While watching this movie, I realized that Fantastic Beasts 2 might not really suit the appetite of Chinese moviegoers. Rowling added too many metaphors when writing the Harry Potter series, and these metaphors are one of the reasons why the Harry Potter series is still talked about by fans. But if Harry Potter is a metaphor for Britain in the 1990s, when China was already in line with the world, Chinese fans have no problem understanding these; the reality before World War II, which the Fantastic Beasts series metaphors, is too far away from China.
Most moviegoers to date have rarely really considered the historical context in which The Crimes of Grindelwald takes place when watching and understanding the film. This is very normal, because this story takes place in 1927, when China was still going through the Northern Expedition, but the western world on the other side of the world has entered modern society, and began to breed the extremely tragic World War II and Genocide.
By the way, does Rowling's choice to interpret that history at this point also mean she thinks racism, isolationism, and signs of a new Cold War are beginning to emerge again?
①A brief analysis of the image of Grindelwald
First, let me interpret what I think of Grindelwald's image. Grindelwald is undoubtedly a combination of Hitler and Napoleon, and is also endowed with more unparalleled charm by Rowling and Depp. Grindelwald was cast as a politician. The reason why he infiltrated the U.S. Ministry of Magic in Beasts 1, and then deliberately got himself arrested, was to create a persecuted hero image and gain sympathy, support and empathy from wizards who were dissatisfied with the Ministry of Magic's isolation policy; The Ministry of Magic is portrayed as a tyranny that rules by force and has little regard for the happiness and power of its citizens. Grindelwald's speech in the cemetery showed his superb incitement skills and clarity of political philosophy. Here I would like to popularize a knowledge point: the Western governments that the Chinese people have come into contact with after the reform and opening up have been concerned about human rights from the very beginning, and have an image of democracy and freedom that serves voters. However, this concern for voters, the protection of citizens, the recognition and protection of various natural human rights, and even a tolerant attitude that is almost Mary's, are actually products of the Second World War. World War II has not only shaped the political and economic landscape of the past seventy years, but also the thinking of all the participating countries. All in all, although the governments of European and American countries in 1927 were much stronger than those of the Republic of China, they were definitely far from the present. Grindelwald clearly foresees the coming World War II, the explosion of technology and the human tragedy that accompanies it. In terms of foresight, he is indeed the man Dumbledore liked, and he is many times stronger than his younger generation decades later. However, although Grindelwald is beyond the times, he can't be beyond the times at the same time, not to mention that he has the burden of the villain appointed by Rowling. Therefore, as a post-80s generation in the 19th century, what he did and thought was not so much a modern man as a man of the Republic of China.
②A brief analysis of the characters of Rita Lestrange
Rita is a poetic existence in the Divine Beasts 2 movie. Some people think that this out-of-the-box figure is too Mary Sue. But I think Rita Lestrange is the most important foreshadowing of the later Gedden battle, and she can be said to be a combination of Snape and Lily.
First of all, the middle part of the movie takes a long time to explain Rita's boyhood. Who was she like in her teenage years? Snape. The same terrible family; the same hurting father; the same lack of a mother to rely on; the same exclusion from the people around; But Rita is more fortunate than Snape, because after all she comes from a prestigious family and is married to a husband who loves her dearly.
So why do I say that Rita is also a combination of Lily? Because of Rita's death, I instantly thought of the cause of the entire HP series: the magic of love. In the true story of HP, how did Lily activate the oldest and most powerful magic of love? First, the victim must die voluntarily; second, the murderer must have no intention of harming the victim. These two, Rita accounted for. As the bloodline of Lestrange, she is the object that Grindelwald wants to win over. Grindelwald once held Rita's hand, indicating that he had no intention of killing Rita at the beginning, but wanted to recruit her under his command. Secondly, Rita sneaked up on Grindelwald from behind, cherishing the heart of mortal death, buying time for the Newt brothers to escape, and finally died under Grindelwald's rod. All the sacrifices and devotions Lily made, Rita did too. So I don't believe it if Brother Newt, or at least Brother Newt, is not protected by Rita Love. If Lily's love is Rowling's tribute to mother's love; then Rita's love is probably love.
