Couldn't Sauron resurface in the future?

[blantyr]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I think it's easier to picture it as an analogy. Imagine a rich man who deposits most of his savings in a bank. Now, with his money locked up somewhere, does he have it in his hands for his use? No. It's not with him. But is he still rich? Certainly. It's still his money. But if someone hacks into his account and steals all the money, or maybe the bank goes bankrupt, or whatever, and suddenly all his savings disappear - he's not a rich man anymore whichever way you look at it. He basically goes permanently bankrupt.

In a pretty similar way Sauron has lots of power, and places most of it in his power-bank - the Ring. When the Ring is lost to him it's like he's not in a bank right now, so he can't access his account to take the money from it - but he still owns it. But when the Ring is destroyed, Sauron is power-bankrupt.

Not bad. Not too terribly absurd. Still, if your bank and all it's records had been washed to sea in hurricane Sandy, and if you were in California living quite happily without any access to your bank, would you suddenly turn into a column of smoke to get blown away by a west wind?

The Ring is a plot device needed to tell a good yarn. The magic is vaguely consistent, within acceptable bounds for suspension of disbelief if one doesn't look too closely. I have seldom been impressed attempts to look very closely.