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This villain was approved and proposed on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki to be an Entertainingly Detestable who stands out for having entertaining qualities such as exceptional intelligence, charm, charisma, and comical tone, while remaining notably detestable for their characteristics and the actions that they have committed. Do not remove this template from characters unless they were removed from the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki. Failure to comply will result in a block. | ||
Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort, is the main antagonist of the Harry Potter franchise, appearing as the main antagonist of The Philosopher's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets, the unseen overarching antagonist of The Prisoner of Azkaban, the overarching antagonist of The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince and the main antagonist of The Deathly Hallows Part 1 and of The Deathly Hallows Part 2.
- Magical Mastery: Even at a young age, Voldemort proved himself to be a precociously gifted magical prodigy, as he was able to utilize and control magic without the use of a wand or even knowing the very existence of magic itself to an unnaturally high level: he had a power to move objects with his mind, to communicate with and control animals, and even inflict harm on those who opposed or annoyed him, which left even Dumbledore astonished. As a student of Hogwarts, Voldemort was acknowledged by Dumbledore to be the most brilliant student in the school's history. As an adult, Voldemort's unimaginable power and skill was so great that he successfully terrorized all of Britain and defeated so many that he quickly earned the reputation as the most powerful and dangerous Dark Wizard in Britain's history, aside from Gellert Grindelwald, though his evil made Voldemort appear superior. He performed feats of magic thought impossible and his magical accomplishments eclipsed and dwarfed those of any dark wizard before him. Between his tremendous magical power and skill and profound capability for evil and destruction, Voldemort was thought to be unbeatable, with the only hope of the wizarding Britain during his reign of terror, up until the arrival of Harry Potter, being Albus Dumbledore. Because of this, Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort ever feared. Despite this, Voldemort proved to be capable of standing up to Dumbledore, though he was ultimately outclassed severely by his former mentor and forced to flee, despite Dumbledore's age having weakened his magic. Possessing an incredibly deep amount of knowledge and understanding of magic, Voldemort had experimented and pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever been pushed, and if he were to be granted a teaching position, he could teach students things that they could gain from no other wizard. Even Dumbledore himself acknowledged that Voldemort's knowledge of magic was more extensive than any wizard to have ever lived, with presumably even Dumbledore only standing as his equal in terms of magical knowledge; additionally, he was not sure that even his most powerful protective spells and charms could effectively fight off Voldemort if the Dark Lord was at full power. This degree of immense magical power and deadly skill, coupled with his blatant lack of morals, made him an extremely dangerous adversary indeed. Voldemort's magical might and knowledge made him capable of overcoming almost any magical protection in his way, making extremely few safe from him, with not even the combined efforts of all the professors of Hogwarts holding Voldemort off for long. Notably, Dumbledore and Alastor Moody were the only single wizards known to be capable of casting defence charms that could keep Voldemort at bay. In addition, although rarely applying this talent, Voldemort was as equally capable in protecting specific places magically as he was in breaking magical protections, as he set up many powerful wards on both the Horcrux Cave and Gaunt Shack to protect his Horcruxes, which were powerful enough to impress Dumbledore. Even though he managed to overcome them, the last and most powerful enchantments in Horcrux Cave were powerful enough to block out even Dumbledore's magic.
- Dueling: Voldemort possesses immense dueling skills, surpassed only by Dumbledore and Grindelwald. He was known for having defeated some of Britain's brightest and most skilled wizards and witches, including Amelia Bones, Alastor Moody, and could fight on par with Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Horace Slughorn (who were masterful duelists themselves) simultaneously, though he was unable to overpower them until his rage exploded and failed to truly defeat them. He was also the only one among the Death Eaters who had the skill to temporarily contend with Dumbledore, albeit when he was older and weaker than his prime, just enough to escape. His dueling style is extremely unpredictable, able to instinctively switch styles in a blink of eye and casts destructive Dark Arts spells in aggressive manner.
Wand versatility: Voldemort can use other people's wands as good as with his own with no handicap, having used Morfin's to slaughter Riddle family, able to use Lucius' second wand for a brief of time and even executed Charity Burbage for her Muggle teachings which deemed to be an affront to the belief of Pure-blood supremacists only to break it upon confronting Harry Potter, and even able to use his
- Wandless and nonverbal magic: Voldemort was also immensely accomplished at both wandless and nonverbal magic, enough so to be capable of using both effortlessly. He could move objects magically without the incantations to do so normally, using his hand to remove the masks from the Death Eaters who returned to him after his rebirth while he scolded them and easily lifting the grounded Harry Potter up by harshly motioning him and later instantly disarming him with a simple wave of his arm during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. He was also capable of pushing a dead giant out of his way with a lazy wave of his hand during the Battle of Hogwarts and also magically moving his cloak to restrain Harry Potter with a mere hand gesture. He was capable of casting spells ranging from simple charms to Dark spells and even the most advanced of magic such as the Unforgivable Curses to their full potency without speaking the incantation.
