Interesting take. I don't agree with everything you said, but I follow your reasoning, and I found your analysis fascinating. Personally I never found Bombadil annoying, more extraneous to the greater narrative.
To my mind Jackson's greatest misstep was leaving off the Scouring of the Shire (I know, I know... Return of the King had too many endings already). In this omission, he seemed to miss one of the main thrusts of the novel: that the common, simple, salt-of-the-earth types had become the true heroes, marking the beginning of the Fourth Age.
Interesting take. I don't agree with everything you said, but I follow your reasoning, and I found your analysis fascinating. Personally I never found Bombadil annoying, more extraneous to the greater narrative.
To my mind Jackson's greatest misstep was leaving off the Scouring of the Shire (I know, I know... Return of the King had too many endings already). In this omission, he seemed to miss one of the main thrusts of the novel: that the common, simple, salt-of-the-earth types had become the true heroes, marking the beginning of the Fourth Age.