History Characters / HarryPotterAlbusDumbledore

'''[[Characters/HarryPotterDeathEaters Death Eaters]]''' ([[Characters/HarryPotterLordVoldemort Lord Voldemort]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterDeathEatersInnerCircle Death Eaters (Inner Circle)]])\\

'''[[Characters/HarryPotterOrderOfThePhoenixMembers Order of the Phoenix Members]]''' ([[Characters/HarryPotterMarauders Marauders]] [[[Characters/HarryPotterSiriusBlack Sirius Black]]])\\

[[Characters/HarryPotterTheWeasleyFamily The Weasley Family]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterMinistryOfMagic Ministry of Magic]] ([[Characters/HarryPotterDoloresUmbridge Dolores Umbridge]])\\

'''[[Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsStudents Hogwarts Students]]''' ([[Characters/HarryPotterGryffindor Gryffindor]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterSlytherin Slytherin]] [[[Characters/HarryPotterDracoMalfoy Draco Malfoy]]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterRavenclaw Ravenclaw]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterHufflepuff Hufflepuff]])\\

'''[[Characters/HarryPotterTheTrio The Trio]]''' ([[Characters/HarryPotterHarryJamesPotter Harry James Potter]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterRonBiliusWeasley Ron Bilius Weasley]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterHermioneJeanGranger Hermione Jean Granger]])\\

* TheCorruptible: Dumbledore stayed away from positions of power to avoid becoming a tyrant.

** Likewise, as stated before, Dumbledore is endlessly polite and soft-spoken. However, when Umbridge starts to manhandle Marietta for a confession, he absolutely ''loses it'' at her. Granted, he does so without doing more than raising his voice, but his demeanour shifts enough that everybody in the room is instantly, and completely, cowed by his reaction. Similarly, he shifts into absolute TranquilFury in ''Goblet of Fire'' when protecting Harry from Crouch Jr.
* OverlyLongName: "Albus Percival Wulfric [[OddNameOut Brian]] Dumbledore." Note that the only thing that makes "Brian" an OddNameOut is the fact that it is still in (common) use today. It is an old name.

* PapaWolf: Threatening Harry or any other of his students is one of the few things that makes Dumbledore angry. When he saves Harry from being killed by [[spoiler:Barty Crouch Jr.]], Harry realizes for the first time why Voldemort fears Dumbledore. Also, when Dolores Umbridge roughly grabs Marietta Edgecombe, Dumbledore (in spite of the fact that Marietta betrayed him and the rest of the student body), magically pushes Umbridge away and says "I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores."

* NiceToTheWaiter: Dumbledore is unfailingly kind and fair to all magical creatures. He offered Dobby the full wages and benefits of a human employee, hired a Centaur (who is actually extremely competent at his job) to teach divination, and the chronically oppressed Centaurs and Merpeople came out to honour Dumbledore at his funeral.

* PapaWolf: Threatening Harry or any other of his students is one of the few things that makes Dumbledore angry. When he saves Harry from being killed by [[spoiler:Barty Crouch Jr.]] Harry realizes for the first time why Voldemort fears Dumbledore. Also, when Dolores Umbridge roughly grabs Marietta Edgecombe, Dumbledore (in spite of the fact that Marietta betrayed him and the rest of the student body), magically pushes Umbridge away and says "I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores."

* PapaWolf: Threatening Harry or any other of his students is one of the few things that makes Dumbledore angry. When he saves Harry from being killed by [[spoiler:Barty Crouch Jr.]] Harry realizes for the first time why Voldemort fears Dumbledore. Also, when Dolores Umbridge roughly grabs Marietta Edgecombe, Dumbledore (in spite of the fact that Marietta betrayed him and the rest of the student body), Dumbledore magically pushes Umbridge away and says "I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores."

* Papa Wolf: Threatening Harry or any other of his students is one of the few things that makes Dumbledore angry. When he saves Harry from being killed by [[spoiler:Barty Crouch Jr.]] Harry realizes for the first time why Voldemort fears Dumbledore. Also, when Dolores Umbridge roughly grabs Marietta Edgecombe, Dumbledore (in spite of the fact that Marietta betrayed him and the rest of the student body), Dumbledore magically pushes Umbridge away and says "I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores."

