What did you think of Secrets of Dumbledore?! Best Fantastic Beast Movie? Best HARRY POTTER MOVIE? or Meh?

The Qilin bowing to Jacob would have been a great moment to show the wizarding world that muggles are worthy too. Missed opportunity.

I say this with the utmost seriousness: they need to stop playing around and hire you guys as either writers or deep lore consultants for all remaining Harry Potter properties. Because every shred of Harry Potter content that has come from this channel makes more sense and is more entertaining than this entire Fantastic Beasts trilogy thus far.

The whole plan revolved around confusing Grindelwalds visions, and yet we never see Grindie reacting to or even having that many visions.

Did anyone else notice that Bunty asked for “half a dozen” duplicate suitcases and then when they were all getting ready to shell-game it up there were only 5? Half a dozen plus the original should have been 7. I was convinced there were two more being taken by others through a different route and that the five were only diversions. This movie set up so many plot twists and paid none of them off.

No one is discussing how amazing the casting and acting of Richard Coyle's version of Aberforth is? It was so freaking on point I legit believed they were the same person

Gah, I need you two to write these movies so badly.

I think the bloodpact breaking was one of the few things that made perfect sense in this movie: when their spells met, it was not with the intention of fighting one another, but to kill/protect a third party. This would directly prove to the bloodpact that they had opposite intentions, without actually breaking the vow of the bloodpact

Another thing that left me puzzled. What was up with Yusuf Kama? Was his mission just ever so simple as to infiltrate the Grindelwalds top henchmen? That left me so dissatisfied with his role in the plot.

The curse not killing the mama qilin the first time could also mean that credence didn’t mean it. As moody says that you have to mean it

My favorite part of the WHOLE movie was when Newt told Jacob that the candy he got from the Slytherin boys was cockroach cluster and how it flashed the scene to the boys who couldn't be older than like 2nd or 3rd year just cackling away. I mean it was just so....Slytherins being Slytherins that I loved it.

My theory on Bunty’s mission is this. Because grindelwald can see the future they gave her a task that made her interact with muggles, that he doesn’t think much of or anything of, so he just disregarded her task entirely. Basically like voldemort doesn’t understand that which he doesn’t value. I feel like it is the same for her mission and grindelwald

Can anyone just accept that Newt and Theseus may have a normal sibling rivalry and that because Theseus is a extrovert and Newt is introverted that their personalities are at odds and that maybe it's normal sibling things that make Newt uncomfortable yet don't bother Theseus. Theseus seems like the brother who doesn't understand his little introverted brother's obsession with magical creatures.

I really liked that, even after the blood pact was destroyed, Dumbledore and Grindelwald couldn't bring themselves to finish each other off. It really shows how deep their love for each other goes, and that the blood pact wasn't really the reason they couldn't kill each other. It was just a physical barrier; the emotional barrier that led to its creation in the first place is still present.

Small nitpick in the grand scheme of ludicrous nonsense but when Lally and Jacob go through the book portkey, they do verbally acknowledge it’s a portkey. However they enter the train through a fireplace with green flames. Which indicates the Floo Network. Portkeys and the Floo Network are two TOTALLY separate things. I’m pretty sure in the 5th HP book they specifically think to use a portkey because it can’t be traced by the Floo Network which is under surveillance. Like visuals MEAN things and there is zero consistency or regard for the canonical lore.

I always saw Bunty's mission on getting imitations of the case through a muggle leather goods store as a smarter move in a way that although the Geminio spell will automatically duplicate it, something Dumbledore mentioned in the Harry Potter series about magic leaving traces. Getting it done through actually getting it duplicated with an actual leather goods store makes it harder for all the other members of the team to recognize who actually has the case.

One of the big problems I notice from this trilogy regarding writing, is that it feels like it should've been a novel series first and then have some screenwriters adapt it. Rowling doesn't know how to write for movies (which is not bad, she is a novelist after all, not a screenwriter, both need different set of skills). IDK if anyone else thinks like this, but I strongly feel that the scripts for the three movies would've worked better in book format as they are, and then adapting it.

