1)Everyone in the Dumbledore family we know has a name that starts with the letter 'A'. Albus, Aberforth, Ariana...

Aurelius fits perfectly to this naming trend.

2)Albus Dumbledore has an aunt named Honoria. We don't know if she is the sister of Percival(Albus' father) or Kendra(Albus' mother). We don't have much information about her but we know she never married and had a fiancee who she broke up with eventually. We first know about her in one of Dumbledore's notes inside the The Tales of Beedle the Bard book. Dumbledore states that she was a spinster.Spinster is a term referring to an unmarried woman who is older than what is perceived as the prime age range during which women should marry.

3)Honoria being a spinster is such a weird information to give to your readers. The only information we know is she had a fiancee but they broke up. That is weird and I think the reason for that is for the surname "Dumbledore".

4)I think Honoria had a son with his fiancee without marriage and because they have never married, she kept the surname Dumbledore for his son Aurelius. She raised him alone and thats why we don't see a father figure in the sinking ship scene in the Crimes of Grindelwald.

5)The reason we never knew Albus had a cousin is because after the ship sank Honoria died and they though the baby also died with her. But in reality Leta saved Aurelius from the ship.

6)Near the end of the second movie, after Grindelwald gave a wand to Credence/Aurelius he cast a spell that exploded a mountain. I think the reason they showed us this is that we see, even without proper education ,Credence has an immense magical power. Also he is the only known Obscurial known to past the age 10 which shows that he is very powerful and could be linked to a powerful wizard family.

7)Also IMDB lists Linda Santiago as Credence's aunt. She is the women in the ship with the baby Credence/Aurelius. I think she might be Honoria.

TL;DR: Basically Aurelius might be the son of Honoria, Albus Dumbledore's aunt on the father side, which makes him the cousin of Albus Dumbledore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg9BT3gJ7eU

No spell can truly bring back the dead...

---

Or if you would rather read:

Crimes of Grindelwald seemingly editted (if not just retconned) a bit of Harry Potter canon, but the biggest change to the history it tries to push is that Albus has a second younger brother: Aurelius Dumbledore.

Which makes absolutely no sense.

For one, Dumbledore's mother died in 1898, and Credence wasn't born till 1904. For another, his father was sent to Azkaban around 1892, and died before getting out.

Not to mention the end of the movie implies him being a Dumbledore makes him extremely powerful, but, if we've learnt anything from the HP series, magical prowess is not hereditary. The Gaunts weren't particularly powerful, most pure-bloods are pretty average, and Muggleborns like Hermione and Lily can be extremely powerful.

So short of a another retcon, there's not really a traditional way Credence could be Dumbledore's younger brother.

( I debunk other theories in the video. )

So with biology and math failing us, is there another way for Credence to be Dumby's younger bro?

While Secrets of Dumbledore may just retcon Aurelius into the story, we can use what we know about magic to put together a possible recipe for building a brother...

Firstly, Albus had extensive experience in the field of Alchemy, working with Nicholas Flamel. This means that he both had access to the Philosopher's Stone, and the know-how on how to use it. And as we find out in HBP, the Stone can be used to create a new, living body... as that was Voldemort's plan in stealing it.

And with the ability to create a living body, Albus could attempt to do something never done before in magical history... bring back the dead.

We know from HBP (and DH) that Dumbledore's biggest regret is that he led to the death of his sister, Ariana. We know he blames himself for destroying his family. And we know he believes that "no spell can bring back the dead".

He says that a lot, and if anyone would have the ability and desire to try it'd be him. But he knows it's impossible. Because he tried it.

See Voldy could come back because his soul was still hanging around, since it was tethered to the physical world. And what we learn from GOF (and COS?) is that if your soul is still hanging around, all you need to do to come back to life is build a new body. Voldy even hints to Harry in PS that the Stone could be used to bring back his parents...

So, with Albus' easy access to being able to create a new body, all he would need is a piece of Ariana's stone that hadn't moved on.

And there are two potential sources:

1. Ariana's Obscurus

Since we know (or at least highly suspect) Ariana of being an obscurial, her obscurus would have been deeply tied to her soul. And as we find out in FBWTFT, an obscurus can be preserved even if the witch/wizard has died. And with the deep tie between witches and their obscurus, a part of Ariana's soul may be preservable along with it.

2) Albus' Soul

In DH, when Harry brings back James, Lily, Sirius and Remus, he finds out that the ghostly figures that the Resurrection Stone brings back are not pulled back from the dead, but instead the parts of them that live on within Harry. As we have always been told, the ones we love never truly leave us. And this means that a piece of Ariana lives on within Albus.

So with the Stone, a few fragments of his sister, and a dash of Dumbledore's own particular genius, Albus could have (out of desperation and longing) brewed himself a Frankensteinian younger sibling. A brand new younger brother, Credence Barebone.

