[Kalimac]

Diamond, now that I think about it, you're right about Pippin sort of jumping out like an idiot and Merry quick-wittedly turning it into a diversion. But you have to admit that for BOTH of them this is a very gutsy thing to do compared with the firework-loving pranksters of the early movie (and the inn-obsessed Pippin of the book). So while Pippin may still be less mature than Merry, he's much more mature than the Merry of the beginning of the story. I'm probably wrong, but I'm still holding out hope that Pippin gets his moment in TTT - if nothing else, it makes so much sense; if they leave in the part about Merry being unconscious half the time, Pippin will be forced to act on his own and will discover resources he never knew he had. And of course this will prepare him for those little businesses with the Palantir, Denethor and Faramir . <P>As for the troll, I could never figure that out either. My guess would be that the troll happened to fall at a very fortunate angle so that Pippin ended up under the curve of his neck or the curve of an arm or some part of the body that wasn't flat on the ground. Even in the book the troll is described as being pretty monstrous and Tolkien is a little vague as to where exactly under the troll Pippin was situation. But for a foot to be showing, he probably had to be under an extremity, otherwise he would have just been completely covered (and squashed).