Gandalf - geat or a joke of a wizard?

[Galadriel55]

Gandalf is definitely GREAT, and that's why it bothers me.

Originally Posted by Khazad-dûm

I read somewhere that he's not suppose to show how powerful he really is to the Elves, Men Etc.

As I said before, he showed his power to many men. Maybe not all of it, though. Someties he had to do it or fail his mission, that's true. But if it wasn't for Gwaihir, he'd fail the current mission that he had with the Dwarves. He was planning to jump off and basically commit suicide when the Eagles came (at least that's what my translation says. Maybe the original is different). In LOTR, in every battle there's something special said about Gandalf - shadows avoid him, or something like that. And it said that he was afraid! - again, maybe it was translator's fault. But AFRAID?!?! It is possible that he was afraid for the mission, but in my book, it was pretty clear that Gandalf was afraid for himself. *Stupid translators!!!*