Peter Jackson said in a documentary on the return of the king extended edition that it was not important how quick gollum died once he hit the lava. He said the look on gollum's face was important, and the look on his face of someone who had just been betrayed by something he trusted. He thought the ring was his precious but in reality it did not give a crapt about him, and in that moment he realized that. Hope that clears that up. The scourging of the shire on film would have been anti-climatic. Think about it, you are already exhausted from thecurrent length of the film and the many endings and you see aragon crowned and your heading back to the shire. But when you get there its hell on earth. The audience would have been thinking "when the hell does this end". The movie was long enough I mean come on 4 hrs. 10 min. is way to long.