Gandalf Vs. The Witch King

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Originally Posted by Mansun

The main reason for PJ to make the Witch King seem more superior to Gandalf was probably to make up for the fact that Sauron himself could not be used properly for battle in the film. Therefore, another character of great power had to be used as the main source of terror and invincibility, If Gandalf was to be potrayed as more powerful than the WK, it would have made a laughing stock of the WK as the main threat from Mordor. In the book, Gandalf appears a little anxious of the might of the WK, sensing that he is close to Gandalf's power, and while I don't think the WK would defeat him, I think he could still withstand Gandalf, so the real fear of resulted from the idea of who could destroy him?

Think that you've hit it on the head. What could PJ do with the 'Eye' that he'd constructed? Make it glare menacingly at Gondor? It was a bit ridiculous when the Eye (of which I'd had my own imaginings about from reading the books) become the 'searchlight of Mordor.'

Anyway, as you say, if Sauron could not come to Minas Tirith, then PJ would have to use the next best thing to scare the defenders and show to the audience that there existed a threat to not only the unnamed extras but also to the Big G himself.

I guess what didn't work for me is that (as we all have read me saying many times before) is that I can't see Gandalf getting owned, and also the Witch King wasn't that scary for me. I could see how the Balrog was going to be a problem, but the Witch King on wings wasn't shown to be as menacing as he was in the books.

Maybe if PJ had added a few scenes showing how terrible WK was, then maybe I'd buy into it a bit more.

By the by, welcome to the Downs Mansun.