When you do a bunch of thinking and it all leads nowhere. I don't even feel like looking for pictures.

 From 500 Writing Prompts: Create a new character for the Lord of the Rings series. Write up a brief description of them and how they would change a major event in the story.

Eh....for the movies or for the books? There is a dearth of female presence in the books. Yes, there's Galadriel and Eowyn, but that's two. Just two who get any kind of a proper speaking part. And they take no real part in the actual journey, except Eowyn at the end and she had to sneak in. Now I can understand why that is, because of the time Tolkien was writing in and how the journey and the battles and such were an allegory for World War I, which he'd fought in as a young man and was much changed by. Women were the pretty things you thought about in the misery you found yourself in, the thing you fought to get home to.

Still, as a female reader in the late 20th century as I was when I first read the books, one does get sick of constantly hearing men's stories. Galadriel was a Elven queen and Eowyn was a noble woman, a shieldmaiden of Rohan. A story about a tough regular woman would have been nice. Oh, there was Goldberry in there too, Tom Bombadil's wife, all fluttery and beautiful, and there were glimpses of Arwen but she didn't really do much in the book but she's also a Elven princess.

When you've had years and years and years and YEARS of men's stories, men's bonding, men's talking, you get sick of them and would like to see a character you can relate too. A regular woman who does a few extraordinary things herself. Even if she just relays some wisdom that makes a difference. Or saves an important (plot related) person from straight up dying. Or leads them part of the way because they're lost, because yeah, Aragorn was a ranger, but your telling me he knew every inch of that land and never got lost ever? 

So...I guess that's my character. An old woman, maybe she lives out in the middle of nowhere because most of the story takes place in the middle of nowhere. Should she be an old wise woman? How about she's the widow of a huntsman. She's the widow of a huntsman, so she would know the terrain and such, and she comes upon them one day, while they're walking the oldest hunting trails and she tells them that the way they're going is...maybe the bridge is washed out...or there's goblins around, or an orc raiding party, she had to kill some of them, she has a bow and arrow and an axe, like a regular splitting axe, just a small one. And a knife. In her boot.

But how would this change a major event in the story? I don't really want to change any of the major events of the story, you change major events it impacts other major events and I just don't like where this is going.

I decided I don't really care to change a major event. But that would mean her part could be cut too easily. I'm tired of this now.