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

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Actually give him a logical reason for going evil and hating those without magic, or else show how the rest of the Wizarding World shares his same prejudices and could become like him.

Yes! And the thing is, Rowling was so close to managing that. It's clear that Tom is miserable in the orphanage and fearful of being locked up as insane; it's equally clear that prejudice against Muggleborns comes directly from the widespread prejudice against normal people (aka Muggles). Yet Rowling does absolutely nothing with these ideas. She just lets them sit there, and many readers actually do not notice them.

Getting back to my first point - Voldemort as a seducer - this is why the teenage Tom Riddle of COS is so much more effective as a villain than the grown-up Lord Voldemort. It would have been nice had we seen some damage to Ginny (and to Harry, eventually) from being possessed by him. Something only they could fully understand, and which they had to help each other fight. This would, at one stroke, have given depth to their characters, made Voldemort more scary, and made their relationship less paint-by-numbers and more probable.

My two cents.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I think the last time we *see* Tom being seductive (successfully) is with Hepzibah Smith. He makes a half-arsed attempt with Harry in the dungeon in PS, but that's it.