Top 5 Wizards

Right folks, here in no particular order are my top 5 wizards:

What can I say about Gandalf?  Well a lot, but for the sake of all of us I’ll keep it short.  Gandalf is awesome.  He’s basically the model for the wizards we have today.  He’s wise, capable, and not afraid to be funny now and again.  He rarely does anything overtly, preferring to work through others but when he steps into the fray himself, you’d better watch out.  Gandalf is a fantastic character.  He’s a mentor to the other members of the Fellowship, and is essentially the glue that held it together.  He’s also technically the equivalent of an angel the setting, but we’ll ignore that for now.  Gandalf, he’s cool, brave, and never late.

In the same vein as Gandalf, we now move onto to Albus Dumbledore.  Dumbledore is basically Gandalf revamped for the new generation.  He’s wise, funny, and likes to have others work for him rather than get involved himself.  And like Gandalf, no one in the Harry Potter universe can hold a candle to him when it comes to pure magical power.  But Dumbledore’s a teacher, not a fighter and prefers to teach rather than kick ass.  Unlike Gandalf, Dumbledore is presented in a much more human light.  He has his flaws which do come back to bite him in the ass.  Overall he’s Gandalf as we’d have him today: awesome, but human.

Let’s move away from the realm of the competent for a moment.  Rincewind of Discworld fame is not a good wizard.  In fact, he’s easily the worst wizard who ever lived.  Why is his on this list then?  Because despite having no talent, ability, or desire to be a hero, Rincewind finds himself in that position against his will and somehow succeeds at it.  He usually has some help along the way, but usually finds a way to make it through alive.  He also based his entire life’s philosophy around running.  Even though running away from your problems causes more problems, you can run away from those too.  And trust me, Rincewind is good at running.

Next up we have Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files.  He’s here because he makes being a wizard cool.  Not that it wasn’t cool before, but Harry is what happens when you combine a wizard with about half of Clint Eastwood’s badassness.  He’s incredibly powerful, stubborn, and a wizard for the modern era.  Rather than lock himself away and study for his life or use his magic for personal gain, Harry scrapes out a meager living as a private investigator trying to help people.  Despite his protests, he has a good heart and real desire to help others.  He also once used the battle-cry “I don’t believe in faeries!” while literally fighting a horde of faeries, so yeah.  Badass.

Last and certainly not least we have the inspiration for just about everyone on this list.  I’m talking about Merlin.  Yes, that Merlin.  Merlin for Western culture is THE wizard.  He inspired Gandalf, Dumbledore, and every other wizard with a long beard.  I won’t talk about every interpretation of Merlin, because that would be impossible.  My favorite takes on Merlin are the original from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s stories and the version from The Once and Future King.  Merlin, he the best, the original, and will be around probably longer than Dumbledore or Gandalf.

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