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How come Pippin always seems to be regarded as having less love for Frodo than Merry? Is it his "lighter" nature?
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I think this impression might come from the fact that Pippin CAN throw away a treasure at need, and he seems less attached to the things of the world, more Gandalf-like in that respect. Merry is constantly pulled back to Earth and admonishes himself ("Frodo and Sam! I am forgetting them!) and it pulls him back to his cares and his worry. He is depressed when Pippin is not there, and seems to need others around him, whereas Pippin treads lightly upon Middle Earth, one of the aspects of his personality I've tried to emulate, except where it creates conflicts with the more sensitive members of the world. It is a skill that works only when it is finely honed, and without this honing, it comes off as foolishness and mindlessness, perhaps childishness even! It is another question whether the Ring would have gotten Pippin before he could "grow up," but he does seem vulnerable to the unexplained drawing power of unseen forces, viz. the Palantir incident. So he probably would have tried it, but only if it had been in proximity to him.
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I see Pippin in the same light. He would not mean harm, nor would he seek power. I would agree that he might even be deaf to the call. My assertion has been that if the Ring were in reach, Pippin would try it on just to see what would happen/what it would do. I would posit the same would happen if he saw Frodo's star glass, Gandalf's staff, Boromir's horn, etc.
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Too true, except I don't think the 'call' would take an earthly form, as it did for Boromir, as it might for Aragorn, or even as it did in the end for Frodo. Pippin wishes to know the otherworldly, the names of things, all the stars in the sky, the lands of the world, etc. etc.,. I think his desire is much like Gandalf's desire to have looked into the Palantir and seen the hands of Fëanor at work long ago, a desire for knowledge. But the Ring would have merely given him grandiose notions. And then, like Sam, he would have realized he isn't big enough for grandiose notions and taken it off like a good Hobbit!
On a last note, I think I would have thrown the book against the wall and stomped on it if Pippin fell to the Ring. I'm glad this is only hypothetical!
Cheers!
Lyta