“Voldemort seems like a fine bogey man to be destroyed by some hero, who is then crowned king”
Yes, and when Quirrell hears that Harry is being kept in Hogwarts due to the threat of Voldemort, Quirell specifically—and immediately—comes up with a plan to allow Harry to leave, by creating a “fake Voldemort” that Harry can defeat, ideally in a way that “leaves the [legend] open for future re-use”.
So there may be an as-yet-unnamed Dark Wizard who has the personas of Voldemort and David Monroe.
This Voldemort may either be him in disguise, or a person created by him, much as Bellatrix is an engineered persona.
This person may have initially planned to be “crowned” after he defeated Voldemort, but it looks like he just “gave up” at some point.
He then hears about Harry, and is curious if Harry can help him “do it right” or if he can help Harry achieve a comparable success.
Having to support a bad guy to fight a worse bad guy. Then creating fake threats to pretend to be a savior. Being able to project different identities. Taking over the identity of the savior. Then wondering, who is the real bad guy?
I think the resolution is that Voldemort set up his “defeat” by Harry, came back to nurture the Harry legend, will arrange the plan with Harry to have Harry defeat him as a fake(but actually real) Voldemort, but in fact Harry won’t be defeating Voldemort, he will only appear to defeat Voldemort, with Voldemort actually taking control of Harry, and ruling the wizarding world as Harry, destroyer of Voldemort.
“Voldemort seems like a fine bogey man to be destroyed by some hero, who is then crowned king”
Yes, and when Quirrell hears that Harry is being kept in Hogwarts due to the threat of Voldemort, Quirell specifically—and immediately—comes up with a plan to allow Harry to leave, by creating a “fake Voldemort” that Harry can defeat, ideally in a way that “leaves the [legend] open for future re-use”.
So there may be an as-yet-unnamed Dark Wizard who has the personas of Voldemort and David Monroe. This Voldemort may either be him in disguise, or a person created by him, much as Bellatrix is an engineered persona. This person may have initially planned to be “crowned” after he defeated Voldemort, but it looks like he just “gave up” at some point.
He then hears about Harry, and is curious if Harry can help him “do it right” or if he can help Harry achieve a comparable success.
Yeah, there are a number of consistent themes.
Having to support a bad guy to fight a worse bad guy. Then creating fake threats to pretend to be a savior. Being able to project different identities. Taking over the identity of the savior. Then wondering, who is the real bad guy?
I think the resolution is that Voldemort set up his “defeat” by Harry, came back to nurture the Harry legend, will arrange the plan with Harry to have Harry defeat him as a fake(but actually real) Voldemort, but in fact Harry won’t be defeating Voldemort, he will only appear to defeat Voldemort, with Voldemort actually taking control of Harry, and ruling the wizarding world as Harry, destroyer of Voldemort.