Since analyzing Rita, one cannot but analyze the magical family in the Divine Beast series. The most important value in the HP series is that blood does not represent the power of magic. Half-blood wizards, Muggle wizards, and pure-blood wizards all have the same talents. Therefore, many viewers think that the emphasis on magical families in the mythical beast series is an old tune, even eating books. But I think that pure blood wizards have no more powerful talents than hemp wizards, and it does not mean that in a certain historical context, pure blood wizards are not more powerful than hemp or half-blood wizards. Because of the seriousness of the wizarding world Rowling created, we must take into account the historical context of the 1920s when understanding the Beasts series. As we all know, Western society is very different from Chinese society since ancient times, that is, Western society has always maintained a strong concept of blood, emphasizing the noble birth of nobles and the separation of nobles and commoners. Therefore, the royal family must be considered in the marriage of the Western royal family; the princess can only marry the prince; when Elizabeth I married Prince Philip, there were many nobles who thought that Philip's life experience was not worthy of Elizabeth. Chinese emperors, on the other hand, like to choose their queens and concubines from among the common people; there is no such thing as the emperor's wife as the prime minister's daughter. The reason is that the imperial examination system completely broke the monopoly of the aristocratic family, and Wu Zetian cleaned up the major gatekeepers in a clean and clear manner. Since then, the prince and general Xiang Ning's opinion has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. However, in Western society, it was not until World War II that the civil service examination system equivalent to the imperial examination was established (if I remember correctly); in the long feudal society and the early industrial society, knowledge and power have been monopolized by nobles and priests, There is absolutely no chance that its civilians will be turned over by the exam.
Rowling's magical world is an insinuation of the real world. I guess, just like before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, people mainly relied on family learning for cultural inheritance, during the time of the mythical beast series, each magic family also had its own magic secrets that were not passed on. Pureblood's monopoly on knowledge has given them greater power than hemp and half-blood wizards, and by this means purebloods are born noble. I'm not saying that Hogwarts isn't important. Rather, Hogwarts may not have been as influential for a thousand years as Harry was in the 1990s. Considering that the UK only enacted the compulsory education law in 1944, it stipulates that all school-age children must receive standard education. In the wizarding world, then, it is likely that there are still many pure-blooded children who were not educated at Hogwarts before the duel of Gedden. In other words, Hogwarts education is only part of their magical education. I boldly guessed that maybe it was the strength of Grindelwald that forced the pure-blooded families who had originally reserved them to come up with their own unique secrets and share them with each other. It may also be that Grindelwald killed too many pure-blood wizards in the same way he killed the noble heirs in World War I, which greatly weakened the power of the aristocratic families and forced them to give up the economic and political power that they had always held.
③A brief analysis of Credence's characters
Because I accidentally read Credence's spoilers before watching the movie, when I saw Rita tell her family history, my first reaction was that Credence is Ariana's son.
Why do you say that? First of all, fans of the original HP book know it. Rowling's habit is to have no spare time, or to say that the grass snakes gray line, the pulse is a thousand miles away, or to put it in a bad way, that is, there is an obsessive-compulsive disorder that must echo every detail. Rita Lestrange's life experience of killing her younger brother is definitely not just an insinuation of how miserable Rita's family is, but probably an insinuation of Credence or the Dumbledore family.
Let's take a look at the story of the Lestrange family. First of all, what this little story has been emphasizing is how little the Lestrange family values their daughters, that the male is the main thread, the daughter is just the accent, and how much patriarchal Rita's father is. In the end, Rita even had a huge psychological shadow, hatred, and even indirectly killed her younger brother. The core of this is the contempt and injustice of women in the magic family. What is this little story trying to tell? It conveys the world view of the wizarding world in the early 20th century, and tells us that the wizarding world also has a development context similar to the Muggle world. This story tells us that although there is no difference in power between witches and wizards, the wizarding world at least before 1927 was still a patriarchal system; it tells us that although witches can also participate in social activities and participate in various occupations, their role in the family The status is still similar to that of the Muggle family at the time.
This story certainly doesn't prove Credence is Ariana's son. But it can be proved that if Credence is indeed Ariana's son, then Mrs. Dumbledore has reason to conceal the existence of this child and send him all the way to the United States.
