The True Master.

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

Or is the will of the Ring an aspect of Sauron's own will? Might it be argued that Sauron and the Ring are essentially one being, albeit a divided one, and that neither is therefore the master?

I agree with this. What I wonder is, why put your power in a Ring or anything else, risking the loss thereof? The answer, as far as I can tell, is that the focus of that power increases its effect, thus making Sauron more powerful (when wearing the Ring) than he would be without it. The Ring is Sauron's, has his will, and his power, and apparently contains enough of his being such that its destruction is his destruction.

[Farael]

I guess I agree with those who say that the ring and Sauron were just about the same thing, albeit divided into two different physical forms. But my reasoning is that, as the ring is after all an innanimate object created by Sauron, the creator is the master of his creation, although they are in a way the same.

We hear the ring is intrinsically evil and corrupts whoever comes in contact with it. We also know that Sauron is evil as well and corrupts whoever will listen to him (if not, ask the Numenoreans) They are very similar, although one is an (almost) innanimate object while the other is... well, he is not exactly a 'living creature' but is definetly not an innanimate object. Also, one is an 'outgrowth' of the other, the ring exists because Sauron created it, and I believe that the impossibility of Sauron to cast away and destroy the ring is due to the fact that the ring increases his power. Should the ring perjudice him instead of benefit him, that would probably break the spell the Ring has over him and he would destroy it. I believe that this 'spell' is due to the nature of Sauron himself (namely, he only wants power and therefore taking action that would decrease rather than increase his power is inconceivable)

Of course, this is all guesswork, as Sauron had put so much of himself in the ring that its destruction would mean his defeat as well, yet should that not happen for some reason, and should the Ring perjudice Sauron more than what it benefits him, I'm fairly confident Sauron would have destroyed it.

[obloquy]

However, he goofed by putting so much in that without the Ring (or even it's powers) he wouldn't be able to survive. And because of that I got to think that in some way the Ring dominates over Sauron, because of the fact that without the Ring he can no longer take a physical form, he will just remain a shadowy menace.

This is from the movie. Sauron had a physical body even without the Ring, and he was perfectly capable of surviving without it. In fact, he very nearly overthrew Middle-earth without it. Thank deus for his machina.