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baumer

Why is the Ring so important?

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 I have a question.

 

Why is the Ring powerful?  Why is it powerful for anyone but the creator of it? 

 

It turns Gollum into a freak.  It turns Bilbo into the equivalent of a heroine addict or a crackhead. All he does is bark and sneer and jump at people when they ask him questions about it.

 

It turns Frodo into an asshole. 

 

So when it was made, what was the purpose of it?  Invisibility and extended life?

 

I'm not mocking, this is a serious question.

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So you have to be more than a Hobbit to control it?  And if you control it, what exactly do you control?  Would it be used to conquer everyone?

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afair, in the books it was the Elves who started the ring business many thousands of years back; Celebrimbor made the 3 elven rings as tools to rule their kingdoms. Or so it is explained in the book. Sauron (in a pretty disguise) befriended the crafty elves and began to create a ring of his own, to dominate those 3. During the process he created the 7 dwarf-rings and 9 for men - those for men worked as he planned, bringing the kings/chieftains he gave them to under his power - the dwarves proved more stubborn, but the rings seemed to turn them greedy and jealous.

The Elves hid their 3 rings as soon as they recognised Sauron for what he was and he never gained control over them. Still it seems that with destruction of the one, all the others would lose their powers too. Galadriel states as much in the movie - Lórien (which she's keeping safe using her ring) will "decay" and become just a normal part of Middle-Earth once the One Ring is destroyed. In the movies, we see at the end that Gandalf is also wearing his ruby ring openly now.

 

The invisibility was just a side-effect and not even a necessayry one (Sauron himself for instance didn't turn invisible) - the main goal was domination over minds and clearsightedness. In the book there are some examples when Frodo is able to look behind the front of things - he can see Galadriel's ring for example, or see Gollum for what he is. Gollum's death at the end is foreseen by Frodo when Gollum swears by the ring. And the ring radiated power - even when Sam was wearing it for a short time, the orcs he encountered were afraid of this menace. Of course, neither Hobbit had the power to really use the ring - but other characters might well have mastered it to their own purposes. So, what Elrond says during the council - that the ring can not be used by anyone save Sauron - is just a simplification for the movie's purpose. In the book, Elrond himself, or Galadriel, or Saruman, or Gandalf, or arguably even Aragorn, might have taken the ring and overthrown Sauron.

 

Of course, when "The Hobbit" was written, no such story existed and the ring was purely a device to enable Bilbo of some feats. When "The Lord of the Rings" was published in the 50s, Tolkien went back and rewrote "The Hobbit" a bit, especially the scenes between Bilbo and Gollum, so they fit better to the concept of an evil thing.

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Bilbo/Frodo/Gollum were ordinary Hobbits. They could not unlock the Ring's full power or handle it. But if someone like Gandalf/Saruman/Galadriel wore it, it would be like super magic steroids for their power.

Plus it allows the bearer to control all 19 other Rings of Power.

I'm sure I saw that explained somewhere before. Now I remember.
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I'm aware of the FOTR epilogue explanation but that doesn't really tell me what the ring does and why the Hobbits can't use it.  It just says that Sauron built a better ring in secret and he poured him malice and evil into the ring.  But I guess I just don't understand what the ring does and how it helps those in power.  What power does the ring possess?  Malice and evil and knowledge and power doesn't tell me anything.  It's like a commercial for that Qstrong bracelet.  The commercial tells you it "gives" you power, but it doesn't tell you how.

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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

When the rings were created Sauron made a special ring (One Ring), in doing so he could oversee the other rings. The bolded part explains what this ring did for him. I would imagine why the effect of the ring had on Bilbo, Frodo and Gollum were because they didn't have mastery over it, Sauron was a Maiar.

 

Yes it extended life, all rings had this power. A side effect might have been that the ring would wear out the users life span, but still remain living.

 

The One Ring did have other, but not significant effects on Mortals. The more powerful you are the greater your resistance to the effects. Even Gandalf would have been evil from wearing it.

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I think Tolkien himself was never too sure about those powers, too. But from the few descriptions, the uses were mostly military - it drove his allies to frenzy, let his opponents despair - and a kind of telepathy forcing others to do his will. Basically, it was just a focus for what Sauron was doing anyway - as seen with Saruman, Sauron could dominate others even without the ring - it's just that with this ring, his powers would be a lot bigger, because he had put much of his "soul" into it.