- Dark Arts: Voldemort was unbelievably talented and phenomenally accomplished in the Dark Arts at all levels, widely considered to be the most powerful practitioner of the Dark Arts Britain had ever known during his reign of terror. He had a masterful knowledge of the most arcane and complex magic that wizardkind was capable of and could perform them successfully, such as the ability to create Horcruxes and raise an army of Inferi using necromancy and was also highly masterful in the use of all three Unforgivable Curses. Despite being weakened, Voldemort was still able to cast the Cruciatus Curse with enough strength to force Bertha Jorkins to regain the memories that were suppressed by a powerful Memory Charm cast by Bartemius Crouch Senior and an Imperius Curse strong enough to control the latter for half of a year, and although he eventually resisted, he became delirious from it. He had a particular affinity for the Killing Curse, having murdered enough people to create an entire army of Inferi, and was able to cast this curse effectively while still under-aged and using Morfin Gaunt's wand. Voldemort was also capable of developing extremely powerful dark charms: he placed a jinx on the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher after being refused the post by Dumbledore that would cause something terrible to happen to those who held the post within a year and was powerful enough that not even Dumbledore could lift it, and another on Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, so as to protect it after it had been made into a Horcrux so that it would kill anyone who touched it. The curse was so strong, even Dumbledore could only contain the curse for some time and Snape, a wizard of exceptional knowledge in countering curses, was only able to suppress the curse for a year. Voldemort was also capable of casting an extremely powerful spell that fired a bolt of blinding and explosive energy that could penetrate the extremely powerful defences that shielded Hogwarts, which was strong enough to hold against the relentless attacks of his Death Eaters. Voldemort also unleashed a torrent of dark energy at Dumbledore that he was able to release into a cataclysmic powerful blast that shattered every glass on the Atrium and even overwhelmed the defensive spell that Dumbledore used to hold it at bay, although it proved able to negate much of the force of the attack, leaving Dumbledore and Harry unharmed and only briefly knocked down. He was also very experienced and skilled in performing the very complex Fiendfyre, as he was able to fully control the cursed fire it creates and can even condense the flaming jet into a single colossal snake, using it against Dumbledore in their duel. He was also capable of performing a wide variety of unique and powerful dark magic wards, as he created the defensive measures of The Cave to protect the locket Horcrux, which included a spell that made it so the entrance can only be opened if blood were to be spilled, as well as another which prevents any attempt to magically summon the Horcrux, and finally, an enchantment on the Potion of Despair that not even Dumbledore was able to overcome. Voldemort was also very knowledgeable in the use of dark potions, having been aware of and able to instruct Peter Pettigrew into brewing the potion that resurrected him fully. He could even craft his own potions, having made the Emerald Potion, which could show the drinker their most hated fears, and also the Rudimentary Body Potion, which he taught Peter how to brew in order to allow him to regain a physical form, albeit a very small and weak one. While possessing Quirrell in his weakened state, Voldemort could cast an unknown lethal curse that emitted a wave of energy that he used against Harry, which also gave him the power to collapse a bridge on Harry and lock down the door out of the Dungeons with a pair of four curses.
