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Fan Theory why Sauron didn't just kill Gandolf (Movie Canonical)

posted 8 years ago by harvey-cc
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So this applies to the movies as thier own story\ event line. When Gandolf challenged Sauron in Dol Gudor and lost, it always kind of niggled at me as to why he didn't just kill him instead of putting him away in the gibbet.

I could understand Saruman not wanting to kill him as despite their differences they were still bound by years of brotherhood. Also Sauron repuditly had a penchant of killing wizards, I remember a codex reference in Shadow of Mordor about the Dark Hand bringing the heads of two Istari (Wizards) to Sauron as a gift.

So with that in mind, the only reason I could think of Sauron sparing Gandolf is with his great power and insight (Sauron's) he may have known it was Gandolf the Grey's fate to fall and be reborn as the much more powerful Gandolf the White. Not wanting to have that come about he could have decided it wiser to just take the wizard off the playing board so to speak by imprisoning him.

- Currently watch classic Cinema like Gods of Egypt

[–] Otaku-sempai 8 years ago

Sauron, like his master Melkor, has a long history of holding captives for many months or years, torturing and tormenting them. Remember how Sauron simply threw Thrain in the dungeons of Dol Guldur after he obtained the Great Ring from the Dwarf-king and then pretty much forgot about him. I doubt that the Dark Lord would know that Gandalf, if slain, might return to Middle-earth as Gandalf the White. It's more likely that he just wanted to cause pain to the Wizard.

I wouldn't put much stock in the fate assigned to the two Blue Wizards in Shadow of Mordor. All Tolkien said about them is that they went into the East with Saruman (long before his corruption) and were never heard from again. They seem to have failed in their missions, but it's not certain to what degree or if they were killed or corrupted.

"Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved." - T. Isabella

[–] harvey-cc 8 years ago

Yeah,
When taking the books into account it doesn't really stand up, but that's why I titled it movie canonical. I'm definitly not well read on the all the literature related to Middle Earth. The whole Gandolf getting captured at Dol Guldor wasn't in any of the books right?
I was just thinking in terms of what can be gleaned from the movies alone.

I'll admit it's a messy proposition since I threw in the ref from Shadow of Mordor (awesome game btw!) but I figured since both movie and game diverged significantly from the written story line that I'd try to find a way that Gandolf's capture made since with in their contexts exclusively. That's an intersting bit about Thrain being put in the dungeon's of Dol Guldur by Sauron as I never knew that before.

- Currently watch classic Cinema like Gods of Egypt