Music and Magic in Middle Earth

[Boromir88]

Here is another observation I just thought of...

I think when we look at Saruman and his powers, most of it deals not with "command," but a form of "hypnosis." We know Saruman is a persuasive talker (and I love Chris Lee for this role, he had a brilliant deep, powerful, voice to really portray Saruman well). And that's Saruman's main power, he uses it against the Dunlanders, he uses it in the Tower of Orthanc when Gandalf comes for his staff, he uses it again when he imprisons Gandalf.

Then moving on to his corruption in the Shire. Is it more "command" or more "hypnosis." Because, The hobbits seem very unhappy at this "sharkey," and the only reason they listen is so they aren't thrown into the lockholes, or worse. In the end, most the Hobbits rallied to overthrow Saruman and the ruffians. So, I would classify Saruman's corruption in the Shire more of a "command," since he didn't trick the hobbits into this false hope of "joining" or "combining" forces, he forced them to do his dirty work, using the Ruffians.