10 Dumbest Decisions By Lord Of The Rings Characters
8. Pippin Can’t Keep His Hands To Himself
Time to return to everybody's favourite fool, Pippin. While a spot of luck might have saved his stunt with the Palantir, this dumb decision - which also stemmed from curiosity - had some rather drastic and destructive consequences which resulted in the death of Gandalf, the disbanding of The Fellowship and arguably the entire course of events after Fellowship of the Ring. Sometimes even the smallest being can make a significant impact.
The scene in question occurs as The Fellowship are traversing the Mines of Moria and come across Balin's Tomb. While Gimli grieves and the others investigate, Pippin takes it upon himself to touch a decaying corpse above a well. This spat of curiosity results in the body falling, making a huge sound, alerting the Orcs and leading to the awakening of The Balrog, which of course resulted in Gandalf's death.
If Pippin hadn't made this dumb move, then the entire series could have played out entirely differently, with The Fellowship making their way to Mordor together. Of course, this would have ruined the themes of the story and probably wouldn't have worked. Still, it's mind-boggling to think how much impact this little Hobbit had.