Gandalf Vs. The Witch King

[Mugwump]

Originally Posted by aelrliecn

The Witch King of Angmar, as powerful as he is, is only an undead man. Gandalf, or Olorin, is an Ainur. He existed before the world existed. There is no doubt who would be the victor.

Well... The Ainur came in varying degrees of greatness, and so did balrogs. "Mere" elves killed balrogs, who were Ainur, and Tuor, a man, killed five of them during the fall of Gondolin. Of course, these balrogs were much weaker than the great Balrog of Khazad-dum. I think in a pitched battle Gandalf would have beaten the Witch King, but that doesn't mean that the Witch King did not have resources. This guy was thousands of years old. He was a great king of old with lots of experience and wizardry at his command. He was imbued with unknown powers from Sauron as well. He was no longer a "mere man."

But even with that, I generally agree with you all. After all, Aragorn had quite handily beaten the Witch King and a few of his buddies up on Weathertop (which although it's in the text is, in a way, more puzzling to me than his great power later on in the film). So I don't understand either why Gandalf seemed to be so cowed by this guy. Perhaps the Witch King had some sort of spirit-killer at work especially effective against Maia, kind of like kryptonite against Superman. Or perhaps after all, in his new incarnation, Sauron was indeed able to imbue him with some part of his own strength, so that in a sense Gandalf was not facing merely the Witch King at that moment but Sauron himself.

But if that's not true, then I can't explain it either. Guess it's one of those unfortunate flaws in the movie. Hey, it could've been worse: originally Jackson was going to have Sauron take physical form and fight Aragorn at the gates of Mordor! (*shudder*)

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Mugwump

Aragorn had quite handily beaten the Witch King and a few of his buddies up on Weathertop

And didn't Gandalf himself hold them off on Weathertop too?

[Mugwump]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

And didn't Gandalf himself hold them off on Weathertop too?

Yeah, but the Witch King didn't have that wicked flying dinosaur mount at the time. Maybe it was that animal's breath that broke the staff and nearly made Gandalf pass out.

[JoltFlame]

I believe the Lord of the Nazgûl equals Gandalf in strengh and stature.

[obloquy]

Originally Posted by JoltFlame

I believe the Lord of the Nazgûl equals Gandalf in strengh and stature.

Me too!! I also believe that the earth is larger than Jupiter!

[JoltFlame]

The staff of Gandalf is shattered and the wizard is cast down, before The Black Captain. What does that tell you?

[Pitchwife]

You are aware, are you not, that none of this happened in the book? If not, go and read!

EDIT: And by the way, welcome to the Downs! You may not have been aware of this, but this thread is basically about how the presentation of this scene in the movie deviates from the letter and spirit of the book - hence my reaction above.