[Lomelinde]

I know that Fenrir and a couple others pointed this out, but Pippin and Merry were kind of driving forces in the story, causing things to happen which at first glance seemed awful and tragic, but then turned out to be for the best. The primary example that comes to my mind is Gandalf's fall. Pippin did indirectly cause Gandalf's "death" by awakening the Balrog, but if Gandalf hadn't fallen, he would never have become the "White Rider", able to defeat Saruman and help greatly in winning the ensuing battles. So even though on first impression, the two crazy albeit lovable hobbits may seem like mistakes, they actually set in motion some pretty big events.