The fictional worlds of Harry Potter and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina have a lot of differences between them, but obviously the thematic lifeblood that runs through them both is very much the same. In this world of magical children who are learning how to navigate the realms of witchcraft and wizardry, they must rely on adults around to teach them.
And so it comes as no surprise that both Harry and Sabrina have their own magical schools, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the Academy of Unseen Arts, respectively. Albus Dumbledore is the headmaster at Hogwarts, and Faustus Blackwood is the headmaster of the Academy. And it’s safe to say, they’ve both had some serious failings. Here’s 5 reasons why Albus is the worst, and 5 reasons why Faustus is.
Blackwood: Because He Seems To Hate Women
Unfortunately it seems like Faustus Blackwood’s attitude towards women mirrors a lot of the attitudes of the other men in the Church of Night, but as the headmaster of the Academy of Unseen Arts, one would hope that he’d be a bit more egalitarian.
One would assume that half of the students at the Academy are girls, so to give those witches a sub-par education solely because of his own prejudices is an absolutely abysmal standard to set for the leader of the entire school.
Dumbledore: Because He Plays Favorites
Honestly, Albus Dumbledore plays favorites with students so much that it’s almost bizarre to imagine what it would be like to be one of the students that he’s doesn’t favor, or worse one of the students that is on the outs with him.
The extra attention that Dumbledore gave to Harry did make a lot of sense, but beyond that he really shouldn’t have favored so many other students so clearly. He seems to unfairly give credit to all Gryffindors, and it doesn’t seem like his behavior towards students will teach the students anything.
Blackwood: Because He Seems To Hate Children
It seems more likely than not that Faustus Blackwood has chosen to lead the Academy of Unseen Arts because it is another source of power for him. However, his distaste for the students at the school is palpable, and even for a power mad man like him it’s bizarre to think that he would sacrifice his own happiness for the sake of controlling children he hates.
Theoretically leading these kids should engender some kind of loyalty to him which could be useful, except because he treats them so vilely it seems utterly pointless.
Dumbledore: Because He Often Leaves Students Defenseless
Albus Dumbledore is one of the most powerful wizards who has ever lived, and he will obviously give his life to defend any student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
However, he tends to rely on his own power to defeat those who might harm the students instead of giving them the tools to protect themselves. And in this particular era it seems like Defense Against the Dark Arts would be the most important class in the school, and yet Dumbledore continuously hires utterly unqualified professors for the job.
Blackwood: Because He’s Only Out For Himself
To maybe be more fair to the awfulness that is Faustus Blackwood, while he does seem to hate women and children, he seems to have pretty much no regard for anyone else in the world either.
He is only concerned about how he can use a situation to his advantage, and he won’t hesitate to harm or kill anyone who gets in his way. And there are some pretty obvious issues with that kind of attitude when you are in charge of caring for dozens of young students.
Dumbledore: Because He Hires Incompetent Teachers
As the headmaster of a school, one would hope that Albus Dumbledore would be well versed in what it takes to be an effective teacher. However, his historical hiring procedure seems like it must be severely lacking, because many of the teachers he has hired seem barely capable of functioning in the real world let alone teaching young children how to navigate it.
Take Professor Trelawney, for instance, who was hired solely for the fact that she had one legitimate prophecy in her entire life, which she didn’t even recall having.
Blackwood: Because He Abandoned His Daughter
Faustus Blackwood is truly cold as ice. It’s one thing that he doesn’t care about the people around him, but to leave his own child an orphan and watch her grow up without ever reaching out or even telling her is a whole other level.
For god’s sake, even Cersei Lannister loved her children. When you can be held up in comparison to the most monstrous characters on earth and still look bad, you know you’re looking at a well and truly terrible person.
Dumbledore: Because He Hires Dangerous Teachers
So it’s one issue that Albus Dumbledore has a habit of hiring teachers who are fundamentally incapable of teaching any student anything. However, it’s quite another issue that he seems to repeatedly hire teachers who are actually dangerous to their students.
He was kind to Remus Lupin by hiring him, but letting a werewolf around a bunch of children who are completely unaware of his condition is dangerous. And he didn’t know that Mad-Eye Moody was really Barty Crouch Jr., but even the real Moody is too dangerous to be a professor.
Blackwood: Because He’s A Truly Awful Person
As Faustus has demonstrated dozens of times by now, he is willing to do absolutely anything in order to get what he wants, and doing things more monstrous than most people can conceive of don’t even faze him anymore.
He is ready and willing to murder any of his students to get what he wants, so that should obviously disqualify him from the headmaster position. But even putting his brutality aside, clearly none of the students beneath him will learn anything good from him, even if he doesn’t actively try to hurt them.
Dumbledore: Because He’s A Good Person, Sometimes
It’s probably not an entirely fair comparison, however when comparing Albus Dumbledore with Faustus Blackwood something becomes readily apparent. Faustus does awful things to people because he’s an evil man. But Dumbledore is not.
He is generally a very good man, who will occasionally do very bad things to people if it suits his fancy. He’s not worse than Faustus in terms of what he’s done, but since he actually has a moral code, is it worse that he willingly breaks it for his own gain?
