| abstract | - Enjoys tenpin bowling, lemon sherbets and chamber music.
* Animal Motifs: Old, powerful, respected, and wise -- it's no surprise that his Patronus is a phoenix.
* Anti-Hero: Early on, he has shades of being a minor, Type I-ish Anti-Hero, reflecting a mysterious past and questionable decisions. He's eventually revealed to be a Type III, at least in his youth, with ideas of a "greater good" that were mostly discarded in his adult life; he also does a fair bit of manipulation throughout the series proper that is revealed in later school years.
* Aerith and Bob: Ancient Roman, Old-French, and Anglo-Saxon names. Followed by Brian.
* Awesome McCoolname
* Badass Beard
* Badass Grandpa: "The Only One He Ever Feared," indeed.
* Badass Long Hair
* Batman Gambit: Almost everything he does is part of one of these.
* Because I Said So: Really not too keen on explaining why he does things.
* Belated Backstory: In Book 7.
* Beware the Nice Ones: He's extremely powerful.
* Berserk Button: Attempt to harm ANY of his students, and you'll instantly discover why Voldemort fears Dumbledore.
* Big Good
* Broken Ace
* Broken Pedestal: Both subverted and played straight. While he wasn't perfect and did do some bad things, he wasn't as bad as Rita Skeeter implied, and he did genuinely see the error of his ways.
* Celibate Hero: After everything that happened the last time he fell in love...
* The Chessmaster: Just about everything in the overarching plot of the series happens thanks to his plotting and machinations. Luckily, his ultimate goal is good, but he crosses more than a few moral lines in his plans (including part of his plan to destroy Voldemort involving Harry's sacrifice. If Voldemort hadn't used Harry's blood to regenerate and the Elder Wand plot had not worked out as it did, Harry would have died in book seven. Though, as soon as he found out about these, Dumbledore did change his plans to make sure that Harry would be able to survive his "death." However, it still may have been unsuccessful, because Dumbledore only made a guess that the horcrux inside Harry would be killed instead of Harry himself. He was right of course, but it could have turned out for the worst, as he states.)
* Cloudcuckoolander: Difficult to tell how much is Obfuscating Stupidity.
* Cool Old Guy
* Crazy Prepared:
* Cruel and Unusual Death: Defied. He knows that if Marvolo Gaunt's cursed ring doesn't do it, then Fenrir Greyback or Bellatrix Lestrange will, so he orders Snape to give him a quick and clean death via the Killing Curse.
* Dead Little Sister: Inverted -- he was going through a Well-Intentioned Extremist phase before Ariana's death snapped him out of it.
* Disney Villain Death: Although he isn't a villain.
* Does Not Like Spam: He avoids Berty Bott's Every-Flavor-Beans after eating a vomit-flavored one in his youth. The one time he tries giving them a chance after that, he gets earwax.
* Eccentric Mentor: Former Trope Namer.
* Et Tu, Brute?: Averted when we find out the real reason Snape killed him.
* Fair For His Day: In-Universe. While the quotes from his adolescence bother many readers and Harry immensely, it's worth pointing out that his teenage years took place a hundred years ago, in a time of immense, institutionalized racism. With that in mind, his comments may seem extreme, but not malicious.
* Foe Yay: With his old 'friend' Grindelwald.
* Gambit Roulette: Way too many of his schemes require exceptionally precise combinations of events and circumstances that can't realistically be predicted. For example, his master plan for removing the Horcrux from Harry would have failed if Voldemort had been a little more thorough with one particular murder.
* Genius' Sweet Tooth
* Guile Hero
* Informed Ability: Hogwarts’ status as a safe haven is mainly attributed to Dumbledore’s hawk-like watch over the place. For all the cunning he displays elsewhere, it's worth noting that, in only six years, two Death Eaters slipped into the payroll as teachers, one of them lugging around Lord Voldemort himself, Slytherin’s Monster was unleashed on the grounds and carried out five attempted murders, a hunted (presumed) murderer slipped into the grounds repeatedly, once reaching as far in as the bedside of his presumed target, the horde of Dementors hunting said murderer slipped out of control repeatedly and tried to kill a student, a fascist-racist child torturer was legally instated as teacher and later Headmistress while the staff failed to pose effective resistance, underestimation of Draco allowed a squad of Death Eaters to enter the heart of the castle with only a handful of defenders posted and, of course, the yearly near-death situations and almost bi-monthly grievous injuries Harry faces while within the grounds. It’s no surprise that Hogwarts’ blatant unsafeness is a running joke among the fans.
* Insufferable Genius: Throughout his youth.
* And occasionally in his older age, too. Dumbledore tries to be humble, but can't help but pat himself on the back occasionally.
