← Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
THIS is a Dumbledore Episode
01:08:37
In the first installment of our Albus Dumbledore series, Critical Magic Theory host Professor Julian Wamble unpacks the contradictions that define Albus Dumbledore—the most beloved and baffling figure in the Harry Potter universe. Is he truly a wise...
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Welcome to Critical Magic Theory where we deconstruct the wizarding World of Harry Potter. Because loving something doesn't mean we can't be critical of it. I'm Professor Julian Womble and today Today we begin our series on oh my gosh, the one and only Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. That is a lot of names for a character that gives us a lot of chaos. And I don't know about you but but personally for me I'm extremely ready for this. I know that the Snape series was one that was a lot for us and I have been telling people like, oh, I don't think Dumbledore is going to be as bad because people don't have as many like strong feelings about him. They're not necessarily as connected to him as a lot of people are from for Snape. And then I read your comments and I said what a fool I've been. I'm recording this a bit later and so the vocals are going to be vocaling and I hope that you're ready. We have to bring the levity in whatever way we can. This is the first of Three full episodes and then the corresponding Prof. Response episodes that we're going to have on Dumbledore because I want to make sure that we hear all the perspectives. Many of you took a lot of time to share your thoughts in many different ways, whether it be via DMs, whether it be via actual essays. People wrote long chapters to discuss Dumbledore and I want to make sure that we have it all. I don't think that we're going to have as much emotional responses to Dumbledore, but I've been wrong before and I'm okay with being wrong now. We will see what the post episode chat has for us, but I am so excited because I think that Dumbledore is a character that we all have thoughts on and there are a myriad of things that he makes us think about and invites for us and I think that these episodes are gonna really shine a light on him in a really fun way. Have you ever wondered when whether being brilliant makes someone good or just dangerous in more complicated ways? Or if wisdom and manipulation can exist in the same person and what happens when they do? Or whether power itself can ever be trusted even in the hands of someone who swears they don't want it? Y', all, we are getting into all of it today. The next episode, the next episode, the next episode, and the next episode. But before we get into it, you all have been working your necks trying to make sure that you're ready for the beard bop. Because the beard bop don't stop. But the beard bop is coming now. In three, in two, in one. Let's bop. We need to talk about Harry Potter. I hope your first beard bop was a success. If not, you got plenty of other chances. So if this was your first pancake, that's all right. Throw it out, shake it off. Everything's going to be fine. You are going to get this. Welcome back everyone. To those of you who are joining us for the first time, welcome. For those of us who have been on this journey, welcome back y'. All. We took a little break. We chatted about Hogwarts. It was, I felt like it was a really good little respite and now we're back in the trenches and I hope that you're ready for that. Everyone who participated in the post episode chat for the Hogwarts episode, thank you so, so, so much. I personally was so excited that we got to talk about squibs for the first time, I think in any meaningful way. And so if you didn't get a chance to listen to the Prof. Response episode about Hogwarts. Go check it out because we get into many a thing and it was just a lot of fun and I had a blast recording it and really thinking about things. And also is it Kimberly who is sharing expertise about genes and genetics and thinking about what it means for scribes? There is someone in the post episode chat who is giving us a lesson. I learned a lot. If you are a nerd like me who loves just learning new things, go to that post episode chat and learn something new. Particularly because I think it's really cool to think about these things as it pertains to the magical world because you know there are a lot of critiques leveraged against the world building and I think when it comes to squibs and our understanding of Muggle borns and all of those things, there are some holes that need to be addressed. And what is happening in the post episode chat for that gives us something to work with and I love that. If you have not joined our Patreon and have not participated in the post episode chat, whether by virtue of commenting or just being there and reading the comments and seeing what goes down because sometimes the people are fighting and I don't always participate cause I do a whole episode where I respond but I am always in there lurking and looking and eating my popcorn. And if that's your vibe, please feel free to check us out on patreon.com criticalmagic theory where you can join for free and be a part of the conversation in our post episode chats. You can also join as a chronic overthinker where you get to have early episodes and you get bonus episodes and we do a monthly meetup. I actually need to post the time for our monthly meetup for this month. It's happening though. You can also join as a Deep Diver where you also get bonus episodes and you can join as a. What is it an outstanding OWL where you get AD free episodes. All the episodes that come from Patreon are all AD free and it's always just a good time. If you are a deep Diver chronic overthinker, you can join the Discord, y'. All. Let me tell you something. I didn't want to talk about it because it's embarrassing, but I had a duel. I had a duel and I lost, namely because I felt like a geriatric person insofar that I couldn't figure out exactly how it worked. I haven't dueled again since then. I have been collecting lots of galleons. I will duel again, but Also, and I have to shout this out because it's so amazing when you join the Discord, if you do, you get sorted into a house, into your house. And there is a sorting song that our very own Cassie wrote. And when I got sorted, I was like, who did this? Because it's amazing and it's chock full of inside jokes from the pod. It's. It's incredible. If you have the opportunity as a deep diver or chronic overthinker to join the Discord, again, if it's your vibe, no pressure, no need if that's not your thing. But if it's your