[Kalimac]

Sorry, Lush, but it's a bit too late for that... [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img].

The whole controversy has me rather confused, to be honest. I'd never thought anything *other* than that Aragorn found Eowyn attractive - she is described as being fairly pretty and of course, having skills and brains didn't hurt either. The "fair and cold" description certainly does imply that. But Aragorn is hardly alone in this assessment of Eowyn - as we know, Wormtongue is also among her fans, and it's not unreasonable to suppose that other guys have given her the glad eye on occasion without falling in love with her (I refuse to believe that Wormtongue felt anything other than the most physical emotions for her - he just isn't about altruistic emotions). And there's no reason to suppose he didn't feel friendly towards her, even if he didn't feel terribly tempted. The impression that the book leaves with me - and all this is open to interpretation, of course - is that when Aragorn left Eowyn at home and refused to let her accompany him, he was more concerned for her than for himself. He plainly twigged very quickly to the fact that she had an all-consuming crush on him; the description of her watching him leave, how she stops when he comes close to her - he would have had to be blind not to notice that while he found her pleasantly attractive (if not someone he wanted to pursue) she was far more focused on him.

As for the "triangle" element - well, that's what the situation was in the book, since a triangle does not necessarily need the approval of all the participants in order to exist. Eowyn loves Aragorn (or thinks she loves him, which is just as painful), Arwen loves Aragorn, Aragorn loves Arwen but feels friendly towards Eowyn - nice girl, fellow-warrior and all that sort of thing. There are three people tangled up here, like it or not, and putting them all on the poster seems appropriate enough to me. As for the fear that Jackson might show Aragorn yielding to temptation and "having a relationship" with Eowyn - I doubt it; they'd have to change too many things needlessly. I think people have been overreacting to the scenes from the previews which show Aragorn sparring with Eowyn and so forth - but there's nothing there that can't be explained his feeling friendly towards her, in an older-brother sort of way. (After all, there was that scene with Boromir teaching Merry and Pippin to use their swords in LOTR, and nobody's saying that scene was implicitly romantic [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]).

And besides, having Aragorn love-and-leave Eowyn would REALLY darken the ending needlessly. Arwen marries Aragorn and the audience wonders "Does she *know*?" which doesn't bode well for their marriage. Faramir talks with Eowyn in the Houses of Healing and instead of that wonderful conversation she says "I was involved in an unpleasant romantic fling with Another. But I desire no man's pity." No, no. These guys just aren't like that.

And Vanima - I think Jackson is contractually obliged not to make the movie R-rated. So we're safe (at least until the extra-scenes DVD comes out [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]).

My $0.02. Hope that was at least sort-of coherent.

[ November 07, 2002: Message edited by: Kalimac ]