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Originally Posted by Nikkolas
1. Frodo just dies somewhere...I dunno, Shelob eats him. The Ring is lost or Gollum takes it and hides back in his cave. With The One lost forever in this scenario, is all hope extinguished or is there a faint glimmer?
2. Sauron does recover the One Ring. Is that when everyone just gives up and flees to the West?
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If Frodo had failed in his quest, it seems likely that Sauron would have been able to militarily crush the forces of Gondor and Rohan before Gandalf could have even learned where the Ring
was. I don't think the West would have ever had a chance of recovering it before Sauron found it.
If Sauron had himself recovered the Ring, the end would have come more quickly. In either case, I don't see Gandalf running away. Just as when the Mouth of Sauron showed him signs that Frodo had been captured, and Gandalf refused to surrender, I think he would have led the West in a fight to the bitter end.