thing, the instructions are on the Patreon somewhere. Also, feel free to just post in any chat and someone, probably Cassie, will find you and give you the instructions as to how to join. It is a great space. It's. I can brag about it all day, but I won't because we don't have time for all that because we gotta talk about Dumblezaddy. But if it is your vibe, please, please, please do yourself a favor and check it out. It is so much fun. Speaking of chronic overthinkers, let's take a moment to welcome our newest recruits. Doria, Laura, Stephanie, Shanker, Claudia, Megan, Harmony and Stephanie. Thank you so much for joining the conversation, for helping this community grow. It means so much to us and it just is so wonderful when people are willing to take the time and energy and money to. To be a part of this space. I tell my friends about it all the time, about how lucky I feel to kind of be a part of this and that you all are ever growing and sharing with your friends and telling people about this podcast and bringing them into the fold and joining in ways that are very meaningful, that help us continue to do what it is that we are doing. And so I am so grateful. Before we get into Dumblezadi, I also have to highlight the fact that there is a new merch drop of a however simultaneously concurrently and sweatshirt hoodie. And I believe there's a mug in there as well that I created. And we are also in the midst of having some of the chronic overthinkers who are very, very talented designing many different kinds of merchants typed things for us. And so I'm hopeful to do like a bit of a drop. Maybe we can do it in time for the holidays and we can do kind of a merch drop. I think that would be really cool. And then maybe if we do that, we can think about like maybe some charities that we might take some of those Proceeds and donate to in the name of the podcast. That feels right for the holiday season, especially given the state of things. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that. That's just me putting things out into the universe. We'll have that conversation later. But the conversation that we're going to have now is Dumbledore also simultaneously, concurrently. And before we get into the nitty gritty, I know that this is a little bit longer, but we've been away from announcements for a bit. So just like go along with me for just a quick sec. I want to collect new Dumbledore nicknames. So in the post episode chat, please feel free to just load up all of the nicknames that you have for this man because there are many. They will be collected and I think we can do like a drop like we did for Voldiva and I feel like that would be great and another way for us to kind of share in our communal feelings about Dumbledore. So. So feel free to do that. Without further ado, let's get into this episode. The trick with doing a multi episode series on a character is that I have to always find favorite moments. And there are some moments for me as it pertains to Dumbledore. And so I'm leading off with a really strong one actually, which is the moment when he puts the ring ring on his Fing Fang. And by ring ring, I mean the cursed Horcrux that has the Resurrection Stone on it that belonged my voice. Am I going through puberty again? That has the Peveril insignia on it. And this moment is a moment for me that really hits because I think I'm always like, Dumbledore, why are you so dumb? Like you're really putting the dumb in Dumbledore. That was a joke I just thought of. I'm very proud of it. But it's almost absurd when you think about it that this is the same man who like understands what Horcruxes were, who, who had seen what they could do because he had destroyed or he had known about the destruction of Tom Riddle's diary, who knew better than anyone the cost of touching that kind of magic. And he in theory would have recognized it because we see him when they go to the cave. He's able to detect all kinds of different kinds of magic and things of that nature. And yet he still puts the ring ring on the Fing Fang. And to me, this is such an indication of the hubris of Dumbledore and the folly of his brilliance. It's the Belief that knowing the danger means that you can somehow outsmart it or it can't get you the same way that it might get someone who's not as smart as you. But there's also something heartbreakingly human about that because I don't think it's just his curiosity or his arrogance, but I think there's like this. This longing that he has. Dumbledore spends most of his life haunted by the past, by everything that he's lost and all the ways that he's tried and failed to make it right. In so many ways, he tells us right, that the Resurrection Stone offers him something that he's not been able to have, Closure. And like anyone carrying an old grief, when the chance to touch it again appears to finally close that chapter, you try to take it. And he tries to take it, even though he knows it could destroy him. And what's wild about this moment is that it tells us everything we need to know about him. He had the wand, the cloak, the stone. He had all three at one point. Maybe not all at once, but he had them. But it's the stone that he can't resist. And that one promises reunion and absolution and peace. But ultimately, it cost him his life. And it's tragic and inevitable and deeply revealing. Because for all of Dumbledore's brilliance, his real downfall isn't ambition. It is cliche, ly, cliche, ly. We'll go with it. It's love. It's the desperate wish to see the people he lost and to make sense of what his desire for power cost him. And this moment, for me at least, is the first time that we truly see his mortality. Not the myth that not the legend, just the man. And it reminds us that for all of the power in the world, Dumbledore's greatest enemy, the thing that I personally think he spends the vast majority of this series fighting against and I'm going to talk about it a lot in this episode, has always been himself. And to me, him putting on that ring and just to feel it. The thing that cost him a lot, the quest that led him to lose so many things at one time in one foul swoop is so devastating, revealing, and it's a cautionary tale that some of our characters learn and that we as readers have to grapple with throughout the rest of the series and that we will be grappling with throughout this particular episode. When asked what word best describes Dumbledore, the top three words were manipulative, complicated and cunning. There is something about this and I. I think we're gonna spend some time talking about this quite a bit throughout this series on Dumbledore, because