I think Bunty's part in this story was what Newt observed back in Crimes where he said "Grindelwald doesn't seem to understand the nature of things he considers simple". While Newt considers Bunty to be an indispensable assistant and holds her in high regard, we don't actually see her use any magic that Grindelwald would consider being significant. It would then make sense that the missions of Lally/Jacob, Theseus/Newt, and Kama would be under heavy scrutiny by Grindelwald and his acolytes, thereby giving Bunty the invisibility she'll need to carry out her part of the mission. It might have been Dumbledore's plan all along to have the seemingly pointless parts of the missions to distract Grindelwald.

Harry never got an Obscurus because he never intentionally suppressed his magic, he never knew it existed until he met Hagrid. You can’t suppress something you don’t know exists.

My biggest gripe is that in the original HP books, the author set up the ending from the very beginning. She planned the whole thing and knew where it was going the entire time. There were always moments in the later books where something that happened or was mentioned in an off-handed way would come back to drastically effect the plot. Things like Barty Crouch giving Sirius the news paper in askaban in book 3. Then in the next book its revealed that he was actually there to help break out his son or wherever. Those things were so clearly planned and calculated and they payed off. There's absolutely nothing like that in the fantastic beasts movies. The chillin was never eluded to in the earlier movies. It had no importance whatsoever until the last hour of the franchise. It should never have been the grand finale. Every beat and plot point in the series felt like an afterthought. Like the didn't explore any of their ideas to make the resolutions satisfying. the harry potter books felt like there was so much exploration full of twists and hints and thats why they were so fun. Like Harry Potter was a full safari ride, whereas Fantastic Beasts was a train trip on tracks taking u from A to B. Idk

I think it makes sense that the Qilin chose Dumbledore, I feel like it was hinted at when Newt said "Lally said something earlier about most of us being ultimately imperfect. But even if we make mistakes, terrible things, we can try to make things right. And that's what matters, trying." And Dumbledore WAS trying to be better.

The election was actually for the title of Supreme Mugwump. A title that Dumbledore is known for holding. I think that's why the Qilin bowed to Dumbledore, forshaddowing how he would.

If the Qilin had bowed before Jacob, that would have shown the entire wizarding world that Muggles have the capacity to be pure of heart, which would have contrasted nicely with Grindelwald's anti-muggle speech moments before...

Just dumping the questions in my head after watching the movie: where did Nagini go? How much time has passed since the last film so that Credence has long hair now? What happened when they all went to Hogwarts at the end of CoG? Why were Nicolas Flamel and the philosopher’s stone and that magical communication book introduced if they have no place in the plot of the series? What made Queenie join Grindelwald if she was going to easily change her mind in the next movie? HOW CAN JACOB SEE HOGWARTS? Why is Mcgonagall there? Why did Dumbledore give Jacob a wand? Or theseus a tie? Or Bundy a job? Why couldn’t Newt and Theseus apparate from the place theseus was imprisoned because they would be able to apparate without a wand if they are such skilled wizards? How could Grindelwald escape from the temple if Newt couldn’t even apparate a few steps forward when he was trying to get his case back? How were Grindelwald’s followers able to smoke/fly the way death eaters could do in the HP movies, is that just a common evil wizard thing now? Why did we never see any other teacher in Hogwarts besides Dumbledore and Mcgonagall, especially the Headmaster? Why did Grindelwald need a Qilin to see the future if he can already see the future? Why did they use the room of requirement if all they needed was a portkey? Why did Bunty ask for half a dozen suitcases to be made when they needed only four (4+Newt’s original=5) ?, why didn’t dumbledore attend Jacob and Queenie’s wedding? Who officiated their wedding? How can they broadcast the election live to the whole wizarding world when in GoF they couldn’t even show the audience what was happening in the maze during the triwizard tournement? What is the deal with the mirror dimension/ the deluminator and Dumbledore’s weird compass? Weren’t Dumbledore and Grindelwald supposed to not have spoken since Ariana’s death until their legendery duel? What happened to the snitch Dumbledore caught? What was the point of Yusuf’s mission? Wasn’t finding the deathly hallows Grindelwald’s whole deal? Why wasn’t he searching for them? Why was Grindelwald in a car when we know wizards don’t use them? What was that creature in the cave prison? How can MACUSA be okay with Graves sentencing Newt and Tina to death for breaking the statute of secrecy but letting Grindelwald go after he set fire to the whole city of Paris and almost destroyed it??????

