Potentially controversial, but should the show attempt to make Voldemort a more interesting villain?
So I assume this thread may instigate some of you to tell me how wrong I am and how terrible my take is, but my intentions are good and I’m always open to the writers making an even better story (if they are talented enough). I’ll give some reasons why I think Voldemort isn’t a particularly interesting or good villain:
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Lack of humanity. The most memorable villains have a human quality that makes them somehow relatable whether jealousy, love, revenge, ambition, you get the point. Voldemort rejects love completely and is written as someone who has no human feelings at all. While that underscores his monstrosity, it also strips him of emotional realism. He becomes more of a force of evil than a human.
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Over-reliance on Evil Tropes. He’s bald, snake-like, obsessed with immortality, commands an army of black wearing henchmen, and has a genocidal ideology. These are clichés of fantasy evil, and Rowling doesn’t subvert them in any way . He’s the archetypal “Dark Lord”.
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Weak Narrative Presence. For most of the series, Voldemort is absent. In Philosopher’s Stone, he appears only as a weak spirit, in Chamber of Secrets, only as a memory and in Prisoner of Azkaban, he’s not present at all. His menace is more “talked about” than shown even in the later books. IMO, this robs him of development time and makes him feel like a distant shadow rather than a character driving the plot.
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Unrealistic Incompetence. For a supposedly brilliant and terrifying wizard, Voldemort makes a lot of glaring mistakes. He underestimates the power of “love” not once, but twice, overlooks prophecies, chooses incompetent followers and repeatedly gives a teenager chances to escape.
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No Moral Dilemma for the Reader. Great villains often tempt the audience to almost agree with them (take Walter White in Breaking Bad who wants to provide for his family). Voldemort offers no such temptation. His worldview is so cartoonishly evil (supremacy, cruelty, hatred of love) that there’s never a moment where the reader struggles with moral ambiguity.
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There are better villains in the story. Characters like Snape, Umbridge, and Grindelwald are way more compelling IMO. Umbridge is terrifying because she represents banal, institutional evil, something most readers have encountered in real life. Grindelwald was prideful and entitled, believing wizards shouldn’t hide from the normies. He was also capable of guilt (when Ariana died), as well as redemption (he came to regret his actions) and he was also capable of love. He was also a lot more influential and likely famous/ notorious than Voldemort, causing a global wizarding war between multiple continents, while Voldemort was a lame local terrorist type.
Even if you disagree with me, do you at least see where I (and a lot of other people) are coming from? Is there anything the show could do to mitigate some of his potential shortcomings as a villain? Do you maybe have any ideas?
Posted Aug 31, 2025, 12:08 AM UTC