Questions Over Lore

[silverblade5445]

I always thought Gandalf was pretty gimp in terms of battle power, so he didnt take on 1 on 1 Saurun or Saruman and was struggling eith the balrog (and maybe teh witch king? I dont remember that from the books). His strength was as a stretegist, pulling all the strings and making sure people were at the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.

Gandalf, aka Olorin as his name was when he was a Maia, was the wisest Maia in the order of Manwe.....when Sauron spread his dominion over Middle Earth, 5 Maia were selected to gather the free people of middle earth together and rally and guide them against Sauron....BUT under one specific condition....they were not to engage Sauron directly in a battle of power.....under no circumstances.....and this is because, in earlier Ages when the Valar directly interfered in the matters of mortals, some really bad incidents happened.....so the Valar no longer want to get involved directly.....otherwise it wouldve taken Tulkas or any Vala just about a minute to come to Middle Earth, whup Sauron's butt and destroy him.....but they dint want to do it....But even despite that, they did want to help the free people's against Sauron.....hence the 5 Istari were sent to Middle Earth.....and amongst them Gandalf was the most unwilling one, he considered his skill mostly in wisdom than anything else.....

to the OP :

Balrogs are Maiar who were servants of Morgoth, just as Sauron was....so they were as strong as Gandalf if not more....hence the almost close fight between Gandalf and the Balrog in Moria in which Gandalf died because of a DoT after he defeated the Balrog

And as you say Gandalf was of the order of Manwe, leader of the valar, true.....but you forget that Sauron, was the servant of Morgoth, aka Melkor, the most powerful of the Ainur, who fought 14 Vala.....hence Sauron is bound to be more powerful.....

Also the elven king you mentioned, Fingolfin, as well as many others of the Eldar were so strong because in earlier days, they were taught and had direct contact with the Valar.....they had lived in Aman (the Blessed Realm) itself which gave them some really superior powers and skill....and they were not restrained like the Istari were in their actions.....hence he could face off against Morgoth, one of the strongest Ainur, and even wound him.....some even in the Third Age possessed immense power of that sort.....like Glorfindel, Elrond, Galadriel, Cirdan....not as much as Fingolfin ofcourse, but enough....

And its not exactly about how old one is, but rather it seems so because the oldest ones have lived in the Blessed Realm and whoever has done that, usually is pretty much very strong and skilled....hence its so that some of the oldest people in Middle Earth are also the strongest....Theyre beacons of hope in the way Frodo sees Glorfindel on the Ford of Bruinen......all else grows dim but Glorfindel looks like a shining figure.....so will the others.....

And the Gandalf - Witch King scene in the extended edition of RoTK is THE MOST lore breaking scene in the entire movies franchise imo.... If they had faced off, Gandalf couldve annihilated the Witch King, but then again, he was forbidden to battle Sauron directly, and facing off with his main Lieutenant would pretty much come under that....hence Tolkien has very smartly avoided that confrontation in the books...

And Saruman is Saruman the White, because he had been voted and chosen as the leader of the Council by all the Wise....he is not particularly stronger than Gandalf.....not by default anyways, but Saruman had studied the tactics and skills of the enemy itself, his affinity was more towards to powerful aspects of magic while Gandalf was more aligned towards knowledge and wisdom....

And finally, Saruman's Uruk Hai could slaughter the orcs from Moria because he had created a hybrid sort of orc.....being one of the Istari, he no doubt achieved further corruption by making a hybrid of men and orcs.....which were stronger than the original orcs who were merely corrupted elves.....Sauron had some really strong orcs in his service too....its not the orcs of Mordor that are shown to be the weaker ones in the book...its the orcs from Moria who had come to avenge their leader....they were the weak and cowardly lot.....Grishnakh's and Ugluk's band of Mordor and Isengard orcs respectively were the strongest in that group....