Most Aurors are shown in the series to be incompetent buffoons. However, Tina was shown to be very competent and was an essential part of Newt's success in the first movie.

However, in The Crimes of Grindelwald we see Tina being cold and distant to Newt completely believing in a tabloid article about his engagement to Leta Lestrange. How is it possible that an educated and learned auror did not bother checking her facts and just believed in a rag of a publication?

 

An interesting question.

Real-world explanation: Because JK Rowling couldn’t plot out a conventional film script to save her life and needed some fabricated tension between Newt and Tina so she wouldn’t make a stop in London to team up with Newt before going to Paris.

In-universe explanation: Because Tina is the kind of person who believes that what is presumably the wizarding equivalent of the Daily Mail is a reputable source and needs an excuse to feed her jealous streak? Honestly, I don’t know. At the time, it was one of the things I put under the “improbable, but not ridiculous“ category of plot annoyances. And let’s face it, a bit of obviously manufactured tension is the least of that film’s problems.

I seem to recall there being an article that was actually seen in the film, perhaps with a picture of Newt, Leta and Theseus, but I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the publication, if there ever was one.

 

I do like this explanation, but I believe that (in real life) there do exist people who overreact when it comes to emotions featuring their loved ones/ones they crush on and are overly sensitive to both imaginary and real slights against the same. Given that Tina was insecure even in the first movie, it's not very far-fetched to believe that she believed the slightest evidence that Newt didn't like her and convinced herself that whatever she had thought he felt was all imagined by her. And then, of course, the rise of both fury and ashamedness at how this insecurity of hers was causing her to behave.

Also, given that she didn't really know Newt before the events of the first movie, and that the first movie's events comprise just a few days of their lives, it's not hard to believe that Tina was simply insecure and reacted badly.

 

Because the script is an atrocious mess.

In this movie Tina gets captured off screen, then when Newt and Jacob join her, Yusuf Kama conveniently collapses from an eye parasite right then and there. At least 5 minutes of screentimes wasted for no reason. Nothing came from this. People act like complete retards in the film because JK needed them together in a place and was unable to tie the many threads together. Yusuf was just a pointless character btw.

 

There are many problems with CoG, but I'm with Genghiz; someone who in all honesty barely knows the guy assumed that the news report was accurate and overreacted. Being an Auror has nothing to do with it.

 

The problem I have with that @Shinysavage, is if she barely knows the guy, why is she overreacting at all? It still ends up back at plot convenience, or a high-end version of that cliche where a character shouts 'it's not what it looks like' to his romantic interest (who storms out of the room without waiting for further explanation) after getting caught in a compromising but otherwise innocent situation with someone else.

While it's not far-fetched to believe as a character Tina does have that prideful flaw, what is far-fetched to believe is she wouldn't put it aside in seeking a known, powerful, and trusted ally to fight Wizard Hitler. But that's a separate issue again.

 

That's fair. Perhaps a better way of putting it would be that she doesn't know the Scamanders well enough to know the truth, and either definitely knows or could reasonably be said to know that Newt cared for Leta a lot, so the reports weren't entirely without merit (I can't remember whether Newt tells her about Leta in the first film or whether it's something that Queenie picks up through Legilimency, but if the latter I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest Queenie might have mentioned it to Tina).

More broadly, I'd say that kind of flaw is believable, if irritating.

 

@Joe, because we have to remember to account for movie logic. FB1 was only a few days of time, but it was a whole movie's worth of screentime. Characters who've known each other for a movie have a relationship. Limits of the medium. Can you imagine a TV series of 30 1-hour episodes, each of which depicts one day, and it takes characters that long to fall in love? The timeline is realistic, but the screentime is completely unfit for the medium.

 

Hmm... no I don't think it's a limit of the medium. The medium could have quite happily had them having a conversation early on and sorting the issue out - and the story would have been tighter for it.

So it remains plot convenience, drama that misses the mark because the characters refuse to have a normal conversation (for no other reason than perpetuating the drama).

It's sloppy. Or, rather, easy writing. I'm as guilty as the next writer of taking shortcuts, but in a production of this expense/time/exposure, a team of editors should have nixed that faux-love triangle early.

I suppose I may no longer be in the targeted demographic for these films, however, and that a younger generation may be more forgiving.

 

@Joe it's not that I disagree with the script being shit, I was pointing out that Tina having a stake in the fake news about Newt wasn't strange because they spent an entire movie together.

If I were writing the script for this movie, I would leave Credence dead, not create the characters of Nagini, Yusuf and pretty much every other disposable figure around their needlessly convoluted family drama, and -- given that Newt kinda has to be in there, I guess -- I'd have Newt back home, living his best life. Then I'd have Grindelwald escape prison and come after Newt for both killing Credence (whom he may have wanted for unspecified McGuffin reasons) and to win back the loyalty of the Elder Wand. The movie would be Newt trying to hide around London from a homicidal dark wizard with the help of some of his beasts. Maybe involve Dumbledore in a similar way he was in CoG, to explain to Newt about the Deathstick, and -- because they're wizards and wizards are silly -- they come up with a plan for Newt to go to [insert location for next movie] so he can employ a wizened old sage of a witch (or use Flamel here) to help him destroy the current McGuffin (the Elder Wand) so Grindelwald can't get it and so Dumbledore has time to destroy the blood pact while Grindelwald is occupied.

I would call it Fantastic Beasts and How to Hide with Them. There would possibly be no Jacob, Tina or Queenie in this one, but with a possibility of them returning later, and do the one interesting thing that happened in CoG (Queenie joining Grindelwald) properly.

Maybe make that the thrust of its own film, where Queenie becomes disillusioned with wizards who want her isolated from Her One Twuu Wuv (and now you could do it justice instead of ramming it through in five minutes), and Grindelwald gets the Elder Wand back and sees recruiting Queenie as a double win (get an OP mindreader on his side and viscerally hurt Newt and Tina in revenge, who caught him in FB1 and were the cause of him having to chase after the Elder Wand again). And in true Great Villain fashion, Grindelwald wins in this movie. He gets the Elder Wand back and gets the girl, and Newt and Tina are devastated and defeated. Maybe Grindelwald tells them their business is concluded, throws a pithy line, and leaves, setting the stage for the last 2 movies, the third act of this big story...

...which would now focus more on Dumbledore and Grindelwald, relegating everyone else to background characters, and can you imagine the hype for a movie with primeyears!Dumbledore as a protagonist? You could have Albus running around Europe, thwarting Grindelwald with his intellect and zomgawesome magic, and Grindelwald runs from Albus (who has managed to destroy the blood pact), because he fears what will happen now. Is Dumbledore actually better than him, even if he had to face the Elder Wand in battle? Juicy opportunity to develop Grindelwald as a character instead of just Some Villain. And the final film is everyone gears up for battle, maybe Newt and Tina have a plot of their own, trying to break Queenie's Grindelwald-grade brainwashing, meanwhile we get an epic showdown between two of the greatest wizards who ever lived--the OotP movie duel but bigger and better.

There, I just came up with a better story for the Beasts movies than whatever JK has left to disappoint me with.