Prince of Walpurgis - Tales from the Dark Side.

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 103886

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mnaper2001" <mnaperrone at a...> 
wrote:
> Steve, I agree completely.  This idea that the HBP is some actual 
> descendant of a King is a bit out of place in the HP Universe 
where 
> we've never seen such references to royalty.  I definitely think 
JKR 
> is using it as a metaphorical "prince."  And I also agree with 
your 
> statements about V and Riddle not always being the same person.  
> There WAS a transformation from one to the other.  I think it WILL 
be 
> Tom Riddle and we will find out about HOW and WHY he became 
Voldemort.

And one of the weaknesses of the books so far is that the main 
villain is such a cardboard figure.  We NEED the information about 
Tom Riddle's past to give some substance to the present-day 
Voldemort.  As he stands, he's just an inexplicable menace.  When 
are we ever going to find out what really motivates him, and drove 
him to make the decisions he did, now that we're down to the last 
two books?  I think that logically, JKR has to do something with the 
main characters she's already got onstage, instead of just leaving 
them with a line or two apiece while introducing yet more.  It's 
*time* to find out about Tom Riddle - I've thought that Book 6 would 
be devoted to his story for a year now, well before any hints or 
titles came out.  It just makes sense.
> 
> AND, wouldn't that be the simplest, most direct answer to the 
> question be Tom Riddle?  Why stand on your ear to try to justify 
it 
> as Dudley or Dean Thomas or Neville or a Weasley when the simplest 
> explanation - the one that would facilitate the resolution of the 
> story - fits so well.

This hearkens back to the "Simplify! Simplify!" thread of a week ago 
or so.  As someone pointed out, the readers are dazzlingly creative 
in their theories, but the books themselves have never turned out to 
be quite so elaborate.  There are a few twists and tricks in each, 
but they are still reasonably plain adventures, not elaborate 
anagrams which mean the exact opposite of what they seem to mean.

Wanda