WOuld you kill gollum

[Iarwain]

I have to post immediately, so please forgive any repeats.

It makes me sad to think that someone would consider such a thing. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] Gollum is a truly wretched creature, but had he not accomplished the quest for Frodo, he would have had hope for recovery. The execution of such a pitiful person as Gollum would be (by my standards) outright murder. Perhaps he is rotten to the core, but that does not change his origin. Though his corruption originated in his own greedy and cruel behaviou, the ring both inspired these feelings and kept them going for the durration of Gollum's existence. I'd like you all to think back to the stairs of Cirith Ungol, (just about the most touching point in the book) Gollum was an old tired hobbit once more, he had realized himself. Had only Sam been compassionate from the beginning, who knows what would have come of Gollum? The ring drove him, called him for thousands of miles and hundreds of years, leaving him with nothing but his own bare bones. There are many arguments against what I have just said, and many of them make good sense, but poor Gollum deserved forgiveness, and though he started the path to his own corruption, I believe that in and near the end, the choice was no longer his.

Sobbing Quietly,
Iarwain