Resist The Ring

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<<set $domination to 12>> <<set $discipline to 0>> <<set $service to 0>>

<div style="background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.1); padding: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 0.9em;"> Domination: $domination<br> Discipline: $discipline<br> Service: $service </div>

! Resist The Ring !! Can You Resist The Power Of The One Ring? //This is a character test, a set of choices that determine what kind of person you might have been when faced with the temptation to wield the one ring of power from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings.// //With each choice you will learn more about what Tolkien was trying to teach the world about the costs of power over others and the dangers of using it.// [[Begin the test|WhySauronForged]] <img src="https://i.ibb.co/HT1TFCKk/The-One-Ring-on-a-map-of-Middle-earth-oil.jpg" width="400">

!!! Why Sauron Forged the Ring In the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged a Ring of Power with a single purpose: absolute dominion over all living things. Not just his enemies - everyone. He poured his own essence into it, creating an instrument of total control. With it, he could bend every will to his own, order the world precisely as he saw fit, eliminate chaos and dissent and freedom itself. Sauron believed this was necessary. The world was broken, fractious, full of conflicting wills. Different peoples wanted different things. There was war, suffering, disorder. His solution? 'One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.' One absolute power to impose perfect order. He told himself, no doubt, that this was for the greater good. That lesser beings needed guidance. That freedom was simply chaos by another name. That if everyone would just submit, there could be peace. He was wrong. But he was also utterly sincere. [[Continue|IfOnlyIHadPower]]

!!! 'If Only I Had the Power...' How many times have you thought it? //'If I ruled the world, I'd end poverty.'// //'If only I had power, I'd stop the wars.'// //'If people would just listen to me, I could fix this.'// //'The problem is that the wrong people are in charge. If it were me...'// We all do this. We see suffering and injustice and broken systems, and we think: 'I could do better. I would never abuse power like ''they'' do. I would use it wisely, temporarily, only for good.' This is the Ring's whisper. This is how it gets everyone. The Ring doesn't corrupt you by making you evil - it corrupts you by convincing you that YOUR vision of good justifies absolute control. [[Continue|TheTest]]

!!! The Test This test presents you with twelve scenarios drawn from //The Lord of the Rings//, where various characters faced choices about power, responsibility, sacrifice, and control. Your choices will reveal: * How vulnerable you are to corruption by power? //(Would you take it? Use it? Keep it?)// * What form that corruption would take? //(Benevolent tyranny? Possessive love? Despair? Pure hunger?)// * If you understand power's nature? //(Do you see how it would corrupt you, or do you think you'd be different?)// You'll be measured across three core dimensions: * ''Domination:'' How much you seek power and control over others //(lower is better)// * ''Discipline:'' Your self-control and ability to resist the Ring's corruption //(higher is better)// * ''Service:'' Your motivation to help others rather than serve yourself //(higher is better)// At the end, you'll discover which character from the story you most resemble - from Tom Bombadil (who couldn't be corrupted because he desired nothing) to Gollum (who was consumed entirely by the Ring's hunger). [[Continue|Ready]]

!!! Ready? Now you'll face twelve choices. Some will seem easy. Some will be agonising. Some will reveal things about yourself you might not want to see. Remember: there's no 'passing' this test. Even the heroes of the story failed in various ways. Frodo claimed the Ring at Mount Doom. Boromir tried to take it by force. Galadriel was tempted. Gandalf refused to even touch it because he knew he couldn't resist. The point isn't to prove you're incorruptible - it's to understand how you'd be corrupted, and why that means no one should have that kind of power. So ask yourself as you begin: If you held the Ring of Power - absolute control over all living things - would you use it for good? Or would you realise that using it at all IS the corruption? And if you're certain you could handle it... isn't that certainty itself the first sign you've already been corrupted? Let's find out what your answers are and which character you are within the world of //The Lord Of The Rings//. //Note: There is a commentary at the end of each section about why the ring is so powerful, what it represents and why it is so dangerous which you can read if you like or skip.// [[Begin Scenario 1|Scenario1]]

!! 1. The Birthday Gift <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">You've had the Ring for many years. It's kept you young, healthy, comfortable. A wizard suggests you should give it to a young relative and leave it behind forever. 'It's mine! I found it!' something inside you protests. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/WWyGmgzg/Bilbo02-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Give it up immediately. Of course! What was I thinking? //though you feel strangely diminished after//" "Scenario2">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Give it up but it's agony. 'Mine' you whisper. Still, you do it. And then you leave, quickly, before you can take it back." "Scenario2">> <<set $domination += 2>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "C) Refuse. It's yours by right! You earned it through trials. Why should you give up what's yours?" "Scenario2">> <<set $domination += 3>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <</link>> <<link "D) Give it up easily. It's a pretty trinket, but you have other treasures. Your riddles, your memories, your songs - those matter more." "Scenario2">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>The Central Question</h3> //This first scenario reveals something crucial about you: how attached you become to power once you have it. The question isn't 'Are you a good person?' Most people who seek power are good people with good intentions. Boromir loved his country. Denethor loved his city. Saruman genuinely believed he was wiser than others. Even Gollum was once a regular person who saw something shiny and wanted it.// //The question is: 'Could you resist the Ring?' Could you hold ultimate power - the power to make everyone do what you think is right - and choose to destroy it instead of using it?// //Could you see suffering and have the power to end it by force, and choose not to? Could you watch people make 'wrong' choices and have the power to control them 'for their own good,' and refuse?// //Everyone thinks they could. The story of the Ring proves that almost no one can. Your choice here begins to reveal where you fall on that spectrum - and whether you even recognise possession as a form of corruption.// </div> </div>

!! 2. The Council of Elrond <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">Representatives from all Free Peoples debate what to do with the Ring. Someone must take it to Mount Doom. Gandalf and Elrond both look troubled - they speak of how the Ring corrupts any who would wield it. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/YT1hfNVd/Council01-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Volunteer immediately. You're strong enough for this. Someone must act." "Scenario3">> <<set $domination += 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Stay silent. This is too great a burden - let wiser heads decide." "Scenario3">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 1>> <<set $service -= 1>> <</link>> <<link "C) Speak up only if no one else will. You'd rather not, but you can't let this fall to someone unprepared." "Scenario3">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "D) Suggest someone else who seems capable. You're not the right choice, but you'll support whoever goes." "Scenario3">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>What the Ring Represents</h3> //The Ring is not just a fantasy artefact - it's a symbol of hierarchical power over other people. The power to command, to dominate, to impose your will regardless of consent. The power to make people do what you want 'for their own good.' The power to reshape the world according to your vision. It's the power of:// * //The dictator who promises order and prosperity if only you'll obey// * //The revolutionary who becomes the tyrant, convinced their cause justifies any means// * //The expert who knows what's best for you better than you do// * //The parent-state that controls every aspect of your life 'for your protection'// * //The benevolent ruler who makes the trains run on time but crushes every dissenting voice// //It's every concentration of power that lets one person (or group) impose their will on others without their genuine consent. And here's the terrible seduction: The Ring offers you the power to fix everything you see as broken in the world.// //This scenario tests whether you see the burden of responsibility or the opportunity for heroism. Do you volunteer because you're strong enough, or because no one else should have to carry it? That distinction matters - because one leads to Aragorn, and the other to Boromir.// </div> </div>

