Gandalf The Superhero

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Anyway, this thread did make me think. I can't answer the initial question, nor anything stemmed from it this far, but rather, I'm going to present another point the thread title reminds me of... Gandalf really is a superhero. He doesn't always defeat his foes easily or even win, but he seems to be rathe good in everything. Is there really anything he's bad at? Of course he's a maia and therefore very powerful, but he seems to be a jack-of-all-trades unlike the other maiar we meet, who are most often specialised in something and less good at other things.

Well, let's see. Obviously, even among the mortals (and we are now talking about Gandalf here, not Olórin, of course), there were better warriors than Gandalf, and probably (so is the impression I get) more knowledgeable men or Elves (in the sense: they would get better results at the university, or such, this is how I would illustrate it), but still, he was a good warrior, he was a knowledgeable and intelligent person... Obviously, he was also quite persuasive (although he didn't misuse it) and he had a good empathy with others. As it was already mentioned, however, I think he was not that self-assured. Already as Olórin, he was afraid of Sauron. But when he wasn't aware of that (when he didn't have time to think about that), like in some rushed or dangerous situations, he didn't have time to consciously think of being afraid, so he could work to the full of his potential. Or so I see it
Otherwise, I don't think that for example Gandalf was well-educated in, let's say, "natural sciencies" (besides being friends with Treebeard - lots of what he knew actually came from his own main strength, which was being friends with lots of people or creatures), and I don't recall him being an efficient "outdoorsman" or such things. And overall, what I said about the knowledge, I don't think Gandalf actually had that much information in his own head, for one of the "Wise". I think he may have just used his... general wisdom, kind of, to find out where to look for things he needed (Scroll of Isildur) or to add two and two, but he needed to learn about the two and two from elsewhere before he could use his wisdom and add them together, if you get my meaning.