#i am No Book Scholar mind you i just cry about the films 24/7

[novantinuum]

there's an essay in my head somewhere about how arwen isn't AT ALL a boring and meaningless woman in the wider lotr film narrative (bc i feel so many unfairly compare her to éowyn simply bc one is a woman who gets to actively fight on the battlefield and one is a woman who... if you're only looking on the surface... doesn't have an ACTIVE role in the physical battles) and that actually her story and the role she serves is PIVOTAL to the survival of middle earth

this all stems deeply around the concept of connections and people's (and kingdom's) bonds with others being what ultimately saves them

and it's isolation and paranoia and distrust and hopelessness and inaction that are the enemy's tools

and in my mind the biggest ripple arwen creates... is that she refuses to follow suit with the inaction of the rest of her people and simply leave the denizens of middle earth to suffer and die under this wave of darkness. she refuses, because she- unlike many of the elves- actually has formed a deep connection with one of these mortals. it's dangerous for her to stay- it's perhaps even futile. but she has her connections, and she has hope in those she loves, and it's that very love that convinces her to fall back and to urge her father to reforge the shards of narsil into a new blade for the rightful king of gondor to wield. and it's that very reforged sword that is what turns the tides of the war in man's favor when aragorn convinces the dead of dunharrow to fight by his side in the siege of minas tirith

you see these kinds of ripples literally everywhere in this story and it's just. gosh. that's literally the point of all of it, huh? little moments of rebellion, little moments where singular people say "no, it simply Cannot happen this way" and because they stand up for what they believe is the right thing to do, someone else does... and then that impacts another person, and another, and then another, and- and suddenly, in the greater context of the tale, one woman's quiet decision to not leave this world forever, to stay in support of the one she loves, is one of the most powerful decisions made towards the story's outcome entirely.

#jen rambles #i am No Book Scholar mind you i just cry about the films 24/7 #lotr