August 3, 2003

Re: Annatar What Sauron Got Wrong
Danny

Sauron got a lot of things wrong. He certainly missed the boat entirely in falling for Aragorn and Gandalf's ruse. He bit that bait hook line and sinker. He certainly got it wrong when he beleived that Pippin was the halfling with the Ring thus striking Minas Tirith earlier and presumably with less force. He was right that the ring would prevent a willful destruction, but as I have said, Gandalf knew that too. Sauron got his whole strategy wrong looking in hindsight. Had he defended Mordor, even with half his forces and slowly overwhelmed Middle Earth he would have won. However he went with the strategy of emptying Mordor to do it in one dramatic flood. Hmm let's see, he also got it wrong when he tried to keep Rohan from reaching Minas Tirith. There again he was outmaneuvered.

Sauron missed the boat when he made the rings when the 3 elvin rings escaped him. Sauron made a mistake in making the ring in the first place. He was a fool for giving himself that vulnerability and doing nothing to defend against it. It is like Achiles accepting the bad heel in order to get a stronger helmet. However, Achiles certainly would have protected his heel had he known it was vulnerable. Such an arraingement would have been most wise. However Sauron was a fool. Like Smaugh he was convinced of his invulnerability and took no measure to protect his weakness. Sauron was a fool for not considering that his foe would strike where he is weak. An archer aims for the small kink in the armor rather than waisting all his arrows on the strong breastplate. Sauron should have known where the attack would fall, but he was a fool to assume that all others were aspiring Dark Lords.

In the battles with the last alliance, Sauron was handed many defeats until he had to fight on the Slopes of MT Doom for his survival. There he suffered yet another defeat.

Going back further, his plans with Numenor backfired as well resulting in his disembodyment (a pretty dramatic inconvenience despite his victory over Numenor.) Yet even that victory was incomplete because the faithful escaped and preserved the Line of Kings. Again further back, Sauron made an absolute fool of himself when he attacked Huan. I am sorry, but what an embarrasment to get trashed by a dog.
And going even further back, the first foolish mistake was beign seduced by Melkor.

Sorry but it I don't feel like it is too much to say Sauron was a fool. You would have us beleive that the only wise course for Gandalf to take would be to admit defeat. Surrendering to Sauron in the hopes of bringing him back to the good is a pretty faulty idea. First of all, it would result in the deaths or enslavement of all those he sought to protect, and second the liklihood of Gandalf manipulating Sauron to the light is about 0. Far more likely is that Gandalf would be stained and become evil. It is more likely that the white robes will be stained than that the entire coal mine will be made white. So your favorite solution would have resulted in an unnending darkness. Gandalf was faced with russian roulete or the gillotene. He wisely took the revolver (even though it had 5 bullets out of six loaded) and got lucky. Wisdom was choosing the best choice even though it was not very good.