these words hit for me. And I don't think anyone, Dumbledore's biggest defenders or his biggest detractors would disag that. The man is manipulative. He weaves people like threads in a loom. He plays on people's emotions. He leverages people's loyalty to him. He has all of these things. And part of me wonders about, like, the necessity of this, the necessity of being manipulative, the necessity of being cunning. And is it in some ways, like him trying to kind of beat Voldi V at his own game? Because I think that there are a lot of parallels for us to draw between the two of them. I think if you were to use these words to describe Voldemort, you could if you wanted. But I think obviously the why it is that he's manipulating people. I think, one. I think Dumbledore believes that this is the best way, which is scary, but maybe it's necessary. I think what we will hear from a lot of people is, you know, context matters. And I think that the manipulation and the cunning used to get people to do what he needs them to do is a byproduct of the context in which they find themselves. I think that Dumbledore has always been in a space where he is fighting a battle. He is always at war. Sometimes he's fighting Grindelwald, sometimes he's fighting Voldiva, sometimes he's fighting himself. But one thing's for certain, two things are for sure. Dumbledore is always, always, always fighting. And I think that there is a way that how he understands what it means to be effective in a battle, in a war, is to get people to do what you need them to do, no matter what. And one of the big things that we're going to be kind of grappling with here is the extent to which is it the process by which he does these things or the outcome that matters? And I think that this is a conversation that we had a lot when we were talking about Snape, about whether or not the ends justify the means. And I think that so much of what we understand about Dumbledore and this invocation of the greater good, which is something that many of you brought up, a lot, really does matter here. And I think that his complicated nature really kind of shines a very specific light on the manipulation and on the cunning. Because there's a way in which we know that he's doing it for a very particular reason. At least we believe he is. Some of us do. And I think we have to ask ourselves again, do the reasons make a difference? And how do we reconcile and justify some of the actions that he takes? And is the justification of the greater good good enough in the context for some of us? And how then do we reconcile that, particularly with. With the fact that so much of the manipulation is being leveraged against children and has been for decades, and that he is responsible for multiple generations of child soldiers who die early in the name of a cause that many of them didn't even fully understand because he withheld so much information from them. And so he's not responsible for their deaths per se. But their involvement in this war, in this battle, is due in very large part to the trust that they have in Dumbledore. And I think that that's part of the complicated nature of his existence, right, that he needs people who are willing to fight. But it's odd to me at least, that the people who tend to choose to fight are people who were in his charge. So there's a strange leveraging of his power and his mystique and his mythos that he is able to kind of bring people into the fold who are willing to do anything for him. And I don't know what to make of that. I do think that these three words, manipulative, complicated and cunning, they do describe him in. In great detail. I think that they sum up a lot of who he is. And I think there are obviously more layers. He's an onion. He's an onion. But there are lots of things in these words that really do offer us a solid perspective on who Dumbledore is. And we're gonna dive into each and every one of these aspects as we move through this episode and all the other episode. For this episode's arithmetic lesson, we had 564 responses. The first question that we will be tackling today is, is Albus Dumbledore a good person? About 50% of us said yes. About 28% of us said no. And about 23% of us said don't. No, Someone wrote Dumbledore doesn't necessarily fit the quote, unquote, good person because he is kind narrative. He is good because he actively counters himself to suppress his own evil. I think despite his many mistakes and flaws, Dumbledore may have been a good person because he didn't take pride in those flaws. He recognizes that he cannot see himself as a hero. He refuses the Ministry, not out of selfishness but because he actively counters his own capacity for domination. Another person wrote, he manipulates broken people to give him absolute loyalty and then plays them like chess pieces across his board. He may not be out here aking people directly, but he puts them in places and spaces that lead to their deaths or mental instability. And in my opinion, that is a scarier villain because people don't realize that they are one. Someone else wrote, the biggest criticism I see of Dumbledore is how he kept Harry alive only until the right moment. I agree that Dumbledore raising Harry like a pig for slaughter was wrong. However, putting that to the side, what was the alternative to Harry dying that Dumbledore should have pursued? Ultimately, Dumbledore forces us to wrestle with the question, is it possible to lead the winning side of a war while being and staying a morally good person? Someone else wrote, when I was younger, Dumbledore did always feel so wise and so caring, but every time I do a reread I notice more and more things that are just so unsettling about, about the whole situation. Another person wrote, the greatest wartime leaders in recent history prove that to lead a war is to become part of its darkness. All wars are crimes. Dumbledore recognizes and accepts this. He acts as ethically as possible, does what he can to minimize the casualties on his side while working toward victory, and works in a way that protects operational security. It is cold blooded, but it is also necessary. And that is the end of the quotes. Someone told me that they wanted me to be more clear about that because it's confusing sometimes and I hear that and I hear you. You see how I respond to feedback. Thank you. I had to think about this for a bit. I'm not gonna hold you. I had to think about this for a bit about whether or not I thought Dumbledore was a good person. And one of the things that has come up a lot in the kind of the chat when I posted the survey was a lot of people