Comments on: Cage Match 2010, Round 1: 4) Gandalf versus 29) Hiro Protagonist

By: kheller

kheller — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:21:43 +0000

Thanks for commenting! Comments are now closed on this post, but you can follow this match’s winner in the next fight, open 3/15 at 10:30 EST!

By: Citizen

Citizen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:19:28 +0000

cs, I have to add that the Elves of the Silmarillion had some pretty serious problems with Balrogs. Orcs they cut down by the thousands, but Balrogs overran several of their kingdoms, if memory serves correctly. Of course, dragons were also in the picture as the years went on. On the flip side, Fingolfin would be a real contender in this match.

By: Citizen

Citizen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:13:24 +0000

cs has somewhat of a point, and I look forward to continuing the discussion in future rounds. Tolkien wrote prior to the time that we expected fantasy writers to have a solid justification for their magic system. It’s very true that we don’t have a lot of evidence for exactly what Gandalf can do in a cage match. It’s also pretty clear that G doesn’t think he could directly break Sauron’s hold over his minions, else he would have challenged him more directly. However, the idea of will and personal strength is implicit in Tolkien’s notion of magic, not unlike other authors. It took a great deal of that to beat the Balrog, and that was as Gandalf the Grey. He’s now Gandalf the White (or the Snow White, according to some other threads here).
More practically, bottom line for the next round is whether or not he can stop Roland’s bullets before his “heat metal” staff effect forces Roland to drop his guns. Saving that conversation for then.

By: cs

cs — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:02:25 +0000

I’m kinda surprised everyone seems to think gandalf is reasonably powerful… I always thought he got the under-achiever of middle earth award… Elrond takes it if you just consider what happened in the LOTR and not the last alliance stuff…
Seriously I think I can count on a single hand the displays of anything remotely powerful that hes done…. He was a pretty wussy example of a maia (Sauron coulda taken him quite easily and his god was outta the picture quite early on) I mean he got trapped on a really tall tower for a good chunk of the book. His big accomplishment was getting his shop wrecked by a balrog and escaping it without dying… Frikkin elves (not lesser gods) were killing packs of them ages ago.
I love the books and I dont really mind him winning this battle, but I think people are giving him WAY too much credit… Elric would have wasted him, and by the same logic used in his battle I have to say Roland wastes him, and there is something unsettling about Roland getting into the 3rd round… He has no precognition, got his ass stuck on top of a tall building for a while and the most directly damaging thing you see him do is buts sarumans staff, which while badass might just get him shot in the face before he realized whats up with roland…

By: kwendolk

kwendolk — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:55:44 +0000

I think instead of Gandalf the Super White,as posted above, he would come back as Gandalf the Seriously White…taking names and kicking butt!

By: Glenn Glenn

Glenn Glenn — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:58:22 +0000

This is so a Hiro round. Hiro will plant the meta-virus, Snow Crash, into Gandalf’s brain stem by speaking in tongues (glossolalia). Hiro is the greatest sword fighter in both the metaverse and real time, so he will send Gandalf the White, beheaded, into the next wizard shade.

By: Bryan Basamanowicz

Bryan Basamanowicz — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:48:29 +0000

Hiro wins by subsuming Gandalf’s realm. History is on his side as the early pioneers of the meta-verse, text-based MUD players, were given charge of the evolution of the Middle Earth fantasy realms. With a quick program, Hiro will disect and granularize all of Gandalf’s high-level magical abilities and create a superior avatar to defeat him handily. It will be as simple for HIRO as hacking World of Warcraft using an invincibility cheat.

By: agente_naranja

agente_naranja — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:34:56 +0000

Wow. An old man with a wooden stick and a strong addiction to smoking weird hobbit herbs, versus a nerd.
Hm. This one’s tricky.
I will vote for Hiro. He can always use a laptop as a hand breaker.

By: Skithee

Skithee — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:40:30 +0000

Even outside of the Metaverse, I’d put some weight on Hiro. Elven steel might beat a katana, but we all know you don’t want to parry with the bladed edge of your sword, and I wouldn’t trusst Old Whitey’s arm strength (or skull) against 3 1/2 feet of lead pipe filled with cement.

By: Johnny Tindalos

Johnny Tindalos — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:38:33 +0000

Y.T. had her own barbed weaponary device; I thought that was what Hiro was wishing for….hillarious if true!