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Originally Posted by alatar
Peter Jackson surely knows of this story formula, and so may have seen the diminishment of Gandalf as essential to the story arc of Aragorn. Unlike in Tolkien's view (or at least my view of the same), Gandalf does not fade until Sauron falls. PJ's Gandalf peaks somewhere in Fangorn, and begins his slide there, which is about the time Lord Aragorn starts bossing Theoden around.
It all makes sense now, and so having Gandalf destaffed by the Witch-King shows demonstrably that that mentor's days have ended.
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This is just another case of Jackson's incessant meddling with a perfectly good plot. The more he heads off into his self-indulgent ego-stroking, the more the films become irritating. It is exactly why I still cannot watch the Two Towers movie all the way through (even with the extended DVD). Jackson's need to reinterpret Tolkien is most notably annoying and prolonged in TTT, but inane scenes such as the WitchKing breaking Gandalf's staff are unpleasant reminders of PJ's propensity for banal scripting throughout the trilogy. The further he strays from the lore, the more turgid the story becomes, and sadly, most of his forays into self-indulgence do not improve upon the original plot in the least.