saying, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. And honestly, I don't know if Dumbledore is a good person. I think that he is a person who has done things that have led to good outcomes. I think that his goal is good. I think what he wants to accomplish for the wizarding world is good. I think that the way he goes about it is not good. And I understand it. I think that the points that are made about this being a war and that people have to make sacrifices and that, you know, when you're in A war, your eye is really set on the end result, what it is that you hope becomes true, which is the end of the thing that you are fighting. And I understand that. I also struggle, though, because these soldiers are children. And the thing that gets me about Dumbledore is that I feel like a lot of the people who are fighting, a lot of the pieces on his chessboard are there because of coercion, because of emotional manipulation, because of cunning, and not necessarily because they would be without him. And that erosion of consent feels strange to me. And I know, right, like the Hagrids and the Lupins of the world are adults who have clearly chosen to be there. But it is not lost on me that both of those individuals have been indebted to Dumbledore since they were children. And that so many of the people who are fighting in this war, who are soldiers, who are on the front lines, who are sacrificing their lives, are people who were put in his charge to be taken care of. And he took care of them to the extent that he could use them. And we criticize Dumbledore a lot for, you know, bringing Harry as a pig to slaughter. And I think that there are very valid critiques in this regard also, simultaneously, concurrently. And Harry is not the only person for whom this is true because he's done the same thing with Lupin, he did the same thing with Hagrid. And as I said earlier, I think that for Dumbledore, he is always fighting something. He is always prepared for something. I think that encountering a personality and a person like Grindelwald and really exposing the truth of the dangers and the evils and the ills of this world so early on in his life has basically made Dumbledore so hyper aware and hyper vigilant about the possibility of another Grindelwald coming up. And I think that to that end, he is always preparing for battle. And so that there are very few moments, I think that he's being truly altruistic about what he is doing. And I think that that is how we understand him. But that is not necessarily how these individuals see him. That's not how Hagrid sees him. It's not how Lupin sees him. And so they feel indebted to him and they are willing to do for him whatever it is that he asks of them. And it just makes me very uncomfortable when I think about it because I recognize, like, there is a utility and that war brings in strange bedfellows. However, simultaneously, concurrently, and they were children, they did not have the ability to say no. And that gives me pause. Even if their involvement is important and moves the cause forward at what cost to them? And how much could they have been helped? How much could their circumstance as children have been made better? If Dumbledore wasn't planting seeds for what he was envisioning he would need down the line, would Hagrid have been able to be readmitted into Hogwarts? Would Lupin's circumstance have been different? Perhaps. I don't know. I don't know. But I can't help but think that that's a possibility. Would Sirius have been able to get the proper legal help in the midst of being framed for a murder that he didn't commit? For murders he didn't commit? Like how do we reconcile all of that? Knowing that Dumbledore has had this plan in his mind for so long? It's that that gives me pause. It's that that makes me say I don't know. And I hope we get to talk about it in the post episode chat because I know that many of us will have thoughts and I can't wait to hear them. But right now the level of ambivalence that I have about him being a good person is sky high. So sky so high. This is what happens when I record episodes later than usual. You get a vocal okay and so you're welcome. The next question that we're going to talk about is, is Albus Dumbledore a Good Gryffindor? About 72% of us said yes and about 18% of us said no and about 10% of us said don't. No, someone wrote Good Gryffindor. I'm not sure. I definitely read Dumbbells as more of a Dark Ravenclaw or I'm loathe to admit it, a Slytherin. However, his willingness to use people with no regard to their safety or long term effects could be a sign of Gryffindor recklessness. While he shows up at the Ministry of Magic in Order of the Phoenix, he's not in the first wave of frontline cannon fodder that lions are so often known for being a part of. He shows up second on the sidelines to handle the 1v1 battle, showing more of a side of self preservation over recklessness. Do Gooder bravery. Someone else wrote. He strives for power, but masks it through a guise of goodness. He puts on a show for every person he comes in contact with based on what will endear them to him fastest. I'm leaning towards Dark Ravenclaw son for his schemes and scams Slytherin Moon for his yearning for power and doing whatever it takes to get there and Gryffindor rising in the fact that the that he's willing to be reckless with other people's lives and pretends he stands on the moral high ground. I also have to say that I'm very pleased that our astrological sun moon rising has been transmuted onto the Hogwarts Houses situation. Someone else wrote he's brave but not in the way Gryffindors are supposed to be. His courage is all strategy. Another person wrote dumbledore's mentorship of Harry, Hermione and Ron follows this pattern positioning them as moral extensions of of his self concept the next generation molded in his image of courage, sacrifice and obedience. His bravery is not the reckless valor of Gryffindor but the calculated courage of a man who controls danger rather than confronting it head on. And another person wrote to understand Dumbledore as a Gryffindor is to reject the idea that courage only looks like defiance. His bravery is moral before it is physical. He does not fight dragons. He confronts himself. His greatest battle is against his own desire for control and his courage lies in living ethically while knowing how easily that power could corrupt him again when he stands behind Harry instead of in front of him it isn't passivity, it's faith. It's the bravery of a man who has learned to let others be the heroes of their own stories and now it's my turn. I don't know how I'm going to transition out of other people of