!! 3. The Last Homely House <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">Elrond offers to keep the Ring here in Rivendell, guarded by the wise and powerful. It would be safe. You could go home, return to your quiet life. Someone else - someone better - could deal with this later. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/PsZdDVp1/Lot-R2-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Accept gratefully. This is too big for you. Let the wise handle it." "Scenario4">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Accept, but feel like you're abandoning something important. Still, what could you do?" "Scenario4">> <<set $domination += 1>> <</link>> <<link "C) Refuse. You don't know why, but this is yours to do. You feel it." "Scenario4">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $discipline += 1>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "D) Want desperately to stay, but know you can't. Others would be corrupted. You're already... affected. Best you carry it." "Scenario4">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 3>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>The Ring Cannot Be Used for Good</h3> //This is the test's central premise, and your choices are measuring whether you truly understand it. Every character who thinks they could wield the Ring 'properly' is wrong:// * //''Boromir'' wants to use it to save Gondor → would become a tyrant// * //''Gandalf'' would use it from desire to do good → would become 'beautiful and terrible'// * //''Galadriel'' would be a queen, terrible as the dawn → enlightened dictatorship is still dictatorship// * //''Denethor'' would use any weapon to 'save' his people → becomes the thing he fears// * //''Saruman'' thinks his wisdom entitles him to rule → technocratic nightmare// //Even ''Frodo'', the most virtuous bearer, claims it at the end. After months of heroic resistance, at the very moment of victory, he cannot destroy it. He says 'It is mine!' This is Tolkien saying: No one can be trusted with this power. Not the wise, not the noble, not the heroic.// //The only solution is to destroy the Ring entirely - to make it so that kind of power doesn't exist for anyone to wield. Your choice to accept responsibility or delegate it reveals how you understand power itself. Are you avoiding corruption by staying away - or avoiding responsibility by letting others bear the burden?// </div> </div>

!! 4. The Gift of Galadriel <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">In Lothlórien, the Lady Galadriel shows you a vision of your homeland destroyed, your loved ones suffering. She offers you a means to prevent this - but it would require using the Ring's power 'just once' to command an army to defend them. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/ycjP4hzS/Galadriel-and-her-mirror-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Refuse absolutely. The Ring cannot be used, no matter what. Trust others to defend your home." "Scenario5">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 3>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Consider it seriously. Aren't your people worth this risk? Maybe you could control it just once..." "Scenario5">> <<set $domination += 3>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "C) Feel torn but ultimately refuse. Send word home urging them to flee or hide instead." "Scenario5">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "D) Refuse, but the vision haunts you. You think about it often - what if you //could// have saved them?" "Scenario5">> <<set $domination += 2>> <<set $discipline += 1>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>Why This Matters</h3> //This scenario tests your most vulnerable point: whether you'd use power to protect those you love. This isn't just about a fictional ring. It's about every real-world situation where power concentrates in hands that promised to use it well:// * //The revolutionary party that becomes the oppressive state// * //The emergency powers that never get rescinded// * //The expert committee that decides what's good for you// * //The benevolent dictator who makes the trains run on time but crushes dissent// * //The parent who controls their child's every choice 'out of love'// * //The partner who isolates their beloved 'for their own protection'// * //The leader who 'has to make the hard choices' without accountability// //The Ring teaches us that this kind of power corrupts everyone, regardless of their intentions, wisdom, or virtue. Your answer reveals whether you understand this - or whether you still believe your love would be enough to keep you safe. The Ring knows that the people most dangerous to liberty are often those who love most fiercely. Because they'll do anything to protect what they love - including destroying it.// </div> </div>

!! 5. The Sword Reforged <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">You are the heir to a great kingdom, but it has been in ruins for generations. A powerful artefact (the Ring) could restore it immediately - make you the glorious king your people need. Without it, restoration will take decades of hard work with no guarantee of success. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/k2DYhNdt/Blade-Shards-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Use the Ring. Your people have suffered long enough. You were born for this - destiny itself calls you." "Scenario6">> <<set $domination += 3>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Refuse it entirely. You will not be the king that your ancestor was. Earn the throne through service, or not at all." "Scenario6">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 3>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "C) Take it 'temporarily' - just to stabilise things, then you'll give it up. You can control it that long." "Scenario6">> <<set $domination += 2>> <<set $discipline -= 1>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "D) Give up your claim entirely. Let someone else rule - someone not burdened by your family's history." "Scenario6">> <<set $domination -= 2>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>The Most Dangerous Temptation</h3> //This is perhaps the Ring's most seductive whisper: 'You're the rightful heir. You were born for this. Your people need you NOW. Using it isn't corruption - it's destiny.' This is exactly why Aragorn refused to even touch the Ring, despite being the most legitimate ruler in Middle-earth. He understood something crucial: legitimacy makes you more dangerous with power, not less.// //You have royal blood, a suffering people, a cautionary tale in your ancestor, decades of service proving your character. Every single one of these makes you feel entitled to use the Ring. 'I'm not some power-hungry usurper - I'm the rightful king! My people are suffering - surely that proves I can be trusted with this!'// //But that's exactly the trap. The Ring doesn't care about your bloodline or your proven character. It cares only that you believe you have the right to rule over others. Once you accept that premise - that anyone should have power over anyone else - the corruption has already begun.// //Aragorn chose the slow path. Decades of anonymous service. Earning the throne step by step. Uniting people through respect rather than dominion. When he finally became king, it was because people chose to follow him - not because he had the power to make them.// //This is what Tolkien meant when he wrote that his political opinions leaned 'more and more to Anarchy' - meaning 'the most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men.' The Ring cannot be used by anyone, for any reason, no matter how noble their claim or desperate the need. It must be destroyed. Even the rightful heir. Especially the rightful heir. Because legitimate authority is the most dangerous kind - it's the kind people willingly submit to, the kind that corrupts whilst telling itself it's serving.// <img src="https://img.libquotes.com/pic-quotes/v2/j-r-r-tolkien-quote-lbv9d2w.jpg" width="400"> </div> </div>

!! 6. The White Hand <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">You are among the wise, sent to guide and counsel, never to dominate. But you've studied the enemy for so long. You understand how power works. You could defeat him if only these foolish people would listen to you. With the Ring, you could MAKE them listen... <img src="https://i.ibb.co/kgzBW0NL/Saruman04-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Take it. You would be a just ruler. Knowledge and power should go together. You'd use it wisely where others failed." "Scenario7">> <<set $domination += 4>> <<set $discipline -= 3>> <</link>> <<link "B) Refuse it, but resent the restriction. These 'rules' about not dominating - they're why evil wins. You could do so much good..." "Scenario7">> <<set $domination += 3>> <<set $discipline += 1>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "C) Refuse absolutely. The moment you think 'I would use it well' is the moment you're already corrupted." "Scenario7">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 3>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "D) Be tempted, deeply. Feel how it would solve everything. But refuse because you know - KNOW - it would destroy you." "Scenario7">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $discipline += 3>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>The Most Seductive Lie</h3> //This is Saruman's temptation, and it's perhaps the most dangerous of all - because it sounds so reasonable. 'I'm not seeking power for myself. I just... know better. I've studied for centuries. I can see the solutions. If only these foolish people would listen to me, I could fix everything.' This is the corruption of expertise.// //You're not wrong that you're wiser. You're not wrong that you understand things others don't. You're wrong about what that entitles you to do. The moment you think 'I should make them listen,' you've crossed from counsel to control. From service to domination. From guide to ruler.// //This is why Gandalf refused the Ring despite being one of the wisest beings in Middle-earth. He understood that his wisdom wasn't protection - it was a vulnerability. The smarter you are, the more elaborate the justifications you can construct for why you should be in charge.// //Saruman fell to exactly this trap. He looked at free peoples making their own choices and thought 'How inefficient. I could organise this so much better.' Every atrocity he committed, he justified with logic. Every freedom he crushed, he explained with reason.// //This is the technocrat's temptation. The expert's corruption. The philosopher-king's tyranny. It's the most dangerous kind because it seems so justified. Kings are easy to recognise as threats. But the wise person who just wants to help? The expert who only wants what's best for you? They're far more dangerous - because people will voluntarily submit to them. Even the wise cannot be trusted with power over others. Especially the wise.// </div> </div>

