[Kalimac]

I don't know; I'm holding out hope that Pippin will get his moment of glory with dropping the brooch etc. The reason I say this is that in the first movie, even though he's portrayed as being the Shire's class clown while Merry is slightly more serious, he starts becoming much more serious towards the end. During the last scene he and Merry are pretty much acting as equals when they start running to divert the Orcs (no, that wasn't in the book but it was a nice addition in the film as it showed they were capable of something besides being rescued from the consequences of their own idiocy). And in the scene where Boromir is shot, they both rush the Orcs and are only carried away after resisting as much as possible. <P>Since at the end of FOTR, M & P are doing these things as equals, I think there's enough room for the leadership spotlight to start shifting towards Pippin. Even in the book, M & P don't really come into their own until TTT. Besides, in the movie it would make a nice contrast, the way it does in the book - Pippin drops the brooch on purpose (I don't think that PJ would have the Elves be so sloppy in their work that he could ACCIDENTALLY drop an Elvish brooch) and by thinking with the seat of his pants, so to speak, manages to get them out of immediate danger; then Merry, who read the maps at Rivendell, takes over for the less frantic, more intellectual part of their escape. It's certainly much more interesting than having Pippin play Follow the Leader all the way, and besides, PJ is going to have to start setting Pippin up for his scenes with Denethor, Faramir, and Palantir, so why not do it early? That's my hope, anyway.<P>One thing - the trailers so far have shown very little of Merry and Pippin (rather to my disappointment, as it happens ) and all the shots seem to be from one scene - M & P awake, on the ground, and looking up. This could well be the last scene of their captivity, when Grishnakh takes them both off together and tries to frighten them into giving him information/the Ring. Merry was awake for this and even played along when Pippin started saying "Gollum, gollum," and so forth, so Merry being awake wouldn't mean too much. Also I believe this was one of only two brief periods of their captivity when the two of them were allowed to be together; incidentally, both times they were together, Merry was awake if groggy.<P>That's assuming PJ has stuck to the book on this one, more or less. Hopefully he has - if nothing else I'd like to hear the Orcs cussing each other out in Black Speech as Pippin slowly wakes up and starts rethinking his previous unstrategical approach to things...