I know its a bit dated a discussion now, but I recently thought about this again and wanted to share. (Also posted to /r/fixingmovies.)
Like many fans of the books, I couldn’t ever be perfectly happy with a film adaptation, but I do understand that sometimes changes to the story can be a necessary evil when changing media. Despite this, there were several changes that still bothered me. I want to focus on fixing one in particular: the rivalry between Legolas and Gimli. Throughout the films Gimil gets the short end of the stick. He seems to lose every competition and that just doesn’t make an interesting rivalry.
One scene I would alter is the drinking contest in Theoden’s hall. In the scene Gimli challenges Legolas to a “last man standing” drinking contest. Gimli gets visibly drunker and drunker while Legolas remains completely unaffected until Gimli finally falls over unconscious, mid-boast. Now there’s quite a bit of lively debate online about the effects of alcohol on elves in Tolkien's works, so there's some room for interpretation. My proposed fix there would be to leave most of it as is: Gimli gets visibility drunker while Legolas seems to remain unaffected. However after Gimli’s dramatic collapse, the when the crowd turns to congratulate the winner, they find Legolas catatonic, asleep on his feet with eyes still open and half tankard of ale still in hand. Aragorn waves his hand in front of Legolas’s eyes and gets no reaction. This change adds more humor to an already amusing scene and sets up the rivalry on something like a draw.
The battle of Helm’s Deep just needs more of Gimli efficiently chopping orcs to pieces and less shots of him stumbling. He’s a badass, and this scene needs to better show that. Especially the part after the explosion where he attempts to hold the breach himself. He bounces his axe off of one orc helmet and falls on his ass, only to be saved by a volley of elven arrows and an elven counterattack. He really should have been still on his feet hewing orcs when the counterattack arrives, if about to be overwhelmed. This scene barely addresses the rivalry directly (it’s got more important things to show) but a stronger showing from Gimli here makes the later banter between them much stronger for the viewer. It also makes the "Don't tell the elf" bits funnier.
The biggest change I would make would be the “That only counts as one!” scene. Legolas’s takedown of the entire elephant and riders is a fun addition typical of Jackson’s interpretation, but again it leaves Gimli overshadowed. I would have added a subsequent battle shot where Gimli, grumpy about Legolas’s clear lead, faces down a charging elephant, slices its achilles tendon and sends it tumbling, crushing the riders. Again, this adds more excitement to the scene and strengthens the rivalry element. Afterwards, Gimli would proudly boast to Legolas that his elephant had more riders. Legolas would smirk and counter with, “But as you say master dwarf, it only counts as one.” Gimli is immediately grumpy again.
So, overall Gimli would be shown to be a worthy rival to Legolas, but Gimili would still be overall grumpy about Legolas outshining him (as he does already in the film as it is). That makes the rivalry more engaging, keeps the enjoyable humorous dynamic between them, and makes their growing mutual respect more meaningful.
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