Gandalf Vs. The Witch King

[alatar]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

I take your point. The scene does, on the the surface, give rise to internal inconsistency issues. But it can be explained, and I attempted to give an explanation earlier in this thread. To summarise, the actual power of a character is not the only relevant factor to consider in determining the credibility of another character getting the better of him or her. Greater power does not automatically equal victory (just ask Sauron ).

Totally agree. However (and you know that there would be a 'however'), up to that point in the movie/trilogy I liked PJ's use of the Gandalf character, with all of the flaws, warts, changes from the book, etc. Afterwards I was like, "what happened?!?"

I assume that I'm an average 'read-the-books' movie viewer, and, as this thread has shown, many like me were bothered by the scene, so I would say that PJ didn't do something right.

Am I wimping out and saying that the scene was 'just wrong?' Probably. Could I give a pretzel-like defense of the scene from any faction (book, movie, etc) you'd choose? Easily. And as posted earlier I would have *enjoyed* the scene if only Gandalf had just smiled before the horns blew.

Thanks for your comments and analysis and apologies if my text causes eye hemorrhages.