History WMG / FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald

*** This argument neglects the well-known existence of Animagi. WordOfGod, mostly posted on Pottermore, states that many non-European wizards and witches have traditions of becoming Animagi. In fact, European Animagi are often adopt the form of smaller animals (e.g. Professor McGonagall's demonstrated ability to change into a domestic cat), with James Potter's stag form being unusually large. African Animagi often take the forms of the much larger wildlife native to their continent, which some wizarding people find unsettling. Regardless, actual wizards and witches might dispute the ringmaster Skender's claim that Nagini is really a Maledictus on the grounds that she could just be an Animagus circus performer.

*** This argument neglects the well-known existence of Animagi. In fact, WordOfGod, mostly posted on Pottermore, states that many non-European wizards and witches have traditions of becoming Animagi. In fact, European Animagi are often smaller animals, with James Potter's stag form being unusually large. African Animagi often take the forms of the much larger wildlife native to their continent, which some wizarding people find unsettling. Regardless, actual wizards and witches might dispute the ringmaster Skender's claim that Nagini is really a Maledictus on the grounds that she could just be an Animagi circus performer.

* Assuming that Aurelius Dumbledore is really Credance true identity, and that he really is the youngest of the Dumbledore siblings, Albus can't possibly know a thing about him: Aurelius supposedly drowned in the shipwreck, and the only person in the whole world that knew the truth (Leta) revealed the truth to the few people in the Lestrange pantheon: Credence, Yusuf, Newt, Tina and Kowalski. Credence might have mentioned it to Grindelwald, and the put two and two together, but unless Newt tells it to Dumbledore, he'll just remain in the dark.

[[WMG: Leta may have [[spoiler: faked her death]] - or even [[DeathFakedForYou had it faked on her behalf.]]]]
You look at the way that plot thread ended and... it didn't, really. Also, JKR has pulled this in-universe several times. An important character in Harry Potter, for example, was thought dead in-universe for ''twelve years'' before coming back in Books 3 and 4 to be fairly important. In fact, until casting for ''Crimes'' dropped and we saw his actor had been cast again, [[spoiler: Credence appeared to be a goner. Suffice it to say, he appears now to be fairly important.]]

In the scene where he, effectively, briefs Newt on the situation in Paris, Dumbledore mentions that his Grandfather had a Phoenix that took flight when he died. It stands to reason that either this Phoenix is [[spoiler: the one that Grindelwald presents to Credence at the end of the film]] or it is Fawkes [[spoiler:(assuming of course that they are not one and the same).]]

* Confirmed. [[spoiler: Since the Swooping Evil's poison only removes ''bad'' memories, and most of Jacob's memories were pleasant, Queenie only had to fill in some of the details.]]

As the two have been seen in a wizarding freakshow, the two may have bonded over their differences that cause their society to hate them: Credence with his Obscuius powers, and Claudia Kim's character with her blood curse.
* The two of them are portrayed as fairly close, but there's no hints of anything romantic. [[spoiler: And in the end, Credence leaves her to side with Grindelwald.]]

* Confirmed. [[spoiler: Grindelwald escapes by swapping appearances with Abernathy, the MACUSA employee from the first film who's revealed to be on his side.]]

** In the end, it's a mix between the third and fourth options: [[spoiler: Grindelwald kills Leta and recruits Credence ''and'' Queenie to his cause, but the heroes also recover the blood pact keeping Dumbledore from acting against him, with the hope that they can destroy it in order for him to join the fight.]]

* Jossed. [[spoiler: The scene where Dumbledore looks into the mirror is him reminiscing about when he was still on Grindelwald's side, and serves as foreshadowing of the blood pact that keeps them from fighting each other.]]

Alternatively, Leta, whom ''everyone'' is assuming is going to go Dark if she hasn't already based on the fragments of her backstory with Newt, may swerve the audience and [[HeelFaceTurn flip at a crucial moment]] instead with [[spoiler: her brother]] being the one to succumb to the darkness. [[spoiler: Although said HeelFaceTurn may [[RedemptionEqualsDeath involve a HeroicSacrifice on her part.]]]]

