Magic in Harry Potter vs. Lord of the Rings

Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: The subject of this video may seem irrelevant to you if you aren’t heavily invested in nerdlore, but I promise you, this has very real implications for how you view the world and how you operate your life within it, so can I request that you just bear with me and give this one a chance even if you’re not interested in Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings. When I first encountered the stories of the Lord of the Rings, I found myself perplexed by a character trait that was uncommon in the fantasy genre. I couldn’t figure out why Gandalf would sit on his staff and do nothing when danger was upon him and his company. And even when he did decide to help out, instead of shooting lightning or balls of fire or other uncanny elemental forces at his adversaries, he would just start swingin’ a sword around or worse, use his magical staff like a club, which would be like opting to use thr