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In the Return of the King movie, the last shot of Eowyn (before the Rohirrim find her) has her crying over Theoden's body. A few shots after that, the Rohirrim find her. But she isn't lying anywhere near Theoden.

Is this a simple filming goof? Or did they not include something in the movie that was in the books, like she wandered around the battlefield to help wounded soldiers?

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In the extended edition of the film a section of restored content showed the Orc general Gothmog attempted to kill Eowyn.

In this sequence Eowyn crawled a decent distance away from Theoden attempting to grab a sword until Aragorn (Big Damn Hero he is) dropped by and killed Gothmog.

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  • Sod it ain't that great an answer, i was expecting to get sniped by some guy with a clip
    – IG_42
    Jan 5, 2016 at 0:07
  • But the two scenes actually happens in the opposite order in the extended edition. First she crawls away from Gothmog THEN she talks to Theoden dying. So the last scene before Eomer find her is still her next to Theoden. What I also found very odd is that we never see her pass out, I really feel that some scene is missing.
    – Ricola
    Oct 4, 2022 at 21:22
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In the book, Théoden is found shortly before his death, so this problem is side-stepped:

'Hail, King of the Mark!' [Théoden] said. 'Ride now to victory! Bid Éowyn farewell!' And so he died, and knew not that Éowyn lay near him. And those who stood by wept, crying: 'Théoden King! Théoden King!'

[...]

Yet [Éomer] himself wept as he spoke. 'Let his knights remain here,' he said; 'and bear his body in honour from the field, lest the battle ride over it! Yea, and all these other of the king's men that lie here.' And he looked at the slain, recalling their names. Then suddenly he beheld his sister Éowyn as she lay, and he knew her.

Return of the King Book V Chapter 6: "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"

So this is purely a movie invention. Unfortunately I can't find this scene in the script, so we can only speculate.

The most plausible explanation is that Théoden was moved, but Éowyn left behind. Théoden was a king, after all, so the priority would have been to remove his body from the battlefield. If someone did that without recognizing Éowyn (which seems plausible, since nobody was expecting her to be there), she most likely would have been left behind.

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    That sounds like an awful tactical decision, diverting a bunch of knights to safeguard one dead person... It may matter to morale, but who cares about morale if you get defeated for lack of soldiers? +1 anyway, since I can't blame you for Eomer's lack of tactical acumen :)
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Jan 4, 2016 at 16:27
  • @DVK Presumably this would be after the battle, when that's a slightly less-relevant concern
    – Jason Baker
    Jan 4, 2016 at 16:28
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    no full text right now so can't check, but my vague memory is this was still before battle was finished. " lest the battle ride over it! " seems to confirm that?
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Jan 4, 2016 at 16:29
  • @DVK Oh, you meant the book; sorry, thought you meant the movie. Yes, that's probably a bit silly. But, I mean; he's the King
    – Jason Baker
    Jan 4, 2016 at 16:30
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    I'm mildly hurt :) When have i EVER given the impression that I respect film "canon" anywhere as much as real book canon, including when it comes to Tolkien? :))
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Jan 4, 2016 at 16:32

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