Jackson didn’t do a perfect adaptation. What he did do was a pretty good adaptation where most of the liberties he decided or had to take didn’t feel like spitting on the story. Most people don’t expect perfect, but they do expect you to respect the source material. Jackson did and that’s why it’s generally loved.
Yeah, but the majority of what he left out didnt matter. Tom bombadil noped out of the story early and nobody cares about a bunch of horrible songs
The elves at Helm's were done for theatrics that made little sense considering where elves were "at" ideologically in that age, but I don't necessarily considering it a major failing like I do Faramir. Faramir was a total character assassination.
The extended edition leaves him a bit less assassinated, but it still fails to adequately convey how significant it is that he's able to overcome the temptation of the ring. My main beef is the (lack of) character development for Gimli, Merry, and Pippin and their relegation to comic relief. Like yeah there was never going to be time for the Scouring of the Shire, but good god he absolutely butchered that scene where Pippin takes oath to Denethor. The movies get gradually worse as they go on, even as they become more of a spectacle.
Merry wasn't too bad, as he still got his Fields of Pelennor stuff, the Treebeard stuff, etc., even if it was altered. I thought Gimli was mostly fine as well, other than the whole "toss me!" and "dwarves are excellent sprinters!" bullshit. Pippin was definitely the worst and the Denethor stuff really pissed me off.
Some idiot in a suit with a producer credit always thinks they know better than the original author
they should have combined stuff from Silmarillin with Hobbit. would have fleshed out the LOTR characters without gay dwarf shit to fill time.
If I remember correctly, its an elf who shows up exactly that one time in the book and has no further appearances in the Trilogy, so they just gave it to Arwen, since its a pretty meaningful moment wasted on someone the audience would otherwise never see again.
Glorfindel. He's present for the Council of Elrond but they rationalize him not joining the fellowship as him being too powerful for a stealth mission, but not powerful enough to just slam dunk the ring into Mt Doom himself. It's a change that mostly makes sense, although I think Weathertop still ended up being one of the only things they got (badly) wrong in Fellowship.
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