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

[sunnyskywalker]

It's ridiculous. And completely unnecessary even if she did insist on Voldie-vision, since she could have had Harry actively try to peek into Voldemort's mind somehow. He doesn't know what their connection is, but he knows there is one, so why not give it a shot, right? Especially if he's out of ideas? Or have it at least be the unexpected result of something he did on purpose, not possibly a side-effect of his wand literally acting on its own because Harry is dumber than a stick of wood. It still would have been ridiculous, but slightly less so.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

You know you've REALLY dropped the ball when your protagonist is literally dumber and less effective than a stick of wood.