quotes from the survey maybe it'll be like it's me I'm getting ready for wicked. Don't worry about it. What I will say as it pertains to the question that we are talking about right now and now the preparation for wicked for good but is that I think that Dumbledore is a really good Gryffindor and I think that for a very particular reason I think that he is a good Gryffindor because he has this sense that he has to be the one to do everything by himself and before you all are like no he gets everyone else to do everything for him. Yes but he holds all the cards, all the information, everything. It all is him. He's the only one that has a full sense of the plan. He all of this need to know he like recklessly holds onto information and then like engages in foolish behavior that is putting the ring ring on the fing thing and then all of a Sudden has to kind of speed up his operation. There is a way in which, like, good leaders know how to delegate and how to bring people in when they need to, like, get something done. Dumbledore. I'm not saying he's a bad leader per se. We'll get into that. Not in this episode, but in the next one. But I think that there is a way that, like, his Gryffindor ness makes him think that he has to be the only one. And I think that because Harry is the exact same way he operates from this space of, like, I have to be the one to do this. And Dumbledore fosters that particular belief, right? And it's that belief that Dumbledore rewards in the first book. In the second book, it also is something that we see from other characters like Sirius who have this belief that they have to be the ones to do things. And so even if it's not in their self interest, they're still gonna go do it. Like Sirius going to the Ministry to try to save get Harry or Sirius showing up. There's a way in which there is this individualized understanding of one's behavior that I think is very Gryffindor. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you are devoid of community. Harry has friends. Sirius had friends. Dumbledore had Elf as Doge. But that's the thing is, I'm like, does Dumbledore have friends or does he have fans? That's a difference. Different question, different time. But I think that there is a way that Gryffindor ness invites this sense of I have to be the one to do it. Me, myself, I. And even if there are other people like, Harry always has Ron and Hermione but he still is the only one who steps into that forest. He still is the only one who goes up to Dumbledore's office at the end and puts his head in the pensieve and sees what Snape has offered. There is a way that, like, you have to recognize that some of the things that you have to do, you have to do by yourself. And I think that that's true for most things. I think Gryffindors take it a step too far. And I think that they always operate from the space of needing to be the ones who do things by themselves believing that they're the only ones who even remotely qualified to do it. And I know people are gonna be mad about that because they're gonna say, well, what about the DA? And what about, you know, Ginny and Neville? Sure, I don't disagree with those that assessment. I do think though that like particular Gryffindors are very much of the mind that like they have to be the ones to make these decisions. I think and I think that in some ways the idea of bravery that is promoted in the school and I've said this before in the Gryffindor episodes, is one that invites people to make reckless decisions without thinking about the other people around you because your belief is like, I have to be the one to do that. I think particularly of Colin Creevey and like his belief that he needs to stay and fight in the battle which ultimately cost him his life, which is devastating. There's a way that I think Gryffindor ness invites this kind of. I don't want to use the word recklessness too much because I know that that kind of makes people not pleased but I do think that there is something about being a Gryffindor that makes a person believe that it is imperative that they be the ones to do the thing, that they be the ones to kind of navigate these things by themselves, that they be the lone soldier. And I think part of it comes from a really good place, at least for Harry, which is I don't want anyone to get hurt on my behalf. I think for Dumbledore it's a little bit more egotistical in that I think he's of the mind that no one can handle it the way that he can and no one can deal with the truth of the situation the way that he can and that he is the one who's the best equipped to navigate all of these things. And that I don't like but it does feel very Gryffindorian to me. The last question from the survey that we will be tackling in this episode is is Albus Dumbledore a good, good headmaster? About 38% of us said yes, 52% of us said no and about 10% of us said don't. No, someone wrote dumbledore is not a good headmaster of Hogwarts because he doesn't put in enough effort to save students from harm. It's as simple as that. Although safeguarding isn't prominent in Hogwarts, he had the ability to implement it and ensure a lot less student trauma. He had the capacity to prevent a lot of these issues and chose not to. Allowing dementors near students, allowing Umbridge to psychologically and physically abuse students, allowing the triwizard to take place despite the war climate, letting a student face a basilisk, etc. Someone else wrote, Was he a good headmaster? He wasn't even really a headmaster at all. In hindsight, even it seems pretty clear his entire goal for seven years was to turn Harry into a dying machine. I'm pretty sure all of the shenanigans he pulled with the points in year one, never really punishing Harry, Ron and Hermione for everything was all because he wanted them pulling this mess. I'm censoring this because there are children who listen to this. They go on to say it was training, so I wonder if he was even paying attention to anything else. Someone else wrote he failed to protect students, but inspired them anyway. He wasn't perfect, but he gave people a reason to fight to believe that Hogwarts was worth defending even if he let too much happen. His presence made people brave. Someone else wrote, maybe he wasn't good at every aspect of running Hogwarts, but he kept it standing through two wars and countless Ministry interferences. If the bar is survival, then he cleared it. The school and its students still believed in him even when the Ministry didn't. Someone else wrote, for all his manipulations, Hogwarts under Dumbledore produced students capable of moral choice. He does not shield them from