"Forth Eorlingas!"
Hello everyone!
Either way, welcome, welcome, to tonight's blog post of choice.
I was THRILLED to discover that, since it's release in December 2024, this particular movie has now been more widely distributed among streaming services, because although our country's Netflix is pretty good about releases, honestly, I was still kind of waiting on this particular one.
Not that I was going in SUPER excited, mind you. I've been hella cautious since Rings of Power came out and started botching things up so badly it's insane.
But I was cautiously optimistic that there MIGHT be something good to find in the anime that I chose to watch this weekend.
So buckle up, get those swords polished, and make sure you're ready to ride. Because we're about to see just what was good and what wasn't so good in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
Links to previous related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual! Fair warning, there's a bit of them.
Onwards.
The War of the Rohirrim was announced as a collaboration between the IP trademark and mister Kenji Kamiyama, the director who came on to do this anime, but a lot of familiar names are attached to it if you bother to look at the credits at the end (Alan Lee, John Howe, Daniel Falconer, etc.), names that have previously worked on all major Tolkien visual releases, so that brings some comfort among all the unrest, really.
The story goes as follows: Miranda Otto returns to narrate it as Éowyn, saying that before the One Ring started making serious trouble with the Bagginses, there lived this one princess of Rohan whose name you won't find in any songs or tales, but great deeds were done, by her and in her name.
Her name, mind you, is Hera, and she's the daughter and youngest child of King Helm of Rohan.
Yes, THAT Helm. We'll get to him in a second.
Hera's wild and carefree and loves to ride around the countryside with big meaty treats for Great Eagle chicks, but returning home from one such excursion she's appraised of the fact that this fat lord, Freca, just arrived, and he's had loads of time to figure out what he doesn't have because he's been sitting on his ass all this time.
Freca, in his audacity, is like: s'up, Helmy boy! I hear you're looking for an alliance with Gondor, and I have a better alternative. This is my kid, Wulf, with Dunleding blood that everyone in Rohan despises, so he's gonna make a GREAT husband for Hera, how about we break out the mead, have them hand-fasted, and call it a night?
Everyone and their mother: ...
Yeah, it doesn't really work out in Freca's favour, so he and Helm trade insults, then head outside Meduseld to have a fist-fight, because as you do.
Men.
Unfortunately for Helm, he's got such a right hook that he kills Freca with just one hit, and then because Wulf tries to be an ass about it (even though his dad was the one to start all this mess), he exiles the kid, although breaking HIS neck might have made things a lot easier in future.
Anyway, Hera tries to find Wulf, because they were childhood friends, to no avail, and as Rohan's territory grows more dangerous because of other circumstances, she's now not allowed to ride around on her own anymore, so her cousin Fréaláf accompanies her everywhere.
Whoever decided to make this guy incredibly handsome ... I salute you. It's nice to have eye candy even in an anime.
But if you think Hera's safe just because she has her cousin along, you'd be mistaken, as they run into a crazed Oliphaunt, who Fréaláf takes head-on because, Rohirrim. Hera's the one who thinks quickly (to my chagrin she takes this win from her cousin, unnecessarily in my opinion, since she's being painted as the only one with brains in the royal lineage), luring the beast into the nearby forest where there's a lake and where a Watcher lives, waiting patiently for the next Doordash delivery.
Unfortunately for Hera, she runs into Wulf's commander, who kidnaps her and takes her to the abandoned fort of Isengard, where she's like, whoa, why the hell are the Dunledings and hill tribes all camped out here together?
Because, says Wulf, they're under my command and we're about to wreak havoc on Rohan.
Yup, he's back, and while Hera tries her best to negotiate and even plead with him so he doesn't do anything stupid, he treats her the same way as every other male in her existence, as a possession that has no say in whether or not SHE wants something to happen. Meaning he's not into what she's selling because she exhibits free will and that it would be HER choice, rather than HIS, if they were to marry.
Bonkers, I tell you, absolutely bonkers, but thankfully Fréaláf is great at tracking, and her lady's maid Olwyn used to be a shield-maiden, so they rescue her and hustle back to Edoras. There, it turns out that the last king in each royal line of Rohan was the last because of sheer idiocy, as Helm refuses to listen to either Hera or Fréaláf and their warnings about not knowing the extent of Wulf's machinations, so he banishes his nephew to Dunharrow and instead listens to this honey-tongued counselor I instantly dislike because he's too patronizing.
The plan goes as such: they'll ride out to the northern plains where Wulf is sure to camp, and attack him there. Haleth and Hama, Hera's brothers, ride with the army, Hama leaving his lyre with his sister for safe keeping, and Hera's left behind to lead the people of Edoras.
Thankfully, too, because even while Helm engages Wulf's army, the men realize the commanders are nowhere to be seen - because they've snuck in a troop of Oliphaunts and they're gunning straight for Edoras, you know, the city that even Grima Wormtongue explained was vulnerable, and Théoden knew it, which is why everyone in dangerous time suggests retreating to the mountain fastnesses of their people.
Hera sees the advancing beasts and orders an evacuation to the Hornburg, knowing the road to Dunharrow is too dangerous, and then sets the wooden stuff in the city on fire to ensure the big ass creatures, who fear fire, won't be coming near.