TLDR; Credence was the result of Albus attempting to reincarnate his departed sister.

About him being Aberforth's son. I don't know, that felt kind of anti-climactic and strange to me. It also really made no sense to me why Grindelwald would lie about Credence being Dumbledore's brother instead of just telling the truth? What difference does it make whether he is his brother or nephew?

I also feel like it was way too easy for Albus to reverse years of manipulation by Grindelwald. It was all resolved too easily, too quickly...

So the line by Grindlewald is, I think, pretty widely accepted to be a lie. Albus is not a biological brother of Credence, the timing makes this impossible. AD's mother Kendra was dead for 7 years when Credence was born and his father Percival had been in Azkaban for at least 14 (if he hadn't died already). And we know he died there, because he didn't escape (Sirius Black was the first one to ever do that in HP3), and if it sentence had been commuted, it would have been mentioned by someone in HP7 or in one of his biographies. So unless the Dementors allowed two prisoners to fall in love and have sex in Azkaban (which seems not like a very Dementor thing to do), there is no way that Percival could have fathered a child after sitting in Azkaban for over 10 years.

Moreover, if Credences "real" name was Aurelius (i.e. he had actually been given a Dumbledore name at birth), GG would have known the age and sex of the child in FB1, so GG would have never gotten confused which of the two children (Chastity or Credence) was the obscurial he was looking for. Further evidence is how GG says "I give you the name that is your birthright: Aurelius Dumbledore", not "the name you were born with" or something similar, he is actually giving him a new name in that scene.

So how is Credence related to the Dumbledores? Through Ariana, or rather: Ariana's Obscurius. The Obscurius that was created by Ariana's suppression of her magic (due to the associated trauma) is the same one that later attached itself to Credence. But as I pointed out above, there is 7 years between the birth of Credence and Arianas death, how could an Obscurius live that long without a host? After all in FB1 we learn that Obscurii can't live long without a host...

My theory is this: AD and GG researched terrible things during their summer together in 1899. And there is one very prominent thing that matches a lot of the symptoms we have seen and matches a lot of "throwaway" lines by GG. The most terrible thing that we know of in the world of Harry Potter is the creation of Horcruxes. But as a topic of research it would make perfect sense for AD and GG: They were looking into means of immortality (The Deathly Hallows), were willing to do terrible things for "The Greater Good" and (at least in the case of Albus) had someone close that was immediately threatened by a terrible death (Ariana Dumbledore). So they decided to create a Horcrux for her. They prepare everything but get interrupted by Aberforth, who mistakes the situation and thinks they want to sacrifice Ariana to create a Horcrux for one of them. A fight breaks out and Dumbledore (by accident of course), slays Ariana. This completes the Horcrux ritual and a Horcrux of Dumbledore is created. The Horcrux attaches to the closest thing around that isn't a full blown wizzard flinging spells left and right: Ariana's freshly released Obscurius. The fight ends in shock, Grindlewald leaves, Dumbledore goes to Hogwarts to teach and Aberforth moves to Hogsmead to cuddle goats.

We actually know that accidental creation of Horcruxes is possible (Mister Potter is a prominent example) and that the wizzard that created the Horcrux is not necessarily aware of it (as was the case with Voldemort not realising that Harry is a Horcrux). We know that both living and inanimate things can be Horcruxes (Nagini and Harry are living Horcruxes, 4 are inanimate objects and the diary is a weird intermediate thing).

The Obscurius is being kept alive by the piece of Dumbledore's soul, attached to it and can now roam the earth to find other victims, eventually settling on Credence (why it chooses him, I don't know, but it probably comes down to something connected with the LeStranges).

GG eventually figures out what happened: His erstwhile lover and now greatest adversary has an accidental Horcrux running around in the world somewhere. If it wasn't for the Horcrux, he could probably defeat Dumbledore in a straight up duel: He has the Blood-Oath-Thingy-Majigg and could find out to how to destroy it at an opportune time to allow him to assault Albus directly and he has the Elder Wand, so is virtually undefeatable in a magical duel. Except that Dumbledore can't be slain, while his Horcrux is around. He finds the Horcrux and settles on a plan to set Albus and the carrier of the Horcrux against eachother. If Albus kills his Horcrux, he can step in and fight and kill a weakened (and now mortal) Dumbledore. If the Horcrux kills Dumbledore, he has made him a loyal follower already. Can you say two birds one stone?

GG even tells us, that nobody could kill Dumbledore, except for Credence (just like Voldemort couldn't be defeated by anyone but his last Horcrux: Harry Potter): "Credence is the only entity that can kill Albus Dumbledore."

