Nicolas Flamel in Fantastic Beasts 2? http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/nicolas-flamel-in-fantastic-beasts-2/
http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/?p=13915
Dear John,
What do you think about the theory of Flamel and Newt meeting up in Paris and Grindelwald trying to get the philosopher’s stone?
Kelly
John’s response after the jump!
Dear Kelly,
Great find! Thank you for sending.
As the very young man points out at the end of his YouTube monologue, the Flamels live in Devon, not Paris, at the time of the Hogwarts Saga. He has decided, though, they live in Paris at the time of Beasts 2 (January 1927) because they are French (?), because the historical Flamels lived and supposedly died in early fifteenth century Paris, and, well, because Nicolas is an important part of Philosopher’s Stone, is known to have worked with Dumbledore well before Harry’s adventures begin, and wouldn’t this be a great way of bringing DDore to Paris to meet Queenie and Co.? Because Grindelwald surely wants the Philosopher’s Stone…
It might turn out to be true! It certainly is a fun idea — and young Michael would have Forever Bragging Rights about his prophetic powers if it plays out.
The reach, though, for a Flamel-Beasts2 connection is just silly.
* Grindelwald’s core mission, unlike Voldemort, is not about a victory over death, but about outing Wizardry and global dominion over Muggles. There isn’t much of an alchemical connection there.
* We don’t know when the Flamels moved to Devon, but we know the French believe he died in Paris in 1418. Michael’s best guess has him hanging out in secret on the Seine banks for five centuries — enduring the Revolution, the Franco-Prussian War, and WWI.
* PotterMore has Flamel funding the building of Beauxbatons with “alchemist gold,” for which generosity a Fountain in a courtyard is named for him. Why assume he moved from Paris to Devon between 1927 and 1990, when he might have left the city at his “death” for lodgings at or near his beloved alma mater?
Anyway, it’s a fun idea, if totally groundless, and I hope the long shot pays off for Michael.
Better? Dumbledore in Beasts2 comes to Paris in a psychological crisis turning on his sexual identity. In the City of Love — where else? — he falls head-over-heels — wait for it — with a giantess. Who lives in the towers of Notre Dame? In the sewers? Within the Opera House? On a inter-dimensional, revolutionary street barricade? The literary intertextual possibilities are almost indefinite in Paris.
The upside to my FANTASTIC Beasts 2 theory is, first of all, that DDore’s vacation adventure in cross species miscegenation forever puts to rest his sexuality issues. And we have an explanation at last for the magical prowess and origins of Olympe Maxime, not to mention the Headmaster’s protectiveness about his Gameskeeper…
Keep those fan theories coming,
John, giving my first Fantastic Beasts talk at Pepperdine on Monday night