Newt - A typical Hufflepuff

I've seen Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them a couple of times. It was not quite what I expected, but I see exactly what J. K. Rowling was doing with the characters, and I enjoyed it.



Archetypes

When I teach media criticism, I put a lot of emphasis on archetypes, that is, the similarly-constructed characters that recur in story after story.  Joseph Campbell charted The Hero's Journey, a common formula that recurs in myths from many times and places.  The young, reluctant hero is called into an unknown world, has traveling companions, an older mentor, and a hidden connection to the bad guy.  After a series of tests, the older mentor is taken away and the hero has to stand up alone to confront the bad guy.

This is the story of many ancient myths, as well as many modern stories, like Luke Skywalker, Frodo, and Harry Potter.  All those times Dumbledore was not at Hogwarts or was avoiding Harry were right out of The Hero's Journey.

Because Rowling made such frequent use of Campbell's formula in the past, I expected Newt Scamander to be the young, reluctant hero who eventually stands up to evil on his own.  Newt didn't really do that, and in retrospect, he couldn't have.

(Spoilers below)

How Newt is Different

Newt is moderately young, but was kicked out of Hogwarts and now works for the Ministry of Magic.  He has just returned from Africa where he freed a trafficked Thunderbird, which he intends to return to Arizona.  But some of the beasts in his suitcase (it's much bigger on the inside) escape.

Newt is introverted and is out of his element in New York, so he has some characteristics of Campbell's young hero. He is on a journey with fellow travelers, but Newt is fairly passive throughout most of the movie, reacting rather than taking the lead, except when his creatures are threatened.

I was expecting a finale in which Newt goes head-to-head with Graves, who turns out to be dark wizard Grindelwald in disguise.  When they finally come together, Newt spends most of his time ducking and covering against Graves' wand blasts, not confronting him he way Harry battled Voldemort.

Graves is stopped by the dark force of the "obscurial" generated by a child's repressed magical powers, Graves, after which Newt snares him like he would one of his beasts and reveals him as Grindelwald.

Just like a Hufflepuff

Whereas Gryffindor Harry Potter was the brave one, Newt was not the one for the heroic lone confrontations.  Rowling wrote Newt to perfectly align with the values of his Hufflepuff house -- fair play, patience, loyalty, and hard work.

But in the bigger realm of the Harry Potter universe, NO wizard can out-and-out defeat Grindelwald, until his famous duel with Dumbledore in 1945.  This is why the capture of Grindelwald had to be a soft landing.  Otherwise the allegiance of the Elder Wand (wherever Grindelwald has it in hiding) might have switched to Newt.

Crafting Characters

Because my career has been working in the media, and I now teach it, I automatically see behind the scenes and consider the influences and practical considerations that go into creation of media works.

The more I think about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them the more I see that it is finely crafted with more and more connections and resonances to the rest of the Harry Potter continuity.  It has many deeper layers of meaning than simply a stand-alone holiday blockbuster.