Eye Roll

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 24698

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amber ?" <inviziblegirl at h...> wrote:
> 
> >From: prefectmarcus at y...
> >
> > > Amber said:
> > >
> > > > My biggest eye roll? At this exact line in GOF 33, pg658 USed:
> > > > "Now untie him, Wormtail, and give him back his wand."
> >
> >Well, I think it had to happen.  Voldemort HAD to give Harry his 
wand
> >back.  Why?
> >
> >Because these guys have been living free of Voldemort for thirteen
> >years.  They've gone on with their lives.  Voldemort was a bad 
dream
> >for at least some of them.  Now he's back.  He has GOT to show he 
is
> >in control.  He cannot show it by simply snuffing out Harry.  What
> >does that prove?  Nothing.
> 
> And on some level, I do agree with you. As I said before in my 
post, I see 
> the logic in this. But the part still made me roll my eyes and 
internally 
> rage at Voldemort for making such a stupid mistake.
> 
> I look at all the planning that went into capturing Harry. Mad-Eye 
Moody 
> being subdued, a *heck* of a lot of Polyjuice being made, Crouch 
managing to 
> fool everyone into believing he's Mad-Eye, the adding of Harry's 
name to the 
> Goblet, *months* of waiting until the Third Task, helping Harry to 
make sure 
> he does all right in the tournament, adding the spell that made the 
> Triwizard Cup a portkey, and making sure that Harry isn't killed in 
the 
> maze. I mean, seriously, a lot of thought and effort went into 
making sure 
> everything went perfectly. The end result of it was to resurrect 
Voldemort 
> and presumably kill Harry. And instead of quickly killing him and 
getting on 
> with the whole "Taking Over The World" bit (I'm assuming that this 
is 
> Voldemort's goal), he decides that he needs to "impress" his 
followers. He 
> threw away all that planning and work. Incredibly shortsighted in 
my 
> opinion.
> 
> If Voldemort was smart, he would've thought back to the times that 
he's been 
> thwarted by Harry. He would've thought "This kid had unbelievable 
luck when 
> it comes to me, I'm not taking any chances". If he had time to plan 
a way to 
> bring Harry to him, he had time to think about how he was going to 
kill 
> Harry. The goal is "get all the opposition out of the way", 
not "impress my 
> followers".
> 
> If Voldemort really is such a powerful wizard and no one is equal 
to him 
> other than Voldemort, he doesn't NEED to worry about impressing his 
> followers. He shouldn't feel the need to prove anything. And if he 
does, 
> well it's a serious character flaw for an Evil Dark Lord. Evil Dark 
Lords 
> shouldn't care what others think of them, even what their followers 
think of 
> them in my opinion. Perhaps Voldemort isn't as powerful as everyone 
thinks 
> he is?
> 
> How about this for another stupid mistake. Instead of destroying 
the portkey 
> after Harry arrives, it is left where Harry can get to it again. 
Tchah. 
> Somebody should've either 1)Destroyed it or 2)Nullified it so it 
couldn't be 
> used as a portkey any longer. I hope Wormtail got a good yelling at 
later...
> 
> I do realize that Voldemort is not perfect. He has to make 
mistakes, fatal 
> mistakes that bring about his downfall. However, I just don't like 
it when 
> Villains make ridiculous mistakes. And untying Harry and giving his 
wand 
> back was a ridiculous mistake in my mind. If Voldemort makes any 
others in 
> the next books, I'll be quite upset.
> 
> Forgive me for being all passionate about this. I'm perhaps one of 
the few 
> people who did NOT find the ending of GOF chilling at all; I found 
it 
> somewhat hokey. *grin* Eh, well, such is life...
> 
> ~Amber
> 

You make some good points.  But the "Untie him" and subsequent duel 
worked very well for me, and I consider the line "Untie him and give 
him his wand" a really chilling one.

Imagine that you are a powerful wizard, but you were defeated by a 
toddler.  Everyone knows it; how embarrassing!  Indeed, it turns out 
Voldemort "needs" Harry to get his body back.  Even more 
emasculating.  Of course you need to prove that you're as powerful as 
you are supposed to be (particularly since an evil Dark Wizard always 
has to fear assasination from his own evil supporters).  Moreover, 
what kind of coward do you have to be to kill someone in cold blood 
while they are unarmed and tied up?  

No, you have to do this thing with some style.  So you do what 
Wizards do -- a duel.  But compare what Voldemort knows and what he 
doesn't know.  You have no chance of losing to a kid, you have no 
reason to think he can do anything for himself with mom and 
Dumbledore, you don't know Harry's wand shares a core with yours, and 
you don't know the portkey still works (remember that Moody bewitched 
it, but Voldemort has no reason to think it's a Round Trip ticket).  
You have 30 DEs to back you up.  So you have a little fun first.

Also, Voldemort cares plenty what his supporters think.  Why torture 
Wormtail and Avery?  To impress the DEs with his power.  In the 
graveyard, Voldemort needs to make the sale to his own supporters -- 
he's back, and his powers haven't been diminished by lacking a body.  

Finally, what else is JKR to do here?  Harry is tied up and unarmed, 
and we need him to survive.  There's no other good solution that 
comes to mind (other than something really clumsy like having 
Wormtail have a change of heart and rescue Harry -- Ack!).

Anyway, I hope I've helped with this, because I agree that if the 
graveyard scene doesn't work for you, then you've read 500+ pages 
without a payoff, and that's no fun.

Cindy

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