risk because he believes moral strength cannot be learned in safety. His pedagogy, though parrotless, is rooted in faith. Faith. That agency, even when it wounds, is worth more than obedience. And the last comment is despite his miscalculations, Hogwarts under Dumbledore remained the safest bastion of free learning in the wizarding world. The school did not fall because he built it on conviction, not control. Even when the Ministry turned against him, his students did not. They fought, they organized and they returned to finish what he began. That is the legacy of a headmaster who, however flawed, taught courage better than he ever taught transfiguration. And now it's me. I don't think that Dumbledore is a good headmaster. I know that that last few quotes were very good and they were very convincing and felt very impassioned and I love that you all were really giving it your all. Um, but for me, I'm so sorry. No, I think that there is truth to the fact that yes, the students loved that place. They loved Hogwarts. They were conditioned to. They were made to believe that it was the best place ever and it was their safe haven. It was their home. It's all they knew for seven years. Like that school meant so much. And here's the thing, and this is why I'm not necessarily convinced that that is the kind of clearest indication of him being a good headmaster. Because Dumblezadi did not want to destroy Hogwarts. He said it over and over and over again during the Battle of Hogwarts. He loved that school. It was his home. And I think that there is a way that Hogwarts holds meaning outside of whomever is the one running it. And so I don't think that the student's willingness to defend it comes from or completely comes from Dumbledore. I think this is their home. This is their place. This is where they live for the considerable part of a meaningful, like time in their lives. And so I don't think that this is a, a Dumbledore thing. I think this is a we love this place thing. I think that he might have been part of it. And yes, I know that they named this the, the, the Squad or the Defense against the Dark Arts, you know, secret society, Dumbledore's army. And that counts for something. But I. He is so irresponsible when it comes to these students. Why are you putting a sorcerer's stone in a school with students when you know the. That Volzatti is on the move trying to get it? You are inviting him to the school. And what's more is that you have no security to keep him out. No wards to ward out evil people to the point where the Defense against the Dark Arts person literally is wearing this dude on the back of his head and no one is any the wiser. You had some inklings about it because you told Snape to keep an eye on him while what. To me, a good headmaster is a person who actively cares for the safety of students. And I think that this is a moment where Dumbledore's arrogance and his magical acumen really get the better of him. Because the belief is. And we hear this kind of belief come out of Hermione's mouth in the first year when she says something to the effect of as long as Dumbledore is around you, you can't be touched. Joke's on you, Hermione, because he can be. And he was. Harry almost died down there trying to get that stone. And Dumbledore was shook Daddy McGee when he found out. And the reason why is because Dumbledore believed that his magical acumen and power was enough to keep Voldemort at bay. It wasn't. It wasn't in the first year, it wasn't in the second year, it wasn't in the fourth year. And I just cannot get down with someone who seems so comfortable putting students Lives in danger. And I'm not just talking about Harry. I'm talking about all the students. Sirius Black breaks into the school and you're like, just put him in the Great hall with some beanbags. Excuse me? The Triwizard Tournament. As someone brought up hello, you're telling me that Harry has to compete even though, like, you could just say he's not gonna. You. You drew the age line. You think that somehow he bypassed it. How you know he didn't and you still let him get. You don't care about these students safety because, and this is the thing. When you're as good at magic as Dumbledore is his belief about magic being the cure all for all of these magically induced problems is the thing that is the downfall. You thought, there's nothing that can befall Harry as long as I am here. Guess what, my guy, Your friend Alistair Moody. Turns out that that son of a son was actually a Death Eater in disguise the whole time. And you didn't know until the very, very end after Harry had been transformed to a graveyard, a student died. Voldemort gets his body done, and now all of a sudden you're like, something's not right. I am so sorry, but you don't get to claim the title of good headmaster when students are being disappeared off of your campus because you didn't do your due diligence. That's absurdity. No, I'm so sorry. I will not give him headmaster. I will not. Because he allowed his belief in himself to dictate the safety of these students. And like, some of us could joke and be like, but did they die? Some of them did. Some of them did. Cedric Diggory's ghost has entered the chat. Like, let's be so for real about this. That all happened under Dumbledore's watch. Death Eaters got into the castle because Draco Malfoy figured out a way to get them in. Where are the protections? You're the most powerful wizard of the age and you are just, what, twiddling your thumbs? No, I'm so. And then when Draco tells him, he's like, wow, that's crazy, sir. If you don't sit down somewhere like, this is absurdity. No, I'm so sorry. Dumbledore is not a good headmaster. And part of the reason why he's not a good headmaster is because he believes in himself too much to actually implement things that keep the student safe because he thinks he can do it by himself. And that's folly. It's the same Folly that leads him to put the ring ring on his fing fang. And it's one thing when you want to endanger your own life, my guy. It's another thing when you are put in charge of students and you can't protect them, won't protect them. However you want to define it, they're not protected. Harry, Neville, Luna, Hermione, Ron got on the back of Thestrals and flew out of Dodge so they could go and protect Sirius Black at the Ministry of Magic. And there was nothing stopping them. They are not safe and you do not care. I could go on, but I won't because I've been doing this for longer than I intended. But the idea that this man cared enough about the students at Hogwarts. No, they wanted a fight for sure. Absolutely. Hogwarts was their