Helm and his sons rush back, finding an empty city that the only woman in their family has already successfully evacuated, but obviously Wulf isn't satisfied and Haleth dies first of the royals here, taken down by an arrow, making me mourn the would-be King of Rohan because he reminds me a lot of Cassian from ACOTAR for some reason.
Helm, pincushioned with arrows, is taken to the Hornburg by Hera, but Hama falls behind with his old horse and gets captured by Wulf. No amount of pleading before the fortress sways him, and he cuts the boy's throat in front of his remaining family, thus effectively killing any lingering affection Hera might have felt for him.
And so begins the siege and a long, long winter, which makes it difficult for everyone, both inside and outside the castle. Helm is in some sort of deep sleep, Hera takes command to ensure the people make it, and then suddenly Helm isn't sleeping anymore.
In fact, there's a rumour going about that, when a horn rings three times in the vale, the hunt for Wulf's army is done, and when Wulf returns from the ashes of Edoras, the crown of Rohan on his head with no people to lead, he finds his siege in disarray because they're all terrified of what Helm can do when he's rip-shit pisses.
See, he HAS been going out at night during snowstorms, picking the lines apart one by one and literally beating people to death with his bare hands. Hera follows the secret tunnel out of the Hornburg to find him, and instead finds two orcs looking for rings of some sort, but thankfully her dad rescues her, and they race back to the main gate to try and get back inside.
The gate gets stuck, Wulf has spotted them and is on their heels, and Helm forces the doors open (much better doors, actually, than what's at the fortress during another siege later, I have to admit) to push his daughter through, in a last act of family love. Then he parks himself in front and beats anyone who comes near. When the storm passes in the morning, they find him there: frozen to his death, but unbent and unbroken, still standing proud, with a host of his enemies dead around him.
Hera, now the sole survivor of the direct royal line, takes Olwyn's advice and chooses how to face the future, packing up her dad's armour and going to plead with the Great Eagle who has its nest above the Hornburg (probably wondering what all the racket is and when it can get back to sleep, though with Wulf's siege tower nearly finished it's probably going to get louder before it gets quieter).
The Eagle decides not to eat her, and takes the armour to no other place but Dunharrow, where Fréaláf has been waiting for news of his family, and debating going to Gondor for help.
In the meantime, while we're all crossing our fingers he gets the hint and hustles, Hera digs up an old wedding dress she found back at the beginning of the siege, putting it on and facing Wulf as a challenger: if he defeats her, then he gets to rule, but while she lives she's still the rightful heir to the throne that the people look to, and if SHE wins, he has to stand down.
Naturally, she wins, were you expecting anything else?
Also naturally, Wulf doesn't respect the agreement, as he has no honourable bone in his body, killing his own commander who refuses to do his bidding anymore. But even as the people hurry through the secret passage into the mountain pass to try and escape, and even as the battle rings fierce when the attackers attempt to take the newly-minted Helm's Deep (as Hera coldly tells Wulf, the cleft was named after the RIGHTFUL king and his sacrifice), a horn rings out.
On the ridge above, a rider appears, the bull-horned helmet of Helm on his head.
And the Dunledings, thinking it's actually Helm risen from the dead, run for the hills.
Wulf now supposedly gives up, but he only pretends so that Hera lowers her guard, and then attacks her again. Olwyn chucks her shield like an Olympic disc thrower, and Hera, in self-defense, chokes Wulf with it.
Fréaláf - who, mind you, not only wears Helm's armour but wears it WELL, as in, it bloody fits him, so you have to do a double take as to just HOW BIG this guy actually is for that to be true - heeds Hera's advice and shows mercy to the remnants of their enemies, and is crowned King of Rohan in the aftermath. Saruman pops up, having taken command of Isengard, offering his help, and Hera takes off into the unknown for an adventure, since apparently for some reason nobody thought it would be the SMARTEST idea for HER AND FRÉALÁF to marry, uniting the royal lines, and the people.
But she's on a quest to meet up with another wizard, who wants to question her about the orcs and the rings, and his name happens to be Gandalf.
Of course it is.
Bold, beautifully animated and dealing with perhaps the fan favourite of Rohan, War of the Rohirrim does hit a lot of really great notes. I mean this almost literally as the movie opens with Howard Shore's iconic musical themes, seguing from general LOTR to the theme of Rohan, and I have to admit that the music later on lacks the depth and fullness of a large orchestra which could have nailed this down a bit better.
The story itself is actually not as egregious as I was worried it would be, but it does change some key points: Hama's death is here used as a way to break Helm's spirit, whereas in the writing he disappears during a snow storm while looking for food. Unfortunately, the biggest change that critics panned was Wulf's death, because Tolkien wrote that FRÉALÁF got him in the end, and was then crowned king afterwards.
Here, to make sure her #girlboss status keeps elevating, Hera's given the honour, and I can't help but think it's only to tick off some boxes. This could have been a beautiful movie even without the particular change, but the most head-scratching for me is the bit with the orcs.
But, IT'S REALLY UNNECESSARY. It's ALREADY connected, because it establishes Théoden's ancestors! Nothing else was needed, not really.
Overall, however, I did enjoy this, much more than I thought I would. Sure I have nitpicks, and some things make no sense but, I did laugh, I face-palmed at idiocy, I fell into the story, and generally spent a pleasant two hours on this movie, which I can't say are the same sentiments when Rings of Power airs.
So I'd say this was a more successful entry into the on-screen universe than most!
xx
*images and video not mine
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