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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   13477 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025

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Even Tolkien had a few badass girlboss warriors in LoTR.

Mainly (1) Eowyn, and she is suicidally depressed, looking for her culture's validated "glorious death in battle" as the only worthy and honourable ending to a life because she can't see any better outcome for her. Her healing comes when she puts all that behind her and sees the hope of a meaningful life:

"Do not scorn the pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Eowyn! But I do not offer you my pity. For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you. Eowyn, do you not love me?'
Then the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.
'I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,' she said, 'and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.' And again she looked at Faramir. 'No longer do I desire to be a queen,' she said.
Then Faramir laughed merrily. 'That is well,' he said; 'for I am not a king. Yet I will wed with the White Lady of Rohan, if it be her will. And if she will, then let us cross the River and in happier days let us dwell in fair Ithilien and there make a garden. All things will grow with joy there, if the White Lady comes.'
'Then I must leave my own people, man of Gondor?' she said. 'And would you have your proud folk say of you: "There goes a lord who tamed a wild shieldmaiden of the North! Was there no woman of the race of Numenor to choose?"'
'I would,' said Faramir. And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many."

(2) Galadriel, and she has put the "riding around on horseback waving a sword" days behind her in her youth, which again were not so much for "badass girlboss warrior" reasons but "fight or die" reasons; crossing the Helcaraxe was not a fun stroll.

"I know what it was that you last saw,' she said; `for that is also in my mind. Do not be afraid! But do not think that only by singing amid the trees, nor even by the slender arrows of elven-bows, is this land of Lothlórien maintained and defended against its Enemy. I say to you, Frodo, that even as I speak to you, I perceive the Dark Lord and know his mind, or all of his mind that concerns the Elves. And he gropes ever to see me and my thought. But still the door is closed!"

The one who is closest to "badass girlboss warrior" is Aredhel, and her wilfulness gets her into trouble.

(3) Maybe Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, who takes on a human-sized Ruffian with only her umbrella 😁

‘That’s right!’ put in Young Tom. ‘Why, they even took Pimple’s old ma, that Lobelia, and he was fond of her, if no one else was. Some of the Hobbiton folk, they saw it. She comes down the lane with her old umberella. Some of the ruffians were going up with a big cart.
‘“Where be you a-going?” says she.
‘“To Bag End,” says they.
‘“What for?” says she.
‘“To put up some sheds for Sharkey,” says they.
‘“Who said you could?” says she.
‘“Sharkey,” says they. “So get out o’ the road, old hagling!”
‘“I’ll give you Sharkey, you dirty thieving ruffians!” says she, and ups with her umberella and goes for the leader, near twice her size. So they took her. Dragged her off to the Lockholes, at her age too. They’ve took others we miss more, but there’s no denying she showed more spirit than most.’

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