Oh my god! How could I forget Old Bombadil! I would have remembered if I#d listened to the commentaries. One of the things that 'annoyed' me once I'd seen TT was that Phillipa Boyens says that 'just imagine that the hobbits DID meet bomadil' just that they didn;t show it.
Now a couple of things - ok, so Aragorn gives them some swords to use - that shouldnlt happen, but in TT when pippin's talking to merry when they're captured by the orcs and near fangorn - pippin speaks about 'remember the stories about the old forest and trees that could move' - they wouldn't have been old stories if the hobbits had been through and eaten by old man willow!!!!!!!!!!! and anyway, in rotk ee, they get eaten by old man willow again!!!!! what dumb luck!
anyway, to me bombadil is one of the KEY characters of lotr, not just a throw away. It shows that not EVERYONE is suceptible to the Ring, and indeed is not changed by the Ring. He could also see Frodo when he wore the Ring.
But, and most importantly of all, the Quest would have failed totally if they did not go through the old forest and meet bombadil. I've mentioned this umpteen times on bombadil threads, but if Merry hadn't got his numenorean sword to help slay the witch king, then Game Over for Middle-earth. (domino effect)
I would have really have loved to have seen the bombadil scenes - we didn't need to see his hey doll merry doll neccesarily, but at least show him - and imagine the scenes in the Barrow with the sword against the hobbits' necks...........