5 Reasons Why Grindelwald Was More Powerful Than Voldemort (But Fantastic Beasts Ruined Him)

In the Harry Potter community, there are one too many issues that still invoke heated debates even years later. While arguing about Dumbledore’s questionable plans or watching Slytherins and Gryffindors fight for the best House title is fun, one question has always been really sensitive: who was stronger — Grindelwald or Voldemort?

In our humble opinion, it would make total sense for people who only watched the movies to root for Voldemort: out of the two Dark wizards, only he was semi-explored. When coming from book fans, however, this opinion sounds rather weird — pretty much everything we learn about Grindelwald shows his superiority.

Here are five reasons why Grindelwald was more powerful.

5. Grindelwald Never Feared Death

Lord Voldemort was terrified of dying since he was a child; in many ways, this fear was his primary motivation. The deep dive into the Dark Arts young Tom Riddle executed had a sole reason — he wanted to learn how to become immortal. Voldemort sacrificed his soul for it, and he still died at just 77 years old. Pathetic.

Gellert Grindelwald was excited by death. Ever since learning about the Deathly Hallows, those incredibly powerful artifacts allegedly created by the Grim Reaper, Grindelwald was set to find them. Even when he knew he was about to get killed, Grindelwald showed no fear: he laughed in Voldemort’s face and embraced death.

4. Grindelwald Knew Advanced Magic

For such a notorious Dark wizard, Voldemort never pulled off many truly brilliant feats: creating Horcruxes merely required him to hunt down information. His actual knowledge of magic was pretty shallow as he failed to even understand the principles behind wands’ loyalty. He knew how to spam the Killing Curse, though.

We don’t actually see any of Grindelwald’s feats with our own eyes, but we can at least deduce that he knew his way around magic. Having found the Elder Wand through research, too, Grindelwald stole it, meaning it wasn’t truly his. However, he later became its Master which implies he somehow tamed this powerful artifact.

3. Grindelwald Was a Born Leader

Voldemort’s gang was a pretty nasty sight. He lured in pathetic cowards with promises of protection; insane maniacs with promises of freedom to torture; and outsiders with promises of acceptance. The Death Eaters were motivated either by fear or by their sadistic inclinations, and we saw how “loyal” most of them were.

Grindelwald, on the other hand, was a terrifying politician and a great leader. His followers, the Acolytes, shared his ideas and saw him as someone to aspire to, joining his ranks voluntarily. Needless to say, the Acolytes were more loyal, organized, and altogether sane than the Death Eaters. More productive, too.

2. Grindelwald Operated on a Large Scale

While people in Magical Britain were utterly terrified of Lord Voldemort, his name meant nothing for European wizards: we saw that several times in the books. Voldemort’s geography was restricted to Britain, and he never operated beyond its borders. In fact, he was nothing but “that British terrorist guy” for the Europeans.

Grindelwald, on the other hand, was a monstrosity: his operation was that of a large scale, and he even controlled half of Europe back in the day. His political power was immense, and everyone from France to Scandinavia knew his symbol — the Deathly Hallows mark — all too well. Grindelwald was a proper international menace.

1. Grindelwald Knew No Defeat

Lord Voldemort was not the greatest when it came to actually staying alive, was he? After he died once, he was denied his resurrection attempts twice before finally succeeding — and then, he was defeated for good once again. We won’t even mention that all these times, it was but a boy who stopped him. Whoops, we just did.

Gellert Grindelwald was a wizard so powerful even Albus Dumbledore feared to fight him face-to-face for many years. Until their famous duel, Grindelwald knew no defeat, and even then, it was Albus Dumbledore in his prime who took him down…and later admitted that it was a close fight and he was just a tiny bit better.