It also explains Credence' connection to Phoenixes (similar to Harry knowing Parselmouth).

Lastly, it explains how Dumbledore could (70 years later) diagnose the Voldemort/Potter situation so quickly and precisely: The exact same thing had happened to him (although inadvertently).

TL/DR: Dumbledore accidentally created a Horcrux in the form of his sister Ariana's Obscurius, which now resides in Credence Barebone. Grindlewald needs Credence to kill Albus of his own will, or else the Horcrux would keep Dumbledore alive.

Every single Dumbledore we've seen (Albus, Aberforth, Ariana, and Credence) were all extremely powerful. They're extremely powerful in how much magical energy they can produce, dueling, inventions etc.

Dumbledore = For obvious reasons.

Aberforth (in the movies at least) = Produced arguably the largest patronus we've ever seen, combating multiple dementors at once. Just like Harry's incredibly rare feat in the forest. Given his immense dueling abilities, he was also able to hold his own in a 3-way duel with 2 of the most powerful wizards of all time, at age 15. This is something nobody would be able to boast about.

Ariana = Was hinted to be an Obscurial (which express their magic in such extreme ways) as a result of suppressing her magical abilities due to trauma. In contrast, Merope Gaunt's magic didn't turn her into an Obscurial when she repressed it due to trauma from her familiy. It made her magic weak/poor, to the point her father called her a squib. This strongly points to Obscurus cases only happening if the child was natural very powerful, whereas if their magical power was average or ordinary, it would be greatly weakened.

Credance aka Aurelius = A very powerful Obscurial who also used magic to fight Album in such a way we never saw anyone in the first 7 books/films use magic (expect the most powerful wizards in the HP universe). I mean, he would have been able to take on several death eaters in the Battle of Hogwarts and make quick work of the fight (based on what they showed us).

And why do they have a strong connection with phoenixes? Is it just unique to them? Is it like with the Slytherine bloodline that have a strong connection with snakes? Does this mean every wizarding bloodline have a special connection to a specific animal (magical or not)? Or is this just reserved for the most powerful bloodlines?

EDIT: Adding reasons why I think they're so powerful for each one.

I don't need to tell you whether or not I thought it was shit in the title - if you are even remotely curious enough about the third film in this particular series to click on a rant invoking its hallowed name, you probably already know how this shit's gonna go. As a disclaimer, I will tell you that I came out of the theatre weeks ago intending to make this rant, but figured that there would be other people here to do it for me, presumably better than I could manage. To my surprise, that hasn't happened, and so here I am, much hazier on the specifics than I was back then, here to disappoint everyone. Just... not as much as the film itself.

I will tell you now, of course, that it was shit.

Tonight, on Fantastic Beasts:

• Wizard Elections are absolute nonsense.

• I will kick anyone using Grindelwald for battleboarding in the shins until their behaviour ceases.

• There's a cutesy magic deer who I can only refer to as a Bing Chilling because my brain is a useless, meme-rotted lump of wasted grey matter. Also it's a lying swine.

• Kowalski's involvement is so forced it's as if the film has constipation.

• There sure is a black guy with the Lestrange surname on the heroes' side. Sure wish I could tell you more than that.

• A woman has an accent that mildly confuses me.

• Things built up in the previous trainwreck invariably don't matter.

• There are maybe three important characters in the whole film and everyone else could fuck off to no great effect.

• A whole lot of scenes in the film are utterly useless by design.

• Eddie Redmayne is a treasure and his version of Newt deserved so much better.

• Slytherin students get fairer treatment in their five seconds of relevance than in the entirety of the Harry Potter films.

• How are there meant to be three more of these films what the actual fuck.

• I run out of these comments. For now.

So yeah you might have the slight inkling by now that the film isn't very good, and that's good! Hold on to that feeling. Now I get to try and expand on some of these. Maybe all of them if my mental state survives. I'm going to try and limit outright plot summaries in the hopes that most people clicking on this and reading down to here probably at least watched the film or have passing knowledge of it. But the plot is a majority of the rant, so you're just going to have to deal with that.

I'm not taking this in any particular order.

So Grindelwald has precognition. That ought to be fun for battleboarding. Voldemort was scared of prophecies and this guy is like... Prophecy Guy.

Granted, they're more like little out-of-context flashes of future events, but they're really neat flashes. They predict the camera angles at the time and everything, that's fun. I don't know why exactly he has this power, if it was always stated he had it in the original books and I just forgot, but it's possible and we know people having foresight isn't unheard of in the HP universe.

My issue with it is that its presence means that a ton of the film is actually just Dumbledore's Scooby-Doo Gang having to play around it, which you'd think might be interesting until it isn't.

