Which character (not too minor) would you say has the MOST freedom of action/true agency in the following stories? (respond for ones you've read/watched obviously) Lord of the Rings Harry Potter Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Game of Thrones
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Well, Saruman made some strategic errors, for sure. I just don't think <his will was enslaved by Sauron> is correct. It's hard to say how much control Sauron had over Saruman, because it's all off-screen. I tend to think it's low, with <I can always destroy him> as a backup.
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in the historical analogy to WW2 it's roughly approximating the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact, where Sauron is Hitler and Saruman is Stalin. Tolkien doesn't portray Saruman as literally enslaved, but he's totally being played and his actions are highly constrained.
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I don't buy the LOTR=WW2 analogy theory. If you just mean it's a comparable non-agression pact, sure. I'm not sure where Saruman is constrained though? He raises his own armies, generically engineers his own orcs, and masterminds his own war campaign.
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I mean, "the author is dead -Barthes" but it was definitely Tolkien's intent and design. The books are a long form allegory about WW2. he is constrained in that once he became corrupted and militarized he had no way out and no way forward. his loss was an inevitable conclusion.
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his best case scenario was acting as a vanguard invasion force and then getting betrayed by Sauron and overrun by the superior forces of Mordor attacking from the rear. his worst case scenario is just losing to hobbits and shit lol.
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I feel like, if not for an Ent uprising, Saruman would have taken Rohan and held a reasonable and strategically valuable kingdom. If he did, Sauron would have won at Minas Tirith, and Saruman would have been a semiindependent vassal state. A decent bet.
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it was an intelligence failure on his part though. the Ents were already enraged and needed minimal coaxing to mobilize. Saruman was just completely oblivious to the situation cuz he was a scrub. his entire plan relied upon recruiting Gandalf. single point of failure.
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semi-independent vassal state is also a non-entity under Sauron global domination. he doesn't share power. Sauron would have turned on him as soon as it was convenient.
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I don't know that it can be dismissed as a delusion. Saruman was a Maia, as was Sauron. Sauron was a member of a far higher order of Maiar, but they were not different in *kind.* With the One Ring, which held a great deal of Sauron's power, could Saruman have...
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stolen that power, or restrained Sauron, to the point where he was an equal or even the stronger?
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And whether he would have succeeded or not, was it an *irrational* thing to think?
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nobody that tried ever succeeded. Gandalf and all of the Elf lords seemed quite convinced it was totally impossible for any Maiar (or lesser) to dominate Sauron's ring. so that's at least 4 rational actors who disagreed with Saruman.
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I think Saruman's error was in believing that the ring contained only the _power_ of Sauron. In fact the ring _was_ Sauron.
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And is it irrational for an ancient supernatural being to think that if he has a literal piece of his enemy's heart and soul in his hand, he could control or overpower that enemy? I don't see why. It might be and probably is WRONG, but it's not irrational.
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the likeliest outcome of Saruman possessing and wearing the ring would be his transformation into some kind of super Nazgul in the service of Sauron. if he didn't wear the thing the corruption would have taken longer.
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Sauron is patient. a few hundred years should do the trick, assuming Mordor's armies couldn't just outright sack Isengard and reclaim the ring.
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