If you were Sam on Sauron's Road...

[Kalimac]

There have been kind of a lot of the hypothetical questions lately, so thought I'd add one. In the "last gasp" scene on Sauron's road, Sam encounters Gollum while Frodo goes on ahead to the Cracks of Doom. Gollum throws himself down in front of Sam and makes his "When Precious goes, we'll die into the dust" speech, and Sam at the end has pity on him (shades of Bilbo) and lets him go.

Obviously that act of mercy affected the rest of the story like nothing else could have. So the question is, if you were in Sam's situation, would you have killed Gollum or not? Seriously; and remembering what Gollum had put you through three or four days ago with Shelob and the Tower. I like to think I'd be merciful in his place, but considering how much he hated Gollum already, and how nobody could really say that Gollum didn't richly deserve killing at that point, and also how Frodo and Sam were *at* the Mountain and it looked like the end of things anyway...eh, I don't know. I might have done it, wrong as it undoubtedly was. And of course the spinoff of this question is, if you *had* done it, what would you have done once Frodo claimed the Ring? Honestly, I can see Sam pushing Frodo in if that's what it takes, though he would undoubtedly go in right alongside him.

I'm sure there have been variants on this one asked already, but please post any thoughts [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. Thanks.