[rightwingreligiousfanatic]

That passage is almost as poignant as the one ksen posted yesterday. I'm with you on Gollum. My heart goes out to him, as Tolkien's did.....and yet he was ultimately corrupted utterly....

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I feel sorry for Gollum too... I think, other than Sauron and the Orcs, pretty much every "evil" character in the story had a chance at some point to repent of their evil... and refused the chance.

[ksen]

Whoa! whoa! whoa! I still love our Samwise. Rosie, you even said he wasn't perfect. I was just pointing out that even though his behavior was understandable it still wasn't his best.

The whole quest may have gone differently if Sam had reacted with compassion rather than passion.