- Horcrux-supported Immortality: As stated previously, Voldemort has created 7 Horcruxes to attain immortality through placing six of them in his diary via. murdering Myrtle with aid of Serpent of Slytherin, Marvolo Gaunt's Ring via. slaughtering entire Riddle family, Salazar Slytherin's Locket via. killing a muggle tramp, Helga Hufflepuff's Cup via. murdering Hepzibah Smith, Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem via. murder of an Albanian peasant, Nagini's snake form via. murder of Bertha Jorkins. The last one, Harry Potter himself, was created by mistake through his ill-attempt murder on the Chosen One when he was a baby during which Lily's sacrificial protection coupled with how maimed Voldemort's soul had become throughout his bloody campaign until that point resulted a fragment of it entered Harry's lightning bolt-shaped scar. Not only this allowed him to stay alive as long as they all remained intact thus keeping his master soul from leaving the land of the living in the event of destruction of his body, but also allowed him to influence anyone who exposed to their evil magic fueled by his soul fragment as shown through influencing Harry's future wife Ginny via. his diary to continue Salazar's mission to purge muggle blood from Hogwarts with aid of Serpent of Slytherin as well as reviving himself by absorbing her life-force and later, turning the trio against each other via. Salazar Slytherin's Locket. Destroying all Horcruxes was part of the plan to ensure Harry gained a common ground in facing Voldemort as without them, he rendered mortal once again (the other being preventing him from fully mastering the Elder Wand). Voldemort also finds this method of immortality preferable over elixir of life produced by a Philosopher's Stone as the reliance over it deemed unreliable and that he only after both it and the Stone to regain his physical form alone before resorting to dark regeneration potion he ultimately completed through a complicated scheme that involved manipulating Triwizard Tournament into his favor.
- Potion Brewing: Voldemort was exceptionally skilled with potion making, demonstrating sufficient knowledge and talent to create his own potions, inventing the Drink of Despair as part of defensive measures to protect Salazar Slytherin's Locket capable of inducing great nightmares, and the Rudimentary Body Potion that he instructed Peter to brew to create an extremely weak but physical form, along with being capable of creating and instructing Peter to brew a dark regeneration potion that restored both his body and power at full might. He even brewed a poison to assassinate Hepzibah Smith.
- Charms: Voldemort was extremely skilful with charms, as he was able to cast a Disillusionment Charm so powerful that it hid him from his own eyes, a very advanced level of magic. He also easily used the Summoning Charm the Sorting Hat from many floors above to punish Neville for opposing him, and then setting it alight with the Fire-Making Spell, and beforehand effortlessly disarming him with the Disarming Charm. He could effortlessly levitate objects out of the way, blast down doors and break locks. He effortlessly levitated the body of Charity Burbage with the charm Mobilicorpus in Malfoy Manor whilst torturing her there. He was capable of performing an incredibly flawless spell to create fabricated memories in his victims, having used the spell twice in his lifetime: first on the House-elf Hokey after having murdered Hepzibah Smith, to falsely implicate her for the crime, and again on his uncle Morfin Gaunt to frame him for the Murder of the Riddle family, both crimes he himself committed. He was effortlessly capable of casting a powerful Shield Charm, allowing him to deflect spells and magical assaults instantly. Before the Battle of Hogwarts, he amplified his own voice to a significant volume so all of Hogwarts could hear him deliver his ultimatum with the Amplifying Charm, that his voice even sounded as if it was coming from the castle walls. He also performed an outstandingly powerful Silencing Charm on the defenders of Hogwarts during the final half of the Battle of Hogwarts to silence all of them, after he had supposedly killed Harry Potter, in a blinding flash of white light, showing his skills in charm-work to be exceptional.
- Elemental Magic: Voldemort was an immensely accomplished elementalist, particularly in the elements of fire and lightning, most notably through setting Neville and Sorting Hat aflame, conjuring a powerful blast of lightning when stealing Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb as well as projecting the same blast to destroy the barrier that casted to protect Hogwarts during Battle at Hogwarts.
- Unsupported Flight: Voldemort was able to magically fly without using broomstick or other form of support, and even taught Severus Snape how to replicate the feat whereas other witches and wizards before him failed. In the first film, he assisted his host Quirinus Quirrell to perform the feat while escaping Firenze.
- Apparition: Voldemort can apparate with pinpoint accuracy from one place to another, even when locked in combat to quickly evade spells and attacks from his foes. He can even apparate without a sound, a feat only he and Dumbledore managed to achieve.
- Dark Cloud Apparition: A movie-exclusive variant of the ability and aforementioned unsupported flight where he flies by transmogrify himself into dark jet of cloud instead of teleporting from one place to another.
