Mr Bombadil always seems to get a hard time from many readers of lotr.
here's some reasons why I think tom/old forest/barrowdowns should have been included (in the EE perhaps)
1/ Merry gets his sword to help defeat the witch king.
2/ we see that the ring is not ALL powerful. this is important
3/ we can see the forces of Nature at work.
4/ the old forest and old man willow foreshadows fangorn and thus helps build the atmosphere of fangorn when merry and pippin arrive there
5/ the tom episodes show us that the LOTR is only a small PART of the history of middle-earth, and would add more atmosphere to the story.
6/ the adventure in the barrow shows us Frodo the 'Hero'
7/ we could have seen another facet of the witch king in 'waking up' the wights as explained in unfinished tales
8/ helps explain how the hobbits got away from the black riders who were only 20 miles aware via a fast horse. although i suppose in the movie, the buckleberry ferry brings us to Bree. (it was raining on one side of the river and not on the other....)
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