He's already been established as being the keeper of the Dumbledore family's dirty laundry, so to speak, so he would seem to be best positioned to explain [[spoiler: just where in the '''''blue hell''''' Aurelius came from.]]
** Also, maybe the camera cut during the ending was designed to trick us and [[spoiler: the 'brother' of Credence[=/=]Aurelius]] to whom Grindelwald refers to as wanting to kill him isn't actually Albus, it's ''Aberforth.'' Even [[spoiler: with the blood pact he and Albus made]], Albus is probably very hesitant to want to kill Grindelwald for a number of reasons. Abeforth, on the other hand... think about it: The last time Aberforth and Grindelwald met, Aberforth got Cruciated by Grindelwald and lost his sister. Aberforth was known to have a HairTriggerTemper in his younger days, and can also hold a grudge. It's probably safe to assume, also, that Aberforth (who didn't much like Grindelwald from the beginning because of his influence on Albus) did ''not'' make a blood pact with Grindelwald. So where Albus would be reluctant even at best, Aberforth would almost certainly try to kill Grindelwald on sight, and Grindelwald, knowing the whole family, would almost certainly be aware of that. Perhaps film 3 debuts Aberforth as an AntiHero or possibly [[UnscrupulousHero something even]] [[NominalHero darker.]]

Grindelwald lied to him so much in the first film and the boy is so desperate for an identity that it wouldn't take much for him to fall for whatever lies Grindelwald told him. [[spoiler: That and the fact it would be impossible for there to be a lost Dumbledore sibling; Albus' father Percival was sent to Azkaban for attacking the muggles that traumatized Ariana and Kendra died from one of her outbursts. That and Credence would've been born decades after Aberforth and Albus became adults; so the timing's off.]]

** The way Grindelwald acted between the movies lend credence (no pun intended) for this theory as well. In the first one, he showed more interest in the Obscurus's power than Credence's personally. Here after 6 months's arrest, he suddenly knew that Credence's [[spoiler: a Dumbledore?]] even when Dumbledore himself never did? The only logical explanation is that he has been looking for a weapon to kill Dumbledore and spent 6 months concocting the scheme to lure Credence to his side and turn him against Dumbledore.

*** No, Severus Snape would not have formed an obscurus. If a wizard attempts to suppress their magic, then it wells up into a writhing ball of negative energy. Snape was practicing magic almost all the time at Hogwarts, and, as far as I know, his parents weren't abusive enough to warrant him to suppress his magic.

*** But Grindelwald tells Credence that [[spoiler: his own brother was the one who betrayed him. The implication there is that he's talking about Albus, who he wants Credence to kill.]]

*** [[spoiler:Dumbledore mentions an aunt in who's a witch ''Beedle the Bard''. His mother was muggleborn and since there's examples of muggleborn characters with wizard siblings (like Colin and Dennis) and ones with muggle siblings (Lily and Petunia, Hermione's sister who got cut because she wasn't at Hogwarts), we'll be safe and say she was his dad's sister. He mentions she was never married but he never necessarily said she never had kids. His dad might have had other siblings we don't know about either. A cousin seems more likely to me if they're really related. ]]

* Keep in mind that it's established that even in 1995, during which one could assume Wizarding Britain was ''marginally'' more educated than at the beginning of that century, the Ministry did not keep records of Squibs. This implies that the Ministry only collected birth records of children after they exhibited signs of magic, not at birth. For most wizards, this typically happens in early childhood, but for many it takes until toddler[=/=]preschool age, not infancy. In fact, most wizarding experts wouldn't even make a determination that a child was a Squib until (s)he didn't show any signs of magic at age six or seven. Maybe [[spoiler: he's an actual Dumbledore relative]] and maybe he isn't, but what we do know is that the baby [[spoiler: Leta switched out for her brother]] that survived and made it to America as a result eventually was adopted by Mary Lou Barebone, renamed Credence and raised as a Muggle. For that matter, given that he went from a British ''wizard'' family and was then adopted by an American ''Muggle'' family in 1901 after coming across on a boat that sank and probably lost whatever records Credence had to his name, how likely is it that the assumed birth year of 1901 is even correct? It's likely that the only people that know Credence's birth date are dead.

