S&L Podcast #117- Is Gandalf A Jerk?

[Becca]

We welcome our new Grand Master, who has always been a grand master really. We give you some insight on the best Science Fiction and Fantasy this year and next, and we explain why Gandalf is not a nice man... but he's a great wizard.

http://www.swordandlaser.com/home/201...

Enjoy!

[David Sven]

Excellent show. Couldn't agree more, The Hobbit on HFR felt weird, like watching TV.
Couldn't disagree more about Gandalf being a jerk.

And the audiobook version of Abercrombie's books is an excellent option. Steven Pacey is an excellent Narrator - I've listened to him with BSC and The Heroes and currently with Red Country and he really carries across that dark, gritty, cynical tone really well. I wish now I'd listened to First Law on audio instead of reading on kindle. Enjoy

[Kris]

Thanks for the show a nice post Xmas present...I agree that Gandalf isn't a jerk he is a wizard. A totally different thing but they can be confused.

[Tamahome]

Gandalf isn't a jerk. He's bipolar.

[Nick]

Gandalf the Grey was a jerk .. until he reinvented himself and became Gandalf the White! You see he was upset because his robes needed washing.

[Tamahome]

I hope you have all learned your lesson, and in the future, you will listen to Nick.

[Kris]

I am expecting to hear from him on the podcast about how he engineered the uprising within S&L land.

[David Sven]

Tamahome wrote: "I hope you have all learned your lesson, and in the future, you will listen to Nick."

I'm afraid to bring this up in case the world really does end, and we are devoured by Alpaca lips - but what does Nick think of Dumbledore?

[Daran]

I feel sorry for Gail Z. Martin. having any genre book drop the same day as A Memory of Light can't be good for sales.

[Geoff]

Daran wrote: "I feel sorry for Gail Z. Martin. having any genre book drop the same day as A Memory of Light can't be good for sales."

I'm looking forward to her next book Ice Forged.

[Keith]

Gandalf, you were terrible. You wander off when people need you, you bully people, you neglect to warn your friends of huge dangers you knew about beforehand, but more than any of that...you keep sending people on long, dangerous walking quests and YOU FORGET THAT YOU COULD JUST ASK THE EAGLES TO FLY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!!!

[Ray]

Gandalf was never a jerk. He simply didn't tolerate foolishness. He is a wizard, dude is not supposed to be handing out flowers and candy. In fact one of my complaints with the LOTR movies is that Jackson portrayed Gandalf quite often as feeble and indecisive. That is not the Gandalf from the books.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Didn't tolerate foolishness? From my view, he seemed almost to celebrate it, or at least, a certain kind of foolishness. Certainly he tolerated, and, I would argue, encouraged a great deal of foolishness and downright rudeness from the dwarves who crashed Bilbo's home on his invitation.

[Ray]

Ruth wrote: "Didn't tolerate foolishness? From my view, he seemed almost to celebrate it, or at least, a certain kind of foolishness. Certainly he tolerated, and, I would argue, encouraged a great deal of fooli..."

Gotta disagree. Gandalf knew what he was doing and knew how best to entice Bilbo into joining the Adventure. Gandalf always knew what he was doing. He is calculating, as any good wizard should be. He did care about Bilbo, but sometimes a nudge isn't enough to get someone moving.

As for the Dwarves, well they were simply doing what Dwarves do. Getting their eat and drink on.

[Ray]

^ Yup. See Kellhus from The Prince of Nothing.

[David Sven]

Matt wrote: " ends justify the means."

Sometimes - yes. It depends on the means and the end. In this case - the inconvenience of Bilbo is trivial compared to the end result.

[Jim]

Keith wrote: "Gandalf, you were terrible. ... YOU FORGET THAT YOU COULD JUST ASK THE EAGLES TO FLY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!!! "

I just reread the Hobbit and I got the distinct impression that the Eagles didn't think too much of humanity's problems. They couldn't be bothered to look into things until they saw the goblins running amok and burning down trees, which pissed them off so they took action.

As for Gandalf, 1) he's been around awhile and no doubt has gotten exceptionally tired of foolishness (going into my 50s I can understand this [shakes his cane at the kids on his lawn]), b) he has an agenda, save Middle Earth, and has to be the one to take actions others won't or can't, iii) my impression was that he was an old friend of the Took family, thus his familiarity with Bilbo. And haven't you ever known that a friend of yours would be great at something but they're afraid of failure and won't get started at it? That they need a little push. Bilbo had much more Tookishness than he was willing to admit but Gandalf knew it so he took action.

[H.t.]

I think he often has a rotten temper but he's not a jerk at all. In fact, in the LOTR and the Hobbit, he seems to take the problems of the 'good' people of Middle Earth almost personally, and taking strides to correct them. When you're dealing with saving a whole world from being engulfed in a dark ancient evil, everyone else's problem has to look a bit trivial, hence his slight condescending nature.