#but lets not act like he was some kind of antiprogressive who thought Women Should Be In The Kitchen Ad Raising Babies

[wizardnaturalist]

I hate readings of eowyn that are "of course the only woman interested in battle and glory decides she actually just wants to be a wife at the end of the story 🙄" bcs congrats, you have spectacularly missed the point!

yeah, eowyn decides she no longer wants to be a warrior at the end of the series, but that is the overarching theme of Literally The Entire Story. lord of the rings is not, and has never been, about epic battles and great fighters and glory through combat. war is continuously framed as a horrifying consequence of the greed and selfishness of powerful people that ruins the lives of everyone involved

aragorn is not accepted as king of gondor because he won the battle of pelennor fields, he is accepted because of his skill and care in healing the wounded afterward. boromir's desire to use the ring as a weapon is what allowed it to corrupt him so easily, despite his noble intentions.

and yes, eowyn wanted to fight. she got to see firsthand the "glory" she sought. she got to see her uncle die in her arms, and herself and her best friend greviously injured and almost killed themselves. the whole point is that there was no glory. there was no great triumph on the battlefield. there was only struggle and horror and death.

and how could you see eowyn best one of sauron's top minions, someone even gandalf feared, and think the ultimate message was "obviously she belongs in the Home :)"