(no subject)
Wow, it's been a really long time since I posted the last time! But still here I am with my contribution to the latest fashion subject of the internet: The outing of Dumbledore.
Now I am one of those people who can hints of romantic pairings everywhere, so I was of course thrilled to see that for once my current OTP turned out to be canon!
So I'd like to contribute to the discussion about this and in the process be as little of a fangirl as possible (in fact I've never been much of a fangirl. Until I discovered the charm of slash, I hated it. I find it disrespectful to the writer to conciously ignore the description of their own characters. For that reason I now dislike those who won't accept this new turn of events because "he was supposed to be in love with McGonagall")
Here's what I have to say:
1. I know that some people were dissapointed for differant reasons. I personally think that maybe Rowling was a bit to careful with the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Sure, the subtext was there and it wouldn't be fair to hate her for not being more obvious, but, still. I know a lot of people think the "outing" was uncalled for and unneccesary, since it wasn't apparent in the book. Possibly even a trick to keep her books from being forgotten.
We all know that Rowling is an author who so far has been very dedicated to her work. She has built the whole world with its own history and politic intrigue and she put alot of effort into creating her charaters' backstory. You don't do this if you're in it for the money and fame, trust me on this one. Dumbledore's sexuality wasn't important to the plot, so it wasn't put in there. This doesn't mean that it's nonexistent. The reason she told us about it is probably that she has had the full picture of Dumbledore for a long time and when she got the question of his lovelife, sha gave the answer which was the truth and, to her, obvious.
I guess it's not too important for someone who knows the entire potterverse as they know their own hand to have everything about it written in the books (that's the point I was trying to make!) But those who read the books for the first time or those who will read the books in, say 20 years, will miss a key point in the importance of these books if they don't know that one of the most beloved characters in modern litterature was gay. I suspect, though, that Rowling, who has showed rather conservative views in her books, hesitated a bit to show Dumbly's true feelings in the book because of the controversy. But then again, I guess it would'nt be in his nature to be so open with his feelings. I do hope that the movie is going to tell us the whole story, though.
2. Let's be a litle less deep. The question of whether tis love was mutual got me thinking a bit. Personally I think that Grindelwald cared for Dumbledore, at least as a friend or for his intellect. There are a few things that indicate this:
- Grindelwald used Dumbledore's mantra as his own motto
- In the picture of the two, they were joking, which suggests that their relationship wasn't all about treasurehunting and evil shemes to take over the world
- If Aberforth wasn't using too much of his own phrasing, Grinderwald called his brother "brilliant". A sign that he appeciated Dubledore's intelligence
- There was probably a reason why Harry suggested that Grindelwald didn't want Voldemort to break into Dumbly's tomb. That's of course if he knew about his death.
All in all I think that Gellert were as happy as Albus was to find someone equal to him. He finally found someone he could have interresting conversations with nad someone who understood him. It is possible that he fell in love as well, though I think that, secretive as he was, Dumbledore would have kept his feelings to himself. I guess if their relationship was more tham platonic, it would have been in Grindelwald's initiative.
If anyone ever read this, I'd like to know what you think :)