Do you think there is more to Voldie's story?

[Meredith]

No: HPFGUIDX 97742

> Del replies :
> Nope. I think the lack of love and the rough circumstances made him 
> hard, resentful and ambitious. And I think it's his *power* that 
> corrupted him in the end. Because he was so powerful, he could do 
> almost anything he wanted to satisfy his resentment and ambition. 
> And the more he did bad things, the more he eroded his conscience, 
> his sense of right and wrong. That's how he slowly turned 
> completely evil. 
 
Jen:
> I was intrigued to hear JKR mention the "mysterious 
> circumstances surrounding TR's birth" that contributed to his evil 
> development. I can't imagine what happened, but there must be 
> something besides the deprivation & loss of his childhood.

Luckie:
Someone (I forgot who!) mentioned LV is often compared to Hitler (as 
is Grindelwald, who was defeated in the 1940s). Well, in the RW, what 
happens to make a person evil? Books, more books, essays and 
dissertations have been written on the "fact" that Hilter killed 
millions of people because he was a closet homosexual, Ted Bundy 
suffered from failed bonding attachment syndrome as a child, and 
Charles Manson never knew his father. Although I don't believe people 
are wholly evil, some are a lot higher on the spectrum than others. 
In essence, though we don't KNOW why some people are bad and some 
aren't. Why are some teens seemingly affected by violent video games 
and music more than others? If someone is the child of an alcoholic, 
they may be predisposed to BE an alcoholic, but won't be one 
necessarily. 

So, it all comes back to choices. We've seen that Harry and Voldy 
share many similar characteristics - dead parents, half blood, raised 
by horrible muggles, parselmouth, occlumency/legilimency(?). But 
Harry isn't evil. (And I don't think he will become evil!) Neville 
*appears* to share characteristics with Peter, but has proven his 
courage, not cowardice. I agree that it's puzzling *why* LV would 
chose to be so against m*dbloods, when he himself is a halfblood. 
Power corrupts. But where did he get this power? And why did he seek 
it through dark arts? The Grindelwald theory is indeed plausible, 
though something would have had to happen that demonstrated to Grindy 
that young Riddle was corruptible, or Riddle would have had to 
realize his affinity for dark arts before he sought a mentor.


~Luckie, who wonders what RL person JKR knew that could inspire her 
depiction of LV!