So the film opens with Newt helping a big deer give birth to a little deer. That's pretty cute. Then some not-death-eaters appear and kill the big deer. That's pretty bad! Then they chase Newt and fail to kill him, but they stole the baby deer. That's pretty worse! Then Newt goes back to the big deer's body, and discovers that there was actually a second baby deer. That's pretty good, I guess!

These are called Chilin. Or Chillin. And they truly are Fantastic Beasts (and Where to Find Them). Because they can read souls and bow at you if you're a good person, or not, if you're... not. Though notably there's no reaction to outright bad people, they apparently group people into 'literal saints' and 'the rest of the unwashed masses', I suppose.

EDIT: I have been informed that the deer are actually called Qilin, after the chinese mythical creature. This makes my bing chilling brainrot even funnier to me and nobody else.

Not long after this, Newt's brother whose name I forget whose actor's name I also forget and recognise solely by the constant, smarmy-ass half-smirk he wears all the goddamn time is inducted into the Scooby Gang along with Newt's assistant, Some guy called Lestrange - sorry, they play coy with it early on by simply stating 'he has connections to an old wizard family', some fuckin' teacher woman we never knew about, and... Kowalski. The muggle comic relief. And NOT Newt's auror love interest. She has somehow experienced incredible upwards mobility in the auror community, despite being constantly under investigation for either incompetence or aiding presumed criminals in the previous two films, so she doesn't appear until the last two minutes of the film.

In a previous scene, Kowalski was recruited into the fold by Teacher Woman (no I don't remember her name and I'm not looking it up) who pretended to be sexually harassed by her disguised colleagues so that Kowalski would come out of his shop and be a good person. This somehow proves he is invaluable to their cause in fighting Wizard Hitler 1. I like Kowalski and even I think he had no right to be a major player in this film.

Like, I get you needed Queenie drama but mere minutes into her introduction here and it's revealed she's already against Grindelwald and is lying by omission concerning some of the mental readings she provides. Thus removing any inherent tension in the times Queenie walks past Kowalski in later scenes acting oh-so-cold and dismissive towards him. So that's check one on the 'last film and did it really matter' list.

Teacher Woman is the one who has the mildly confusing accent. Like it's not necessarily bad but it sounds like she's almost trying to put on a sort of quasi-british accent some of the time? Even though I think she's meant to be American? And she always sounds so excited to be in scenes, it feels like how a harry potter fan would act if they got a role in a film and got to pretend to be a cool, strong wizard for a bit.

Black Lestrange has about three lines of dialogue in the entire film. In the 'getting the team together' scene in the train he is directed to act as suspiciously as humanly possible to the point where it's so blatantly obvious that he's not actually betraying the team when he appears to join Grindelwald, even though I almost guarantee the screenwriters wanted to convince you he'd be trouble. Speaking of which, fuck knows what his plan was. Supposedly spying on Grindelwald for Dumbledore, but Dumbledore already knew that Grindelwald could see the future? Grindelwald even hints that it wasn't Black Lestrange's true purpose, but I guess we have to feel something when he gives up the memories of his sister and only looks, in-character, mildly confused as to what he's even doing being alive as it happens. Then he shockingly betrays Grindelwald later to help some of the other useless protagonists out of a bind later. Wow.

They go to Germany's ministry of magic, which should be cool but naturally that's where Grindelwald is starting his campaign to... get elected. I'm not kidding. He even gets driven in a limo or some shit through a cheering crowd. I thought motor vehicles were muggle shite, for weirdos like Arthur Weasley and Hagrid? Guess not. Grindelwald seemed fine with it, too, despite loathing muggles to the point of considering them savages. Shrug.

(Astounding, by the way, that they made Wizard Hitler start his presidential campaign in Germany. Inspired decision-making.)

So a guy the protags try and get on board with a nice cryptic message from Dumbledore ('do what's right, not what's easy') in a shocking turn of events doesn't listen to these random foreigners he doesn't know, and convinces people that the prisoner who escaped charges like... yesterday should be allowed to stand for election, because the people want him to stand for election and their voices needed to be heard. Uhh... okay. You guys have proof he murdered Ministry staff when he escaped his prison transport in the previous film but that's fine :⁾

Of course, Newt's brother, head of the british auror office - which is hilarious by the way - decides it'd be a fucking fantastic idea to walk up to a group of people he knows are evil in a foreign country where he has no jurisdiction, point his wand at them, say 'you're under arrest' without casting any spells, get one-tap knocked out, and spirited away to Germany's even more arbitrarily lethal version of Azkaban. HOW do they do this without the British ministry being in uproar? Who fucking knows, they don't address it. Yes, Newt's brother remains this useless for the rest of the film. He does nothing impressive, his position as head of the auror office means nothing in terms of skill, knowledge, resources, or wits, and Teacher Woman seems to match him in combat skill only because wand fights in harry potter are effectively just gunfights with slightly more visible bullets rather than using magic to its full potential.

