[Lalaith]

But...Eowyn wasn't Bilbo, a timid hobbit of the Shire. She was in Tolkien's words a "maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings, slender but<BR>as a steel-blade, fair but terrible."<BR>Instead, Otto's Eowyn was behaving as you or I would if we were sent onto a battlefield. During her fight, she was standing awkwardly and hardly seemed to be able to lift her sword. That's not what I expected to see. Not to mention the absence of any of Tolkien's fantastic dialogue in the scene.<BR>I was incredibly moved during the charge of the Rohirrim, it was so brilliantly done, but this confrontation, which I was expecting to be the climax, just felt like a let-down.<BR>I have always defended Tolkien against the accusation that his women characters were no good. Now I feel even more justified. It's PJ who has messed up all of the LotR women. Tolkien's Eowyn was a far more impressive feminist figure than PJ's.