Yeah I genuinely never understood the appeal of that ring to anybody but Sauron.
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He's gonna try to have sex with a wraith. Gonna end up with a ghost paenus.
One ring to Blaze them all
One ring to light them
One ring to rip a bong
And when the cops come, hide 'em.
god fucking damnit, I REALLY want to see this stupid episode but life keeps fucking us over.
It's literally the next one we're going to watch
Right after Code of Honor?
For those who also lack encyclopedic knowledge of the show/memes, this is from Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Sub Rosa
“Yreve emit ew tih mih htiw eht lugrom edalb, eh setalucaje. Eh seunitnoc gniggeb rof erom. Enon fo su era elbatrofmoc gnihcuot mih evila ro daed. M’I yrros ym drol.”
This is like getting texted by whatever made the video in Event Horizon
pænus
Peanits
Can't forget immortality, which is shown pretty clearly in the movies with Bilbo and obviously Gollum, but also:
The Ring enhances the wearers "presence" and ability to influence others. Sam observes in the books how elf-like and majestic Frodo has become by the time they get to Mordor due to carrying the ring. At around the same time as this scene, we see Frodo impose himself on Gollum and the book remarks how powerful he looks and how his words seem to influence Gollum.
Later on, when Sam is carrying the Ring, this effect is noticed even more clearly when the orcs see his shadow not as that of a small hobbit but that of a powerful elf lord
The effects we've seen are on the pretty low race of hobbits, and would be even greater in someone of numenorian descent, but assuming it stops at those: Boromir would become an immortal, ultra charismatic leader who can also become invisible to everyone but the Wraiths and other spirits, which he can pretty easily take on 1v1
Well damn. This guy Middle Earths. Thanks for the lore drop!
I've always wanted to see what would have happened if Gandalf or Galadriel took the ring
DON'T TEMPT ME FRODO!
Doesn't it work differently for different species or something? It wouldn't turn a human invisible because it only turns hobbitis invisible. But it would definitely still alert the wraiths.
That's my understanding of it but I'm probably wrong.
It does, in fact, turn humans invisible too. Isildur being the obvious example, but even the nine rings given to humans had that effect, shifting them to the spiritual / unseen world. That's a whole different ramble, but for now, let's sum it up that there is an unseen world not everyone can sense and influence, but the Maiar (including Sauron) are inherently spiritual beings that took physical shape in the seen world in order to interact with it.
For Sauron, so much of his power was poured into the One Ring that the continued existence of the ring meant that he could survive destruction of his physical form and eventually take shape again¹, though its loss in the War of the Last Alliance obviously robbed him of much of his strength and he had to hide for a long time to slowly regain his strength and renew his efforts.²
Through the Ring, Sauron had also dominated the nine human Ring bearers and bound them to him, moving them into the spiritual world. As his form was destroyed, so did they lose theirs. As he returned, so did they.
The reason they could still "see" Frodo is that they were attuned to the unseen and could sense him there, with their power over it manifesting in them stabbing his physical form even though it was invisible to mortal eyes.
There is still the question of the Dwarven rings. They were forged first, and it's possible they weren't as refined yet, though the dwarves are also described as more resilient at resisting the dominating effect. My guess is that the fact they were created by Aulë, Smith of the Valar, rendered them less susceptible to the craft of a lesser spirit (Sauron), but I have no evidence.
1: This paragraph and the following one originally read that Sauron could no longer take shape without the ring. I stand corrected on that, see the responses.
2: After his first destruction during the Fall of Numenor, his spirit managed to escape with the ring. 110 years later, he had enough strength to launch a strike against the nascent Gondor and start another war that lasted 13 years. He was destroyed again, this time losing his ring, and it took him a thousand years to become active again.Per the correction, he will probably have regained his form, though he was still too weak to fully reveal himself and start another open war for two thousand more years.
Sauron still has a physical form during the events of LOTR. Frodo sees him through the tower window when walking towards Mount Doom, and Gollum remarks he was personally tortured by him, and that his hand has 4 fingers.
Dwarves seem resistant to the rings because of their mechanical nature. As you described, they were first designed by Aule instead of Eru, and then given free will, so that gives them a more "automaton" nature than the other free peoples
Sauron still has a physical form during the events of LOTR. Frodo sees him through the tower window when walking towards Mount Doom, and Gollum remarks he was personally tortured by him, and that his hand has 4 fingers.
