: I am okay with a bigger role for Arwën, but not one as a heroine. That is simply out of context with the role of elvish women, how many of them played an active and offensive role? I can think of one; Luthien, and that is it (well there was Turgon's siter whose name eludes me for the moment). But Luthien had a very special mission ending in Eärendil's journey.
: I percieve the elvish women as playing a "victorian" or roman role in Tolkien's perception, while the shieldmaidens of germanic fame stands out among the edain and northmen.
: :-( Palle
Agree with you completely. Tolkien's idea of women's role in all this may not be 'politically correct', but it is still his book that's being made into a movie, isn't it? I'm afraid Eowyn was right in his quite bitter words to Aragorn ( *All your words man but that I am a woman and therefore have to sit at home.. and after all is over, women have the leave to be burned in the house for the men will not need it any more* - something like it), women in Tolkien's books have mainly the role of sitting at home waiting for their men to return - pretty chauvinistic, but isn't the whole fanatasy literature a bit to tthe macho side? Some exceptionally strong woman characters play a more active role occasionally, but having Arwen ride around slaughtering enemies lft and right would be totally out of tone, IMHO.Anyway, they will have Eowyn to handle the more active side. Besides, literally not being able to do more than just sit and wait if her hero would be returning to claim her- I wouldn't consider this an easy thing to do, either.
I believe that the question is just if the movie will be more or less true to the overall spirit of the book (squeezing the timeline a bit, for example, wouldn't be as bad as having a sword-wielding Arwen) or if it will just be a fantasy movie with no connection to the LOTR except the headline and a few character names.
Kadri