I've been trying to reread The Two Towers for awhile now, and it's very slow going lately. I got through the first half of the book well enough, but the second half is just killing me. The first half is about the adventures of the remnants of the fellowship in Rohan and Fangorn, and stuff happens. There's battles, and ents, and brave deeds, and Saruman defeated. The second half is just Frodo, Sam, and Gollum wandering around in the muck. Page after page of wandering around in the muck. Occasionally they have to duck in the muck, because their luck doth suck. Sam keeps going on as to how he doesn't trust Gollum. Frodo is just tired all the time. Gollum talks to his other personality. I'd wish he'd make a move on Frodo so that Sam would kill him, but I already know how it all turns out. I remember being bored with this part of the LotR the first time I read it, and then I didn't even know that Gollum was only along as a plot device. Now, I'm reading this knowing that Gollum is only there so that someone other than Frodo can take the plunge when they get to Mt. Doom.

While being bored with this, I got to thinking that there's a certain amount of similarity between Gollum and the recently re-souled Spike. Both prefer the darkness and are very pale. Both are loony and have conversations between their personalities - Gollum and Smeagol, Spike and William. Both are tormented by the Big Bad. Both have their lucid moments and help the hero. I could even imagine Spike refering to Buffy as his precious. They're eerily similar. All this has me wondering if Spike is being set up to take the plunge in place of Buffy at the end of the arc.