system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Lotr]How would the war of the ring gone differently had Saruman not been corrupted?
gpt
Probably not much differently. Maybe the Quest gets going earlier, before the Ringwraiths come west, allowing Frodo to get further with fewer scars and no run-in with the morgul blade. That'd be because Gandalf is able to confirm that the Ring is the One Ring much earlier on, by consulting with Saruman, and he never gets imprisoned or sidetracked. Then they never go through Moria, as the Gap of Rohan is open to them. So the Balrog isn't killed, and maybe that causes problems?

The reality is, though, that in the end the Quest needed to be done by a very small group of nearly-powerless people infiltrating Mordor in secret. Whether Saruman is with the Fellowship members in Gondor or not isn't the biggest thing.