I've recently heard the characters Rayl and Dain compared to Merry and Pippin from Tolkien. I was quite surprised by that. The two hobbits had not entered into my mind at all as I developed these characters. Yes, they are friends. Yes, they are a bit mischieveous. But they are otherwise completely different from Tolkien's characters. I suppose I can see where a person could get the idea....sort of...