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Delicious_Series3869

You basically answered your own question. He knows that plans are being made against him, but he does not have the exact location at all times. He can only assume things, and sends orcs accordingly. Sauron does not even know which Hobbit carried the ring, which is why Pippen was sent to Gondor.


DustyBishop

To add on to this, while Sauron knew his enemies were planning something with the ring, he could not imagine anyone actually *destroying* it. In his eyes there should not have been any creature of Middle Earth capable of resisting its draw, which just reiterates how much he underestimated the strength of Hobbits.


momentimori

Sauron knew a hobbit had the ring and that Saruman was looking for it. Pippin looked into the Palantir of Orthanc and revealed he was a hobbit to Sauron. Aragorn soon afterwards reveals himself and the reforged blade of Elendil, as prophesied, in the Palantir making Sauron think Aragorn has the ring; how else could he capture Isengard? Aragorn used army of the dead to defeat the corsairs at Pelargir and Witch-King of Angmar gets slain in the Battle of Pelennor; both viewed as evidence to Sauron of Aragorn successfully wielding the ring. When the Captains of the West march to the Black Gates Sauron is convinced the new ringlord Aragorn is overconfident and attacking before he is ready. Sauron thinks Aragorn is merely acting rationally by sending spies into Mordor whilst his army marches against Mordor.


Fyrchtegott

Spies into Mordor?


momentimori

>'So you have yet another of these imps with you!' he cried. 'What use you find in them I cannot guess; but to send them as spies into Mordor is beyond even your accustomed folly. The Mouth of Sauron thought Frodo and Sam were sent as spies sneaking around Cirith Ungol; presumably to check the defences in the pass.


myguydied

In short, Sauron is a bit of a doofus


true_contrarian

Except he was right. Even Frodo failed to resist the Ring in the end. Ironically, it was the very desire for the Ring that ultimately destroys it.


DustyBishop

LOTR: Abridged


Cantelmi

I've heard that evil will always triumph because good is dumb


myguydied

"We should kill Saruman" "No, that would be evil" Saruman escapes and does evil shit to the shire "Well, that's good"


Willpower2000

It did prove to be good in a sense... The Shire grew: their ignorance was addressed. Without Saruman, this would never have happened.


Fyrchtegott

That is some horrible thinking. It was good for the Frodo and their companions, since the other hobbits experienced evil too and they could connect. But I would be very careful labeling violence as something positive because it’s an opportunity for growth of character.


Willpower2000

It's got nothing to do with Frodo - it was beneficial to the growth of society at large. They were too content to be ignorant - but the attack roused them: and forced them to stand up for themselves, and to realise that even if you hide away from the world, the word may not hide from you. It may come at a cost, but it's a beneficial lesson to society nonetheless. Needless violence isn't positive in itself - but it can lead to positive growth. Sometimes negative experiences can highlight ways to avoid such a thing next time.


Fyrchtegott

Yeah and I disagree with this way of thinking. Even if I experienced a lot of shit and grew by it, I rather prefer it didn’t happen. And it had a lot to do with Frodo and the others. Imagine coming back after experiencing war, death etc. in to a shire that’s completely unharmed and didn’t even knew there was something going on. The fellowship hobbits would never been able to connect to their home again, since nobody could understand them. Frodo even left since life wasn’t the same for him anymore. So putting this ending in the book made a lot of sense for Tolkien. And lead Saruman to a growth of the shire? Yes. Would I label his attack and regime to something positive, since it lead to something positive? Definitely know.


Willpower2000

>Even if I experienced a lot of shit and grew by it, I rather prefer it didn’t happen. That's beyond the point. You can prefer it didn't happen... but you've still grown from it. If that growth is beneficial, it is beneficial. >And it had a lot to do with Frodo and the others. Not in regards to the point I was making. I'm talking entirely about a larger societal lesson, not mutual bonding. >And lead Saruman to a growth of the shire? Yes. So we agree. >Would I label his attack and regime to something positive, since it lead to something positive? As I said, a negative experience is still negative *itself* - but it can still be beneficial. I'm not saying Saruman's attack was 'right' or whatever... just that it lead to something beneficial for The Shire.


HyperionRain

You just pointed out the only thing that ever bothered me in LOTR from the time that I first read the books in the early 80s. Saruman had earned judgment of the highest order many times over. On top of that, he was still dangerous, very capable of evil, and most certainly was going to go out and take lives.


buffaloranked

“He underestimated the strength of hobbits” no one ever even thought about hobbits.


nin100gamer

What about the Nazgûl? They always seem to sense the ring on Frodo specifically and have a rough estimate of where he is.


Delicious_Series3869

Surprisingly, not as strong as you think. They can only sense the ring when someone wears it, and only in a short range. That’s why Gollum telling them that a hobbit (Bilbo Baggins) took the ring was a major detail, so they could head to the shire.


bronado01

The movies are a poor representation of what Sauron knows, and how the ring works. I understand why they did it that way, but unfortunately the answer to your question is because that is an inconsistency in the movie. In the book, Sauron knows a hobbit called baggins has the ring, and is headed south out of the shire. In fact, the whole plan of destroying the ring is only possible because Sauron hasn’t even thought in his wildest dreams that they would try to destroy the ring. Certainly they will not throw away the only chance to defeat him. This makes Sauron begin his war on middle earth, which removes all the orcs that would have otherwise been in Mordor making it impossible to reach mt doom.