So Newt has to go break his brother out of the gulag, while Teacher Woman and Kowalski... prevent an assassination attempt on one of the two other wizard president candidates - love how the poisoned goblet was fucking steaming and hissing and so blatantly evil that even a toddler would decide against imbibing the liquid within btw - but also 'inadvertently' stage a fake-assassination-attempt on Grindelwald at the same fucking time - with Kowalski brandishing a FAKE WAND that he KNOWS DOESN'T DO ANYTHING in a room FULL OF IMPORTANT WIZARDS. Bear in mind Kowalski did not KNOW that this fake assassination was I guess Dumbledore's plan. He just did it to try and get Grindelwald to let Queenie go. Which is ridiculous on so many levels.

Also, sure, you let the known criminal run for president, invite him to this important dinner function, and then one of his opponents is conveniently poisoned that same evening? In what fucking ass-backwards universe would Grindelwald have gotten away with that? He would be prime suspect number one through fucking fifty.

So everyone reconvenes back at home base (the Hog's Head inn, because Aberforth is getting actual screentime now, I guess. It'd almost be neat if it wasn't solely to reveal that Credence was actually his son. Somehow.)

Oh yeah, Credence. He was revealed as a Dumbledore last movie. Yeah that also doesn't really matter. He is sent to kill the big D in one scene in what is the only semi-interesting wizard fight in the entire movie, fails miserably, Dumbledore goes 'hey uhhhhhh don't be evil actually', and then...

Credence stops being evil. He's also dying of ligma the entire film because, y'know, he's been carrying his Obscurus for three movies now, which looked like it should really have killed him in the first one.

I'm glad that entire plotline was given the impact it deserved.

While I'm on the topic of things from last movie that failed to matter: the blood-oath locket. Dumbledore was very excited to get it back, and for the life of me I can't fucking understand why. It would be more detrimental for Grindy to have it. Any time Dumbles tries to act against Grindle or vice versa it starts wrecking the shit of whoever has it. Why would you not let Grindle keep it? Just stand in front of his wand at all times and watch him be unable to do anything! It's not like you knew you could break it - in fact, it only broke by sheer dumb fucking coincidental luck in the last major scene in the film!

Where was I...?

Oh right. Election.

Yeah so apparently it used to be traditional for Bing Chilling to select the leaders of the wizarding world. And this year they're like 'lmfao we're just bringing back this ancient tradition the same year a known criminal is trying to compete for president, please don't think about that in any way whatsoever'. For reference, in a prior scene Grindles killed the Bing Chilling in his possession and did some necromancy bullshit to bring it back to life, obviously rigged to only bow to him when the selection happens. Somehow, nobody thinks to do any charms to check the thing selecting the Super President of Wizards for any foul play. Because that would be just unthinkable.

But, surprise, the heroes have their own Bing Chilling, remember? So they need to smuggle it to the election and present it as the real one instead. Using decoy tactics with like six briefcases. Only one has the deer, every other one is rigged to mess with whoever opens it. Fair enough. It's explicit that none of the scooby gang are aware of what's in the briefcases they select at random, with the exception of maybe Dumbledore, who isn't putting himself in a position to be caught regardless. A big running quote for the heroes in this film is that 'nobody can know everything' because spamming as much random bullshit as they can is the only way to mess with Grindy's precog and extend the film with useless nonsense.

So the heroes get caught one by one because they are all so FUCKING USELESS in this movie, Newt is caught and led for some fucking reason to the top of the big staircase where the election is just happening, just in time to go 'no that deer is bewitched, use our deer instead' which is equally unbelievable as valid evidence in any reasonable world but we'll ignore that. Grindle is like 'uh so do you have this deer on you, or...?' and Newt's like 'ah fuck no I don't' but then his ASSISTANT wanders into frame like 'teehee nobody can know everything Newt' and has the suitcase with the Bing Chilling in it. But why did Newt think he had it in the first place? When did Newt ever think he knew everything?

Who fucking wrote this movie?!

So yeah deerus-ex-machina comes out and is the only valid evidence left because democracy is dead and the cursed deer fucking dies of ligma also, bows to Dumbledore who's like 'uh please don't make me super president keep looking' and then conveniently one of the other two president candidates turns out to be pure of heart and all that is good in the world, meaning Grindle has been foiled.

Convenient that a politician of any kind is somehow pure of heart. The deer, presumably, is a member of the bourgeois and holds authoritarian values.

And Grindlewald... just kind of looks annoyed about that, fails to retaliate and accidentally breaks the blood vow when Dumbles, Aberforth Lincoln, and himself all clash beams. He then loses a duel to Dumbledore and copes horrendously with 'who will love you now, Dumbledore?' then fucks off because a bunch of wizards blasting are too weak to get through Grindlewald's shield as he leaps off the mountain and escapes.

