Here for the Grindeldore tbh

I can completely see Credence/Aurelius singing Bohemian Rhapsody.

Albus Dumbledore reminds me of Alan Turing so, so much. I mean, let’s just look at the similarities:

- Brilliant, talented geniuses, far ahead of anyone else in their fields

- Did huge amounts to progress a vast range of subjects at a very young age

- Wore the same iconic suit, identical style tbh 

- Very gay + lost their first loves under tragic circumstances

- Both called Al, lived in Britain, same era 

- Absolutely instrumental in ending the wars in their respective worlds

The parallels are intense. And the treatment of Alan Turing is a horrible reminder of attitudes towards homosexuality in the early/mid-20th century, in the Muggle world at least-- despite genius, brilliance, talent, everything. 

Kendra is a Dumbledore by marriage, not blood. She’s Muggle-born. The phoenix-summoning ability comes from Percival. So even if Kendra is Credence’s mother, it doesn’t explain the phoenix appearing. It’s possible that Grindelwald summoned the phoenix as a result of the blood pact, rather than Credence summoning it. But...

Here’s a theory. We’ve had the patriarchal nature of family trees hinted at already, with the Lestrange family tree, and the importance of even distant ancestry hinted at with Nagini’s blood curse. This is intriguing-- what if a female Dumbledore married into another family at some point, losing the Dumbledore name, but not the blood, power, and phoenix-summoning ability? Then she, or more likely one of her descendants, could be Credence’s mother/father. “Your brother” could be someone entirely different to Albus, perhaps someone we already know. Perhaps there are lots of people with Dumbledore blood walking around, because of female Dumbledores marrying into other families and losing the surname. The film soundtrack even plays a song called ‘Restoring Your Name’ whilst Grindelwald conducts the Dumbledore-reveal. Perhaps that’s because the Dumbledore name was lost decades/centuries ago by marriage-- and now it’s finally being restored! (That’s why it’s Aurelius Dumbledore, rather than Aurelius <<something else>>).

(A side note: maybe it’s significant that we have Jewish characters and that Jewish families are matriarchal, because this could help the Jewish characters figure out what’s happened. Would be a nice shoutout to the benefits of multiculturalism. Also, it’s be very topical and feminist to bring up the innate sexism of women taking men’s surnames upon marriage. J.K. Rowling herself uses Rowling in her career and Murray in private, and was told to use initials rather than ‘Joanne Rowling’ to disguise her gender, so it’d make sense for her to bring up women and names).

3 things I want to know more about regarding Grindelwald:

Durmstrang: I want flashbacks to Durmstrang, because it’d be really, really awesome to see another wizarding school. I also want to see how Grindelwald got expelled. Fortunately, Albus writes “This was your mistake at Durmstrang!” in one of his letters, which suggests we will get to find out what happened, one way or another. If FB4 or FB5 was set in Europe again, it would even make geographical sense (although I doubt there’ll be another film set in Europe, and if there is one, it’ll probably be set in London. Makes sense for the finale).

Family: I want more backstory about his family. Lots of the other characters are getting really fleshed-out family stories, siblings, parents, ancestry, etc etc etc, and JKR makes family a major theme. And yet all we know about Grindelwald is his aunt. Plus, Grindelwald family backstory doubles as Bagshot family backstory. Anyhow, finding out about this side of him— his relatives, his childhood— would really help to flesh him out as a character. (Who wants to bet we get a random Grindelwald sibling/parent popping up at some point in the next films?)

1899: Okay...I don’t just want to see Albus vulnerable and lonely; I want to see Gellert like that, too. I want to see this scared and friendless 16-year-old boy who’s just been expelled from school and is all alone in the world. I want them to help each other. Make it a mutual thing. And ofc I want tons, and tons, and tons of footage of young Dumbledore + young Grindelwald. Please. Yes. I think we have to see the 1899 duel where Ariana died, just because everything is leading up to this 1945 duel. And the 1899 duel won’t make sense without the context of the summer preceding it, so we have to see some of that, too.

These are the thick, woolen socks I got for Christmas, and I’m absolutely elated.

There’s Dumbledore and Grindelwald silhouetted on the back, facing each other, which is absolutely hilarious considering “I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks.” And the A of ‘pick a side’ reminds me of the Deathly Hallows symbol.

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them- Credence’s Obscurus manifests in the NYC Subway,

Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald- Grindelwald’s epic speech + fire showdown takes place in a subterranean mausoleum. 

Both of the dramatic finales took place underground.