Accepting changes that were made

[Essex]

There's one part of the book that I always struggle with, and that's why does Aragorn let Frodo and Sam go to Modror on their own? Yes, he wants to save Merry and Pippin from certain torment, but wouldn't he sacrfice them for the good of Middle-earth?

The film version comes up with a way around this. Not perfect, and again, it's a dreaded Change, but I think the writers themselves also struggled with why Aragorn let Frodo go, and filmed their version of this. Not that I really agree with the way they did it, but I understand their thinking.....

[Celebuial]

The extra's helped me come to terms with some of the changes but not all of them. Sometimes theres only so much "...but for a cinema audience..." you can take. My friend does Film Studies and she still has problems with some of the changes, so I think we're all justified not to like or understand the need for some of them.

[Lathriel]

I know quite a number of people ho had trouble with Aragron falling of the cliff in TTT. One of my friends who is a fan of romance however, loved it. (rolls eyes)
I always liked it because I thought it was a clever way of including Arwen into the movie and I hardly had to hear the documentary for the explanation.

Indeed the book never akes it very clear as to why Aragorn leaves Frodo and Sam although the movie has a good answer. Maybe they should have taken more time to develop the ideas they had. However, that would have made the movie longer and when I watched it in the theatres I remember that I really had to go to the washroom at the end which is why I made a point of not eating or drinking anything at all during the other two movies.

[Elladan and Elrohir]

Reasons why Aragorn might have let Frodo go (off the top of my head):

1) The Ring would have worked on him and whoever else he took with him the longer they went, thus producing the Boromir effect all over again.

2) His first priority was to deliver Minas Tirith from certain destruction. That may sound unimportant in light of the possibility of the Ring returning to Sauron, but Aragorn's first responsibility was to his own people.

3) His main stated reason in the book and movie: There was still hope for Frodo and Sam if they were allowed to go alone. There was no hope for Merry and Pippin if they were taken to Isengard. Also, the knowledge Saruman would have gained from them would have been detrimental. There was also the fact that Merry and Pippin never would have met Treebeard and so Isengard would never have fallen, but Aragorn didn't know that.

4) Exigency. He had to make a quick decision, and he didn't have time to think through the finer points of the implications of such a decision, such as my first two points (though they may have crossed his mind). He questioned himself several times afterwards (apparently), but Gandalf later comforted him by saying that he made a quick decision, and it turned out to be the right one.

5) He did what he felt, deep down, was the right thing to do. Frodo had gotten safely away, Boromir had almost conveniently fallen in battle, Aragorn was responsible for the Company since Gandalf's fall, the clear path of pursuing the Uruk-Hai had been laid out before him -- all the signs pointed to the decision he made.

It could have gone either way. Ultimately, Aragorn went with his gut feeling, and it turned out to be right.