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After all, it was over 1000 years into the Third Age before he was able to regain enough power to become the Necromancer in Dol Guldur, and even longer before he was able to return to Mordor and rebuild his forces, And that was with the simple loss of the Ring.~Inziladun
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That still wouldn't necessarily prove to Sauron, the destruction of the Ring would destroy him too. Sauron could reform and rebuild before creating the Ring. I will have to track down the reference, but somewhere I remember Tolkien writing that with each rebuilding Sauron lost part of his "will." It wasn't the loss the Ring, but more of everytime he would have to rebuild, he would lose power, weaken, and of course each rebuilding took longer than the previous. So, theoretically, you could defeat Sauron for good militarily...with or without the Ring's existance, Sauron could have permanently been defeated, if you just killed him enough times. At least according to one reference, which I'm pretty sure comes from Letters, so there might be some questioning.
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Instead, he immediately pulls all remaining Nazgūl from their duties bringing fear and despair to his enemies engaged in a decisive battle, and sends them to Mt. Doom. Seems a very desperate and terrified reaction to me.
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Couldn't you say Sauron wanted his Ring back more than defeating his enemy? His choices more revolve on the Ring than defeating his enemy, because afterall he has an overwhelming amount of forces that could crush 'em anyway. But, his need for the Ring isn't driven out of fear that it would be destroyed, it is a fear the Ring could be turned against him.
This may be better suited for a different thread, but I've been working on the significance of the Sammath Naur. That is did the Ring actually need to get Frodo into the Sammath Naur to completely control him? By the time Frodo is getting there, we have no idea who is speaking, or who is in control...is it Frodo or is it the Ring? Also, we know that in the Sammath Naur is when the Ring is at it's maximum point of influence, so in order to gain complete control over Frodo, I wonder if the Ring needed to bring Frodo into the Sammath Naur? It's interesting , after being completely worn out and drained, near the Sammath Naur, Frodo suddenly finds the burst of strength to go running in...hmm.
So, I wonder if the key for someone to "master" the Ring is in the Sammath Naur? Say, if Gandalf, or Saruman wanted to master the Ring, would they need to take it to the place where it was made, take it where the Ring's influence was at it's strongest, and not only 'mentally' overthrow the Ring, but physically then have to overthrow Sauron? Is this what Sauron feared as to why the Ring was in the Sammath Naur? Did he know a Hobbit possessed it, and if not did he fear whoever had it was going to try to master it and overthrow him?