Why Can't Movies Be Like Books?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

Folwren ..... I do enjoy discussing these issues with you but I do not really know what I did to both anger and disgust you. My comment about the abstinence pledge was NOT to say anything negative about them. I was comparing it to Faramir not wanting the Ring. He really has very little knowledge about the Ring, has never had it, has never used it and is rather naive about it.

Faramir does not need to know anything about the Ring - though he would know about Isildur & the fall of Sauron. All he would need to know is that the Ring is the work of the Enemy. For that reason alone he would reject it. He is not 'naive' in the sense that while he may not know much about the Ring per se he does know a great deal about Sauron, & as far as he is concerned the Ring=Sauron

Davem... do you then agree with the last postings of both Folwren and William Cloud Hickli that eventually, given the right conditions, everyone would succumb to the Ring?

No. None of the Valar would succumb. Neither would Tom (we are explicitly told so), or, in my opinion, would Goldberry. As Mr Hicklin has pointed out, & leaving aside those exceptions to the rule, only those who possess the Ring (either physically or mentally) would be at risk of falling to it. However, the Ring could only tempt them to claim it, it could never force them to. Of course, it could manouvre them into using it - either for some trivial, 'innocent' purpose (hiding from annoying relatives) or 'for the greater good' (to save an innocent person) but the possessor would have to make the decision themselves. They would probably succumb - 'probably' is as far as we can go, in that it wouldn't be possible to hand over the ring to every inhabitant of M-e & watch to see what happened.