I think it is interesting that the dumbledore family has a special connection to the phoenix and it also had 2 members of the family who were obscurials, who lived longer than any other magical person who became an obscurial.

The impression I got with the voting system was that they WOULD’VE voted, but then Grindelwald came along and said “You remember those super rare qilins we used to use for deciding a leader? I just so happen to have rescued a baby one recently.” And then everyone thought “Great! Let’s use that!” And I also was expecting it to kneel in front of Jacob.

I feel like there needs to be a separate film that is basically a long “flashback” to Godric’s Hollow during that summer that Grindlewald and Albus spent together. Show Ariana’s declining health, and Aberforth falling in love with Credence’s mother.

Here’s my question: do we know what, or possibly WHO sunk the boat that had both controversial children of a Lastrange and a Dumbledore? Had this been explored?

I interpreted the German Minister for Magic as being the Head Mugwump of the ICW and they were holding elections for the next one. Which would make sense for the qilin to bow to Dumbledore as he eventually takes the head Mugwump title. As well as chief warlock of the wizengamot. Two positions of leadership I feel like J and Ben forgot he had in this video since they say he was "only" the headmaster.

When Bunty took the case I was like "wait no that's my emotional support suitcase! We need it!" But the point of Bunty's first side quest was to get the audience used to get being off screen, so we're not "suspect" when she's got the Qilin, and also for Newt to be used to not being the vessel for the creatures. It was important for his confidence to be as high as possible to believe he could have had the Qilin. Also that master manipulation tactic by Albus when he shook his head at a case that's not even the case made Newt jump to take it, which was a not correct case anyways. Classic Dumbledore.

I think Elphias Doge foreshadowed very well the big "reveal" when he said to Harry at wedding : "...if you don't count Aberforth, and somehow, people never do seem to count Aberforth."

I definitely would love to see Dumbledore and Grindy interacting when they weren't yet enemies.

My understanding was that the election was for Supreme Mugwump- a position that Dumbledore later held, but was stripped from him in OOTP. I also think that the Qilin would have bowed to Neville.

There was actually a vote. I understood this whole ceremony as follows: the Qilin bows before the 'worthy' candidate. Then the attendees can rise their wands and shoot these fireworks in the colour of their choice. The Qilin basically offers a suggestion, but it's eventually in the attendees' hands to either follow the Quilin' suggestion (which they mostly do) or stick to their own opinion (in the case it differs from the Qilin's)

I assumed at the end when Grindelwald fell off the cliff he was getting himself outside the barrier which kept wizards from apparating. He could have known where the barrier ended, and falling through it is perfectly allowed.

There's never a scene where we see Grindelwald be confused by the alternate visions.

Side note, the Gemino spell is used to double something but the Gemino **curse** causes an object to multiply repeatedly when touched.

I think the reason why the qilin didn’t die when Credence hit him with the spell is because he probably didn’t actually have the heart to kill it. To preform the spell correctly you need to really want to kill it.

I found the Credence plotline very poetic and sad. History repeated itself for the Dumbledore brothers, they had another Obscurus family member they tried to and couldn't save, they had another three-way 'duel' with Grindelwald with an obscurus as a (this time intentional) target... It would have been even more poetic if the pact would have been formed during the duel that killed Ariana and broken during the duel over Credence, but sadly the blood pact was made before that duel

I think the spitting through the window and landing on credence’s face is the spell that created the illusion that makes him believe they’re still on the city street they’re fighting on. The droplet hits credence in his third eye (center of the forehead) which would make sense if you’re building an illusion and essentially blocking the persons ability to see things how they truly are. Which would explain dumbledore saying “things aren’t always how they appear.” Maybe I’m breaking my arm with all that reach but that’s what I got from it. Just really advance non-verbal wandless magic.

