Epic fantasy

[sartorias]

and its appeal . . .

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Would you say that Lord of the Rings is epic fantasy? Who would you say is its hero?

I ask because it doesn't fit your paradigm of the charismatic, brilliant, exceedingly competent, and/or badass hero unless you say that the hero is Aragorn. But I think most readers would say that the hero is Frodo.

[sartorias]

I think Lord of the Rings has several heroes, and of them Gandalf fits the hero mold as well as Aragorn, and in his own way Frodo. (Who doesn't wield weapons, but he's totally badass in his determination to go essentially unarmed into the heart of Mordor. What could possibly be more hopelessly heroic?)

[rachelmanija]

Frodo's very heroic, but it's heroism of determination and endurance - he's an everyman hero. He doesn't make rousing speeches, he doesn't wield magic, he doesn't rule, he doesn't kill people with a sword. Aragorn and Gandalf are larger than life, but Frodo is literally smaller than life. I'm not sure how that came across at the time, but to me it seems a bit subversive in terms of what one would expect in a hero.

I also find it very ironic and annoying that even now people keep going on about how women can't be heroes of epic fantasy because they're not big and strong enough, when the single best-known hero of epic fantasy was three feet tall.

[sartorias]

I still think of Frodo as larger than life in a profound way. I also ought to have included Eowyn, one of Tolkien's few women, and badass as the best of the men.