Darrell wrote:
I don't think Saruman ever considered taking up a position under Sauron, I find it more likely that they were both using each other to achieve their designs.
Funny you should say that because I was just thinking about something like this today. Isn't it funny how evil people are all sort of against each other? I mean, they pretend to form alliances, but really, all they're trying to do with alliances is to gain something off of the other one. They wouldn't care if their ally was completely destroyed, so long as they get what they want out of them. They're evil to the rest of the world, but they're evil amonst themselves as well. It makes it slightly easier on the good guys. Slightly.
I think that both fear and greed drove Saruman to betrayal. He was afraid of what would happen "when" Sauron took over. So he decided to get on Sauron's good side. I think after the initial fear, he saw how much power there was for him and how much their was for the taking. I think after that his motives were mostly greed related. After all, he does say something to Gandalf as though he plans to overthrow Sauron once he has Middle-earth. So clearly if he was afraid at first, he soon grew over confident in his own powers, and he stayed with Sauron out of greed.
End of speech.