I had a random thought/theory when Ben said about Bunty something like “…how Newt attracts the beasts.” And you guys are right why are they setting up this admiration story for this poor woman? I can see two options; 1. The more morbid theory - She will be a casualty of this war with Grindlewald and may make some sort of last declaration 2. The more out there theory - maybe she is a magical beast in disguise? One we don’t know about? And she/it/they has taken a keen interest in the man who has his own keen interest in magical beasts. Again just a quick thought x

My interpretation of this unseen magic we see Dumbledore perform is simply that he is the greatest wizard of all time. We see great magic from him in the original series, but is what we have seen really so vastly powerful? We saw his brilliant planning and obvious intelligence but we didn’t get to see the extent of his power. These unexplained and frankly unparalleled acts of magic allow us to see why Dumbledore has earned his title as the greatest. When we see the Quilin bow to Dumbledore it may have symbolized that he is worthy in spite of his mistakes. Like Newt said prior [what’s most important is whether we try to correct our mistakes and do better].

1:03:24 I took it to mean that Aberforth’s lover was “put away” by her parents when the relationship was discovered, and that he never knew she was pregnant until it was too late and the child had already been sent away, out of reach (who knows how long later, because what happened with Ariana upended his whole world). By the time he would have heard and could investigate, it would have led him to a sunken ship and all hope lost. How he came to communicate via mirror should have been explained.

I understood this whole election scene as that Grindlewald and his followers needed the German ministries support for Grindlewald`s candidature as head of the international wizarding federation becoming possible. This is a very clever decision for the plot as it mixes reality with fiction. The film is set in the 1930s, when in Germany the Nazis were on the rise. Vogel clearly holds the Nazis` opinion, which closely resembles with Grindlewald`s ideology.

Did you guys ever get the impression Dumbledore was going to use Jacob as a “puppet” with the snake wood wand with no core to bypass the blood pact??

One things that bugged my wife and I is that so much of what happened would have been common knowledge in the Harry Potter timeline. If the Qilin bowed to Dumbledore and it was broadcast to the whole wizarding world like it was, that would have been something that was in history books or at least the book about Dumbledore's life. Right?

Introducing the mirror dimension here presents the same problem as the time turners. We now have this extremely useful spell that is never used later in the timeline.

The first mirror message was “forgive me”. It was my impression that the first message was from Queenie to Credence. I feel that Credence learned to send the mirror messages from her.

"J, they're all wizards, they can just apparate to the top of the mountain" gave me very much "she came down in a bubble, Doug" vibes

I disagree with the idea that the Quilin 'replaced the vote' I think the wizards voted by blasting the symbol associated with the candidate into the air. My interpretation was that the Quilin's Decision was not meant to replace the voting process but instead provide clarity to the voters, as in confirming which candidate had the purest intentions.

An interesting theory/side-note: Dumbledore's three-card monty with the suitcases turned out to be a magic trick (a bit of mentalism). He was able to influence every person to "choose" a specific random suitcase based on their placement and his interaction with Jacob (note that based on this interaction, Newt picks the case that he does). We see this result when the Lally's case has the books, Theseus's case had quidditch (he played while at Hogwarts), Jacob's case had pastries, and Newt's case simply vanished (not sure why on this point). This is just lick Dumbledore to use "Muggle Magic" to outsmart wizarding world enemies.

I am amazed at how atrocious the writing has been on this series. The HP books were great. The first two movies were great. All went downhill after that imo. But since Rowling is supposed to be the writer on these movies...... I just don't get it. How did she come up with such an incredibly detailed story like HP, and then this poor fanfic after? Maybe she's actually Lockhart. Lol.

I liked the crab dance way better than the erumpent dance (not talking about the scenes, just the dances). I think it was hilarious, and those little crabby guys were so adorably creepy.

Dumbledore sent Lally to exactly where she needed to be to foil the assassination attempt on one of Grindelwald's rivals (which she did by destroying the poisoned wineglass meant for that candidate) while Jacob's actions were distracting everyone from what Lally was doing.

I really enjoyed the inclusion of Lally, her character made the movie for me. She was such a badass when she was fighting

The big issue with the FB movies compared to the HP movies is the lack of proper world building. JKR took so long to think through all of the little details of how magic works and how things interact within the wizard of world when she wrote the HP books. But with these movies they aren’t taking that extra step to really establish and explain the rules for stuff, so we as the audience continue to be kinda confused about how things work in this wizard of world.

I think that the point where blood pact broke was when Albus actually sacrificed himself, selflessly, for the troubled member of his own family (considering what would normally happen if he fights with Grindewald), which is echoing sort of ancient magic of HP era. Maybe that's even the point where Dumbledor himself decided to actually study this stuff closer, because we know he was able to manipulate it enough to enforce protection for Harry when he's in his aunt's home.

