My thought? I'm sad Gollum didn't repent. He had more than enough opportunities to do so, and though he was a slimy little trickster, I did feel awful pity towards him. I imagine if he HAD repented (in time), he would have insisted on helping to bear the burden of the ring and continued to support Frodo and Sam through Mordor (and then, as everyone else has suggested, he probably would have died upon its destruction in the cracks of doom).
But look at this last idea: if Frodo, the bearer of the ring for sometime, struggled with the temptation of it just before its removal from ME, who's to say that the exact same scene would not have played out (Gollum being tied even more tightly to the fate of the ring) even if Gollum DID repent earlier?
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"What if you slept, and what if in your sleep you dreamed, and what if, in your dream, you went to paradise and there plucked a beautiful flower...and what if when you awoke, you held that flower in your hand? Ah, what then?"
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