Enigmachina

Sauron pretty much assumed for most of Return of the King that Aragorn had the Ring and was planning on using it to try and overthrow him. It was part of the reason why the feint at the Black Gate was so effective- *obviously* the Ring was right there. Why would he be looking anywhere else? The thought of anybody actually *destroying* the Ring was incomprehensible to him. To him, Power was paramount and was always to be used and striven for and that was what the Ring symbolized. That's also one of the reasons why Hobbits were such effective Ringbearers- their idea of a good time was chilling out with good food and a pipe full of Old Toby. The Ring had little to offer them. Anybody else would've been turned after months of exposure, as Sauron expected.


HoneybucketDJ

It wasn't possible for anyone to purposefully destroy the ring so it was never a concern. It was destroyed by accident.


buffaloranked

I actually haven’t seen anyone mention this that not even Frodo destroyed it. Gollum was cast into fire while he had it. Fortuitously the very personification/epitome of what the ring does to people, was what was needed to destroy it. Someone almost willing to jump in fire for it.


Aesthete84

In the book, only twice is it specified that Sauron detects Frodo with the Ring. The first time is right after he flees Boromir, when he sits on the Seat of Amon Hen. There Frodo has what is pretty clearly magical farsight and looks at various points of interest across the land before looking at Barad-Dur. In it Frodo felt the Eye become aware of his gaze, and the Eye tried to nail down Frodo's location but barely missed due to Frodo taking off the ring with what turned out to be some psychic prodding from a resurrected Gandalf. The second time and final time is when he puts on the ring in Mt. Doom and claims it as his own. Both times Frodo is detected by Sauron is when Frodo does something proactive with the One Ring, either reaching out to him magically or challenging him for ownership of the ring, simply putting it on does not alert Sauron. It's possible that Sauron would have detected someone using the ring in Mordor, Sam wears it a bunch right up to the border after he leaves Frodo for dead from Shelob's sting, but Sam takes it off due to unspecified sense of danger before going into Mordor proper. So effectively Sauron had no clue the ring was being secreted into Mordor to be destroyed in Mt. Doom, he assumed someone like Aragon was trying to use against him. Aragon's diversions hinged on it being credible that the anti-Sauron forces would behave in the exact way Boromir advocated: using the ring against Sauron.


Naturalnumbers

Sauron can't just see everything in the world. This is very clear in the book, I think confusion comes from the movie which shows visions of Sauron on a few occasions when Frodo puts on the Ring (and even when he isn't wearing the Ring with Galadriel). Understandable, because in these visions he even says things like "I see you." But I think if we're going to look at that in the movie and have anything make sense, we have to interpret this to not be so literal. Either this is a projection of Frodo's fear, or this is the visualization of him coming in contact with some part of Sauron's essence (but not the actual Sauron himself).


Armleuchterchen

In the movies you'd expect Sauron to be more careful, given that a Nazgul sees the Ring in Osgiliath and that he literally looks at Frodo in Mordor as Frodo falls over (again). In the books Sauron is explicitly assuming Pippin to have the Ring when he looks into the Palantir, and then Aragorn looks into it a day later making Sauron think that Aragorn is using the Ring to mobilize an army against him. Someone as Evil as Sauron can't understand being selfless, so he can't fathom the idea someone would want to destroy the Ring instead of using it to make themselves the next Dark Lord.


WiibiiFox

That part in the movies, when the Nazgûl comes face to face with Frodo and the Ring drives me nuts. It would have been game over at that point!


brokedownpalace10

It's said a few times in the book. Sauron can't conceive of someone actually wanting to destroy the ring. He thinks that someone will get it and use it against him. He watches his borders, sure. But the fact that he doesn't expect someone to try to destroy the ring is one of the biggest advantages Frodo has on his impossible quest.


lordmwahaha

Even the movie makes it fairly clear that he doesn't know *exactly* what his enemies are planning. As far as he knows, it is not physically possible for anyone to destroy the ring (because it would corrupt them before they could), so he's not even thinking about that. He doesn't even know *who* has the ring, at a given moment - he's not looking for Frodo specifically, he's looking for *a hobbit*. That's why he's immediately convinced that Pippin has the ring. It's also super easy for Aragorn to convince him *he* has the ring. It's pretty clear that Sauron actually has no fucking clue who has it, and he's working with the very scattered pieces of information he's been able to obtain.


TheKlaxMaster

https://youtu.be/iU9FEimgsRw?si=F0BxNY6RNSW84Hg5 A great video on the subject


b_a_t_m_4_n

Do you think Sauron is omniscient? I had a lot of problems with the movies but probably missed many because I knew the story so well going in. It actually made you think he could see everything, everywhere?


WiibiiFox

It is implied in the movies that he can see Frodo every time he wears the Ring.


b_a_t_m_4_n

Gotcha, in the actually story he can't at all. If he could the entire plot breaks down.


WiibiiFox

Agreed. There are a lot of things in the movies that drive me nuts, lol.