Tear Jerker / Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

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• Grindelwald's followers killing the mother Qilin in the beginning. She is still barely alive when Newt finds her again and before finding the twin baby Qilin, and the mother sheds a tear after seeing her baby for the last time.
• Jacob's bakery and the man himself having fallen into despair after losing Queenie, since she turned to Grindelwald's side.
  Jacob: You see this? You see the pan? That's me, I'm the pan. I'm all dented, dime-a-dozen. I'm just a schmo.
• Grindelwald killing the Qilin that his followers abducted. And this was after he waited for the Qilin to bow to him, which never happened.
• Albus telling Newt how his sister Ariana was accidentally killed during an argument between himself, Grindelwald, and Aberforth.
• Crimes of Grindelwald showed a flashback of a drowning woman reaching for what she thinks is her child, but was actually Corvus Lestrange. While that was sad enough, knowing after this film that that woman was Credence's aunt makes the scene even sadder since Aberforth's lover would believe her son also died with her sister and Aberforth would never know his son had he found out earlier about her pregnancy than he did.
• Once Grindelwald rigs and wins the election, the first thing he does is have Queenie and Jacob torn away from each other and the latter brought before him to be tortured. Before doing so, though, he makes a disgustingly racist anti-Muggle speech, out of nothing more than spite for Jacob being a Muggle who's dared stand against him and Queenie choosing him over Grindelwald. Her face the entire time is filled with horror and pain that, after she joined Grindelwald at the end of the previous movie because he promised to build a world where she and Jacob could be together, she's now seeing just how much it's been All for Nothing as he shows his true colors and exactly what he really thinks of their romance.
  • The speech itself is not only a way of humiliating Jacob in front of the entire wizarding world, but is also horrifyingly, heartbreakingly dehumanizing: Grindelwald refers to Jacob's love for Queenie—which has always been portrayed as earnest, puppy-dog-like devotion—as him wanting to "pollute our bloodline," and calling him and other Muggles who've fallen in love with witches/wizards "vermin." Jacob, who's already struggled with feeling unworthy of being part of the magical world with his friends, tries to keep a Stiff Upper Lip and not show that Grindelwald's getting to him, but after he makes eye contact with Queenie, who looks like she's on the verge of crying, he's clearly having a very hard time holding it together himself.
  • In general during this scene, it's clear from their faces that Jacob, Queenie, and Newt (who's also been subdued and restrained by Grindelwald's forces) are all utterly terrified that Grindelwald is going to murder the former right there in front of the whole world just to make a point. Jacob is visibly trembling and near tears when he turns around to face the dark wizard, despite trying his best to Face Death with Dignity—and then gets hit instead with a Cruciatus Curse. Newt can only yell "No!" as he's restrained by his captors and Forced to Watch his close friend be tortured, while Queenie helplessly holds him and desperately screams for someone to make Grindelwald stop, while most of the audience either actively enjoys watching his pain or at least is indifferent to trying to help (except Santos, who does lift the spell). What's worse, Grindelwald probably would have killed Jacob, or tortured him to death, if not for Credence, the Dumbledores, and Bunty arriving to thwart him, and there's a decent chance he would have killed Newt and Queenie as well.
• When Newt reveals the surviving Qilin baby, it tries to get her twin sister's attention. Newt gently explains that she can't hear her.
• Look very closely when Grindelwald shoots the Killing Curse at Credence, and you can see the latter closing his eyes before Dumbledore's and Aberforth's spells hit Grindelwald's spell. Even after Credence revealed Grindelwald's Qilin plan to the Wizarding world leaders, he was still quick to accept his death here and then.
• The last time we see Credence, he is weakened and being led away by Aberforth. Even though he finally found his father, his Obscurus will eventually kill him. As for Aberforth, he will have to watch history repeat itself, since Credence's condition was the same as Ariana's.
  • Just knowing that Credence lived so long with his affliction makes one wonder if his aunt Ariana might've also made it to thirty-two, had she not become collateral damage in the three-way duel.
• Essentially the entire love drama between Dumbledore and Grindelwald is truly tragic. Even if Grindelwald is still pretty clearly evil, you can't help but feel sympathetic seeing the world's most powerful dark wizard clearly struggle with love and heartbreak. And it's especially heartrending to see Dumbledore's clear anguish and regrets about how their relationship ended.