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Very much so. It really would have enabled Aragorn to vanquish Sauron's armies. Boromir, probably not since he was a weaker character from the start. I thought it one of the poorer decisions on the screenwriter's part that it was presented as "not usable" - part of the temptation is that it is usable by a strong character. But to use it, you'd have to embrace your dark side, and so become the next Sauron yourself.

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I think Tolkien himself was never too sure about those powers, too. But from the few descriptions, the uses were mostly military - it drove his allies to frenzy, let his opponents despair - and a kind of telepathy forcing others to do his will. Basically, it was just a focus for what Sauron was doing anyway - as seen with Saruman, Sauron could dominate others even without the ring - it's just that with this ring, his powers would be a lot bigger, because he had put much of his "soul" into it.

Wasn't Saruman working for himself and wanted the ring.

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Well, he thought so ... while he was doing Sauron's business all the time. They were communicating through the palantir, and while Saruman seems to have considered himself extremely clever, he was ensnared.

If he got the ring he would have kept it no? Sauron was not a big enough presence to get it himself, would have used the Wraiths to.

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 I have a question.

 

Why is the Ring powerful?  Why is it powerful for anyone but the creator of it? 

 

It turns Gollum into a freak.  It turns Bilbo into the equivalent of a heroine addict or a crackhead. All he does is bark and sneer and jump at people when they ask him questions about it.

 

It turns Frodo into an asshole. 

 

So when it was made, what was the purpose of it?  Invisibility and extended life?

 

I'm not mocking, this is a serious question.

 

Its complicated as hell, but to try and make it brief as possible without typing a billion words, Middle Earth was created, shaped, and built by the Valar and the Maia.  Sauron was by far the greatest and most powerful of the Maia(Gandalf, Saruman, etc are also Maia).  The only thing stronger than Sauron are the Valar.  Each of the Maia was associated with one of the more powerful Valar who they served.  Sauron served Aule the Smith, the great craftsman of the Valar.  Because of that, Sauron had tremendous knowledge of the physical substances and magics of the world, forging, and everything about craftsmanship.

 

Fast forward long after Sauron became evil after joining Melkor, the mightiest of the Valar and the first great evil(who was defeated), Sauron had a new plan to take over and destroy Middle Earth. 

 

As part of his plan to corrupt and enslave the leaders of each of the races of Middle Earth to his will, Sauron assumed a friendly and "beautiful" form and befriended the Elven smiths of Eregion and counseled them in the craft, arts, and magic.  Sauron claimed he was an emissary of the Valar, specifically Aule the Smith(the Valar Sauron was associated with) who they greatly respected and revered.  Some of the elves were suspicious of him and didn't trust him like Galadriel.  The other Elves with Sauron's help forged the Rings of Power, which had great power when worn by their bearers.  Sauron then forged the One Ring, which had the power to dominate and control all the other Rings of Power that Sauron helped make.  Since all the other rings were powerful as well, to create a Ring that could dominate and control all the others, Sauron was forced to transfer a great part of his own power and "soul" into the One Ring, but while he wore it, his power on Middle Earth was increased dramatically and became much more powerful than he already was.

 

Its basically an ultra evil and powerful artifact that grants almost unlimited power.  The other powerful beings in Middle Earth like Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel, Elrond, etc. could use its power, but the One Ring is a part of Sauron and it would have really bad side effects such as becoming like Sauron.

Edited by Ozymandias
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The Ring has so much of Sauron's malice placed in it that it instantly imposes it's own will on whoever handles it who is not the Master of the Ring. In a way the ring is self aware and seeks to be with it's Master.

 

If you've read The Silmarillion, Sauron was a lieutenant of an evil lord who was far more powerful than he. Sauron did learn how to create the Rings from an elf (9 for men, 7 for dwarves, helped with creating the 3 for elves and his 1 to rule), but his malice was taught by a far older power and that certainly assisted him in centralizing his power into the Ring. Plus, Sauron remembered his master coveting the Silmarils and how they did give his master some additional power, so he sought to increase his power by focalizing it in the Ring.

 

Because the ring only recognizes One Master, it causes all others who possess it to 'fade'. If Bilbo had possessed the Ring long enough and worn it long enough, he would have faded and become a wraith. It was both the power of the Ring that made him disappear and Bilbo not possessing any power that made him disappear when he put it on.

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