Annoying typo. Please replace with
"Tolkien’s letter (quoted in this link) http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/ringfaq.htm#Q1-BeatSauron says that defeat by Gandalf using the Ring would be “for Sauron the same as the destruction of the Ring” (i.e. complete destruction of the Sauron). The Ring would then corrupt Gandalf from its innate evil, but that doesn’t do Sauron any good.
I got no problem with that.
Good point. Here’s the relevant portion from the letter (bolding mine):
So Tolkien gives pretty good answer.
A) You probably need another Maiar to master the ring.
B) You either defeat Sauron by destroying the ring or mastering the ring (which is nigh impossible to do).
Lol! Autocorrect for the win there.
I could do it, of course. And had I done so, there’d be no more talk of this “Gandalf” who somehow managed to learn “affect normal fires” but not anything useful in a fight, like fireball, lightning bolt, cloud kill, web, or even stinking cloud. Harrumph. Non-dpsing wizard wannabe. Harrumph. Not my fault I was busy raising hell in Antonica at the time…
Not if she, Gandalf or someone else mastered the ring. If they master the Ring then it becomes theirs, not Sauron’s and Sauron is rendered powerless just as he was when the Ring just as he did when it was destroyed, and for the same reason. Which is also why nobody can master the Ring without being corrupted; they are literally grafting the bulk of Sauron’s essence to themselves.
That was one reason Sauron searched so hard for the Ring rather than just waiting for it to makes its way to him. One of the few lose scenarios for him would be someone somewhere quietly gaining the Ring and mastering it without him finding out until too late.
What do you figure happens if the Ring winds up with Bombadil?
I don’t think there’s such a thing as “quietly mastering the Ring”. The hypothetical finder would master the Ring by making use of it, to do very unsubtle things.
I’m pretty sure someone (Elrond?) says in the Books that the Ring would have no power over Bombadil and that he would probably just lose it eventually.
Agreed. Gandalf’s feint towards the Gates of Mordor suggests that he wishes to convince Sauron that someone has begun to master the Ring, to draw Sauron’s forces away from Frodo (someone who has not completely mastered the Ring can still be defeated in battle by overwhelming force - which Sauron has). But it’s just as possible that Gandalf’s feint works for a different reason - that Sauron just gets a kick out of taunting his doomed foes, and sends his army to the Gates just for fun.
The finder would be mastered by the ring even as they used it.
Bo Duke, by lulling Sauron to sleep.
Get it? Bo-ring?
Yeehaw!
Batman if he’s prepared. Game, Set, Match!
Cant spell cast and DPS with a long sword at the same time.
I think the whole point of the “Ring that binds them all” was that its absolute power corrupted the user absolutely. Even if you could defeat Sauron with it, you would then become a “Sauron” yourself. Even Frodo succumbed to it in the end and wasn’t going to throw it into the fire. Only Gollum’s lust for it caused him to recklessly seize it and fall into the fire accidentally.
Eru: “Yessss…‘accidentally’”
Sam: “Definitely accidentally. Just like Master Frodo said.
Yesssir, nobody put one hand on his leg and grabbed his arm with the other and threw him just like my Gaffer taught me to move sacks of potatoes. Totally just slipped.”
This was the point I was trying to make. The answer is no one because the Ring will corrupt anyone to suit its own whims.
The thing about the Ring is that Sauron put almost half of his personal Power in it.
anyone that gets the ring and is able to access the totality of that power could be a serious competitor to him, on a personal-power/mystic level.
Of course, actually wielding that sort of Power is way out of range for most mortals. But any of the Istari could do so, by virtue of their basic nature and training. Thus Gandalf, Saruman or even conceivably Radaghast or the almost-unmentioned blue wizards could do so.
Similarly, those of the Elves that had spent enough time training with similar Powers could wield the Ring. Notably the keepers of the Elven rings: Galadriel, Elrond and Cirdan.(Cirdan’s ring went to Gandalf later on)
Any of the great leaders of Middle-earth could access a bit of the Ring’s power, to boost their ability to present a military opponent to Sauron. But on a personal-power level, the likes of Aragorn would simply not be in the same league. Mighty he may be as counted among Men, but compared to the primordial beings that Sauron or Gandalf are, he is nothing. Even compared to the (original and ancient) Elves like Galadriel , Aragorn is pretty much small change.
Eventually, of course, the One Ring would corrupt anyone who uses it. There was simply too much of Sauron in it.
True mortals would corrupt almost immediately, as Gollum was becoming and as the Ringwraiths were by their lesser Rings.
Higher beings may resist for a longer while, but Gandalf quite clearly states that even he would fall under the Ring’s Influence and become a terrible danger himself.
(Although I wonder if this was still true of Gandalf the White. He had been cleansed and Reborn to a much purer state, not truely of Middle-Earth any more and thus might well have been unable to be influenced or wield Sauron’s ring afterwards…)
I once got to overhear a lively discussion about whether samurai Jerry Seinfeld and ninja George Costanza could, working together, defeat Sauron.
The debate was inconclusive.