Valeria sent by Crom?

One of those recent, decades-later realizations...after watching this movie a million times, it recently occured to me that Valeria's Valkyrie-like appearance to save Conan during the climatic battle might have been Crom's doing. Think of it -- Conan prayed to Crom (for the first time, no less), asking for revenge. Later, during the battle, Conan was nearly killed by his father's murderer -- who was using his father's sword. In other words, if this guy killed Conan, then his vengeance would not be sated (obviously). But then Valeria shows up and saves Conan, paving the way for his revenge. Ie, Crom answering Conan's prayer.

Anyway, I know the whole "ghost Valeria" bit was taken from Belit in REH's "Queen of the Black Coast," but still...like I said, something that just occured to me. Apologies if many others have already advanced this theory.

I don't agree, but that's ok. I would think that if Conan needed Crom to save him then Conan wouldn't deserve to sit by Crom's side after death. Crom accepts valor not weakness. I feel it was all her doing through her own tenacity. Grrr.... hotness.

"Recent, decades-later realizations" number two:

The red-haired kid who first whips the boy Conan after he's chained to the Wheel Of Pain is the same guy who later takes him away to be a pit fighter.

In the Special DVD comentary, Milius stated that he picked Sandahl Bergman for Valeria's role specifically because she looked like a Valkrye, so that may have been his intent to represent her as one coming back to save Conan. Valkryes of course were angelic like beings in Norse mythology who came down to fields of the dead and carry them home to Valhalla if they had proven themselves worthy in battle. Of course Conan was not dead, but maybe Milius's intent was that his prayer did appeal to Crom himself, who was not yet ready to receive him.

Milius also stated that he wanted the film to have a very "Viking" feel to it. I think he pulled that off nicely along with adding quite a bit of Far Eastern flavor as well. The Hyborean age maps made by Howard show the continents in a "prehistoric" era before continental plates had shifted, so there would have been little seperating such a wide variety of cultures but GREAT DISTANCE.

I often wondered also if Milius had intended the red headed boy to be Conan's eventual master as well.

None of these theories really fit in to Howard's original stories of course. But I guess it's what you get when you throw Robert E. Howard, Oliver Stone, and John Milius into a blender.

It all came out as a very entertaining movie in any case.

In the -now classic- "Historical art and symbolism in the movie" thread we chatted a littlebit about this topic, and more or less we came out with the idea VALERIA was a protective spirit for Conan, more because her own will that was stronger than death -and is a more nietzschean concept than being a server or a boss-. The whole movie -and nietzschean concepts- are about true freedom, which is what really moves a true warrior. These characters serve nobody but the ones they love, no boss, king or guru can own them. Valeria serves Conan beyond death BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO, and Conan would have done the same, probably...

Plus, these warriors know there are forces stronger than them: death, destiny (which is God's desire, nothing less)... They accept it. That's why Conan accepts Valeria's death and doesn't stop living. That's why Conan thanked the Wheel by all the pain he received, because he knows it's destiny, and somehow, there's something good in it no matter if it looks dark. Indeed, the wheel made him stronger than anyone.

But knowing these powers are stronger than him, doesn't make him an slave of those. That's why he prais to Crom and asks for revenge, but if he don't listen, and his destiny is dying, it's allright, he will accept it but not without spitting in his face, before. A true slave is afraid of his bosses, but these characters are not afraid of these bigger powers, they do respect them, but they also asks for respect back. Fair bussiness.