[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

Back to the simple question, who spoke, the ring or Frodo? "...or be cast yourself into the flames.."

It was Frodo, his will defeated at last by his own weaknesses which the ring played on, until he claimed it at last.

He sounded different because... well, you guess. What was Frodo's key weakness that finally caused him to put on the ring?

The ring is subtle. It doesn't work the user like a puppet, it's not so simple. The ring amplifies the capacities of the user -- especially their weaknesses.

"Yet it's way to my heart is through pity" - said Gandalf.

Galadriel said with the ring she would become a beloved queen - "beautiful and terrible..."

The ring did not have a will of it's own, merely the imbued shadow of the will of Sauron. That's why it did not work on each bearer in the same way.

Frodo was losing an internal battle, and his defeat revealed his own weaknesses which we only saw in glimpses previously.

Remember Sam's vision of himself, when he wore the ring, his inner desire to turn all of Middle Earth into a garden after he had seen so much desolation? We got to see through Sam what Frodo's inner battle was like. But Frodo's actual battle was hidden.

What do you think was the avenue through which the ring at last defeated Frodo? What was that weakness? I think Sam had a talent for seeing the truth, whether the truth he was just a gardener when he finally took off the ring, or the truth of the ring of fire, when it finally took hold of Frodo. I think Frodo's behavior with Gollum and Sam's visions are the clue as to what it was.