| “ | A law that has us scuttling like rats in a gutter. A law that demands that we conceal our true nature. A law that directs those under its dominion to cower in fear lest we risk discovery. I ask you, Madam President. I ask you all. Who does this law protect, us, or them? I refuse to bow down any longer. | „ |
| ~ Gellert Grindelwald to several agents of MACUSA. |
| “ | Magic blooms only in rare souls. It is granted to those who live for higher things. Oh, and what a world we could make for all humanity, we who live for truth, for freedom, and for love. | „ |
| ~ Gellert Grindelwald's speech to his followers. |
| “ | Kill me, then! I welcome death! But my death will not grant you what you seek. There is so much that you do not understand! | „ |
| ~ Grindelwald's last words standing up to Lord Voldemort and defending his ex-lover's legacy. |
Gellert Grindelwald is a minor antagonist in Harry Potter film series and the main antagonist of the Fantastic Beasts film series.
He is the founder and leader of the Alliance, seeking to conquer both the Wizarding world and the Muggle world because of his own extremistic worldview, wishing to rule over the Muggles due to them prosecuting all wizardking for ages prior to the 20th century. One of the greatest wizards of all time alongside his archenemy and former lover Albus Dumbledore, Grindelwald was regarded as one of the most dangerous villains in magic history until Lord Voldemort came around.
In the first two Fantastic Beasts films, he was portrayed by Johnny Depp, who also played Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In the third Fantastic Beasts film, he was portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen, who also played Hannibal Lecter in the Hannibal television series. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, he was portrayed by Michael Byrne. As a younger man, he was portrayed by Jamie Campbell Bower.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- He raises an army to overthrow the Earth and bring it under wizarding rule, or more specifically, under his rule.
- His affability with his followers is open to interpretation. It’s not explicitly confirmed whether or not he cares for the members of his elite circle; him treating Vinda Rosier and the others well could definitely just be pragmatism. Though one could say he cares for Credence Barebone, he only sees him as an accessory and wants to use him to get Albus Dumbledore out of his way.
- While his crimes are not as numerous as Lord Voldemort, he compensates by trying to bring pandemonium to an entire city instead of just Hogwarts or the Ministry of Magic's headquarters, making him the quality to Voldemort's quantity.
Background[]
- He gets expelled from Durmstrang Institute for vandalizing a wall with the Deathly Hallows symbol, one which Viktor Krum would pass by decades later, proving the graffiti is irremovable.
- He tries to corrupt Albus Dumbledore, a young promising wizard from the Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft who fell in love with him, to become a malevolent wizard supremacist like himself who would take over the world from Muggles and seek all three of the Deathly Hallows to become the "Masters of Death".
- He tortures a 15-year-old Aberforth Dumbledore with an Unforgivable Curse for standing up to him. This led Albus to realize Grindelwald's evilness and engaging him in a duel to defend Aberforth, who in turn also engaged them in the duel, and during it, one of the three ended up accidentally killing Ariana, the sister of Albus and Aberforth.
- Though it's possible that Grindelwald wasn't the one who casted the Killing Curse (though likely it was him as he was a dark wizard anyway), he still ran away from Godric's Hollow and turned his back on the Dumbledore siblings, whose familiar bond never recovered thanks to that.
- He stunned Gregorovitch and stole his Elder Wand.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them[]
- When five Aurors find his château, he murders all of them remorselessly.
- He pretends to be Percival Graves and infiltrates MACUSA, proceeding to make contact with Credence Barebone in an attempt to bring him over to the dark side. Then he tries to sentence Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein to death so he can use Newt's beasts as a scapegoat for the bizarre events going on recently.
- He cruelly casts Credence aside since he presumes his little sister is the Obscurus, which Credence correctly calls him out for, having thought he was different from the others.
- While him unleashing Credence Barebone's Obscurus against the peoples of New York City was completely unintentional, he implied he strongly desired to watch him continue now that he had started.
- He tortures Newt and proceeds to kill several Aurors before Newt has his Swooping Evil distract him, so that he and Tina can incapacitate him.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald[]
- He manipulates three of his prison guards; it gets so bad that the government has to cut out his tongue.
- He breaks out of prison and in an atrocious "Kick the Dog" moment, murders his pet for being "so needy."
