| “ | There is no good and evil. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it. | „ |
| ~ Voldemort's nihilistic statement to Harry Potter, and his most famous quote. |
| “ | You have been a good and faithful servant, Severus. But only I can live forever. | „ |
| ~ Lord Voldemort addressing his sadistic death threatening statement to Severus Snape. |
Lord Voldemort, previously known as Thomas Marvolo Riddle, is the main antagonist of the Harry Potter franchise.
He is a psychopathic dark wizard that seeks to obtain immortality, conquer the world and rule as dictator over everyone, exterminate all Muggles, destroy anything beyond his control, and kill the one who is destined to put an end to his reign.
He is the archenemy of Harry Potter due to murdering his parents Lily Potter and James Potter, as well as the second archenemy of Albus Dumbledore.
In the films, he was portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, who also played Amon Goeth in Schindler's List and King Richard III in the Almeida Theatre's 2016 production of The Tower of London, in remaining five films; Christian Coulson (16-year-old) in Chamber of Secrets; and both Hero Fiennes-Tiffin (11-year-old) and Frank Dillane (15-year-old) in Half-Blood Prince. In Sorcerer's Stone, he was portrayed by Richard Bremmer in the flashback scene, and voiced by Ian Hart.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Believes that the meaning of life is to hold power over all life so he can accomplish power over death as a consequence and indulge his own thanatophobia forever.
- While he has numerous comedic moments such as being hallucinated in a tuxedo at Platform 9 3/4, getting trapped in a flying ball of water, and hugging Draco Malfoy, not only are they amusing solely to the audience, but they actually make him even worse by emphasizing the unbelievable extremity of his remorseless and sadistic characteristics.
- He is responsible for all of the psychological damage and PTSD inflicted upon Harry Potter, which continued to traumatize him even as an adult.
- As the founder and leader of the Death Eaters, he holds deep prejudice against Muggles, Muggle-borns, and several sentient magical creatures such as house elves and centaurs.
- He is entirely incapable of real love, going out of his way to take care of his pet serpent Nagini because she is one of his Horcruxes. That being said, he only has an affinity with snakes in general and is no friend to their kind at all. As for Bellatrix Lestrange, he doesn't reciprocate her genuine love for him at all and treats her like a pawn who'll willingly indulge his every whim. It can be assumed that the only reason the two conceived Delphini was to either have another body for him to possess if he got killed again or to continue his legacy. The only reason he has shown any sentiment towards his late mother, Merope Gaunt, is because she was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts, which makes him his ancestor as well, even commending his mother for raping his father, Tom Riddle Sr.
- And although he admires his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, it is not a redeeming quality because he only sees him as an inspiration due to his anti-Muggle opinions. In fact, he said that he wanted to kill Harry in revenge (for something that happened when he was 15 months old) over even continuing Salazar's wishes at all. He doesn't see Salazar as a person beyond the despotic things he stood for because he sees everyone else as extendable, cruelly believing that everyone is inadequate except for him.
- While he indeed inherited his grandfather Marvolo's mental instability resulted from generations of Gaunt family's generations of inbreeding, he has much clearer moral agency than the latter and Morfin ever been. In fact, his incapability of true love was because he chooses not to comprehend it all along — a contrast to Harry who learned to cherish it. In fact, the popularity he had enjoyed at Hogwarts completely disproves the notion that he was incapable of functioning positively in human society.
- His actions were so horrible that he became universally detested and dreaded, being considered even more infamous than the likes of Gellert Grindelwald, a man whose hideous war crimes were one of the few that actually came close to being on par with Voldemort, yet still beat him with his sheer irredeemability and quite literally with his lack of soul (Voldemort's pursuit of world domination saw him fashioning fragments of his splintered soul into Horcruxes to attain immortality, a sacrilegious act even Grindelwald wouldn't dare to commit).
- He is a bad boss towards his partisans, brutally punishing them if they fail, and he doesn't care about them. Moreover, they didn't mourn his disappearance, and because of it, he severely reprimanded them.
- Basically, most, if not every, negative event in the original seven books can be tied directly to him.
Background[]
- As a child, he would use his magical powers to harm the other orphans, stealing their belongings to enrich himself (and sometimes keeping them as a souvenir of his deeds), hoping that no one, such as Mrs. Cole, would notice, and making the orphanage an enjoyable place for himself. This also completely disproves he is "tragic" because he, much like Dudley Dursley, was the undisputed bullying kingpin among all of his peers for a long time.
- He killed the pet rabbit of another orphan named Billy Stubbs by hanging it from the rafters because they had a fight.