* YouMakeMeSick: Says "You disgust me" to Snape when he [[spoiler:asks Dumbledore to save Lily Potter from Voldemort]].

* AintTooProudToBeg: [[spoiler: Subverted. He wasn't begging for his life as Snape was about to kill him; he was asking Snape to MercyKill him.]]

* AlliterativeFamily: '''A'''lbus, his brother '''A'''berforth, and his sister '''A'''riana. [[spoiler: And his nephew '''A'''urelius.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In his youth, Albus bitterly resented having to squander his prodigious talents - as he saw it - to take care of his brother and mentally ill sister and wished to be able to use his potential. [[spoiler: He ends up no longer having to take care of Ariana when she dies in the three-way duel between Albus, Aberforth, and Grindelwald, made worse by the fact that Albus himself may have killed her. This ended up snapping him out of his WellIntentionedExtremist phase and Aberforth later bitterly lampshades how this event supposedly made Albus "free." Harry instead reveals to Aberforth the effects of the Drink of Despair and how Ariana's death was never what Albus wanted.]]

* BrokenPedestal: Harry was hit with a bad case of this after reading Rita Skeeter reports of his youthful wizard supremacism, though hearing Aberforth's account [[spoiler: of what happened to their sister]] and a conversation in the afterlife with Dumbledore's spirit where Dumbledore lays out all his vulnerabilities and failures lead to Harry [[RebuiltPedestal renewing his trust in the man despite his faults]].

* CharacterDevelopment: Throughout the second and third ''Fantastic Beasts'' films, his arc is him coming to understand that Grindelwald is way too far gone to ever reconcile and that he must let him go and take him down. During their meeting at the restaurant, he's still trying to get him to back down but he won't do it. Once [[spoiler: the blood troth is broken]], he turns his back on Grindelwald and starts walking away with Grindelwald being the one screaming at him about how that means he'll be alone for good and abandoning their love.
* TheChessmaster: Just about everything in the overarching plot of the series happens thanks to his plotting and machinations. Luckily, his ultimate goal is good and he more guides Harry than manipulates him, but he crosses more than a few moral lines in his plans (including [[spoiler: part of his plan to destroy Voldemort involving Harry's sacrifice. If Voldemort hadn't used Harry's blood to regenerate and the Elder Wand plot had not worked out as it did, Harry would have truly died in book seven. Though, as soon as he found out about these, Dumbledore did change his plans to make sure that Harry would be able to survive his "death." However, it still may have been unsuccessful, because Dumbledore only made a guess that the Horcrux inside Harry would be killed instead of Harry himself. He was right but it could have turned out for the worst, as he states]]).

* CoffinContraband: Dumbledore [[spoiler: has the Elder Wand buried with him]] in a sarcophagus, figuring that barely anyone in the Wizarding world would recognize the artifact's significance even if they found it, much less think to check this particular coffin for this particular item. [[spoiler:It doesn't work.]]

* TheCorruption: [[spoiler: In a biological example, the curse of Marvolo's ring has this effect on Dumbledore. In a bit of FridgeBrilliance, the effect of the curse is very similar to the effects of severe necrosis (premature death of cells) and rhabdomyolysis (death of muscle tissue throughout the body) after a venomous snake bite. Given Voldemort's fondness for snakes, this may not have been an accident.]]
* CrazyPrepared: Combined with IndyPloy, he doesn't know if something crazy will happen like getting assassinated for sure but he has a contingency plan in case [[spoiler: namely having Snape kill him as part of a deception. It helps that he was dying already at the time]].

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: {{Defied}}. He knows that if [[ArtifactOfDoom Marvolo Gaunt's cursed ring]] doesn't do it, then one of Voldemort's sadists will, so [[spoiler: he orders Snape to give him a quick and clean death.]]

## [[spoiler: His sister was rendered [[PowerIncontinence magically unstable]] due to being attacked by [[BullyingADragon three]] {{Muggles}}.]]

## [[spoiler: His mother was accidentally killed by his unstable sister.]]
## [[spoiler: He then neglected his brother and said sister to spend all his time planning a takeover of the Muggle world [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans 'for the greater good']] with his lover Gellert Grindelwald, and ]]

## [[spoiler:The complicated issue of his unstable nephew who is an obscurial.]]

* DramaPreservingHandicap: In Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince, Snape suggests this trope is in effect for Dumbledore. Despite this, he displayed in the fifth book where he overpowers Fudge and a contingent of Aurors, subdues the remaining Death Eaters Harry & co. were having a protracted battle with in a manner of seconds, and forces Voldemort to flee. This was finally exacerbated after his left hand is cursed by the horcrux ring, which was needed to keep the tension in his and Harry's adventures and later ends up in Dumbledore [[spoiler: willingly accepting his death]].

