The age-old dichotomy of good versus evil is arguably the most obvious theme in the Lord of the Rings. Among wider themes of nature versus modernization and mechanism, and the mistakes of the past versus the hope and faith to pave a better future, good and evil are at the core of the story. The resounding message in the trilogy is that, if there is love and loyalty, and people who would give your life to protect, good will always prevail, because evil can never be as strong if it doesn’t have something worth fighting for.
There are many figures who represent this battle between good and evil. Some characters are ambiguous between the two, such as Boromir (who has a pure heart, but falls prey to the rings' temptation), or Saruman, (who was once a friend of Gandalf and Galadriel, but has also been persuaded by the false promise of power offered by the evil object.) But most characters fall very definitively on one side or another, for example Sauron being the supreme dark lord, whose sole purpose is to dominate Middle Earth and remove all of the beauty in the world, versus Aragorn, a kind and honorable man from a long line of kings, who will stop at nothing to save his loved ones. And thanks to this duality, a question has arisen among fans of the franchise about two of the key characters on either side, and who would win a fight between them.
Gandalf the white has got to be one of the most powerful beings to roam Middle Earth, especially in the Third Age when the War of the Ring takes place. He has spent countless years honing his fire skills, traveling through all of the realms and kingdoms he can discover, and learning about the people of the lands, both in books and in physical being. Knowledge is power after all. But in this debate, he is pitted against one of the most deadly enemies, one who has also been around for hundreds of years, slaying people, conquering kingdoms, and pouring forth treachery wherever he goes: The Witch King of Angmar. In one of the best extended scenes from the full-length director's cut DVDs, the audience can see Gandalf and the Witch King confront one another as the wizard rushes through a crumbling Minas Tirith to save Faramir from the pyre, where he is about to be burned alive by his deranged father.
Surely, having defeated the Balrog and come back as an even stronger, purer form of himself, Gandalf should have no trouble defeating the dastardly wraith. However, as the scene plays out, the Witch King asks “do you not know death when you see it old man?” and proceeds to shatter Gandalf’s staff, send him flying from his horse Shadowfax, and almost kill him with one quick bite of the mighty Fell Beast.
From the depiction of the scene in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations, it seems very clear that the Witch King has the upper hand of the battle, and that he is able to muster more power at that moment than Gandalf is. It is also known later that Merry and Eowyn are only able to defeat such a worthy and commanding opponent because of Merry’s sword from the Barrow Downs, a very specific blade that just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Lots of these things add up to suggest that the Witch King could not have been defeated by the White Wizard.
But later, once the battle has been won and the world has returned to some normality, Gandalf discusses the scenario, and says that they have been very fortunate that the servant of Sauron is dead, and that “you have heard the echo of his last despair. But he has not gone without woe and loss. And that I might have averted, but for the madness of Denethor.” The ‘bitter loss’ mentioned here is referring to the death of King Theoden, but it seems that Gandalf believes he ‘could have averted’ the death, and thus defeated the Witch King, if his mind had not been distracted by other problems. He was indeed in shock when the Witch King came upon him, and was both preoccupied with trying to save the man of Gondor, and with protecting Pippin, who was also on Shadowfax’s back when they were accosted.
Perhaps if he had been less concerned about the well-fare of others, and more able to concentrate on summoning the full wrath of his power against the enemy, he would have been able to defeat the evil being after all. Luckily, he never had to find out if this was true or not, because two of the most under-estimated but decidedly awesome characters of the franchise had it covered.