- He kills several Muggles so he can hide in their house; this includes a completely defenseless baby. He could have easily hypnotized them to leave.
- He hires a mercenary to murder Irma Dugard, just to piss Credence off and deny him crucial information about his own family.
- He brings Queenie Goldstein over to the dark side.
- He conjures a ring of fire to tempt the good guys that ends up killing one of his own henchmen brutally. When Leta Lestrange breaks his toy, he overreacts by not only murdering her as brutally as his lackey, but proceeding to attempt to burn down Paris and massacre thousands of innocent people. Fortunately for everybody but Grindelwald, Nicholas Flamel narrowly thwarts this unforgivable act.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore[]
- He threatens Dumbledore that with or without him, he will physically tear down the non-magical civilization and remake it in his image.
- He sends his henchmen to bring a Qilin Newt is looking after to him and upon recieving thr creature, he murders it in cold blood.
- He rigs the Supreme Mugwump election with a zombie Qilin so he can publicly declare war.
- He tortures Jacob via the Cruciatus Curse.
- He attempts to kill Credence and only fails because of Dumbledore's intervention.
- He tries to harm Dumbledore with maleficent red lightning blasts only for him to Apparate and defend himself with luminous blue protective spells.
Pre-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[]
- He starts the Global Wizarding War.
- He murders Viktor Krum's grandfather.
- He makes one final attempt to defeat Dumbledore, only to be defeated and imprisoned.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- Grindelwald’s actions are out of genuinely good intentions, wanting wizards to have the freedom to be themselves. He is a genuine extremist living in service to his ideals who hates Muggles for being terrible to wizards and wants to unite everyone as one world, one world with the stronger half inevitably being in charge. Even if he’s shown moments of hypocrisy (like promising the Muggle Jacob to the witch Queenie, but then implying he puts stock in blood purity, for instance), Grindelwald is still genuine in his belief.
- He’s shown to have standards several times, being disgusted by people such as the despicable Mary Lou Barebone. His fury isn’t expressed on his behalf but on behalf of his cause, so almost everything he does is not for himself, but, as his organization's motto goes, "For The Greater Good." He doesn’t kill Gregorovitch at his workshop for careful measure, nor does he kill Tina in New York’s embattled streets to force her out of his way. He only incapacitates them so that he won't be pursued. And while he does allow it to happen, he can’t bring himself to watch the previously mentioned infanticide and solemnly shuts the door.
- He loves Albus and they have a love-hate relationship; he genuinely wants to be with him after everything and even shouts at him that no one will love Albus to the extent that he does.
- He redeems himself by reflecting remorsefully on his atrocities and not telling Lord Voldemort where the Elder Wand is, sacrificing himself to deny him that information. In the afterlife's version of King’s Cross, Dumbledore indeed acknowledges to Harry Potter that Grindelwald really did redeem himself.
Trivia[]
- Gellert Grindelwald counts as Inconsistently Heinous for both the novel and film continuities of the Harry Potter franchise due to J.K. Rowling writing the novels but later writing the screenplays for the Fantastic Beasts trilogy (which means that those three films are canon for both versions of the Wizarding World).
- The film version of Grindelwald never redeemed himself like he did in the books. In the films, Grindelwald's redemption by refusing to reveal the Elder Wand's location to Lord Voldemort was changed, perhaps for the sake of runtime, to Grindelwald gleefully confessing where the Elder Wand was to Voldemort, whom he seemingly gets along with over their shared love for dark magic, thus Voldemort seemingly leaves him at his cell unharmed and Albus Dumbledore doesn't mention Grindelwald in the afterlife.
- That said, some theories have arised that Grindelwald told Voldemort about the Elder Wand's location as part of the plan Dumbledore and Severus Snape concocted to destroy Voldemort, fully knowing that Voldemort trying to claim ownership of the Elder Wand would get him killed in the long run due to him not really owning the wand's loyalty. It could be possible, however, that Grindelwald did know about that inciting Voldemort to find the Elder Wand would take him to his destruction and only told him about that to ensure Voldemort would get killed out of spite, given how he referred to him as "Tom" despite Voldemort hating his birthname.
External Links[]
- Gellert Grindelwald on the Villains Wiki
- Gellert Grindelwald on the Harry Potter Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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