Voldemort the Cartoon (was Re: Draco = Evil?)

[imamommy at sbcglobal.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 124826


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:
> 
> Betsy:
> Yes, context.  In a world with Voldemort you'll have a hard time 
> convincing me that silly, petty, Draco is supposed to be *evil*.  
> And *worst* fellow student?  Please.  He's barely a blip on Harry 
> and co.'s radar.  Why else did we hear so little of himn OotP.  His 
> digs are tired, and his songs, while hurtful to Ron, won't cause a 
> bunch of dead bodies.  And won't get a fellow student expelled. 
> (Hello, Tom Riddle!) 
> 
> 
> Lupinlore:
> You know, this is very interesting, and I think at the heart of a 
lot
> of arguments we have over the Dursleys, Snape, and Draco.  That is
> that people often point out that the Dursleys/Snape/Draco aren't 
> *really* evil, because Voldemort represents the *real* evil in the 
> books.
> 
> And there I think is the problem for a lot of adult readers, 
including
> myself and others in my circle.  We just can't take Voldy 
seriously. 
> The man is *such* a cartoon!  I mean, who can read a Voldemort scene
> and not laugh?
>  
> And therein lies the problem.  We can take the Dursleys seriously,
> particularly after OOTP, because we have all known people who make 
or
> would make abusive parents.  We can take Snape seriously because we
> all know the kind of pain his hatefulness can bring.  We can take
> Draco seriously because we have all known bullies and know what can
> happen to them in adult life.  We can take Dudley seriously for the
> same reason.  But Voldemort?  The man is an over-the-top cliche
> straight out of a comic opera or a comic book.  We (my circle and I)
> just can't see him as a very real threat.  I mean, his best Death
> Eaters and he couldn't best a bunch of fourteen and fifteen year-
olds
> when they (the DEs) had the advantage of springing a well-laid 
trap! 
> <SNIP>
> Yes, of course intellectually the books present him as a threat.  Of
> course intellectually we know he killed the Potters and is the cause
> of Cedric and Sirius' deaths and so forth.  But emotionally we just
> can't believe in him as a character or really feel, deep in our
> hearts, that he is the real threat to Harry that many of the other
> hurtful figures seem to be.  
> <SNIP>
> JKR hasn't helped matters by her interviews, either.  Voldemort has
> NEVER felt love for ANYONE?  How over-the-top (and emotionally
> unbelievable) can you get?  Even Satan, we are told, once had his 
good
> points.
>  
> So perhaps, just perhaps, how seriously you take the behavior of the
> Dursleys/Snape/Draco depends largely on how much you can believe in
> Voldemort.
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> LOL, Lupinlore! Too funny "your circle and you" :o) But since I 
> usually agree with at least 90% of what you write about it, I don't 
> mind. :)
> 
> I absolutely agree with what you wrote in this post as well. I once 
> posted about "villains in potterverse", (post 116071). The gist of 
my 
> post was that I don't find Voldemort to be very scary at all. Since 
> then I got convinced that some of his DE are quite scary, but I 
still 
> hold the same opinion of the Voldemort.
> 
> I think that JKR does NOT portray him well. Even in the Graveyard 
> scene, which I consider to be quite chilling as a whole ( I'd say 
> Voldemor at its best), at some moments when Voldie opened his 
mouth, 
> I wanted to laugh.
> 
> But even if I WERE to take Voldemort seriously ( and again you are 
> absolutely correct - intellectually I definitely do, but not on the 
> emotional level), it still does not mean that I cannot think of 
> Voldemort as primary Evil and Draco, Snape, etc as everyday 
secondary 
> evil.
> 
> After all, Voldemort and what he stands for is supposed to be an 
> ultimate threat, right? But even during the time of peace evil 
things 
> keep happening and I am not going to stop calling them evil, just 
> because much bigger Evil is lurking  in the shadows ( well, he is 
not 
> lurking anymore, but you get what I mean).
> 
> Just my opinion,
> 
> Alla