Sometimes Creation Is Just Trying To Impress

book!Faramir vs movie!Faramir

So book!Faramir will look at movie!Faramir and do that whole "I'm you but stronger thing" but then add he's stronger than most people because the guy's exceptional and he knows it, and he will praise movie!Faramir's resilience in overcoming the Ring regardless and say he's proud of him and movie!Faramir will be gracious in regards to his faults and thankful for the recognition of his own strength and then they'll get talking about the impact of the parenting styles of book!Denethor and movie!Denethor on their own characters and get into a friendly debate as to the true meaning of self and freewill, because book!Faramir and movie!Faramir are both lovely, intelligent people and utter nerds and all conversations will end up being about Eowyn anyway.

happy mother’s day to THE mom of all time <33

Faramir and Eowyn <3

a lot of people on tumblr and Ao3 seem to think Christianity (mainly Catholicism) is just a cool and sexy esthetic narrative force to make your characters guilty and repressed and I'm just like...

hey what about the grace? the grace of God? the grace God gave specifically so we wouldn't need to be guilty and repressed? God's grace? that grace? do they have that grace?

The Differences Between Hera and Eowyn

Just thinking about these two shieldmaidens, and the stark differences between them.

I think a big one is that Eowyn is a romantic, whereas Hera has no wish to marry.

Meanwhile Eowyn hungers for battle and glory, and Hera, although willing to fight, does not desire it.

Hera seems to have grown up in a time of peace, or at least her childhood seems to have been peaceful. Although she lost her mother, she was too young to remember her, she had a father, two brothers, a cousin and a motherly figure. She had constant love, affection and security. However, Helm seems to have been protective of her, so freedom was her greatest desire.

Eowyn's mother and father died at an age for her to be devastated at their loss. She then lost her uncle, her father figure, as he succumbed to Grima's enchantments, and her brother and cousin regularly left her behind. Her life was marked with violence and loss.

Meduseld was a cage, but the only people close to her leaving Meduseld were soldiers riding to battle. Freedom meant battle, because battle was what went on beyond the walls of Meduseld. Battle also meant a place in the histories, a chance to be remembered. Battle was where her brother and cousin went when they left her behind. Battle was the opposite of the dry nursing role she was ill suited for, yet had thrust upon her.

Eowyn yearned for battle. She yearned for love. To ride to battle, to be loved, to be remembered, would ease her grief over being left behind, abandoned by those around her. Her infatuation for Aragorn was wrapped up in her admiration a soldier has for a captain. Romantic desire and desire for battle were intertwined.

Both of them were royal shieldmaidens who chafed under the expectations of their sex, and showed great courage in times of crisis, but the similarities begin and end there. Hera, we see, was playful, young, naïve, clever but sheltered, until the events of the film forced her to grow up. Hers was a coming of age story.

Eowyn was cold, despairing, bitter and angry. The events of the movie and the books see her regain the capacity for hope that was taken from her.

Presenting their majesties Attolis Eugenides and Attolia Irene, featuring Gen's hook, Irene's earrings, and color coordinated outfits.

The Lord of the Rings is so full of goodness. It's good on a literary quality level, but it's also just crammed full of good things written by a guy who understands goodness. It's good on a literary level, good on a moral level, good in its appreciation of so many different kinds of good things. You've got the vastness of ancient myths and the homely coziness of small towns and casual heroism from the most ordinary people. It knows a hot bath is good, an ancient legend is good, giving up everything and everyone you've known in a desperate attempt to save the world is good. So many different layers of what good is, and it understands and appreciates all of them. Very few books are to-the-core Good the way that this one is.

As a rebuff to the “Harry Potter is a himbo running on adrenaline and dumb luck” take: the difference between how Hermione is smart and how Harry is smart is similar to the difference between how Sticky is smart and how Reynie is smart in the Mysterious Benedict Society (a great series that I highly recommend for its wonderful representation of different kinds of intelligence): one utilizes pure information and memorization, the other utilizes mental flexibility and deduction. Both are equally valid, albeit different, forms of intelligence.

To illustrate further: at the beginning of the Mysterious Benedict Society, Sticky aces a test because he had all the information on the test memorized. Reynie aces that same test by figuring out that the answers to each question were hidden in the other questions on the test.

worlds slowest fanfic author tries really really hard