We know he's a powerful wizard and all, but is he really that bad? The most deaths we've heard about, as far as I can remember, were when Wormtail killed a dozen or so muggles when Sirius caught up to him. All the other murders in the books seem to be 1 or 2 at a time, maybe a whole family (5 max, since most wizarding families don't seem to be like the Weasleys) at the most. Is there an accurate kill count somewhere, because it seems like the maximum amount of people he's killed is 100-200, which for someone who is supposed to be one of the most powerful dark wizards ever, doesn't seem like a lot.

 

I think that because the Wizarding population is so small, even wiping out a few families or family members would be enough to get the rest of them into an uproar.

Also, (I may be reading too many fanfics), but I would think the Voldemort and the DE's would be using a wide variety of curses, more brutal and disgusting than Crucio and the Killing Curse. Seeing a family strung up in the orchard by their entrails would be pretty horrifying.

 

He dropped a bridge into a river in the-book-that-must-not-be-named so that proabably killed several people. But if you are only talking about wizards yeah I would say he hasen't killed as many people as he as imperiod and other non leathal things. Muggle killings I would but them at 500+ since there are probably a lot of "Gas explosions" going on when DE's get bored. Oh and wasen't there a "Hurricane" caused by giants as well. Again that would of had to kill a few and do a lot more damage.

 

J.K Rowling has been quoted saying that there are around 3000-5000 Witches and Wizards in Magical Britain.

So, if we take the most conservative amount of people Voldemort has killed (100), with the upper end of the possible population of Magical Britain (5000), Voldemort has still killed off 2% of Magical Britain.

If you translate that percentage into real numbers then that's the equivalent of someone in real life Britain killing 1.2 million people, and this is the most conservative of calculations.

If we had chosen to say that Voldemort had killed 200 people, and that the magical population of Britain is only 3000, then it would be the equivalent of killing around 4 million people in today's Britain.

If you consider the outcry against the terrorists behind the events of 9/11 and the London bombings, then imagine how people would react if the death toll was in the millions.

 

Its a children's book so I'm guessing the description of some of his acts can not be described. But he has to grow in power some how so I think at the start he did most of the killings and the torturing I think thats what made everyone afraid of him.

 

We cannot forget about the Inferi he created. In all of fantasy worlds out there, Necromancy is always considered an act of evil (well maybe except Diablo-verse, but who cares?).
Also Voldemort and his Deat Eaters don't kill wizards only. They kill and torture muggles also, so I think that they had to kill a lot of them (500-700 I think).

 

I have a question. Did the Death Eaters ever rape someone in Canon? If not, why the hell do people always say they rape others?

 

No. People think that because DE are evil and are torturing people they can also rape them. But they tend to forget that typical DE is an pureblood racist and he would not lower himself to having sex with someone who he think is under him in social status.

 

I think the problem stems from JKR herself.

She's tried to create a horrid, evil and terrifying 'bad-guy', but because she is implementing him into a children's book, there is really only so much she can describe. That's why she has all the wizards and witches unable to speak about him other then saying 'You-Know-Who' and 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. She's trying to give us a sense that he has done some horrid things, without having to delve into the actual details of it all.

As far as the raping goes, I personally can see a DE wizard (Or witch) doing an act of that. Pureblood or not, behind closed doors I can almost guarantee you that a wizard will give into his basic animal needs rather than try and hold up visages. And just like Sya stated, it creates fear and terror. By submitting someone to your will and making them do whatever you want, you express control over them that would strike fear into anyone with a mentality of 'If it happened to them, it can happen to me'.

That's why I love to see authors in fanfiction who pump up Voldemort the way he really should be. In fanfiction an author can take that extra step that JKR can't to show a possible 'TRUE' side to Voldemort. The type of insane, tyrannical monster that he really should have been in canon.

Besides, without an incredible Voldemort, it can be very difficult to write an incredible Harry in turn.

 

I'm counting Muggles in that 100, since we heard about "strange disappearances" but not many "gas explosions", other than the one caused by Wormtail. I'm sure he has the potential to be very destructive, but as the Muggle world seemed to be a pretty placid place from what we saw in the-book-that-must-not-be-named, I doubt there were many of them. If there were, the Muggle world would probably become militant against the Wizarding world.

Inferi aren't necessarily people he killed, they're just animated corpses. He could've just as well (and it would've been easier than filling the cave one at a time) gone to a couple cemetaries and animated everything.

I don't think they raped people, because their ideology seems very similar to the Nazis. To have sex with a "lower" being would be akin to one of us having sex with an animal, and would dirty them.

Most FF writers that use rape probably just use it to show quickly how "evil" they are, without having to actually write the reasons for those evil actions. It's just easier to say "Snape raped Hermione" than it is to say "Snape wants to kill all muggles."

 

A decent source of money for JKR would be to licence out the first rise of riddle.
She could keep harry and friends safe and still write/edit/oversee hundreds of books covering the 1940's to the defeat by harry as well as "add to her empire".

Plus it would give us DLPers some thing to discuss after the seventh book.

Then again this could be a really bad thing.

 

She needs to do a Dumbledore, Founder, Grindelwald, First Rise, and Maruader era books. It would make me happy, which is what we all want. Don't we?

 

I can see your point with that, as it's a commonly used tool.

But Snape wanting to kill all Muggles, and Snape wanting to rape Hermione would be two entirely different ways of thinking.

To rape someone is to break their securities, strip their innocence, and scar them for life. Something I could wholeheartedly see a DE doing. True, I'm sure most wouldn't bring themselves to be that low, but including rape isn't just a means to quickly show an evil DE. It's something that's used to show that DE's not only want to kill, but that they want to mentally and physically harm their prisoners. Possibly a bit more terrifying then even Crucio.

Granted, some probably only do use it for a quick 'Hey look, that DoOd bad!" style of writing, can't argue with you on that front.

 

Also that 3000-5000 wizards is today's count. How many were lost to Volde and Grindewald a generation or two earlier?

A small closed society that has suffered three generations of constant war probably doesn't want to talk about the horrors of times past. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" is an example of that.

Why is Harry the last Potter? In a family that goes back hundreds of years, there ought to be a ton of Potters around. I only know my family history going back 200 years (ok, I don't 'know' it, it's in a book on my shelf), but theres a million freaking Watkins' around (of some reasonable degree of kinship to me) and a whole lot more if you go to Bredwardine where the family started. To wipe out a family to the extent that he is the last Potter something terrible had to happen.

Somewhere along the lines someone has been committing genocide among the magical community. Some undoubtedly was Grindewald but then why hadn't the population recovered?

 

Meh, but I always wanted to know about the Founders. And Riddle's first rise, Marauder can go with that too. And Dumbledore with Grindelwald.

 

I would kind of wish she wouldn't write anything like that. She would obviously ruin the HP universe... But I guess she already did.

 

How about any era where its not written like a children's book.

Also following older people would be better a character Percy's age would be perfect (I would say Percy but who would want to read about him). Mainly to see what happens after you graduate.

Tell you the truth I would just rob from muggles all day.