this!

#incorrect quote

[heyclickadee]

So, my family is rewatching Rings of Power, and since I’m the one in the family that read The Silmarillion (like a masochist), I’m the one who keeps getting asked all the questions.

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

I would think that the heroes encountering Barrow-wights that is no way relevant to the overall plot is something Tolkien would approve of since that's exactly what he did in Fellowship. Can't help but notice that those who go on the most about lore breaking are the ones who know nothing about the lore. They also seem to think because they sound the same lore is like law and must followed without question.

[redpanda-muffin]

The thrilling conclusion of my husband watching lotr for the first time

“I’m happy to have finally watched it with you, but I never want to watch them again. I would watch the hobbit again if you asked”

Honestly? What a man, am I right

On a side note he 100% shipped Frodo and Sam

Was thoroughly confused about the elves leaving and why Frodo and bilbo were going too

Made me realize that they absolutely do not explain any of that in the movies, so if you have no previous knowledge you’re just left thinking the elves are assholes?? Bizarre

[nellarw95]

Happy Birthday Hugo 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

April 4,1960

Buon Compleanno 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

4 Aprile 1960