However, Gandalf can’t be fooled that way. He’ll never try to take advantage of anyone - he can’t be conned, because he’ll never participate in the con. He’s not trying to mess with John, and that’s the key. He’ll view John as someone to teach. And we all know that’s something John can never outwit: he wins because his opponents are trying to put one over on him the whole time.
Plus, John has as his hat that most of his enemies don’t want to kill him outright. Gandalf, on the other hand, will just stick John in the guts with a magic sword if John really screws with him.
Gandalf never did much in front of witnesses. The high water mark of ‘stuff he did onscreen’ was breaking a (narrow) bridge he was standing on, and burning a couple of wargs. WHILE he was in the possession of an Artifact of Fire.
Impressive in the Tolkin-verse, where magic mostly consists of facing-down-that-which cannot-be-faced-down, or inspiring-devotion-and/or-terror-to-masses-of-people. But Lina Inverse was blowing villages with the Dragon Slave, BEFORE she started leveling up.
It’s not really fair to compare the more subtle type of wizard to the more blasty kind. That’s like saying ‘who would win, Musashi or Sniper Wolf?’
That being said, I would pay good money to watch a ‘Rand al’Thor vs. Dark Schneider’ movie . . . A LOT of money.
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‘Gandalf vs. Jamie Lanister’ would be entertaining as well, but short. Can maya survive having bits of metal stuck through them?
I would sell somebodys kids into slavery to be able to watch Rake, Cowl, Quick Ben or ANY of Eriksons mages bitchslap the likes of Randy Thor, or Ricky Rahl.
Gandalf was a non-dpsing candy ass. Pretty much any gaming wizard would PWN him in PVP. Voldemort would maybe be a mid-level dungeon boss. A gaming wizard/druid/mage/warlock/shadowpriest/necromancer of raid level could probably solo him. The infamous Oakbrow Farwalker would make either or both cry for Mommy.
Chronos, if you find the premise of these hypothetical discussions uninteresting or beneath you, ignore the thread, don’t post strictly in order to mock the thread and the people participating in it. That is threadshitting, and it’s not cool.
I didn’t get that, but people had made Chuck Norris jokes and Batman jokes before your post, and the entire thread was goofing around, so… I didn’t detect any extra threadshit.
I can think of at least two: Snape uses some sort of spell to fly, and Quiddich announcers cast a spell to amplify their voices. Most spells, though, seem to be instantaneous, rather than having a duration, and I’d guess that it takes considerably more magical energy (however that’s measured) to make a spell last.
After the smoke clears, a quick horse with crazed eyes charges through the battlefield with a grizzled, cloaked rider. Elminster struggles to his feet but all his magical defenses have been sapped.
With a few zaps from his fingers the mysterious stranger earns his place in wizardry. Yes, Elminster thought he won The Prize, but got offed by Emirikol the Chaotic.
Buff spells tend to be either game-breaking or useless unless you’re very, very careful. They also loose their dramatic ‘oomph’ if they’re not used very rarely and subtly.
D&D style buffs show up pretty rarely in fiction not directly inspired by D&D. And not even most of that. Slayers and Bastard!! for example, both D&D with the serial numbers filed off, had none.
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And why is waving a wand more cumbersome than pointing a gun? Particularly if modern guns haven’t been invented yet?
Considering that he survived a huge fall into an abyss and was still able to engage in a running battle with the Balrog for days and then fight it on a mountainside, I have my doubts that swords or guns would actually work on Gandalf. He’s definitely not a “squishy wizard”.
I never understood this: Voldemort went from house to house killing people, including muggles. Why didn’t any of them pull a shotgun and blow his ugly head off?
