system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[LotR] Could Sauron have a change of heart and become good rather than evil?

Sauron has been bumming around Middle Earth for a few thousand years.  In all that time, would it be possible for him to have a change of heart and instead of being the evil Dark Lord could he become a good guy Sauron?  
  
Is his nature defined by outside forces or can he change his ways?
gpt
In the Silmarillion, we're told that he surrendered himself to the Valar after the First Age and repented:

>And some hold that this was not falsely done, but that Sauron in truth repented, if only out of fear, being dismayed by the fall of Morgoth and the great wrath of the Lords of the West.

But since truly repenting would entail atoning for his deeds and submitting to the judgement of Manwe, his pride would not allow him to do that, so he fled, and eventually returned to evil.

So yes, it's possible that he could have given up on the evil, but it was his own pride and fear of consequences that prevented it.