We can barely contain our excitement as Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald finally arrives in cinemas. JK Rowling fans can't wait to get stuck into another of her magical adventures, and it seems like Newt Scamander is overtaking Harry Potter as our new favourite hero.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
They might be from the same universe, but these two characters could not be more different. Their relationships with other people, for example, is enough to show us exactly how dissimilar they are.
From what we see in the Harry Potter books, the young Gryffindor is very selective about the people he gets close to. He tends to gravitate towards powerful people or those who can offer him something. Hagrid offers Harry an exciting new world, but then once he arrives at Hogwarts he sometimes goes weeks without going to see him at his hut. Ron offers Harry a magical family, Hermione is a genius, and Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard in the world.
More evidence for this can be found in the first book, where Harry seems to have an unfounded dislike for Mrs. Figg. Despite the fact that she was the only person to show him any sort of love or affection in his life for 10 years following the death of his parents, he hates going to see her because her house smells of cabbage and she shows him photos of her cats. Now, it might be just us, but cabbage and cats are definitely preferable to being starved, locked in a cupboard and routinely abused both physically and verbally.
Meanwhile, Harry's dorm-mate Neville Longbottom is clearly having a hard time at school, bullied by Professor Snape and the Slytherin students. It's not unlike Harry's situation when nobody spoke to him at school in the Muggle world, except Dudley and his gang when they were beating him up. So why doesn't Harry invite Neville to hang around with him, Ron and Hermione? He only seems to show any real interest in poor Neville when he finds out what happened to Neville's parents. We're sure he would've been more than welcome at Grimmauld Place what with Frank and Alice Longbottom having given all but their lives to protect the Order of the Phoenix.
Newt, on the other hand, had a Slytherin - of all students - as a best friend at Hogwarts, and remained loyal to her even when she let him take the blame for one of her experiments, thereby ensuring his expulsion from school. He obviously has a deep love for Leta Lestrange which lingers even when she gets engaged to his war hero brother.
Furthermore, when Newt bumps into Muggle Jacob Kowalski in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, he doesn't even think twice about taking him on an adventure despite his humble ambitions, and the legal repercussions of that decision. He takes an immediate liking to Jacob so he keeps him around, much to Jacob's own surprise. Even he can't see why a wizard would want to hang around with a "boring" Muggle.
There's no question that Harry Potter is a heroic character, but when you place him next to someone like Newt, we can see the problems with that quality. Harry repeatedly takes it upon himself to rescue people and stop evil. Even Hermione tentatively accuses him of having a "saving people thing", which is ultimately the reason that Sirius ends up getting killed in the Order of the Phoenix. Of course, you can't expect a 15-year-old to exact a complex rescue mission, but when you put it together with Harry "saving" Gabrielle Delacour from the Black Lake in Goblet of Fire, we start to see that Hermione might be right.
Harry does refuse to kill using an unforgiveable curse which is, indeed, commendable. But we can't help but feel the Newt is more likeable because of his reluctance to be involved in heroism at all. He cares about protecting damaged people and creatures, which means his instinct to deal with anything aggressive or evil is to show it kindness rather than contempt.
He's just not an all-guns-blazing sort of character. The Crimes of Grindelwald shows how Dumbledore has to convince him to help stop Grindelwald, not because Newt isn't brave, but because he's humble enough to realise that he just might not be the best man for the job. That kind of humility is a trait that doesn't come as naturally to Harry, who has barely escaped certain death numerous times thanks to his lack of magical ability that is always a secondary consideration for him.
Newt is also loveable for his distinct awkwardness. His struggle with eye contact, his slightly careless appearance, his gait are all things characteristic of Asperger's Syndrome according to Eddie Redmayne. This sort of representation puts him way above Harry as a protagonist in this day and age; the time for charismatic, moody, teen heroes is gone. We want awkward young adults who are much more like us.
There's obviously a good reason why Harry and Newt are so different. Harry's a Gryffindor and Newt's a Hufflepuff. The two houses have, historically, got along quite well - but that's largely down to Hufflepuff's reputation for being patient and fair to all. They're also generally hard-working and dedicated, which Newt certainly is. Gryffindor's key traits centre more around "daring, nerve and chivalry", which is why Harry is generally only interested in potentially dangerous activities like Quidditch and defensive magic.
Harry Potter will always be a deeply loved hero of the literary world, but it's nice to see someone like Newt Scamander taking centre stage. Hufflepuff is, after all, the house in which we should all aspire to be sorted according to JK Rowling.
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