Just a quick note: Fordim, in your otherwise very excellent post to start the thread, I think you unfairly characterize Éowyn as a sellout for renouncing her warrior's ways and getting married at story's end. Female empowerment and marriage are not mutually exclusive. And to be fair to her, everyone becomes more or less "passive" after the War. Aragorn packs away his dirty cloak and dons king's robes, Gandalf gives up his tireless journeys to and fro all over Middle-earth, Frodo hangs his sword on the study wall. It's Faramir, after all, who proposes building a garden in Ithilien. I expect that Éowyn didn't hypocritically transform into a meek baby-making machine; I'm betting that Faramir had his hands full with his "wild shield-maiden of the North" in a marriage of equals.
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