** When he was young, Dumbledore had a whopping case of {{Pride}} because of his brilliance, his talents, his magical ability, thinking he could conquer death and all evil if everyone listened to him. He snapped out of it [[spoiler: with the death of his sister]] and spent more than a century deliberately avoiding powerful positions because he didn't trust himself with power. He refused the position of Minister of Magic multiple times, for instance.

* GlorySeeker: He was this in his youth with disastrous results. After Albus was bitterly resigned to caring for Aberforth and Ariana after his mother's death, Grindelwald stoked Albus's hunger for power and glory with talk of wizard domination. When these dreams ended in [[spoiler:Ariana's death]] and Albus's estrangement from Aberforth, Albus snaps out of it and instead becomes a teacher to avoid the temptations of power. When the Qilin [[spoiler: goes to him in ''Secrets of Dumbledore'' he's struck with panic, because this is ''exactly'' what he wanted to avoid - even though, ironically, the Qilin's sensing his pure intent means he's now ready for power and glory. He then tells it that he's honoured, but surely, as two Qilin were born, there's another who's equally worthy? Cue the Qilin choosing Vincencia Santos]].

* HandicappedBadass: Despite suffering from a year-long death curse that's compounded by a particularly nasty potion, he's still fully capable of fighting an army of [[NotUsingTheZWord inferi]] in Book 6. (In [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince the film]], he does it by conjuring up a freaking firestorm. Goddamn!)

** He grabs it even harder between ''Order of the Phoenix'' and ''Half-Blood Prince''; putting on Marvolo Gaunt's ring when he ''knew'' it was a Horcrux [[spoiler:in the hopes of seeing his dead sister again]] has got to be one of the ''dumbest'' things he's ever done in his life, and certainly in the series… the reason why he put it on makes this justified as [[spoiler: the possibility of seeing a deceased loved one again would cloud anyone’s judgement no matter how smart they are.]]
* InformedAbility: Hogwarts' status as a safe haven is mainly attributed to Dumbledore's hawk-like watch over the place. For all the cunning [[TheChessmaster he displays elsewhere]], it's worth noting that, in only six years, [[TheMole two Death Eaters slipped onto the payroll]] [[EvilTeacher as teachers]], one of them lugging around [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]] himself, [[SealedEvilInACan Slytherin's monster]] was unleashed on the grounds and carried out five attempted murders, a hunted (presumed) murderer slipped into the grounds repeatedly, once reaching as far in as the bedside of his presumed target, the horde of [[TheSoulless Dementors]] hunting said murderer slipped out of control repeatedly and tried to kill a student(Though to be fair Dumbledore didn't want them there at all and it was the Ministry who insisted on placing them at Hogwarts), [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain a fascist-racist child torturer]] was legally [[TyrantTakesTheHelm instated as teacher and later Headmistress]] while the staff failed to pose effective resistance, [[BeneathSuspicion underestimation]] of [[BigBadWannabe Draco]] allowed a squad of Death Eaters to enter the heart of the castle with only a handful of defenders posted and the [[EverythingTryingToKillYou yearly near-death situations and almost bi-monthly grievous injuries]] [[WeirdnessMagnet Harry]] faces while within the grounds. It's no surprise that Hogwarts' blatant unsafeness is a running joke among the fans. On the other hand, the number of casualties on school grounds during his time as Headmaster can be counted on one hand (and in some of these situations, it's explicitly stated that they were beyond his control), so maybe he was doing something right after all.

* InsufferableGenius: Throughout his youth and occasionally in his older age, too. Dumbledore ''tries'' to be humble, but can't help but pat himself on the back occasionally. He's proud of his gambit with the ''Mirror of Erised'' calling it one of his better ideas. This is given a darker slant in ''Deathly Hallows'' where,[[spoiler: during his conversation with Harry in King's Cross, he admits that he resented being forced to sacrifice his grand future and look after his family when his father was imprisoned, and that this resentment was part of the reason he fell in with Grindelwald, who was the only one he could find to match his intellect.]]

