Gandalf Vs. The Witch King

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Originally Posted by Sarumian

It looks like they started altering the storry and couldn't stop.

That's really the problem, isn't it? I've adapted short stories and novellas for stage performance (most of which required some degree of special effects that needed to be somehow translated to the different presentation), and there's a terrible temptation to want to "make it your own," somehow. To some degree or another, change is necessary because some things just don't work as well in a visual medium as they do in print. Once you start making changes, you have to take care, or you wind up changing much more than is needed, and it becomes a snowball effect. One change triggers another, and another, and soon, the changes that you thought were necessary for adaptation aren't that at all: they're changes needed to support something you altered that either wasn't necessary or wasn't particularly well thought out. In my opinion, a lot of the problems in Jackson's version of LotR hinge on the decision to weaken Aragorn's character in regards to his leadership and desire to be a king. That is really what ultimately led to the change in the confrontation between Gandalf and the WK. If Aragorn of the movies had behaved more like Aragorn of the book from the start -- a man who is striving to be king not for glory, but for the love of Arwen and of his people -- then there would not have been a need for other "stronger" characters to be diminished so that he could step in and take command.

I could go on at some length about this, but I don't think this is the proper topic for it. Suffice it to say that in my opinion, Jackson et al made some questionable decisions early in the scriptwriting process, which led to more and more poor decisions as the process continued. The confrontation between Gandalf and the WK was just another part of that snowball that appears to have gotten badly out of control.

All just my opinion, as ever.