Who would win if Harry Potter‘s headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, ever went head-to-head with Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings? It’s the kind of question that thrills fanbases, and it’s certainly easy to see why this particular debate would excite viewers. Gandalf and Dumbledore are the magical powerhouses of their franchises, wielding power beyond any other character’s ken. We only ever really got a glimpse of Dumbledore’s true power, simply because the focus was on Harry himself; meanwhile, Gandalf was a force to be reckoned with even before he became Gandalf the White.
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Speaking to The Guardian in response to fan-submitted questions, Sir Ian McKellen himself has finally spoken out on the great wizarding versus match. At first he expressed bewilderment; “Why on earth would they be fighting? But Gandy, of course, would win. The original wizard.”
Sir Ian McKellen is Absolutely Right (Sorry, Albus)
It’s tempting to dismiss McKellen’s comment as biased (he did, after all, play Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s movies). But he’s absolutely right, not least because the word “wizard” means different things in their respective franchises. Dumbledore is a powerful being born with innate magical talent, who has learned magic over the course of his life. In contrast, “wizards” in The Lord of the Rings are more akin to angels. They are immortal beings who were there at the creation of the world, and who have taken on human form to guide Middle-earth. To put it another way: Dumbledore uses magic. Gandalf is magic.
Gandalf’s origin alone shows why he would always win this fight. Among other things, it also means he’s had far longer than Dumbledore to learn to master his power. It’s certainly true that neither wizard has well-defined limits, but Dumbledore operates according to the basic “rules” of his world, which naturally imposes them. In contrast, Gandalf’s magic is more loosely-defined; he’s clearly adaptive, with an instinctive sense of what needs to be done at a given moment, explaining why he serves as such a powerful hero. Dumbledore would likely find himself outmatched.
Dumbledore does, however, possess one advantage; a specific magical power that doesn’t exist in The Lord of the Rings. Dumbledore knows how to apparate, to teleport from place to place. That particular spell would have destroyed the whole plot of The Lord of the Rings, because Gandalf could have taken Frodo and Sam to Mordor straight away. This is probably the only spell that would give Dumbledore a chance against Gandalf, because he’d be able to evade attacks and then strike from unexpected directions. But McKellen is still right; even apparition would not have been enough.
Who do you think would win, and is Sir Ian McKellen right? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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