[Formendacil]

It's fascinating to me that this thread focuses mostly on Shelob when I find Shagrat and Gorbag to be at least as fascinating. When much younger, I didn't think much of them: they were just Ugluk and Grishnakh 2.0, but that doesn't really fit to me anymore: Shagrat and Gorbag have personalities as distinct from each other and from Ugluk and Grishnakh as much as Merry and Pippin do from each and from Frodo and Sam. And their relationship (though it goes elsewhere in the RotK) is far more genial, if one may usr that word of orks.

The Ring is also fascinating here. Because of its inherent dangers, we so rarely see it used, and all our other experience with it is with Frodo (Bilbo in The Hobbit really doesn't count). Seeing it here, after so long AND being used by someone else, is almost like a revelation of what a powerful magic object it is. And it's really the Ring's last hurrah as anything other than a burden and psychological pressure.