2D Villain
Choice isn't an equal opportunity venture.
Voldemort is a disappointment. Prior to HBP he was somewhat mysterious. Evil, sure, but I could live with that. Afterward, I was simply disappointed. JKR has said (paraphrased) that there is hope for redemption for everyone except him. I can live with that, too, but for one small thing. HBP gives us a Voldemort who was born to be a villain, a criminal. There is no agony, no indecision, no anguish here. He went from being an interesting, shadowy 3D character to flat 2D with no hope, and merely a desire to see him dead and out of the way.
And now, bear with me, for I'm about to use examples from other worlds to attempt to explain why I feel like this.
In FF 7, we have Sephiroth, and with Advent Children we have the remnants. Even as I would sit there and watch or play, I would be torn. A part of me would admire Seph's strength, his power, his mind, and his delicious looks. The other part of me was shouting, "Kick his ass, Cloud! Go, baby!" We got to see why Sephiroth was a villain, how he was twisted, and that there was the tiniest ray of hope that he could be redeemed, even if that was only in death.
The remnants, much the same thing. Gorgeous (well, maybe not Loz), arrogant, immoral, but they had feelings, damn it. They were a reflection of the tortured soul that was Sephiroth. The characters, good and bad, they all had their stories, and if they weren't complete they were close enough for government in my eyes.
In Xenogears we had Hammer, we had Krelian, we had Ramsus, we had Lacan. I can't count Miang, because she was a construct. They each had a progression of events which led them to become the villains they were. We could feel for them, even if we did keep shouting, "Kick his ass, Fei!" Even Id can be looked upon with sympathy and understanding. The people were real, even the good guys.
In Christine, we see poor geeky Arnie go from the boy who has his jock friend to keep an eye out to an arrogant, immoral asshole. Christine is the jealous type, you see. But you can feel for him, what he becomes. Heck, you can feel for Christine in a way.
But we come back to Voldemort and it's just . . . flat. He's a construct, like Miang. He's programmed from the get-go. Yeah, he managed during his Hogwarts years to mostly exist within society. Well, if you ignore the murders he committed of his family members, and setting the basilisk free, and framing an innocent for the death of Myrtle.
He functioned after school, though he wasn't any less cruel and manipulative. About the only redeeming quality is that the Gaunts were the result of bad breeding, breeding into insanity. I didn't particularly see Merope as nuts, though. Just a bit lacking in brains, and raised to not consider morals or consequences.
Unless you happen to be a sociopath, I expect there's precious little chance you're going to be able to identify properly with canon!Voldemort. I dunno, maybe a psychologist?
Now, Harry Potter is supposedly about choice. And you could argue that Tom Riddle could have sought help (if he even recognized that he needed it) or tried to live his life within society's rules. He could have made the choice to channel his power and intelligence toward the betterment of the world, or at least not its detriment. But no, he ostensibly existed within society while heaven knows what was going on down below, in the dark, under the surface.
Obviously, he didn't. He had no choice being born with a mental condition that virtually assures him being a whackjob. Even from early on he was intimidating others, learning to control his power wandlessly, somehow. Probably sheer force of will.
So, Voldemort has never known love. Is JKR saying that there's no hope of redemption because he's incapable of it, or due to external factors? Would a better childhood have made a difference? Yeah, a sucky time to grow up, I know. Would the love of someone have made a difference? Well, obviously questions like that are next to useless, since it's obviously too little too late, right?
Frankly, I don't think it would have made a difference. That's just not who he's written as. Tom Riddle would have used someone who showed him love, not be transformed by it.
Voldemort is a construct. He's a cardboard cutout. He's the frequently ephemeral evil that lurks in the darkest of places. I have no reason to care any longer what happens in Deathly Hallows. I expect he'll die. I almost hope that Harry goes with him in a blaze of glory.
In this universe, Voldemort didn't really have any choices. He was a bad seed from the start, and I have no feeling for him. I can see that he has qualities which would have made him a great man, but they're useless. Harry can see them, but no matter how much alike these two men are, Harry wasn't born to be a psycho.
This isn't a question anymore of nature versus nurture, except in a non-standard sense. We're given character portraits, two people who are very similar in a number of ways, but one of them was born a sociopath. It's not a true comparison. Harry can't understand. He has no real basis to do so. And I don't think he's old enough, or more realistically mature enough, to see that knife edge.
I don't expect much, really, from DH. HBP already sank me in a morass of garbage. The pattern of corruption which began early on continued, which in itself is bad, but in some respects realistic. People aren't wholly good. People break the law. It doesn't necessarily make them bad, though it might make them hypocrites (like Hermione).
After all, laws are created by society, not by individuals. A single voice might propose, but they alone are not responsible for those in power adopting that idea and calling it law, or enforcing it.
If you can manage to ignore that wedged-in Harlequin romance between Harry and Ginny, it's a bit better, I suppose. And sure, it was nice to have seen more background, it's just unfortunate that all we got was more evidence in the pile to support a construct.
So I'm not hoping too much. We'll see how it goes. And in the end I expect I'll be mourning a character that could have been great, but just fell flat.
I suppose I'll continue to live happily in denial, eh? At least in fandom Voldemort can learn to love, even if he remains a dark lord. At least in fandom his sociopathic self can be nudged, twisted a bit. Maybe he does still like to torture and/or kill, but he's not hopeless. I can feel for him, I can pretend he wasn't born a sociopath, and I can enjoy him, good or bad.
