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

[oryx_leucoryx]

When he came to Godric's Hollow he could have Imperiurized Lily to stand aside and watch him kill baby Harry. Or he could have Imperiurized Lily to do the act.

In the Quidditch game in PS, once he realized it was Severus countering his curse, he could have just stopped cursing Harry's broom (maybe spelling a bludger to hit him n the head instead). Depending on how Severus' counter-curse worked, without the force of the original curse Severus may have ended up causing Harry to fall, and if not, there's still that bludger.

At the end of PS he could have summoned the troll's club and spelled it to bludgeon Harry to death.

In GOF he could have killed Harry before he even summoned the DEs. He certainly shouldn't have given Harry his wand back. Of course by new DH rules he might have ended up merely destroying the Horcrux but he didn't know any of that so no reason not to do it.

[sunnyskywalker]

When he came to Godric's Hollow he could have Imperiurized Lily to stand aside and watch him kill baby Harry. Or he could have Imperiurized Lily to do the act.

Yes, that would have been much scarier and more sensible. No blood protection rebound, either!

Giving Harry his wand was so dumb. Why would killing him outright not demonstrate Voldemort's mastery over Harry, exactly? It still shows the kid has no special powers that will protect him.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

When he came to Godric's Hollow he could have Imperiurized Lily to stand aside and watch him kill baby Harry. Or he could have Imperiurized Lily to do the act.

Well, yes, but he could have done a lot of things. He could have hung her upside-down, turned her green with purple polka dots, turned her into a turtle and so forth.

But an efficient villain should cut to the chase and just kill his enemy. Which Voldemort did. No reason to look for more elaborate ways of doing it.

Take away the "stand aside, silly girl, stand aside" bits and Voldemort did the correct thing (for a dark lord).

He certainly shouldn't have given Harry his wand back.

Goodness, that's a classic one! More acceptable, melodramatically speaking - it's such a well-known cliche most people would accept it, the bad guy offering to meet his opponent on an equal footing - than his just being an *idiot* at the final confrontation though.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Of course by new DH rules he might have ended up merely destroying the Horcrux but he didn't know any of that so no reason not to do it.

The whole scene in the forest, in DH, could have been played out right then, instead of holding it off. Not in a detail mood, so I wouldn't know who he should have talked to at the station instead of the still-living Dumbledore, but he could have woken and found himself dazed, in the maze, with all sorts of mayhem going on around him as everyone tried to figure out what happened, why Harry was stunned, why Cedric was dead...

It would also have been more of an in-the-readers'-face when Dumbledore dropped the load of Horcruxes into the plot. Might have prompted the Horcrux revelation, if it really was pre-planned, a lot sooner. Or, Harry might have really believed he was charmed, leading to some stupid moves throughout Book 5 that would have made sense, given that he thought he was indestructable...