** As the "Fantastic Beasts" series shows he's not above using his relationship with students for his own ends - he sends Newt to Paris to fight Grindelwald in his stead but not out of cowardice, but because [[spoiler: a blood oath prevents him from doing it himself]]. Although Newt makes it clear that he knows he’s being manipulated.

** Majorly demonstrated in ''Half-Blood Prince'', [[spoiler: where Draco Malfoy actually succeeding in getting Death Eaters into Hogwarts via the Vanishing Cabinet catches him off guard and results in Snape having to kill him ahead of schedule to keep his cover. As a result he dies before he can impart valuable information to Harry, leaving his plans unfinished. Draco gaining mastery of the Elder Wand was also not something he intended.]]

* PragmaticHero: One interpretation of Dumbledore's character is "Dumbledore as a General". [[spoiler: He expects Harry will need to [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice]] himself if Voldemort is to be defeated, and he works towards that end. He does not take pleasure in it, but he understands it's a necessary action to win the war]].

* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: In the sixth book, he is a lot less cheery and slips on his CoolOldGuy image, showing little patience for some of Harry's usual excuses and hi-jinks and no longer playing at false modesty. This is probably due to the fact that [[spoiler: he's dying, and knows it]].

* PapaWolf: Again, he "cannot allow you to manhandle [his] students." Which is a polite way of saying that if you try to hurt his students, he will ''end'' you. In ''The Order of the Phoenix'', when Voldemort is about to kill Harry, a very angry Dumbledore emerges from the Floo Network and turns Voldemort's gloating session into a very one-sided fight for his life.

* ActorSwap: Portrayed by Richard Harris in the first two films, and subsequently by Michael Gambon after Harris' passing from Hodgkin's disease.

* AdaptationalWimp: The film version of Dumbledore proves to be much less powerful than his book self while duelling Voldemort in the ''Order of the Phoenix''. The film choreography implies Dumbledore is actually struggling to hold his own, as he grimaces and covers down often, looks downright scared at Voldemort's fiery snake, and even gets knocked down by a spell at one point. Their duel also ends in kind of a cautious stalemate, as Voldemort teleports away by his own decision and leaves both Harry and Dumbledore looking tired and impressed by his power. In stark contrast, the book version of Dumbledore perfectly counters all of Voldemort's spells calmly, taunting and trying to take him alive instead of dueling to kill, and ultimately forces the dark wizard to try possessing Harry in order to escape from a decisive binding spell, before finally cutting and running.
* AdaptationPersonalityChange: In the fourth movie, his film portrayal becomes [[http://i.imgur.com/OFGFoA6.jpg quite hammier]] than his book self, as well as generally more aggressive, emotional and flappable. This change didn't come immediately at the point Michael Gambon took over the role, as he still acted more like the serene, poised book Dumbledore in his debut at the third movie - though it can be debated that it was certainly Gambon's acting style, much more extroverted than Harris' candid delivery, which ended up influencing the character into that form. In later films, likely as a response to the backlash, Gambon played Dumbledore much close to his book self.
* AintTooProudToBeg: [[spoiler:Subverted. He wasn't begging for his life as Snape was about to kill him; he was asking Snape to MercyKill him.]]
* AloofBigBrother: Make no mistake, Albus loved his brother and sister, and cared for them, but was also emotionally distant due to his ambition, brilliance and talents. He could also be neglectful whenever he got carried away with his studies. Then Grindelwald came along and made things worse. While Albus ultimately chose his family over Grindelwald when push came to shove, it was too late -- Ariana died, and his relationship with Aberforth was strained for decades. One of Albus's biggest regrets (if not the biggest) was that he wasn't a better brother to his siblings.
* AlliterativeFamily: '''A'''lbus, his brother '''A'''berforth, and his sister '''A'''riana. [[spoiler:And his nephew, '''A'''urelius.]]

** As revealed in the final book, Dumbledore's tendency to leave Harry and the others to solve the conflict at hand isn't entirely because the villains are just that aware of the necessity of avoiding fighting him. He was actually able to intervene in some occasions, but as he knew Voldemort's return is inevitable and Harry has to be the one to kill him, Albus decides to remain on the side-lines ensuring Harry gets to experience enough life-and-death situations to develop the skill needed, as while he does have the ability to defeat Voldemort himself, he just isn't the one destined to finish him. He supplies Harry with the information needed, but he lets Harry do his work unless things are too much because Dumbledore had to let Harry build up enough skill over the years to fulfill his destiny.

