Quote:
All he had to do was have the Three Walkers jump off the lead ship, wave to soldiers coming off it with him and say something like
-Tuor
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But that's where the effects of poor planning really can nip someone in the rear. What at first seems like a minor change, spirals into major distortions.
When PJ decides for Aragorn to tell Elrond in Dunharrow "there are no more men," there is no way for Aragorn to show up on Pelennor with Men, without the audience thinking...wait a second where did these men come from?
Think of Theoden treating Helm's Deep as a retreat in the movies. It does not seem to be a major change from the books, what is the big deal if Theoden goes to Helm's Deep to escape war, or to head off to war? That minor change, creates more severe distortions later.
Because, in the movies, Theoden is not expecting to go into a battle with Saruman, he is going to Helm's Deep as a retreat.
Now, how does Theoden find out that Saruman is coming and there will be a fight?
-This forces someone to warn Theoden of the approaching battle. Gandalf is gone, so I guess Jackson decided to choose Aragorn as the person. Now Aragorn needs to be seperated from Theoden, insert Warg attack, Aragorn falling off the cliff and spotting Saruman's massive army.
Another problem this creates is Theoden is trying to escape war, so he takes the women and children, and apparently doesn't take many soldiers and there doesn't seem to be many soldiers stations at Helm's Deep. If it is being used as a place of retreat and hide...why take many soldiers?
-Now that Saruman is coming with 10,000 Rohan needs more soldiers, insert the Elves coming from Lorien.
The problem here is how do the Elves get there within a matter of hours? This has created confusion as to whether the Elves have some sort of Scotty beaming device, or fleet foot potion...etc
I hope this isn't too far off topic, but one seemingly minor change (in Jackson's view) actually forces more and more changes later in the movies, because it wasn't effectively planned out. He just went day to day deciding whatever he wanted to do, instead of planning how one change will effect the movie.
Basically with the decision to inflate Sauron's numbers to 300,000 at the Battle of Pelennor, while keeping Gondor's and Rohan's forces the same, Jackson painted himself between a rock and a hard place. How does Gondor overcome those odds? Well, I guess there needs to be an unstoppable wave of ghosts.
