Favourite character missing from the films?

[Loony BoB]

Oh, yeah, I was just being silly in response to the crazy ease at which the undead won the battle.

[fire_of_avalon]

Faramir. The man from the films was not Faramir.

I have never heard thus complaint. Why don't people like oviedo Faramir?

[Psychotic]

Faramir. The man from the films was not Faramir.

I have never heard thus complaint. Why don't people like oviedo Faramir?

Spain just isn't the same as Gondor.

[fire_of_avalon]

I really need to reread my posts when I post from my phone.

[Tavrobel]

I have never heard thus complaint. Why don't people like oviedo Faramir?

In the movie, Faramir has some major changes:

A) he's just as tempted by the Ring as his brother, making them effectively the same character

B) relatedly, he's turned into a weak character who desperately wants his father's affection

C) he takes Frodo and Sam a few many miles away from their target destination for very little reason, under the guise of "safety," when they were much safer in Ithilien than Osgiliath (it's under attack in the movies, while Frodo is effectively trapped otherwise)

D) ordering torture isn't cool by any stretch of the imagination (and for any American who didn't realize this before, we now have a Senate report describing in detail, all of the ways that torture is not cool)

This is odd, considering that he's the closest thing to an author avatar as we can get. In the book, he's very, very clearly a good and more importantly, non-corruptible character. He doesn't order any form of torture even after finding Gollum and he doesn't even bother with accusing Frodo of lying straight to his face. He just lets them go, and even gives them some advice.

Faramir doesn't care much about the Ring anyway. Unlike Boromir, who fights for his father's affection (and gets it), Faramir has risen past the need and focuses more on Gondor's well being without resorting to any trinkets of dubious quality. This very need is what gets Boromir killed and keeps Faramir alive.

This is a reflection of his upbringing, a subject not very well elaborated on in the movies. He spent less time conforming to Denethor's idea of a perfect son, and more time being a "wizard's pupil." Mentioning this (or elaborating on it) would perfectly justify Denethor's attitude toward him for most viewers. Mithrandir's wisdom is not to be overlooked lightly, but movie Faramir gives no trouts.

Turning Faramir into an antagonist in the second movie was a really bad decision, and I don't know anyone who has read the books and seen the movies who approves of the change (i've heard people not care, but no one who liked it). All this accomplished was a waste of everyone's time, and it pushed the Cirith Ungol scenes into the third movie, a movie that was already bloated for time.

Jackson didn't have a problem with re-ordering dates to make it fit movie time, but he wanted to preserve the synchronization of Cirith Ungol's stairs' scene with the attack on Minas Tirith? Why? This is wildly inconsistent, as he showed that he was already willing to mess with dates. The best example is when he removed the 17 years of waiting between Gandalf's first visit to Frodo and the second where he actually asks him "where is the Ring?" Another example is when Gandalf reads the account of Isildur finding the Ring: the scene cites the date as 3434 SA, cutting out the 7 year siege of Barad Dur.

So by messing with Faramir, he didn't just mess with Faramir, he messed with Frodo's characterization and Sam's characterization, as well. Jackson mentions that they needed to create tension during the Cirith Ungol scene, so he split Frodo and Sam up. Book Frodo wouldn't do that, as he's shown to hang onto his kindness even while turning into a Ring junkie. The only reason why the Cirith Ungol scenes needed tension was because they were at the beginning of the third movie, when there is no tension. There would have been no need to heavily alter Frodo's characterization if they put it at the end of the second movie. At this point, audiences are thinking, "yo, isn't this movie almost over? What could possibly happen to these guys?"

What better way to answer that than with "lol so I heard you guys like spiders?"

tl;dr second movie Faramir is a douche, Jackson is literally Hitler, book Faramir is Tolkien incarnate, and no one cared about Faramir in the third movie because it's all his fault

[Del Murder]

No one I really liked was missing from the movies but I agree about Faramir. I liked him in the books and he was just a more bratty Boromir in the films.