this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2025
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Sauron wore it in the great battle, and he was by all accounts visible, otherwise how could Isildor cut the finger off? That would be a very lucky swing if Sauron was invisible.
No, I think its power depends on the wearer. Frodo didn't want to be seen, so it made him invisible to everyone but Sauron, who understands its power.
The ring doesn't as much make you invisible as it transports you into the shadow realm. Sauron, however existed in both the real world and the shadow realm, so there was no transporting needing to happen there.
The ring's primary power is control over the other rings, and it seems like the shadow realm is part of how that works ("...and in the darkness bind them"). I'm guessing Frodo is overwhelmed by the power of the ring and is taken to the shadow realm, whereas Sauron has more control and can stay in the real world.
Other races may have different effects. The elves have some amount of magical ability, so maybe they can stay in the real world too. Maybe the dwarves would concoct some device to block part of the ring's power to stay in the real world. We don't know, the only examples we have are halflings and Sauron.
It had the same effect on Bilbo and Gollum, though. The idea of its effects being dependent on race cannot be ruled out just yet.
All three are half-lings, and all three wanted to hide the ring instead of use it to rule, so it makes sense it would have a similar impact on all three of them.
Yes, but without a control group we cannot really rule out whether this is race thing or a personality thing.
For instance, what effect would it have had on Boromir and Aragorn? How about Gimli? It's possible it would have made both of the former stronger, for instance, and made Gimli incredibly rich, because that's what their races desired. We don't really know, do we?
You can imagine the shame when gimli put it on and became an elf
The ring worked on the Dark Lord differently, so it definitely might be race bound
Well, it could also be that it only works differently on HIM
Yup, all we know is that there's some connection to the shadow world ("and in the darkness bind them") and other rings of power, we don't know the specific impact it would have on each individual or race.
Hobbits don't desire invisibility, they're just good at not being noticed.