Definitely this. The way it plays out in the movie is lazy. The ghosts serve as a convenient Deus Ex Machina whose only purpose is to end the battle plotline. In the books it’s one of many elements that allows the forces of good to have a little bit of an edge against Sauron.
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Which Tolkien?
The estate, so I’d assume Christopher (or whoever approves things to be ‘official’); this was right before the LOTR movies came out.
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Same here. Still haven’t seen the third and I have a rip of it on a hard drive even.
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I’m probably due for a re-read, but I definitely recall feeling that both the ghosts (in the book, more like zombies) and the SoGo army were a little too convenient, and almost cheap, except for that, at that point in the story, they are the ONLY reason why Aragorn is “the Chosen One.”
Edit: I have a bigger problem with how the movie transitions from the Battle of the Pelennor Fields to the Invasion of Mordor. In the movie, after the BothPF, the Gondor forces and Rohirim are toast. There are hardly any soldiers left. Yet somehow, they scrounge up a big enough army to make a credible threat to The Black Gate? That’s a real stretch unless they are reinforced by Imrahil’s SoGo troops.
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Well, that and being able to use the palantír to taunt Sauron.
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All you need to know is that they stretched one chapter of a short kid’s novel into a three-hour CGI battle epic and still somehow managed to leave out the badass were-bear’s fight scene.
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Meh. It might have been even more tactically valuable to have Galadriel taunt Sauron via palantír by implying she had the Ring. It would have taken Sauron’s army and attention much farther from Mordor. Other than playing to Sauron’s emotional baggage from the last time he had the ring taken by force and having his plans knocked back a couple of millenia, Galadriel is the more credible threat.
Saruman, a freaking Maiar, couldn’t look into the palantír without being corrupted. Gandalf didn’t even try. Galadriel might well have endured the same fate for doing so (plus, they would have needed to transport the palantír from Orthanc to Lothlórien somhow (where are those damned Eagles when you nead them?).
‘You forget to whom you speak,’ said Aragorn sternly, and his eyes glinted. ‘What do you fear that I should say to him? Did I not openly proclaim my title before the doors of Edoras? Nay, Gimli, I am the lawful master of the Stone, and I had both the right and the strength to use it, or so I judged. The right cannot be doubted. The strength was enough - barely.’
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You don’t LOOK into the palantir. You troll Sauron by writing taunting notes and crudely drawn cartoons on parchment and holding them up to it for him to see.
ETA: or just rub your junk all over it. Think about it- Sauron is a giant lidless eye. He literally CANNOT LOOK AWAY.
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From my understanding, which isn’t great, is that the more powerful a person the easier they may succumb to Sauron’s influence. Galadriel and Gandalf were wise enough to nope when confronted with the ring and i would presume they would have the same reaction with any of the stones.
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Oh, I agree that the book works much better as written. But if we’re going to retcon the movies, we have to retcon the books. Of any alternate to Aragorn, Galadriel is probably #2 option to use the stones. She was more resistant to the pull of the Ring than either Saruman or Gandalf. She implies that with the Ring, she could take down Sauron, but that what she’d become in the process, it would make little difference.
Speaking from personal real-world experience, (I’ve done this), it works just fine if you squat down into it as far as you can. Only tippy bit is during entry and exit.
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I believe Gandalf says much the same thing — that he’d take up the ring for good reasons, and end up being corrupted by it until he was no better than Sauron.
I don’t read Galadriel as being any less tempted by the Ring than Gandalf was. She’d just learned her lesson; she was of the Noldor. The Noldor came to Middle Earth led by Galadriel’s uncle and cousins, who swore a great and terrible oath to recover a similarly powerful treasure, and lied, stole, pillaged, and murdered in service to that cause.
After contemplating taking the Ring when offered by Frodo:
“I pass the test”, she said. “I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.”
It did take a test of her will to refuse the Ring. Trying a palantír probably would not be wise.
Remember, Aragorn said that part of the reason that he was able to use the stone was that he had a right to use it. By that logic, the second choice to use the stone would have been Denethor, Steward of Gondor, and look at how well that worked out for him.
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What? Why would the upjumped groundskeeper have a right to use the global videoconferencing system? 
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I do agree. There was this really great promo shot that never made it into the films. I think even a few moments of the Hobbits returning to (or even just surveying) the Shire whilst still in their clothes of war, would have had a great emotional impact.
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Well, this discussion has definitely convinced me that the best way to experience Lord of the Rings is through that handful of Zeppelin songs.
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Not Leonard Nimoy ones?
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I’ve heard that you have to hear the extended mix to really understand it.
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