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Originally Posted by Hilde Bracegirdle
So why was he defeated in the end? Because his will was broken. Middle-earth came into existence threw the will of Eru, and Sauron’s will kept Sauron alive. Once that will was broken he could no longer recreate himself. I do not think that he even would have realized that the destruction of the ring would be so devastating to him, and that the ring still still intertwined with him as evidenced by his efforts to find it. But the ring was never his master.
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I think you have an excelent point there as, now that I think about it, the Ainur are creatures of "will" their physical shape is just an extension of that will (they want to have a shape) but if not, they are an abstract will.
I'm not sure if I could say that The Ring and Sauron were parasitic in nature, as a parasite NEEDS their host to live and replicate while Sauron was pretty much alive without the ring in his finger. The Ring was never alive on the first place, and even then it is not exactly draining its host to produce baby-rings but rather it is enforcing the will of its creator over whoever wears it. Of course, if the creator wears it, this "enforcement of the creators will" will become rather an increase of this strenght of will.
Which leads me to another thought. We see that Frodo could have used The Ring to read (for example) Galadriel's thoughts if he had tried hard enough. Re-phrasing that a little one could say that if he had had a stronger will he could have used The Ring for his own benefit.
All along we have been discussing will and power as different things yet what if they are the same? Creatures (Ainur or children of Eru) are powerful because of their strenght of will. Ainur are creatures of will only and therefore they are very powerful. We even see that when they take a physical shape they become less powerful, as they become more similar to the children of Eru who are creatures of both body and will.
So, if power is an expression of a creature's will, I would think that when this creature puts on The Ring, it is putting on Sauron's will which is what corrupts them. Perhaps the Valar, who have a stronger will than Sauron, would have been able to use The Ring without falling to it's power, but Sauron was a great of the Maiar and therefore none of the Maiar (i.e.: Gandalf or Saruman) would have been able to wield the Ring without succumbing to Sauron's will.