Who can resist The One Ring?

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

With all due respect to Sharpe, I just didn't buy the argument. It's still too NLF.

Well I wouldn't trust Shannon Sharpe's appraisal, either.

Sharp on the other hand, is a different story.

[master of read]

Haha, no he couldn't. Between Luffy's provable weakness to psychic influence, his massive ambition and his desire to get stronger he is easy pickings for the ring.

damn. hate it when you make sense.

well, i shall put up instead............

[The Drunkard Kid]

Haha, no he couldn't. Between Luffy's provable weakness to psychic influence, his massive ambition and his desire to get stronger he is easy pickings for the ring.

To be fair, he actually is pretty decently resistant to psychic powers in the form of Conqueror's Haki. He is pretty crap at resisting apparently mundane hypnosis, however.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

I would argue Tenchi Masaki could resist it. Not really an ambitious/power hungry sort.

Oddly enough, Tylor (Irresponsible Captain Tylor) may potentially be able to resist it. No ambition whatsoever.

Well, maybe. He does like to be laid back so maybe it could work off that.

[big_adventure]

Further comments...

(Shout out to Sharp :-) ):

Starting with Malazan! Becasue why not?

Resisting folks:

Anomander Rake. Yeah, this is exactly the kind of thing that happens every time: Rake shows up when I start spouting Malazan stuff. But, given his feats carrying around Dragnipur for half a million years, the Ring would feel like a spa weekend in Bora Bora for the guy. Of course, he's massively, ridiculously more powerful than Sauron, not to mention massively older, smarter and wiser, so really, none of this is a surprise.

Gruntle. Gruntle is an ordinary caravan guard who is made, against his will, into the avatar/religious totem of a god of war. Who Gruntle then proceeds to tell to f&@£ right the hell off, and continues doing precisely what he wants. He's got no special reason for his resistance, outside of "having lived through the absolute shitstorm of a life heroes in Erikson's books often must endure" It's the kind of thing that, for me, would flummox the Ring: it would be like "ah, you want such and such, look at what I show you," expecting positive results, only to then have to watch while the target does EXACTLY the opposite, for no understandable reason.

People who fall:

Quick Ben: I love the character, but he folds like kleenex here without prep. Now, if he knew in ADVANCE how the ring worked and what it did, this would be a completely different result: he'd have the ring dancing around the world doing his bidding, with safeguards on top of safeguards to ensure he gets out. Oh, and the Ring might be a little confused about the 13 souls living in one body thing.

And most of the rest of the folks in the book fall pretty easily as well. I'll not mention Karsa, because Karsa SHOULD fall based on character, but Erikson wouldn't write him that way: in-story, Karsa would string the thing around his neck and ignore it's influence completely.

Other media:

DB: We have to ignore the power level differences here, DB guys are more powerful than all of ME, much less "just" Sauron. As fairly as possible, Goku, despite being an idiot and having a very easy-to-push button (get stronger) would probably resist long enough to chuck the thing into a volcano. I don't think that he could resist forever, but he's like a crazy strong and fast Sam: he really only wants one thing, and that one thing is something he can do on his own and he LIKES doing it on his own. Ignoring the power level thing (Goku is INSANELY stronger than Sauron), he'd fall eventually, but it would take time.

Vegeta falls instantly, but would probably be the one most likely to break free eventually once the Ring tries to compel him to do something he feels is degrading.

One Punch Man!

I would love to see Saitama with the Ring. The only thing the guy wants is completely out of the Ring's ability to deliver or even show.

[The Drunkard Kid]

Even discounting the fact that he's in Eru's league, Tenchi Masaki is probably safe on the grounds that the Ring would jump in his finger and roll itself into Mount Doom by itself rather than risk getting Washu's attention.

In Goku's case, even if he's powered down to the point where Sauron's power is even vaguely perceivable, I think that he could totally Bombadil the thing on the grounds that the only thing it could offer him, outside assistance to attain divine power, is something that he canonically finds irksome. Not to mention that he could just find the Dragonballs if he ever wants anything already.

Also, considering that they are both basically catnip to divine beings, there's a not insignificant chance that the ring will probably try and marry either of them.

[The Dork Knight]

Goku is a simpleton but being a simpleton is no protection from the ring. Anyway I suppose depends on what the definition of "resist" is here. Plenty of people can resist for a while, few have the ability to actually chuck i into Mt Doom. Frodo couldn't chuck it into his fire, after keeping it in storage for years and barely having contact with it

[The Drunkard Kid]

Goku is a simpleton but being a simpleton is no protection from the ring. Anyway I suppose depends on what the definition of "resist" is here. Plenty of people can resist for a while, few have the ability to actually chuck i into Mt Doom. Frodo couldn't chuck it into his fire, after keeping it in storage for years and barely having contact with it

Frodo kept it in his presence for decades, after spending days/weeks wearing it constantly in the Mirkwood, IIRC.

