Does anyone else hate the Rohanites? Or am I just a horrible person?

[davem]

I think you're right - though we didn't get to see the worst - the original plan was to have Eowyn help deliver the mother's baby (if you see what I mean- she was pregnant in the original script) in the Glittering Caves.

[Tigerlily Gamgee]

I love Rohan, in general... I mean, The Golden Hall was simply gorgeous and I love all of the art.
The people, however, I never really thought about even really paying them attention... hah! But I can truly see what you mean about them seeming truly pathetic and poverity ridden... helpless. I would think that despite hard times the people would be stronger than that.

[Kitanna]

Originally Posted by davem

I think you're right - though we didn't get to see the worst - the original plan was to have Eowyn help deliver the mother's baby (if you see what I mean- she was pregnant in the original script) in the Glittering Caves.

And she managed to waddle her way from danger as her town was being burned and pillaged? I am impressed. And Eowyn hardly seems like the midwife type, but it is still better than the plan to have Arwen miraculously show up at the Battle of Helm's Deep.

But to the original topic at hand...any soldier of Rohan is worthwhile. Sure they hardly speak, but maybe that's why I like them. Those little Rohan children would have more of my pity if they didn't have any speaking lines. In fact the whole scene would have been better with music and no speaking. It could show the plight of the Rohanites without giving them a word edgewise.

Personally I'm more annoyed by the scene where Aragorn does a bit of sword play with the young Rohan soldier who seems to have soiled his armor.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Kitanna

And she managed to waddle her way from danger as her town was being burned and pillaged? I am impressed. And Eowyn hardly seems like the midwife type, but it is still better than the plan to have Arwen miraculously show up at the Battle of Helm's Deep.

Really true -

# The scene shown in the very first TTT trailer of Eowyn with a sword in the Glittering Caves was originally part of a larger scene where she helps deliver a baby and then defends the people against an invading Uruk. The entire sequence was dropped, which is why it does not appear in the Extended Edition. http://uk.dvd.ign.com/articles/440/440963p6.html

[fenris1011]

For Rohan!

But yeah anyways, I didn't care for that scene with the children. Sure, it shows them invading the village but the kids were annoying.

And how the mother got to Helms Deep I have no clue...I figured she would have been slain right after the kids left.

[Beregond]

I never noticed it was the same woman in the caves...I'm glad they didn't go with a "birthing" scene: it would be so out of place, and having Eowyn involved when doubtless there were many many other women who would have been more useful in such a situation? I don't understand filmmaking.

I have to agree with most of the previous comments. The Rohirrim are supposed to be a warlike folk, and although doubtless they lived in terrible times surely they were stronger than portrayed. When you imagine the Rohirrim, do you not picture the women (not just Eowyn), as proud and stern? The men as well - fell and fearless?

And we love them: tall men and fair women, valiant both alike, golden-haired, bright-eyed, and strong; they remind us of the youth of Men, as they were in Elder Days. - Faramir, The Two Towers, The Window on the West

Are these the same people who are in the movies? I don't mean to sound harsh and unrealistic, but the women were wimpy and the men didn't exactly exude confidence until Theoden bent his heirloom sword out of shape on their spears.

Sure, children are children and SHOULD be scared under such conditions, but was it necessary to go out of the way to show weakness? The Rohirrim are not about weakness. Weakness exists, but shouldn't a movie accentuate the elements that define a race, instead of digging deeply to find a fear common to everyone, and then expanding upon this weakness? In the effort to make characters more "human" the filmakers have changed the very nature of the Rohirrim, the Gondorians, and Aragorn in fact.

I could go on.


I get angry sometimes. Believe it or not I love the movies. I do. If I didn't love them I wouldn't care about such inaccuracies. But when I watch the movies, see the potential, and think of all these little things that could have been changed to make the entire production so much better, I just have to rant.

So you're not a horrible person, Lush, at least not for this reason.

[Morthoron]

But the Rohirrim are pathetic!

Thank goodness the Elves came to Helm's Deep, or who knows how much more miserable it could have gotten! If only the Anglo-Saxons had Elves at Hastings, there wouldn't be all those orkish Normans mucking about in Ivanhoe or Robin Hood.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by davem

I think you're right - though we didn't get to see the worst - the original plan was to have Eowyn help deliver the mother's baby (if you see what I mean- she was pregnant in the original script) in the Glittering Caves.

That would have been amusing, knowing how visceral childbirth is Or would it have been a fantasy birth in every sense of the word, such as those we see in Hollywood films or the ones everyone imagines they'll have with whale song in the background and a few aromatic candles when the reality involves lots of swearing, gore and often copious quantities of drugs

Actually, I don't mind that bit in the film at all, though I wish the woman would have brushed their hair - nobody lets their hair get so matted unless they are an anti-road protestor that lives in a hedge or something like that.