tookish results

general questions

what be thy name?
alena.

where do you currently reside?
nowheresville.

have you read "the lord of the rings" novels? if so, which is your favourite book and why?
yes. i'd have to say rotk, it's so exciting and shows the hobbits as mature young dudes.

have you seen the film versions? how many times? why?
yes. i saw fotr once. that was my dad's idea and ttt i saw thrice and i'm counting the days till rotk!!! why? cause i'm obsessed.

is pippin your favourite character?
yes!!!! haha, cute and funny and learns from his (many) mistakes.

book questions

describe how you imagine pippin.
it depends on when in the story. i guess all the way through, he's learning, and he's smarter in the latter of the books.

what was your initial response to pippin's character?
hey, that dude's funny!

what in his character do you like?
his tight, loyal, friendship, his wit, his obvious mortality, and his simplicity (for a start).

what do you dislike?
not much...

what do you consider pippin's strongest suit?
on the spot wit when he needs it most.

what are his weaknesses?
spontaneous actions without thinking (like me).

to what degree did pippin's tookish nature play into his leaving the shire? was pippin searching for something when he left, or was it purely to help frodo?
probably a little of both. i really never thought of it that way, but now it seems a lot like his tookishness...

what purpose did pippin have with the fellowship?
he was probably great to look to to lighten their spirits, just looking at him makes me laugh with joy.

what would have happened if he had been left behind? how would he be different? how would the others be different?
i think, lots of things would have happened. i can think of plenty of times merry wouldn't have made it if not for him and gandalf would have looked into the palantír, which would have been disastrous and faramir would have died for sure.

how does the grand adventure change pippin?
he becomes more of an adult, he's able to take charge of things and think for himself.

was pippin unsure of himself at the beginning of the tale?
yes, numerous times he feels pretty stupid and useless, and even angry at himself.

does pippin have a hero? who and why?
i think so, i personally think he really looked up to gandalf and must have felt pretty bad with him yelling at him all the time.

describe how you see pippin's relationship with merry.
i like to think that they'd been very good friends all their lives, for some reason or another, it seems very right.

do you think merry was ever disappointed in his cousin (ie during the palantír incident)?
maybe, but usually, your own faults bother you more than the faults of others and you tend to let other's faults go.

what do you think gandalf felt towards the young took? what was their relationship?
i think for a while gandalf looked down on him and then something changed him and he was much kinder. i think that by the end, they were great friends.

do you think gandalf was particularly hard on pippin? why?
yes, i think he was a bit disappointed, pippin's great-great (great-great...) grandfather gerontious took, had been a friend of gandalf's and maybe he expected pippin to be just as good as his ancestors.

when the fellowship first meets galadriel it is said, "each had felt he was offered a choice between a shadow of fear that lay ahead, and something he greatly desired: clear before his mind it lay, and to get it he had only to turn aside from the road and leave the quest and the war against sauron and the others." what do you think pippin was offered?
probably to go back to the shire. by then he was probably tired of adventures and wanted to go home

what do you think boromir represented to pippin?
a father/brother as well as a larger than life before amon hen, he probably admired him, a great warrior of gondor, who wouldn't.

how did the death of boromir affect pippin?
greatly and deeply. it was a baptism in blood. boromir he probably felt it was partially his fault and had a debt to repay.

why do you think faramir so moved pippin?
he was probably very surprised how much he looked like boromir and it would be weird meeting someone whose brother was your best friend and then died protecting you.

what do you think motivated pippin to swear fidelity to gondor?
it was probably that feeling of need to repay for boromir's bravery and death.

was it appropriate pippin ended up serving denethor, not théoden? why?
i think so, if he hadn't become a servant of gondor he wouldn't be there to help save faramir and it was better that merry and pippin were soldiers of different cities.

how do you imagine pippin as a father?
hmmmmm... probably a caring, loving, tookish father.

in the end, what do you feel pippin lost and what did he gain from his journey?
he probably lost some of his youth, he still wasn't "come of age" on the adventure, but he acted like an adult afterward. i think he gained respect for the free people in the east and realized that there was more out there than the shire.

favourite scene or quote?
"so ends a fair day in wrath."

film questions

how do you think pippin was portrayed in the movie?
in fotr he was more comedy relief than i would have made him and in ttt i think he was very well portrayed

many felt pippin in the film came off as "stupid," do you agree?
a little, he was dumber than he should have been. he was funny in the books, but he was also witty when he made jokes.

did you enjoy the performance of billy boyd as pippin? how so?
well, he didn't have much screen time, and the thing where the ents refused to go to war and he just about gave up... i didn't like that very much.

favourite scene or quote?
"the closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm, it's the last thing he'll expect."

if you've seen the movie and read the books

which scene from the books which didn't make it into the film do you miss most?
tom bombadil!

was the pippin of the films accurate to the pippin you imagined?
it's a little hard to say, i saw the movies first, but when i read it, a few things matched up and a few didn't.

what do you most look forward to in return of the king?
when he kills the troll, i love that.

which scene are you most worried about?
hmmmmm... probably the one with the troll, i'm worried that they'll delete it!

if you magically had the chance to change one thing concerning film pippin (be it action, line or trait) what would it be?
maybe, when he just says something stupid. not when he does something, those are important, but he just says whatever's on his mind and that makes him look kind of stupid.

extra

can you think of think of any other questions which would be nice here?
do you think pippin was tolkien's favorite character? why or why not?

who's another favourite character (from anywhere, not just lotr) of yours, and why?
ooooo! that's a hard one. i guess, charlette doyle, from "the true confessions of charlette doyle." she's really a great character because she realizes that she's not the person she was trying to be and is more comfortable when she finds where she belongs.

lse says!

hello alena! thank you for your survey. mmm. nowheresville, is that where the nowhere man lives? nowhere man... please listen... what a fabizzle place to be indeed! your answers had me in stitches from the get go... the hobbits as "mature dudes." it was too much! the word "dude" invoked all sorts of images of the four hobbits as californian surfers or something for me personally.
great point about pippin's humor! nail on the head. so right on i cannot fully express my concurrence. yes, in the novels pippin is very funny, but in a wry witty like manner, in the films he is still funny but in a much more mishap, unpurposeful way. both pippins are funny, but entirely different at the same time. i prefer witty pippin myself i think.

... x