- He terrorized Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson, two fellow orphans, while they were in a cave, and the experience was so traumatic that they refused to divulge exactly what happened, with Mrs. Cole noting they were never humorous again.
- He murdered his father and his paternal grandparents, Thomas and Mary, in cold blood, for whom he felt exponentially less genuine sentiment than his mother.
- While they were known to be at best indecent neighbors, this is way too petty to justify killing the elderly out of sheer spite.
- He also framed his maternal uncle, Morfin Gaunt, for the crime by placing his memory of committing the murder in his head. As Albus Dumbledore indeed pointed out, while Morfin himself was a felon with an awful personality, he certainly did not deserve to die alone in Azkaban for a crime in which he had no involvement.
- Manipulated Horace Slughorn to confide with him regarding what he knows regarding Horcruxes. This led to the latter traumatized upon realizing his former student would abuse the knowledge and haunted him ever since due to him unreasonably thinking himself the hugest reason the Dark Lord is out there in the first place.
- As a student at Hogwarts, he released the Basilisk in the school to kill all "Muggle-borns", resulting in many being petrified, a particular example being a student named Myrtle Warren. Tom grew worried Hogwarts could be shut down and panicked and put the Basilisk away merely to avoid failing to complete his education in the magical arts and having to lay aside his vision of Hogwarts becoming an academy for pure darkness someday. In order to ward off any possible scrutiny for his heinous deed, he put the blame on Rubeus Hagrid.
- This unfortunately led not only to Hagrid getting expelled but also to having to release his beloved Acromantula, Aragog, for the spider’s own safety from suspicion. Hagrid would later be sent to Azkaban for two months for allegedly reawakening the Basilisk.
- His actions also resulted in Myrtle being reduced to an imprint of spirituality left on the earth for all eternity, not to mention one incapable of maturing beyond a gloomy and hormonal pre-pubescent girl, all because the innocent child was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and while Tom didn't know about this, it's not like he wouldn't be completely and utterly indifferent about causing her to be permanently stuck on Earth.
- Furthermore, he didn't know she was yelling at him to shove off because she thought he was a mean girl that was already onto her earlier, but this misunderstanding is far too petty to justify making an innocent little girl into a permanently damned soul.
- Placed a jinx on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts that wouldn't allow a teacher to hold the job for more than a year, purely out of spite for not being given the job by Dumbledore. Extremely callous and childish on the first glance, it made worse by implication of it done as precaution so Hogwarts cannot teach people such subject at its fullest; thus mitigating chances of facing future enemies who excel in Defense Against Dark Arts through enrolling there.
- Had Dumbledore granted him such a request, on the other hand, it's too certain Voldemort would abuse it to recruit more potential followers, which is just as sinister.
- He had the house elf Kreacher test his protection of Salazar Slytherin's Locket by forcing him to ingest the Drink of Despair, which causes horrific psychological damage, and was prepared to let Kreacher be killed by the Inferi in the cave.
- He forced many people to join his cause using the Imperius Curse. Because of it, he is responsible for the villainy of numerous Death Eaters, "scores," according to Barty Crouch Jr.
- When he was on his way to the Potter house, he considered killing a child when he stepped in front of him and commented on Voldemort’s “Halloween costume” and only spared him because he was too busy for such a trivial kill.
- Attempted to kill Harry Potter, who was only an infant at the time, just to prevent a prophecy from coming true, and also murdered his parents with far more success, just for protecting their very own son from being slaughtered.
- While in the books, he did try to spare Lily and warned her to step aside several times, possibly because Snape requested it and also because he wanted to recruit her.
- Created Seven Horcruxes in order to live forever, splitting his soul into each object. Each of these Horcruxes was created through murder. They are therefore considered among the darkest and most vile forms of magic.
- His diary was made a Horcrux through the murder of Myrtle Warren at the hands of the Basilisk. While it was not a direct murder, it did not disqualify him from creating a Horcrux.
- His maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, was made a Horcrux through the murder of his father, who had never done him any wrong at all and was a recovering sexual abuse victim.
- Salazar Slytherin's Locket was made a Horcrux through the murder of a Muggle tramp in an undisclosed context (although knowing him, obviously nothing remotely rational).
- Helga Hufflepuff's Cup was made a Horcrux through the murder of Hepzibah Smith, a woman who thought he was her friend and left her domestic elf Hokey to take the blame. While Hokey was not penalized for accidentally killing her mistress, he still made her believe she was responsible by planting false memories in her head.
- Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem was made a Horcrux through the murder of an Albanian peasant in an undisclosed context.
- Nagini was made a Horcrux through the murder of Frank Bryce, who was merely confused about criminals occupying a house he had responsibility over.
- Harry Potter was accidentally made a Horcrux through the murder of Lily J. Potter for simply protecting an innocent baby from an extremely insane intruder.
- He waged the First Wizarding War with the intention of taking over Britain, establishing a pure-blood dictatorship to subjugate all half-bloods under a tyrannical reign, and committing genocide upon all Muggles, Muggle-borns, and blood traitors.
- During the war, he had the giants ally with him, who were responsible for some of the worst atrocities against the Muggle community, with hundreds of Muggles, Muggle-borns, and other enemies of the Death Eaters being killed or disappearing.
- Specialized in psychological torture and scourging his enemies with painful, realistic illusions using Legillimency, inducing them with agony and only killing them once they were already begging for death.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone[]
- He manipulated Quirinus Quirrell using his body as a host.
- He ordered his new host to rob a vault at Gringotts and to kill Harry, a defenseless child, during his Quidditch match (although both evil acts backfired entirely).
- He had Quirinus kill unicorns and drink their blood to sustain his weakening body. It is said that anyone who kills unicorns is cursed, since it is so utterly repulsive to kill such an innocent creature.
- He tried to kill Harry again by advancing on him in the forest,
- He tried to manipulate Harry into believing that if he gives him the Sorcerer's Stone, he can subvert his murders of his parents, although he knew he had no idea how to do that.
- In the film, he told Quirrell to choke Harry to death and was only annoyed when Quirrell's hand was vaporized and went on to mutilate Harry and knock him unconscious before fleeing back to Albania as a demonic ghost.
- He mercilessly abandoned Quirrell to die when he attempted to take the Sorcerer's Stone from Harry.
- Even Dumbledore considered this a repulsive thing to do and used it to warn Harry that evil was no less merciful to the good that opposed it than to the sheep that willingly followed it.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets[]
- He attempted to manipulate Harry and turn him against Rubeus Hagrid by making him believe Hagrid had opened the Chamber of Secrets.
- The soul of his Horcrux in the diary took possession of Ginny Weasley, draining her life force. He also made her open the Chamber of Secrets, unleashing the Basilisk and petrifying many Muggle-born students. If it weren't for sheer dumb luck, Mrs. Norris, Colin Creevey, and Hermione Granger herself would have died from the Basilisk's deadly gaze.
- He had Ginny kill Hagrid’s roosters and force her to write messages on the wall using their blood, then took her to the chamber itself to lure Harry.
- His Horcrux attempted to kill Harry by ordering the Basilisk to do it and proceeded to actually find it funny that a little child was bleeding and dying and made two back-to-back jokes about it (although he was fortuitously saved from the Basilisk venom by Fawkes).
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire[]
- He has Bertha Jorkins tortured to break the Memory Charm and reveal the information about Barty Crouch Jr., then kills her when her mind is broken beyond repair.
- Murdered Frank Bryce for overhearing his plans, despite being incapable of stopping him regardless, as a Muggle heralding Voldemort's return would never be taken seriously if not even Albus Dumbledore himself could be.
- He ordered Peter Pettigrew and Barty Crouch to kidnap Alastor Moody and have Barty impersonate him to take his place at Hogwarts.
- He forced Barty Crouch Sr. to obey him with the Imperius Curse. When he escaped, he punished Pettigrew with the Cruciatus Curse. Made worse is that Pettigrew made him the very rudimentary body he was holding his wand aloft with in the first place.
- He was responsible for Harry being in the Triwizard Tournament, where he nearly died during all three events, and he ordered Pettigrew to forcibly take the child's blood, severely injuring him.
- He had Pettigrew murder Cedric Diggory, an event that would horrify the alumni of Hogwarts and leave Harry with PTSD for the summer and following school year.
- He used the Cruciatus Curse on his Death Eater, Avery, when he asked for forgiveness.
- Tortured Harry with the Cruciatus Curse before attempting to murder him.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[]
- Broke his extremely dangerous followers out of the hellish Azkaban prison, where they had to be rightfully constrained from the innocent, and enlisted the Dementors, which would go across England and drain the happiness of innocent people.
- While he was jubilant about their escape, it was only out of pure pragmatism.
- Although Barty Crouch Jr. contributed to his return, he does not regret the fate he has met in the slightest and does not mention it at all, nor does he say any words of praise to him for his loyalty and the success of his task.
