[Rare Trope] A story element that popularized a concept is actually the polar opposite of that concept

[u/DiveSideways]

Some franchises start off a bit specialized and evolve into something else later. Some stories get warped by pop culture and burdened with misconceptions. Some stories just don't make sense, or send the wrong message on accident.

Not these!

No, these examples are very clear (and not retconned) and yet pop culture has done a complete 180-degree turn on understanding them.

1. Romeo and Juliet routinely gets alluded to as though it's a classic love story. In fact it is an intensely melodramatic tragedy all the way through, everyone is shallow and exploitative and desperate--and they die for it. Even the opening of the play self-indulgently advertises how dire the whole situation is.

2. The One Ring from The Lord of The Rings isn't exactly meant to be a cursed item that corrupts the greedy or weak-minded. Geeky discourse loves to offer up examples of characters "strong enough" or "pure enough" to resist it, but The One Ring turns that trope on its head. The One Ring is an amplifier for power but lesser beings can't make full use of it. Being strong and noble and pure makes you more corruptible, you can bear a heavier load of its dark essence.

3. Keyzer Soze from The Usual Suspects is one of the most famous examples of a villain who fooled everyone and got away with his plotting scot-free. However, the whole huge convoluted mess of a scheme was intended to kill off the last living enemy capable of ID'ing him. Not only did Soze accidentally leave a new witness alive who then cooperated with the police and their sketch artist, he also got himself closely inspected by a whole police station (who now know his true identity.) Yes, it was a good twist and yes, Soze escaped police custody, but his efforts to tie off one loose end resulted in high-quality images of his real face for the FBI Most Wanted list. In most ways this was truly an epic failure for him.

[u/Simon_Drake]

I like when The Ring tries to whisper dark suggestions to Sam it really struggles to find anything to tempt him with. He doesn't want money or power or ruling a kingdom or to defeat his enemies in glorious battle. He wants to go home and live a peaceful life.

The Ring suggests an army of enslaved Orcs working to tend the fields, plough the lands and plant nice flowers. Because The Ring is kinda dumb and thinks suggesting dominion over an army is the way to win over everyone if you just tweak the small print.

If The Ring really understood Sam it would have lied and pretended to be a victim. "Oh please Mister Hobbit. Don't let that evil Sauron use me again. Take me home and hide me in your garden where no one will find me. Or being destroyed is better than being Sauron's slave. Actually, I know a shortcut, if you go down this tunnel it will lead you straight to the fires of Mount Doom. It's not an Orc ambush, honest."

[u/Extension-Land-390 → u/Simon_Drake]

It's because the ring is an extension of Sauron's own mind and will. It's literally the greater part of his innate being and soul confined within the object. The ring can only offer what Sauron himself would think you are tempted by.

[u/Molotov_Glocktail → u/[deleted]]

Sauron is the Ring just as much as the Ring is Sauron.

[u/Hawkeye2701 → u/[deleted]]

Which in turn, tells you exactly the sort of person Sauron is, cause he can only conceive of wanting power and domination over others, and twisting good will into such things, that a lack of all consuming ambition completely stumps him.

[u/Extension-Land-390 → u/Hawkeye2701]

Which is exactly what Tolkien intended with the character. Sauron possesses great power, but for all his abilities he has no imagination or wild creativity. His view of the world is extremely structured and organized with a hatred of "wasteful friction". He's all about order and efficiency of governance, and creative expression often runs directly contrary to those things.

He has good intentions in his beginnings as he is legitimately trying to make the chaos of the world and its inhabitants more stable and cohesive. Ambition, power, and pride cause him to believe that the ends justify any means, leading him to become a lesser version of the tyrant his master was.

[u/Hawkeye2701 → u/Extension-Land-390]

Which leads me to ask, how did he come up with the ring plan, cause that would seemingly take a level of creativity he's not naturally inclined towards.

[u/Extension-Land-390 → u/Hawkeye2701]

It's not artistically creative or imaginative in our sense, but it is a cleverly efficient plan. Rather than fighting wars and occupying lands, which takes resources and time, it's better to fit the world's leaders with a powerful mind control device that is beholden to your will. Sauron is still a sorcerer after all, and there is some ingenuity with the way he applies his "magic".

The rings themselves kind of reflect this. The Elvish, Dwarvish, and Mannish rings of power are intricately forged with various precious metals, gem stones, and beautiful designs. By contrast, the One Ring is more powerful than all the others combined and it is just a simple band of gold.

[u/Mitch_Dedburg → u/[deleted]]

It would not surprise me in the slightest to find out The One Ring was the direct inspiration for the Horcruxes in Harry Potter. Apart from the whole “gotta commit murder to split your soul” thing, it’s essentially the exact same. Just look at Deathly Hallows and how carrying the locket affects them and how it reacts when they get the Sword of Gryffindor, it’s a super similar concept to what the One Ring does.

[u/Simon_Drake → u/Mitch_Dedburg]

The Fellowship Of The Ring movie had a prototype scene of how the ring was made. It was just a series of hand drawn frames to get a feel for the scene before handing it over to the CGI teams to make it look nice and evidently they decided against using it but it looked really cool.

Sauron dips his hand in a brazier of molten gold and keeps a ball of it in his palm. With his other hand he draws a dagger like the one that stabbed Frodo on Weathertop. He stabs through the gold and impales his own hand, using the knife tip to stir a trace of bright red blood into the bright yellow gold. As he stirs the gold in a circle it cools and hardens into a ring shape.

I'm pretty sure that's not how Tolkien pictured it since there was a whole thing about metalworking experts who made practice rings before making the real rings. So I think Tolkien was picturing a literal forge working process. But mixing his blood into the gold is pretty metal and it had a voiceover from Gandalf explaining Sauron's heart was fused into the ring.

[u/Extension-Land-390 → u/Simon_Drake]

Another interesting detail of that part of the story always gets overlooked: Sauron was not yet the Dark Lord when he forged the One Ring. At least, he had not taken on that appearance as such. He was still very much in a fair and divine form when crafting the ring.

Working at a literal forge is probably much more aligned with what Tolkien had in mind. This painting by Alan Lee best captures the spirit of it:

https://www.elfenomeno.com/imag/303_imagenes_alan_lee/Ilustraciones_de_Alan_Lee_67f955b0ec782.jpg

[u/MagicRat7913 → u/Extension-Land-390]

It's basically a generative AI trained on Sauron's personality. It can only stretch so much before reverting to its standard spiel.

[u/seguardon → u/MagicRat7913]

Ring: A garden to rule, a garden that stretches beyond the horizon. One garden to grow it all. One garden to feed them. One garden to nurture all and with my power to weed them. Past the garden gates where carrots lie.

Sam: I'm good.

Ring: What if I added goblins?

[u/SirAquila → u/Simon_Drake]

To be fair, the ring would have gotten Sam as well, it would have just needed time to figure out the right approach.

No-one is beyond temptation.

[u/VictoryWeaver → u/Simon_Drake]

Well, the One Ring wasn't actually sapient, so trying to plan things it beyond it's capacity.

[u/samsonizzle → u/Simon_Drake]

I read that last sentence in my head as a dude pretending to be a woman voice and it's cracking me up.