Snape Reduced LONG(was: Re: Villain!Dumbledore...

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 177882

> > Katie:
> 
> > I admit that Voldemort's intelligence seems less than impressive.
> > And the fact that he could thwart DD multiple times doesn't say
> > a lot about DD's intelligence. However, the story demands that
> > Voldemort be a wicked intellect, or it wouldn't have taken so
> > long to thwart him!

Mike:
I too was less than impressed with Voldemort's intellect. It seems he 
didn't have great intelligence so much as great knowledge of magic, 
with the few but important areas in which he was lacking. As 
Goddlefrood pointed out 2 months ago, anyone that thought he was the 
only one to discover the Room of Hidden Things in the face of those 
mountains of evidence to the contrary, well... way beyond simply an 
overactive ego, imo. I wonder if we are suppose to believe that with 
his loss of humanity through soul splitting came a loss of logical 
thinking? How else to explain his bouts of pure stupidity and lack of 
reasoning?

As for his ability to match wits with Dumbledore; it's not there, 
imo. Dumbledore leads him around like a horse with a carrot in both 
PS/SS and in OotP. Voldemort can only match Dumbledore in magical 
ability, and even there I think he comes up a little short. It's LV's 
willingless to use spells that DD won't that makes up the gap, imo. 
LV keeps his minnions under his thumb with shear magical ability, and 
his reign of terror is fueled by his and his DEs use of spells that 
others won't use. Probably why Crouch Sr. decided to fight fire with 
fire and use those same spells.




> Tiffany:
> Voldemort was a good villain in terms of ideas & planning, but he
> made too many strategic blunders to be taken seriously in many of
> the books that I read.  His magical powers & raw intelligence was
> very impressive, but he seemed to goof up too often every now &
> then for someone of his caliber.

Mike:
OK, this might be quibbling, but I find Voldemort's strategic 
thinking OK, his overarching planning wasn't lacking. It was his 
tactical thinking that was woebegone, his implementation of that 
grand scheme with his various plots. 

We've all noted his convoluted GoF plan. Side note: did anyone else 
notice the the Tri-Wizard Cup was the only portkey that didn't 
activate at a certain time? DD set up two in OotP that he set off 
himself, counted down the departure time. But Barty Jr. couldn't have 
done the same for the TWC, he couldn't see that far into the maze, he 
told us so. Also, I'm pretty sure Voldemort didn't activate the cup 
for Harry's return trip. ;)

I would add LV's ridiculous thinking in OotP to the list of tactical 
blunders. First off, he could get 12 DEs into the DoM unnoticed, but 
he couldn't go himself to retrieve the prophesy? Second, if his plan 
was to lure in Harry so he would get blamed - fine, just sit next to 
the shelf and when you hear the boy come into the Hall of Prophesies, 
snatch up the orb and skeedaddle. There are several ways in and out 
of that room, and I'd imagine Voldemort could figure out how to 
become invisible to effect his escape if he needed to do that.

When your need to feed your superego outweighs your need to complete 
a successful plan, you've lost the priviledge of being considered 
intelligent, Tom.


> Tiffany:
> I know he was the last direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin & was
> known for being like him in several ways.  However, he seemed to be
> letting his pride & desire to rule Hogwarts get in the way of truly
> impactful decision making. I'm not saying he doesn't have the goods
> to be someone to be reckoned with, but he had a lot of poor 
> strategic decision making that hurt him there. I was in awe of what 
> he was capable of & could do in SS, esp. in his first appearances 
> in the book.

Mike:
Do you get the idea that maybe we were suppose to be seeing some of 
that vaunted Gaunt intellect coming out in Tom? I think it wasn't 
just his soul that became dangerously unstable.

Because, I'm with you on this one Tiffany. LV scared the bejesus out 
of me in PS/SS. Probably because he was this almost mythical 
character that is suddenly manifest in front of Harry in a most 
bizarrely magical and grotesque form. But I realize now that I was in 
awe of his magical abilities. In retrospect, he's never shown as 
supremely intelligent, just well travelled and extremely accomplished 
in many forms of magical arts. And, of course, psychotically 
motivated to use any power available to him.

Mike, sticking his tongue out at Tommy Riddle :-P