Council of Elrond

Forgive me if this question has been asked and answered a dozen times before, but I can't understand how "Gollum's Fate" can ever actually be used. "Gollum" has the text "Tap Gollum if he is at the same non-Haven site as The One Ring; then both Gollum and The One Ring are discarded." Nowhere on the card does it say that this is optional, and usually such optional conditions include the word "may." (Great-road, for example, says "Opponent draws the normal number of cards for this company during the movement/hazard phase. [not optional] At the end of the turn, the company may replace its site card with the Haven card at which it began the turn. [optional]"

Am I misunderstanding this? If Gollum is forced to tap and be discarded when he's with The One Ring, he'll never be at Mount Doom with it during the site phase. Unless he's wounded, and so cannot untap during the Untap phase, and so cannot tap to discard himself and the ring...?

1.
This is a valid reasoning.
ICE has realized what they wrote and (instead making an errata) made CRF entry:

CRF, Errata (Cards), Gollum wrote:The text on Gollum is an ability that you can choose to use.

2.
Following does not address your question, but is related.

Gollum's Fate wrote:Unique. Only playable if the One Ring and Gollum are both at Mount Doom during the site phase. The One Ring is destroyed and its bearer's player wins. ...even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far...and then with a shriek he fell. Out of the depths came his last wail 'precious', and he was gone.-LotRVI

CRF. Rulings by Term, Active Conditions wrote:Your opponent's resources may be the active conditions for your resources, but may
not be the targets for your resources.

The One Ring is destroyed... but no action is made on Gollum, so according to text of Gollum's Fate and general rules it could be possible to play Gollum's Fate if opponent's Gollum is at Mount Doom.
However:

CRF, Errata (Cards), Gollum's Fate wrote:This card is considered to target both The One Ring and Gollum. This means it cannot
be played on your opponent's The One Ring or Gollum.

Simple errata (changing "Gollum" to "your Gollum", or "are both at Mount Doom" to "are both at Mount Doom and in the same company") would change undesired original behaviour. However, nstead changing a spoiled text, ICE has decided to spoil a logic (by considering as a target the object that is not a target) to achieve desired net result.

Ah, thank you. That clears things up.

Konrad Klar wrote:Simple errata (changing "Gollum" to "your Gollum", or "are both at Mount Doom" to "are both at Mount Doom and in the same company") would change undesired original behaviour. However, instead changing a spoiled text, ICE has decided to spoil a logic (by considering as a target the object that is not a target) to achieve desired net result.

I have seldom heard the multitude of rules problems in this game summarized so succinctly.

Sorry to resurrect this post from so long ago, but I discovered something worth calling out. When Gollum was reprinted for the challenge decks, the word "may" was put in his game text to indicate the ability was optional. So I guess that was errata, in a way?