I think aside from the Yikes factor, which I don’t really have the authority to address, the Nagini reveal is really emblematic of the problem Fantastic Beasts and most prequel films have. Namely, does it really matter?
And the answer is truly no. How does Nagini formally being a woman impact the later events of the Harry Potter universe? Is it a weakness of Voldemort’s to exploit or a hindrance to the heroes? No, she accomplishes those things just fine as a normal snake. Is her involvement in the events surrounding Grindelwald important? No, because it wasn’t worth remembering, not by Dumbledore or Voldemort or anyone else. At the end of the day, this new information was not necessary, and therefore not worth the time to include in the original seven books.
And that’s what’s wrong about this whole Newt Scamander, Fighter for Dumbledore angle. Because the books and therefore the history and worldbuilding do not support it. Scrimgeour doesn’t tell Harry “you’re Dumbledore’s man through and through, just like that Scamander bloke” because Harry was one of a kind to Scrimgeour, not just the update to a previously existing prototype. There’s no chapter in Rita Skeeter’s tell-all book devoted to Dumbledore’s special relationship with Newt, because it didn’t exist matter. Newt does not participate in the Order of the Phoenix or attend Dumbledore’s funeral, so whatever bond they have in these films does not survive. Which begs the question why any of it matters.
The characters of the Harry Potter Wizarding World do not know Newt Scamander for being a hero in the war against Grindelwald; they know him for being a magizoologist. Rowling can retcon it for these films, but she cannot go back and change the text she already wrote which shows just how unimportant of a story these five films must be to never even crop up as a footnote in Harry’s story. When Newt was just a vehicle for the Beasts, that was fine. Harry is not Charlie or Hagrid, for whom Newt would have been a far more important figure.
But this push to have a Good vs. Evil conflict, and more importantly for a Cinematic Universe, renders Newt’s revised story completely irrelevant because we know it was irrelevant to the characters of the future we were first introduced to and loved. If they never cared, why should we?
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