5 Reasons Why Grindelwald Was More Powerful Than Voldemort

It’s the ultimate debate of dark wizards isn't it, who’s really more powerful, is it voldemort or Grindelwald. A lot of you will say voldemort but then again there are some grindelwald fans who truly believe he was the more power wizard and even if we re-word it to the better wizard it can make even more sense. I’ve had a good look into the attributes, powers, skill level, knowledge level and I found 5 reasons that show Grindelwald was a more powerful wizard than grindelwald.

[anasousa]

I would add another reason: as Dumbledore says many times, love is the most powerful form of magic. Grindelwald is capable of love. Voldemort isn't. Grindelwald 1 - 0 Voldemort

[ray]

He also knew the lore. He shot a disarming spell at gregorovitch to become the true owner of the elder wand. Voldy was a dumbass and assumed Snape killed Dumbledore that easily when he himself failed and didn't bother taking out memories or at the very least, interview the other death eaters who were present. "The greatest wizard besides me got taken out by my subordinate who I fully trust. That woman I killed when I should have spared for as a favor to him years ago surely won't come back to bite me right? right?"

[acciomegapint]

I really like Grindelwald because he's very "realistic" as a villain. A manipulative dictator like we have witnessed in our history.

[sebastianmartinezdiaz]

Dumbledore said to Harry that he and Grindelwald were exactly the same in magical strength, something that dumbledore never acknowledged to voldemort. Since Dumbledore and Grindelwald were almost equally strong and powerful one can deduce who is the most powerful between the 2 dark wizards. Besides, Voldemort was a racist whose cause was only favor the pure bloods, unlike Grindelwald that believed the greatness of all magical kind no matter the blood status. Another thing is Grindelwald had more influence around the globe. Voldemort failed to conquer England alone.

[kainx]

As depicted in the movies, to me:
- Grindelwald played the long game, which mades him much more dangerous than Voldemort.
- Voldemort used brute force, which can only take you so far.

[josephrousell]

I believe in terms of magical magnitude, Riddle had more natural potential. Grindlewald, however, put in more hard work rather than coast on raw talent, he understood the fundamentals of all magic and the more advanced lore and the limitations, whereas Riddle didn’t care beyond a certain point if he believed it had no use to him. Love, for example.

Tom had no true understanding of love or it’s magic, but Gellert did, and used it as a shield against the only person who could stop him: Albus Dumbledore. That counts for a lot, as you can be destroyed for a lack of knowledge.

Tom had more raw power, Gellert likely had greater understanding, experience, and therefore, more skill.

Experience outranks everything, hard work trumps talent, power without true understanding leads to failure.

[wildefice]

Another difference between the two is their resolve. Grindelwald resigned himself to the outcome of his decisions. He accepted and embraced his mortality. He resolved himself to face Dumbledore without hesitation. Whereas Voldemort chose to hide or stall.

2nd reason: Fear
Voldemort feared death, he feared Dumbledore and he feared the mundane.

Grindelwald (as far as I could tell, possessed no fear, or overcame those short comings I'm his formative years)

Last one is just nitpicking really, but ... Grindelwald had class!

[penguintaco]

I didn't care for Mad's portrayal of Grindelwald because I feel the writers made him far less sympathetic as a villain in the 3rd movie. Because in the 2nd movie and Johnny Depp's version shows the Wizarding crowd the future and the next muggle World War along with the creation of the nuclear bomb with it's immense destructive power. Even Kowalski was shocked and praying it wasn't true and the if muggles continued this path they would put the Wizarding along with the entire world at risk so Grindelwald had no choice but to take over. Mad's version just looked like a generic bad guy trying to take over.

[manzanogianni]

I would agree with you wholeheartedly. Grindelwald’s patience and control of his emotions would also give him an advantage that would save his life in a battle with Voldemort.

