Sauron's Great Miscalculation

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

And ironically, reacquire an object that wasn't that useful anyway, at least useful for what it was designed to do. It didn't help control the Elves, didn't help to control the Dwarves, and Men he already controlled because he held the Nine.

The Ring didn't serve any purpose in the story except as a big red button to terminate Sauron's effective existence.

Regarding Sauron's possession of the Ring, it really was irrelevant to his victory. He would have won without it, at least according to the belief of the Wise.

As you allude to, and has been implied before in the thread, one has to wonder exactly what effect Sauron regaining the Ring would have. He was apparently going to win anyway.

Which leads me to another tangent, and with a tip of the hat to a long ago member of the Downs...

Originally Posted by Boromir88

the strength of the Noldor and Numenoreans was beaten down to a point they simply couldn't recover.

As Lush might have said, "Why couldn't the Free Peoples ever get around to reproducing adequately?" They were always in a constant state of dwindling. I understand that it is at least partially thematic with Tolkien, but it is one of the aspects of Middle-earth that I have the hardest time suspending my disbelief. Vast usable swaths of Middle-earth just sat as desolate wilderness for very little reason. Even the larger numbers of the evil folks seem small compared to the great emptiness of the land.