[Diamond18]

Pippin. (What a surprise...)<P>Both Merry and Pippin are more rounded and deeper in the books (of course) and Merry comes across a little more noticable as his own character in the books, I think. To be fair to movie-Merry, most of my favorite Pippin/Merry material from the books is from RotK or parts of TTT that didn't make it into the movie but still might be in the Rotk-movie. So I may like movie-Merry better and better after the last installment. After all, the slaying of the Witch-King and insuing injury has got to be good for some nice face time for the ol' boy!<P>There are lots of reasons why Pippin's my favorite, but I'd have to say the best way to sum it all up is when his spirit laughs a little before he passes out under the troll, thinking he's dying. That just describes his character perfectly. I hope they don't gloss over his side of the story in RotK <I>too</I> much (at least play up the troll-squashing, please! I know PJ and Co can do a great death/almost death scene, and I want to see it for Pip!)<P>Pippin is no idiot, fie upon anyone who calls him one! I do enjoy the more clownish Pippin in the movies, to a certain extent, but sometimes the script was just unfair. In the book when Gandalf snaps at him it always seemed more grouchiness on Gandalf's part, in the movie Pippin often deserves it. But I can live with that, since they have known enough to let him mature as time goes on instead of stubbornly sticking to him as the butt-end of all the jokes. I love the Scottish accent. Even though Billy Boyd looks a bit too old for my mental image of Pippin from reading the books, he really brings to life the personality and mannerisms of the character.