In the third "Fantastic Beasts" movie, some of Dumbledore's secrets are apparently staying
secret.
Here's everything fans were left wondering at the end of "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets
of Dumbledore."
Warning: spoilers ahead.
Well, the phoenix is out of the bag now.
Credence, also known as Aurelius, is the son of Aberforth Dumbledore.
But although Albus and Aberforth clued Credence in on his paternal lineage, the question still
remains: who exactly is his mother?
There's a good chance she's someone we haven't heard of before, but given Dumbledore's assertion
that Aberforth met her the summer that he and Gellert Grindelwald fell in love, she
likely lived in Godric's Hollow.
If that name is ringing some Hogwarts bells, it's the same wizarding village where Harry
Potter, Dumbledore, and a host of other well-known wizards grew up.
The village is home to some of the most notorious wizard names in Britain, so chances are, he
comes from a line we might recognize on both ends of his immediate family tree.
Ever since 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt and Tina have been the
franchise's greatest "Will they?
Won't they?" love story in the series.
Fans hoping for some bona fide "Newtina" content will be sadly disappointed, as Katherine Waterston
is barely in the film.
She gets some random reaction shots during a few of the movie's most pivotal moments,
but not much more.
Luckily, Tina doesn't miss her own sister's wedding to Jacob at the end of the film, but
even here, there's not much to satiate Newtina fans until (hopefully) the next movie.
The pair have an awkward reunion that further implies interest on both ends, but neither
initiates a conversation to "define the relationship."
Given how awkward both characters can be, Jacob and Queenie may have to give the duo
a push to do something about their obvious feelings for each other, because it's looking
less and less likely that they'll get there on their own.
However, it's no secret that both characters are into each other.
Most people don't look longingly at an ever-present picture of their platonic friend in their
briefcase.
But until Newt and Tina get it together, fans will have to wait to see the couple actually
... couple.
For a movie titled The Secrets of Dumbledore, the wizard sure is continuing to hold quite
a few more close to his impeccably ironed vest.
In The Crimes of Grindelwald, we learn that phoenixes are directly tied to the Dumbledore
line.
Yet Secrets of Dumbledore reveals that the mythical birds only appear when a Dumbledore
is close to death.
This new piece of family trivia means that Credence is not long for this world, and probably
won't make it through the next film.
However, it also begs a question: Is Credence's phoenix actually Fawkes from the Harry Potter
books and movies?
If so, how does Dumbledore gain possession of the phoenix?
The question remains — how did Dumbledore gain ownership of a phoenix if he wasn't close
to death?
After Dumbledore dies in the sixth film, Fawkes sings his lament and then bounces, despite
Dumbledore's brother Aberforth living next door to Hogwarts in Hogsmeade.
Some of the most significant flaws in the Fantastic Beasts series come from continuity
issues with the Harry Potter books and movies, as is often the case with prequels.
Based on the new lore presented in Secrets of Dumbledore, it seems like no matter which
route the series takes from here, something isn't going to add up to Dumbledore's long
possession of Fawkes in the future — whether Credence's bird is indeed Fawkes or not.
In The Deathly Hallows book and movies, we learn about Grindelwald's quest for the Deathly
Hallows, as well as his tagline: "For the greater good."
Though the Fantastic Beasts films chronicle Grindelwald's rise to power, we don't hear
much about his quest for the Hallows.
The only reference to Grindelwald's obsession with the Three Brothers' wares is Grindelwald's
wand — which fans will notice is the Elder Wand that Dumbledore uses throughout the Harry
Potter series.
We know that Grindelwald took the wand from the famed wandmaker Gregorovitch, which he
must have done sometime prior to the start of The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Yet the series, which fans expected to be, in part, a quest for the Hallows, has barely
even touched on that aspect of Dumbledore and Grindelwald's obsession.
Sure, Grindelwald has bigger fish to fry, but Xenophilius Lovegood makes the Hallows
out to be much more relevant to Grindelwald's rise to power than we've seen in the movies
thus far.
The only other reference we've seen so far is the small Hallows symbol within Grindelwald's
power symbol that erupts in fireworks when he steals the election — akin to Voldemort's
revolves around which spell killed Ariana Dumbledore when a duel broke out between Albus,
Aberforth, and Grindelwald.
Of course, Dumbledore himself doesn't know the answer, unless he was lying to Harry all
those years later.
