I've been thinking about this alot, but I can't come to a conclusion.

Just what does Voldemort hope to do realistically?

He can't seriously think of taking over the world, no way he'd raise an army that large and subdue Nuke Armed countries.

Maybe control magical britain, but then why does he attack muggles? His regime would be found out by muggles instantly.

Power? He is already on par with Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard on the planet.

Money? Malfoy.

Revenge? Somehow I doubt he's THAT petty.

Blood purity? Purebloods are a minority. I think even Voldemort himself realizes what incest and pureblooded beliefs will do to the magical population.


So just what does he hope to acomplish?

 

I think he's just a sociopath who wants power for himself. and uses the pureblood crap as a way to justify his actions and gain followers to help him accomplish his goal.

 

Voldemort sees muggles as inferior. He could take over nuke armed countries by controling the rulers, but I doubt he would settle for anything less than the death of every muggle in existance. He wants control over the wizarding world, and he choses to get this by manipulating the ones who believe in his false ideals (pureblood supremicy) and killing his opposition.

And he wants immortality. To live forever and wield utter dominance over the mortals beneath him.

 

I agree with the fact of him attacking muggles is stupid, and that it's something he lets the purebloods do in moderation, to help sate them.

My explanation for it, was that he always had them attack some backwater folks in the middle of nowhere, so if they ever were seen, no one would believe them (sorta like rednecks +UFO's, heh)

To me, he wants immortality, and often what he needs is blocked from him By Dumbledore or the Ministry, or he wants to take over and mold the magical world as his legacy, eventually taking over the muggles.


Canon wise? Especially after that bullshit that was book 6? He's just gone spare and wants to cause Chaos.

 

I believe that originally, Tom Riddle wasn't planning on becomeing a Dark Lord or anything like that, I think that he was scared of death and to defeat that fear he made horcruxes.

(Remember the wise words of Yoda: Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering)

In making the horcruxes and splitting his soul, he then became more prone to darker emotions, until the point where he is now, where even he probably doesn't know why he does what he does, just that he's very angry and enjoys causing pain, (and probably power hungry too) due to the fact that he has torn his soul so many times.

Having said that, I think it's important not to depict him as crazy or not capable of rational thought, as he is undoubtably still a genius.

EDIT: Of course, all of this only counts if you take HBP into account.

 

First, Taure, see my signature. I love that quote.

Now, I believe that Voldemort was always evil. That is how he was depicted in HBP. He always saw himself as better than everyone and everything else. He does not believe muggles to deserve an existance (borne from his hatred of his father), and wizards should serve their betters: him. He choses to accomplish this by using fear and by killing those who will not be frightened into submission. Considering that he is almost immortal, it would be pretty hard to put an end to his reign of terror.

 

This line alone brings the argument into question.

 

HBP?

I don't even consider that canon. Book 5 is where darker themes are given, the precursor to the Dark!Harry genre. If you follow HBP, Harry would be a braindead fluffball with monsters in his chest waiting for the deus ex machina to come into play so he can kill Voldemort and have babies with Ginny. And love each other for all of eternity because, as we all know, love destroys all and the darkness is evil.

LIGHT 4 evah!

Now, if OOTP was the last acceptable canon source, and that ridiculous explanation for immortality was dismissed, (If you're going to make a horcrux, why don't you just use a pebble and throw it into the Atlantic or something. It'd be pretty hard to find, I bet ), you come up with a Voldemort, who by all means is an extremely intelligent bastard that wants to kill Harry and claim immortality.

Just by his want to kill Harry, you see that he cares about his image - the boy-who-lived is still alive, and thus, his name is smeared. This means he wants something with the public.

This implies some sort of rule. I'm guessing the magical world. Once he has a firm reign, he'll just stop the muggle hunting before it gets out of hand. Perhaps once he has a firm powerbase, he'll move on to the muggle world, bu tuntil then, he'll settle for less.

 

Voldemort, though psychotic and homicidal to the uptenth degree, is not mindless and bloodlustful. He knows what he is doing and has it finely planned. Like all humans, which to a degree he still is, he has made mistakes and he feels emotions like anger which would account for his lack of a cool head where Dumbledore and Harry are concerned. But around everyone else he bears a keen tongue and a leveled mind.

No, Voldemort is not out just for killing. He has a plan.

 

Voldemort had some sort of plan, but, as he tried to achieve immortality, he slipped in to madness and lost track after being reborn. He is intelligent, but his plans are being beated by a stupid teenager!

 

I don't consider HBP cannon. Actually I borrowed the book from a friend, started to read it and got bored.

I'm not sure if he has a plan or not however. I'm sure he did and he obviously wants conquest of some kind now. I believe his plans, as of OOTP, are more about making sure he stays alive. He believes Harry can kick his ass and wants to guard against it.

