Blog Post: Critic across the Harry Potter books/films
First of all: I am a big Harry Potter fan and be sure I will always be a big Harry Potter fan. I grew up with these books and movies and don’t know what I would do without them. There are many things in Harry Potter that I still don’t understand, but that’s what makes up the whole universe of HP. That’s why so many people still talk about it in the HP forums on the internet or at conventions today.
There’s one thing I’ve been worried about since the 4th part and I’m still very critical about it today. The relationship between Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore.
The 4th part is the Trimagic Tournament, where 3 schools compete against each other. Harry participates in this tournament although he is much too young and these games are much too dangerous.
This is where the moment begins for me that I can’t understand. How can Dumbledore allow Harry to play in this tournament and put him in such danger? He knows everything about this very dangerous tournament and after everything that’s going on he might think there’s something wrong.
There’s no relationship in Part 5, because Dumbledore is building a distance to protect Harry, whose thoughts and dreams are now influenced and sometimes even controlled by Voldemort. However, Harry didn’t know the reason and therefore felt left alone.
In the 6th part the two approach again a bit. Still, I don’t understand why Dumbledore didn’t tell him right after he learned that Voldemort created 7 Horcruxes, what Horcruxes are and how to destroy them. That would have helped Harry a lot. Also, I think he could have told Harry that he was going to die. In the end, Harry must ask himself (and be accused of asking himself this question Credit: at the wedding of Bill & Fleur Weasley and Aberforth Dumbledore shortly before the Battle of Hogwarts) whether he even knew Dumbledore.
Through one of the last scenes of the two in the afterlife, in which Dumbledore thanks for everything and encourages him to go back to life, the relationship becomes good after all. After everything that has happened, one notices a special cordiality in this father-son relationship. Dumbledore could never really show feelings (not even in his youth) but in the end he found his peace.
Anyway, without this complicated relationship the story wouldn’t have been as thrilling as it was at the end.
Finally, in the last part we get to know how important Harry’s relationship to Dumbledore was. He pays tribute to his mentor, his teacher and his protector by giving his second son his first name Albus.
Albus Dumbledore spent the last years of his life protecting Harry and destroying Lord Voldemort. This is very creditable, even though sometimes the relationship with Harry was too cold and unheartfelt in my opinion and I sometimes interpreted it in such a way that Voldemort is selfish and unpredictable. Nevertheless, I’m a big fan of Dumbledore and I’m very happy to see him in the new films “Fantastic Beats ….”. It is and remains one of the greatest and most significant spells in the magical world.
Thank you JK Rowling.