Which Middle Earth heroine was the best written character?

[krycek]

Something I've been wondering since I love the Middle Earth films, but feel Game of Thrones has spoiled the heroines a bit for me. So in terms of character and relevence to the story, who would you say was the best one?

For me its definitely Eowyn. Especially in the Extended Editions, she is by far the most fleshed out and never feels "tacked on" like the others do. I loved her desire to do more than just sit on the sidelines and the build up for that payed off when she finally goes to battle. She was pretty hardcore! Plus she had plenty of great moments with the other characters. I think it helped a lot having her interact with a variety of different characters instead of just 2-3 since we got to see a lot more of her personality. Its a shame they didn't do more with the Houses of Healing even in the Extended Edition to give her proper closure, but the final scene with Theoden did its job well.

Its hard to rank the others after her. Arwen is basically just the token love interest with about 7 minutes of screentime in a 3-3.5 hour movie - most of which involves close ups of her crying endless slow motion tears.

Galadriel is little more than a walking exposition device. The worst example is perhaps her only scene in the middle of The Two Towers where she gave Elrond a "Previously on LOTR..." recap as if it were the opening of a TV show. Her only two scenes of relevence in all six movies are really banishing Sauron and being tempted by the ring - both of which are somewhat spoiled when she transforms into a silly demonic CGI drag queen.

Tauriel had absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the movie. Her role ultimately comes down to her and Legolas being attracted to each other, Thranduil forbidding them being together so she rebounds to a guy that makes a dick joke and spends the rest of the trilogy chasing after him faster than Smaug after gold. They try to give her some depth by rebeling against Thranduil's anti-isolation policy, but it all falls flat on its face when it ends up being purely motivated by her desire to chase Kili.

Not that I dislike any of them - they still have their moments, but are too detatched from the storyline for my liking and aren't as compelling as many of the other characters in the films. It will be interesting to hear everyone else's thoughts on the matter.