Could Saruman Master the One Ring?

[Surtur]

Gandalf is pretty confident that he could take the Ring and use it for good. It's just that, over time, his good intentions would lead to evil.

You make it sound like he would do good for a bit until becoming evil. For me it more sounded like once he put on the ring it would just warp his mind so that to him, things that were "good" were really evil.

[Estrecca]

You make it sound like he would do good for a bit until becoming evil. For me it more sounded like once he put on the ring it would just warp his mind so that to him, things that were "good" were really evil.

Various notes from Tolkien kind of support this...

Gandalf as Ring Lord would have been far worse then Sauron. He would have remained `righteous', but `self-righteous'. He would have continued to rule and order things for `good', and the benefit of his subjects according to his wisdom (which was and would have remained great).
[...]
Thus while Sauron manipulated [illegilble word] evil, he left "good" clearly distinguishable from it. Gandalf would have made good detestable and seem evil.
[...]
'No!' cried Gandalf, springing to his feet. 'With that power I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly.' His eyes flashed and his face was lit as by a fire within. 'Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strengh to do good. Do not tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe, unused. The wish to wield it would be to great for my strength. I shall have such need of it. Great perils lie before me.'
[...]
It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power. But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as seen in Elrond's words at the Council. Galadriel's rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case Elrond ir Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subserviant generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy him by force. Confrontation of Sauron alone, unaided, self to self was not contemplated. One can imagine the scene in which Gandalf, say, was placed in such a position. It would be a delicate ballance. On one side the true allegiance of the Ring to Sauron; on the other superior strength because Sauron was not actually in possession, and perhaps aslo because he was weakened by long corrupetion and expendature of will in dominating inferiors. If Gandalf proved the victor, the result would have been for Sauron the same as the destruction of the Ring; for him it woudl have been destroyed, taken from him for ever. But the Ring and all its works would have endoured. It would have been the master in the end.

So, yeah, Gandalf + One Ring = Vorlon. One of the less than nice Vorlons, at that.

[Cody]

Even then - saying that they could "master" it goes completely against what they say themselves. They could use it, sure, and get significantly amped by it, but both of them admit that they would turn evil if they don the thing. The good feat for them both is refusing to take it up.

I never really got this. In the movies you have people saying how powerful the ring is. Yet all it does is make you invisible. Seriously how does that amp your power when all it does is make you go invisible?

[Estrecca]

I never really got this. In the movies you have people saying how powerful the ring is. Yet all it does is make you invisible. Seriously how does that amp your power when all it does is make you go invisible?

Because that is not all it does.

[Cody]

So, yeah, Gandalf + One Ring = Vorlon. One of the less than nice Vorlons, at that.

The **** is a "Vorlon"?

[Cody]

Because that is not all it does.

I'm sorry but how is this an answer? Please be specific.

[StupidMoniker]

The **** is a "Vorlon"?

The Vorlon are an alien race from Babylon 5.

[butterfingers158]

I never really got this. In the movies you have people saying how powerful the ring is. Yet all it does is make you invisible. Seriously how does that amp your power when all it does is make you go invisible?

It only makes people without the power to truly wield the ring invisible (such as the hobbits and Gollum). Sauron wasn't invisible now was he?

[The Chou Lives]

The Invisible thing is merely one trick for those with no magic talent.

WITH magic talent it amps you up. Based on said talents.

And yeah Vorlon's are god like aliens from Babylon 5.

Edit; Also the One Ring gives one super natural health. It's why Gollum survived for hundred or so years (Was it more) In that cave.

[Sharpandpointies]

Just a note on the Sauron-Ringchop-Exploding scene in the movies. That didn't happen in the books at all. What happened was Gil-Galad and Elendil threw down with Sauron. Sauron ganked both of them, but his physical form was killed in the doing - it's not a small thing, going up against a Scion of Númenor wielding a blade forged by one of the standout smiths the world has seen backing up an Elf born to the royal house of the Noldor in the First Age.

So Sauron craps out, falls, and is to all intent and purposes 'downed', and Isildur wanders up and chops off his Ring. "It's mine because, man, my people and family have suffered so I'm taking this as payment for that suffering." Or so he said, essentially.

No 'cut off Ring, Sauron go boom'. Thank you for that, Peter Jackson (edit: which actually dovetails nicely with the puffing out of the Lighthouse of Doom, so I guess there's consistency). -_- Thank you also for making Gil-Galad be just one of the guys who gets smote by Sauron in one go at the start of him arriving.

I never really got this. In the movies you have people saying how powerful the ring is. Yet all it does is make you invisible. Seriously how does that amp your power when all it does is make you go invisible?

It gives one power in accord with one's own power. Hobbits, being small things without a lot in the way of natural ability, garnered its ability to remain hidden, to step partly into the spirit realm. Also, like all ring-wielders, they gained an unnaturally long lifespan. It didn't keep them YOUNG, it didn't give HEALTH, it kept them ALIVE, of sorts. 'Thin and stretched', as Bilbo put it after only having the Ring for decades. This would become unbearable torment, after a time - one can only imagine Gollum, 'kept alive' over so very, very long, and the suffering he must have endured.

Same deal for the Nazgûl, except that being not-hobbits, without the enormous resistance hobbits naturally have toward control and effects like this, they eventually ended up twisted far worse than Sméagol did, and ened up as the Ulairi.

For others, the Ring would have enhanced them in accord with their own stature and power. Aragorn or Boromir with the Ring would have become more mighty in battle and better capable to command the hearts and minds of men ('control' is always something the Ring doesn pretty easily, that being one of the big things Sauron put in it). People like Galadriel and Gandalf would be able to tap into its full capacity to enhance their own might and control other beings.

[Cody]

Always nice to hear from ya Sharpie . Thanks for the info! I appreciate it.

[Sharpandpointies]

Good to see you as well. Nice to pop in, every now and then.

[Surtur]

Even if the movies were off a bit, in the novels Sauron still lost even though he was wearing the ring.

[Sharpandpointies]

Even if the movies were off a bit, in the novels Sauron still lost even though he was wearing the ring.

Yes, he did. He got taken down by a couple of people who are basically superhuman (late First Age Elf and a scion of the same house that produced notables such as Finrod and Galadriel, and a Númenorean whose physical capacity would no-doubt put Aragorn's to shame) and well-stocked with powerful equipment and armor, including a name-level, First-Age Elvish spear and a sword made by a Dwarf who also made stuff like a knife that cut iron like it was cloth and taught master Elven-smiths a thing or two. And Sauron smoked both of them in the dying.

So it's not exactly a poor showing on his part, and not at all like 'Rampage across the battlefield completely dominating a situation where no such superhumans are in evidence, and then poof, should have remembered to put circuit breakers in that damn ring, I suppose.' <---- Hint: this is the movie version.

'Off a bit' doesn't really describe it. ^_^

[Endless_Legend]

Yes, Peter Jackson took many liberties with those movies. But he was also way, way closer to the source material than anything we were ever likely to get. I remember reading about some of the changes other producers/directors had proposed a few years back, and they were terrible.

At least Jackson conveyed the *feeling* of being in Middle Earth perfectly. The way everything looks, sounds, moves, is almost exactly how I'd pictured it in my mind.