[Keeper of Dol Guldur]

I always had thought of Sam's thoughts of the Ring and his subsequent use of it were a lot more like Bilbo's in The Hobbit, the chapter The Tower of Cirith Ungol has him thinking fast and reacting, and using it as a Magic Ring, thinking back to how Bilbo had once used it to sneak by, and using it and his 'Sting' in conjunction. There was one quote; "he put it back on without any clear reason for doing it," which shows that it had him doing things habitually instead of wilfully, but then he took it off he thought because it was foggy to see with, but the author mentioned maybe he had a slight inkling or premonition that he had to. I just don't think Sam ever really thought of the One Ring as more than a magic ring, regardless of how serious all the talk was about it - he knew that they needed to toss a magic ring into a fiery pit in Mt. Doom, and that it was a burden on his master, and that was all he thought particularly about it; like mentioned above, the Ring tried, but it didn't get a chance.