Hello! How about Eowyn for the 3x3?
Hell yeah, shield maiden time 💕
1. Éowyn has one of the quotes from LOTR that has stuck with me the most intensely over the years, in answer to the question of what she fears if not death. ‘A cage; to stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.’
To me it’s such a good succinctly articulated and evocative expression of life as a woman in a patriarchal system. One sentence that covers so much about the lack of autonomy and self-determination.
And I think the bulk of her story encapsulates and explores that in some really heart-breakingly astute ways. She’s being asked, constantly, to give, with no regard for what she wants, and is essentially expected to be grateful for it. She’s forced to shrink herself, to be obedient and palatable and no one notices that she’s silently suffering. And you see the way that over time that can just absolutely grind the hope and meaning and willpower out of you until nothing feels like it matters anymore.
(‘I am no man’ obviously also always slaps of course.)
2. I love that she’s ready to throw hands at a moment’s notice. Often in defense of those who aren’t taken seriously, but I like that there’s a sense that even beyond that she’s just down to fuck somebody’s shit up at all times. And I love that about her. She is so done with everyone’s bullshit.
3. As much as I find the end of her arc a little too close to an almost Taming of the Shrew, ‘saved from herself by the love of a good man’ type of trope, I do love that once she gets over her ‘Do I want to fuck Aragorn or do I want to BE Aragorn’ crush, the man she actually falls in love with is the biggest softboy nerd in Middle Earth — a total antithesis to the kind of masculinity that has been put on a pedestal her whole life.
Bonus fourth thing because this very quickly veers into headcanon territory, but I love whatever the fuck platonic bromance bff thing she has going on with Elfhelm (the one Rohirrim who pretty clearly knows who she is when she disguises herself as a Dernhelm) is, and I like to think the ride of the Rohirrim wasn’t Dernhelm’s first outing, that Éowyn and Elfhelm (and Maybe Háma too) have been sneaking out to get up to shenanigans together since they were kids, with Éowyn in the guise of Dernhelm.
1. This is maybe less strictly headcanon than expansion of actual canon, but I think she is just… the worst patient. I don’t think that was unique to the houses of healing and the context of the war, I think she’s just always like that.
2. I think she sneezes in fits and I think she hates it. (Faramir thinks it’s adorable.)
3. Okay, I know we do not know for sure that pipeweed is pipeweed, and Théoden professes ignorance of the habit of smoking it, but given that we also know that Saruman, who is not far away from Rohan, has a stash and it’s not unreasonable to think some of it might have gotten around to some of the Rohirrim, hear me out — stoned Éowyn sneezes.
1. Related to the idea that she’s a terrible patient I think solicitous, doting, slightly anxious husband Faramir vs stubborn, belligerent, hates to be confined to bed wife Eowyn is full of great potential.
2. Related to stoned sneezes and the idea that Éowyn, Elfhelm, and Háma are bffs — late night smoking sesh wherein they are all very giggly and Éowyn is having A Time of it.
3. Sneezing on horseback. Need I say more?