- He used the Imperius Curse to force Broderick Bode to retrieve the prophecy, but the attempt ended up causing him permanent psychological damage before having him murdered in the hospital with the brutal Devil's Snare.
- He enables Bellatrix to cheat on her husband, Rodolphus Lestrange, by having sex with her and impregnating her with Delphini, who will go on to cause many problems much later down the line.
- He sends false images of himself torturing Sirius Black in the Department of Mysteries to Harry to lure him to him, which would cause Harry to go try and rescue Sirius and lead to Sirius' death as well as put several innocent teenagers in mortal danger.
- In the films, he tried to corrupt Harry into murdering Bellatrix after she killed Sirius, telling him that she deserved it. This is in spite of Bellatrix's devotion to Voldemort, further showing that he has no loyalty to his followers.
- In the Department of Mysteries, he attempted to kill Harry again and dueled Dumbledore in his attempt to murder his teacher. He then possessed Harry in order to have Dumbledore kill Harry as a means to put an end to Voldemort.
- Although he grabbed Bellatrix when he fled and rescued her, it was only out of a desire to keep on using her.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince[]
- Attempted to force Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge to resign, and when he refused, he attacked the Brockdale Bridge, murdering many people in the process.
- Ordered his Giants to cause mass destruction in England, destroying property and murdering many more people.
- He gave Draco the practically impossible task of assassinating Albus Dumbledore as a way to punish Lucius for letting his Horcrux diary be ruined and breaking the prophecy orb, spitefully taking revenge on Lucius for sheer hard luck.
- Although Draco fails him, he is still responsible for the death of Dumbledore, a major ally who was heavily looked up to by not only Hogwarts but the wizarding world itself, as he had to die to ensure the forces of good would win the war. He also didn't care how stressed it made Severus Snape to perform the murder.
- Murdered Amelia Bones and her entire family in order to replace her with a puppet, giving him control over the Ministry of Magic.
- He used the Death Eaters to make a number of potential enemies disappear; while some, such as Garrick Ollivander, definitively survived, others, such as Florean Fortescue and Octavius Pepper, were never seen again and were likely killed.
- Likely ordered or at least sanctioned the torture-murder of Igor Karkaroff for leaving the Death Eaters.
- He had Emmeline Vance murdered to stop her from warning the Muggle Prime Minister about the Death Eater threat.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[]
- He took Lucius Malfoy’s wand as an act of spite for him having gotten his Diary Horcrux destroyed through his negligence, even though Voldemort had never told Lucius what it really was and Lucius had only gotten rid of it when he believed Voldemort had been killed.
- Slew Alastor Moody with the Killing Curse and tried to dishonorably kill Harry when he was barely conscious during the Battle of the Seven Potters.
- Infiltrated the Ministry of Magic, torturing and killing Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour and establishing a pure blood dictatorship where he had Muggle-borns rounded up and prosecuted on trumped-up charges of stealing magic, sending them to Azkaban to have all their happy memories fed off by Dementors under threat of having their souls sucked out by the Dementor's Kiss if they tried to resist arrest or escape, relying on Dolores Umbridge to enforce his will in his long-term absence.
- And him leaving his followers to run the Ministry is not out of trust but rather being far less concerned about politics than about enriching his own brute strength.
- Took over Hogwarts and arranged for all students to be taught the Dark Arts and indoctrinated with pure-blood supremacy, being forced to use the Unforgivable Curses on each other in class.
- Murdered Bathilda Bagshot and desecrated her corpse by using her as a trap for Nagini to capture Harry and kill Hermione.
- Abducted and murdered Charity Burbage for teaching about Muggles and believing in equality over blood supremacism, then fed her body to Nagini not out of kindness but rather to dispose of the dead with undignified means.
- Killed a family, which included a mother and two children, in his search for the Elder Wand, even though they told him only that Gregorovitch no longer lived there and that they didn't know him.
- He had acclaimed wandmaker Mykew Gregorovitch tell him about Grindelwald stealing the Elder Wand and then killing him anyway, despite how valuable he is to Germany's wizarding population. At some point beforehand, he was implied to have done the same to an innocent ice cream seller named Florean Fortescue.
- Murdered Grindelwald in cold blood, not to hypocritically punish him for being a supervillain but rather for mocking him to his face and telling him no.
- Although he lifted the Anti-Disapparition Jinx around Nurmengard Castle and Disapparated in lieu of unsupported flight to silently demonstrate to Grindelwald he could now be free of his rightful imprisonment in the film, this was only out of pure pragmatism, just like with Bellatrix Lestrange (and he made it far easier for her by comparison anyway).
