Mike,
If you read your Appendices you will find out that the Elves did indeed
fight
in the WOTR. The Lorien Elves were attacked by forces from Dol Guldur,
routed them and then laid siege and destroyed the place. Thranduril's
Mirkwood
folk fought alongside the Dalemen and Dwarves of Erebor against an army
of invading Easterlings.
The Elves pulled their weight they simply were not in the theater that JRRT
focused on in the books.
Tim
···
I agree that some of the plot deviations seemed unecessary, and were
probably bad decisions with no real reason to advance the story. (The
aforementioned Aragorn off the cliff, vacillating Theoden, etc.)
However, there were a couple changes I liked. Aside from the Gollum
improvements, the other plot deviation I actually liked was the Elves
showing up at Helms Deep. I always wondered in the books why Tolkien
never had the Elves help out militarily. They seemed genuinely concerned
with the outcome, but in all cases all they appeared to want to do was
to let the party rest a bit, and then shove them out the door and leave
them on their own. This was a nice touch.Mike Mulka