Written by Mr. Mouseburger 1st Jul 2005
At the battle of Pelennor Fields, the Rohirrim are fighting insurmountable odds. Half defeated and disorganised, they are marshalled in to one final charge at the enemy by their King, Theoden.
They charge at full speed towards an increasingly perturbed Orc line when Theoden's charge is interrupted by the swooping of the Witchking's Nazgul. The beast picks up Theoden's horse, with him still seated in it, and throws them both across the field. The momentum causes the dead horse to roll on top of Theoden crushing him.
He would have suffered the indignity of being eaten alive by the Nazgul were it not for Eowyn defending him. His dying words to a sobbing Eowyn (well, she is a girl after all!) are, "I go to my fathers, in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed."
The death of Theodin not only allows a charicter that had previously been a dissapointing king (Sauraman's spell) to redeem himself in a final act of heroism, but it sets up another act of heroism in the eventual defeat of the dreaded king of the Nazgul.
Gustav Graves: Mr. Kill!
Lawrence Makoare: Yes sir!
Graves: show Mr. Theoden how you got your name!
Lawrence Makoare: Yes sir!
Graves: and then do me a favor and add "animal" to this write-up since the horse is the thing that crushed him!
Old Mr. MouseBluffer: We'll see about that, peon.
Mr. Brigg's henchperson: Ooh! I hope, I hope!
An amusingly made point, but being crushed by your horse does not qualify as "animal"
If a film were set in a bizarre parallel universe where horses were beasts with suicidal, lemming like tendencies, who ambushed unwary travellers by dropping on them from a great height, then "animal" would apply.