Then Queenie and Kowalski get married at his bakery and somehow they're squeezing two more films out of this.

I really don't know.

Newt is a genuinely charming character and I just wish they'd kept the Grindelwald stuff on the down low. It was neat to reference like with Newt's "You'll find I'm not one of Grindelwald's zealots" comment in the first film when he's under interrogation. The magical creatures themselves are usually interesting designs - except the Chilin is literally just a deer, which is a great - and I like how genuine his awkwardness is when it comes to interacting with basically any other character.

If they were going to do six films, why not have the first three be relatively low stake affairs with a larger focus on Newt's magizoology - this film also claims he's apparently, like, the only magizoologist, I think? It's strange. - and the creating of the book, or the gathering of his knowledge. Then you could at least have the darkness building up in the background like the original series before hell breaks loose. Why was the Grindelwald affair ever tied to the Fantastic Beasts series? Money, obviously, and a lack of imagination, but that's a boring answer.

I liked Porpentina as a character in the previous films too, so it was a shame that she was just gone for the majority of the film's runtime.

Kowalski is just cheap comic relief at this point despite how much I like him.

The last film was really bad but it was wasted even further with this film's decisions.

It's all so tiresome.

Introduction

FB2 ended with Grindelwald telling Credence that his true name was Aurelius and that he was the brother of Albus Dumbledore. The movie did not explain when and how Grindelwald discovered the identity of Credence, and many think that he was simply lying to Credence.

Here I will try to argue that Grindelwald actually was not lying: he truly believes that Credence is Aurelius Dumbledore, and the secret of Ariana Dumbledore helped him to come to that conclusion.

Grindelwald didn't know who Credence really was during FB1

In FB1 Grindelwald was looking for a child, carrying an obscurus inside.

GRAVES (to CREDENCE)
My vision showed only the child’s immense power. He or she is no older than ten, and I saw this child in close proximity to your mother – she I saw so plainly.

He was searching for the child because of a vision where the obscurial killed the man he feared above all (Source: FB2 deleted scene).

Aurelius was born in 1901, and by then Ariana was already dead and Grindelwald had fled Godric's Hollow. Even if Grindelwald had known about the existence of Aurelius, he wasn't searching for him specifically and definitely didn't think he might be the obscurial from the vision. Aurelius would be an adult, while Grindelwald was looking for a child. Also, he would have no idea about the whereabouts of Aurelius since he hadn't had any contacts with the Dumbledores for the last 26 years.

Therefore, Grindelwald didn't know who Credence really was during FB1 and also didn't know about the existence of Aurelius Dumbledore. He figured it out between the end of FB1 and around the time of his arrival in Paris in FB2.

Grindelwald's familiarity with Ariana led to his discovery of Credence's identity

FB1 already provided a couple of clues about Credence's identity. We know that obscurials die young, and that it's unprecedented for them to survive the age of 10.

Newt to Jacob and Tina in the cells (FB1):

There's no documented case of an Obscurial surviving past the age of ten.

Graves aka Grindelwald in FB1, after discovering that Credence is the obscurial:

GRAVES (to CREDENCE)
To survive so long with this inside you is a miracle, Credence. You are a miracle.

Newt and Tina in FB1:

NEWT
It's the Second Salem boy. He's the Obscurial.

TINA
He is not a child!

NEWT
His power must be so strong he's somehow managed to survive.

So, it's clearly established and emphasized several times that obscurials die before reaching adolescence, and Credence miraculously survived only thanks to his extraordinary power.

We know that there was another case of an obscurial surviving past the age of ten: Ariana from the extraordinary Dumbledore family. And as it happens, Grindelwald was familiar with her case. With Credence having traits previously only seen in a member of the Dumbledore family, Grindelwald might have concluded that Credence might be another Dumbledore. Those suspicions would be further strengthened by the fact that Albus Dumbledore had sent his protégé Newt Scamander to New York after Credence.

So, using the available information, Grindelwald deduced that Credence is related to the Dumbledores and based on the age could be Albus' brother. Since no one else knew about Ariana's obscurus, Grindelwald was in a unique position as in he was the only person apart from Albus and Aberforth who could possibly infer the identity of Credence.

Irma Dugard and Aurelius

However, simple deduction wouldn't be enough for Grindelwald. He must have looked for other potential candidates, and researched the family trees of other wizarding families.

This is where he stumbled upon the mysterious story of the disappeared Lestrange boy. He sought and met Irma Dugard to extract the truth. From Irma, Grindelwald learned that Corvus was indeed dead and couldn't be Credence, but also that the name of the survived boy was Aurelius. Irma and Credence's aunt were traveling to America in opposite cabins and likely chatted during the long journey, which is how she got to learn the baby's name.

