#EDIT: Noooooo it was spellbound

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Can’t remember my own damn fics

[bakercrown]

Queenie Meta

FIrstly I want to say that me writing this doesn’t mean I support anything Queenie did in COG. Both the enchantment and joining Grindelwald were wrong. However, I do seem to see a lot of people who don’t understand her character or why she is behaving the way she is. Most of this I blame on COG’s awful editing, but some of it, I blame on fans not wanting to understand her character, so now they’re just slapping on labels like “monster” without analyzing who Queenie is and what might have brought her to this point. (assuming we don’t learn more in FB3)

The most important thing to understand about Queenie is that she is an extrovert who does not fit in with "normal" people. She is a social butterfly and she cares deeply about others. She's basically the mom friend. When she mets Jacob, she instantly feels empathy for him, being concerned that he hasn't eaten all day and showing empathy that he didn't get his loan. Tina, she chastises about her eating habits and she is concerned when Tina basically has brought criminals home at the start of the first movie. Even Newt, she sees his problems with Leta and tries to help as best she can. Queenie loves people desperately and wants to feel loved like that in return, but often because of her powers, she doesn't. Think of how often even her closest friends say things like "don't read my mind, Queenie." She is trying desperately to be accepted, but on some levels feels like even the people who love her don't accept her. Feeling like even the people who love you just tolerating a part of you is a rough way to live. 

Now, think about where Queenie ends in FB1. For so long, she just had Tina, who she loves even if they don’t have a lot in common. But at the end of the movie, things are different! They’ve befriended Newt Scamander and Queenie has fallen in love with the kindest, sweetest man she has ever met. She goes to Jacob’s bakery and is eager to reconnect with him. 

But then things begin to go south. First you have the spellbound article. Queenie feels like Newt has betrayed her sister to marry the high school sweetheart who from what she was able to deduce from reading his mind, mistreated him. (Which she was wrong about, but that’s another essay for another day.) So they’re not talking with Newt. Then Tina finds out about her seeing Jacob and of course goes into overprotective sister mode, which Queenie sees as dismissing her feelings. Queenie just wants to belong and be loved and she’s never felt anything like this before. In her eyes, Tina cares more about her job than her happiness. They stop talking. 

Which leaves Queenie with Jacob as the only person left in her support system. At this point, Queenie has next to no one left. She’s not talking with her sister, the only family she has. She just wants to feel loved and she loves Jacob so much! She feels like if she and Jacob get married, she’ll finally belong and be loved. After all, Jacob is even the one of the group who doesn’t mind the Legilimency, who sometimes seems to like it. He accepts her for her, see Jacob’s line in COG of “What do I miss about Queenie? Everything. Even the things that drove me nuts, I miss.” I mean, he even loves the things about her that annoy him! So when she puts Jacob under the spell, Queenie’s logic is basically “we can’t hide forever. This is the only way we can be a family.” Think about her line of “I just want to have a family. I want what everyone else has, that’s all.” Does that make it right? Noooooo way. But people who are overpowered with strong negative emotions don’t always think logically. 

So then enter Grindelwald. Tina and Jacob have been very dismissive of her feelings, which makes it easy for Grindelwald to “swoop in to the rescue” so to speak. He validates Queenie, tells her that he doesn’t want to hurt her, that he wants what she wants, for her to be able to marry the man who loves her and accepts her. Also, in the amphitheater, he says something about “we who live for truth... And love.” He knows Queenie well enough to know that she, like Credence, is starving for love, and that claiming that he’ll emotionally validate her is the only way to win her over. 

But what really pushed Queenie to Grindelwald, as well as his sweet-talking words of validation and supposedly “unconditional love”** was Jacob calling her crazy. Queenie has worked so hard to fit in and be accepted by “normal” people, that Jacob seeing through her fasade hurts, especially since Jacob is arguably one of the few people who accepts and loves her unconditionally, even the parts that scare other people off. 

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. It’s okay to not like Queenie after COG, what I’m not okay with is people not understanding her. Which I’ll be fair is partly to be blamed on the movie’s crap editing. Because you can’t argue the editing wasn’t shit after COG’s deleted scenes. But part of it I feel like is people not understanding what makes Queenie tick, which I hope this post remedies a bit!

**or so it appears. We all know of course that Grindelwald is using her and that Jacob and Tina are the ones who really love her, but again, another essay for another day.