| “ | I have visited lairs, burrows and nests across five continents, observed the curious habits of magical beasts in a hundred countries, witnessed their powers, gained their trust and, on occasion, beaten them off with my travelling kettle. | „ |
| ~ Newt Scamander. |
| “ | It would take months to contradict every other wild assertion in Ms Skeeter's book... it is true that I was the first person ever to capture Gellert Grindelwald, and also true that Albus Dumbledore was something more than a schoolteacher to me. More than this, I cannot say, without fear of breaching the Official Magical Secrets Act or, more importantly, the confidences that Dumbledore, most private of men, placed in me. | „ |
| ~ Newt Scamander. |
Newton Artemis Fido Scamander is a side character of the Harry Potter series and the main protagonist of the Fantastic Beasts film series.
He is portrayed by Eddie Redmayne.
What Makes Him Pure Good?[]
In General[]
- He has saved many endangered magical creatures over the years and looks after them. He also takes a suitcase with him that allows him to reach them even when he's travelling abroad so they won't be left alone for long.
- Despite being socially awkward with other people since he isn't as comfortable with them as he is with creatures, he demonstrates repeatedly that he is just as empathetic and caring towards them as well, especially anyone he considers a friend like Jacob, the only exceptions being especially cruel individuals like Gellert Grindelwald and Gunnar Grimmson.
- While he is a very capable and powerful wizard and is more than able to handle himself in magical combat, he never uses (or at least has yet to use) lethal force, only doing what's necessarily to defend himself and/or incapacitate his opponent(s).
- He's favored by Dumbledore specifically because he doesn't seek power or popularity and acts based on whether something is the right thing to do.
Background[]
- He took the blame for Leta Lestrange's mistake and accepted an expulsion from Hogwarts.
- He met a young Sudanese girl in the past who became an Obscurial and that he tried to save her by separating it from her body, and though he was successful, he wasn't able to prevent her death, something he feels great remorse over.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them[]
- While travelling to New York on Dumbledore's behalf to release a Thunderbird that had been trafficked named Frank back to its home and gets his suitcase mixed up with that of a Muggle named Jacob Kowalski, he immediately sets out to track them down. After befriending Jacob, with some help from him, and later, Tina and Queenie Goldstein, he manages to retrieve the Niffler, the Erumpent and the Occamy that escaped.
- When he and Tina are given the death sentence from Percival Graves on false charges, he saves both himself and Tina with help from his Bowtruckle named Pickett and escapes with her.
- When Credence lets his Obscurial power run loose as a result of being emotionally distraught, Newt chases after him and tries to calm him down since he sympathized with what he was going through due to his prior experience with the Sudanese girl, something he explains to Credence, and actually temporarily succeeds at calming him down before Graves interrupts and attacks him. This made him one of the few along with Tina to sympathize with Credence and see him as someone who needed support and understanding rather than automatically see him as a monster and a dangerous threat,
- After Percival Graves goes on a rant that clues him in to his real identity, despite his magical prowess, Newt manages to help MACUSA apprehend him by binding his arms from behind with help from his Swooping Evil, and using a revealing spell to expose him as Gellert Grindelwald.
- In the aftermath, he helps MACUSA prevent a wide-scale exposure of the wizarding world by releasing Frank the Thunderbird and giving him a vial of Swooping Evil venom that he flies up into the clouds with to create a rain that obliviates the recent negative memories of all the Muggle citizens in New York.
- When saying goodbye to Jacob before he seemingly has his memories obliviated, he admitted he kept him around because he genuinely liked him and considered him a friend.
- Afterwards, feeling like Jacob is being wasted in a canning factory, he deliberately bumps into him and leaves him a suitcase full of silver Occamy eggshells and a letter instructing him to use them as collateral to get his loan from the bank, allowing him to achieve his dream of opening his own bakery.
- He decides to write a book about magical creatures called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to help raise awareness that society should be protecting and trying to understand the creatures he cares for rather than killing them.
- When seeing Tina off, he offers to deliver her a copy of his upcoming book in person since he sees how much she would appreciate that, making her very happy.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald[]
- When the Ministry of Magic offers to lift his international travel ban in exchange for helping them locate Credence Barebone and kill him, he refuses in disgust, even if it means not being able to travel freely.
- He initially refuses to get involved in the war with Grindelwald despite his brother Theseus' imploring since he "doesn't do sides" and prefers to not get involved in or contribute to such conflicts.
- When he discovers Queenie had placed a love enchantment charm on Jacob, he convinced her to let him lift it by convincing her it was wrong to manipulate his feelings for her and force him to marry her in a way that he didn't truly have a say in the matter.
- While in Paris, he comes across a Chinese Zouwu that just escaped from a circus and was causing havoc on the streets due to being in a riled up state. However, he manages to diffuse the situation by taming it with a toy and luring it into his suitcase, essentially adopting it into his care.
- Despite the fact Yusuf Kama tried to imprison him while he hunted down Credence, he still helped him when he was being weakened by a water dragon parasite that had gotten into his eye by bringing him to Nicolas Flamel's house and delicately extracting it with a pair of tweezers.
- When he meets up with Tina, he promptly clears up the misunderstanding that he was engaged to Leta Lestrange by explaining that the celebrity magazine series Spellbound made a mistake and it was his brother who was engaged, not him, which made her feel a lot better.
- He, along with Theseus, Tina and Yusuf, follows Nicolas Flamel's instruction to create a counter spell to stop Grindelwald's Protego Diabolica spell from burning down all of Paris.
- After witnessing the murder of Leta and seeing how upset Theseus was, he comforted him and assured him he had chosen a side, since he now saw just how dangerous Grindelwald was to both the Muggle and wizarding communities and couldn't knowingly stand idly by anymore. This also shows that despite having a strained relationship with Theseus, he always cared about him, even if he wasn't good at showing it, and this shared sense of loss ends up bringing them closer together.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore[]
- He helps a Qilin give birth to its baby and then singlehandedly tries to defends the baby from a group of Grindelwald's followers led by Credence Barebone when they attack and kill the mother. While he is unable to prevent them from kidnapping it, he later discovers that the Qilin also gave birth to a twin when he goes back to mourn for its death and brings said twin to a safe place. This Qilin is later used to expose Grindelwald's electoral fraud, preventing him from becoming "Supreme Mugwump" and declaring war on the Muggles, meaning Newt played a pivotal part in foiling this plot.
- To counter Grindelwald's newfound ability of precognition and being able to predict their movements, which he got from killing the Qilin and harnessing its ability, he helps Dumbledore recruit a small group of people consisting of Theseus, Lally Hicks, Yusuf, Jacob, his assistant Bunty Broadacre and himself to carry out different activities simultaneously and throw him off.
- He rescues Theseus from being eaten by a manticore in Erkstang Prison after the latter gets captured and arrested by Grindelwald's followers.
- He emotionally comforts Dumbledore over a past accident that resulted in the death of his sister Ariana and that he feels responsible for by telling him that even if people make big mistakes, they can at least try to make them right, and that trying is what really matters.
Trivia[]
- He is one of the two Pure Goods in the Harry Potter franchise along with Lily Potter.
External Links[]
- Newt Scamander on the Heroes Wiki
