In the book, Aragorn. Arrogant, difficult to work with, expecting to step right into the kingship after Stewards had held the line all those years. I did not like him.
In the movie, Merry; he annoyed me, and he was way to worried about who was taller.
Do Merry and Pippin do anything that wouldn’t have happened if there were just one of them? I’d say one or the other are completely expendable (I don’t even remember anything to distinguish the two).
If there was only one to stay in Rohan, then Faramir would be toast.
If the one went to Minas Tirith instead, Eowyn might not have been inspired to get her head in the game and go kill the Witch King.
But would Faramir have even told his father about Frodo and the Ring, if he hadn’t been inspired by seeing Pippin in Minas Tirith?
Fucking hobbits. You cannot tell me that had they replaced the hobbits with some badass elves or Rangers that the fellowship wouldn’t have ghosted themselves right up to Mount Doom tout suite.
They could have crossed those wintery mountains easy except for the hobbits. It was the hobbits that made all the racket in Moria that attracted the goblins. It was the hobbits that got captured and caused the breakup of the fellowship. The hobbits were just a pain in the hole, replace them with Glorfindal and watch the fellowship kick ass and take names without the need for any of that other drama.
So I picked Merry, because he is a hobbit and in the films his actor was a smug cunt.
No Hobbit in Minas Tirith also means no Palantir to drive Denethor over the edge, so yeah. I don’t think Denethor would have been sending Faramir out on a suicide run with no knowledge of The Ring. He’d still probably be pretty cheesed off about Boromir being dead and all.
And watch Sauron go “Oh look, there’s this great glowing powerful ELF attempting to walk right up to my front door!” :smack:
Meh, Glorfindal isn’t a nightlight, he could go all ninja if he wanted to. Besides, if Sauron has a problem with any of this he can moan about it right up till the point Glorfindal kicks him in the balls.
Gimli. He really didn’t do anything that mattered. Everyone else had some sort of role in a key plot element. He’s a true Affirmative Action token Dwarf! 
Denethor had his own palantir that had nothing to do with Pippin. The one that Pippin got his hands on was the Orthanc stone; Minas Tirith had one that Denethor kept secret. And without Pippin, Gandalf would have looked in the Orthanc stone and been caught by Sauron.
Without Merry, the Witch-King doesn’t buy the farm at Pelennor Fields, although whether that actually influences the outcome of the battle is open to question. It may be that the prophecy means that Gandalf is fated not to kill him, but that can perfectly well come true if Gandalf sears him within an inch of his unlife and he flees the battle squealing like a little girl. But also without Merry and the Horn of Rohan, the Shire don’t rise to drive out Sharkey and the gang, so Frodo’s homecoming is not too cheery.
Frodo. With eight people as back up, that’s a pretty deep allowance.
Gimli appears to have influenced the leadetship at Lorien, and even Rohan. He did save Eomer.
Pippin. Annoying little git.
For Ilúvatar’s sake, it’s Glorfindel.
I’d choose to off Pippin.
Plus, he got to blow the hell-tuba! That’s gotta count for something!
why’d they put the mouthpiece low enough that he could reach it? do they normally leave that task to some little kid? That’s just sad.