Did you trust Gollum/Smeagol?

[Arwen1858]

I didn't trust Gollum in that I thought he would always help Frodo, but I greatly pitied Gollum, and always hoped he would turn back to being good. I think it's really sad in Cirith Ungol when he got back from talking with Shelob, and was sitting there stroking Frodo, and *almost* repented, and then Sam woke up and snapped at him. I don't like the way Sam acts towards him at all. When Frodo is nice to him, and calls him Smeagol, he seems to be getting better. It's when he feels like his master 'tricksed' him that he turns bad again. But still, he isn't beyond hope, because even after he tells Shelob about them, he comes so close to repenting!! They'd better do that scene justice in the movie! If they leave that out, I will be really mad at PJ! When I first read the books last year, I hoped so much right up to the very end, that Smeagol would repent and turn good. And even reading it for the second time this year, knowing how it would end, I still greatly pitied Gollum. Even after he betrayed them to Shelob. I like Sam's loyalty to Frodo a lot, but I really like Frodo much better because of his mercy towards Gollum. And I don't think Gollum was evil, because evil is the total and complete absence of any good, and there was still good in him.
Arwen