I was going to make an earlier post about how I’d like to see a Voldemort vs. Lina Inverse battle. Anyway, in Slayers NEXT, Lina does get those amulets (or talisman) from Xellos that allows her to power up her spells.
Even if you concede that Gandalf does not have powerful magic, he is extremely hardy. Rather than just high HP, he actually has auto-resurrection. For him to lose would be like Tidus losing to Sin’s final form in Final Fantasy X.
Of course, Voldy has his own resurection power as well, but it can be stopped. I think the only way Gandalf could be stopped is if he stopped doing the will of Eru. And if the most seductive evil in Middle Earth couldn’t change him, what are the chances that Voldy can pull it off?
Why are you disqualifying modern guns?
It’s less cumbersome because you don’t have to swish a gun around in the air before you pull the trigger. Imagine a western where one duelist draws, then waves his hand around in the air for a second while yelling something. Do you think he’s going to win?
Spells in the HPverse have lots of uses that couldn’t be replicated with muggle tech, but for good old fashioned killing people, they fall way way short.
I’ve never read the HP books, but I did see a couple of the movies. In that universe, the truly lethal wizard would wear a gun and practice drawing and firing for speed. He wouldn’t need to be Doc Holliday to put a bullet (or bullets) in another wizard before the wand waving/spell yelling could bear fruit. If I understand the necessity of the spoken part correctly, a good punch in the mouth_properly timed_turns a powerful wizard into some dweeb ineffectually waving a twig about.
Harry, if he wants to be a bad ass, needs to practice cross-discipline skills integrating magic, conventional weapons, and unarmed techniques.
…and then Richard Rahl would get ass-raped by a dominatrix, give some long Ayn Randian speech, suddenly develop the power to deflect bullets with the sheer power of his rage, and kill Harry in some graphically over-the-top fashion.
I read all the HP books, and I never got the impression that Voldemort could even take Dumbledore, let alone Gandalf and the others mentioned here.
The spoken part isn’t necessary. They spend a bunch of time in book 6 learning to cast spells non-verbally, which requires more concentration.
That’s okay twicks; I did recognize it. (I just rewatched UShUDest over the weekend.)
Not to sidetrack Jor’s question, but my original thought was Voldemort vs. Sauron. But Sauron is a Maiar, a higher order of divine being than Gandalf, and the longest-serving of Melkor’s captains (or at least best documented), so it wouldn’t be much of a discussion.
In short: Voldemort thought he was all-powerful. Sauron used to work for all-powerful and would pwn Voldy’s ass.
Real-life wizard Aleister Crowley would kick Voldemort’s ass and fuck it.
Voldemort v. Gandalf seems a bit like Beowulf v. J. Robert Oppenheimer. One excels in direct face-to-face killin’, the other can get more killin’ done, but he needs a while to set it up.
Not alone (he had the help of the rest of the wizards), but he did drive the Necromancer from Mirkwood and I doubt that was merely a matter of uttering stern warnings.
On the subject of wands and guns… I’d always figured any self-respecting magic-user would be able to make it misfire. Guns are pretty intricate machines; they’re known to misfire or jam even without a wizard nearby. So it really depends on the power of suprise. If Joe Normal sneaks up on Evil Sorceror Bob and kills him in one shot, or disables/distracts him long enough to fire more shots, Joe wins. (Unless Bob has some sort of spell that stops bullets). If Bob sees Joe coming, Joe is toast.
Speaking of guns, John Taylor has this trick where he magics the bullets out of the gun into his pocket. Also, he once did a varient on a would-be-assasin where he replaced the air in the guy’s lungs with toilet water. Used toilet water.
Plus, they’re British - can they even own shotguns?
Well, then I learned something today. Are the gestures with the twig still needed or does this raise things to the level of point-and-zorch?
Quick Ben would find a way to get them all in the same place while arranging for a passing army of demigods to steamroll them without even noticing.
Of course, Kellanved managed to use his power to become a god, something that Gandalf may have accomplished through deus-ex-Tolkien, and Voldemort could only fantasize about.
On the third hand, Anomander Rake could face off against Tayschrenn and half a dozen powerful mags and pull out a draw - and Tayschrenn could have taken apart every spell caster on Middle Earth simultaneously.
-Joe
I seem to recall a wiz battle in Order of the Phoenix that looks like a gunfight with tracers–just point-and-zorch.
Quoth Inigo Montoya:
That’s about the most apt summation of it I’ve seen.
And Scuba, Gandalf and Sauron were of the same order of being: Both were Maiar (singular Maia). Sauron was probably the most powerful of the Maiar, but Gandalf was explicitly stated to be the wisest of them.
Huh. I thought the Istari were a lower order than the Maiar.
Trust the Dope to know their JRRT-verse cold.
Yes - handguns are banned, not shotguns. They’re typically owned for sporting use or vermin control. ETA: and not for home defence - they must be kept very securely locked up when not in use. I realize this leaves us helpless in the face of the evil wizard menace, but to date it’s not hurt us too badly.
I wasn’t ‘disqualifying’ them, I was just having a little fun with the argument “Ah, your magic is useless, because it requires a focus and some gestures. Allow me to prove it, by drawing this gun, pointing it at you, and shooting you!”
Besides, Harry’s a 12 year old schoolboy with abandonment issues and an abusive family. Not on the top of my list of ‘people who should be issued firearms.’ 
Something just occurred to me. When there are no witnesses, Gandalf has beaten a lot of badass things. When there ARE, he can be chased up a tree by a few goblins on wolves. Has anyone considered the possibility that he might just be full of crap?
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To clarify, I want to see the Gandalf/Jamie match not for the swordfight, but because I want to hear Jamie’s inner commentary when Gandalf starts speechifying . . .