How come Gellert hasn't confronted Albus about Ariana yet? In Gellert's world, Ariana would have never had to hide her magic.

I think the “place”, for want of a better term, where Dumbledore and Grindelwald are meeting at the beginning and fighting at the end is sort of like a “blood pact realm”. A place where they can meet and a semi-reality despite where they are physically located. If you watch during their fight scene at the end, the blood pact is breaking in slow motion as they battle. Whilst this is happening, the background also appears to be shattering like glass around them. So I think that one of the things that the blood pact allows them to do is to enter this realm together that they can access, but now that the pact is broken, they won’t be able to. That would explain why it takes so long for them to find Grindlewald later on.

The first thing I said coming out of the cinema was: "Why did they make Credence walk back down all those stairs, when he was so weak? They can all do magic! They could literally just put him in the suitcase to carry him down, why did he have to walk when he was so weak?"

At this point I assume that like 80% of the Dumbledore family backstory has been retconned in these movies anyway, but if the whole Aberforth + unnamed person = credence thing was happening at the same time as Dumbledore's summer with Grindelwald then (according to the books) he was still in school and like 14 or 15 years old.

Re: Credence and Abberforth--The insinuation in the conversation between Albus and Newt is *Abberforth's lover was sent away due to conceiving a child out of wedlock.* It was (unfortunately) a common practice in those days to ship off unwed mothers to somewhere far away to deliver the child and put the baby up for adoption afterwards. Then, the woman would come back home after "visiting family abroad" like nothing untoward had occurred, thus saving herself and her family from any scandal.

I think using the Muggle leatherworker was a diversion tactic; Grindelwald would expect an enchantment used to conceal something from him , but a Muggle using Muggle technology to duplicate a seemingly nondescript item? Not so much.

The chemistry & emotion I felt between the 3 pairs: Newt & Tina, Jacob & Queenie, Dumbledore & Grindelwald are one of the few reasons I didn't exactly dislike the movie...they are what kept me engaged despite such incohesive plotline...

Agree with everything you said. Little rant: 1. Without the Qilin bowing to Jacob, why was he even there? Why did Dumbledore insist on him being there? 2. What was going on with Queenie - what was the point of her ever siding with Grindelwald if she's now back, just like that? How did her changing sides twice affect the overall plot? 3. Was very disappointed with the Credence reveal. The first two movies were basically about him being special, just like you said. The kid who survived the obscurus, and then boom, a DUMBLEDORE. Announced as the big final scene of Part 2. The Cliffhanger, wildly speculated about. I firmly believed in the theory that somehow Ariana's obscurus got transferred to him and that's how Grindelwald knew about him, that's how he survived it this long (it wasn't produced by his own body). Just to now be like yeah, he's Aberforth's son. I sat in the cinema like "... really? That's it?". He's set up and basically drilled to fight Dumbledore by Grindelwald, then they have a little street brawl and suddenly it's all over? Oh and also, he's dying now because his anger's gone. (And wasn't Nagini something like his love interest? How isn't she even mentioned?) 4. Also found it very telling you barely mentioned Yusuf, as in "His plot wasn't even relevant enough to make it into the review". Which it wasn't. It made even less sense than the whole Bunty suitcase shenanigans. 5. The blood pact breaking - I sat there thinking, well that's convenient now, isn't it. Like you said, why even include it in the first place? 6. The title. Did we actually learn any Secrets of Dumbledore that we didn't already know from HP? Other than Aberforth having a girlfriend as a teenager, that is. 7. I feel like Newt is kind of drowned out. I loved the first movie because he was given so much space - he's a brilliant protagonist because he's so unconventional and unobtrusive. His methods are quirky, unorthodox. He works because he is unique. Which means he is, in my opinion, not the best character to put in a group situation like the one he is in now. Or at least, not in such a large group. He currently doesn't get the screen time he needs to shine. To summarize, I felt like there was a lot of wasted potential. So many plot threads, so many intense set-ups from the previous movies just fizzled out into irrelevance. But not to end on too much of a bad note, I found the movie okay - in the way that I don't regret going to see it but wouldn't necessarily want to do so a second time. Liked to see some of the German wizarding world (being German myself), and also the Bhutan scene. Laughed out loud at the crab dance scene. Liked that Dumbledore's love for Grindelwald was made explicit. The concept of the Erkstag prison was genius. Eulalie was cool. The acting was brilliant from all of them. Am, despite my slight disappointment, excited to see where they are going with the next part. Thanks for the video, take care! (Edited for English reasons)