!! 7. The Palantír <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">You've discovered a seeing-stone that shows you the enemy's overwhelming forces. Your city will fall. Your people will die. The future is hopeless unless... unless you had a weapon powerful enough to stop them. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/G39JrDTC/Palantir01-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) This confirms it - you MUST use the Ring. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Inaction is surrender." "Scenario8">> <<set $domination += 3>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "B) Fight anyway. Even if the cause seems lost, die with honour rather than become what you fight against." "Scenario8">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 3>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "C) Order a last stand whilst you escape with the Ring 'to preserve hope.' Someone must survive." "Scenario8">> <<set $domination += 2>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <<set $service -= 1>> <</link>> <<link "D) Give in to despair. It's over. Better a quick end than prolonged suffering." "Scenario8">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $discipline -= 3>> <<set $service -= 2>> <</link>> <<link "E) Refuse the vision's certainty. The future isn't written. Trust in the valour of ordinary people to surprise you." "Scenario8">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "F) The vision shows your enemies. Good. With the Ring, you'd make them suffer for opposing you. They deserve what's coming." "Scenario8">> <<set $domination += 5>> <<set $discipline -= 3>> <<set $service -= 2>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>'The Most Improper Job of Any Man Is Bossing Other Men'</h3> //This scenario reveals whether despair makes you reach for power - and whether certainty about the future justifies domination. Denethor looked into the palantír and saw only defeat. From that vision of doom, he convinced himself that any action was justified. His despair didn't make him give up - it made him dangerous. It gave him permission to do anything, because 'what difference does it make now?'// //But here's what Tolkien is actually saying through this moment: the job itself - bossing other men - is fundamentally improper. Not just 'done badly' or 'often abused.' Improper in itself. And crisis doesn't change that.// //The power to control others corrupts in three ways. It corrupts the boss - you start believing you know better, that their consent is unnecessary, that resistance to you is foolishness. This happens to everyone given enough power and time. Denethor was a wise ruler for decades before despair twisted him into someone who'd burn his own son alive rather than surrender control.// //It infantilises the bossed - when someone else makes decisions for you 'for your own good,' you lose agency, responsibility, dignity. You never learn because someone always decides for you. The hobbits grow precisely because no one controls them.// //It creates unjust relationships - hierarchy means some people's needs matter more than others, some voices are heard whilst others are silenced. The Ring makes this explicit: Sauron wants to restructure reality itself so everyone's will is subject to his. This is the endpoint of all hierarchical power.// //So when you saw that vision of doom, what did you reach for? Did despair justify domination? Or did you refuse certainty and trust in the valour of ordinary people to surprise you? Crisis doesn't justify tyranny. Despair doesn't excuse domination. Certainty doesn't entitle you to force your vision on others.// </div> </div>

!! 8. My Precious <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">You killed your best friend for the Ring. Years later, you have a chance to help the current bearer destroy it. But the Ring whispers: they'll take it, they'll keep your precious, you could take it back, it should be yours... <img src="https://i.ibb.co/wrNvDx3y/Gollum01-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Lead them to the place of destruction, but plan to take it at the last moment. It's YOURS. You deserve it." "Scenario9">> <<set $domination += 3>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <<set $service -= 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Try to take it now. Why wait? Why help them at all? Your precious..." "Scenario9">> <<set $domination += 4>> <<set $discipline -= 3>> <<set $service -= 2>> <</link>> <<link "C) Lead them faithfully. You've seen what the Ring does. You want it destroyed... even though it hurts to think it." "Scenario9">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 3>> <<set $service += 3>> <</link>> <<link "D) Be torn every single moment. Sometimes helping, sometimes betraying, never sure which voice in your head is really you anymore." "Scenario9">> <<set $domination += 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>'Even Saints Were Unwilling to Take It On'</h3> //This scenario asks the hardest question: can you recognise yourself in Gollum? You killed for the Ring. You've been hollowed out by it. You've forgotten your own name. And still - STILL - you want it. You're certain it should be yours, that you deserve it, that taking it back would be justice not theft.// //This is where all power-seeking ends. Not in glory or wisdom or benevolent rule. In a creature alone in the dark, clutching at something that's destroyed everything it once was, unable to let go even to save its own life.// //And here's Tolkien's most profound point: the people best suited to guide others are precisely those who DON'T WANT the job of 'bossing other men.' They see the weight of responsibility. The inevitability of failure. The corruption that comes with power. The presumption of thinking you know what's best for others. And they refuse.// //This is why Aragorn postpones his kingship for decades. Why Gandalf won't touch the Ring. Why Galadriel passes the test by declining. Why Frodo accepts the burden but doesn't seek it. The moment someone WANTS to boss others, they've already disqualified themselves. The moment someone is CERTAIN they could handle power well, they've already been corrupted by it.// //Your choice in this scenario reveals which you are. Can you help destroy the Ring even though it tears you apart? Can you recognise that your certainty of deserving it is itself the sickness? Or are you still whispering 'my precious,' still convinced that if only you had it back, everything would be right? Because Gollum proves that no amount of wanting, deserving, or needing makes you safe from power. It proves the opposite: those who want it most are precisely those who should never have it.// </div> </div>

!! 9. Shelob's Lair <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">Your companion carrying the Ring has fallen, apparently dead. The Ring lies there on the ground. You're alone. You could: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/fV9YkGzF/Shelob01-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Take the Ring to complete the quest yourself. They would want you to finish it." "Scenario10">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $discipline += 1>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Take the Ring for safekeeping, but feel its weight. Perhaps... perhaps with it you could do so much good? You deserve recognition..." "Scenario10">> <<set $domination += 4>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <</link>> <<link "C) Check if they're truly dead first. The Ring can wait - your friend matters more." "Scenario10">> <<set $domination -= 2>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 3>> <</link>> <<link "D) Leave it. Flee. This is too much - you're not strong enough. Maybe someone else will find it." "Scenario10">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <<set $service -= 2>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>'Not One in a Million Is Fit for It'</h3> //This is Sam's test - and yours. In Shelob's lair, when Frodo seemed dead, Sam took the Ring. And for that brief moment, it showed him visions. He could make the world into a garden. Every desolate place green, every wild thing tamed, everything ordered and beautiful according to his vision. The Ring whispered: 'You're good enough. You deserve recognition. You could do so much good with this power.'// //Sam came closer than almost anyone to holding the Ring and giving it back. When he discovered Frodo alive, he returned it. But those visions haunted him - the temptation to help, to fix, to make everything right through power.// //This is what your choice reveals: would you check if your friend is truly dead first, or would the Ring matter more? Tolkien doesn't say 'we need better kings' or 'we need wiser rulers.' He says 'Not one in a million is fit for it.' And critically: 'least of all those who seek the opportunity.'// //The characters safest from the Ring don't want power (Tom Bombadil), know they can't be trusted with it (Gandalf, Galadriel, Aragorn), or serve others without seeking control (Sam). The most dangerous seek power (Saruman), think they deserve it (Isildur, Boromir), or believe their cause justifies it (Denethor).// //Even Sam - the most selfless character in the story - could only resist temporarily. He gave it back because he loved Frodo more than he loved the vision of what he could do. But love isn't always enough. And not everyone has a Frodo to give it back to.// //This is the anarchist critique of all authority: The people who want power are precisely those who shouldn't have it. And the people who might use it responsibly recognise they can't be trusted with it - so they refuse it entirely.// </div> </div>

!! 10. The Stairs of Cirith Ungol <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">You discover your companion is alive but enslaved to the Ring's will, suspicious of you, accusing you of wanting to steal it. Part of you thinks: 'I //could// take it and do better. I've proven myself more resistant.' <img src="https://i.ibb.co/Sw4fcCHw/Stairs-of-Cirith-Ungol-Rot-K-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Take the Ring from them by force 'for their own good.' You'll finish this properly." "Scenario11">> <<set $domination += 3>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Stay and serve them anyway, despite the accusations. Help them complete the quest even if they hate you for it." "Scenario11">> <<set $domination -= 2>> <<set $discipline += 3>> <<set $service += 4>> <</link>> <<link "C) Leave them. You've done enough. This isn't your burden anymore." "Scenario11">> <<set $domination -= 2>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <<set $service -= 2>> <</link>> <<link "D) Defend yourself against the accusations and demand recognition for your sacrifices." "Scenario11">> <<set $domination += 2>> <<set $discipline -= 1>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>The Question the Ring Poses</h3> //This is the moment that tests whether you understand power at all. Frodo has turned on you. He's enslaved to the Ring, suspicious, accusing you of treachery. You've carried him, literally, up the mountain. You've saved his life repeatedly. And he thinks you want to steal his 'precious.'// //Here's the terrible logic: You could take it from him. You've proven yourself more resistant. He's clearly not coping. Taking it would be for his own good. You'd finish the quest properly. It would be an act of love.// //This is how every benevolent tyranny begins. 'I know better. They can't handle it. I'll take control for their own good.' Sam doesn't do it. He stays and serves anyway, despite the accusations. He helps Frodo complete the quest even knowing Frodo might hate him for it. He refuses to confuse service with control.// //Because every concentration of power asks us to trust that this time will be different. This leader is wiser. This emergency is real enough. This cause is important enough. This person has earned it. This time has enough safeguards. The Ring exposes this as a lie.// //It doesn't matter how wise you are - Gandalf and Galadriel refuse. How noble your cause - Boromir falls. How much you've sacrificed - Isildur keeps it. How heroic you've been - Frodo claims it. How much you've proven yourself - that proof itself becomes justification for taking power.// //The power itself is the corruption. Not its abuse. Not its misuse. The holding of it. Your choice here reveals everything: will you take power 'for their own good,' or will you serve without seeking to control? Because the moment you think 'I could do better,' you've already fallen to what destroyed them.// </div> </div>

