I know you've all been saying to yourselves "selves, there are a lot of fictional sorcerers, wizards, magicians, and whathaveyou in the world, but which ones are the best?" Well, I can't answer that question for you in an authoritative way. You're going to love what you love. My friend Christi, for instance, will surely insist that this list is bogus because Albus Dumbledore does not take the top spot (sorry for the spoiler). But this is my list, and I think it is a good one.
So, what are the rules? How am I determining which sorcerers make the cut and which don't? Here's a breakdown of my four, entirely subjective, criteria (using, mostly, examples from Harry Potter):
1. Magical Strength (1-10): to use the most obvious example here, Harry Potter does not have the magical muscle of Voldemort. His status as a boy of destiny means that chance and variables unknown to his adversaries have a way of intervening on his behalf. Consequently, his victory over Voldemort is not contingent upon magical strength. Potter is probably an 8 on this scale, while Voldemort is likely a 9 or a 9.5.
2. Magical Knowledge (1-10): Hermione Granger does not have as much magical strength as Harry Potter, but she has substantially more magical knowledge. Knowledge is key to efficient manipulation of magical energies, and to the controlled exercise of one's magical talent. On this scale Hermione is probably a 7.5, while Potter is a 6 (though one imagines that by the time he becomes an auror they have both substantially improved in this category).
3. Magical Range (1-10): It is essential to have a range of magical skills at your disposal. A thaumaturge like Miracle Max from The Princess Bride is a useful fellow. But his demonstrated skills in other forms of magic (illusion, evocation, conjuration, summoning, etc.) are essentially zero. To return to the example of Harry Potter, while he is strong in defense against the dark arts, he is weak in potions. You want a well rounded wizard, whose skills are properly fitted to the situation at hand.
4. Magical Creativity (1-10): It is all well and good to be able to replicate spells designed by another sorcerer, but when push comes to shove you want someone who is able to design and implement their own spells and magical constructs. Severus Snape rates high in this category, able to design complex (and gross) offensive magic while still a student, as do Fred and George Weasley.
The final scores will, obviously, be calculated out of 40.
One final caveat: no wizards who fall into the category of "legendary" i.e. with a potentially historical antecedent will be counted. Merlin, for instance, is excluded on the grounds that Aurelius Ambrosius was a real person. You have to be purely fictional to make this list. I am also going to be including sorcerors from film, television, games, comics, and, obviously, literature, but only including a maximum of three sorcerers from any single continuity (sorry Harry Potter fans, but you won't be running the table). That is a lot of ground to cover, and if you feel like I've left your sorcerer of choice off the list, feel free to comment about it. So let the countdown begin!
10. Eglantine Price, Bedknobs and Broomsticks
While she will score low in knowledge and creativity, Eglantine has got some impressive raw power and range. She is able to make an army unoccupied of medieval suits of armor fight a raiding party of Nazi commandos through substitutiary locomotion (which is, based on my reading of the effect of the spell, a kind of conjuration), is able to turn Professor Browne into a rabbit (transmutation, or transfiguration), and is able to open a way for to the storybook land of Naboombu to reclaim the Star of Astaroth (to the best of my knowledge the ability to open ways between worlds does not have a specific name as a category of spell, though it is a power that mages in many, many traditions have access to).
Strength 8/10
Knowledge 3/10
Range 7/10
Creativity 2/10
total score 20/40
9. Elric of Melnibone, by Michael Moorcock
There isn't a convenient series title that houses Elric of Melnibone, one of the avatars of The Eternal Champion. The character appears in many several novels, novellas, and short stories and is a skilled conjurer and summoner. A more traditional sorcerer than others on this list, in that his powers derive from his relationships with summoned beings and enchanted objects, he is knowledgeable, but is lacking in the other three principle categories.
Strength 4/10
Knowledge 8/10
Range 4/10
Creativity 5/10
total score 21/40
8. Harry Dresden, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Though he is frequently ranked amongst the strongest sorcerers alive for pure magical muscle. However, in the world of The Dresden Files, it often takes wizards nearly 200 years to gain a full mastery over their skills, and Harry is only about 40. Based on the way the series is heading, with potentially only 6 books remaining of the case files, and author Jim Butcher promising that the series will conclude with an "apocalyptic trilogy" it seems unlikely that Harry will survive long enough to really come into his own as a wizard.
