Fantastic Beasts: Destroying A Legacy

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Honestly, Dumbledore ordering people to do things for him without explaining why is the only consistent piece of lore in this franchise.

Just imagine "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" as a series, few but long episodes, monster of the week style. But rather than defeating the monsters we see Newt interact with them, study them, understand them. How to train your dragon meets Harry Potter. No Grindelwald, no war, just light hearted fun. It could have been so good.

I like the change they did to Obliviate, because it means that Hermione Granger's family had nothing but bad memories about Hermione. It's unintentional comedic gold.

I'd argue that the legacy destruction began with Cursed Child but this is all very accurate too.

I truly think Fantastic Beasts could’ve been a great franchise if they actually, you know, focused on the fantastic beasts

The blood pact annoys me so much, not just because it's impossible but also it does a huge disservice to the depth of Dumbledore's character. It means that he refrained from fighting Grindleward because he was physically unable to, not because of all the complicated feelings about their past and not wanting to know whose spell actually killed his sister, which would have made a much better story imo.

The magic blood pact totally messes up the idea of Dumbledore refusing to face the possibility that he killed Ariana. It's one of the things that shows Dumbledore is selfish and allows Harry to see that he is a flawed person. Plus seriously PURE OF HEART!?!

The lack of care Rowling takes over her own creation is why it always pisses me off when she is compared to Tolkien and Martin. The amount of detail that Martin puts into the world and its history in ASOIAF is ridiculously complex compared to the Wuzard world, but it seems Rowling either can't keep the details straight in her head or, more likely, she gave up caring about these things a couple of decades ago

i cannot even begin to explain how bizarre it is to me that she chose to create FB when a whole-ass section of the fandom had been loud af for a decade, making trailers and edits of the Marauders, because they wanted so badly for their story to be turned into a tv show or saga. like,,, i just,,,, what

The thing that bothered me the most and i didn't see a single person mention it, is that in the books, in the first book, the very first thing we learn about wizards is that they dress weirdly. The wear robes and weird hats with odd colors. And since the second movie, most of the characters are just wearing suits!! Dumbledore is teaching a class while wearing a suit!!! I was excited to see 1920s wizarding world fashion.

Credence's character was actually pretty interesting to me in the first movie. His story parallels the beginning of Harry's— they're both orphans brought up in abusive households that very specifically discourage them from so much as thinking about magic. However, Harry eventually receives validation; he's brought into a world that, though dangerous, is also beautiful and warm and welcoming. His life is hard and scary at times, but he also gets to feel happy and loved. Credence, on the other hand, shouldn't have even lived to the age Harry was when he got his Hogwarts letter. The only person who actually sees and validates him is Percival Graves, who's just using Credence's need for affection to manipulate him. At the end of the movie, Credence dies alone, afraid, and in tremendous amounts of pain. That's an incredibly compelling (and ridiculously tragic) story. I wasn't at all upset that they brought him back because, well, Credence was the kind of tragic character who deserved a second chance. I was so excited to see him grow— to learn to accept the repressed parts of himself, become a wizard, and change his fate. Maybe love— from others and from himself— could save him like it saved Harry. And then instead, we got... nothing, really. Credence is manipulated by Grindelwald again, he randomly starts being able to do magic, and— oh yeah!— his father is Aberforth Freaking Dumbledore. He does random stuff for two movies, grows his hair out, and then dies again. He could have been such an impactful character, and they wasted him, just like they wasted everything else in this trainwreck of a series! (His character has, of course, been tainted by his actor as well. Even if Fantastic Beasts managed to get a fourth movie, brought Credence back, and actually gave him a good story arc, I wouldn't have enjoyed it because why would anyone intentionally write Ezra Miller back into their show?)

The most jaw dropping thing about this trilogy is the fact that the writer of this franchise was J.K. Rowling herself. She created a universe full of details yet she couldn't even manage to get a single thing right in these 3 movies. Does she really realize how messed up these things are? She has broken the rules that she built.

What's funny is Avada Kedavra cannot be blocked by any spell, it can only be ducked or shielded by another object, or the person at the receiving end of it is protected by the power of love, as Lily did for Harry. Dumbledore jumping out and BLOCKING Grindelwald's death spell obliterated the whole point of Harry Potter, if anyone can just block Avada Kedavra, Voldemort might as well use a gun to save all the trouble.

They missed excellent opportunity of world building with Newt. Newt is soft, empathetic character. He loves adventure and taking care of animals. Through him they could have easily explored unseen corners of Harry Potter universe with different perspective. His lack of interest in being involved in war makes him fittings character to explore after effect of war and impact of it in daily life. Also Newt is that type of male character we rarely see in movies as main protagonist so it would have been nice to see.

This franchise is a good example of what happens when you're a director surrounded by "yes" people

Another reason why the Harry Potter franchise is so beloved is because we’re all finding out about the wizarding world through Harry’s eyes and slowly finding out about it with him, making the whole experience much more authentic and organic. It’s something I always loved about the books and the movies that makes it more exciting regardless of the medium used to tell the stories. It’s something I remember thinking “oh wow, I can’t wait to learn more about this or that in the future.” It was a smart choice on Rowling’s behalf making him grow up in the muggle world then being thrown into the wizarding world.

The blood pact was also much less interesting than Dumbledore not going after Grindelwald because he was a guilt-ridden, grieving, and conflicted man rather than the powerful, mostly infallible hero Harry thought he was.

I had a major issue with Queenie drugging Jacob in the second movie. Not only would it be less funny if the genders were reversed, but it undoes the emotional scene from the original movie where Jacob gets his memories wiped for his own protection, only for it to be made pointless.

I love how Credence reason for wanting to kill dumbledore is that he feels that he abandoned him as his brother But somehow he doesn't have negative feelings towards aberforth, that is extablished knew about him the all time, and so he ACTUALLY abandoned him. Which is even worse since aberforth as a parent had a bigger duty towards Credence that a brother would have Not to mention, aberforth turns out to be a massive hypocrite, he dared to criticize albus for not taking care of their sick sister while being a deadbeat parent, wtf