[f.dud]

@Harry Potter Folklore  Question: Can you do "Are House-elf able to recognize and identify Horcruxes?"
I went to rewatch Harry Potter movies and notice how uncomfortable their expressions were once they saw the Horcrux. In the second film, Dobby recognized the diary as an evil object just as Kreacher recognized Slytherin's locket in the seventh film.

[ic]

Gridenwald also had the Elder Wand unless I’m mistaken. Voldemort never had full control of it.

[Bballfan]

I think people confuse evil and power. Voldermort was the more evil of the 2, but I think power goes to Grindelwald.

In the books, the only ones who say Voldemort was the strongest dark wizard, were all the recency bias people. It was only those who never really saw what Grindelwald did. Bellatrix was born multiple years after Grindelwald was defeated. So was Lucius and all the others. McGongall didn’t start school till a couple years after Grindelwald’s defeat. So the characters are forced to know only what they experienced which was Voldemort.

If we go off what we know, Grindelwald had more knowledge in more branches of magic than Voldemort. And knowledge is power. Grindelwald was a seer, which automatically gives him a edge over Voldemort as well. He was well trained, researched, and strong.

Voldemort was darker. He was pure evil. He had no love in his heart. He delved deeper into the dark arts, but that doesn’t mean he was stronger. He was a masterful duelist, and by far a legendary wizard of immense power. But I don’t think he had the power or the knowledge to beat Grindelwald. He was blinded by his own fear of death, and his lack of understanding all branches of magic.

Grindelwald’s downfall came at the end of a 3 hour long duel against the one he loved. Voldemort’s downfall came because he was arrogant and believed himself infallible. He was his own worst enemy.

[lilyrose]

Voldemort is a psychotic villain. He used power to control his followers. His campaign appeals to the pure bloods which allowed an easy divide on the population who supports or resists him.

Grindelwald was a seductive villain. He knew the history of the magical people and the tensions between magic & nonmagical population. He used that to his advantage. People came to him. And like some other commenters has mentioned, Grindelwald knew love and what it means to people, specifically how love can unite but also divide people. This makes him a more powerful villain.

Now in terms of actually magical abilities, we might not fully know. Voldemort pushed the limits of magical power for selfish reasons, immorality. Grindelwald didn't need to do that. He was extremely powerful but did not fear much to need to find other means of magic.

[PhilippineNerd]

Tbh, the moment I watched that scene of Grindelwald doing the Protego Diabolica in Paris, I immediately thought Voldemort was a joke as a dark lord in terms of skill, power and knowledge. Grindelwald had depth to his character while voldemort is a murderous maniac obsessed to power and immortality who can't defeat a 17 year old boy when he decided to attack a high school which also ultimately ended up with his own death.

[nicholasquinnsnyder]

Voldemort was definitely undoubtedly far more both evil & Murderous than Grindelwald.

[Moxleid]

Book Grindelwald when voldemort enters nurmengard:
"Oh i smell bitch in here"

[daniels]

Voldemort noticeably avoided the kinds of risks that Grindelwald took regularly. He also only fought Dumbledore briefly, and only because Dumbledore showed up at the Ministry while he was there. When it became clear that Dumbledore was not going to be defeated easily, Voldemort fled and never tried to fight him directly again. My personal sense is that most *British* wizards considered Voldemort to be the more powerful because he more directly threatened the British wizarding community during his two reigns of terror. Whereas Grindelwald was more of a global threat.

