One of these days, we’re going to have a talk on Dumbledore and how the Fantastic Beasts movies just show further what we already knew. Dumbledore manipulates people to do his bidding while rarely getting his hands dirty. Some may argue that his intentions are good. And they are. From what I’ve seen, every intention is “morally good” while the actions are mostly not. You know what they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But it gets to the point where you have to sit there and think “why is this grown man, one of the most powerful wizards to exist……using actual children and emotionally volatile people to do his bidding”. Why are children fighting in a war? Why are children losing everything?
We see it in Marauders era and then golden trio era and we’d probably see it in the cursed child era if he hadn’t been killed. He uses children, he uses people from bad home lives, and uses them until he can’t anymore.
We see this with Sirius. Dumbledore wanted Harry as his pawn and he knew if Sirius wasn’t out of the way, Sirius would’ve never allowed it. Sirius would’ve never allowed Harry to be used as bait in his first year. So what did he do? He let Sirius rot in Azkaban and didn’t get him a fair trial. Sirius Black, one of his lions who was no longer useful to him and tossed to the rubble. On top of that, Dumbledore careless way of handling Harry let to his death. Also, using the man and leaving him locked in his abusive childhood home? Using him for his base of operations.
Then we see this with Remus Lupin. Dumbledore does good things to get people in his debt. I mean, who wouldn’t want a werewolf on their side when all of them are working for Voldemort? He knew that if he did something nice to Remus (allowing him to study at Hogwarts), Remus would feel indebted. THEN when Harry’s time came, Dumbledore brought him back because Sirius broke out. Remus was living a poor life and Dumbledore only cared for the lion that fought in the war for him…..when he could use him.
Then we also see this with Snape. Who came from an abusive home and Dumbledore didn’t really care much for him. An example of this is when he chooses not to punish Sirius for The Whomping willow prank. Then when Snape lost Lily (by his own actions), Dumbledore saw someone he could use. Someone that didn’t have much to lose and could be easily used. We see this when Snape doesn’t get punished for working closely with Voldemort, being a death eater, and being responsible for the death of the Potter’s. He should’ve gotten decades in Azkaban yet Dumbledore let him slide so that he could be useful.
Everyone is a means to an end to Dumbledore. Everyone. I could go on, talking about Newt Scamander, Hagrid, Firenze. We could sit here and argue about the good Dumbledore brought. But to do that, we’d also have to talk about the blood on his hands. How many children needed to die or be orphaned for his “grand scheme” to happen? Emmeline Vance who was betrayed to death eaters and killed? Dorcas Meadowes, who was personally killed by Voldemort?Marlene McKinnon who lost her entire family and her life in the same night? James Potter, Lily Evans, Cedric Diggory, Colin Creevey, etc? Sirius Black, who tried to be good and different from his family yet ended up unfairly in Azkaban with the lot of them? Remus Lupin and Tonks. How many children needed to be traumatized? Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood? Ginny Weasley who had her mind invaded and violated and used like a puppet for almost a full year? Teddy Lupin who grew up orphaned?