[Orual]

Those are all excellent points, and I also noticed those phrases when I read the Lord of the Rings. There was something different about Pippin--different from the rest of the hobbits, I mean. I suppose there are two options: to credit it to his "Tookishness," or to credit it to, somehow, fate working through him. If he hadn't thrown his "foolish stone," then it's quite likely that the Balrog never would've come, Gandalf wouldn't have fallen and--most importantly--Gandalf wouldn't have come back as the White. That stone of Pippin's put a lot of huge events into motion. His shouting in the Forest wasn't quite as pivotal, but it did reveal a sensitivity to the atmosphere of the Forest in him. And I think that his connection with Denethor came, as has been said, quite possibly from the fact that they had both looked into the palantiri, and also as sort of a sign of his change. Pippin and Merry don't *seem* to change as much as Sam and Frodo do (save, of course, for their physical growth thanks to the Ent-draught), but I think that beneath their veils of cheerfulness and hobbitish lightness, they were very changed by the quest. It's apparent in the Scourging of the Shire that they're no longer your average hobbit--less so than before. But I digress, and will cease before I get too far off topic.

~*~Orual~*~