* AngerBornOfWorry: His infamous uncalm outburst in ''Goblet of Fire'' film adaptation can be interpreted as him being worried for Harry's well-being when he demanded from Harry if he or another student put his name in the Goblet of Fire.

* TheArchmage: Dumbledore is specifically acknowledged to be the greatest and most powerful wizard in the modern era, if not all time. Even the two Dark Lords, Lord Voldemort and Gellert Grindelwald, feared him. Dumbledore states that he was "perhaps a shade more skillful" than Grindelwald, which is backed up by how he was able to defeat him while the latter was wielding the Elder Wand. Meanwhile, in their only seen confrontation, Dumbledore keeps Voldemort on the back foot with consummate ease. Numerous times he fights entire groups of enemies and easily defeats them all without breaking a sweat. While still a student at Hogwarts, he won just about every honour imaginable. Word of Rowling even confirms his knowledge of magic is unmatched and he got there purely through his own hard-work and skill.

* BarrierMaiden: Albus was practically the only one keeping Hogwarts and the British Ministry from being taken over by Voldemort. It was even stated that the Dark Lord wouldn't try either as long as Dumbledore is still alive and able to thwart him. Albus himself is quite aware of this and before his death, made sure to entrust his followers how to contain Voldemort. Indeed, after his death, it was only months before Voldemort took over the Ministry and Hogwarts.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In his youth Albus bitterly resented having to squander his prodigious talents - as he saw it - to take care of his brother and mentally ill sister and wished to be able to use his potential. [[spoiler:He ends up no longer having to take care of Ariana when she dies in the three way duel between Albus, Aberforth and Grindelwald, made worse by the fact that Albus himself may have killed her. This ended up snapping him out of his WellIntentionedExtremist phase and Aberforth later bitterly lampshades how this event supposedly made Albus "free." Harry instead reveals to Aberforth the effects of the Drink of Despair and how Ariana's death was never what Albus wanted.]]

--> ''At that moment, Harry fully understood for the first time why people said Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort had ever feared. The look upon Dumbledore's face as he stared down at the unconscious form of Mad-Eye Moody was more terrible than Harry could have ever imagined. There was no benign smile upon Dumbledore's face, no twinkle in the eyes behind the spectacles. There was cold fury in every line of the ancient face; a sense of power radiated from Dumbledore as though he were giving off burning heat.''

* BrokenPedestal: Harry was hit with a bad case of this after reading Rita Skeeter reports of his youthful wizard supremacism, though hearing Aberforth's account [[spoiler:of what happened to their sister]] and a conversation in the afterlife with Dumbledore's spirit where Dumbledore lays out all his vulnerabilities and failures lead to Harry [[RebuiltPedestal renewing his trust in the man despite his faults]].

* TheCassandra: The Ministry of Magic declines to believe Dumbledore's claim that Voldemort has returned, and instead raises his sanity into question, claiming that he'd gone senile due to old age. They also ignored his warnings about the Dementors and how they would join Voldemort to satisfy their hunger for positive emotions.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: Dumbledore is greatly burdened by this. Being so much smarter than everyone around him means he's not only lonely but can never not treat people on a need-to-know basis, which might or might not work in the way they expect it. Even someone like Snape, despite his considerable sacrifices is only given a piece of Dumbledore's great plan, offended that he'd rely so obviously on a boy who's not skilled or disciplined, Dumbledore justifies this on pragmatic grounds of withdrawing the most sensitive information from the person with the most precarious position.
* CharacterDevelopment: Throughout the second and third ''Fantastic Beasts'' films, his arc is him coming to understand that Grindewald is way too far gone to ever reconcile and that he must let him go and take him down. During their meeting at the restaurant, he's still trying to get him to back down but he won't do it. Once [[spoiler:the blood troth is broken]], he turns his back on Grindelwald and starts walking away with Grindelwald being the one screaming at him about how that means he'll be alone for good and abandoning their love.
* TheChessmaster: Just about everything in the overarching plot of the series happens thanks to his plotting and machinations. Luckily, his ultimate goal is good and he more guides Harry than manipulates him, but he crosses more than a few moral lines in his plans (including [[spoiler:part of his plan to destroy Voldemort involving Harry's sacrifice. If Voldemort hadn't used Harry's blood to regenerate and the Elder Wand plot had not worked out as it did, Harry would have truly died in book seven. Though, as soon as he found out about these, Dumbledore did change his plans to make sure that Harry would be able to survive his "death." However, it still may have been unsuccessful, because Dumbledore only made a guess that the Horcrux inside Harry would be killed instead of Harry himself. He was right but it could have turned out for the worst, as he states]]).

