[Lalaith]

Of the changes that were made in the two films, the Arwen/Glorfindel one was the least irritating, because it worked well, it was impressive on screen. <BR>I think it is better to substitute a character for another character than to take a character from the book, give him the same name but a totally different personality. I'm not just talking about the obvious of Faramir, I'm talking about Aragorn losing his wish to be king, Elrond becoming a patriachal tyrant, Gimli turned into a crass comic attraction, Theoden into a sullen unco-operative whinger, Boromir (a bluff, hearty soldier in the book) into a tortured existentialist anti-hero.<BR>With the Arwen/Glorfindel substitution, most people will see this, someone will tell them "oh in the book it was actually an elflord called Glorfindel," and they'll remember that.<BR>But the changes to character traits are more insiduous. Even in debates among knowledgable people on message boards, I've noticed that they are thinking of the movie characters and not the book characters.