!! 11. Mount Doom <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">You've reached the Cracks of Doom. Your companion refuses to destroy the Ring - they claim it. You could: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/cXS17Gsp/Mount-Doom-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Fight them for it. Take it and destroy it yourself before they escape." "Scenario12">> <<set $domination += 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Try to talk them down, appeal to who they were. Don't touch the Ring yourself." "Scenario12">> <<set $domination -= 2>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "C) Realise you can't destroy it either. Back away. You'd be corrupted too." "Scenario12">> <<set $discipline += 3>> <</link>> <<link "D) Just push them in, Ring and all. Harsh, but effective." "Scenario12">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $discipline += 1>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>Even Heroes Fail</h3> //This is the moment that proves everything the test has been measuring. Frodo reached Mount Doom. He carried the Ring for months, resisted torture, endured corruption, bore every burden. He was the hero. He did everything right. And at the final moment, he claimed it: 'The Ring is mine!'// //Even he couldn't destroy it.// //Your choice here reveals whether you understand what this means. Do you think you could take it from him and destroy it yourself? That's the same corruption - the belief that you're strong enough when he wasn't. Do you try to talk him down? Noble, but the Ring doesn't care about appeals to better nature. Do you push him in? That's solving hierarchy with violence - becoming what you fight.// //The story's answer is devastating: The Ring was destroyed by accident. Gollum, driven by pure greed, bit off Frodo's finger and fell into the fire. Evil destroyed itself through its own nature. The Quest succeeded because the hero failed.// //This is Tolkien's final point: the Ring must be destroyed. Not hidden. Not locked away. Not kept 'just in case.' Destroyed utterly, so that kind of power cannot exist at all. Not hidden where no one can find it - it still exists, still corrupts. Not locked away where only the 'wise' can access it - they'll eventually use it. Not kept for emergencies - that's how Isildur fell. Destroyed. So that kind of power over others simply doesn't exist as a possibility.// //This is the anarchist position: We don't need better kings, wiser dictators, more benevolent bosses. We need to destroy the Ring. We need to build systems where no one has power over others, where decisions come through cooperation not command, where organisation is voluntary not imposed, where hierarchical control cannot exist at all.// </div> </div>

!! 12. The Grey Havens <div class="scenario-container"><div class="game-text">The Ring is destroyed, but you bore it too long. The wound will never fully heal. Your friends want you to stay, but you're offered passage to a place of peace beyond this world. Going means leaving everything you love behind. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/7NY9tgf7/Grey-Havens02-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Stay. Your place is here with your people, even diminished. You'll endure the pain for their sake." "Scoring">> <<set $discipline += 1>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "B) Go, and feel guilty about it. You've earned rest, but it feels like abandoning them." "Scoring">> <<set $discipline += 1>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "C) Go gratefully. You gave everything. Sometimes accepting healing isn't selfish - it's necessary." "Scoring">> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "D) Insist one of your companions come too - they suffered as much as you. You won't accept healing they're denied." "Scoring">> <<set $discipline += 1>> <<set $service += 3>> <</link>></div><div class="commentary-text"><h3>The Fellowship of the Ring Is the Alternative to the Ring of Power</h3> //This final scenario asks whether you understand what resisting power cost - and what replaces it. Frodo bore the Ring and it broke him. The wound never healed. He saved the Shire but couldn't live in it. This is the reality of resisting domination: it takes everything from you. The hero doesn't get a happy ending in the place they saved.// //Your choice reveals how you understand service. Do you martyr yourself, staying despite the pain? Do you feel guilty for accepting healing? Or do you recognise that sometimes accepting rest isn't selfish - it's necessary? And crucially: do you insist your companions receive the same healing, refusing to accept what's denied to them?// //Because here's the profound symbolism Tolkien built into the entire story:// * //''The Ring'' = Power concentrated in one will, imposing order through domination// * //''The Fellowship'' = Power distributed among free people, creating cooperation through solidarity// //One is a tool of control. The other is a community of choice. One corrupts everyone who touches it. The other strengthens everyone who participates. One must be destroyed. The other must be built.// //Notice how the quest actually succeeds - not through hierarchy, but through fellowship. The Fellowship has no leader in the traditional sense. Gandalf guides but doesn't command. When he falls, they don't collapse. They continue through voluntary cooperation - they chose to go together. Through mutual aid - Sam carrying Frodo, Merry and Pippin's bravery, Legolas and Gimli's friendship. Through distributed action - everyone plays their part; no one could have succeeded alone. Through refusal of domination - Aragorn persuades and inspires, but doesn't command.// //Even the armies that fight Sauron do so through alliance, not empire. Rohan and Gondor fight as free peoples, not as vassal and lord. The Ents make their own decision. The Dead choose to honour their oath.// //This is what replaces the Ring: people freely cooperating to resist domination, without reproducing domination in their own structures. This is anarchist praxis.// //And your final choice - whether you understand that rest matters, that healing matters, that solidarity means insisting others receive what you receive - reveals whether you've learned what the Ring was teaching all along. In the end, through the efforts of all of them, darkness was removed and good triumphed - not through any one person's power, but through their choice to carry each other.// </div> </div>

!! 13. Final Scoring !!! How Power Hungry Were You? Your final scores are: * ''Domination:'' $domination * ''Discipline:'' $discipline * ''Service:'' $service Now use your ''Domination'' score to find which section to read next: <<if $domination <= 10>> [[Section A: The Resisters|SectionA]] <<elseif $domination <= 30>> [[Section B: Tempted But Restrained|SectionB]] <<elseif $domination <= 40>> [[Section C: Justified Corruption|SectionC]] <<else>> [[Section D: Fully Corrupted|SectionD]] <</if>>

!! A: The Resisters !!! //You consistently refused power, even when it seemed necessary// ''How you got here:'' You chose options that rejected control over others, even when it would have been 'for their own good.' You probably: * Gave up the Ring immediately without hesitation //(Scenario 1-D)// * Refused to use the Ring to save your homeland //(Scenario 4-A)// * Declined to take power even when you were the 'rightful' heir //(Scenario 5-B/D)// * Absolutely refused the Ring as corruption itself //(Scenario 6-C)// * Trusted in ordinary people rather than seeking control //(Scenario 7-E)// * Chose to serve rather than command //(Scenario 10-B)// ''What this means:'' You have very little desire to impose your will on others. You either don't want power at all (Tom), want to serve others without controlling them (Sam), or recognise that refusing power is wisdom even if it means avoiding responsibility (Faramir). You understand intuitively that the power to command others is itself problematic. Now look at your ''Discipline'' and ''Service'' scores: <<if $discipline >= 26>> [[You are Tom Bombadil|TomBombadil]] <<else>> [[You are Faramir|Faramir]] <</if>>

