If you were 👁️Sauron, would you had made the Ring?

I can just imagine Sauron phoning Morgoth (long distance, of course, and probably collect) and explaining the circumstances of his ultimate defeat:

"It seemed like a good idea at the time....."

But seriously, Celebthol and Celebithil are correct. The Noldor were the first to make Rings of Power. Sauron made the One to dominate the Elven Rings, and thus the world.
It never entered his mind that the One could (would!) be taken from him, and such was his lust for power, that possiblilty probably wouldn't have deterred him, anyway.
Hindsight is 20-20.

Originally posted by olorin the maia
Sauron made the One to dominate the Elven Rings, and thus the world.

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Not ONLY the Elven rings, MOSTLY the Elves. The Elves were the most powerful creatures and the most likely to put up a good fight against him. He knew that the One Ring he was going to make had to be a thing of supreme potency, in order to overpower the Elven rings and enslave their bearers.

Sauron certainly wished to subjugate the Eldar, as you say. He hated them more than any others because they were the most powerful and beautiful of the Children of Iluvatar. He hated and feared the Men of Numenor, too, but found them easier to bring to his will. And we know that his attempts to dominate the Dwarves did not turn out as he desired.
Not to put too fine a point on it, in "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" is the passage:
"Now the Elves made many rings; but secretly Sauron made One Ring to rule all the others (italics mine), and their power was bound up with it, to be subject wholly to it and to last only as long as it too should last."
Thus Sauron's plot to rule and dominate the Free Peoples of Middle-earth was brought to fruition with the forging of the One Ring.

HOW MANT RINGS WERE THER AND HE COULD CONTROL THEM ALLLLL??

There were possibly hundreds of magical rings; and although Sauron could command all of them, he only really needed to control the Rings of Power. He could control them because he helped make the Rings of Power, and being a sorceror of a very powerful sort (I won't even guess what that means exactly) he bound the Rings of Power to the One Ring that he made, and therefore whenever they were "online", that is to say in use by their wielders, he could control them (and possibly their wearers).
But the chance of the One Ring actually becoming destroyed or lost, as seems to be the main argument to not makinbg the Ring, was so minute that there realy was no actual risk: as was said it was Sauron's own fault that the Ring was cut from his hand, he didn't need to actually dismount and kill isildur with his sword at all. So I would make it, because my powers would be so drastically enhanced.

Why didn't Sauron work on destroying Mt. Doom or something? possibly leaving an army of Urak-hai around it? if he was aware that the ring could be destroyed in Mt. Doom why did he leave it unguarded?

because it never occured to him that anybody who gained the One Ring would wish to destroy it, he was already under the rings power and because he could never bring himself to destroy it, he believed that others wouldnt either.

Thôl

Yeah, true. It is stated more than once in the books that Frodo and Sam had a fighting chance because Sauron would never guess that anyone would destroy it of their own volition. As a matter of fact, it's nearly impossible. Frodo DIDN'T destroy the Ring - Gollum did. And I don't know about you, but somehow I'm thinking that he didn't quite mean to...;-)

Originally posted by Celebthôl
because it never occured to him that anybody who gained the One Ring would wish to destroy it, he was already under the rings power and because he could never bring himself to destroy it, he believed that others wouldnt either.

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That is one reason. Another one is that Sauron couldn't possibly conceive the idea of someone passing unnoticed through his higly guarded realm.

No

Where did you get the idea that Gollum didnt at all mean to destroy the ring?

I would have made SOMETHING, but not a gold ring, especially considering the rest of my apparel. I probably would have made something that cannot be physically removed from my body without destroying me first - like an "Artificial Rib of Power" or something like that. Isiuldur (sp?) wouldn't have stood a chance getting that.

Thank you, FrankSinatra person, even though I think you were being sarcastic. I would love to point out that we have no idea what Gollum was thinking at the time. Or Smeagol. Of course, most people would love to believe that he wasn't thinking ---> "Thank goodness I never took those dancing lessons!" Okay. sorry. That's all. If I was Sauron, I'd have made a One Pez Dispenser Of Power.

Re: Depends

Originally posted by FrankSinatra
Its like you have a £1,000,000 (or $1,000,000 if you like) and someone offers you ten times more than that for giving u a ring that you could lose, and if you did lose it, you lost all your money.

Would you take the risk or stick with your million?

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id take the ring and the millions, but id keep the thing safe and i wouldnt wear it anywhere!

With the benefit of hindsight being 20/20 I think it's the smart move was to forge the ring in retrospect.

My logic goes thus: It's a given he would have lost the battle at the last alliance regardless. The ring continues while he essentially turned to vapor. That rings very existence sustained him in his 'whispy' years. If he hadn't forged that ring - who's to say he would have been able to return to any semblance of power at all in the 3rd age or ever? Purely my opinion - I have nothing specific to back that up.

To summarize, my opinion is making the ring may be akin to 'not putting all your eggs into a single basket' as well as the 'whole is greater than the sum of the parts'.

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No ring - what would he have hoped to accomplish - play tricky games of deceit w/ the elves ad nauseum?

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Oh and don't forget, while it didn't work w/ the elves and did little w/ the dwarves - it gave him notably political sway over 9 leaders of men 1 of whom crushed the northern half of the remaining former Numenorean kingdoms, Arnor. Sure the ring ticked off the elves but he had to show his hand sooner or later anyway and after the last alliance - what threat were they anyway?

I think the real mistake was in the logic of dominating the 3 or the 7 and the mismanagement of the 9. Those 9 could have been continually used to always maintain tight grip on 9 disparate kingdoms of man (including Gondor itself perhaps - something he sorta made up for w/ the Palantir). But ultimately they became trinkets to hold over 9 fallible errand boys.

OK I 've rambled enough!
-cya
-T

I wouldn't have made the One Ring. It's pointless. People loose things all the time. Especially wedding rings. Take a look at how many wedding rings go down the shower drain! The One Ring was bound to get lost.