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[AJUMP23]

Sigh.....looks like this is gonna heavily focus on a slim teenaged girl beating up hardened bandits, elephants, and probably a dragon in there somewhere.

So while it may be an amusing fantasy tale, it AIN'T Tolkien because he knew how to make his women realistic in the context of their world. To even have a princess (or prince) who didn't understand that their JOB was to marry and secure alliances for the sake of the realm is just modernist bullshit. Wulf may not be "good enough" but to scoff at the very notion of an arranged marriage is cultural sabotage.

Still, the anime art gives it a bit of remove from LOTR and certainly battle chicks that are lucky to weigh more than 100 pounds soaking wet that can flit in, around, and over doofus brutes is well established in that genre, so it is what it is. I'm still in wonder of who they think the audience for this product is and why they would want this story told from this perspective.

Tolkien did have a woman and a Hobbit kill the king of the 9 riders.

 

[jason10mm]

Tolkien did have a woman and a Hobbit kill the king of the 9 riders.

Sure, but she was trained from birth and was given rule of Rohan in the kings absence, it's not like her uncle said "You know NOTHING of WAR!" to her as he rode off, tossing her the keys to the kingdom. He specifically picks her, with no reservations as to her gender, as his own son was dead and her brother he knew would come after him anyway. She snuck out as well and in the text her only fight was to behead the Witch-Kings beast, then she gets smacked by him, her arm broken, then Merry stabs him with his enchanted blade and Eowyn finishes him with a stab to the throat. She WAS a warrior, was treated as such, and given responsibilities according to her rank and training, she just shirked them to go campaigning.

It's the "we want it both ways" dichotomy of these modern tales, that women are somehow simultaneously oppressed yet also superior, that bugs me. If this Hera chick was a tomboy, was treated as such, and her dad had a more even handed approach than just being a boorish oaf setting up a "you go GURL!" moment, I wouldn't mind it. Or if this was just "DnD fantasy movie", but Tolkien spends TIME on his female characters of importance, he makes them fit into the world and, if not likable, at least understandable, noble in their way, and relatable.