Favorite Characters: Jacob Kowalski (Fantastic Beasts)

In my initial Fantastic Beasts review, I mentioned my appreciation for the presence of this character, a Muggle who gets caught up in all the magical proceedings.  Jacob gives the new franchise an opportunity to explore an area that the Harry Potter universe has left fairly untapped so far, and he’s a fun, rootable supporting character to boot!  (A few Jacob-related spoilers.)

Without a doubt, the selling point of Jacob’s character is that he’s a Muggle.  He’s just going about his day, trying to get a bank loan so he can quit his soulless factory job and start a bakery, when he has the misfortune/fortune(?) to run into Newt.  One misplaced occamy egg later, and Jacob is part of a whirlwind of insane experiences that he has absolutely no context for.  Within his first short stretch of meeting Newt, he has magic used on him and sees it used on other people and objects, witnesses multiple magical creatures, and apparates, an experience that can be unpleasant enough for wizards who know what it is.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  You can visibly see Jacob’s understanding of the world expand every moment he’s onscreen, and his looks of wonder – at everything from Queenie’s magic-aided cooking to Newt’s suitcase wildlife sanctuary – add a lot to the proceedings.

Certainly, part of his involvement is played for laughs, and in his performance, Dan Fogler takes full advantage of every incredulous reaction shot.  But Jacob’s ignorance, bewilderment, and general out-of-placeness makes sense.  He doesn’t know anything about any of this stuff, all of it is unbelievable, and a lot of it is pretty darn scary.  It stands to reason that he wouldn’t know the best way to contribute in a crisis, that he badly fakes his way through “knowing” what a house elf is.  He blunders into things, he gets himself in trouble, and he’s very, very confused – this is all to be expected.

But I like that, really, only the MACUSA folks (and sometimes Tina) treat him as stupid or ridiculous for not knowing things.  Because in truth, Jacob is no more ignorant or incredulous than Arthur Weasley is trying to use a Muggle tube station or wondering what a rubber duck is for.  Newt and Queenie both get that he’s new to all this, and while they don’t exactly take him by the hand and guide him through all the craziness, they also give him credit for doing as well as he does.

Because it’s not all fumbling and mistakes, not by a long shot.  Jacob may be largely along for the ride, but he goes pretty all-in fairly quickly.  Even if he doesn’t get much in the way of tangible victories, Jacob is there in the thick of it, taking it all in and trying to help in whatever small ways he can.  And loving it.  Yes, there are a lot of freaky moments, but Jacob spends much of the films with his head practically exploding in amazement.  This is nothing he’s ever known, and he wants to drink in every second of it, even if that means a lusty erumpent might try to mate with him.

It reminds of a quote from Doctor Who, in the series 2 episode “The Girl in the Fireplace,” when Renette says, “The Doctor is worth the monsters.”  For Jacob, the wizarding world can be a confusing, overwhelming, terrifying head trip, but it’s worth it.  He’ll gladly take the risks and accept some snickers at his expense if it means he’s allowed a glimpse into a world like that.

Relationship Spotlight: Queenie Goldstein & Jacob Kowalski (Fantastic Beasts)

Normally, I’d be inclined to side-eye Jacob/Queenie as yet another example of an average guy/hot woman fictional pairing, which isn’t necessarily an automatic dealbreaker for me when it comes to a ship but which can definitely get tiring.  In their case, however, I enjoy them so much that I don’t really mind, and in fact, that dynamic informs their characters and their potential relationship in an interesting way (a few spoilers.)

While Jacob is presented as the epitome of an average Joe, Queenie’s introduction to the film is marked by her beauty and sex appeal; she’s in a state of undress when Tina brings Newt and Jacob home, and Queenie needs to be not-so-subtly reminded to put something on.  And to be sure, Jacob is wowed by her beauty.  Upon his discovery that she’s a Legilimens and can read people’s minds, she assures him, “Most guys think what you was thinking first time they see me.”  (Side note:  that’s an interesting – and deeply unsettling – situation for Queenie to be in on a daily basis, as a beautiful woman who always knows exactly what men are thinking about her.  We’ll see if Rowling takes more time to explore the implications of that more fully in future films.)

However, while Queenie’s beauty is the first thing Jacob notices about her, it’s far from the only thing he comes to appreciate about her.  Naturally, he’s wowed by her easy command of magic, he’s charmed by her friendliness, and as a fellow foodie, he’s amazed by her cooking – I love that, even though he knows that she can read his mind, he asks her to stop for a moment just so she can hear him tell her from his own lips what an excellent cook she is.  And that’s not a “women belong in the kitchen” thing, not at all.  It’s genuine admiration from one cook to another, complimenting her on the skills.  Really, after Jacob’s initial, slightly-stunned “va-va-voom” look the first time he sees her, we don’t get any more moments of him focusing explicitly on her looks.

Just as Jacob is astonished at meeting a wizard/witches, Queenie is fascinated to be meeting a Muggle (Nomaj per her parlance, but as always, I’ll stick with Muggle) – to her, Jacob being a Muggle is just as strange and extraordinary as her being a witch is to him.  And to be fair, that does maybe pose an issue for the longevity of whatever relationship they might have, if they’re both drawn to each other largely for being something “different” or even “exotic” by their respective standards.  But again, that’s not all Queenie likes about Jacob.  With her insight into his thoughts, she learns about his baking, bits of his family history (his grandfather kept pigeons, while hers kept owls,) and his overall disposition; another moment I like is when, after she talks about her and Tina’s parents dying young, she just exclaims, “You’re sweet!”, knowing what Jacob is thinking about that revelation.

That’s why the average guy/hot woman pairing works a little bit better for me here.  Because Queenie has an all-access pass to what people are thinking, it makes sense that she would pay more attention to what’s “on the inside,” as it were.  Thrown in the fact that Jacob’s “ordinary” Muggle life is new and exciting to her, and her general openness as a person, and it’s understandable that she would be interested in him.  The last scene of the film offers up some hope for these two together, and I’m eager to see how it goes for them once the initial headiness of meeting someone so different from themselves wears off.