- Occlumency and Legilimency: Voldemort was exceptionally adept and gifted in the use of both Occlumency and Legilimency, being able to effectively shield his own mind and penetrate the minds of others. He was particularly talented and skilled in Legilimency, and as an adult, Snape claimed he was the most accomplished Legilimens the world had ever seen. His frighteningly exceptional prowess in Legilimency allowed Voldemort to delve and peer deep into the minds of others without needing to say the incantation or using his wand, seeing their deepest thoughts, and he can even use Legilimency to influence the minds that he invaded. Severus Snape has stated that Voldemort could not only read, but also control and unhinge the minds of others, often enjoying telepathically invading the minds of others, creating incredibly realistic visions designed to torture them into madness (such as the one he sent to Harry Potter in 1996), and only killing them "after extracting the last exquisite ounce of agony", when he had them literally begging for death. He was also able to use Legilimency to briefly possess Harry, even though he had already regained a physical body, which caused Harry so much pain that he even begged for death. Hence, Voldemort could almost always tell when someone was lying. However, when Narcissa Malfoy lied that Harry Potter was dead, Voldemort notably believed her. The most remarkable part about this skill was that he seemed to have already been able to consciously use it while he was still a child in the orphanage. Extremely few people were skilled enough in Occlumency to shield themselves from him. Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald, and also possibly Narcissa Malfoy were notably the only known ones able to block out Voldemort's Legilimency using Occlumency. Additionally, Harry Potter, despite his link to Voldemort's mind, discovered that he could block Voldemort's intrusions into his mind by feeling love, as direct contact with Harry's mind while he was feeling love was excruciatingly painful for Voldemort with his maimed and diminished soul. Using his mastery of Occlumency, Voldemort was able to block his connection to Harry, preventing him from seeing what he is doing, although it could be broken through when Voldemort was angered enough, which became increasingly so due to Voldemort's volatile temper rising from the exhaustive search for the Elder Wand and the destruction of his Horcruxes. While it's unknown if Severus Snape or Albus Dumbledore ever attempted Legilimency on him, it's likely that neither would be able to penetrate his mind despite being skilled Legilimens themselves.
- Power of Possession: The only ability he retained after the loss of his physical form was the ability to possess a living being, a feat he can perform even after his return to full power. He used this ability to move from bodies of others be it animals or other wizardkind with the side effect being memory loss over what happened during the possession and degrading lifespan, thus explained why he had Quirrell drinking the blood of unicorn to buy themselves more time during their ill-fated quest to claim Nicholas Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone. When he possessed the former DADA teacher, Voldemort displayed the ability to manifest his face at the back of the latter's head and even allowed him to function with little control he had on himself. It's unclear whether this ability was exclusive to him since he was the only one who performed the feat.
- Parseltongue: The unmistakable proof of being the descendant of Salazar Slytherin is his ability to speak with and command snakes and other serpentine creatures, a feat he inherited from Marvolo Gaunt and involuntarily passed to Harry Potter by accidentally turned the Boy Who Lived into his seventh and final Horcrux. He deeply favored this power, for it allowed him to command Serpent of Slytherin, a basilisk Salazar trained to obey only him and his true heir.
- Transfiguration: Voldemort displayed tremendous and near unrivalled skills in Transfiguration. He easily transfigured Dumbledore's fire-rope into a black snake during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. He was also skilful in conjuration, as he could craft silver objects of incredible durability, as seen when he produced a silver shield strong enough to repel Dumbledore's curse, which was extremely powerful. He could even conjure artificial limbs that possessed far greater strength and immunity to some spells, as he created an artificial silver forearm and hand for Peter Pettigrew non-verbally.
- Defense Against the Dark Arts: Despite his greater interest to Dark Arts over DADA, the fact that Voldemort attempted to apply onto the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in Hogwarts indicated that he gained a sufficiently high score on his O.W.L and N.E.W.T exams for it and the subject was once his favorite subject as the student. Owing to his great knowledge to Dark Arts, it can be summarized that he also learned advanced spells that few knew of thus supporting his claim that he can teach his students said spells had he managed to attain aforementioned teacher position despite his less than noble intentions at that time.
- Spell Creation: Voldemort has invented spells that became Death Eater's trademark abilities, such as Dark Mark summoning (Morsmordre), unsupported flight, and ones devised to support his rudimentary body. Among said spells include defensive charms and curses placed onto his Horcruxes which not easy to break even by Elder Wand-assisted Dumbledore.
- Alchemy: Voldemort was learned in the ancient art and science of Alchemy, to the point where he was confident that if he was able to steal the Philosopher's Stone, he would be able to not only use it to produce the Elixir of Life, but also manipulate the process of doing so in a manner that would allow him to "create a body of [his] own" for his mangled soul to inhabit, thus restoring himself. Dumbledore also seemed to believe that Voldemort would certainly be capable of creating his own Philosopher's Stone.
- Physical Aptitude: Despite his current skeletal physique, Voldemort was deceptively in great shape, able to overwhelm Harry with his agility and brute force alone.
