Foxhound portrait
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A conversation at the DMV.
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Yes. This. I’m listening to this right now and had to stop feeling sorry for myself after hearing about how this character is going through the worst time of his life at any given point in this stupid book. Kaladin, my guy, I’m so sorry. I thought I was mean to my characters and was so wrong.
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War of the Rohirrim Fic List
Ok, so my sister and I have been writing up a storm of content for the War of the Rohirrim fandom. I'm not really sure who is reading it aside from one awesome person who comments on just about everything, but I'm hoping people will find and enjoy it. Most of my work heavily features Fréaláf because I love that guy and he did not get enough screen time in the movie. Here's links to the ones I wrote.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/61917496
You can also find my sister's works, which follow the same changes to plot and characterization here.
Here is my War of the Rohirrim/Lord of the Rings/obnoxious horse girl blog. Go follow it if you enjoy such content.
I've been stressing over this move I've been making. Crying over goodbyes, exhausted from packing and unpacking, and all the while questioning if I have made the right decision.
Meanwhile I was sent a video by the horse hauling company of my pony staring out the window and eating hay without a care in the world.
He gets here tomorrow and everything will be alright again.
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and we're never quite safe from the things we adore (5017 words) by yoursincalendricalheresy Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim (2024) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: General Targg (War of the Rohirrim) & Wulf (Tolkien), Háma | Child of Helm Hammerhand (Tolkien) & Héra (War of the Rohirrim), Fréaláf Hildeson & Héra (War of the Rohirrim), Héra (War of the Rohirrim) & General Targg (War of the Rohirrim) Characters: General Targg (War of the Rohirrim), Héra (War of the Rohirrim), Wulf (Tolkien), Fréaláf Hildeson, Háma | Child of Helm Hammerhand (Tolkien) Additional Tags: Major character death applies to all characters that die in the movie, some of them just happen slightly differently, Canon Compliant, mostly - Freeform Series: Part 2 of WOTR Canon Compliant(ish) Summary:
The siege tower grows slowly, hemorrhaging coin and lumber and men as it ascends. There are only starving refugees to conquer. Only a princess to claim. Targg cannot keep the soldiers from leaving anymore. No longer do the lords of the hill tribes listen when Wulf speaks. No longer do their generals see fit to follow his command. Some leave, unwilling to risk the lives of so many for so little gain. What use is gold to the dead? One offers when Targg confronts him. Your king is right, you cannot eat it, you cannot burn it. In winter you can only die for it. Targg supposes that he is not wrong. -- As winter sets in Targg watches Wulf change and wonders what has become of the boy he helped to raise.
Two days, one job interview and about six hours of sleep later this is finally done. I'm not entirely sure what happened but I like how it turned out!
This is phenomenal.
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What are your thoughts on how they portrayed Fréaláf in War of the Rohirrim? I have questions about the backstory behind this exceptionally well put together guy who doesn't look quite like he matches the rest of the population of Rohan and goes by a matronymic surname. Did Hild marry a Gondorian Prince or noble, or perhaps did she marry abDunlending as part of a peace treaty and then fled back to Meduseld to raise her son when it fell apart. I love him but I want to know more about the decisions they made about his character.
NOW it's kind of funny because up until this ask my brain had just assumed it was declared somewhere that they had given Frealaf a gondorian father. But I actually cannot think of a particular instance where it is anything but implied... STILL I am fairly sure that was the intention.
His knowledge of the haradrim is probably the clearest nod to me, but there are all the wretched themactic implications they give him too. Like he's 'peaceable', softly spoken, he does not 'love war' 😒, he's basically a film-faramir copy-paste, except that he does display some prowess in combat and when he leads a charge of horsemen it's not at a brick wall. It IS down that goddamn horse-killing hill they love so much but we all have to suspend our horse logic for Tolkien media, it is known. So actually it's a little more book!faramir, Frealaf even gets his own watered down 'think better of me father' moment with Helm too, "my sword is yours if you ask for it 😔 it's so hard to be the most correct person in the room 😔 but I'm so noble and modest about it-" I have to stop being mean, he's nice I did like him.
ALSO it would line up with film!Helm's attempt to marry his daughter off to a Gondorian prince if he also married his sister off to a gondorian prince, and she was so '''safe''' and '''protected''' there as to encourage him to do it again.
Another reason I think he's supposed to be part Gondorian is because he takes the place of Gondor by the end of the film. In book-canon it's actually Beregond who breaks the siege on Helms Deep, whilst Frealaf is retaking Edoras. There is a significant amount of time where he and Beregond are working together to win what was almost a lost war in the rest of Rohan. BUT GONDOR JUST DOESN'T GO TO WAR EVER APPARENTLY SO HAHA WE CAN FORGET ABOUT THAT <3 uvu ... No actually this might be one of the only changes the film makes which I like, it is way more impactful and important for Frealaf to have this final victory. Kind of a no-brainer. BUT THE POINT IS it would be sort of a cohesive nod to book-canon for Frealaf to be part gondorian when he's taking gondor's place in thee narrative, if you see what I mean.
