[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

My question is as follows, does anyone else think it is possible that the reason they looked the same is that they were the same. That is that when Isildur cut the ring for Sauron it drove the fea from his body ("killed him") but did not destroy said body, and the time it took for sauron to gain enough power to "grow a new one" was really the time it took for him to gain enough strenght to re-occupy the old one.

I think there are some arguments against that. Sauron's spirit was forced out of his Second Age body while Sauron was in Mordor.

Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away, and hid in waste places; and he took no visible shape again for many long years.

Silm Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

The next we see of him is in Dol Guldur in his "Necromancer" guise.

For coming out of the wastes of the East he took up his abode in the south of the forest, and slowly he grew and took shape there again...

(Same source, emphasis added.)

"He took shape there again", I think, points to a new form.

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Sauron had many loyal followers at the Battle with Isildur; in the confusion they could have borne his body away somewhere safe.

The Last Alliance had been victorious and controlled Mordor, so I don't see how Sauron's body could have been snatched away like that. In any case, Isildur, Elrond, and Círdan had been present, and it doesn't seem likely any of Sauron's servants stuck around to face them, when even the Nazgûl had run away.

Originally Posted by Alfirin

My question would be sort of as follows, if Sauron did build himself a new body from scratch, why would he 1. make it just like the previos one (which had already proved to be defeatable) and 2. leave his hand damaged. if he could grow a new body he could presumably grown a new finger.

Sauron's power was diminished each time he was forced to rebody, so maybe he couldn't have it exactly the way he wanted, at least not without additional expenditure of his remaining power. Also, and this is only a theory, perhaps his remaining "maimed" in his physical appearance was somehow tied to his "maimed" (Ringless) spirit. After all, Sauron had lost his original Mair ability to appear in any guise he wanted.

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Also re-occupying a pre existing body would likey take less strength (which Sauron was running short of) than making a brand new one. at least that's my opinion.

That's likely true. However, Sauron's body was fully incarnate, wasn't it? Like the Istari. Look what happened to Saruman's body when he was killed.