The movie provides sufficient information for us to infer that Irma knew that Corvus was indeed dead. When Irma met adult Credence in FB2, nothing during their brief exchange indicates that Irma thought of him as Corvus Lestrange:

CREDENCE (whispers, terrified)
Are you Irma? Are you . . . ? Are you Irma Dugard?
I’m sorry. Your name is on my adoption paper. Does this make sense? You gave me to Mrs. Barebone in New York.

IRMA (to CREDENCE)
I am not your mother. I was only a servant. You were such a beautiful baby. And you are a beautiful man. I have missed you.

CREDENCE
Why didn’t they want me? But why is your name on my adoption paper?

IRMA
I took you to Mrs. Barebone because she was supposed to look after you.

Irma would definitely know Corvus was dead, because she had been taking care of Corvus and after the ship sank would have recognized the baby wasn't him. (Note: She had also seen Credence's aunt drown with actual Corvus, as clearly described in the screenplay.)

Irma being somewhat familiar with Credence's aunt and knowing his true name is supported by the baby swap. It can be argued that Leta likely didn't hesitate to enter the other cabin, take Aurelius from his bed and put Corvus in his stead, because the families had become friendly by that point of the journey.

Summary

So, to sum up:

• Grindelwald didn't think Credence could be the obscurial (in fact, he was shocked when it was revealed), as he was initially looking for a child under 10 years old. He probably didn't know about the existence of Aurelius Dumbledore, because he fled Godric's Hollow in 1899 (or 1900), while Aurelius was born in 1901.

• Before Credence, there had been only one case of an obscurial surviving childhood: Ariana Dumbledore, from the powerful and extraordinary Dumbledore family. Being familiar with Ariana's case, Grindelwald started suspecting that Credence was also a Dumbledore. The involvement of Albus' protégé Newt Scamander in the events of New York, only strengthened his suspicions.

• Grindelwald researched other potential candidates for Credence's identity, and stumbled upon the mysterious story of Corvus Lestrange. From Irma Dugard he learned that Corvus was dead and the true name of Credence was Aurelius. Irma herself had learned the name from Aurelius' aunt, who was traveling with her to America.

Edit: There is additional evidence that Grindelwald figured it out on his own that Credence was indeed a Dumbledore. Since Grindelwald knew about the legend of the Dumbledores, a phoenix coming to Credence served as the final and definite clue to Credence's family. And the first time Grindelwald publicly claims to know the identity of Credence is on the rooftop of their hideout, after the arrival of the phoenix.

Edit 2 (credit to u/cetyque): A scene from the script (that didn't make into the film) further proves that Irma and Credence's aunt were familiar with each other. From Leta's memory:

The ship lurches again. IRMA snatches BABY CREDENCE, not noticing the switch amid the confusion. The cabin door bangs open to reveal a dark- haired young woman wearing a nightdress and life jacket.

CREDENCE’S AUNT
Irma? They want us to put on life jackets!

She slips and slides into her own cabin and picks up BABY CORVUS, also not realizing the babies have been switched.

Harry, did I ever tell you about my secret brother Aurelius? He was traveling across the Atlantic Ocean as a baby when he was accidentally kidnapped by the unloved daughter of a French rapist wizard, who switched him with her father's real son, gave him to a French half-elf, and let her real brother die in the shipwreck. Speaking of which, the mother of the accidentally kidnapped son dove into the water to rescue her (supposed) son and drowned, so I guess that would mean she was also my mother, but for some reason I never mentioned this either. Also I don't know why the wizards didn't just apparate off of the sinking ship. Anyway, the aforementioned French half-elf gave my brother (thinking it was the rapist's son--she was the servant of the raped woman, which meant she also had to serve the rapist after the woman died in childbirth) to an orphanage that hates wizards, then both she and the daughter went back to Paris. She did this on orders from the father, who wanted to protect his (supposed) son from the older, adult non-rape son of the raped woman who gave birth to the real son's half-sister, who incidentally I trained in wizardry in the 1910s with the help Professor McGonagell, twenty years before Professor McGonagell was even born. The non-rape son wanted revenge for his mother being raped, so completely logically, he tried to kill the baby instead of the father, and even though the rapist father was a powerful wizard nobleman, he thought the best thing for his beloved son was to be sent to America and protected in absolutely no way whatsoever or even informed that he was a wizard, leading half of New York to be blown up right in front of all the muggles (called "nomajs" in America). Eventually the non-rapist son tracked down Aurelius (thinking it was the rape son) in Paris, where we all learned that he (that meaning Aurelius) had started a relationship with an Vietnamese woman who would later turn into Voldemort's pet snake.

