Pity? Yes it was pity--pity and mercy. . .Whoops, wrong LotR quote! :) Seriously, now that you mention it, Pippin really does define the reader's viewpoint in much of RotK, doesn't he? My favorite part was the part you allude to where he told the little kid he was really a big fearsome wrestler back in his own country--"I am a halfling: hard, bold, and wicked!" :)
LOL I really wish they had found a way to put that in there...Boyd would have really made it comic. And I love the way the kid comes back and says "Oh yeah?!"