ALSO, Goku's simple, which is different from being a simpleton (though anime DBSuper Goku has his moments where he head apparently suffered a massive lobotomy), and his biggest protection from the ring (aside from being insanely out of Sauron's paygrade in terms of raw power, telepathic ability, and resistance to esoteric effects) is that he already has everything he wants, which is his beloved family and friends and the opportunity to train to be his very best.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Frodo kept it in his presence for decades, after spending days/weeks wearing it constantly in the Mirkwood, IIRC.

ALSO, Goku's simple, which is different from being a simpleton (though anime DBSuper Goku has his moments where he head apparently suffered a massive lobotomy), and his biggest protection from the ring (aside from being insanely out of Sauron's paygrade in terms of raw power, telepathic ability, and resistance to esoteric effects) is that he already has everything he wants, which is his beloved family and friends and the opportunity to train to be his very best.

I betcha the ring could bait him with a stronger opponent.

'Give me to Vegeta'.

[Powerboy]

Well I wouldn't trust Shannon Sharpe's appraisal, either.

Sharp on the other hand, is a different story.

Do you have a link to Sharp's argument? I'd like to read it again.

[The Drunkard Kid]

I betcha the ring could bait him with a stronger opponent.

'Give me to Vegeta'.

Nah, he already showed during the Buu Saga at he is willing to forgo a strong opponent in order to help a God prevent it from being unsealed, and was disappointed in Vegeta for empowering himself with dark magics.

Not to mention that he currently has a surplus of people that he can to if he wants a tough/overwhelming fight, starting with Vegeta and going up to Whis (or Zen'O, if he's tired if the universe/multiverse that he's in).

[The Dork Knight]

Frodo kept it in his presence for decades, after spending days/weeks wearing it constantly in the Mirkwood, IIRC.

No that's Bilbo. Frodo in the books stashed away the ring a short while after he received it, with explicit instructions from Gandalf not to use it, or use it as little as possible. After about 5 years Gandalf returned, this time having finally realised the nature of the ring and Frodo suggested melting it. He then took out the ring to throw it in his fireplace but all he ended up doing was stuff it back into his pocket. So it's quite a stretch from "resist" to "actually capable of deliberately harming it"

ALSO, Goku's simple, which is different from being a simpleton (though anime DBSuper Goku has his moments where he head apparently suffered a massive lobotomy), and his biggest protection from the ring (aside from being insanely out of Sauron's paygrade in terms of raw power, telepathic ability, and resistance to esoteric effects) is that he already has everything he wants, which is his beloved family and friends and the opportunity to train to be his very best.

That's like saying the Hulk cab resist it, because technically he has far greater raw power. Another thing from the series is that people even with better mental/ magical abilities than Frodo (Gandalf/Galadriel) recognise they cannot but fall prey to the ring eventually so there's not even a direct correlation between raw power / mental ability and the ability to resist

Short of very clear cut and overwhelming mental ability on the scale of Prof X, to bond minds of the entire planet, I'm leery on most telepaths even doing much against it because strictly speaking it is less a direct telepathic attack and more manipulation along the lines of say Eclipso screwing with the Spectre, despite being telepathically well below the guy

Goku just doesn't strike me as someone with nearly the mental fortitude to resist its influence for any extended length of time

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

But what can the Ring promise him is the thing.

They literally have a wish granting dragon on near standby. He’s best buds with God, Angels, and every stage of Kai in between.

He’s blatantly said he hates getting power without putting the effort in, and he’s happy with his family/friends being alive and well.

The Ring can’t really do anything for him is the thing. He literally has what he wants out of life.

Honestly, I don’t even think it would try.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

But what can the Ring promise him is the thing.

They literally have a wish granting dragon on near standby. He’s best buds with God, Angels, and every stage of Kai in between.

He’s blatantly said he hates getting power without putting the effort in, and he’s happy with his family/friends being alive and well.

The Ring can’t really do anything for him is the thing. He literally has what he wants out of life.

Honestly, I don’t even think it would try.

Food.

/limit

[The Drunkard Kid]

The strength in question isn't his *just* his physical might, it's a spiritual power that reached such high degree of training and skill that most/all of the ancient divine beings that have trained Goku haven't managed to achieve the degree of mastery and control over various abilities that Goku has shown, up to and including having gained godhood and, in the manga continuity, replicate the Divine power of Destruction by himself. It's a power that explicitly let's him resist/ignore esoteric effects like time stops and magical teleportation by a divine artifact that can create worlds/resurrect planets/teleport races interstellar distances/etc... A power that has given Goku telepathy capable of stretching into the afterlife, simultaneously reaching out to every living and not-living thing in an entire solar system, intercepting a telepathic conversation between gods that was happening across light-years and dimensions while in a life and death battle, and is capable of detecting life across stellar distances, can pull around six months of memories our of another telepath with a touch (and that telepath didn't even notice it until Goku told him what he did), plus he was trained by several telepaths and his fellow student and his son have shown the ability to have telepathic sparring sessions together.

So, yeah. You have to water down Goku down by a factor of pretty much infinity to get to the point where the Ring won't just bounce off of him and where he wouldn't be able to melt it with a thought since moon vaporizing is a few orders of magnitude beyond Mount Doom and Goku is currently somewhere in the Universe-busting tier even without Ultra Instinct.