He was a good friend.

I couldn't find any official discussion thread for The Secrets of Dumbledore (I guess because the movie comes out in the USA the next week). So, I tought I'd create a thread for us from the countries with the earlier release. I hope that's okay.

Beware the spoilers at your own risk!

To start, here are some of my main thoughts about the movie:

• Firstly, I quite liked the movie, I thought it was much better than the second one. It tied some things up nicely.

• The wizzard battle scenes were amazing! They were done really well both visually and story-wise, especially the last one between Dumbledore and Grindelwald.

• On that note, Mads Mikkelsen was great as Grindy! The creators certainly made a right choice when picking him as replacement for Depp. I don't want to go into politics about why was Depp removed from the projects, but let's just that it was a blessing in disguise as Mads was a much better Grindelwald than Depp.

• Not to mention that Law and Mikkelsen had a really great chemistry as Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Everything about their plot was really well executed and made me excited to see what's next in store for them.

• On the other hand, the Queenie stuff was delt with really poorly. Her going with Grindelwald at the end of the second movie didn't make sense, but her suddenly turning at the end of this and going with the good guys was a weak plot choice as well. They shouldn't have made her go with Grindy to begin with, but oh, well...

• Now, the Credence/ Aurelius Dumbledore stuff was okay, I guess. The explanation that he's Abeforth long lost son makes way more sense than that he's their third brother. Although, with this it makes the final cliffhanger from Crimes of Grindelwald kinda pointless (even if he was just lying to him). Still, I would've much prefered if they made his obscurial be Ariana's obscurial that's jsut found a new host and that be a connection between him and the Dumbledores (I actually thought they were actually going that way, when Albus saw his obscurial and phoenix during their battle).

• Also, did Credence die or not? He went with Abeforth and seemed very weak, so I'm not sure what happened to him. I hope we'll find out in the next movie. Although, they might just kill him off off-screne considering all the stuff that's been going on with Ezra Miller...

• I also wish there was more Tina. I know the actress had a scheduling issue + the whole covid thing, and I get it, but I just missed Tina in the story. Though, I know there's not much the writers could've done with that. Before watching the movie, 've heard a theory that Bunty might be Tina in polyjuice disguise and I was really holding on to that thought until the end, it would've made perfect sense, wouldn't it?

• On that note, why didn't they just let Newt and Tina kiss in that one scene they shared? I mean, they almost did, but than Lally had to go and cockblock them for no reason whatsover. The will they-won't they thing is really getting boring and unnecessary since we all know that they eventually WILL.

• There were again some major plotholes. Jacob shouldn't be able to see Hogwarts let alone get inside, he's a muddle he should just see a ruine instead of it. McGonagal shouldn't yet be teaching at Hogwarts, should she?

• The election plot was certainly interesting, but them making the qilin chose the next leader was weird. Vogel mentioned that the people will have their vote and than made the qilin do the voting, why, it just didn't make any sense.

• A wild theory about Jacob and his wand: What if he secretly comes from a wizarding family but he doesn't know it? He mentioned that the ministry man with the beard (forgot his name) at the dinner looked like his uncle, so what if it was really his uncle, but he just lied to him about his job? Jacob might be a squib and not know it, it would make sense story-wise and also explain the Hogwarts thing I mentioned above.

• Lastly, I really enjoyed the humor in the movie. The swivel dance was hilarious as was the scene between Teddy and Pickett and their prison break, they were definitely scene stealers! Also, I really appreciated the cut from the shrimp/scampi like creatures (don't know their name) to the lobbster on the plate, really top notch editing there.

I guess that's all I could think of right now. It's still pretty fresh to me, since I just came out of the movie few hours ago, so I have a lot of thoughts about it in my head.

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

In this movie, does Albus and Aberforth work together? I thought they were estranged by this point.

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Summary:

Albus Dumbledore assigns Newt and his allies with a mission related to the rising power of Grindelwald.

Director:

David Yates

Writers:

J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves

Cast:

• Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore

• Mads Mikkelsen as Gellert Grindelwald

• Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander

• Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein

• Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone

• Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein

• Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski

-- Rotten Tomatoes: 52%

Metacritic: 49

VOD: Theaters

Ok as I think we all know Albus means WHITE.

Aberforth is Welsh for "from the river". There is a river called Forth very near to Edinburgh, a town very important to Rowling. And in Gaelic, part of the river is called Abhainn Dubh, meaning "BLACK river"

Ariana or arian is Welsh for SILVER

And lastly in Fantastic Beast 2, Grindelwald told Credence his name is really Aurelius Dumbledore. Aurelius is Latin for "the GOLDEN one"

WHITE BLACK SILVER GOLD