Let's do an exclusion. In 1927, Credence was now in his mid-twenties and Albus Dumbledore was 46. Dumbledore's father died in Azkaban when he was very young, so Credence could never be the son of Dumbledore's father. Albus' sister died when he was 18. Assuming a small age difference between the Dumbledore siblings, Ariana would have been 16 at the time, and it was entirely possible that she could conceive and have a child. What's more, in the HP7 movie, Ariana's actor is indeed a mature girl, not a little girl who has not developed. Assuming that Credence was born in 1899 or 1900 when Arianna Four was born, he was 28 or 27 in 1927, and Ezra Miller was 26 this year. Hmm, barely correct.
Let's take a look at Rita's age. Newt was born in 1897, 16 years younger than Dumbledore. Rita and Newt were classmates, but married Theseus, who was 8 years older than Newt. So I make a bold assumption that Rita is two or three years older than Newt, maybe a grade or two. In this case, if Rita's brother was sent to the United States around the age of one, Rita would be around five or six years old when the child was born. Same here.
Finally, why do I intuitively think Credence is Ariana's son? Because when I saw this in the movie theater, a scene from "One Hundred Years of Solitude" suddenly popped into my mind. Like Fantastic Beasts, One Hundred Years of Solitude reflects the changing times through the rise and fall of a family. There is roughly such a plot in this book: a teenage girl Mei Mei falls in love with a poor coachman and becomes pregnant. Her mother was a serious woman who valued her family's reputation. To cover up the scandal, her mother sent her daughter to a nursing home thousands of miles away from home, and imprisoned her grandson at home, declaring him to be her husband's illegitimate son. (In that society, the loss of virginity of women was much more serious than that of men)
For the Dumbledore family, Albus' mother was also a serious woman who valued the family's reputation. So the Dumbledore brothers learned to keep secrets on their mother's lap. So I think it makes perfect sense for the Dumbledore family for serious mothers to lock up their mentally disturbed daughters who were pregnant out of wedlock and send their illegitimate grandchildren across the ocean to America. Don't forget, Albus' mother was killed by his own daughter, but the general reader never seems to have tried to dig out whether Ariana killed her mother for any reason. If it was the kidnapping that triggered Ariana's runaway, the logic would at least be understandable. The prophecy said "what boy, desperate girl" (probably, I can't remember, welcome the audience who remembered to add), are considered to refer to sisters and brothers, but in fact it can refer to Ariana and Credence.
In the end, Grindelwald considered his worst enemy to be Albus. And Beasts 2's performance makes it clear that Grindelwald thinks only Credence can beat Albus. If Credence is just Albus' illegitimate younger brother, it doesn't explain at all why Grindelwald thinks he can be so influential. But if Credence is Ariana's son, it's understandable why the Dumbledore brothers are so secretive about him. What's more, Ariana was the fuse and even the root cause of the breakup between Albus and Grindelwald. Probably only Ariana's son could have such a deep connection with the two at the same time, becoming a key figure in the overall situation. .
And, if Credence is Ariana's son, that might explain why he's so adept at controlling Silence. If this silent one belonged to Ariana originally, it could be understood as a mother's love. As for Dumbledore's Phoenix, the British custom is that the daughter's son is also part of the family, so Credence is also a member of the Dumbledore family. But with all the direct male heirs alive, Credence should be considered a fringe of the family in cultural traditions, so it makes sense that the HP series didn't mention him when it counted the Dumbledore family.
④About the blue flame of life and death
Finally, talk about the blue fire problem in the cemetery.
The only subordinate in the movie who spoke out to Grindelwald was burned to death by the blue fire. Therefore, some netizens think that Grindelwald is too stubborn. But I don't think this is what Grindelwald wanted. Rowling's wizarding world is against his will, and Grindelwald's blue fire can clearly tell if the entrant is loyal or not. There is a detail early in the film that the subordinate accidentally adds a "great" adjective before his name when referring to Dumbledore. This may be to suggest that the subordinate has long been dissatisfied with Grindelwald and worshipped Dumbledore in his heart, so it is not surprising that he was burned to death by the blue fire in the cemetery.
Having said so much, it is actually my attempt to sort out and speculate on the plot. The film The Crimes of Grindelwald is really not very clear in its narrative. The entire film is clearly a foreshadowing of the latter. But given that Beasts 3 is still two years away, and the whole Gedeng secret may be six years away, I'm going to make a bold guess here. Better to have a conjecture that makes sense than to wait two years with no brains and doubts, isn't it? All in all, the above are all the words of a family, and they are considered brain supplements. Rowling is welcome to slap her face in the later stage.
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