Other than that I don't see any other thought process he might be going through. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Lada Rebecca Posted: 4-28-06

LaeVus Posted: 10-7-06

Time Difference: 5 Months, 9 days

And now, without any preamble...


POST NECROPHILIA IS PROHIBITED WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS

 

Hehe or just one grain of sand and leave it on a random beach. Come to think of it he might look better too. But I think you have the right idea, he wants immortality.

 

I've always viewed Voldemort as the Short Bus Kid of the bad guy club.

He is sadistic, viciously so, and appears to delight in torture and death. Check.

He is remarkably more powerful than most of his contemporaries and few of his adversaries can match him. Check.

He is the subject of a prophecy or destiny that has an unknown affect on his mental or emotional facilities. Check. It is entirely possible that his obsession with Harry stems from the weight of destiny pushing them unrelentingly into combat over and over until one dies. If prophecy is valid, and evidence suggests it is, then Fate must have a much firmer hand in manipulating events.

He has genocidal tendencies, a racist ideology, and a terroristic SOP. Check.

He succeeds in his plans . . . not really. His major victories to date since his return to England in PS include the death of Sirius Black, who was never a real threat to him or his followers. And possibly the death of Dumbledore in HBP, but I think JKR is gonna pull something out of her ass in Book Seven about the whole Snape/Dumbledore situation. It just reads as being entirely too dodgy compared to her previous treatment of the character. She has a habit of setting Snape up to be the bad guy, then revealing someone else as the true culprit at the end. (PS, GoF) I smell something rotten.

In my mind, he's simply a megolamaniac, genocidal, sadistic terrorist who enjoys creating fear and dominating others. I really think his pureblood rubbish is less important to him than he lets others believe. It's more about power. Power over death, power over those who would look down on him for his true blood status, power over those who stand between him and his goals, power over the lives of all those around him.

Personally, I don't buy the fear of death excuse. After making multiple horcruxes and hiding them in a SAFE place (Gringotts vault, anyone?), he was already effectively immortal. He would not suffer the effects of aging, he could survive the destruction of his physical body, he could even survive the Killing Curse, which no one else could do.

Thus, I don't think much of him. He has no clear goal, no realistic methods for accomplishing his apparent goals of world domination and true immortality, and has succeeded thus far only in scaring a small, closed community so bad that they can't say his made-up name.

But then, I was rereading LotR a while back and compared to Sauron, Voldie is a chump.

 

It's true that he doesn't hold to the pure-blood supremacy. He'd have to be some self-hating emo for that to work. But he does believe in wizard supremacy over muggles. And, of course, Voldemort supremacy over wizards. He allows the muggle hunts because they make his followers happy, they spread fear, and he hates muggles.

He continues to attack Harry because he believes that Harry is the only one who can match his power. That is what makes the prophesy true. Voldemort will continue to attack Harry until one of them is dead. And it looks bad when the one who challenges you gets away with it.

From canon, we really don't see much of what Voldemort's plans are. We just see the parts that Harry learns of, or is involved in. Letting a giant loose on muggles may very well have been some piece of a much more complicated network of attacks that would secure his rise to power. Or it just kills muggles and, possible, some inferior creatures (like giants).

What does Voldemort want? Power. Complete subjugation over all he deems worthy, and complete annialation over all he deems deserving. Power over life, and power over death.

 

I feel this is rather pertinent:

Peace is a lie; there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.

It's a rather apt statement of Tom's mentality during his first rise. The dark arts probably broke him, which is why he is the way he is today.
Bonus points if you recognize the quote.

 

First of all, I agree that Volde is riding the short bus to Dark Lord School. He needs to listen close to Professor Majere and learn how to not only conquer the past, present, and future, but even take on the Gods and win. Raistlin would shake Volde like a terrier with a rat and slap him around before telling him to muck the stables. Freakin orphan better do it too...

If I wanted to be immortal (the most popular motive), I'd make one or at most three Horcruxes and settle in for the long haul. No one will miss a muggle homeless man or three. Everyone who keeps pissing me off will die on their own eventually, and being the wise old man is a great way to gather influence. After a few hundred years, I'd practically run the world anyway just not in name. Those rare few who are truely troublesome will learn why they should fear the wrath of a patient man.

There was a fairly decent story (Companions of the White Warlock) that showed a few fairly well done immortals. If it weren't for the fact that it was sappy and used the "power or Ginslut's love" I might even recommend it.

 

Excellent post.

 

It's the code of the sith from KotOR.

But he hasn't broken. I firmly believe that he still has every last one of his marbles and is using them in his conquest.

I also agree with the patience theory, but Voldemort isn't patient. And that would probably seem to Dumbledore-ish for him.