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

[ladyzenobia.livejournal.com]

He could have left Hogwarts to intelligent capable Death Eaters (assuming such exist) in DH, instead of the Carrows who got off on torturing children, apparently. All the more so because students needed blood status to attend at all so the Carrows were actually torturing children of wizarding families, whom Voldemort claimed he wanted on his side.

And instead of having the muggle studies class be all about what ignorant savages muggles are he could have introduced something like a wizarding culture class. Children would learn all about old wizarding traditions (and let's face it - the bloodier those were the more impressed most of the Gryffindor kids would be) and about how muggleborns don't respect their culture (Christmas being celebrated instead of Yule and etc). And in muggle studies the kids would be told about the threat muggles pose to the wizarding world with their global warming and pollution of the environment and weapons of mass destructions. But that would require giving the muggles some credit I guess :)

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

I'd be kind-of interested in a Voldemort who actually treated non-magic people as utterly beneath his notice. If one got in his way, he would kill him as if he were a fly, or something; and the rest of the time he would act as though they don't exist or matter and tell others to do the same. Not to wipe their memories, and not to abuse them with magic, but to simply ignore them and kill any who try to interfere, because they're nothing anyway. The notion of a villain who thinks normals are beneath his notice is interesting and one that isn't executed nearly enough.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Coming in late, but I think that this would be a great concept, but would work best if the heroes didn't also treat muggles as being beneath their notice. Maybe we could even have *gasp* a sympathetic muggle main-ish character!?

[sunnyskywalker]

If he'd had capable teachers who weren't torturing students, that would have put a serious crimp in the Hogwarts resistance, for sure. And it would make his side a lot more attractive to anyone on the fence, and even a few former Dumbledore fans.

[oryx_leucoryx]

In Terri's WIP Headmaster Snape the hiring of the Carrows was actually Severus' idea (conveyed very indirectly) precisely because he had better chance limiting damage caused by those two.