Aiwendil
Quote:
But the One Ring is fundamentally quite different from other magical objects. Others can be used for good. The One Ring never can be. The One Ring is fundamentally evil in a way that the other Rings, the Palantiri, the Silmarils, etc. are not. It may be true that, as you say, it works on the existing inclinations of its user, so that it is ultimately the user that chooses evil. But obviously in order to do this it must have a great power in itself - that is, external to the user. Gandalf wields Narya and no ill comes of it. But if Gandalf took the One Ring for his own, it would be the end of all hope for the free peoples.
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In that the 'official' account states that the Three can create while the One can only mar I'd agree, but I suspect that the Three could also be used to mar, if the wielders went in for that kind of thing, & we have Gandalf saying he would use the One to do good in the first instance, so I wonder how accurate that 'official' account is.
Could the One rule the others if its nature was fundamentally different? Is there no correspondence between them?