2. Sauron Doesn't Station Any Guards At Mount Doom - The Return Of The King
Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor, enemy of the Free Peoples of Middle Earth, and creator of the One Ring shows some extreme oversight problems here. The mountain where he forged the One ring, the one place where it can be destroyed, is completely devoid of any sort of protection by the time Frodo, Sam and Gollum arrive. Besides for the sake of drama, why is this? Sauron may not have known that they were aiming to destroy the ring until the very moment it was destroyed, but some precautions would have paid off hugely in the long run for this Dark Lord. What makes this oversight even more embarrassing is the fact that Barad-Dur, Sauron's fortress, is the only stronghold anywhere close to Mount Doom, and still too far away to immediately access it. Perhaps being embodied as a giant flaming eye gave Sauron some overconfidence issues when it came to the safety of his own domain, but the eye of Sauron surely could have benefitted from a little garrison closer to his weakest point. When planning the giant diversion at the end of Return of the King, Gandalf warns Aragorn that Sauron "will not take the bait." He does not only take the bait, he swallows it hook, line, and sinker, sending every orc in all of Mordor to the Black gate to confront the relatively tiny army of men, and not leaving a single one behind to watch his most vulnerable spot. Checkmate, Sauron.
1. Any Time Frodo Puts On The One Ring - The Whole Trilogy
Nowadays, Frodo gets a lot of criticism from fans for not being a particularly proactive protagonist. A lot of this criticism is fair - he does exist more to bear the burden of the Ring than anything else. However, most of his idiotic decisions throughout the course of the saga are due to the direct influence of the One Ring, so hardly his own fault. But the one decision it is always possible to fault this unfortunate Hobbit for is the tendency to slip the Ring on his finger as an easy getaway when things start to get rough. The One Ring is a quite obvious metaphor for addiction, and as such, robs individuals of their better judgement in favor of an overwhelming desire to use it. But even Gollum, a creature so obsessed with the Ring that he withered beyond recognition, knew better than to put it on, because that draws Sauron's gaze to you. Even when Frodo is tricked into putting on the One Ring by succumbing to temptation, it is not a smart move, because he wants to keep it for himself. The destruction of the Ring at the end of the saga is the conclusion of a long line of bad decisions by Frodo to put the Ring on and quickly escape from pursuers. Like this article? Agree or disagree with the points mentioned here? Let us know in the comments section below.
Self-evidently a man who writes for the Internet, Robert also writes films, plays, teleplays, and short stories when he's not working on a movie set somewhere. He lives somewhere behind the Hollywood sign.
