I'm not as canon-literate as I would to be either, but IIRC, Éowyn did do her task, at least partially. Quite frankly, I never made much thought about the whole thing, until a few years ago someone came up with the "deserter" thing.
It made me unbelievably angry, to be honest. Éowyn was my first - and to date still the only - fantasy heroine, and I took it a bit personally, I think. I still do. There are so very few female heroes who can kick ass and save the day (which she did on the Pelennor), and people still need to bash the ones we actually have.
Okay, deep breaths... The other one who acted against his King's orders was actually Éomer, pursuing the Orcs without Théoden's leave. Granted, Théoden was a bit of a dotard at that time, but when we really want to apply modern terms to legendary heroes, he must have been court-martialed for that. Yes, I know he got thrown into the brig or whatnot, for a short while (not exiled as PJ came up with the idiotic version). But everybody else and the reader was completely OK with his cowboy actions because the result, as you said, was positive.
BTW, Faramir acted against Denethor's orders, too, when letting Frodo and Sam go. And Denethor certainly wasn't pleased.
Ummm... I managed to lose coherence somewhere along the way. This is the result of the "protect Éowyn's good name" instinct, most likely. *g*
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-07-06 09:02 pm (UTC)It made me unbelievably angry, to be honest. Éowyn was my first - and to date still the only - fantasy heroine, and I took it a bit personally, I think. I still do. There are so very few female heroes who can kick ass and save the day (which she did on the Pelennor), and people still need to bash the ones we actually have.
Okay, deep breaths... The other one who acted against his King's orders was actually Éomer, pursuing the Orcs without Théoden's leave. Granted, Théoden was a bit of a dotard at that time, but when we really want to apply modern terms to legendary heroes, he must have been court-martialed for that. Yes, I know he got thrown into the brig or whatnot, for a short while (not exiled as PJ came up with the idiotic version). But everybody else and the reader was completely OK with his cowboy actions because the result, as you said, was positive.
BTW, Faramir acted against Denethor's orders, too, when letting Frodo and Sam go. And Denethor certainly wasn't pleased.
Ummm... I managed to lose coherence somewhere along the way. This is the result of the "protect Éowyn's good name" instinct, most likely. *g*