- Indomitable Willpower: Voldemort possesses an unbreakable determination to achieve his goals no matter how difficult it seems, which in turn allowed him to be patient throughout long and complicated schemes to do so, displaying unusual endurance and tolerance to boredom, able to take risks such as personally confronting Harry time and time again and displaying no fear to anything but death (which he perceived as a pathetic weakness of human being) and Dumbledore, one of two individuals who can match his evil powers.
- Intimidation: Lord Voldemort, due to his virtually unequalled capacity for heinous torture and murder, commanded an extremely intimidating presence, enough to frighten low-level thugs and make them work for him out of sheer fear of how he would react to their refusal. He was able to swiftly intimidate famed wandmakers Garrick Ollivander and Mykew Gregorovitch, both of whom instantly submitted to his malevolent demands, with even the mere sight of him effortlessly terrifying Frank Bryce and likes of the extremely courageous Harry Potter, the latter of whom would become haunted by the crimson eyes and cruel gaze of the Dark Lord for three years. Among the extremely few individuals who did not fear Voldemort included the tremendously fearless and more powerful Albus Dumbledore (who remained staunch in consistently opposing the Dark Lord), the exceptionally brave Sirius Black and Remus Lupin (who were among the extremely few wizards unafraid to call him by name), along with those who defiantly stood up to Voldemort during his reign of terror and died fighting valiantly against him, as well as the even more powerful dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, who knew his superiority back when he was still at his prime and mocked him to his face and challenged him to kill him. His inner circle of Death Eaters overwhelmingly feared him and consequentially maintained their fierce loyalty to him at least partly out of fear of what he would do to them otherwise. Indeed, Voldemort's profound experience in intimidation tactics allowed him to instil great fear into the hearts of wizardkind, to the point that almost all feared uttering his name aloud to one another, with Boggarts even commonly appearing as Voldemort since he represented the worst fear of many members of wizardkind.
- Physical aptitude: Voldemort was in excellent physical condition despite his skeletal physique, with his strength and agility easily overwhelming Harry Potter when he attacked him violently.
- Intellectual genius: Voldemort was not only a great wizard, but also possessed an incredible, genius intellect, as he was considered to be the most brilliant student ever to attend Hogwarts by Dumbledore. His intellect is evidenced by his strategic cunning in being able to mastermind and orchestrate two of the most destructive wars in British wizarding history, with him overwhelming all of the Britain wizarding community and nearly triumphing in both the first war and second wizarding wars.
- Charisma: Even at a young age, Voldemort displayed remarkable talent for the manipulation of others, being able to manipulate Horace Slughorn into telling him about Horcruxes and gain the trust of every teacher in Hogwarts, with only Albus Dumbledore managing to not be swayed by Voldemort's charisma. He also surrounded himself with a group of friends who would become Death Eaters, though Voldemort felt no affection for any of them. He was considered charming by most people who met him, and was able to inspire others to follow him. As an adult, his skills in manipulation grew even further, successfully convincing many wizards and witches to join his cause, although Sirius Black noted that Voldemort also used tricks, jinxes, and blackmail to get people to join him. Even when his physical body and magical powers were severely weakened, Voldemort was able to use his charisma to manipulate Quirinus Quirrell into serving him, when Quirrell originally intended to be the other way around. He also earned the trust of Ginny Weasley when she discovered his diary.
- Acting skills: Besides his formidable magical skills and extensive knowledge of magic, as a teenager, Tom proved to be a consummate actor, being able to hide his true nature from almost everyone in Hogwarts except Dumbledore. He was able to convince virtually all of the Hogwarts staff and instructors that his facade of being a model student was his true personality and was able to avoid d
- Leadership skills: Even when he was still only a young student, Riddle was already a very effective leader, as he was able to lead the forerunners of the Death Eaters to effectively sneak past surveillance, being responsible for several nasty incidences that were never connected to them, showing that even at a young age, Riddle was a very competent leader. As he grew older and gained more experience in leading and thus honed leadership skills further, Tom's style of leadership presumably changed from the original charismatic rule of the Hogwarts gang to the tyrannical and completely ruthless - though no less highly effective - command of his Death Eaters demonstrated throughout both the First an
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Death Eaters Death Eater defectors Death Eater Allies Hogwarts Staff Ministry of Magic Gellert Grindelwald's Alliance Other Wizards & Witches New Salem Philanthropic Society Ranrok's Loyalists Creatures Tales of Beedle the Bard Muggles | ||