I’ve watched Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers in its entirety at least three times, and the climactic battle at the end of the film, about a dozen. Today’s launch of The Lord of the Rings Online: Helm’s Deep expansion reminded me I hadn’t watched that battle in a while so I hit up Megashare for a quickie.
I love that battle scene. It’s one of the best siege scenes on film. But I always wonder why they don’t have better defenses for the keep. There’s a narrow bridge leading up to the main gate. I would oil that thing so it’s extremely slick, or blockade it, or better, destroy it.
As they say, never burn bridges, and I never do…unless there are orcs on the other side of it. And there have been a lot of orcs in my life. There’s no shame in cutting ties, even those you’ve known a long time and once were meaningful to you. If they become orcs — that is, if they become a destructive force in your life — get rid of them. If they engender negative feelings, leach off of you, eat you, hack at your limbs, bite you, battle-ram you, climb your walls, etc, etc, then cut them out. The Earth doesn’t spin slowly enough for orcs. Bridges in war are meant to be destroyed, especially when there are 10,000 blood-thirsty orcs on the other end.
Any way to destroy this bridge?
I don’t know if I want to dish out $39.99 for the expansion base edition (the premium edition is $59.99), especially with Black Friday around the corner, but it looks close to the on-screen battle based on the trailer (transcription below):
“People of middle earth, Saruman’s war is upon you. Helm’s Deep is under siege. We need fighters of great courage to man its defenses, officers to direct the flow of battle, engineers to rain death upon the enemy, and mighty vanguards whose valor shines upon the darkest of nights. And while heroes often thrive in battle alone, we can only win this fight together.”
The last part makes me shutter a bit. Anytime an MMORPG says you gotta work together, I get the MOBA shakes.
Perhaps the expansion will have some interesting new ways to fight the battle. In any case, it’s good to see an expansion for LOTRO, which hasn’t had one in over a year.