In terms of the matrilineal name usage, I do not particularly agree with it's being a term used for him pre-kingship. Like the reason he is remembered as "Hildsson" in the annuls of history is to define him as the beginning of the second line of rohir kings, ie not Helm's son, which would be a completely superfluous thing to do before all Helm's heirs have died. Honestly I still can't quite believe how absent Hild was in this supposedly feminist interpretation of this story, she is by far the character I want to hear from the most out of any of them. BUT YEAH LIKE, I guess within the narrative it's a useful way to convey information to the viewer and I should not be so grumpy about it.
The questions I have about Frealaf and his history that I most want answered are; Is his mother dead or just still living in Gondor? When did Frealaf come back to Rohan? WHY did he come to Rohan, was it a sense of duty? Belonging? What does his father think? Is his Father still alive? Or did both his father AND mother die for him to be fostered by Helm at a young age? I dont think so, since Frealaf is familiar with Gondorian military information (haradrim and so forth) so it feels like he is more familiar with Gondor in an adult capacity. But I do feel like his father is not alive? IDK!!
Later on Prince Thengel, Theoden's father, will run away from home and be fostered in Gondor because his father's a monster, and then marry a Gondorian noblewoman. But that is not for a very long time. So, depending upon how you read the historical relations between Gondorian and Rohir nobility, Frealaf's parentage could be exceedingly unique for the timeframe, and he would likely be oft compared to Eldacar in Gondor (King whose non-dunedain mother caused a civil war in Gondor incited by eugenicist outrage). So like!! Frealaf could have a lot of complex experiences and emotions surrounding his family, his sense of self, of who he is, of his attachment to one land or another. Like it was probably particularly painful for Frealaf to hear Helm tell him he was no kin of his, when the lingering dunadain supremacists in Gondor might have made him feel just as outcast there.
I hope there was a satisfying answer for you in there somewhere! :)
Ok this is all fascinating. So what’s interesting to me is that his voice actor in a few interviews says Fréaláf is from Dol Amoroth. I’ve also seen it mentioned in his page in the companion book that he “might be” from the kingdom of Dol Amoroth. Which is an odd thing to say because we never have any mention of this in the movie for some reason. It’s just sort of implied that he’s not from there and that he has some connection to Gondor. The companion book also says he’s First Marshall of the Riddermark which is an interesting choice, especially when Helm has a second son.
For me that raises so many questions about why he is in Rohan. That would have been really fun to have answered in some way, especially if they could have put his mother in the movie. I get that they had to shave things down but I like the idea of Hilde leaving a marriage and bringing him with her back to Edoras where he’s raised beside his cousins. Maybe he feels he has to be extra well mannered and skilled to make up for the fact that he doesn’t quite fit the ethnic look of Rohan?
Overall I enjoyed the movie, but I wish it had found a way to actually discuss the racial side of this conflict in a meaningful way. That’s clearly part of the story and gets into this theme of Tolkien stories where people of color are almost always portrayed as part of the antagonist host. So it was interesting to me how they kind of just threw Fréaláf in as this racially ambiguous guy with a really high status in the court of Meduseld but not a word in the film about where he’s from and why he’s in Edoras.
Personally I didn’t see him as a copy and paste of Faramir. I think they took a lot from Faramir and of course Éomer for his character, but not in a way that didn’t feel appropriate. He still felt like a distinctly new character to me. I just wanted more elaboration. Oh well, that’s what fan works are for.
As for horse logic, I think they just wanted to use that hill as a throwback to Éomer breaking the siege in the two towers. It was neat, at least no animated horses were injured to make the scene 😅. I am a little baffled when you say horse logic. I work with horses and have one, which I think qualifies me to say they barely adhere to logic at the best of times. They regularly manage to defy the laws of physics. Right now the mares are outside my bedroom window making Nazgûl like screeches in the dark because I need to go make their breakfast. At least I hope that’s the horses out there or I’m in trouble.
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Wulf stands above them, tall and triumphant as Haleth had, the city dying beneath his feet. Has he forgotten so quickly how the taste of triumph can turn to blood between one's teeth? It only takes a single shot and Háma-- Háma who has always preferred the lyre to the blade, Háma who followed his elder brother around all his life, Háma has always been an excellent archer.
Excellent work.
Ok, I am sick of seeing weird smut dominating the War of the Rohirrim fandom on AO3. Here's a more wholesome story, about war and stuff.
Has this been done yet? Because I love you Elrond but wtf. [Screencap credit]
LAUGHING BUT CRYING INSIDE
While I personally do not hold to any faith, I have spent an absurd amount of time this December defending Christ. Why you ask? Because my land lady put up a nativity scene and my cat has decided she would like nothing better than to kidnap and destroy the infant Jesus. My feline child may be the antichrist. I’m proud but so tired.