Strength 10/10
Knowledge 5/10
Range 5/10
Creativity 7/10
total score 27/40
7. Willow Rosenberg, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The biggest problem with Willow's candidacy, and why she doesn't rank higher on the list, is that he is at her most powerful in the strength category after she has gone mad with grief and an addiction to her own power. Not a great combo. She skins that dude alive... Witch was grim.
She also runs into the same problem of youth that Dresden suffers from. We never get to see the sorceress she will be when she has really come into her own. That being said, despite the insanity, at the height of her powers she is able to dispatch Giles when he comes armed for bear with the full magical might of The Coven behind him, so that's...pretty awesome.
Strength 9/10
Knowledge 6/10
Range 6/10
Creativity 7/10
total score 28/40
6. Yuna, Final Fantasy X
There are a ton of characters from the Final Fantasy roster that one could choose to represent on this list. I'm sure of all the choices I will make in the second half of the countdown, this is the one that will prove to be the most controversial. But Yuna has some great stuff going for her. While her summoning abilities are obvious, she is also the best healer on this list, and a powerful practitioner of light based offensive magic. In fact, it is her power as a white mage that enables her and her companions to break the hold of Sin on Spira.
Strength 8/10
Knowledge 7/10
Range 7/10
Creativity 7/10
total score 29/40
5. Anton Gorodetsky, World of Watches
Now, I wouldn't blame you if you weren't reading this series of Russian fantasy novels. But Gorodetsky definitely belongs on this list. A magician who grows in strength over the course of the series, his principle advantage on this list comes from a dominating score in the creativity department. An expert in advanced technology (he is an I.T. professional in his day job), Gorodetsky will incorporate technology into his magic (including using the shuffle function on his music to create a kind of auditory divination). He also earns a high knowledge score, as he goes from a low level mage to a "Mage Beyond Classification" in the course of the series.
Strength 8/10
Knowledge 7/10
Range 7/10
Creativity 9/10
total score 31/40
4. Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the etc.
Here we are entering into the domain of the extreme heavy hitters. The guy wields the Elder wand, defeated the most powerful dark wizards of his day, displayed extreme aptitude in all branches of magic, and was the transfiguration professor at Hogwarts prior to his ascent to the headmaster's office. Plus, he did that thing that only first rate wizards are able to do, and just kept on rocking even after he got blasted out of the astronomy tower.
Strength 9/10
Knowledge 10/10
Range 8/10
Creativity 8/10
total score 35/40
3. John Uskglass the Raven King, Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell
John Uskglass is, in Susanna Clarke's novel, the fountain from which all English magic springs. It was said that he could pluck Merlin up by the beard, turn him on his head, and lock in him an oak tree for eternity without breaking a magical sweat. Uskglass is so potent, and his knowledge extends so far, that Norrell and Strange are said to be the manifestation of his greatest spell working itself out across time and space. That's quite something.
Strength 10/10
Knowledge 10/10
Range 9/10
Creativity 9/10
total score 38/40
2. Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
Yes, you nerds, I put Gandalf in the second spot. He's got a lot going for him. The only problem is, that like most mages in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, the vast majority of his magic comes in the form of moral authority. One does not often see Gandalf practicing magic. Even in his great confrontation with the Balrog in Moria, his defiance relies on the fact that he is an emissary of "the Flame of Arnor," against which dark fires may not prevail. As a result he gets high marks for knowledge, but loses a precious point because he is not seen to produce a sufficient variety of magical effects.
Strength 10/10
Knowledge 10/10
Range 9/10
Creativity 10/10
total score 39/40
1. Ged, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and The Other Wind
Ged is the winner, and in all fairness he probably had to be. The Archmage of Roke, a Dragonlord, the wizard who quested into the dark lair of the Nameless Ones in Atuan to retrieve the ring of Erreth-Akbe, and the man who ventured into the Dry Lands to heal the rift that the necromancer Cob had opened between the world of the living and the world of the dead (at the cost of his own power).
Strength 10/10
Knowledge 10/10
Range 10/10
Creativity 10/10
total score 40/40
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