"Demons"
A/N: Completely movie!verse, because when I read the books I don't see the whole Frodo-becoming-Gollum thing that Peter Jackson showed in the films, and so I decided to explore that a little.
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I watch you interact with Smeagol, and I can't help but be dismayed, Sam. What happened to the gentle hobbit I had started the journey with? Where is the friend who stuttered before Gandalf, begging not to be turned into "something unnatural"? You were never prone to violence before, Samwise Gamgee—so what has changed?
I suppose the answer is that you have changed, friend of friends. These long months of hiding and pain and death have only hardened both of our hearts to the bleaker side of life, but you seem to have borne the blunt of the change. How could the Sam of old even thought about harming another living being?
It is because of me, I know. Sam, you cannot guess the pain it brings me to know you kill for my sake. Why must you change so much just for me? I am nothing so important, and it only weighs me down more to realize that you have hardened your heart in order to keep me safe.
Gollum only cements this. Dear Sam, what is it about this spindly pitiful creature that you hate so much? He is dangerous, yes, but his maliciousness is temporarily banished in his promise to the Precious. I can only hope that I can bring him completely back before I lose myself along with him.
You can't begin to guess the extent of my dismay. A dismay that goes so far as to extend to fear. Fear of you, Sam. You cannot understand Smeagol because you have not borne It, you cannot begin to comprehend the way It twisted his mind and poisoned his body. I had hoped that with your own compassion you could perhaps show him more kindness than you do, but you resort to violence and threats where he is concerned. You hate him, and I can understand that at least. I had too, once. You fear for me where Gollum is concerned—this I can see as well.
You are right to fear for me, but not by Gollum. Rather I can see that if I let the Ring win I will become nothing more than he, a wicked wretch so utterly changed by Darkness that none will care to come close. This is something I have realized for a long while, Sam, and it scares me.
If you act like this to Gollum now, and I were to become like him, how would you react to me?