Please, no Voldemort redemption!

[Yahtzee63 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 81731


In a message dated 9/27/03 4:22:31 AM, HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com writes:


> the Dark Lord simply ceases to exist and
> die on his own if Harry manages to make Tom Riddle understand, and possibly
> even feel, love.
> 
> 
I definitely see the storytelling merit of what you're talking about here, 
but I have to say, I hope like crazy that the end of Voldemort doesn't involve 
Voldemort understanding love, feeling love, anything like that. Sometimes 
there's a place for the mellowing and deepening of the villain, but sometimes 
there's not: "Lord of the Rings" would be awful if, at the end, Frodo and Sam 
figured out that Saruman really had a terrible childhood. And I think in some ways 
Voldemort fulfills that kind of role in the HP books -- he's there as a force, 
more than as a character, and the redemptions or damnations that matter are 
those of the characters affected by this pure evil.

I think the idea of Harry showing Voldemort mercy has a little more merit -- 
it would be about Harry, not about Voldemort, and it would be something 
profoundly unexpected. But I am really hoping we don't learn a lot about Tom 
Riddle's pain. I am heartless and wicked, and I don't care about Tom Riddle's pain. I 
want the books really invested in the changes within Harry and Snape and 
Lupin and Hermione, not Lord Voldemort.



Yahtzee


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