Bamboozled By My Book-Based Brain

[Knight of Gondor]

I understand your objections. But I think we could take up a whole forum with being upset at the changes between movie and book. There are numerous small-time beefs that people have with the books (try http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=9638). Some of them are good, some of them are for dumb audiences, some for more Hollywood-esque elements (having Eowyn follow and rescue her uncle, and then not see him ere he dies would probably be a Hollywood plot no-no, although I'm not well-versed in Hollywood-ology), and some of them for various other reasons. It was a shame it didn't play out in the movie the way it did in the books, but then again, it was nice to see an "alternate" version if you will, to see Eowyn bid Theoden farewell.