[[WMG: The particular creature that makes an appearance at TheReveal at the movie's ending is one we've seen before... or rather, will see later.[[note]][[spoiler: That is, the phoenix that appears to Credence[=/=]Aurelius at the end of the movie is none other than Fawkes.]][[/note]]]]
* Because, honestly, how many of those are flying around? Would also provide some backstory as to how Dumbledore came into possession of one as a familiar by the time HP rolls around. [[spoiler: Probably as a TragicKeepsake of sorts after this whole thing is over.]]

* Or it wasn't even a phoenix. Grindelwald might have transfigurated the chick into a flaming red bird, because how's a closeted muggleborn who's only learned of magic recently even able to tell a real phoenix from a fake?

[[WMG: UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic is the ship that Leta, [[spoiler: the real Corvus Lestange and Credence were on.]]]]

** For what it's worth, the screenplay identifies her as Credence's aunt. If she couldn't use magic, that means either she was a Squib or Credence is a Muggle-born/half-blood, which might lend credence to the notion that [[spoiler: Grindelwald is lying to him about being a Dumbledore.]]

Newt will run afoul of a Bogart that, to his shock and horror, takes on the form of Tina's dead body. It will trigger a flashback to his first encounter with a Bogart when his biggest fear was being tied to a boring desk job. In the flashback, Dumbledore will not want to reveal his Bogart (the corpse of Ariana) but will tell the students that adult wizards and witches tend to have [[AdultFear complex fears]] that can't be dispelled easily with the Riddikulus charm. Adult Newt will understand that Tina now means everything to him and a quiet life with her while writing books about his adventures is actually starting to feel very attractive.

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[[WMG: Dumbledore won't ever actually break the Blood Oath, but he'll be able to fight Grindelwald anyway.]]
The Blood Pact [[spoiler:can sense even the thought of betraying its strictures and act to punish Dumbledore for it.]] But what if Dumbledore comes to truly believe that it's in Grindelwald's ''best interests'' to be captured? He's not trying to fight the purpose of the Blood Pact, but to honor its deeper intent, to never act against each other. If the alternative to being captured by Dumbledore is to be killed, and Dumbledore truly, sincerely believes that, I think the Blood Pact would not be triggered, because Dumbledore's actions would be to ''save'' Grindelwald, not to fight him.
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** Although... Maybe Grindelwald can also be aware of this. After all, he has no reasons to trust Albus's words of the experiment failing after their falling out, presuming they even had contact at all, and would probably have sought to find out what happened exactly. Perhaps he knows from the beginning that the Obscurial ''is'' his and Albus's son, which explains why he was so confident Credence had the power to kill Dumbledore, because if he is born from those two extraordinarily powerful wizards and is conceived magically, he is bound to inherit their immense magical powers. Hell, it could be that even before he saw that vision, he was already searching for Credence because he knows that Credence would be both a powerful ally and a potential heir in case he somehow failed. And when he had a vision of Credence being an Obscurial, seeking the child that he and Albus may have had probably became even more important, knowing that the child would already be so powerful even without an Obscurus and with it, he's bound to have the potential to become a real game-changing individual.
*** We've also seen Grindelwald treat Credence once he knows for sure he was the Obscurial as if he was a son... Maybe it wasn't faked... Perhaps Grindelwald ''knows'' that Credence is his son, and is just displaying the affection a father normally would, regardless of his intentions for the boy. The name Aurelius also means ''The Golden One''... Maybe Grindelwald even decided that name himself.