Dumbing it down

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Great find, though, alatar.

Thanks. Just goes to show you that almost anything can be turned into a Barrow-Downs post.

I think it is important to ensure that Gandalf not look too much the heavy authoritarian type of old wizened man in the move, so he turned to the pretty boy for aid. It's moves like this which ensure that mass appeal of popularity which is such a constant refrain from some here on this thread.

I don't think that Gandalf was ever portrayed as 'authoritarian.' The only persons that he lords around are those like Pippin, who haven't a wit. As I've stated post and post again, I was not happy with the dilution of Gandalf's character, which peaks at about 'The Shire' and falls off from there. Seeing how Melanthius was able to help Sinbad yet not steal any of the hero's glory made Gandalf's role in RotK even more glaringly wrong. It then occurred to me, as stated, that in movie shorthand, grey-haired wizards are wise beyond the hero - so much so that they let be as necessary. Nor are they competing for the glory or the princess, so what's the problem?

Another example would be Ulrich in Dragonslayer. Any others?