#i headcanon that even though there's peace after the war faramir and eowyn would still teach elboron how to defend himself

[anghraine]

For the shipping ask game: Faramir and Eowyn

I don't mono-ship it like Elizabeth/Darcy, but I do ship it a lot!

1- What made you ship it?

It is about 70% the beautiful writing of their romance in the book to 30% my love for them individually and being delighted at the concept of putting them together and letting them find happiness that way after lives of such grinding hopelessness.

2- What are your favorite things about this ship?

I really like that, as contracted as their romantic narrative is (and I do wish there was more of it, pacing be damned), Tolkien takes care to establish that they're friends. They like each other as people!

I don't think Éowyn really saw Aragorn as her friend in that way—he was too glamorous in her eyes for that. She didn't truly know him. But though the overall course of her relationship with Faramir is so fast, I think she does know and care about him for his own sake and not only for what he brings to her.

Even when she thinks she doesn't return his feelings, she's quite gentle about it in a way that's pretty unusual for her. And though Faramir always has a strain of gentleness in his character, I think a lot of his sternness (though not strength) falls away with her as they become close.

I also think there's something very adorable and characteristic about their physical impressions of each other, lol. Faramir is like ... wow, she's prettier than flowers, and the women of my own people, and I'm sorry she's sad like me. Maybe we could spend some time together. And Éowyn is like, damn, he is tall, and could kick the ass of almost everyone I know. He's nice about it, but what if I seem silly and immature to him?

<3

3- Is there an unpopular opinion you have on this ship?

I think they're happy, but it's complicated by political necessity—not in the sense of them being at odds politically, but of them being in separate places for substantial lengths of time. I think this would especially be the case in the earlier years, when Aragorn is often at war; Tolkien described one of Faramir's responsibilities as hereditary Steward as "representative of the king during his absence abroad" and another as "chief counsellor" of Aragorn's council.

Ithilien, meanwhile, is in a vulnerable position with a lot of work needed to keep it safe and functional, and my headcanon is that while they do work together, there are plenty of times when it's Éowyn doing a lot of the day-to-day work of holding things together in Ithilien while Faramir is first and foremost the Steward of Gondor. Arguably, she's more Prince of Ithilien than he is.

And much later, of course, they're separated for a pretty long while by her death. :( I don't think she gets Éomer's lifespan and Faramir would still outlive her considerably if she did.

Oh, also, I like their arcs overall, but I do agree with some of the critiques of Éowyn's part in the treatment of war. It's not that she should have stayed a warrior because she's a badass blahblah (this makes zero sense in the context of LOTR), but that the totality of her rejection of her previous way of life is not fully prepared for structurally, and Tolkien's ideology of peace > war etc seems far more integral to her character's resolution than any human man's, including Faramir's.

Théoden and Éomer are glorified as warriors, and Faramir's prowess is emphasized even though he doesn't like it (and Tolkien seems to have imagined he'd continue to act as a military leader and be the one clearing out Ithilien). But abandonment of fighting is built into Éowyn's arc beyond any character's but Frodo's (and he was never a warrior anyway). Her interest in the specific future she chooses with Faramir is not much prepared for in terms of writing. And this whole part of her arc is compressed into one small part of one chapter. So, yeah, the defenses of how this aspect of their romance is executed do ring a bit hollow to me.

[anghraine]

faramir/eowyn, 29 and 30? :)

29) One headcanon about this OTP that breaks your heart?

Éowyn had a perfectly typical lifespan for a woman of the Rohirrim, and Faramir (despite being some twelve years older) survived her by decades. 

On top of that, Faramir’s role as prime minister/royal advisor as well as regent during Aragorn’s wars (which would have lasted for the entirety of Éowyn’s lifetime) makes his removal to Emyn Arnen mostly a pleasant fiction, at least after the first few years of stabilization. In his capacity as chief counsellor to the king/ranking member of the restored Great Council, Faramir spends the bulk of his time in Minas Tirith, and even more when he’s serving as regent. With Éowyn in Ithilien, they spend much of their married lives separated—though by a short geographical distance—and while they’re always very much in love, the difference in aging patterns only underscores the separation.

30) One headcanon about this OTP that mends it?

Okay, one of the complicating factors in the immense importance of the role of Steward (under a king, I mean—the prime ministership it evolved into by Húrin’s time) is that it’s clearly a pretty full-time job. Especially if there’s anthing extraordinary going on to put more responsibility on the Steward, like, say, serving a fierce warrior-king who personally leads his armies through decades of war. 

And Tolkien emphasized that being prince of Ithilien was also a pretty full-time job, since Ithilien is the eastern march of Gondor against Mordor + contains a focus of evil magic in Minas Morgul + has to be rebuilt from the ground up + was completely depopulated. 

Since I’m not one of the people who buys that Éowyn’s swerve at the end is just about the superiority of peace in Tolkien’s worldview (somehow that logic doesn’t extend to the glorification of male warriors) and we know that Faramir dislikes warfare, I choose to headcanon that Éowyn is the functional prince of Ithilien. Instead of uncritically elevating war, though, Éowyn as Lady of Ithilien is a healer and a leader, a builder and a warrior at need. It’s about the defense of her people and her land—but her skills aren’t thrown away. 

(My headcanon is that this is why the hobbits think of the princely seat in Ithilien as Éowyn’s.)

I mean, it doesn’t make the OTP sadness any less sad, but it makes me happy in its own way. I imagine the White Company cautious about dealing with Éowyn rather than Faramir, but quickly coming to respect and admire her, and Éowyn herself unsure about the Silvan colony but developing friendships with the Elves, and overall becoming this really remarkable virago figure in Gondor (which doesn’t seem to have anything like them in general). She gets the status and independence she longed for, and something that really uses her abilities and her virtues. 

I think Faramir is much better off as a statesman than a marchwarden-warrior, too. So while it’s still sad on the ship front, it’s satisfying for me.