Dec. 21st, 2024 09:30 am
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achariyaThis is not a review of the movie version of War of the Rohirrim so much as a visceral reaction, but I'm putting it under a cut because I will talk about the ending.
Obviously the story of Helm was told entirely in War of the Rohirrim movie -- the book passages were short enough that they neatly dovetailed into the longer, more interesting movie script about the relationship between Rohan and the Dunlendings, as seen through the eyes of an Anime house who found it just as petty as I did.
The story of Helm paints him as a bigoted, short-sighted fellow who couldn't see beyond the "incursion of foreigners into his homeland" to ponder the positive impact of an alliance with Dunlendings. Tolkien wrote very carefully about Helm -- he made sure we knew he was talking about an Icelandic type of culture, where any offense would inevitably lead to a brawl. Helm wasn't enlightened like half-Numenorean Théoden, even though he was both fell and mighty at arms. The movie does not go into Freca's claim to the throne of Rohan (via Fréawine), but this was at the back of Helm's mind, likely, when he kept calling Freca a Dunlending without honoring his Rohirric blood.
The few plot points regarding Helm were elaborated carefully in the movie -- first, that he took offense at Freca and felled him with one blow, second, that he then called all of Freca's house his enemies, and third, at the very end, when all of his people were evacuated to the Hornburg, that he cast fear into his enemies by punching them to death, and then froze while doing so. The movie extrapolated from these plot points and inferred that Helm would be short-sighted regarding how to prepare for battle, when to evacuate, who to call upon as his ally (tossing out his sister-son Fréaláf to Dunharrow for failing to properly protect his daughter)... I see nothing wrong with continuing to think Helm a fool, when he was acting like one the whole time.
These are the paragraphs that took up most of the plot of the movie:
The story of Helm paints him as a bigoted, short-sighted fellow who couldn't see beyond the "incursion of foreigners into his homeland" to ponder the positive impact of an alliance with Dunlendings. Tolkien wrote very carefully about Helm -- he made sure we knew he was talking about an Icelandic type of culture, where any offense would inevitably lead to a brawl. Helm wasn't enlightened like half-Numenorean Théoden, even though he was both fell and mighty at arms. The movie does not go into Freca's claim to the throne of Rohan (via Fréawine), but this was at the back of Helm's mind, likely, when he kept calling Freca a Dunlending without honoring his Rohirric blood.
The few plot points regarding Helm were elaborated carefully in the movie -- first, that he took offense at Freca and felled him with one blow, second, that he then called all of Freca's house his enemies, and third, at the very end, when all of his people were evacuated to the Hornburg, that he cast fear into his enemies by punching them to death, and then froze while doing so. The movie extrapolated from these plot points and inferred that Helm would be short-sighted regarding how to prepare for battle, when to evacuate, who to call upon as his ally (tossing out his sister-son Fréaláf to Dunharrow for failing to properly protect his daughter)... I see nothing wrong with continuing to think Helm a fool, when he was acting like one the whole time.
These are the paragraphs that took up most of the plot of the movie:
Four years later (2758) great troubles came to Rohan, and no help could be sent from Gondor, for three fleets of the Corsairs attacked it and there was war on all its coasts. At the same time Rohan was again invaded from the East, and the Dunlendings seeing their chance came over the Isen and down from Isengard. It was soon known that Wulf was their leader. The were in great force, for they were joined by enemies of Gondor that landed in the mouths of Lefnui and Isen.
The Rohirrim were defeated and their land was overrun; and those who were not slain or enslaved fled to the dales of the mountains. Helm was driven back with great loss from the Crossings of Isen and took refuge in the Hornburg and the ravine behind (which was after known as Helm's Deep). There he was besieged. Wulf took Edoras and sat in Meduseld and called himself king. There Haleth Helm's son fell, last of all, defending the doors.
The movie set up an interesting tension between Rohan and Gondor -- Rohan, of course, only had their great grassy plain BECAUSE Eorl swore an oath to the Steward Cirion that Rohan would aid Gondor at need, and vice-versa. But the movie had Freca imply that reliance upon Gondor was counter to the culture of Rohan, which was absolutely A Way to read the situation. Perhaps Helm did have ambitions to marry his unnamed daughter into a Gondorian line to strengthen the relationship (and keep her safe?), but Freca also implies that marrying into his own house would strengthen Rohan as a force of its own that could stand without Gondor's aid. This would have been oathbreaking for the Rohirrim, and Freca would have known that, but I don't know if the script writers thought about the implication of Freca's words.
Perhaps those script lines took care of the whole explanation of why Gondor did not come to their aid -- in the passages above, it's clear that Gondor had a Southron incursion to deal with at the time -- but book-Helm would have laughed at Freca and said, "We swore an oath to Gondor, we will not stand against them." Remember that this is long before "Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell?"
