Two cowled, other-worldly menaces from the biggest movie (and book) franchises in modern history face off in this week's "Versus". Each have one foot in the material plane and the other firmly planted in something closely resembling Hell. Both give our heroes a run for their money and serve a master of evil. At some point, they've all been mistaken for curtains. So who would win in a fight?
A dementor's main power is to suck the soul from its target, which raises the first question of whether or not Nazgûl even have souls. From the reading I've done, I think they do -- they're still mortals, just with their lives stretched far beyond that of normal men by the power of the Ring. There is something for the dementors to eat, therefore.
The Nazgûl have some powerful magic of their own, of course, including their own rings of power. Would those have any effect on dementors?
I don't know, that's why I am asking you! Sound off in the comments about which of these evil henchmen would defeat the other in an all-out battle.
I’m not convinced one could even hurt the other. You need hope to fight off a dementor, don’t you?
Harry Potter needs hope, but maybe if you have a big enough flying lizard you can get by.
I voted for the Nazgul on the basis of looks, I admit it. That, and their band is pretty cool.
the Dementors, upon seeing the Nazgul, would realize they are thinly veiled rip-offs of the Black Riders. That plus their horrible, unimaginative name would cause them to dement themselves. I’m glad there is no more Hp movies. That is until the inevitable reboot in like 2 years
i’ll go with the Dementors on this one. The only way to fight of a dementor is to think of something happy and cast the patronus charm , which i doubt the nazgul have. Plus the dementors are attracted to unhappy memories, of which the Nazgul have plenty.
Dementors win. There are only nine Nazgul, and while the Witch King of Angmar, the strongest of the Nazgul cannot be “felled by the hand of man,” Dementors are not men. Dementors, meanwhile, can appear in swarms by the dozens, so the Nazgul will be overpowered. It’s just that simple.
the nazgul would win because in order for the dementors to win you have to have feelings and they are no longer men they have no feelings really
If, like you said, Dementors fight by taking souls, then they are SOL. Even when Gandalf and Glorfindel took them out at Rivendell, they just went back to Sauron to be restored. The only time one of them is destroyed, it is the direct result of a prophecy coming to fruition. On the other hand, if you can’t beat Dementors without happy memories, then… Yeah. Calling this a draw. They probably buzz around each other shrieking for a few days, then throw a concert.
umm? If I remember correctly, the Nazgul can only be imprisoned by the ring, or Sauron. Their swords cannot hurt the Dementors. Their souls would be so damaged that maybe the Dementors wouldn’t NOTICE them.
So it’s certainly possible that an absolute victory wouldn’t happen.
Whatever victory DOES happen, the Nazgul can’t be happy on command, can’t fly, and CAN obviously be tricked, whereas the Dementors can’t–too ‘automatic.’ I only see one way the Nazgul could temporarily have a respite. . . trick the Dementors to focus on someone else.
A thought: Dementors can only leech off “Happy” thoughts (Sirius Black stayed sane by holding on to the unpleasant fact of his innocence), and given that Nazgul are undead in a strictly technical sense I’d be inclined to give the edge to the Nazgul.
Of course, even undead can be swarmed by numbers, as it seems much of the Ringwraiths’ strength comes out when they command legions of orcs.
I think it’s another of those “planning vs. instinct” battles similar to Superman vs Batman, being that Nazgul are guided by a will, while the Dementors are mindless.
Given enough time and preperation, I foresee Sauron having little difficulty enslaving the Dementors.
Once the dementors discover a being as evil as Sauron, they would quickly ally themselves with him as long as they get fed once in a while. Sauron is known to be happy to feed large numbers of orcs to shelob in return for guarding the pass of cirith ungol. The prospect of servants as evil, terrifying, and far more plentiful than the Nazgul would have him frantically sending battalions of orcs to feed the dementors and secure their alliances. Quite simply, the Nazgul would be LEADING the dementors, not fighting them! But, in a head to head fight, i’m going Nazgul. While both side’s main weapons, fear, would be neutralized, I would love to see the effect of a Nazgul screech on a crowd of dementors! If that fails, you can always have the fell beasts eat ’em or use the ancient blades the Nazgul carry to physically distroy them, as dementors have physical bodies and have no way to kill at close quarters without the advantage of scaring the foes stiff beforehand.
Result: Despite the fact that dementors make better minions due to their numbers and abilities to reproduce, Nazgul can effectively fight and actually kill, not just take souls. Plus, their fell beasts have proven their worth in battle and can transport the Nazgul at great speed. Advantage: Nazgul.
Oh, yeah, the Nazgul also posses rings of power. While the abilities of these beyond immortality are largely unknown, it can be safely assumed that they are more powerful than the Dwarven-Rings and weaker than the Elven-rings. That grants them abilities to…lets see… knock down an average-sized fortress. Thats not that useful. But the rings did allow them to capture alone, unaided, the mighty city of Minas Iithil. That’s really quite impressive for a group of 9 invisible mortals. So, going off of this, even the weakest, most underacheiving Nagul even without a fell beast can take down a host of dementors.
@Sauron: Thanks for voicing the argument that was brewing in my mind as well. In the end I think the Nazgul would lead the dementors on an invasion to take over all of HP’s world.
It doesn’t matter, because the “winner” would then face the hero!
The nine rings don’t really have any offensive applications. They just kind of stretched your life out indefinitely until you were pretty much a shadow. I don’t know if the dementors could even hurt them, they barely even inhabit the physical plane of existence.
It’s never been established if dementors could be physically hurt or destroyed. I imagine they’ve never encountered an effectively immortal enemy immune to their emotionally draining aura and soul-stealing abilities. But if they are able to be physically hurt, the Morgûl blades used by the Ringwraiths (which carried their own sinister enchantments) would be more than enough to dispose of them. An unkillable enemy always trumps a (presumably) killable one. 😀
Dementors seem to be immune to any kind of physical injury. The Harry Potter universe is full of magic swords and regular swords and other potent magical weapons, and as I recall it is explicitly stated the one and only thing that can stop a Dementor is the patronus charm. There is nothing that leads me to believe a Nazgul could hurt a Dementor.
Conversely, the Nazgul do seem to have some semblance of a soul which should make them vulnerable to Dementor attack. The evidence on this one is kind of sketchy, but I’m going to have to give the Dementors an edge.
I say Nazgul. First off, as someone pointed out, the dementors are practically rip offs of the Nazgul, at very least they are inspired by them. Also, dementors fight by leeching off of someones despair and fear. I don’t think the Nazgul are even susceptible to that. I doubt they even have fear or despair anymore.
I’m sorry, why is the Dementor a rip off of a Nazgul? The black robe is a much, much older symbol than Tolkien and that seems to be the only thing they have in common. According to Wikipedia, which is of course never wrong, the Grim Reaper has been depicted as wearing a black robe since at least the 15th century. If anything, both seem to be kind of a “rip off” of Grim.
Let’s see…. Dementors only attack people with happy thoughts. You use they’re food against them. Nazgul being undead might be harder to destroy. Nazgul would take over Dementors, right?