* CoffinContraband: Dumbledore [[spoiler:has the Elder Wand buried with him]] in a sarcophagus, figuring that barely anyone in the Wizarding world would recognize the artifact's significance even if they found it, much less think to check this particular coffin for this particular item. [[spoiler:It doesn't work.]]

* TheCorruption: [[spoiler:In a biological example the curse of Marvolo's ring has this effect on Dumbledore. In a bit of FridgeBrilliance the effect of the curse is very similar to the effects of severe necrosis (premature death of cells) and rhabdomyolysis (death of muscle tissue throughout the body) after a venomous snake bite. Given Voldemort's fondness for snakes this may not have been an accident.]]
* CrazyPrepared: Combined with IndyPloy, he doesn't know if something crazy will happen like getting assassinated for sure but he has a contingency plan in case [[spoiler:namely having Snape kill him as part of a deception. It helps that he was dying already at the time]].

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: {{Defied}}. He knows that if [[ArtifactOfDoom Marvolo Gaunt's cursed ring]] doesn't do it, then one of Voldemort's sadists will, so [[spoiler:he orders Snape to give him a quick and clean death.]]

** Dumbledore goes into a variation of this whenever he disciplines his students -- however, instead of quiet anger his attitude is quiet disappointment. In the few times Harry has had to be disciplined by Dumbledore, he believes that he would have preferred him shouting in rage. On rare occasions, however, Dumbledore is capable of going into a tranquil fury which is truly something to behold:

** He also has nothing but disdain for Dementors, coldly telling Percy Weasley that he will never allow them to enter Hogwarts, telling Alastor Moody that the Ministry of Magic should have never associated with them in the first place, and trying to warn the Ministry several times of the Dementors' treacherous nature.

* AdaptationalBadass: Yes, Dumbledore gets upgraded a bit in the sixth film. In the book, the ring of fire he summoned was barely big enough to circle both him and Harry and had to accompany them as they moved within the tiny island. In the film, it's a spectacular firestorm raging through the entire cave. Also, in the book version Dumbledore and Harry are able to apparate thanks to the spells who prevent wizards from doing so are lifted, movie Dumbledore handwaves Harry's objection that apparation inside Hogwarts is impossible by telling him he's Dumbledore.

* MasterOfAll: He became the greatest wizard in history because he has quite literally mastered and understood literally every magical branch. In fact, a fan even states Dumbledore's understanding and prowess is unmatched and the author just affirms that he is and that he reached that level of skill primarily with hard-work and his own efforts. He taught defense agains the dark arts and transfiguration, writes for many magazines, including potions, transfiguration, and charms, and can even work with Divination, a rather infamously difficult and ill-known branch. He can use even dark powers perfectly well, and [=McGonagall=] implies he is just as skilled with the Dark Arts than Voldemort. All this accumulated makes him the single wizard who can school Voldemort, who is also woefully ignorant of any form of magic that doesn't involve killing others or preserving his own life.

* MasculineFeminineGayCouple: While both he and Grindelwald would probably be considered StraightGay, he’s the more stereotypically feminine coded one. He’s nurturing, tends to bottle up his emotions, and wears a much softer color palette and less severe clothes. Grindelwald is the furthest thing from nurturing, tends to blow in anger, and wears a darker color palette and more stereotypically masculine clothing (although his clothing was softened up with the recast). Law is also the shorter of the two with more PrettyBoy features whereas Mikkelsen is taller and with more rugged looks.
* MasterOfAll: He became the greatest wizard in history because he has quite literally mastered and understood literally every magical branch. In fact, a fan even states Dumbledore's understanding and prowess is unmatched and the author just affirms that he is and that he reached that level of skill primarily with hard-work and his own efforts. He taught defense agains the dark arts and transfiguration, writes for many magazines, including potions, transfiguration, and charms, and can even work with Divination, a rather infamously difficult and ill-known branch. He can use even dark powers perfectly well, and [=McGonagall=] implies he is just as skilled with the Dark Arts than Voldemort. All this accumulated makes him the single wizard who can school Voldemort, who is also woefully ignorant of any form of magic that doesn't involve killing others or preserving his own life.

