The Fantastic Beasts series has brought the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald’s story in full after many teases during the Harry Potter movies. Considered more evil than Voldemort by some in the magical community, Grindelwald’s reputation has been backed up by his actions. Still, that hasn’t stopped him from either contradicting established logic or opening up many plot holes.
There were a number of facts about Grindelwald already known, but the Fantastic Beasts movies have clashed with them. There are also some gaps in logic where the movie universe is concerned, along with his association with Albus Dumbledore and the Elder Wand.
Losing To Albus Despite Holding The Elder Wand
After acquiring the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch, Grindelwald unquestionably became the most powerful evil wizard in the Potterverse. However, he ended up losing the wand to Albus Dumbledore during their legendary duel, which shouldn’t be the case.
Although it can be argued that the Elder Wand wasn’t truly unbeatable, Grindelwald was confirmed to be as powerful as Dumbledore without it. This means he should’ve been in a league of his own while using the Elder Wand, yet he still lost. It puts into doubt if Grindelwald was even that powerful considering he didn’t get an extreme boost in abilities that should’ve made defeating Dumbledore all too easy.
The Logic Behind His Plan Of Escape
The opening of The Crimes of Grindelwald revealed that he’d corrupted Ministry official Abernathy and it was the latter posing as him when Grindelwald was being transported from a prison in the Thestral-ridden carriage. However, this plan doesn’t make sense since Grindelwald didn’t need such an elaborate setup.
He could have easily escaped before the carriage took flight and disapparated with Abernathy. Moreover, Grindelwald also let official Spielman live while killing the other Aurors. He had no reason to allow Spielman to survive, much less since Spielman then told everyone that Grindelwald escaped. If he was merciful enough to let one person live, then it also didn’t make sense to kill the other wizards.
Thinking He Could Torture Aberforth In Front Of Albus & Expect Nothing To Happen
Although it’s generally argued that Fantastic Beasts’ Goldsteins or Scamanders are dysfunctional siblings, they’re nothing compared to the Dumbledores. Albus and Aberforth had such a violent falling out over Albus' association with Grindelwald that the latter intervened and started torturing Aberforth.
This was the event that convinced Albus that Grindelwald was evil, which really shouldn’t be too surprising since Gellert was attacking Albus’ own brother. Grindelwald was known to be a shrewd tactician, yet outright torturing a teenager was far too silly of a move, especially since he was very well aware of Albus’ character and should’ve known it wouldn’t have worked on him.
The Movie Version's Willingness To Tell Voldemort About The Elder Wand
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, Voldemort tracked Grindelwald down to his prison cell and demanded to know where the Elder Wand was. Unlike in the novel, Grindelwald gleefully gave its location as Dumbledore’s tomb, with Voldemort even letting him live.
Not only did this contradict the novel, but it went against Grindelwald’s character shown in Fantastic Beasts. Grindelwald was shown to conduct himself with a sense of honor, yet snitching on Dumbledore’s memory was quite the opposite. In addition, he had no incentive to tell the truth, as Voldemort’s victory didn’t benefit him in the slightest and he was left to rot in prison as before.
Wanting To Kill Albus Despite Being In Love With Him
Grindelwald didn’t directly harm Dumbledore due to their blood oath, but he was willing to manipulate the likes of Credence to make others kill him. This doesn’t add up, though, as JK Rowling revealed that Grindelwald was indeed passionately in love with Albus, making an attempt on his life contradict that.
After all, Dumbledore was shown unwilling to face his former lover for this very reason, and if their feelings were mutual from the beginning, it didn’t make sense why Grindelwald would try to kill the only man he’d ever loved.
Still Being Master Of The Elder Wand Despite Being Defeated
There are absolutely no arguments against the notion that the Elder Wand is the most powerful wand in the Harry Potter universe. Its allegiance has also been confirmed to change whenever the previous owner is defeated, even if they didn’t physically possess the wand.
If that’s the case, then Grindelwald shouldn’t have been the wand’s master after the first Fantastic Beasts movie. In the climax, he was firstly restrained by Newt Scamander and then outright disarmed by Tina Goldstein. For some reason, Grindelwald was still the wand’s owner since Albus Dumbledore won it after defeating the former two decades later. Logically, Grindelwald should’ve lost the wand’s power to either Newt or Tina.
Appearing In The Mirror Of Erised As A Memory
There were a number of things different about Young Dumbledore in Fantastic Beasts 2, including what he saw in the Mirror of Erised. Here, a memory of Grindelwald showed up as Albus reminisced about the time they once had.
Since the mirror is supposed to show a person’s deepest desire, it doesn’t make sense why something that had factually happened with Grindelwald would appear. Although this didn’t directly involve Grindelwald, his presence being the only exception to the mirror’s rule makes him responsible for such a clash with established logic.
Fighting Albus Even Though They Had A Blood Pact
The entire conflict in The Crimes of Grindelwald was that Albus couldn’t challenge Grindelwald due to a blood oath between them that forbade it. However, they actually did have a duel much earlier and when the oath was in effect.
This was right after Grindelwald had attacked Aberforth, following which Albus had intervened and all three wizards had started fighting each other. Since the oath was already in place at the time, neither Grindelwald nor Albus should’ve been able to harm one another, making it nonsensical why they couldn’t do the same years later.
Not Using Polyjuice Potion As A More Effective Way For His Disguise
Grindelwald posed as Percival Graves during the first Fantastic Beasts movie using transfiguration rather than Polyjuice potion. Being a master strategist, Grindelwald’s decision to do so wasn’t a smart one since the ending showed Newt easily removing the transfiguration to reveal the real Grindelwald.
Polyjuice potion was so effective that Barty Crouch Jr. was able to fool Dumbledore for a whole year by posing as Mad-Eye Moody. Since Grindelwald had dispatched Graves, he could easily have used Graves to create the Polyjuice potion and ensure no one would be able to use magic to expose his charade.
His Followers Buying Into His Claims Of Benevelonce Even After Witnessing His Evil Acts
Grindelwald’s ploy was to gain followers by claiming that he was looking for peace and didn’t want to hurt Muggles either. This was even the reason why Queenie Goldstein joined him since he promised she would be able to marry Muggle Jacob under his command.
It’s hard to believe that Grindelwald’s followers kept their loyalty, however, since he openly murdered people in front of them. He went so far as to kill a Muggle family to use their house as his headquarters, including their toddler child. In the movie’s climax, Grindelwald remorselessly cast a spell that was set to destroy all of Paris, before which he’d slain a number of Aurors as well.