home. Dumbledore in many ways forced them to have to figure out how to fight because he wasn't protecting them. When we think about why Harry and so many other characters have so little faith in the adults. Albus D that's why. Because there's no security hashtag bars. Like they have to be doing this for themselves. Because if not them, then who? If not them, then who? That's the question we have to ask ourselves. If not them, then who? I can tell you who. It won't be Al B. Dumblezaddy. Grandpa Brian. It won't be him. Because magic fixes everything. Until it doesn't. Until students bodies start dropping because Death Eaters have infiltrated or they have been killed mercilessly in a graveyard after doing a school sanctioned event, then magic doesn't. Because in the words of Cornelius Fudge, the other side can do magic too. And this is what happens, and I've said this before, and then I'm going to let it go. When you put everything into a single person, you are going to fail. Whether it be the ills of a world or the best parts of the world. Whether it be your belief in their ability to keep you safe or that they're the reason why you're in danger in the first place. And I think that that is part of the fallacy of Dumbledore that is a problem is that we expect him to be everything. Students expected him to be everything. And he could not be everything to everyone, even though he thought he could be. We've now reached the point in the episode where I am going to reflect on the things that we've talked about today. I was just on a podcast called Resting Places Learning Spaces with Dr. Hilary Van Dyke and we were talking about death in Harry Potter and she asked, you know, what was the death that hit me the hardest? And I said, dumbledore. Because when I first read Harry Potter, I didn't just admire Dumbledore, I believed in him. He was the parent, I think a lot of us. Well, certainly I wanted, growing up the one who let you do whatever you wanted because he believed you'd learn from it. He didn't hover. He didn't scold. He just smiled that knowing smile and trusted you to figure it out. At 11 years old, that felt like the right way to be parented. It felt like freedom. It felt like they had faith in my belief that I could dictate what I did with my life. But as an adult, as someone who's lived and been responsible for other people I look at him differently. And I don't see his choices as whimsical or wise. All I can see is recklessness. He's not just letting children learn lessons, he's actively sending them into danger. He's orchestrating things that no child should have to endure in the name of a larger plan that only he understands. And I still wanted to believe him even when the crack showed I needed him to be good. And that's when I realized that my faith in Dumbledore wasn't about evidence it was about that need. Because we build myths out of the people that we love. Because we need something to believe in. Someone's steady. Someone wise. Someone who cannot fail us even when they might have already done so. And that's part of why Dumbledore works so well. Because he's not just Dumbledore. He embodies our need to have faith in people. Think about how the books introduce him. We're told he's the only wizard Voldemort ever feared. Harry reads about his defeat of Grindelwald on a chocolate frog card. His name is whispered with awe long before he even appears on the page. By the time he walks into the story by the time Harry sees him in the flesh in the Great hall at Hogwarts, we already believe in him. And what's strange is that we never really see any of the feats that he is famed for doing. For most of the series, Dumbledore doesn't actually do any magic. He's not dueling Dark wizards. He's not out in the field. He's in his office, calm, inscrutable sipping tea and letting everyone else spin around him. And I should say, we see him do magic, yes, but the kind of Magic that he is famed for. We do not see that. We don't see that until way later. But we still believed in him. Our belief in him, like the belief of everyone in the wizarding world, is built almost entirely on lore. The only proof we have is everyone else's certainty. And it just makes me wonder, am I, Carrie Bradshaw? Why do we believe in him so much? And why did they? And maybe it's because he lets them. He lets the legend stand in for the man. He lets people repeat the stories about his duel with Grindelwald about his brilliance, about his endless wisdom. He never corrects them or elaborates or diminishes the myth. And to be clear, like Dumbledore is not a man without shame. We see it in the quiet way he sidesteps his own history. The way he never reveals any of the things that Rita Skeeter writes about him in that liminal moment at King's Cross. He admits to a lot of what is written. That the stories that she writes might be exaggerated. But there is a truth underneath him that belongs to him. And I think that's part of why he lets the legend stand. It's a kind of penance, a way to curate beliefs so the world remembers a version of him that he can live with. Because the real story, the one that only he and Aberforth carry is way too heavy to tell. There's a moment that I think about all the time at Bill and Fleur's wedding when drunk Auntie Muriel starts revealing all these things about Dumbledore that none of us, not even Harry, knew. That Dumbledore lived in Godric's Hollow. That he had a brother and a sister. That there were parts of his life that no one ever talked about. And that speaks volumes to me about how we understand the relationship between Dumbledore and Harry and Dumbledore and us. Because Dumbledore knows everything about Harry. His past, his fears, his destiny. But in that moment, we realize that Harry knows next to nothing about Dumbledore. He thinks he does because he's grown up inside the bubble that is the myth of Dumbledore the same way that we all did. In reading the books in class, my students and I talk a lot about parasocial relationships and about how social media makes us believe we know people we've never met. How curated stories stand in for intimacy. And I think that that's exactly what's happening here. Dumbledore has spent a lifetime managing his image allowing the mythos surrounding him to be the story people tell about who he is. He doesn't interrupt it or correct it because in many ways he benefits from it. But it also means he never has to revisit the harsh truths of who he really is and what he's done. I think that there are moments when he even believes his own hype. When he forgets the truth of himself. And every time that happens, there seems to be a reckoning, a humbling. And