!! B: Tempted But Restrained !!! //You were tempted by power but ultimately restrained yourself// ''How you got here:'' You felt the pull of using power 'for good' but recognised the danger. You probably: * Felt torn about giving up the Ring, but did it anyway //(Scenario 1-B)// * Volunteered for the quest despite not wanting it //(Scenario 2-C/D)// * Considered using the Ring temporarily 'just to help' //(Scenario 5-C)// * Felt deeply tempted but refused because you knew it would destroy you //(Scenario 6-D)// * Wanted to take the Ring to complete the quest but checked yourself //(Scenario 9-A)// * Tried to talk down the Ring-bearer rather than seizing it yourself //(Scenario 11-B)// ''What this means:'' You have moderate power-hunger - you see problems and want to fix them, sometimes imagining you could wield power to do so. But you have enough self-awareness (or weariness) to recognise the danger. You're either wise enough to refuse (Gandalf/Galadriel), legitimate enough to be particularly dangerous (Aragorn), worn down by the Ring but still heroic (Frodo), or attached to the Ring but able to let go (Bilbo). Now look at your ''Service'', ''Discipline'', and ''Domination'' scores: <<if $service >= 26>> [[You are Sam Gamgee|SamGamgee]] <<elseif $discipline >= 25 && $domination <= 14>> [[You are Aragorn|Aragorn]] <<elseif $discipline >= 20>> [[You are Gandalf / Galadriel|GandalfGaladriel]] <<elseif $discipline <= 15>> [[You are Bilbo Baggins|BilboBaggins]] <<else>> [[You are Frodo Baggins|FrodoBaggins]] <</if>>

!! C: Justified Corruption !!! //You believed you could use power righteously to save what you love// ''How you got here:'' You consistently chose options that justified taking power because your cause was just or your people needed you. You probably: * Refused to give up the Ring because it was yours by right //(Scenario 1-C)// * Volunteered immediately, confident you were strong enough //(Scenario 2-A)// * Wanted to use the Ring to save your people //(Scenario 4-B)// * Believed destiny called you to use power //(Scenario 5-A)// * Decided desperate times justify desperate measures //(Scenario 7-A)// * Considered taking the Ring from someone else 'for their own good' //(Scenario 10-A)// * Would fight for the Ring to complete the quest yourself //(Scenario 11-A)// ''What this means:'' You have high power-hunger, usually justified through love, duty, or desperation. You believe that with power you could save your people, fix what's broken, do what needs to be done. You don't see yourself as seeking power for its own sake - you see it as necessary for your cause. This makes you particularly dangerous, because you'd rationalise escalating control as you became more certain of your rightness. You're either driven by love of your people (Boromir), consumed by possessive attachment and despair (Denethor), or convinced you've earned the right to keep power (Isildur). Now look at your ''Domination'' and ''Service'' scores: <<if $domination <= 34 && $service >= 14>> [[You are Boromir|Boromir]] <<elseif $service >= 11>> [[You are Isildur|Isildur]] <<else>> [[You are Denethor|Denethor]] <</if>>

!! D: Fully Corrupted !!! //You reached for power immediately and would not let go// ''How you got here:'' You chose power almost every time it was offered, with little hesitation or self-doubt. You probably: * Refused to give up the Ring - it was YOURS //(Scenario 1-C)// * Believed you should rule because you're wise enough //(Scenario 6-A/B)// * Would use any weapon, any means to achieve your goals //(Scenario 7-A)// * Planned to take the Ring at the last moment - it should be yours //(Scenario 8-A/B)// * Took the Ring and immediately felt you deserved recognition, could do so much good with it //(Scenario 9-B)// * Would take power from others by force if necessary //(Scenario 10-A)// ''What this means:'' You have very high power-hunger. Either you want the Ring for its own sake (Gollum) or you're absolutely convinced your intelligence / wisdom / understanding entitles you to rule others (Saruman). You may have started with good intentions, but you've become certain that you should be in control. With Gollum, it's pure possessive addiction - the Ring is your 'precious' and nothing else matters. With Saruman, it's intellectual pride - you believe that smart people should rule, that you understand how power works, that you could wield it better than anyone else. Both paths lead to complete corruption, but through different mechanisms: Gollum through hunger, Saruman through certainty. Now look at your ''Domination'' and ''Service'' scores: <<if $domination >= 46 && $service <= 4>> [[You are Sauron|Sauron]] <<elseif $service <= 5>> [[You are Gollum / Sméagol|Gollum]] <<else>> [[You are Saruman|Saruman]] <</if>>

