When Harry Potter first came out, most people accepted the series at its word that Albus Dumbledore was only ever trying to do what was right. But as time went on and the fandom picked the series apart further, they found reasons to doubt that version of Dumbledore.
Harry is an extremely unreliable narrator, and while he might have seen Dumbledore's actions as being for the greater good, the audience began to wonder whose greater good was really being advanced. By combing through the films, quotes from or about Dumbledore add up to send the message that he was actually a villain all along.
He Put Too Much Burden On Harry
"Once Again, I Must Ask Too Much Of You, Harry."
Albus Dumbledore is one of the Wizarding World's most powerful , so strong that even Voldemort feared him. So why was it that when it came down to the hard stuff, Harry was always the one who had to do it? This quote is from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is the first time Dumbledore put himself in harm's way.
But even then, he makes a sixteen-year-old boy torture him, fight an army of the undead, and watch his mentor be killed in front of him. The prophecy says that Harry is Voldemort's ultimate foe, but there are certainly others—adults, for instance—who could take on some of these tasks.
He Kept Ron And Hermione From ing Harry Over The Summer
"Dumbledore Made Us Swear Not To Tell You Anything."
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the reader is supposed to disapprove of Dobby stealing Harry's mail because of the harm it did to him to be seemingly abandoned by his friends. Yet there is no similar disapproval of Dumbledore keeping Harry in the dark in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Albus Dumbledore was known for not telling Harry important information, but it was cruel and unnecessary to cut off his only social connections while also trapping him in an abusive home. The only explanation for isolating Harry from all and information was to make him more reliant on Dumbledore moving forward.
He Left The Task Of Saving Sirius And Buckbeak To Children
"If You Succeed Tonight, More Than One Innocent Life May Be Spared."
There were many times that Dumbledore should have stepped in and didn't, and this is one of the worst. An innocent man is about to have his soul sucked out of him, and rather than stepping in to handle the situation, Dumbledore sends two thirteen-year-olds to do it.
Dumbledore could have easily used the time turner himself. The fact that he didn't begs the question of whether he wanted to over-burden these kids, building them up to be his soldiers, or he wanted them to fail, thus cutting Harry off from his closest possible father figure. Either possibility speaks to darker intentions.
He Controlled People Like Weapons
"Has It Ever Crossed Your Brilliant Mind That I Don't Want To Do This Anymore?" "Whether It Has Or Hasn't Is Irrelevant. I Will Not Negotiate With You, Severus. You Agreed. Nothing More To Discuss."
While fans can argue whether or not Snape was a good character for years, what is hard to debate is that Dumbledore consistently kept control over Snape, forcing him to go further into a dangerous terrorist organization against his will.
This moment shows quite clearly that Snape and Dumbledore were never friends; Dumbledore saw ever Snape only as a pawn in his games. Snape submitted himself to Dumbledore's will in a moment of grief and lost his own agency for the rest of his life.
He Used Harry As Bait In The Triwizard Tournament
"Put An End To It. Don't Let Potter Compete. ... Do Nothing? Offer Him Up As Bait? Potter Is A Boy, Not A Piece Of Meat!"
Dumbledore knows that the Death Eaters are rising in power, and he knows that something suspicious is going on when Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire. But rather than sorting the situation out, Dumbledore lets Harry compete in a deadly tournament in the hopes that it would bring the culprit out.
Did Dumbledore want Harry to be killed to fulfill the prophecy and defeat the Horcrux inside of him? Did he want Voldemort to come back from the dead to shore up his own power? Either way, there is no moral reason for making Harry compete.
He Took Advantage Of Snape's Desperation
"Hide Her. Hide Them All. I Beg You." "What Will You Give Me In Exchange, Severus?"
When Snape came to Dumbledore for help after discovering that Voldemort was targeting the Potter family, Dumbledore doesn't freely offer assistance, as he would if he truly cared for the Potters. Instead, he makes a bargain out of the situation, asking Snape what he will give him to keep them safe.
Dumbledore was looking for a weapon, and the threat against the Potters gave him power over Snape. The transactional nature of his assistance feels more like a mob boss than a force of good.
He Didn't Do More To Stop Tom Riddle From Becoming Lord Voldemort
"He Certainly Kept An Annoying Close Watch On Me After That."
A student died while Tom Riddle was at school, and though Dumbledore suspected Riddle, he let Riddle graduate, gain followers, and rise to power. His decision to not further investigate Tom and the Chamber of Secrets was one of Dumbledore's biggest mistakes, but it's hard to believe it was just a mistake.
He may have kept an 'annoying close watch' on Voldemort, but that was all he ever did to stop him. Fans have to wonder if he let Voldemort claim power on purpose to be able to claim he had defeated two Dark Lords.
He Was Warned About The Dursleys But Left Harry With Them Anyway
"Albus, Do You Really Think It's Safe, Leaving Him With These People? I've Watched Them All Day. They're The Worst Sort Of Muggles Imaginable."
One of the most unforgivable parts of Harry Potter is that nobody ever took Harry out of his abusive home environment. And while it's at minimum extremely negligent to have dropped Harry off at the Dursleys and not checked in on him, it's made worse by the fact that McGonagall specifically warned him that the Dursleys were terrible people.
Dumbledore uses the love protection as an excuse, but there were other ways to keep Harry safe without subjecting him to mistreatment. So fans have to wonder what Dumbledore gained from Harry's terrible home environment—perhaps an approval-seeking soldier who would never have the self-confidence to rise up against him?
He Raised Harry To Die
"You've Kept Him Alive So That He Can Die At The Proper Moment. You've Been Raising Him Like A Pig For Slaughter."
Someone who was truly good would have spent years looking for another way to destroy the Horcrux without killing Harry, but Dumbledore didn't do that. Instead, he made a plan to make sure Harry died at the right time.
Arrogance was always one of Dumbledore's biggest weaknesses, because he would sacrifice anything for his plans to succeed. Fans have to wonder if Dumbledore originally wanted Harry to die, taking Voldemort out with him, so that Dumbledore could fill the power vacuum himself.
He Schemed With Grindelwald To Take Over The World
"It Was You Who Said We Would Reshape The World. It's What We Said We'd Do."
The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series delves into Dumbledore's past, and while book fans already knew of Dumbledore's involvement with Grindelwald, the newest series is the first to put it on screen. Whether or not Dumbledore went along with Grindelwald's schemes to kill or enslave all of the muggles 'for love,' he deliberately schemed to rule the world.
His decision to put on the ring with the Resurrection Stone and use the Elder Wand shows that he didn't outgrow his younger self's craving for power, so fans have no reason to believe that all of his actions weren't in pursuit of ultimate power for himself, just on the 'right side' of the war.