- He broke into Dumbledore's tomb and left his corpse exposed to the elements (which is corpse desecration) and stole the Elder Wand.
- He killed Griphook and an entire group of goblins and wizards meeting him at Malfoy Manor for failing to protect a Horcrux.
- He forced Draco to torture Antonin Dolohov and Thorfinn Rowle with the Cruciatus Curse to punish them for failing while taunting them with the idea of being Nagini's supper.
- Although he gave Peter Pettigrew a silver hand, he was far more useful to him with two hands than one, and he secretly designed the hand as a contingency measure to strangle him to death should Pettigrew consider showing the slightest mercy to his enemies (albeit only confirmed in the books, but his obvious pragmatism in subverting the physical disabilities of his own henchmen remains in the films), emphasizing the fact that everything Voldemort ever does is for himself.
- In the movie, he killed Pius Thicknesse, his own follower, merely for trying to get his attention.
- Killed Severus Snape, who he still thought was one of his most loyal servants who had given him vital victories, and killed Dumbledore, believing it would give him total control over the Elder Wand, sarcastically citing regret to rub it in.
- Forced Harry to turn himself in to save his friends, then mercilessly fired the Killing Curse at him, not knowing he survived it once again (although Voldemort's intentions obviously count). After that, he sadistically defiles his body by using the Cruciatus Curse. Then, when he arrived with Harry's body at Hogwarts, he lied that Harry had attempted to flee and save himself purely out of spite to ruin his reputation and frame Harry as a coward.
- He planned on making Slytherin the only house in Hogwarts, with his only excuse being his status as the dreaded and reviled Heir of Slytherin.
- When Neville refused the offer to join the Death Eaters, he prepared to kill him before being interrupted.
- After Bellatrix, one of his most useful followers, was killed by Molly Weasley, Voldemort furiously attempted to murder her out of sheer spite.
- Upon learning of the Elder Wand's true allegiance, he planned to find and kill Draco once he finished dealing with Harry.
- Even when given the chance by Harry to end things peacefully and show remorse for his actions, he refused to even entertain the notion and attempted to kill Harry one final time, launching the Killing Curse at him.
- Despite his mutilated soul being permanently trapped in Limbo, which is a fate much worse than death, it's not played for sympathy as he completely deserved it because, as said earlier, he had a chance to reconstruct his soul through feeling remorse, but he refused because of the fact he's a creature who is too inherently malevolent to show any remorse for his actions and still attempted to continue his unforgivable crimes for as long as he possibly can.
- So, while being all alone where he can only look out into the white expanse and think about his seventy years of mortal life with extremely limited mobility may be an unspeakably horrific future for him, he has reaped exactly what he sowed, and he has absolutely no one to blame for his fate except himself.
Trivia[]
- In spite of being perceived as the epitome of Pure Evil by almost everyone, Lord Voldemort's evilness is slightly toned down in the film series, as the flashback scene of the orphanage from Half-Blood Prince has him admit that he only does bad things to the people who are mean to him. Similarly, Voldemort doesn't force Peter Pettigrew's silver hand to kill him and spares Gellert Grindelwald and lifts the Anti-Disapparition Jinx so he can be free after asking him about the Elder Wand's whereabouts, as Grindelwald does give in and tell him where it is unlike the book.
- That said, while the Heinous Standards of the Wizarding World's film version are significantly lower due to some tie-in material not being adapted, Voldemort's crimes remain mostly the same and manages to stand out due to his plans: while in the books he just plans to take over the Wizarding World and enslave all Muggles, he plans to commit genocide on all Muggles and non-pure blood wizards in the films. As for his different interactions with Pettigrew and Grindelwald, Voldemort was obviously acting solely out of pragmatism on both occasions because even these extremely reprehensible men could potentially be of further use to him.
- A HBO max TV series of Harry Potter is upcoming in 2026 with whether its iteration of Lord Voldemort will also qualify as Pure Evil remains to be seen. Taking into account of Lord Voldemort despicable personality and nature in the books, it's likely that he will as with the film version.
- He's the only Pure Evil character in the series to kill a Pure Good character, Lily Potter.
External Links[]
- Lord Voldemort on the Villains Wiki
- Lord Voldemort on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
- Lord Voldemort on the Harry Potter Wiki
- Lord Voldemort on the VS Battles Wiki
- Lord Voldemort on the Wikipedia
[]
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Both Continuities Book-Exclusive Film-Exclusive | ||