  • As David Yates noted, Albus's greatest regret was that he wasn't a better partner for Grindelwald, that rather than trying to dissuade Grindelwald from pursuing his dreams of wizarding supremacy, he instead encouraged it because he was too desperate for companionship and an equal to risk losing his relationship with Gellert. This makes Albus stating that he knew a boy who made all the wrong choices quite sad when you realize exactly why he was so empathetic and despondently somber when he spoke of it to Draco. Even years afterwards, Dumbledore never forgave himself for failing to be a proper friend for Gellert. And in a way, it may have been that Albus was right that he did have a part in creating the man Gellert became.
    • This is something that will be repeated with Remus and his treatment of James and Sirius. He let them get away with bullying other students even though he was a prefect because he had finally found friends and didn't want to risk losing their friendship after they had done so much for him. Dumbledore probably saw himself in Remus.
    • Finally, even though he was happy while watching from afar Jacob and Queenie's wedding, after Newt leaves and they are about to start, Albus turns solemn and leaves before they can see him. He is clearly happy for them, but even so, the wedding is a reminder of all the things he could have had had he been a better lover for Gellert and he cannot attend the wedding because he would be overwhelmed by the reminder of the life he could have had with Gellert. It's quite sad if you think about it, especially as it reminds you that while Newt will eventually find his happy ending by marrying Tina, and Harry has found his by marrying Ginny, Albus will never really achieve a true happy ending. The only man he ever loved is too far gone at this movie, and we know that he'll eventually have to condemn him to A Fate Worse Than Death by imprisoning him in Nurmengard, which considering his previous way of acting is clearly a bitter pill to swallow. Even if his spirit is able to rest at peace knowing Voldemort has been defeated, and that Gellert has redeemed himself and they may be able to reunite in the afterlife, it's still quite sad that all that Albus will have in the end after all his struggles is a Bittersweet Ending that is almost as equally bitter as it is sweet.
  • His lonely walk also firmly displays just how much his Intelligence Equals Isolation problems affected him. With Gellert, his only rival in brilliance, gone, there really was no replacement for him, and he was denied even the happiness he could have found in being brilliant. Even more disturbingly, his expression turning stoic and grim as he leaves makes it clear that he is perfectly aware that even though he genuinely cared for them, he would most likely have to put his allies into danger and can never fully associate himself with them.
    • Albus seems to have spent his entire life feeling unworthy of redemption for his mistakes. He loved a person but was too blinded to be a proper partner to the young man who might have been saved from the dark side had he received Albus's guidance, and it cost him his sister. It seems to have broken him. He seems to take on all the guilt of the things that followed. Gellert's crimes, his failure to be the partner that could have saved him, and his inability to stop him early left him so broken that he never sought romance any more, which may well be not just because he was too traumatized but also because he was in a way punishing himself for the great failure he committed. His relationship with his brother is clearly strained, and he seems to have taken on the tragedy with Credence as an inappropriate burden as neither brother was aware he survived the shipwreck. The Qilin knew better, but Albus rejected the absolution that was offered. He never trusted himself with political power when offered (either as the Mugwump, or Minister of Magic). This is a man who was burned by love and ambition in his youth and then forced in what was easily the harshest and cruelest twist of fate possible to see just how grievously wrong he was. But by that time, it was far too late, and all he could do was cut himself off from both afterwards and focus on solely protecting the world.
  • The expression on Grindelwald's face when he realizes they have reached a stalemate and can kill each other at the end of their duel. He looks so utterly grieving, so heartbroken that you just can't help but pity him as you realize that although he's gone to great extremities, there's still enough of humanity inside him to still maintain his love for Albus. His delusions that he was making the world a better place has torn them far away, but you can't help but remember that Albus never stopped regretting how badly Gellert ended up for a reason. He didn't start out like this, and had Albus been a better partner, he might well have been able to revolutionize the world in a better way and have Albus still. The fact that the man that could have done nearly as much good as Albus did had fallen so deeply into the dark is a true tragedy.
    • It's a pretty sad moment for Albus too, as he silently and somberly walks away from the man he once shared such a powerful bond with.
      Grindelwald: Who will love you now, Dumbledore?! You're all alone.
• What song plays during the credits? Gregory Porter's "Heaven", which tells the tale of a man falling in love with an angel who fell from the sky. It's bitterly ironic, since that song followed Dumbledore's departure from Jacob and Queenie's wedding, having severed his ties with Grindelwald and accepted his loneliness for the rest of his life.

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