Potter is not a qualified wizard, so he cannot be considered.

Coming to think of it, the wizard of Oz was not much of a wizard either, just a very skilled charlatan. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

In short there is no qualifying candidate for the job, except for "Dumb door". I pity all Albion dwellers. :D

SR-for exact istari reference you might wish looking in the silmarillion. Basically it was another race that had some magic powers. Btw, Saruman was an istari too.

He might've been istari, but he's also a wizard. Since the article refers to the Gandalf portrayed by McKellen we might quote him as saying "A wizard is never late" etc. in reference to himself. Thus, the winner is rightly chosen.

I'm with Legolas. Gandalf called himself a wizard. As far as I know, so did the rest of the wizards.

I can't remember seeing the word "istari" in Silmarillion. Is it just another word for "maia" or some maia subtype that only uses bearded old men as avatars?

Hmm, maybe it is in LoR appendixes and not in the silmarillion itself... to tell you the truth i do not remember it all that well. Maybe it is the same as istari. We shall have to wait until one of our fellow ironworkers, that remembers Tolkien better than me, enlightens us. ;)

Edit-Gandalf could have called himself a potato for all the good it did to him. his "magic" was seriously downplayed both in the book and in the movie. It was like having level 15/2 fighter- mage. You call lvl 2 mage a wizard? I would call him a miserable apprentice.

[ 07-12-2007, 12:29 PM: Message edited by: Black Baron ]

QFT, and to add that the line paraphrased was also used in the book, and so would be a direct quote of Tolkien himself. If anyone would know if he was a wizard, it would be Tolkien.

He did fire some force bolts at Saruman in the movie. And succesfully turned a whole bunch of Wraiths. Oh, and there was that time at that hill between Bree and Rivendell when he spent the whole night throwing fireballs. And collapsed that bridge in Moria. And chased down and killed the balrog. (It's not actually mentioned in the book, but I expect he used some magic in that. Balrogs are just too big to kill in melee. A cityful of dwarves couldn't do it, and those guys defeated Glaurung.)

He did fire some force bolts at Saruman in the movie. And succesfully turned a whole bunch of Wraiths. Oh, and there was that time at that hill between Bree and Rivendell when he spent the whole night throwing fireballs. And collapsed that bridge in Moria. And chased down and killed the balrog. (It's not actually mentioned in the book, but I expect he used some magic in that. Balrogs are just too big to kill in melee. A cityful of dwarves couldn't do it, and those guys defeated Glaurung.) </font>[/QUOTE]Against Saruman and wolves from hobbit, he had used his staff. He had also used it against balrog and the bridge. Being in possession of a powerful magical artifact does not evaluate him to the Status of Wizard. Maybe a Wizzard (kudos to Pratchett) but that will be it. Turning wraiths was not a problem since that he had used his staff. Again. Like i said he acted like level 15/2 fighter-wizard. He had two powerful tools (staff and the ring) but by himself he did not project the required magic force.

I vote for Rincewind, the true Wizzard of all times! :D