!! Tom Bombadil !!! //The Ring has no power over you because you have no hunger for power. You exist beautifully outside the game entirely.// You are the rarest of results - genuinely immune to the Ring's corruption. Not because you're strong enough to resist it, but because you have no desire for what it offers. You don't want to control, order, fix, save, or rule. The Ring offers dominion over others, and you simply... don't want that. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/ZztbMkd0/Bombadil02-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What you understand about power:'' The Ring has no power where there is no desire to shape the world according to your will. You're content with your corner of existence. You tend your garden not to prove anything or create paradise for others, but because you enjoy it. This is the paradox - only those who don't want power are safe from it. ''The crucial lesson:'' If you had the Ring, you'd likely lose it through sheer disinterest. You couldn't be trusted with it not because you'd abuse it, but because you wouldn't see its destruction as important enough to prioritise. This reveals the truth: even immunity to corruption isn't enough. The Ring must be actively opposed and destroyed, not merely ignored. The danger of hierarchical power isn't just that it corrupts those who seek it - it's that its very existence corrupts systems and relationships. Even if YOU wouldn't use it, leaving it in existence means someone else will. Your wisdom is in detachment, but the world sometimes needs people willing to carry burdens they'd rather not. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Samwise Gamgee !!! //You'd carry the Ring to save another, bear it briefly, and give it back. Your love makes you strong, not weak.// //'I can't carry it for you... but I can carry you.'// — Sam You came closer than almost anyone to holding the Ring and giving it back. In Shelob's lair, you took it thinking Frodo dead, and when you discovered him alive, you returned it. For that brief time, the Ring showed you a vision: you could make the world beautiful, create gardens everywhere, make everything //right//. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/tM0grWkJ/Sam02-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' You don't want power for yourself - you want it to //help people//. This is the Ring's subtlest trap. You'd tell yourself: 'Just this once, to fix this one thing.' Then another. Then another. You'd become a benevolent tyrant, a gardener who cannot bear to see a single weed, who must prune and shape and control everything 'for their own good.' ''What you got wrong:'' You think love is enough to keep you safe. But the Ring corrupts through love - through the desire to protect, to save, to make happy. You'd tell yourself you were serving others whilst slowly enslaving them to your vision of their good. The greatest tyrannies are done by those who love too much and trust their own judgement about what others need. ''The lesson about power:'' Caring deeply doesn't make you safe from corruption - it gives corruption its foothold. The Ring would use your compassion as a weapon. Every garden you forced into being, every choice you made 'for their sake,' every freedom you'd curtail 'just to keep them safe' - all done with genuine love. That's why even people with your heart cannot be trusted with dominating power. The road to tyranny is paved with good intentions. You're proof that virtue isn't enough. If even you would eventually force your kindness on others, then no one should hold such power. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Aragorn !!! //You know your own lineage of weakness. You'd refuse the Ring entirely, knowing one touch could undo you. Your strength is in restraint.// You are exactly the kind of person most people think //should// wield power - noble, selfless, proven, wise. You have royal blood, you've earned respect through decades of service, you genuinely care about justice. And you said NO to the Ring absolutely. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/DD7Gjhyz/Aragorn-Lord-of-the-Rings-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' You //want// to fix things. You see the suffering of your people and you feel responsible. The Ring whispers that you could end their pain immediately - be the king they need //now// rather than earning it slowly. You'd start with 'just this once to save them' and end with 'I know better than they do what's good for them.' ''What you got right:'' You understood that the desire to use power 'well' is itself the corruption. You know Isildur's story - your ancestor who thought himself strong enough, who thought he'd earned the right to keep the Ring. You know that if even //you// cannot resist, then no one can. ''The profound insight:'' You recognised that legitimacy, nobility, good intentions, and proven virtue are not protections against corruption - they are vulnerabilities it exploits. The Ring would use your royal blood to justify dominion. It would use your wisdom to rationalise control. It would use your people's suffering to override your conscience. ''The lesson about power:'' This is why even philosopher-kings cannot be trusted with absolute power. The better your intentions, the more dangerous you become, because you'll be able to justify anything. Your refusal teaches us that true leadership is knowing when NOT to take power, especially when you're certain you'd use it well. That certainty is the first stage of corruption. The fact that YOU - perhaps the worthiest person in Middle-earth - refused the Ring proves that such power should exist in no one's hands. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Bilbo Baggins !!! //You held it long and gave it up - barely. 'Mine' you called it. But you let go in the end, and that counts for much.// You carried the Ring for decades and gave it up. That's remarkable. But look at what it cost you - the agony of letting go, the way you called it 'precious,' the way it had slowly wrapped itself around your heart. You barely escaped. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/pjgJnFzp/Bilbo04-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' You didn't seek power over others - you just wanted to keep what was yours. The Ring didn't corrupt you through ambition but through //possession//. Each year you kept it, it became more 'yours,' more precious, harder to imagine life without it. This is the slow corruption - not dramatic tyranny but quiet, creeping attachment. ''What you almost got wrong:'' You told yourself it was harmless. It kept you young, yes, but what was the harm? You weren't using it to dominate anyone. But that's exactly how it works - it makes you dependent, then resentful of anyone who suggests you give it up. Eventually you'd have justified anything to keep it, told yourself you //needed// it, that anyone trying to take it was the real problem. ''The insidious lesson:'' Power doesn't always announce itself as power. Sometimes it comes as a treasure, a tool, a comfort, something 'just for you' that slowly colonises your soul. You teach us that even passive possession of dominating power corrupts - you don't have to actively use it to be changed by it. The Ring stretched your life, yes. But it also stretched your capacity for self-deception. Each year you kept it was a year of slow corrosion. You escaped because you had help and were confronted directly - but given more time, you'd have become another Gollum. This proves that time doesn't make power safer - it makes corruption deeper. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Frodo Baggins !!! //You'd bear the Ring to the very fires of Mount Doom through sheer courage and duty. But at the final moment, even you would claim it.// You are perhaps the most important result - because you did //everything right// and still failed at the end. You volunteered when no one else could. You bore the burden for months. You resisted torture, corruption, despair. You reached the very fires of Mount Doom. And then you claimed it. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/JW89DQdW/Frodo01-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' You thought endurance was enough. You thought if you just held on, stayed true to yourself, remembered who you were, you could carry it to the end. But the Ring isn't overcome through heroic willpower - it's patient. Every moment you carried it, it wore you down, learned you, mapped your weaknesses. ''What you got wrong:'' You believed you could bear this burden yourself. You thought accepting help was weakness. You thought your friends couldn't understand. The Ring isolated you, convinced you that only you were strong enough, special enough, chosen enough. By the end, you were ready to kill Sam to keep it. ''The devastating lesson:'' You prove that there is no amount of virtue, courage, or sacrifice that makes someone safe from corruption by absolute power. Not even martyrdom is enough. If //you// - who gave everything, sacrificed everything, endured everything - still claimed it at the end, then no one can bear such power safely. The Quest only succeeded because you failed. Gollum, driven by greed, bit off your finger and fell into the fire. Evil destroyed itself whilst good failed. This is the ultimate lesson: hierarchical power cannot be wielded by even the most heroic. It must be destroyed, not tamed. You teach us that power's defeat often comes from its own nature, not from anyone's strength. Your failure is not your shame - it's the proof that such power should not exist at all. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Gandalf / Galadriel !!! //You would be terrible with the Ring - powerful and terrible. But you know it, and that knowledge itself is your protection.// You are wise enough to refuse the Ring even when it's offered directly to you. You see exactly how you'd be corrupted: 'I would use this Ring from a desire to do good. But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine' //(Gandalf)//. You understand the trap better than almost anyone - and that's why you can't take it. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/TB9DGSTq/Galadriel01-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' You know how to make things better. You've studied for centuries, you understand systems and patterns, you see the big picture. With the Ring, you could enforce your wisdom on the world. You'd start with noble goals - ending war, preventing suffering, creating justice. But you'd become what Tolkien called 'beautiful and terrible as the dawn, treacherous as the sea, stronger than the foundations of the earth.' //(Galadriel)// Unless you 'diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.' ''What makes you dangerous:'' Your wisdom itself. You'd be able to justify every escalation. 'They don't understand.' 'I must protect them from themselves.' 'Short-term control for long-term freedom.' You'd create a world of peace and order where no one could choose anything you deemed wrong. The most enlightened tyranny is still tyranny. ''The paradox you embody:'' Being wise enough to see the danger doesn't make you immune - it makes you more dangerous if you give in. You'd be a rational, far-sighted, utterly implacable dictator. You'd crush human agency in the name of human flourishing. You'd create a garden where nothing wild could grow. ''The lesson about expertise:'' This is why technocrats, experts, and the wisest advisers cannot be trusted with absolute power. The smarter you are, the more elaborate your rationalisations. The more you know, the more certain you become that you know what's best for others. Intelligence amplifies corruption rather than protecting against it. You teach us that self-awareness of the danger is not protection enough - the only safety is absolute refusal. The wise person knows they cannot be trusted. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Faramir !!! //You show the wisdom of Númenor in its ancient days - you would not even touch this thing, though it passed within your reach.// You represent pure wisdom in refusal. When the Ring was in your power, you said you would not take it 'if it lay by the wayside.' You didn't trust yourself even to touch it. This is profound wisdom - recognising that some tools are inherently corrupting. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/0phDVZGw/625dd50e2ebe0e001fe0d394-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' Your wisdom might lead to inaction. You're so aware of corruption's danger that you might avoid responsibility altogether, letting others make hard choices whilst you keep your hands clean. There's a difference between wise refusal and moral avoidance. ''What you got right:'' You understood that proximity to power is itself dangerous. You refused to even put yourself in the position where you'd be tempted. You didn't test yourself against the Ring because you knew testing would itself be corruption - the pride of 'seeing if you're strong enough.' ''The complex lesson:'' Your wisdom is real, but it poses a question: If all the wise refuse power, does it inevitably fall to the unwise? If everyone like you says 'not I,' then only Boromirs and Denethors will step forward. This is the tragedy - the people who should lead (by wisdom) often won't, and the people who will lead often shouldn't (by ambition). ''What this reveals about power:'' You teach us that there's a difference between hierarchical power (Ring-type, commanding others) and responsibility (burden-carrying, service). You rightly refuse the former but risk avoiding the latter. The question becomes: how do we create systems where authority flows from service rather than dominion, where no one has Ring-type power over others? Your refusal is wise. But the world also needs people willing to act. The challenge is: can we build power structures where necessary action doesn't require anyone to hold corruptible authority? [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Boromir !!! //You want desperately to save your people and are brave enough to try anything - but you trust yourself too much with power you don't understand.// Your heart is genuinely good. You love your people, your city, your father. You're brave - you'd die for Gondor without hesitation. And that's exactly why you're dangerous with the Ring. You can't see how your love would become tyranny. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/n88Wh77J/Boromir-being-tempted-by-the-ring-of-power-in-Lord-of-the-Rings-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' Desperation. Your people are dying. The enemy is at the gates. Normal means aren't enough. 'Why not use this Ring?' you ask. 