I tended to interpret that more like "appearing as a spirit", but you may actually be right. It would explain how he was able to orchestrate and dominate his forces. There is no precedent I'm aware of that any of the Ainur would be able to influence the physical world without a physical presence.
When Isildur slew him, I believe his physical form was destroyed, but as long as a token of his power remained, it makes sense that he would be able to eventually recover enough strength to reincorporate.
Either way, without the Ring, his power was still limited. I'll update my comment, thanks for pointing that out.
It wouldn't turn a human invisible because it only turns hobbitis invisible.
See: the intro to the first movie. Isildur, after his victory at Mt Doom, uses the Ring to turn invisible in attempts to escape a group of orcs that attacked his party.
Had forgotten about that, I always tough it just gave power to the user, what power? That's depends on the users desires and ambitions, and because Hobbits are not a lot into desires and ambitions, the ring wasn't particularly powerful in them, neither had a lot of power to corrupt them.
What the ring does:
The chief power (of all the rings alike) was the prevention or slowing of decay (i.e. 'change' viewed as a regrettable thing), the preservation of what is desired or loved, or its semblance – this is more or less an Elvish motive. But also they enhanced the natural powers of a possessor – thus approaching 'magic', a motive easily corruptible into evil, a lust for domination. And finally they had other powers, more directly derived from Sauron ('the Necromancer': so he is called as he casts a fleeting shadow and presage on the pages of The Hobbit): such as rendering invisible the material body, and making things of the invisible world visible.
So the Ring.. does things. One of which is pulling the bearer into the wraith world. I believe the reason Sauron doesn't turn invisible is that he is already of the wraith world (implying he is invisible without the Ring, but I have no confirmation of that).
You're pretty much spot on. It's also why in the movies and books, the Ring Wraiths generally just look like black cloaks; not even dark shadowy figures in cloaks, literally just the black cloaks. But when Frodo puts on the ring when surrounded on Weathertop, he can clearly see their distinct faces and features, and they can immediately tell who has the ring.
This is one of the things I like about Tolkiens approach to magic: It's very diffuse.
We understand that Gandalf and Saruman are powerful, but it is very unclear exactly how they use their power. We don't see them bringing down castle walls or throwing lightning bolts. Some rare examples are when Gandalf breaks the bridge the Balrog is on, and when he breaks Sarumans staff. None of these are feats of magic that would lead you to think they are by far among the most powerful beings in middle earth.
When Gandalf battles the Balrog, the books state something like "they battled for three days", without specifying how a physically frail (at least by appearance) Gandalf could defeat a Balrog.
With the ring(s), we just learn that they "grant the user immense power", without ever learning exactly how Sauron would become unstoppable if he had the ring. I think it makes the story great, because it makes the story inherently character-driven, with magic being a diffuse "force" in the background rather than concrete abilities someone like Gandalf could use to teleport, shield someone, or set a building of fire.
I can't remember where I heard this, but I recall that the wizards were basically constantly holding back their power as part of their existence in middle earth. They could do wild stuff, but the idea is to not interfere with the progression of the world too much, much like a star trek crew
The one ring gives the wearer the power of what the wearer defines as power. Frodo turns invisible because for a hobbit not being noticed means safety. The ring tells Sam that he could plant as many Apple trees as he likes, even plastering whole middle earth.
In this moment the ring probably tells to Boromir that he could rebuild Gondor to old strength and he might be able to (before giving in to saurons influence).
I see this explanation very often but have not encountered textual evidence (either for or against this hypothesis). The feats we see from every ringbearer (be it the Sauron, the Witch King, Galadriel, Gandalf and even Frodo) can more easily be explained by the rings just enhancing magical feats of all kinds, and maybe the elven ones are better at preservation magic. I wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong, though
Invisibility is incidental; it's a side effect for those who do not exists in the unseen realm. It was created to dominate those who had the lesser rings of power; the dwarves proved too resilient, and the elves took theirs off before they could be influenced. The ring is a tool of domination, and enhances the bearer's natural abilities. It may have allowed Aragorn for example, to inspire people to follow him as he became the next great dictator. It is a more subtle magic. In the books, Gandalf describes this process if he were to claim the ring; that he would build up a great kingdom to overthrow Sauron militarily and replace him as Middle Earth's tyrant.
Generally it will work on any mortal except dwarves.
Why didnt the dwarves take the ring to Mordor?
They can't ride eagles. They are Steelers fans.
Fair enough lol
hot