For the blood pact: I envision it breaking because, in that moment, Albus and Gellert were taking complete opposite actions. Gellert wanted to kill, Albus wanted to protect. The convergence of their contrasting magic was emblematic of their contrasting souls. Gellert, full of murderous fury. Albus, casting to protect his family. Both men had grown so far apart that the blood pact couldn't stay intact anymore, as it relied on that bond between them.

I think it sounded like that Credence's mother's parents sent her away as soon as they found out she was pregnant and never allowed her to tell Aberforth, and he never knew until she was already gone and the ship sank

- "How did you do this? they do things and don't explain them!" They're wizards. magic was probably involved. - "The spit" it was a snowflake. a snowflake fell in front of dumbledore's face and he blew on it, turning it into a water drop. -doubling spell, maybe it didn't exist at the time? This is in the past after all. Scorpion things, Blast-ended Skrots? That "prison" wasn't much of a prison. more like an execution chamber if you think about it. kinda dark.

wait, Aberforth uses mirrors to contact Credence? Wow, did they not remember, Aberforth didn't have some special magic that he can turn mirrors into this. The mirror he used to keep an eye on Harry was stolen by Mundungus from Sirius's house, and harry always kept the broken piece on him was because it was a gift from Sirius.

I feel like a lot of people are forgetting that the characters in the Harry Potter series are mostly children/told mainly from a child’s perspective, while fantastic beasts is exclusively adults in a different time period with different laws in different countries. While there are definitely things included that shouldn’t be **McGonagall**, the way we see magic done in The Fantastic Beasts series is how I imagine it to be used, especially when there’s certain topics and books Dumbledore banned while he was teaching/once he became headmaster

I don't believe Dumbledore "spit" at Credence's reflection. There was a snow flake falling that he blew towards the window. Maybe I am mistaken but it seemed clear.

I think Credence explained how the blood pact broke when he said, "The same blood that runs your veins runs mine." Grindlewald attacked Albus' blood, thereby breaking the pact. I assume it didn't kill Grindlewald because he didn't attack Albus directly.

1. the fights/conversations with Dumbledore made me think they were in a Dr. Strange mirror dimension thing, but I wish it had been explained. 2. With Newt's relationship to Theseus, I thought it was that awkwardness of "my high achieving brother wants me to do something with my life that's completely different from what I want to do and we'll never see eye to eye on it" vibes. 3. You can't make polyjuice potion in two days, so that's why they couldn't use it.

My assumption for Dumbledore saying “we didn’t know” to Credence was that both he and Abeforth didn’t know where the mother had taken the child when she ran away. I was pretty sure it was mentioned that one day the mother just left with the child.

Bunty's purpose was to keep the critters safe - dumbledore knew it was Newt's weakness

The thing about this movie is that it felt like the season finale of a TV show in which I got the pilot and a random other episode but am missing several that would explain what is going on. It also really could have benefitted from a classic Dumbledore "welp. You survived... Here is what was happening young Harry" speech. I'm with Ben

I have always thought that Grindelwald never loved Albus. Grindelwald noticed that Albus loved him and took advantage of that because he saw that Albus was powerful and wanted a powerful Ally.

Oh, I also really like the scene when the woman that becomes the Mugwamp (i don’t remember how to spell her name) released Jacob from the Cruciatus Curse. This was a quick little scene but it really showed her pureness of heat to help a muggle that she doesn’t know and that Grindelwald ( the new Mugwamp for like 5 seconds) is trying to kill.

