Sympathy for Voldemort?

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 58875

Carealotclouds: 
> 
> I don't hate Voldemort, I do, in fact, feel sorry for him.  Let me 
explain 
> why:
> 
> As we all know, Tom Riddle Jr was born an orphan when his mother 
died at child birth.  His father, abandoned him even before he was 
born learning that the Mother of his child was a witch.  What 
happened to the rest of Tom Riddle's family is not yet known, and 
maybe never will be known, I doubt JK will go down 
> that path, but either way, Tom was stuck at a Muggle Orphanage.
 


Riddle KILLED the rest of his family, on his dad's side. That's what 
happened to them, in case you were wondering.


> What kind of child hood he had is also unknown, there is no canon 
saying that he was abused, bullied by other kids or anything of the 
sort, but what we do  know is that he didn't like it as said when 
memory Tom Riddle was talking to Dippet.
 We can all assume that he wasn't loved.  Orphanages offer you 
shelter, not an  upbringing or nurturement (this information is been 
given to me at personal  experience).  Espeically back in the 1930's 
when discipline was harsh.  I know  what you must be thinking: Harry 
wasn't exactly nurtured either.  But then if> you look at the nurture 
Vs. nature argument you will see that Harry's nature obviously takes 
after his parents who were good and just as said by just about 
> every wizard that knew them in all four books.  Tom's parents 
consisted of a Slytherin Heir and an arrogant Muggle man (GoF 
thevillagers comment on the  Riddle's behaviour and how the Son, Tom 
Riddle Snr is even worse than the 
> parents).

Wait a minute. Harry is a good kid because he came from good stock 
(nature), but Tom is a bad kid because he had a bad childhood? 
(nurture) That's a contradiction.

If you use Tom's childhood as an excuse, you have to factor in that 
Harry overcame his childhood. 

And heh, you're actually coming close to my "all Slyths are bad" 
routine by commenting that the Heir of Slytherin would have no choice 
but to be a bad guy. 

As an aside, I'd like to stack being locked in a cupboard, starved at 
a whim, beaten by Dudley (and its insinuated, Vernon) and forced to 
be a slave over life in that orphanage and see which is really worse.

We have no record of what happened in the orphanage, whether it was 
Dickensian or a place where hard-working nuns did their best. All we 
know is that Tom didn't like it.

We DO know what Harry went through, and he chose to be a good kid. He 
didn't even know who his parents were. For all he knew, Aunt Marge's 
stories about them being layabouts and morons could have been true.


> And so Tom gets a letter from Hogwarts, how the orphanage came to 
accept this  is a different story - and how he learned of his 
heritage and how he found  the chamber: is a different story.  But 
what IS with this story is that Tom did find the chamber, that he did 
turn evil at some point (or IMO as you will learn soon, psychotic).  
Tom opened the chamber, he framed Hagrid, everyone> believed him 
except DUMBLEDORE.  Now, Dumbledore knew he was, knew what he had 
done, but what did he do about it?  Nothing.  This is where I believe 
that  Dumbledore is not perfect.  He has prejudice in him to have 
such lack of faith in Tom  that Dumbledore didn't bother to help 
him.  

Canon tells us that Riddle eventually became Head Boy. We don't know 
that Dumbledore knew for sure that Riddle opened the chamber, or at 
least, had enough evidence to convince the Headmaster that bright, 
popular, future Head Boy Tom Riddle did it. All Dumbledore was able 
to do was stave off severe punishment for Hagrid.

And what was Dumbledore to do? Riddle was directly responsible for 
the death of a student and the framing of another student. The only 
place he should have "helped" him is to a window cell in Azkaban.

>Because thats what I believe Tom  needed and still needs: help.  
Harry is Dumbledore's little Gem, but not Riddle.  Dumbledore could 
of taken him under his wing, taught him right from wrong, 
> done what the people at the orphanage didn't do.  Even if 
Dumbledore didn't  believe that he could be helped (which is evident 
that he didn't) he still didn't tell anybody else?  And the fact that 
he let Hagrid get the blame is  ridiculous: Isn't it obvious that 
Hagrid's Spider wasn't the monster: the effects of 
> an Acromantula does not involve petrification or instant death.  
You can tell  by observing Mrytle's dead body that it wasn't an 
Acromnatula at work there.

Dumbledore DIDN'T let Hagrid take the blame. He convinced the 
Headmaster to let Hagrid go. 

But again, we're talking about a popular kid who could well have been 
Dippet's gem. (Remember, Dippet was the head master, not Dumbledore)

Dumbledore was the one who kept an eye on Riddle the rest of the 
time, preventing Riddle from opening the chamber again -- pg. 230. 


> Tom was known as an honest, handsome, hard-working boy and 
Dumbledore said in 
> CoS that he was very convincing and that he could twist people to 
meet his  needs.  So Tom was well loved at school, but was it really 
Tom or was it his 
> charade?  Tom has never had anyone truely care about him, not then, 
not now.  Yet he feels love.  He loves his Mother.  His own behaviour 
is the resentment he  has towards his Father for abandoning his 
Mother.  It's from that that he is 
> driven to do the things he does towards muggles.  His pain, which 
no one helped heal has driven him into his extreme behaviour.  To 
murder Voldemort, or to arrest Voldemort would be discrimination 
since he is psychotic, would  a sane person kill hundreds of people?  
Aren't killers there days that kill and kill known to be insane?  
Whats so different about Voldemort?  
> 

Hogwarts reached out to him. He had a home at Hogwarts, even among 
the Slytherin crowd. He made Head Boy. He was popular. He was well-
liked, with every teacher except D-Dore.

AND HE STILL chose to create a cult of followers and made them call 
him "Lord Voldemort." He started searching for that Chamber from the 
moment he got to Hogwarts. It took him five years and he found it in 
his fifth year.

You are expecting Dumbledore to be the one caregiver that could have 
saved Riddle when it is obvious that Riddle was receiving kindness 
and guidance from most of the rest of the faculty.


> Tom was doomed from the day he was born, his 'choices' as 
Dumbledore says are not really his choices?  He 'chose' to be 
Voldemort's heir?  I don't see how he chose to be in Slytherin, since 
he was as clueless as Harry when he entered Hogwarts, he didn't know 
which house was which?  His extreme pain prevented him from turning 
the other cheek towards what his Father done, he was never given 
relief from it.  He hasn't got a heart?  I think he does for his 
Mother.

Harry chose to overcome it. Ron has chosen to overcome being 
overlooked. Hermione has chosen to overcome being a Muggle-born in a 
world that is prejudiced against them.

Most people can deal with life without becoming a genocidal maniac. 
(Hee! My favorite phrase! And it fits with V-Mort, even if it doesn't 
with Salazar) 
 
> I think there are a lot of holes in this opinion so feel free to 
disagree, Im curious to how everyone else feels towards Voldemort.

I think he is the worst kind of racist filth and no amount of "wah, I 
had a bad childhood" justifies that and I further hope that Harry, 
Ron and Hermione take turns killing him a little bit at a time at the 
end of book 7. THEN, I hope the dementor makes a Slurpee out of his 
soul and 50 unicorns get to gore the hell out of him for him drinking 
their blood in PS/SS.

Darrin
--- Slurpee Souls. Man, that's a damn good band name.