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

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Yes, and the thing is, that's such an obvious explanation, too! Yet Rowling just HAD to make him out to have been a bad seed right from the start. Because she's a slavering determinist, or something.

This is all reminding me of another bad book I'm looking at, in which the protagonist, a super powerful magical creature, frequently "just happens" to do something unduly sadistic or cruel, which does NOTHING to drive the plot but only serves to make him look bad; yet he gets praised for it. If he has to do something, he'll accomplish it in the most sadistic manner possible, and yet he's still presented as a hero. That's kind of like what the copouts regarding Voldemort's backstory feel like: Rowling being offensive by ignoring more innocuous and logical roads she could have taken.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Mind you, environmental determinism isn't better than biological determinism nor is it more correct. Nor do I expect an author write a statistically representative sample of people in every situation and have x% of them react one way and y% some other way. But some narratives are more satisfying and sense-making than others.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Yes, the setup of a back-story that we got in CoS and GoF seemed to be leading towards something more...and then was promptly squashed by the Pensieve sessions that we saw in HBP.

By the way, what is the name of the book you're referring to? *is curious*

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

The book is called Twisted! and it follows the adventures of talking amusement-park rides. And it's horrible! It basically takes everything that was wrong with Harry Potter and ramps it up to eleven. It is so anti-human that the protagonist sees fit to brutally slaughter police officers for daring to hold him accountable for destroying people's property and attempting to murder and eat them. It is so deterministic that the protagonist has the right mother and that literally makes him the king and god of everything; meanwhile there's a whole class of characters who were doomed to be evil from the moment they came to life, just because they were destroyed at one point when they were ordinary non-talking rides (since only rides that were put out of commission by being put into storage or destroyed gain the ability to come to life). The protagonist-centered morality is so strong that anyone who does not worship the protagonist is treated as a dastardly villain who deserves to be destroyed (unless they see the light and start worshiping him down the road, the sooner the better). The protagonist himself, meanwhile, is so heinous and vile that Harry at his worst still looks better than him! And this isn't even getting into the writing, which is so outstandingly awful that I'm pretty sure it would make even Stephenie Meyer blush.

I'm actually planning to spork it over at that sporking comm, as soon as I've finished with my current job and a second, shorter Pokemon fanfic which I decided to spork by popular demand.

[kahran042]

I was intrigued by your description, so I decided to look it up, and let's just say that I'll be looking forward to that spork. :)

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds horrendous.