LOTR: Why Didn't Gollum Become The New Dark Lord?

gamerant.com:

The Lord of the Rings, at its heart, is a tale about people, and the different paths they take on their journey towards corruption, redemption, or actualization. In Middle Earth, there is a constant state of unimaginable wars, sources of darkness vying for power, and entire races of orcs and goblins whose sole purpose is to take control and obliterate anyone who opposes the dark-lords rule. In such a world, it is amazing that there are still characters like Aragorn, who is loyal and brave and shows compassion above all else; or Frodo and Sam, whose love for one another and their peaceful home in The Shire is strong enough to move mountains. But between the heroes and the villains, there’s a middle ground, where characters like Isildur and Denethor and Saruman reside. These characters, driven by greed and power, are all aiming for one thing: to be the next dark lord.

In order to do so, they would need to have possession of the One Ring, the most evil object in Middle Earth. The ring twists and temps people’s base desires, and manipulates peoples will until they are unrecognizable. Isildur came close, when he had the ring in his possession, to total corruption, until the ring betrayed him in favor of a new master. And Saruman almost certainly could have done serious damage if the One Ring had actually landed in his hands, perhaps enough damage to be able to challenge even Sauron for his seat of power. But if the ring is key in instigating where the power lies in the world, why did Gollum never rise up and seize this power, when he had the ring for nearly 500 years?

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The simple answer is that power begets power. Those who start out in a position of great power are far more likely