[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by St. Povis

Gandalf, for a lot of people I think is almost like grandfather figure. Certain types of people grow to love him in the books because of his bravery. His mere presence bolsters morale.

Last time I checked Gandalf was still there in the book, just the same as he always has been.

Originally Posted by alatar

So that's a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that the scene/character was not internally consistent, opened huge plot holes and I really like Gandalf.

I take your point. The scene does, on the the surface, give rise to internal inconsistency issues. But it can be explained, and I attempted to give an explanation earlier in this thread. To summarise, the actual power of a character is not the only relevant factor to consider in determining the credibility of another character getting the better of him or her. Greater power does not automatically equal victory (just ask Sauron ).

Otherwise, we might as well say that the book was full of inconsistencies in that Merry and Eowyn were able to defeat the Witch King, Pippin was able to kill one of the Olog-Hai and Wormtongue was able to kill Saruman.