I doubt (even setting aside, for the moment, Esty's fiery promise) that this thread will die! It's bound to be slower than the main discussion, but it will trickle along at least. I think the early chapters are so frantically busy with major and minor edits and re-writes it's hard to post on them sometimes. For me, anyway.
I have posted little because I find Bingo quite hard to relate to. He is quite far from the Frodo Baggins I so cherish. I find myself more interested in Frodo Took, the precursor of Pippin. He seems, to me, to have more of the Frodo-ish qualities that I so cherish in the finalized Frodo; he is more sensitive, more mystically oriented, yet level-headed and not a Pippinish ditz. I'm quite fond of Frodo Took, even though he is quite clearly Not Frodo Baggins, and Not Pippin Took. I haven't posted much because I'm still sorting out who the characters are in and of themseves, which is hard because they keep changing!
I think that, like Trotter and Strider, they are and will remain separate characters for me; still, they are also clearly connected. A bit of a puzzle.
Marmaduke! *shakes head* Clearly Merry; much more Merry than Odo is Sam, or FrodoT is Pippin, or Bingo is FrodoB. And yet that name makes me chuckle every time. ... I was quite relieved when he finally morphed into Merry.
The development of the main characters is just awesome to watch.