It's a Trap!

The suspiciously hungry and round bug:

Frodo: confused awe

Sam: confused awe

But yes, when they call Pippin Ernil i Perrianath - Prince of the Halflings - they are actually completely spot on.

However, the books also clearly make Merry the Responsible One, even though he’s only been a full adult for four years. (Think early 20s in human terms.) Merry buys and prepares the house at Crickhollow. Merry figures out the secret of the ring before Bilbo even gives it to Frodo, but Merry keeps Bilbo’s secret. Merry convinces Sam to spy on Frodo. Merry explains that they’re all joining Frodo on the Quest, whether Frodo wants them to or not. Merry cautions about the Old Forest and doesn’t go down to drink in the taproom at the Prancing Pony.

So in the books, Merry isn’t Pippin’s partner in pranks - instead, Merry and Pippin spend all their time together on the Quest because Merry’s looking after his younger cousin. Can you imagine what his mother would say if he came home without Pippin? Merry can, and that’s why he takes some pretty absurd personal risks during the books to make sure that doesn’t happen. Like, he literally rides into battle on the back of someone else’s horse, in disguise, because Pippin is probably somewhere in that battle.

Merry is 99%* common sense unless Pippin is involved, and then he is 100% save/rescue/protect/support Pippin. The character growth and maturation we see in Merry in the movies isn’t in the books; instead he has almost the exact opposite arc of becoming an extreme risk-taker, driven by his protective instincts.

when pippin finds merry stumbling half-blind and sick through the streets of Minas Tirith after killing the Ringwraith, he tells Merry “Poor old fellow! I’ll look after you,” half-carries him to the healing halls, and is worried sick about him until he can finally get Aragorn in to give him medicine.

It’s the first time in the story that Pippin  has looked after Merry, instead of the other way around.

While the clothing is of a general style - shirt, waistcoat for gentlefolk, breeches and coat, it’s the details on all of them that show how much thought was put into the costumes.

Compared to the average hobbit, Bilbo and Frodo both have well cut shirts made of fine fabrics and velvet or brocade waistcoats, showing their respectable and comfortably wealthy status.

Compare Frodo’s clothing with Sam and the other hobbits in the bar - similar in style, but Frodo’s is clearly well-to-do compared to the coarser fabrics Sam and the others wear, which makes sense when Sam is a gardener and doing manual labour.

Then we have Merry and Pippin in the same scene:

Like Frodo, Merry does have a nicer cut of shirt and waistcoat in a bold colour, but not quite as fancy. Meanwhile Pip, who is a kid at this point, doesn’t wear one yet.

And this shot of the boys in Rivendell really brings home the difference in the quality and expense of their clothes.

Pippin has a fine white shirt with a lace patterned collar and his braces are intricately woven, both things that would be markers of high-quality, labour intensive fibrework, not to mention the fancy white buttons.

Sam’s collar, by comparison has clear hand-stitching and the fabric of both the shirt and waistcoat are much coarser and more natural colours with buttons probably made from horn or wood.

Merry’s shirt is definitely a step or two up from Sam, but definitely not near the fanciness and quality of Pippin’s or Frodo’s. Likewise, his waistcoat is more elaborate than Sam’s with quilted patterning, but it’s also not the same quality as Frodo’s velvets and brocades.