But all of that is less important than this:
Helm's unnamed daughter saved Tolkien's story and made the movie watchable for me. I rolled my eyes at Helm while reading Tolkien's passages about him; he was clearly a punch-first, think-later kind of guy. Seeing the world through Hera's eyes helped me to see Helm's actions as a redemption arc -- instead of simply berzerking and saving his people (and accidentally freezing to death), I respected that he apologized to Hera for behaving foolishly in general before giving himself up for his people. He learned; that was the missing part from Tolkien's tale -- because Helm would never have unbent enough to think that his bigotry was wrong.
I don't have any thoughts about how Men Online are calling this "the girlbossification" of Tolkien. This says little about the story and much about Men Online. Did I like Hera? Yeah -- she had a spectacular story arc, firmly setting out her intent to never marry, and carrying it through to the very end of the tale. Absolutely nothing in Tolkien's passages talk about Helm's daughter except about her commodification as a means to unite bloodlines via having sex with her, thanks JRRT.
So seeing a Japanese anime production house decide that yes, Hera could stay unmarried and adventurous -- was huge. She stayed free until the end of her life? YES. I hope Hera and Gandalf had a lot of excellent adventures together, along with her Shield-aunty; she definitely earned it by being the exasperated brains behind any of the plans that worked.
But my very favorite part was the final boss battle. Hera fights Wulf and chokes him to death with the edge of Shield-aunty's shield. Literal shield-maiden, slaying with her namesake shield! It is not very Disney for princesses to murder people, so I wondered if they'd have Wulf get killed in some other way -- BUT NO, Hera kills her crazy murderous stalker with her own hands, and let me tell you, the satisfaction of that moment was worth every second of the setup.
Why was it so satisfying? Was it girlbossification? If so, I strongly suspect that Men Online saw this and simply felt that Oh Shit, Someone Suffered A Consequence feeling, and had to deny its impact by calling it names.
Anyway. I loved most of it, and the parts that I hated were the same as the parts I hated in the book. :)
The movie set up an interesting tension between Rohan and Gondor -- Rohan, of course, only had their great grassy plain BECAUSE Eorl swore an oath to the Steward Cirion that Rohan would aid Gondor at need, and vice-versa. But the movie had Freca imply that reliance upon Gondor was counter to the culture of Rohan, which was absolutely A Way to read the situation. Perhaps Helm did have ambitions to marry his unnamed daughter into a Gondorian line to strengthen the relationship (and keep her safe?), but Freca also implies that marrying into his own house would strengthen Rohan as a force of its own that could stand without Gondor's aid. This would have been oathbreaking for the Rohirrim, and Freca would have known that, but I don't know if the script writers thought about the implication of Freca's words.
Perhaps those script lines took care of the whole explanation of why Gondor did not come to their aid -- in the passages above, it's clear that Gondor had a Southron incursion to deal with at the time -- but book-Helm would have laughed at Freca and said, "We swore an oath to Gondor, we will not stand against them." Remember that this is long before "Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell?"
But all of that is less important than this:
Helm's unnamed daughter saved Tolkien's story and made the movie watchable for me. I rolled my eyes at Helm while reading Tolkien's passages about him; he was clearly a punch-first, think-later kind of guy. Seeing the world through Hera's eyes helped me to see Helm's actions as a redemption arc -- instead of simply berzerking and saving his people (and accidentally freezing to death), I respected that he apologized to Hera for behaving foolishly in general before giving himself up for his people. He learned; that was the missing part from Tolkien's tale -- because Helm would never have unbent enough to think that his bigotry was wrong.
I don't have any thoughts about how Men Online are calling this "the girlbossification" of Tolkien. This says little about the story and much about Men Online. Did I like Hera? Yeah -- she had a spectacular story arc, firmly setting out her intent to never marry, and carrying it through to the very end of the tale. Absolutely nothing in Tolkien's passages talk about Helm's daughter except about her commodification as a means to unite bloodlines via having sex with her, thanks JRRT.
So seeing a Japanese anime production house decide that yes, Hera could stay unmarried and adventurous -- was huge. She stayed free until the end of her life? YES. I hope Hera and Gandalf had a lot of excellent adventures together, along with her Shield-aunty; she definitely earned it by being the exasperated brains behind any of the plans that worked.
But my very favorite part was the final boss battle. Hera fights Wulf and chokes him to death with the edge of Shield-aunty's shield. Literal shield-maiden, slaying with her namesake shield! It is not very Disney for princesses to murder people, so I wondered if they'd have Wulf get killed in some other way -- BUT NO, Hera kills her crazy murderous stalker with her own hands, and let me tell you, the satisfaction of that moment was worth every second of the setup.
Why was it so satisfying? Was it girlbossification? If so, I strongly suspect that Men Online saw this and simply felt that Oh Shit, Someone Suffered A Consequence feeling, and had to deny its impact by calling it names.
Anyway. I loved most of it, and the parts that I hated were the same as the parts I hated in the book. :)