Ok I know this has been said before and more eloquently than I can rn (it's past midnight and I should be sleeping)
But the older I get, the more important it becomes to me that Eowyn is in a really dark place mentally when we first meet her in the book. That she rides to war out of suicidality, to get herself killed in battle. And that she heals, finds the will to live, finds the desire to heal things and make things beautiful rather than attempting to give her life meaning through dying a "glorious" violent death in battle.
I think when I was 12-ish and first read the book (or had it read to me as a bedtime story, rather, but same difference), I liked her because "oh look cool girl warrior character who doesn't do what she's told and defeats the monstrous evil bad guy no one else could kill!" And that is. that's fair, honestly. I was 12. I don't think I would want my 12-year-old self to have fully grasped the implications of Eowyn's actions, to have really understood that underlying despair and suicidality. I liked cool warrior girl heroes (I still do, honestly). And Eowyn does do amazing things, she is a hero, she does fulfill the prophecy and kill the Witch King, and it is cool, I'm not saying it isn't.
But like. Living in this world, reading the news, a lot of times I end up feeling just this utter despair and horror and helplessness at the bad things happening. And because of that, I really do end up feeling it when I look at Eowyn and see her despair, see how she's trying to die in battle because she doesn't want to go on living like that anymore and because she thinks her death in battle would make more difference and be more meaningful than her going on living.
And it's just so important to me that then at the end of the story, she's able to look at where she is and who she is and look at the world and go "no, actually, I want to live. I've had enough of death, I want to heal things, I want to make other people and other things also live". That she's able to want that, and believe that she is able to achieve that, that her life can have a purpose and meaning beyond a death worth telling a story about, and that that's something she wants to do, wants to work towards. It is just so important to me
Like, LOTR is in so many ways a story about hope and despair, it's present in damn near every character we meet in some way. And maybe it's just because I imprinted on Eowyn as a kid that her story in particular and her being able to overcome the despair and be hopeful about life again is so important to me but like. Fuck. The more horrible things I see happening everywhere in the world all around me, the more important Eowyn's story and her being able to find peace and healing becomes to me
