In answer to your questions 89transam:
This spoiler tag is for those of you who haven't read the book (tsk tsk) and seen the movies yet.
Spoiler: The Army of the Dead was in the book and it would be a slight to Tolkien to not put it in there. Tolkien was big on not breaking your oaths with your fellow man, the Men of the Mountain did this (my geek knowledge fails me here I don't remember their name) and Isildur cursed them until they repayed their debt whenever the Heir of Isildur (Aragorn) called upon them in their time of need. Without the Dead, the battle for Middle-earth would have been lost and been cast into a fourth age of Darkness. The Ring is bound completely to Sauron. When He created It, He put everything that was Him into the Ring, thus making It an essential living part to Himself. When the Ring was cut from His Finger, he merely dissipated and lost his human form, becoming an ethereal being essentially. He eventually regained enough of his metaphysical concentration to make Himself into the Eye and control His Armies and search for the Ring. His spirit stayed in the Ring and as long as It existed so would He. So therefore, the Ring had to be destroyed, because It Corrupts whoever bears it, case in point Smeagol, and even Frodo because he did not willingly cast the Ring into the Fires of Mount Doom, Gollum bit his finger off (that's a recurring theme) and he fell into the Fires. The main reason for the Destruction of the Ring was because of Sauron being bound to it, but also, no other being could bear it and not be corrupted.
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"This ain't no Ice Cream Social!"
"Hey Grif, Chupathingy...how bout that? I like it...got a ring to it."
"I have no earthly idea what it is I just saw, or what this place is, or where in the hell O'Malley is! My only choice is to blame Grif for coming up with such a flawed plan. Stupid, stupid Grif."
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