Dumbledore is a character that’s honestly complicated to understand. When he’s first introduced, readers would really think he’s this wise old guy who’s being nice, looking out for Harry and guiding him through this new world of magic and wizardry. Considering all that Harry’s faced back at home, this seems like a dream come true. In reality, he’s actually not all that simple. In fact, half the time you’re reading, it feels like he’s just playing a game only he knows about. He also talks in riddles all the time which is super annoying (like please just tell me what I need to know, this is not the Ravenclaw common room. I’m a Hufflepuff.)
He keeps a lot of important information and secrets from Harry, and I’m not talking about things like why he can somehow communicate with snakes. I’m talking about the kind of stuff that could get him killed. He lets dangerous things happen without stepping in even though he’s supposed to be the headmaster of a school full of kids who can do magic. It seems like stopping these kinds of things would be in the job description, I’d say. To top it all off, the number of times Harry and his friends experienced life-threatening situations seems unreal. I’m sure Dumbledore probably thinks it’s for the greater good, but it still seems careless. Who lets a bunch of teenagers fight off evil by themselves to “save the wizarding world?” Shouldn’t they be worried about their transfiguration homework instead?
He also treats people like chess pieces instead of the humans they are. Harry, Snape and everyone else are just pieces of his plan to beat Voldemort. It really makes you wonder if being “good” is worth all of the lies and manipulation of the people around him, all in the name of the “greater good.”
I get that he has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, so he probably felt like his hands were tied. Still, I feel like full transparency could’ve saved them from a lot of problems. I agree that fighting evil is one thing (and a very important one at that), but it’s another to actually care about the people around you.
So if asked, would I say that he’s good? I guess it depends on what you mean by “good.” Is it about what you do, or what you mean? Either way, the story makes you think instead of just taking people at face value. Maybe that’s exactly what Dumbledore wants (his riddles seem to think so).
