Did Gandalf have a Plan "B"?

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Raynor

I am afraid I disagree that Sauron could actually be defeated using the One.

Even though Gandalf, Elrond, Aragorn, and etc think he theoretically could be?

Originally Posted by Raynor

I disagree. While the Men may have defeated the Witch-King on their own, Sauron was defeated by divine grace in my opinion. Were it not for the hobbits to be guided all up until the last moment, and were it not for the fortuituous destruction of the ring, then the Men will have perished, and M-E would have fallen.

In LOTR, unlike The Sil, there is divine guidance everywhere. Was it not also divine guidance that Eowyn happened to be there at the right place in the right time to deal the death-blow to the WK? Is it not divine guidance that Merry was with her? He was with her because she, and none other, offered to take him with her. She didn't know he would save her life and the world.

The point is not that there was no guidance. The point is that the Ring was destroyed by the hands of mortals. Did the Valar or Eru take the Ring themselves and throw it Orodruin? No. They may have helped with a few "coincidences" here and there, but the work was done by others; in this instance - by Frodo, Sam, and Gollum in Sammath Naur, and by Aragorn and his army at the Morannon to distract Sauron's attention.