Cinema

The Lord of the Rings

Best lord of the rings duels

The community has spoken. Discover the world ranking, compare it to yours and see how everyone else voted.

Play this TopList

16contenders high-voltage

405votes

22TopList

0commentsUpdated on 10/06/2026 at 02:00 PM

Gandalf the Grey vs the Balrog1412

The worldwide ranking generated by 405 votes

16 / 16

Gandalf the Grey vs the Balrog1412

Éowyn vs the Witch-king of Angmar1380

Gandalf the Grey vs Saruman1273

Sam vs Shelob1260

Gandalf the White vs Saruman (via Théoden)1234

Aragorn vs Lurtz1209

Gandalf the White vs the Witch-king of Angmar1205

Sméagol vs Gollum1199

Frodo vs Gollum1190

#10

Legolas vs an oliphaunt1180

#11

Isildur vs Sauron1161

#12

Aragorn vs Sauron1138

#13

Gandalf the White vs Denethor1135

#14

Déagol vs Sméagol1134

#15

Théoden vs Gríma Wormtongue1081

#16

Gandalf the Grey vs Bilbo1009

What the community says

Vote for your favorite Lord of the Rings duel! Gandalf, Aragorn, Sauron, Legolas...

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.