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Through the Eyes of Maia and Wizard  by Larner 3 Review(s)
AndreaReviewed Chapter: 21 on 11/20/2016
It is horrible to see how Saruman is more and more misled!

He is so full of himself that he doesn't realize that he becomes a supporter of the Enemy. But in the end he is not the leader he intended to be, but merely a slave.

The woman with the greatest compassion looked most orc-like? That is as if nature itself started to rebel against these horrible experiments.

Author Reply: I've been giving thought to what led to his final corruption, and this seemed a likely step in the wrong direction for him.

I'd not thought of the orcish woman's plight like that, but I like your perspective! Thank you so!

FreyalynReviewed Chapter: 21 on 11/19/2016
Oh dear, that's a rather horrible thing to write about as well as you always write.

Poor women.

I feel rather ill reading it, which of course I should do.

Author Reply: It was a dreadful thing even to contemplate, yet Saruman must have dedicated quite some time to this project once he entered Orthanc in order to have his army up to ten thousand in number to send against Rohan.

Thank you so for the compliments! But I agree, it was a horrible course Saruman set for himself.

6336Reviewed Chapter: 21 on 11/16/2016
Some times too much knowledge is not a good thing to have. Seems to me Saruman spent too much time reading and not enough doing but then he was Saruman the White, mustn't get his hands dirty, that would never do.

Pity Gandalf did not look a little closer at the books in the study, it might have given him an idea as to what Saruman had or was about to get up to. I take it this was before he discovered the Orthanc Stone and thought to control Sauron?

Ignoring Radagast was something he should not have done, he was canny in his own way.

Lynda

Author Reply: Thanks so, Lynda. Saruman appears to have become convinced at about the time he entered Orthanc that he ought to be able to conquer Sauron using Sauron's own techniques, something that seldom if ever works. And you are so right that Saruman did poorly to denigrate and ignore Radagast.

It appears that during the years Saruman spent in an aged Man's body within Middle Earth he progressively lost track of his mission within Middle Earth, coming to think so highly of his own cleverness and genius that he could no longer appreciate what others did.

But for Gandalf to appreciate that his chieftain had truly lost so much of himself already was not an easily made conclusion for the good-hearted Grey Wizard, I suspect.

I'm not certain when Saruman found and began using the Orthanc Stone, but I suspect that if he had done so at this time he either hadn't begun using it yet or that he'd convinced himself that he could use it with impugnity to spy upon Sauron's actions. Who knows how many lies and how much misinformation Sauron was already feeding the self-important Wizard before the Enemy finally confronted this voyeur?

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