: These were probably Rohirrim, then. The horsehair plumes you identify are what I base that guess on.

: : The troops who look like samurai were a disorganised rabble
: : which is why, I presume, I thought that they must be orcs.

: They were charging a massed line of troops. It would be difficult for them to maintain any orderly formation (maybe real soldiers, trained and drilled for years in attacking in a massed formation, could do it -- but these were extras in a movie).

: : Of course they could be easterlings which might be why they
: : look oriental.

: Possibly, but there aren't supposed to be any Easterlings in Rohan at the time of the War of the Ring. The battle could, of course, be for some other scene -- such as the Battle of the Pelennor Fields (but then we get some inaccuracies in that kind of scenario which would set the purists to howling).

: I suggest we have too little information to really know what that scene is portraying.

: And although I, too, have disagreed with many of Galadriel's interpretations of the sets, let's keep in mind that she may be an insider who is leaking information in a deliberately garbled fashion both to protect herself (or himself) and to keep the fans guessing about the real details.

True. I sorta jumped the gun on that one. When I read the article she wrote about the elves looking like samurai I didn't think clearly. The elves are my favorite and like I said earlier I was hoping that I could see a new idea for elvish armor.
-Thentaran