Sentient Items

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Nazgûl-king

There are also the Two Watchers that guard Cirith Ungol; they seem to be somewhat sentient. Through the evil spirits within them they can sense enemies and deny them access to the tower, by means of an invisible barrier created by their will. They don’t like the light of the Phial, and they can let out a cry to alert the orcs in the tower that an intruder has gotten in.

But are they actually conscious and do they think and see things, or just work like machines that just respond to certain things?
And the thing is, everything in Mordor is under the will of Sauron, the only question is how completely and what leeway he allows (like orcs arguing, for example. They are not just war-robots or something, but actual living, breathing creatures).
And if they had their own sentiency (is that a word?), would that mean that they could, if they wanted to, allow an enemy to pass, or would they be under the dominion of Sauron? (and how complete would it be?)