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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   24840 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025

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And the fact that she was only able to kill the Witch-king through a linguistic loophole is particularly galling.

An unfortunate side effect of the adaptation. Merry stabs the Witch-king with a barrow-blade, which inflicts such a wound that Eowyn's strike actually destroys him. The "no man can kill [the Witch-king]" is a prophecy of Glorfindel that "not by the hand of man shall he fall", not a loophole. Yes, it was a woman and a hobbit that did it, but it's a description of the circumstances, you know how prophecies go. Aragorn giving the hobbits the barrow-blades instead of the hobbits receiving them from Tom after their experience in the Barrow-downs strips out the context of the hobbits' weapons as powerful artifacts in their own right.

So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dúnedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.

I will forever lament the way Jackson adapted that scene. Eowyn's speech in LOTR is so beautifully written; it is one of the best bits of prose in the book imo:

"'Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!'

"Then Merry heard in all sounds of the hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. 'But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn am I, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.'"

I realize that the movie adaptation isn't written with the voice of an epic the way that Tolkien wrote the book, but to go from that beautiful exchange to a generic action movie "I am no man!" as she removes her helmet... it's just such a shame. They really fell short with that scene.

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