What Happened to the Horses?
 

Upon watching The Return of the King with my friends tonight, we noticed something we never did prior. Before the Battle of the Black Gate, when Aragorn gives his speech to his men, they are all on horses. Then, once they all charge for battle, their horses are gone!

It took us years to notice it, so it's not a big deal. However, it's pretty interesting nonetheless. Has anybody else noticed this?

Not only do the horses disappear at the Black Gate, but the Elves completely disappear after the Battle of Helms Deep! Chalk them up to stellar editing, Peregrin.

I never noticed that!:D

It's not unusual for films to have major continuity errors, though.

Yeah, I remember that being remarked upon when the film first came out. That and a few other bloopers. ;)

I think the disappearance of the horses is explained in some recondite, apocalyptic text where it is explained how the cats of Queen Beruthiel came and spooked the horses. It is apparently going to be made clear in a bridge film when the Silm is eventually filmed, the script to be written by the production crew.

Perhaps they all followed Fatty Lumpkin and eventually strayed back to Tom Bombadil.

By George, I think you've got it. Tom will appear in that future bridging film also, hence his disappearance in the LotR trilogy.

*A light dawns in the shadowy recesses of the Dark Elf's mind*

Why...then...that means...that the Elves who disappeared at Helms Deep in The Two Towers will magically reappear in the bridge film and aid Thorongil in defeating the Corsairs at the Battle of the Havens in Umbar (which, of course, is another place the Elves couldn't conceivably have been)!

This conspiracy goes far deep than I imagined.

Indeed, but what if we had to explain the disapearence of the horses within the framework of the film. . .

What good explanation would there be?

That's funny. I also watched ROTK over the weekend and even though I've seen the film several times, this was the first time I'd realized the horses had disappeared.
I wonder what the reasoning was behind the move?
I don't have the director's cut. Maybe there's something there that explains it?

I don't know anything about those horses, but about the elves is said in the lord of the rings: weapons and warfare ( the more or less"official"movie book ) that they all died in that battle...

My, that's...convenient. But then again, considering they had to go through miles of enemy-held territory (they probably followed the double-nought secret route Elrond took to deliver Anduril to Aragorn), and that Galadriel and Celeborn gladly surrendered a portion of their force that was sorely needed in protecting Lothlorien from imminent attack, I guess one more preposterous fabrication couldn't hurt.

But how do you really feel about it, Morthorond? ;)

The Templars again, no doubt. Or the Rosicrucians.

Well, the Nazgul attacked Frodo at a Ford, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at the Ford, and Kennedy was assasinated in a Lincoln...which is owned by Ford. It all fits together so eerily.

*The Dark Elf peers out of his office blinds, expecting to see black helicopters with Rosy Crosses emblazoned on them*

And the missing elves from Helm's Deep are the Illuminati...time to add a new chapter to Foucault's Pendulum.

Hmmm...I wonder what would happen if Umberto Eco wrote the script for LotR (or the upcoming Hobbit)? Mind-bending plot twists would abound, I suppose.

I had already tried my hand at James Joyce writing Tolkien fan-fic:

"And we are, are we, swoping priggily the prof's Middangeard, barrowing Mahtan's spark as the espiritu flammula did on a once ago."

I'll have to think about how one would echo Eco talking Tolkien.

I always knew Sauron's 'eye' had something to do with the new world order. Time to dig out that tin foil hat I think ;)

On top of the pyramid on the dollar bill! And in the Freemason symbol! Of course! Later known as the Eye of Horus, and later still as the Eye of Providence, representing the clarity of the divine wisdom as possessed by the Dark Illuminati Elves, whose name is symbolic of the paradoxical truth that only in pure wisdom can pure shadows be cast! :eek:

What if Gandalf with his help sent them home?

I seriously doubt Gandalf, even though he was "Gandalf the White", could have sent all those elves home. Or spirited away the horses just before a huge battle for that matter.

It's probably just another film inconsistancy :p

Peter Jackson doesn't make mistakes. Haven't you heard? ;)

The answer, of course, is that the horses were really disguised Eagles who ran into the nearest convenient location and emerged to save the day!

The Captains of course dismounted for the parley, and while they were confronting the Mouth a large Plot Hole opened up and swallowed the horses.

Yes, I understand that. Just forgot to put a smiley. :D I was thinking of Bill the pony as well.
There's another scene like this too. Frodo and Sam are seen in Orc cloths first but later come in their own hobbit ones. How? Did I miss something? May be.

I noticed in the battle of helms deep,the elf suddenly dissapear.even though just moments before, they were seen carrying gimli(dragging,actually)to the keep.they probably been killed off,but come on,at leastna few can escape to the keep.the killed off theory seem more likely though,given that most if the elves were killed in the wall,and the uruks,at the end,managed to cut rohan and the elf's troops to the keep and kille almost all of them.so yeah,the could bekilled off.