The Inherent Incompatability of Morgoth and Sauron

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Nikkolas

Saruman was a very small and petty man in the end and that is why I sympathize with him more than Sauron or Melkor, who both fell to much greater wickedness than Saruman ever managed. It's kind of a shame he will always be seen as a "Sauron wannabe" when he is a far more fleshed out character than Sauron in terms of depth or development. He's also often made fun of simply because he never achieved much when compared to the Dark Lords he aspired to be. But therein lies the difference between Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. The Sil is all about the mightiest of the mighty and LOTR is about humility and the underdog. Saruman being a failed tyrant is crucial to the story's tone I think.

Saruman's handicap may have had less to do with lesser ability than with his original motives for his fall.

It seems to me that while Morgoth and Sauron each had grand ideas about re-ordering the world to fit his own image of its "right" state, Saruman's turn to evil was in a meaningful way influenced by jealousy of Gandalf. Envy is a rather destructive emotion, in that the actor has a tendency to become blind to danger in the desire to spite his enemy. Saruman was subverted by Sauron perhaps the more easily because he desired Gandaf's failure, and wanted power to bring it about.