Building a Better Voldemort

[sunnyskywalker]

Last December, charlottehywd asked if there was a list of things that would make Voldemort a more effective villain. I figured there's no better place to compile one!

Some initial ideas to kick things off:

He could have Apparated into the Potters' house right past the anti-Apparition wards which would stop any normal wizard.

He could have actually killed Arthur with Nagini.

He could have arrested one or more Weasleys in DH and released stories about how they were being subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" on suspicion of blood treason in the Daily Prophet to lure Harry out. (Hey, dangling a loved one as bait worked on the kid before, why not give it another shot? It's not like it'll cost Voldemort much even if it doesn't work.)

He could have Imperiused someone close to Harry - Ron, Hermione, Lupin, Molly - making it hard for Harry to know whom to trust.

He could have turned someone close to Harry to his side by other means, either coercion or brilliant manipulation.

He could have unleashed the Inferi instead of leaving them boxed up in the garage.

We could have seen more of the damage the Dementors caused after they went AWOL after the DE breakout from Azkaban.

I'd love to hear more ideas!

Comments

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. But you see, we can't have that. If nobody wore the label "loves Harry = will hate the Death Eaters = good = can do anything they like without needing to pay for it" and "bad = will hate Harry = will follow Voldemort = can do anything they like without being redeemed" - how would we know who to root for? And according to what exactly would anyone decide which side they are on? In the books, it's certainly not behaviour or philosophical standpoints, is it. It's more a sympathy-thing.
Meaning the author would have had to come up with something like a coherent political/ ethical standpoint instead of easy "labelism". In fact, I've been entertaining a suspicion for some time now. To me it seems as if she tried to get around having to know much by just inventing an alternate universe where everything is just as she needs it to be. She hadn't grasped the fact that it's not easier but more difficult to invent a whole new world and make it work for anyone with a functioning brain.