I think the scene at the beginning with the qilin being killed by Avada Kedavra was a good inclusion. Avada Kedavra CAN instantly kill, but if you remember Barty Crouch junior tells Harry’s 4th year class that they could all use the spell against him and he’d have nothing but a nosebleed. Also, like you guys mentioned certain magical animals have resistance to curses, so I took it to be that the qilin has SOME resistance to Avada Kedavra, and this would mean the spell cast would have to be much more powerful to kill a qilin than it would need to be to kill a human. So the spell killing the qilin but not instantly seems like a slightly weaker version of the spell due to the qilin’s slight natural resistance. I get that you would want it explicitly stated though.

Dumbledore actually does end up accepting this position at some point, it’s called “Supreme Mugwump” and he holds the position until Order of the Phoenix

Possible explanation for the Dumbledore vs Credence's "Dr.Strange" fight: I think it is a metaphor for a battle of minds; legimancy. Rather than watching them stand and stare at each other, or flashbacking into Credence's past (which we have already seen) it is instead a battle of wills displayed as a duel.

Dumbledore said that Aberforth's lover disappeared and there were only rumors of a child. To me that implied that they didn't know for sure that Credence existed and Aberforth wasn't a part of sending him away. Maybe his mother even took him to America herself, but died on the ship.

Dumbledore gave Theseus the tie because he knew he'd be captured. Never play a game of chess against Dumbledore.

I think we have to keep in mind that Harry Potter was through the lens of a child learning about magic!

Why can't Bunty be the hero and be the capable hands of caring for the creatures?!? She is Newt's assistant! She knows more about the creatures than TINA! I love that she was given a bigger role! Yes it would have been neat if she was actually Tina, but I want Bunty to get some acknowledgment, and she did. You go girl!

As charms professor at Ilvermorny, it makes sense that almost all of her magic in this movie involved manipulating objects. The book is something she would always have to hand, and performing exceptional charms on its pages reinforces the character or professor and author. Also I think the book was a regular port key to somewhere with a fireplace and then they travelled by floo network to the train

19:45 not every creature dies instantly because an Avada Kedavra, guys. Giants and dragons, for that matter, can resist the curse well enough

My biggest pet peeve of the movie is how stiff and twitchy everyone seems to behave a lot of the time. Almost all of the actors feel awkward and unnatural in a way.

I thought it was kind of obvious what dumbledoor did to transport Credence into that mirror world. He used the deluminator and that requires physical touch of some deluminator magic that dumbledoor sent through a mirror. Also, they fought mentally in the blood pact. There are clues to this in context. The reason Dumbledore could counter the spell was because he wasn’t moving against Grindelwald. He was protecting his family which is a major distinction. One is malice one is love

My theory on the Aberforth child thing: Aberforth may not have known about the baby in the beginning. The mother's family sent said baby to America (possibly believing that having the baby near the Dumbledore family after everything that has recently happened would be far too dangerous, and thinking he would be safer in another country). However Aberforth was told after the ship sunk that the baby died on the boat (as per the flashbacks in second movie where Leta switched the babies and accidentally got her brother killed). As such, everyone thought baby Dumbledore was dead and it was all swept under the rug for many years. This is until Credence, while with Grindelwald, tries to figure out how he is a Dumbledore/gets told he is Aberforth's child, and manages to figure out this way of communicating with his dad. He's still driven by anger for much of it, and once Aberforth figures out who he is/gets told outright by Albus that he tries to figure out how to step up and be a dad after decades of believing his son was dead.

The qilin bowing to Dumbledore felt right. Coz at the beginning Grindelwald says that a birth of the qilin will mark the rise of a great leader. So the qilin not only sees into the purity of one's heart and intentions but also their leadership abilities. Newt being the only one who was able to find, rescue and interact on an emotional level with it is indicative of his pure heart. Same goes for Jacob at the Hog's Head. The baby qilin immediately takes a liking to him, starts playing and interacting with him again bcoz of his pure heart. We even see the qilin interact with Bunty and Theseus when he's holding it. We see that the qilin is so avertive and uncomfortable with Grindelwald when he's holding it and won't even look at him bcoz of his bad intentions. We all know that Dumbeldore can be pretty manipulative but he never once used people as pawns to service his own selfish needs but to serve his own version of the greater good. We see him struggle with self doubt and guilt throughout the film even though he's sending this team on a mission to save the wizarding World. His intentions are indeed pure but he is also a remarkable leader. And that's what causes the qilin to bow to him. We also know from the HP series that he does become Supreme Mugwamp of the ICW post his defeat of Grindelwald. While Newt still is the leader of the gang in this instance he still isn't as good a leader as Dumbledore and he would never accept such a position either. The same goes with Jacob. So the qilin bowing to Dumbledore does indeed make sense and is the right choice.