However, Aberforth's refusal to broach the subject when Albus brings up Ariana in The
Secrets of Dumbledore hints that Aberforth might know more than he's letting on.
Could Aberforth have iced out his brother because he himself killed Ariana and, wracked
with guilt, he blames Dumbledore?
"In all the time you knew him, did he ever mention my name?
Did he ever mention hers?"
Or was it Albus himself or his friend-slash-nemesis Grindelwald?
No matter which way you spin it, Aberforth blames Dumbledore for wanting to leave and
causing the duel.
There's also one disturbing element to the story that Albus reveals in the new film:
Grindelwald laughed when Ariana came downstairs as Aberforth and Albus dueled.
Knowing that Aberforth disapproved of Albus leaving, and knowing that Albus would have
a hard time abandoning his sister, it's entirely possible that Grindelwald intentionally killed
Ariana to take away Albus' reason to stay.
During the film, Dumbledore also reveals another crucial detail: Ariana was, in fact, an obscurialwho
couldn't express her magic.
We know that she gave up magic at a young age, but this, paired with the knowledge that
obscurial children rarely make it to 18, hints that Ariana was already dying when the spell
killed her.
Grindelwald demonstrates his coldblooded murderous tendencies in Secrets of Dumbledore when he
loses the election.
So his "For the greater good" tagline would certainly absolve him of Ariana's murder in
his own mind — especially if she were already dying.
So, whose spell killed Ariana?
We may never know.
Just when we thought Yousuf joined Grindelwald's ranks of hoodwinked witches and wizards, the
wizard surprises audiences by popping up at the end of the film to rejoin the good fight.
Yousuf is somewhat of a closed book, and his motivations in The Crimes of Grindelwald were
pretty dicey to begin with.
Granted, it's not Yousuf's fault that his father forced him into a murderous, unbreakable
vow to kill his sister — and that's a pretty messed up thing to put on a child.
The only reason he doesn't kill Leta is that her father never loved her, making revenge
impossible.
A lot is going on here, but in the end, Yousuf does seem to care about Leta — so much so
that her death racks him with guilt and Grindelwald opts to take away his memories of her.
Messing with memories is tricky business.
Not only is Yousuf giving Grindelwald full access to his memories, but he's making his
mind vulnerable to him.
It's clear that Grindelwald wanted Queenie to join his ranks because she's a powerful
Legilimens.
However, the fact that Yousuf is able to hoodwink Grindelwald at all means he has some profound
skills in Occlumency and possibly even has some Legilimency skills himself.
So what exactly are Grindelwald's skills involving the mind, what are Yousuf's true motivations,
and how exactly does Yousuf manage to keep his betrayal a secret from Grindelwald when
the guy is actively rooting around in his memories?
Throughout the film, Dumbledore not only mentions that he fell in love with Grindelwald, but
he even remarks about "The summer Gellert and I fell in love."
Dumbledore's statement implies that, at the very least, their romance wasn't one-sided.
However, to what extent is Grindelwald even capable of true, unselfish love?
How much of his romance with Dumbledore hinged on manipulating his lover for his own ends?
Several times in The Secrets of Dumbledore, Grindelwald uses Dumbledore's love against
him.
Not only does he say, "Who will love you now?"
when their blood troth breaks, he also remarks, "I was never your enemy ... then."
Grindelwald uses both comments to taunt and break Dumbledore's heart, who is clearly still
carrying a torch for his former flame.
Yet, as Grindelwald declares war on Dumbledore while claiming they weren't enemies until
this moment, he's keeping the fact that he ordered Credence to kill Albus to himself.
We know that Dumbledore eventually takes down Grindelwald alive, but it's pretty obvious
that killing Dumbledore is a necessity for Grindelwald rather than a last resort.
While Dumbledore still cares about Grindelwald and his well being, it's unclear whether or
not Grindelwald ever put Dumbledore's needs above his own — a hallmark of love.
Compared to Voldemort, it certainly seems that Grindelwald is at least capable of affection
and emotion.
But at the end of the day, he seems to choose power over love.
The evidence will play out in their final battle, but as of now, Grindelwald's capability
for love is a mystery.
One hint we do have comes much later in Grindelwald's life, after he'd been rotting in Nurmengard
for fifty years.
The dark wizard refused to tell Voldemort who possessed the Elder wand, perhaps, as
Harry mused, to keep him from desecrating Dumbledore's tomb — or to stop Voldemort
from obtaining it to honor his fallen lover.
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