* AdaptationalBadass: Yes, Dumbledore gets upgraded a bit in the sixth film. In the book, the ring of fire he summoned was barely big enough to circle both him and Harry and had to accompany them as they moved within the tiny island. In the film, it's a spectacular firestorm raging through the entire cave.

** He does this again in the ''Crimes of Grindelwald'' due to being unable to move against Grindelwald due to their blood pact, which means Newt and the other good guys must confront the most powerful dark wizard of all time by themselves. The results are the tragically decisive defeat of the heroes at the hands of Grindelwald and demonstrates to them that Dumbledore is really the only chance they have to defeat Grindelwald, ending the film with Newt and the others seeking Dumbledore's help and bringing him the blood pact to be destroyed.

** When he was young, Dumbledore had a whopping case of {{Pride}} because of his brilliance, his telents, his magical ability, thinking he could conquer death and all evil if everyone listened to him. He snapped out of it [[spoiler: with the death of his sister]] and spent more than a century deliberately avoiding powerful positions because he didn't trust himself with power. He refused the position of Minister of Magic multiple times, for instance.

[[Characters/HarryPotterTheWeasleyFamily The Weasley Family]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterMinistryOfMagic Ministry of Magic]]\\

* NiceToTheWaiter: Dumbledore is unfailingly kind and fair to all magical creatures. He offered Dobby the full wages and benefits of a human employee, and the chronically oppressed Centaurs and Merpeople came out to honour Dumbledore at his funeral.

* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Apart from sparing him an UndignifiedDeath due to the curse on Marvolo's ring, a secondary reason Dumbledore requested that Snape MercyKill him was so that he would further gain Voldemort's trust and confidence from that act, which would better allow him to learn more about Voldemort's plans.]]

** He's perfectly willing to waste his students educations by hiring a man he knows for a fact to be a fraud solely for the chance to expose said man as such. While certainly an admirable goal, one would think that he could have done that without using his students as pawns.

* InformedAbility: Hogwarts' status as a safe haven is mainly attributed to Dumbledore's hawk-like watch over the place. For all the cunning [[TheChessmaster he displays elsewhere]], it's worth noting that, in only six years, [[TheMole two Death Eaters slipped onto the payroll]] [[EvilTeacher as teachers]], one of them lugging around [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]] himself, [[SealedEvilInACan Slytherin's monster]] was unleashed on the grounds and carried out five attempted murders, a hunted (presumed) murderer slipped into the grounds repeatedly, once reaching as far in as the bedside of his presumed target, the horde of [[TheSoulless Dementors]] hunting said murderer slipped out of control repeatedly and tried to kill a student, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain a fascist-racist child torturer]] was legally [[TyrantTakesTheHelm instated as teacher and later Headmistress]] while the staff failed to pose effective resistance, [[BeneathSuspicion underestimation]] of [[BigBadWannabe Draco]] allowed a squad of Death Eaters to enter the heart of the castle with only a handful of defenders posted and the [[EverythingTryingToKillYou yearly near-death situations and almost bi-monthly grievous injuries]] [[WeirdnessMagnet Harry]] faces while within the grounds. It's no surprise that Hogwarts' blatant unsafeness is a running joke among the fans. On the other hand, the number of casualties on school grounds during his time as Headmaster can be counted on one hand (and in some of these situations, it's explicitly stated that they were beyond his control), so maybe he was doing something right after all.

* NotSoOmniscientAfterAll: This is best demonstrated in ''Half-Blood Prince'', [[spoiler: where Draco Malfoy actually succeeding in getting Death Eaters into Hogwarts via the Vanishing Cabinet catches him off guard and results in Snape having to kill him to keep his cover and . As a result he dies ahead of schedule before he can impart valuable information to Harry, leaving his plans unfinished. Draco gaining mastery of the Elder Wand was also not something he intended.]] He admits his wisdom is not as absolute as it often seems.