'Why hobble ourselves with rules when they have no rules? Why take the harder path when people are suffering NOW?' ''What you got wrong:'' You thought the ends justify the means. You thought that because your cause was just, using the Ring would be justified. You failed to understand that the Ring doesn't care about your intentions - it corrupts the intention itself. You'd start trying to save Gondor and end trying to conquer all of Middle-earth 'for their own good, for peace.' ''The seductive logic:'' You represent the eternal temptation: 'We need power to fight power. We must be strong to defeat the strong. Just this once, just this emergency, then we'll give it up.' But emergencies never end. There's always another threat, another reason to hold onto power 'just a little longer.' ''The lesson about urgency:'' This is how democracies become tyrannies - through crisis. People like you, genuinely good people who love their nation, convince themselves that extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. You'd suspend freedoms to protect freedom. You'd become dictator to save democracy. And you'd mean it sincerely. ''What you teach us:'' The people most dangerous to liberty are often those who love their people most. Because they'll do //anything// to protect them, including destroying what made them worth protecting. Love of country can become nationalism. Protection can become domination. Defence can become aggression. All whilst you tell yourself you're the hero. You died redeemed, having realised your error. But your temptation is one that recurs in every generation. Beware the patriot who says 'trust me with power' - especially if they genuinely love their country. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Denethor !!! //Your love for your people has curdled into possessiveness. You'd use any weapon to 'save' them, becoming the very thing you fear.// You are what Boromir would have become given time and despair. You loved Gondor - but your love became ownership. 'Mine to command,' you'd say of your people. You couldn't imagine them surviving without you, so you chose to burn them all rather than see 'your' city fall to another. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/Y7dPHQ6W/denethor-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' Despair masquerading as realism. You looked into the palantír, saw the enemy's strength, and decided defeat was certain. In that certainty, you gave yourself permission to do anything. 'If we're doomed anyway, why not use the Ring? If they'll fall anyway, better we burn than be enslaved.' ''What you got catastrophically wrong:'' You confused your vision with the only possible reality. You couldn't imagine victory, so you declared it impossible. You couldn't imagine your people surviving without you, so you tried to take them with you in death. This is the ultimate tyranny - deciding for others that their lives aren't worth living. ''The psychology of power:'' You represent what happens when leaders identify so completely with their nation that they see themselves as its only salvation. You'd have taken the Ring not just to save Gondor, but because //you// couldn't imagine Gondor without you in control. Your power became your identity. Losing it felt like death. ''The lesson about ownership:'' You teach us that possessive love is the shadow of real love. Real love wants the beloved to flourish even without you. Possessive love says 'if I can't have you, no one can.' You'd rather see Gondor destroyed than see it saved by another. ''What this reveals:'' You're the answer to why even legitimacy and lineage don't justify power. You were Steward by right, ruling justly for decades. But that power slowly convinced you that you were indispensable, that only your judgement mattered, that the people existed to serve your vision rather than you existing to serve them. ''The horror of your path:'' With the Ring, you'd have 'saved' Gondor by enslaving it. You'd have defeated Sauron by becoming Sauron. You'd have preserved your people by destroying everything that made them worth preserving. This is why hierarchical power over others inevitably corrupts even those who start from love - it transforms caring into controlling. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Isildur !!! //You won the victory but couldn't let go of the spoils. 'It is precious to me,' you said - and so it destroyed you.// You cut the Ring from Sauron's hand. You won the war. You had the power to end it forever - and you chose not to. 'It is precious to me, though I buy it with great pain,' you said. You thought you'd earned it. You thought your sacrifice entitled you to keep it. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/fd6Gf9ts/Isildur-with-the-Ring-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' The 'I've earned this' trap. You paid in blood - your father, your brother, thousands of your people. You'd fought the war, won the victory, borne the cost. Surely that meant you could be trusted with the Ring? Surely that gave you the right? ''What you got catastrophically wrong:'' You thought suffering entitled you to power. You thought past heroism guaranteed future wisdom. You thought that because you'd resisted Sauron, you could resist the Ring. You failed to understand that the Ring doesn't care what you've sacrificed - it cares only what you desire. ''The psychology of entitlement:'' You represent everyone who says 'I've earned this,' 'I've worked too hard to give it up,' 'After all I've done, I deserve this.' You confused reward with wisdom. You thought merit in one arena (warfare) meant you could be trusted in another (bearing ultimate power). ''The lesson about meritocracy:'' This is why even merit doesn't protect against tyranny. Being the most qualified, the hardest working, the most deserving doesn't make you safe from corruption. Earned power is still corruptible power. The person who fought their way to the top, who 'deserves' to lead, who has 'proven' themselves - they're just as vulnerable as anyone else. ''What this reveals about revolutions:'' You're the revolutionary who becomes the tyrant. You overthrew Sauron and then kept his Ring. How many movements for liberation end with the liberators seizing the power structures they fought against? How many revolutionaries become the new oppressors, telling themselves they've earned it, they understand, they're different? ''The tragic irony:'' The Ring destroyed you not through evil but through believing you were owed something. Your fall teaches us that no amount of sacrifice, no purity of lineage, no proven courage entitles anyone to hold power over others. The moment you think 'I've earned this,' you've already been corrupted. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Saruman !!! //You wouldn't even need the Ring to be corrupted - you're already consumed by the certainty of your own wisdom and right to rule.// You are the final warning about intellectual pride. You were sent to Middle-earth to counsel, never to dominate. You were the wisest of the Istari, the most learned, the most powerful. And you fell not by being tempted with the Ring but by becoming convinced that you could //outthink// Sauron, use power better than anyone else ever had. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/0RZFyvW7/intro-1603483845-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' The certainty of the intelligent. You'd studied the Ring, analysed it, understood its mechanisms. You thought that understanding meant control. You looked at everyone else's failures and thought 'They were weak. They were foolish. I am neither.' ''What you got devastatingly wrong:'' You believed that intelligence protects against corruption. You thought that because you could see how the Ring corrupted others, you'd be immune. You didn't understand that self-awareness of corruption can itself become a tool of corruption. You were so busy analysing the trap that you didn't notice you'd already fallen into it. ''The psychology of expertise:'' You represent the technocrat who believes that smart people should rule. You'd looked at the chaos of democracy, the messiness of freedom, the inefficiency of consent, and decided that enlightened dictatorship was simply more logical. 'If only people would listen to me,' you thought. 'If only I had the power to implement the right solutions.' ''The lesson about rationalisation:'' You teach us that intelligence doesn't prevent evil - it just makes evil more elaborate. A stupid tyrant rules by crude force. An intelligent tyrant like you builds sophisticated systems of control, justifies every cruelty with logic, creates holocausts through optimisation. You'd have used the Ring to build a perfectly ordered world where humans were managed like a garden, every choice pre-determined by your 'superior' judgement. ''What this reveals about governance:'' You're the philosopher-king who proves philosopher-kings are a nightmare. You're the expert who thinks expertise in one domain (magic, knowledge) means competence in another (ruling others). You're the planner who cannot tolerate the unpredictability of freedom. ''The horror of your path:'' You already served Sauron before you ever got the Ring, convinced you were playing a deeper game. You prove that corruption doesn't always announce itself - sometimes it comes dressed as wisdom, efficiency, rational planning, 'necessary' control. The Ring would have just made you more effective at what you were already doing - enslaving others 'for their own good.' ''The ultimate lesson:'' If even one of the wisest beings in Middle-earth, specifically sent to resist domination, can fall to the lust for control, then no one - no matter how wise, learned, or well-intentioned - can be trusted with absolute power over others. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Gollum / Sméagol !!! //The Ring would consume you entirely. It would become your whole world, your precious, your purpose.// You are the end state of corruption - what everyone becomes if they hold power long enough. You killed your best friend for the Ring on sight. You held it for centuries, and it hollowed you out until there was nothing left but hunger. You weren't strong or wise or noble to begin with, and the Ring ate you alive. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/Qz77KC2/Gollum-AUJTextless-Poster-oil.jpg" height="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' Immediate gratification. You saw, you wanted, you took. No hesitation, no moral calculation, just pure 'I want it, it's mine, my precious.' You represent addiction in its purest form - the thing you need more than air, more than food, more than life itself. ''What you teach us:'' You are what happens when power meets human weakness unmediated by any strength. You're the person who doesn't even pretend to want power for good reasons - you just want it. And the Ring rewarded that pure, undisguised hunger by consuming you entirely. ''The psychology of addiction:'' You're not divided like Frodo or conflicted like Boromir. You're not tragic. You're what's left when power strips away everything else - all relationships, all dignity, all humanity. You forgot your real name. You forgot sunlight. You forgot joy. Only the Ring remained. ''The lesson about power's endpoint:'' You are the cautionary tale that haunts every other result. Sam looks at you and sees what he could become. Frodo looks at you and sees his future if he doesn't destroy the Ring. Even Gandalf sees in you the truth: this is what power does, given time. It doesn't matter who you were. It eats everyone eventually. ''What this reveals about domination:'' You teach us that power over others is ultimately insatiable. It doesn't satisfy; it hungers. Each use demands the next. Each taste makes you need more. You could have used the Ring for anything, but instead you just... held it. In the dark. Alone. That's what power does - it isolates, it obsesses, it consumes. ''The final warning:'' Every other character looks at you and thinks 'I wouldn't become that.' Aragorn wouldn't. Gandalf wouldn't. Boromir wouldn't. Frodo wouldn't. But you prove that everyone would, given enough time and exposure. You're not a person anymore - you're a process. You're what happens when power runs its course. ''The mercy in your ending:'' You destroyed the Ring by accident, driven by greed. In trying to keep it, you fell into the fire. This is the ultimate lesson about corrupting power: it destroys itself through its own nature. You couldn't let go even to save your life. That's the endpoint of every hierarchy, every domination, every concentration of power - it becomes so fixated on holding power that it destroys itself rather than release it. You are the answer to anyone who says 'But I could handle it.' No. No, you couldn't. Given time, you'd become this - a creature of pure hunger, holding tight to power even as it burns you alive. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! Sauron !!! //You didn't just fail to resist the Ring - you ARE the Ring. You seek domination without pretence or apology.// You are the rarest and most dangerous result. You don't want the Ring to 'help people' or 'save your nation' or even because you're addicted to it. You want it because you believe you have the right to rule, and others have the duty to obey. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/ynwYYWkF/Sauron-Ring-Lord-of-the-Rings-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''Your vulnerability:'' You have none in the traditional sense, because you don't see your hunger for power as a vulnerability. You see it as strength. You don't feel conflicted about crushing others - you think they deserve to be crushed for opposing you. You don't worry about corruption because you don't believe what you want is wrong. ''What you got catastrophically wrong:'' You think might makes right. You see other people not as beings with inherent worth, but as resources to be used or obstacles to be removed. You've crossed the line from 'power corrupts' into 'power IS the point.' ''The psychology of pure domination:'' Unlike Boromir who wanted power to save Gondor, or Denethor who twisted love into possession, or even Saruman who rationalised through 'wisdom,' you want power for its own sake. You embody fascism's core belief that hierarchy is natural and good, authoritarianism's impulse that people need controlling, tyranny's justification that strength proves rightness. Most of the Ring's victims are tragic - good people corrupted by good intentions. You're not tragic. You're what happens when someone seeks domination consciously and deliberately. ''Why this is the most dangerous result:'' Boromir would be horrified to learn what he'd become. Denethor was destroyed by despair. Saruman told himself he was being wise. Gollum was consumed beyond conscious choice. You would look at what you'd become and be proud. You'd see enslaved masses and think 'good, that's how it should be.' You can't be reasoned with, appealed to, or redeemed. You don't think you need redemption. You think you need victory. ''The only response:'' Destroy the Ring. Make sure no one - especially not you - can ever wield that kind of power. ''Final reflection:'' If you're shocked by this result, go back through your choices. You selected domination repeatedly. Ask yourself what in your thinking led you to choose power over others, force over consent, control over freedom. Because Sauron didn't start as the Dark Lord. He became Sauron when he decided that imposing his vision mattered more than others' freedom to choose. [[Continue to the conclusion|TheRoadGoesEverOn]]

