History Headscratchers / FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem

** [[spoiler: The first sign Graves gave off as to his real goals was when he offhandedly remarked that the Obscurial with no host was "useless", and Newt definitely picked up on that oddity on the spot. From then on, I imagine he was just going on a hunch that Graves might be someone else in disguise, but not necessarily Grindelwald.}}

** [[**spoiler: There's also the matter that Graves has the Deathly Hallows symbol sticking out of his pocket during his interrogation of Newt. It's not beyond reason for Newt to have spotted that, and at least come to the conclusion that--as it's unlikely a high-level Auror could have made it this far and been a Grindewald supporter--that this man might just be an imposter.]]

** "this guy not Graves" but why? Newt has never met the real Graves. He has no basis for saying this is a different person. It would have been more logical to just assume the real Graves has become a Grindelwald sympathiser then that he has been replaced. It's not as if government workers are above that.

* Newt's suspicions about [[spoiler: Graves in fact start in the interrogation. When Graves asks "So the Obscurus is useless without the host?", Newt is horrfied and asks Graves what on earth he'd even want to use an Obscurus for. Graves them seems to have realised he's slipped up and immediately changes the subject which sparks Newt's suspicions further. When the group meet with Gnarlak, Newt asks Gnarlak about Graves and his background. Gnarlak's expression confirms to Newt there's something there to confirm his suspicions, as the script specifies that Gnarlak's expression indicates "there is much he could say, but he'd rather die than say it". All this plays on Newt's suspicions that Graves might not be who he seems to be. Add in Graves's actions in the climax and it's more than enough for Newt to think "Maybe this guy isn't who he appears to be... what if he's someone else?".

** Actually, I was wrong - [[spoiler: Percival Graves was indeed a real person as confirmed by the wiki]] - this instead leaves to the FridgeHorror that [[spoiler: This did not look like a Polyjuice potion... meaning he probably ''did'' pull a KillAndReplace]]. The real question would then be [[spoiler: Wouldn't anyone have noticed something was wrong, especially the local empath?]], but I think that [[spoiler: FridgeBrilliance - Graves kept a distance from her, Grindelwald knew to do so as well, and probably had techinques such as Occlumency to keep himself from being "read" as a fake.]]

* So a massive plot hole is on the way with how this film ended. [[spoiler: Grindelwald is of course defeated at the end of the film by Newt, but given the timeline of the series, he is also already in possession of the Elder Wand at this point. His defeat at the hands of Newt means the Elder Wand's loyalty passes to him and thus it can't continue down the normal path of Dumbledore and Draco to Harry. We know the Elder Wand is Harry's in the end as Harry uses it both to defeat Voldemort and repair his wand. It could also very well have passed on to Tina as she magics Grindelwald's wand away in case the Swooping Evil is considered the victorious force from before, but Tina taking his wand would account for the same defeat. Either way, J.K is going to have to be very careful how she handles it moving forward.]]

*** Graves was [[spoiler: ranting on just before then about how the statute of secrecy was useless and outdated and needed to be dismantled which, as we learned earlier in the movie while he was interrogating Newt, is a viewpoint commonly held by Grindelwald sympathizers. Add that to the fact that he was also clearly attempting to recruit/use Credence — which, as Newt was asking earlier, isn't what you should be doing with an Obscurial when you should be saving them instead — and it probably wasn't hard for him to put together that this guy was not Graves.]]

*** Fair. It still seems a little strange of a conclusion to make (Sure, he didn't suspect that [[spoiler: he was really Grindelwald]] until after he was revealed), but it does seem a little broad of a conclusion to take that Graves is [[spoiler: an imposter]] just because he appears to be able to perform such a feat. Unless it was stated that only [[spoiler: Grindelwald and Dumbledore could even think of doing that]] earlier on?