Bunty couldn't have magically duplicated the suitcase because they couldn't have anyone know which the real case was or else then Grindelwald would know which the real case was. Maybe they went to a muggle suitcase maker because Grindelwald wouldn't expect a muggle to be involved in the plan?

I typically dont leave comments on things, but I do believe that the wings from the water poem is pretty obvious. Credence is a Dumbledore, which is clearly represented by the Phoenix. A major part of Credence's past was the sinking ship and him essentially being born from the water as his destiny completely changes in that moment, Just my take on it, and I assume it will be explored further in future films.

The election was for The Supreme Mugwump and the German minister was the current holder of that position Edit: 18:22 Dumbledore actually does wind up becoming The Supreme Mugwump later on and is removed when Voldemort comes backs and no one believes him

Can we appreciate the parallel between the Ariana + 3 confrontation/fight and the credence+ 3 scene - the way aberforth and albus were protecting him and grindelwald was attacking- it suggests the dumbledores learnt from that experience and acted first - or… it suggests who was at fault for Ariana’s death (as G was attacking)… idk that’s how I interpreted it

Absolutely loved this movie, and from my point of view it's great in conveying emotions and making us emphasize w/ the characters. I cried several times throughout it, since there are plenty of powerful scenes: Newt laying next to a dying Qilin mother and being in such pain since he failed to protect her. Aberforth telling Credence to come home in his last moments and also this 'always' parallel, absolutely heartbreaking. Finally, us seeing how lonely and isolated Albus really is. I think we as observers are quick to judge him for not being honest and open enough with those who are infinitely loyal to him, but this movie made me realize how much of a burden he's carrying throughout his life. Losing his lover, blaming himself for Ariana's death, not being good enough brother to Aberforth, etc. I think all of that is enough to make truly opening up to someone almost impossible. For me the last scene is us finally understanding how much he's missing on having this meaningful connections with people contrary to the main characters who are able to experience that. 9/10 for me!

My mother told me that I’m too literal on the way home from the movies. Mom, I’m a Ravenclaw. You know this. You know I like theories and deep diving.

I would have loved an explanation for all of the magic Dumbledore was performing, but I think the point they were trying to make was that, as was said about him previously, that he did things with a wand that people have never seen. So we don’t get an explanation, because no one except Dumbledore know’s how it works, adding to the mysticism of him and how far above in talent he is from almost everyone else.

I believe Newt would recognize his suitcase anywhere and would protect it no matter what (the same for what is inside - the escape from the Chinese forest was a proof of how Newt's beasts care for him). Bunty asked the Muggle suitcase maker to make half a dozen suitcases, which is far more than what was needed. Grindy had made Theseus, Jacob, Newt, Lally and Yusuf's acquaintance, but not Bunty's. Grindy is a Seer, but what would he make of her? Or his spies? They just saw her leaving the train station with a suitcase and going to a Muggle leather shop - no magic, just Muggle routine. She was the last to leave the Room of Requirement - I suppose that before entering the giant portkey, she switched her fake suitcase for the real one. As she can take good care of the beasts inside it, she kind of told them everything would be all right, and was able to reach Newt at the top of the mountain completely unnoticed (and hiding the suitcase). The "you can't know everything" stuff was about the suitcase switch and not Tina's picture (Tina was watching everything, anyway). Dumbledore had asked Theseus (in front of Newt) to trust him - even if instinct would tell not to - so everybody took their mission to the letter, without questioning (or knowing what the others were doing). Bunty was the card of the muggle game Jacob told Albus about. And since Grindy (and Voldy) "does not seem to understand the nature of things he considers simple" just took Bunty for granted and was baffled by a game of muggle suitcases.

The reason I felt that the blood vial shot towards the wall was bc it was trying to get to grindelwald as like... a warning to him since Dumbledore was thinking about betraying him... since the blood pact itself went flying i think the chain would shoot towards Dumbledore and wrap around him as soon as it found him even if he weren't wearing it or had it nearby