Voldemort is a disappointment. Prior to HBP he was somewhat mysterious. Evil, sure, but I could live with that. Afterward, I was simply disappointed. JKR has said (paraphrased) that there is hope for redemption for everyone except him. I can live with that, too, but for one small thing. HBP gives us a Voldemort who was born to be a villain, a criminal. There is no agony, no indecision, no anguish here. He went from being an interesting, shadowy 3D character to flat 2D with no hope, and merely a desire to see him dead and out of the way.
And now, bear with me, for I'm about to use examples from other worlds to attempt to explain why I feel like this.
In FF 7, we have Sephiroth, and with Advent Children we have the remnants. Even as I would sit there and watch or play, I would be torn. A part of me would admire Seph's strength, his power, his mind, and his delicious looks. The other part of me was shouting, "Kick his ass, Cloud! Go, baby!" We got to see why Sephiroth was a villain, how he was twisted, and that there was the tiniest ray of hope that he could be redeemed, even if that was only in death.
The remnants, much the same thing. Gorgeous (well, maybe not Loz), arrogant, immoral, but they had feelings, damn it. They were a reflection of the tortured soul that was Sephiroth. The characters, good and bad, they all had their stories, and if they weren't complete they were close enough for government in my eyes.
In Xenogears we had Hammer, we had Krelian, we had Ramsus, we had Lacan. I can't count Miang, because she was a construct. They each had a progression of events which led them to become the villains they were. We could feel for them, even if we did keep shouting, "Kick his ass, Fei!" Even Id can be looked upon with sympathy and understanding. The people were real, even the good guys.
In Christine, we see poor geeky Arnie go from the boy who has his jock friend to keep an eye out to an arrogant, immoral asshole. Christine is the jealous type, you see. But you can feel for him, what he becomes. Heck, you can feel for Christine in a way.
But we come back to Voldemort and it's just . . . flat. He's a construct, like Miang. He's programmed from the get-go. Yeah, he managed during his Hogwarts years to mostly exist within society. Well, if you ignore the murders he committed of his family members, and setting the basilisk free, and framing an innocent for the death of Myrtle.
He functioned after school, though he wasn't any less cruel and manipulative. About the only redeeming quality is that the Gaunts were the result of bad breeding, breeding into insanity. I didn't particularly see Merope as nuts, though. Just a bit lacking in brains, and raised to not consider morals or consequences.
Unless you happen to be a sociopath, I expect there's precious little chance you're going to be able to identify properly with canon!Voldemort. I dunno, maybe a psychologist?
Now, Harry Potter is supposedly about choice. And you could argue that Tom Riddle could have sought help (if he even recognized that he needed it) or tried to live his life within society's rules. He could have made the choice to channel his power and intelligence toward the betterment of the world, or at least not its detriment. But no, he ostensibly existed within society while heaven knows what was going on down below, in the dark, under the surface.
Obviously, he didn't. He had no choice being born with a mental condition that virtually assures him being a whackjob. Even from early on he was intimidating others, learning to control his power wandlessly, somehow. Probably sheer force of will.
So, Voldemort has never known love. Is JKR saying that there's no hope of redemption because he's incapable of it, or due to external factors? Would a better childhood have made a difference? Yeah, a sucky time to grow up, I know. Would the love of someone have made a difference? Well, obviously questions like that are next to useless, since it's obviously too little too late, right?
Frankly, I don't think it would have made a difference. That's just not who he's written as. Tom Riddle would have used someone who showed him love, not be transformed by it.
Voldemort is a construct. He's a cardboard cutout. He's the frequently ephemeral evil that lurks in the darkest of places. I have no reason to care any longer what happens in Deathly Hallows. I expect he'll die. I almost hope that Harry goes with him in a blaze of glory.
In this universe, Voldemort didn't really have any choices. He was a bad seed from the start, and I have no feeling for him. I can see that he has qualities which would have made him a great man, but they're useless. Harry can see them, but no matter how much alike these two men are, Harry wasn't born to be a psycho.
This isn't a question anymore of nature versus nurture, except in a non-standard sense. We're given character portraits, two people who are very similar in a number of ways, but one of them was born a sociopath. It's not a true comparison. Harry can't understand. He has no real basis to do so. And I don't think he's old enough, or more realistically mature enough, to see that knife edge.
I don't expect much, really, from DH. HBP already sank me in a morass of garbage. The pattern of corruption which began early on continued, which in itself is bad, but in some respects realistic. People aren't wholly good. People break the law. It doesn't necessarily make them bad, though it might make them hypocrites (like Hermione).
After all, laws are created by society, not by individuals. A single voice might propose, but they alone are not responsible for those in power adopting that idea and calling it law, or enforcing it.
If you can manage to ignore that wedged-in Harlequin romance between Harry and Ginny, it's a bit better, I suppose. And sure, it was nice to have seen more background, it's just unfortunate that all we got was more evidence in the pile to support a construct.
So I'm not hoping too much. We'll see how it goes. And in the end I expect I'll be mourning a character that could have been great, but just fell flat.
I suppose I'll continue to live happily in denial, eh? At least in fandom Voldemort can learn to love, even if he remains a dark lord. At least in fandom his sociopathic self can be nudged, twisted a bit. Maybe he does still like to torture and/or kill, but he's not hopeless. I can feel for him, I can pretend he wasn't born a sociopath, and I can enjoy him, good or bad.