I think the greatest reckoning comes when he puts the ring ring on the fing thing. When he places that ring with the Resurrection Stone on the moment when all of the stories, all of the self delusions collapse into one truth. You can't outrun who you are by living inside the fantasy that that other people have made about you. The truth always catches up because Dumbledore knows that power is his weakness. His Achilles heel, his siren song. He's lived long enough to see what happens when he gives into it. His sister dies. His lover becomes his enemy. He becomes the man that people worship and whisper about even though he knows how hollow that all is. So he hides that part of himself. He lets the myth do the work because the myth is safer than the magic. He leans into influence and intellect and reputation, the forms of power he thinks he can control because the other kind, the innate magical ability that he has, it's too dangerous. And for a while, that works. He keeps the world at an arm's length, stays behind the desk, plays the role of the benevolent headmaster while the legend hums quietly in the background. But then Voldiva returns. He gets his body back and everything changes. The world that once needed Dumbledore to exist now needs him to act. And when he finally does, when, when he fights Voldemort in the Ministry, it's breathtaking. It's the first time that we see the man behind the myth. The full force of his power he's been hiding all along. And we are in awe. But I don't think he ever really recovers from that moment because not long after that moment he finds the ring, the Resurrection Stone, the temptation. And he can't resist. He knows it's cursed. He knows better. And he does it anyway. Because every single time he taps into the trueness of how powerful he is. It's a lot harder for him to constrain the aspects of himself that got him into trouble when he was a young man. And so that moment in that shack with that ring is one of the most human moments in the entire series. It's not a mistake of intellect. It's a mistake of longing. After a lifetime of control, Dumbledore gives in to all of the things and it kills him. At some point in the series and I can't quite remember when he tells Harry, I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger. That line hits because it means he knew. He knew exactly what he was capable of, both the brilliance and the ruin he spent his lifetime trying to balance between them. And I think that that's why Voldemort unsettles him so much. Because by my estimation, Voldemort is what Dumbledore might have been if he had said yes to every temptation. They reflect one another. Both brilliant, both self made, both obsessed with mastery. The difference is that Dumbledore saw the edge and pulled himself back. Voldemort never did. And maybe that's what faith really is. Not necessarily belief without evidence, but the belief after evidence. The kind that sees the flaws, the failures, the ring on his hand and still says, yes, I still believe that there's something worth learning here. And we see Harry come to that conclusion too. Especially when he's confronted by Aberforth who tells the unvarnished truth about who his brother really was and what he believed and what he did to their family. In End Deathbehallows Part 2, Harry says to Aberforth, I trust the man that I knew. And in the books, the sentiment is much the same. Harry insists, sometimes you've got to think about more than your own safety. Sometimes you've got to think about the greater good. It's the specter of Dumbledore speaking through him, that echo of faith. The irony, of course, is that Harry doesn't really know Dumbledore. Not in the way that he thinks. The man he believes in is in many ways a myth built of stories and accomplishments have truths and a lot of omissions. And yet Harry still trusts him enough to die for the cause Dumbledore set in motion. To me, that's what belief after evidence looks like. Dumbledore's greatness doesn't come from his perfection. It comes from his awareness of how easily he could stop trying. From the fact that he keeps walking the line between control and compassion, even when it hurts. He's the embodiment of if at first you don't succeed, he just keeps dusting himself off. He keeps trying, keeps believing that restraint is a kind of goodness. Because for Dumbledore, I firmly and honestly believe that the real battle was never against Voldemort. It was against himself. And there's something to the idea that Voldemort represents everything that Dumbledore could have become. In many ways, his fight against Voldemort is also a fight against his own worst impulses. The need for mastery, the hunger for power, the temptation to shape the world in his image. Voldemort wants power over death. Dumbledore once wanted power over destiny. Voldemort wields his brilliance to dominate. Dumbledore uses his to contain himself. And every time he faces Voldemort, he's looking at what he might have been if he had just said yes to Grindelwald, if he'd never learned to stop himself. So this is a war. This is a lifelong quest to bring down Voldemort. But it isn't just about saving the wizarding world. I think it's also about saving himself. Proving again and again that he can resist the worst parts of what power made him and what it could have made him. And you might say that's very selfish. And I think maybe it is. But maybe it's also what redemption looks like. The endless imperfect work of trying to be better than the person you once were. Because in the end, Dumbledore's greatest victory isn't over Voldemort. It's over the part of himself that could have become him. This has been another episode of Critical Magic Theory. I'm Professor Julian Womble and if you liked today's episode, first of all, thank you. Please feel free to like, rate, subscribe and do all the things that one does where pods are cast, y'. All. Please feel free to join us on our patreon patreon.com criticalmagictheory to join us for the post episode chat. You can join for free and if you find that you like what's there, you can join with a paid subscription. Please feel free to follow me on social media, rofw on TikTok, Prof. JW on Instagram, y', all, we are on this journey now and I cannot wait to see what we come up with in the post episode challenge chat because I think the Prof. Response episode is going to be lit. But it only can be lit if y' all are lit in the post episode chat. You see what I'm saying, y'? All, thank you so much. For those of you who participated in the survey, I cannot wait to talk about this. Until then, be critical and stay magical, my friends. Bye.