Quote:
Originally Posted by Belegorn
I would not be too high on the Elves' abilities to deal with Sauron. Remember the 2nd Age. He seemed to basically dominate them. He actually almost overran them had not the Dúnedain saved the day in 1700 S.A. [see Tale of Years, and The History of Galadriel and Celeborn] The only people who were clearly superior to his forces were the Dúnedain. ... My point is that the Dúnedain, at least from my perspective, were a greater force and threat to Sauron than even the High-elves.
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But that weren't valinorean Elves! You could make the same Argument that a valinorean invasion against Morgoth must fail because he defeated the Noldor! The defeated Elves of the second Age were small populations of second and third generation exiled Noldor and Sindar. You can't compare the two, and I'm fairly certain that a valinorean high-elven army consisting of Noldor and Vanyar (a lot of them veterans from the war of wrath and other old elves that are almost as powerful as some maiar), equipped with high-quality armor and weapons that were manufactured by the Noldor in Valinor under Aules supervision, and who are led and supported by at least a dozen powerful Maia officers would smash anything that Sauron could muster, even if he had the Ring!
That leaves the moral question: the protectors of the children of iluvatar would have to kill a lot of the children of iluvatar in order to save the children of iluvatar ... messy, and quite the moral dilemma. However, that only applies if Sauron can maintain loyalty, discipline and unit cohesion, and I don't think that's very likely. His orcs will scatter and be hunted down and his human forces will probably mass surrender. That will leave only a small devoted core of a few thousand Uruks, Olog-hai and some fanatical black Numenoreans who will feel obligated to fight for religious reasons, but that will be it.