[username.exenotfound]

wouldn't grindlewald be better at legilimens since voldermort couldn't get the information out of him

[Samrules]

The Virgin voldemort:
Only has 1/64 of a soul
Turned the dumbest possible objects into Horcruxes
Surrounded by traitors
Has a diary a tiara and an obsession with a teenage boy
Has weird sneak p3n0r
The CHAD grindelwald
Refuses the cost of the horcrux because it's lamesauce and could have realistically mastered the hallows
Smoking hot queenie wants his 13 inch wand but he's saving it for dumbledore
Has magic flames that burns up poseurs
Fucked the one man voldemort ever feared.
Called voldemort a batch to his face
Actually has a soul

[andakin]

I personally have a theory that Grindelwald's actions have shaken things up for the wizarding world that would have had lasting affects for a century or more globally. much like how we are seeing the ripple effects WW1 over a century later in the actual world. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that many of Grindelwald's followers found other leaders in their own countries looking to change the world. I imagine Voldemort's earliest followers were the children of former Grindelwald supporters, (likely next would have been the surviving followers of Grindelwald himself.) sadly most of Grindelwalds followers I think were just Magic supremacists. Voldemort didn't have the slow ascent to power that Grindelwald had, which is why I believe that he was only really isolated to Great Brittan. I imagine that almost anywhere Grindelwald had a sphere of influence likely found a new local leader of sorts to replace him once he fell.

As to who was the more powerful of the two, I have to go with Voldemort. Grindelwald was without question the more influential of the two men by a landslide. However I don't think Voldemort would have had nearly as much success gaining followers as he did had Grindelwald not shaken things up a decade prior. We saw that many Death Eaters had speculated that Harry Potter may become the next rallying figure for their misguided prejudice and I have no reason to believe that they didn't lay in wait after Gridelwald's defeat for another to take his place. I personally believe that Voldemort likely had experimented with magic that Grindelwald was likely either too wise or just unwilling to research. I see Gridelwald walking the line between Dumbledore and Voldemort. Able to see the two extremes each man represented for what they were. Which is why I believe Grindelwald never conducted the magical experimentation Voldemort did. Because he knew what it would cost him. Just like Dumbledore knew what it cost the young Tom Riddle.

Many people look at their duels with Dumbledore as proof as to which of the two was more powerful and I have to say that's a poor comparison. Grindelwald was in possession of the Elder Wand during his duel with Dumbledore, and whether or not Grindelwald was the true owner of the wand or not does remain in question. (we could see a the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort reflected in this in Dumbledore vs Grindelwald even. Which would give a great deal of reason why after being given the news of his death Dumbledore's firsth thought was how best to render the wands power useless.) What isn't for debate however, is that even though Dumbledore was 50 years older during his duel with Voldemort then he was during his duel with Grindelwald. Dumbledore was without question the true owner of the Elder Wand during his duel with Voldemort. We also know that even at the age of 115 and dealing with the curse would eventually claim his life, Dumbledore was just fine physically and able to keep his pace with the 16 year old Harry Potter during their trip to Voldemort's cave. Described as able to swim across the lake with a "Perfect breast stroke." Dumbledore may have been an old man but he was far from frail and while he may not have the same reflexes psychical capability of his youth his magical power was much greater then it was during his youth.

To be clear, I don't see this as a landslide victory for Voldemort. Everything Grindelwald is bringing to the table is a clear on obvious threat to Voldemort. In fact I believe that Grindelwald likely knew or would have easily discovered the existence of Voldemort's Horcruxes. When Voldemort finally arrived to meet Grindelwald face to face Grindelwald showed no fear because there was really nothing Voldemort could do to threaten him. Voldemort could kill him yes but death was something Grindelwald did not fear and even accepted. He knew his soul was not so damaged as Voldemort's was. Grindelwald laughed at Voldemort for everything he was. in all his fear, anger, hatred and narcissism, Voldemort had nothing to threaten Grindelwald with. Grindelwald knew that eventually Voldemort would face his own defeat, and when that eventually happened he would be trapped in limbo. In fact their one meeting that we know of was really Grindelwald telling Voldemort how foolish he was to do the things he had done, and that Dumbledore would have the last laugh in the end. With that Grindelwald was able to die in a sense of peace. Knowing that his own soul was not so irreparably as Voldemort's. Grindelwald could feel love, shame, guilt. All those emotions that make one human. Grindelwald had repaired his own soul during his captivity whereas Voldemort would never do so.