Voldemort's Intellect (was: Snape Reduced)

[simonsebastiansmith]

No: HPFGUIDX 177886

> Mike:
> <snip>
> 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. <snip>

Simon:
I think the Room of Hidden Things could be argued in a different way,
coincidental and stretching believablity but workable. When Voldemort
found the Room, no one else knew of it. All of the stuff in there was
old, from a century or two back. Voldemort would have seen little
risk in depositing a Horcrux in a location no one ALIVE would have
known about. And then other people began to find it and added stuff
like the Fanged Frisbees.


> Mike:
> 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.  <snip>

Simon:
I think Dumbledore WAS the same way. Sending an untested eleven year-
old boy against a grown man with another entity in the back of his
head isn't very sound thinking. Harry could have easily been killed
before he had a chance to touch Quirell. Most of the rest of the time
Dumbledore continues to fail to notice important things going on
around him. The Chamber, Fake!Moody, Draco... He might have been good
dealing with Voldemort because he knew him so well, but besides that
he really wasn't all that bright.


> Mike:
> 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. ;)

Simon:
I think it's just more evidence of his skill- a portkey that goes off
when touched. Why did it let Harry go back? Presumably because
Voldemort would have wanted to go to Hogwarts, what w/ all the
children to kidnap, Karkaroff, Snape, Crouch, Fudge, and Dumbledore.


> Mike:
> 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. <snip>

Simon:
It's entirely possible that the Hall of Prophecy records who took the
orb. Voldie didn't want there to be any chance of the Ministry
suddenly going against him, and I bet that if the D. of Mysteries
workers said Voldemort was back, the Ministry would have believed it.
Also, he couldn't do it entirely undetected. The Order showed up.


> Mike:
> 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.

Simon:
He didn't want any risks for himself. Too many things could have gone
wrong. And he wouldn't have come if Bellatrix hadn't called him,
telling him that Harry claimed the prophecy was destroyed. Otherwise,
he would have sat back, waited, and let's face it- ten of those Death
Eaters broke out of Azkaban once. They could have done it again. And
even if they had been caught, Fudge would have denied anything to do
with Voldemort, and the Death Eaters (on Voldie's orders) would have
said it was an independent act.


> 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.

Simon:
Not until HBP. Using Draco as revenge and his utter failure of
dealing with Harry in DH scream that his mind is unstable.
Interestingly, at this point TWO Horcruxes have been destroyed, and
as the Horcruxes go, the less stable Voldemort becomes.


> Mike:
> 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. <snip>

Simon:
I also agree, Voldemort was pretty scary the first time through, even
in CoS he was a remarkable figure. But after the dementors, it was
kind of hard to be afraid of him, or even impressed.

-Simon, closing the HP plotholes, one mistake at a time...