* Killed Off for Real
* Knight Templar: How some fans see him. He manipulates those under his guidance and raises Harry to be a Sacrificial Lamb in his quest to defeat Voldemort, and he once thought that plotting World Domination would be best for everyone. Granted, he suspected that Harry would probably live, but it was still a big risk. However, he only does this when he realizes Harry may be a horcrux, and this isn't until much later after he puts Harry with the Dursleys. He was not raising Harry for slaughter, but realized that it was the only way to defeat Voldemort. It can be argued that it was Harry's choice to sacrifice himself and that Dumbledore did not manipulate him.
* It's implied that Dumbledore knew Harry would survive especially when he tells Snape it must be Voldemort to kill him in order to destroy the faux horcrux that Harry had become. It's likely Harry could have been killed by anybody and the faux horcrux would have been gone. Dumbledore specified this because he believed Harry could survive if it was Voldemort to be the one to do it because of his connection with Harrys blood.
* Mentor Occupational Hazard: Classic example.
* Manipulative Bastard: See The Chessmaster.
* Moral Dissonance: Arguably. Whole essays could be written about the alleged wisdom of his actions -- or lack of such -- throughout the series, and his neglection of Harry's personal well-being and safety, not to mention that of Hogwarts's student body in general is a heated debate amongst the fandom.
* Mr. Exposition: Even post-mortem, in Deathly Hallows. Rowling has admitted that whenever something needs explaining, she gives it to either Dumbledore or Hermione to do.
* My Death Is Just the Beginning: Unlike most of the examples, he does not use a Unwitting Pawn, since he'd prefer a quick and painless death, and Death Eaters tend to be sadistic.
* Nobody Over 50 Is Gay: Averted, by a margin of nearly sixty-six years.
* Not So Omniscient After All: In Dumbledore's own words:
* Obfuscating Stupidity: Never stupidity per se, but he nearly always knows a lot more about what's going on than he lets on.
* Michael Gambon seemed to be working under the impression that all of Dumbledore's Cloudcuckoolander qualities are cases of this. Notice in his portrayal that he only pulls out an oddity like enjoying knitting patterns when he's intentionally trying to fool somebody or throw them off their guard.
* The Obi-Wan
* Omniscient Morality License: Some of the things he says and does could make him seem like an outright Jerkass, but it's all okay because he knows everything about what needs to happen already. Some critics of the books have labeled him as a Jerk Stu as a result.
* The Other Darrin
* Overly Long Name: "Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."
* Note that the only thing that makes "Brian" an Odd Name Out is the fact that it is still in common(er) use today. It is an old name.
* Papa Wolf: Again, he "cannot allow you to manhandle [his] students." Which is a polite way of saying that if you try to hurt his students, he will END you.
* Parental Substitute
* Posthumous Character Development: He's alive for most of the book series, but we don't find out his past, his motivations, or really much of anything about him until after he's dead.
* Pride: Not that he lacks a good reason. Still, it gets him into trouble at times, especially in his youth.
* Secretly Dying: Of Horcrux Backlash.
* Silence, You Fool: Part of what makes him a Badass Grandpa is that he has this down cold.
* Straight Gay: So much so, which is a tie-in with...
* Although it is worth noting that a few characteristics which would ordinary be seen as Camp Gay were just put down to his rampaging Cloudcuckoolander persona; purple was seen as a "gay color" up until about the 50's, and he did wear that violet suit in the late 30's.
* Suddenly Sexuality: J.K. Rowling revealed his sexuality after the final book was released.
* The Smart Guy: While there are a lot of brilliant characters in the series, Dumbledore is strongly implied to be the brightest of them all. While a student at Hogwarts, he won just about every honor imaginable.
* Teen Genius: When he was a teenager.
* Thanatos Gambit: And how!
* Tragic Hero
* Tranquil Fury
* TV Genius: Sometimes he seems to border on omniscient. See also The Chessmaster, My Death Is Just the Beginning, and The Smart Guy.
* What the Hell, Hero?: His brother Aberforth and others question the way he uses Harry throughout the series. Snape does a particularly good job of calling him out in one of the memory scenes in Deathly Hallows:
* What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: A child with a disposition to sociopathy and manipulation, who is already using his powers for the bad? Alienate him from yourself and leave him totally alone. There's no way he will became an evil wizard.
* Wizard Beard: Just look at the picture on the main page.
* Wizard Classic
* The Wonka: Extremely powerful wizard... and more than a little bit quirky. Example: announcing that he'd like to "say a few words" at the opening ceremony, and then saying, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" He's the headmaster for a reason.
* Word of Gay: Possibly the most famous example.
|
