#me writing merrywyn meta in the year of our lord 2024??

[spectraling]

"My Lady, you are fair and brave and have much to live for... and many who love you."

So this line, huh.

Prime shipping material beloved by many a Merrywyn shipper. But there's a reason for that!

This line and scene in general reads as romantic tension to some and it's not (necessarily) because of the wish to push some kind of shipping agenda, but because this line is actually not Merry's to say originally, but Faramir's - Éowyn's canon love interest. It's been rewritten to make sense for Merry to say, but it's basically a summation of the conversations she has with Faramir in the Houses of Healing in the books.

The movies kind of just gloss over a lot of Éowyn's arc of healing from despair so her being so defeated comes a little out of left field in this scene. It's left in here because of what the writers are trying to get at. They're trying to emulate her scenes with Faramir in the Houses of Healing where she's overcome with despair and Faramir tries to coax her out of it by telling her how great she is and how much he loves her. Éowyn, bereft of her glorious death in battle and forced to linger on, slowly realizes that life may be bearable after all and that things like love, acknowledgement and agency might be possible for her and preferable to death.

Since they almost completely cut that part from the movies (rip), the only window to put this character development and resolution of Éowyn's arc, albeit brief and kind of backwards, is to have Merry evoke this feeling of "You are an incredible and beloved person, maybe life isn't so bad after all, maybe it's possible to love and be loved".

But he's also tying it to his own feeling of hopelessness, of being caged in his own body and his desire to be one of those mighty warriors, to do great deeds so that he can make a difference in a world that has long forgotten him, something that Éowyn herself has expressed and relates strongly to. This is the second point of this scene: to let the audience in on Merry's POV. It's almost completely missing in these particular parts of the movies that originally were all about Merry's own arc of overcoming despair and loneliness. They're both getting a tiny little sliver of what their book selves are going through at various points.

Anyway, so now you've kind of... Taken the romantic aspect of her relationship with Faramir and merged it with the woes Merry (and herself) goes through and you have. Well. Created some very compelling comradery, but also misplaced romantic tension between these two.

Because it's not one-sided. Éowyn responds to this. She is deeply moved. Her face grows soft, teary, almost reverent at Merry's words.

A horn blows suddenly to rouse the riders and she's not even phased, she's too caught up in this feeling that Merry stirred in her. "Then the heart of Éowyn changed", etc. etc., because this is mirroring that change which opens up her heart to be able to fall in love with Faramir, but now she's looking at Merry instead. A lot of people like to focus on Merry's all but love confession (including myself I guess by bringing it up), but have you seen the way this woman looks at this hobbit. Whatever is going on here, it is reciprocated. Most ardently.

I cannot explain the direction choice to have Merry blush and look away after uttering the words "...and there are many who love you", however. He's projecting so hard he might as well have flung himself into the sun that weirdly happens to be out and shining brightly. That hobbit was on the cusp of saying "and I love you", but chickened out at the last second. It makes sense though, it's the original conclusion of the statement, but for obvious reasons Merry can't say that and now he's just looking like he's afraid he's said too much.

This is why that scene is responsible for a Merrywyn shipper or two. And it's just. So funny. Incredible. The writers (and a lot of the audience) didn't even realize that they chose violence or that anyone would think twice about the implications. Merry, being a hobbit, is not a threat to the natural order of things I suppose, and so it's fine to transfer this expression of romantic love onto him, which is quite telling in and of itself.