!! 31. The Road Goes Ever On >//The Road goes ever on and on,// >//Down from the door where it began.// >//Now far ahead the Road has gone,// >//And I must follow, if I can,// >//Pursuing it with eager feet,// >//Until it joins some larger way// >//Where many paths and errands meet.// >//And whither then? I cannot say.// [[Continue to the final conclusion|TheRingMustBeDestroyed]]

!! 32. The Ring Must Be Destroyed These character results aren't just about a fantasy story - they're about why concentrations of power over other people inevitably corrupt, regardless of who holds them: * ''Tom Bombadil'' shows that even immunity isn't enough - power must be opposed, not just ignored * ''Sam'' proves that good intentions and love don't protect you - they give corruption its foothold * ''Aragorn'' demonstrates that legitimacy and nobility make you MORE dangerous, not less * ''Bilbo'' reveals that passive possession still corrupts - you don't have to use it to be changed by it * ''Frodo'' is the devastating proof that heroism fails - if he couldn't carry it, no one can * ''Gandalf/Galadriel'' show that wisdom sees the danger clearly but doesn't make you immune to it * ''Faramir'' teaches that refusal is wisdom but creates the problem of who will act * ''Boromir'' embodies how crisis and love of country justify tyranny * ''Denethor'' shows how possessive love and despair justify any atrocity * ''Isildur'' proves that earned power corrupts as surely as stolen power * ''Saruman'' reveals how intelligence rationalises evil rather than preventing it * ''Gollum'' is the endpoint - what everyone becomes when power consumes them fully The Ring cannot be wielded by anyone for good, because the power to dominate others is itself the corruption. Not the abuse of that power - the power itself. It doesn't matter if you're wise or kind or legitimate or desperate or heroic. Hierarchical power over other people corrodes everyone it touches. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/mrpgZvZr/Frodo02-oil.jpg" width="400"> The only solution is to destroy it - to build systems where no one holds that kind of power at all. This is why anarchist, horizontal, and non-hierarchical organising matters. Not because people are good enough to handle power - but because no one is. [[Continue|NoOneShouldRule]]

!!! Conclusion: No One Should Rule As Tolkien recognises, 'The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men.' This isn't a counsel of despair. It's a call to build differently. Not: * 'Let's find better bosses' * 'Let's limit bosses' power' * 'Let's elect our bosses democratically' But: * 'Let's abolish bossing entirely' * 'Let's organise horizontally' * 'Let's cooperate freely rather than command forcibly' * 'Let's destroy the Ring: hierarchical ruling power over others' //The Lord of the Rings// is a story about power that ultimately rejects power. About heroes who refuse to become rulers. About the ordinary (hobbits) proving more trustworthy than the mighty (Saruman). About destroying the tool of domination rather than seizing it. It's an anarchist epic. And the question it asks you is: When offered the Ring, will you reach for it or refuse it? Will you seek to rule, or to cooperate? Will you believe you're the exception who could wield power well, or will you recognise that the power itself is the problem? Because 'not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.' And if you think YOU'RE that one in a million... You've already been corrupted. The Ring must be destroyed. The Fellowship must be built. That's anarchism. That's the lesson of The Lord of the Rings. [[Start again|Start]] <img src="https://i.ibb.co/N2ywW9Vd/film-3930-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-fellowship-of-the-ring-hi-res-a207bd11-oil.jpg" width="400">

!! 1. The Birthday Gift <table style="width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse;"> <tr><td style="width: 50%; padding: 2px; vertical-align: top; border-right: 2px solid #ccc;">You've had the Ring for many years. It's kept you young, healthy, comfortable. A wizard suggests you should give it to a young relative and leave it behind forever. 'It's mine! I found it!' something inside you protests. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/WWyGmgzg/Bilbo02-oil.jpg" width="300"> ''What do you do?'' <<link "A) Give it up immediately. Of course! What was I thinking? //though you feel strangely diminished after//" "Scenario2">> <<set $domination += 1>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> <<link "B) Give it up but it's agony. 'Mine' you whisper. Still, you do it. And then you leave, quickly, before you can take it back." "Scenario2">> <<set $domination += 2>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 2>> <</link>> <<link "C) Refuse. It's yours by right! You earned it through trials. Why should you give up what's yours?" "Scenario2">> <<set $domination += 3>> <<set $discipline -= 2>> <</link>> <<link "D) Give it up easily. It's a pretty trinket, but you have other treasures. Your riddles, your memories, your songs - those matter more." "Scenario2">> <<set $domination -= 1>> <<set $discipline += 2>> <<set $service += 1>> <</link>> </td><td style="width: 50%; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.05);"><h3>The Central Question</h3> //This first scenario reveals something crucial about you: how attached you become to power once you have it. The question isn't 'Are you a good person?' Most people who seek power are good people with good intentions. Boromir loved his country. Denethor loved his city. Saruman genuinely believed he was wiser than others. Even Gollum was once a regular person who saw something shiny and wanted it.// //The question is: 'Could you resist the Ring?' Could you hold ultimate power - the power to make everyone do what you think is right - and choose to destroy it instead of using it?// //Could you see suffering and have the power to end it by force, and choose not to? Could you watch people make 'wrong' choices and have the power to control them 'for their own good,' and refuse?// //Everyone thinks they could. The story of the Ring proves that almost no one can. Your choice here begins to reveal where you fall on that spectrum - and whether you even recognise possession as a form of corruption.// </td> </tr> </table>