Subject: Voldy's weaknesses as a villain

[deborahhbbrd]

No: HPFGUIDX 149008

Lupinlore among other good stuff, said: 

7)  The REALLY big one.  Voldy is afraid of dying.  Okay, fine.  Why 
doesn't he go off by himself, make his little horcruxes, and live 
unhappily ever after? What's getting in the way?  Because, for some 
reason, he wants to take over the Wizarding World.  Why?  What does 
taking over the wizarding world have to do with making horcruxes and 
living forever?  Nothing.  In fact, taking over the wizarding world is 
directly antithetical to his goal, as it draws attention to himself 
when he would be far better served by obscuring his goals and actions.  
So why does he want to rule the world.  Sigh.  For the same reason all 
villains want to rule the world -- he just WANTS to.  Some great and 
deeply revealing motivation that is, :-)).  

7b) A corollary to the above.  As has been pointed out further up the 
thread, why does he call attention to himself by using such NOTICEABLE 
objects for his horcruxes.  Does it have to do with the horcrux 
creating magic?  That would be plausible -- i.e. only exceptional 
objects have the correct arcane qualities to serve as a horcrux.  But 
no, its just because he WANTS to.  Chalk another one up as great and 
revealing motivation, :-)).


Lupinlore, who acknowledges that #7 occurs in real life, and thus 
points out that even in real life (Hitler, Stalin, the Kaiser) villains 
often don't make very much sense at all

Deborah, now

Lupinlore is dead right except for one crucial point. Villains don't
make sense to us because we're not villains. (Well, speaking for
myself, anyway!) If you're a villain, it makes perfect sense to do
stuff because you want to, and you want to because whatever you want
has got to be not just good fun or morally sound or anything boring
like that, but just a question of *you*, the obvious centre of the
universe, taking precedence over everyone else. 

This works for Hitler (the German people are losing the war, therefore
they are unworthy of me, so I'll die and punish everyone); for Stalin
(what are a few million rebellious and/or wealthy and/or inconvenient
people more or less in a big country like this, headed by a big man
like me?); and for the Kaiser too (in my capacity as an absolute
monarch, it is my prerogative to make and wage war in the good,
old-fashioned way and not let weak-kneed modern notions about moral
standards and/or healthy doses of realism get in my way).  And the
common thread, seen also in various RL criminals of the serial killer
persuasion, is that sooner or later all these villains focus on the
details and perfect them but in so doing lose sight of the bigger
picture, which enables the knights on the white horses to gallop up
and defeat them, often by using their own weakness to do so; a
weakness that the villains ignore because with their tunnel vision
it's a logical impossibility.

And where does this leave Voldy? Certainly it seems that bits of the
big picture elude him – the Order of the Phoenix is livelier than
first time round, his loyal and loving DEs are a bunch of clumsy
clodhoppers, Harry's run of luck, if that's what it is, shows no signs
of running out, and it is possible if risky to destroy Horcruces. He's
known that ever since the Diary got basilisk-fanged, but the
implications elude him. 

Harry spent quite some time in HBP learning to understand Tom Riddle,
and therefore LV. Understand as in: sympathise with as well as: know
about. But, as an embodiment of the power of love, he can't be
expected to get too far into a mind like that. Who can? Hmm, let's
see: we need a character who is unusually intelligent, duplicitous,
constitutionally nasty and/or a brilliant actor, a skilled wizard with
the ability to think on his feet ... rats! I just can't think of
anyone at the moment, but I know it'll come to me. Yes, and then he'll
just have to work with Harry, that's all! 


Deborah, wishing she wasn't hearing that Power Of Love song in her
head but admitting she brought it on herself