Why are wizards so incompetent? /Evil Overlords/ Some LOTR

[amiabledorsai]

No: HPFGUIDX 140510

dumbledore11214:
.> Oh, and Saruman, talk about great villain, IMO.
> 
> Voldie, on the other hand, I said it before, but let me say it again
does not even come close.

> The obvious example would be of course Graveyard. to my mind  there
is no justification of him not killing Harry right away. Zero, none

Amiable Dorsai:
Of course there is, all the justification in the world; in fact,
you've already stated his justification.
 
dumbledore11214:
> This is especially laughable in retrospect, IMO. He knows  the 
> prophecy and instead of doing  the killing right away, he starts 
> talking  to his DE about how truly scary he is? HAHA!

Amiable Dorsai:
Bingo!  He's not Sauruman; he doesn't have an Orc army; he hasn't
lived since the beginning of the world.  He's just Tom Riddle, a
dangerous wizard, yes, but he's not immortal, not yet,  and all he's
got is a is a few tens of followers who will follow him only so long
as they believe in him or remain terrified by him.

Well, he's got them and a sense of theater, a sense of theater that
turned little Tommy Riddle in Lord Voldemort. He knows how to lead,
how to terrify, how to convince others that he's unbeatable.  Only he
has been beaten, badly--beaten by Harry Potter, and by Albus Dumbledore. 

He needs a win, a big win, if he is to regain his prestige, get back
his followers belief in his omnipotence, remind those who would oppose
him why they're afraid to so much as utter his name.  Coming back to
life is not a bad start, sticking his thumb in Dumbledore's eye by
snatching Harry out from under his nose in a public venue is even
better.  But now comes the capper.  Killing Harry and displaying his
body to the Death Eaters when they return wouldn't be bad, but toying
with Harry for their amusement, then killing Harry effortlessly and at
his leisure... That will end the mystique of The Boy Who Lived forever.

Brilliant theater.

Except that Harry missed his cue and blew his lines.

Now, if my thesis is valid, Harry's escape from the graveyard should
have consequences.  Some Death Eater(s) should lose faith in Voldemort
as a result of this flop.  So far, I'm not sure any have, unless...

Before Harry fought Voldemort to a standstill, would Narcissa and
Bellatrix have gone behind Voldemort's back as they did at Spinner's
End?  Narcissa may have, she was a mother desperate to do anything to
save her child, but Bella?

When we first see Bella, in Dumbledore's Pensieve, she struck me as
having a religious fervor for Voldemort.  She reminded me of nothing
so much as a martyr sacrificing herself for her god, secure in her
belief that she will be "saved" by him, eventually.  She was a woman
with no doubts.

Bella at Spinner's End, though, that Bella has doubts.  She
thinks--and says out loud--that Voldemort has made a mistake in 
trusting Severus Snape.  She is willing to risk operating behind
Voldemort's back to keep her sister from making the same mistake.

Now she didn't see the fiasco in the graveyard, but she surely heard
about it, and she did see Voldy come off second best against
Dumbledore in the Department of Mysteries.  I wonder if the shine has
gone off her devotion?

Amiable Dorsai