Here’s my take on what actually happened in the dojo incident described in chp 19.
Voldemort went there in disguise to learn the valuable martial art. He reacted badly to losing so they put him through the ordeal he described. He went along with it because he wanted to learn the martial art. The ordeal did teach him valuable lessons about losing, and he vowed to learn to control his temper and master tactics of ingratiation and supplication to better manipulate others. But he felt angry and humiliated by it (as he expected Harry to be), and also vowed to return and fulfill his revenge fantasies. So after he mastered the martial art and left the dojo, he came back openly as the Dark Lord and killed them to live out his revenge fantasies and to prevent others from learning the skills (keep science secret). He spared one student who had befriended him (and who probably stood up for him during the ordeal, like Draco to Harry), and he had that student spread the version of the tale that he wanted told (to maximize fear while hiding some of his true powers, and to deflect attention away from the value of that martial art).
For me the most natural explanation of the dojo incident is that Quirrell/Voldemort pulled a Verbal Kint. The setup is just too similar to be accidental. If you haven’t seen The Usual Suspects (you should), that means ur vzcebivfrq gur fgbel ba gur fcbg gb znxr rirelbar srne uvz naq gb uhzvyvngr Uneel. I’ll be quite disappointed if Eliezer’s eventual explanation isn’t as good as this one.
That’s certainly possible, but we know Q/V does have elite martial arts skills, which he had to have learned somewhere, and studying at the world’s best dojo, followed by destroying it to make sure no one else ever got training as good, seems like an entirely plausible thing for a Dark Lord to do.
My understanding was that the story was true as stated: Voldemort showed up, destroyed the place, then calmed down and realized Quirrell now had the only remaining copy of the information he was looking for, so he set up some contingency to eventually put himself in Quirrell’s body with the martial-arts skills intact.
Is there any hint in MoR that Quirrel was already a total badass before Voldemort’s body-snatching job, as this interpretation would require (“I was a prodigy of Battle Magic even then [at the times of the dojo]”)?
I think ‘last surviving student of the greatest martial-arts teacher’ counts as a hint, yeah.
Why would Quirrel’s battle-magic skill, or lack thereof, be relevant in Voldemort’s choice of host? Magic is at least partly a function of the mind, and judging by the descriptions of zombie-like behavior when off-duty, the body-snatching didn’t do Quirrel’s mind any favors. Rather, the point would be to combine Voldemort’s lifetime of rationality and Battle Magic practice with Quirrel’s sixth-dan hand-to-hand combat skill, resulting in a single individual with two lifetimes’ worth of powers, without the expense and possible side-effects traditionally associated with magical life extension.
Speaking of which, isn’t there a prefabricated, ready-to-use Alchemist’s Stone somewhere on campus?
Agreed, except there’s no particular reason for a Dark Lord to actually leave a survivor when he can just have his minions disseminate it. (Or do so himself as Quirrell; we have no knowledge of how long this story has been around.)
ETA: Actually I should say my first thought was that Voldemort destroyed the dojo not out of anger, but simply to make sure that no rival wizard ever got the awesome martial arts training that he did. This seems strongly implied when he says: “You are wondering where this marvelous dojo is, and whether you can study there. You cannot.”
Here’s my take on what actually happened in the dojo incident described in chp 19.
Voldemort went there in disguise to learn the valuable martial art. He reacted badly to losing so they put him through the ordeal he described. He went along with it because he wanted to learn the martial art. The ordeal did teach him valuable lessons about losing, and he vowed to learn to control his temper and master tactics of ingratiation and supplication to better manipulate others. But he felt angry and humiliated by it (as he expected Harry to be), and also vowed to return and fulfill his revenge fantasies. So after he mastered the martial art and left the dojo, he came back openly as the Dark Lord and killed them to live out his revenge fantasies and to prevent others from learning the skills (keep science secret). He spared one student who had befriended him (and who probably stood up for him during the ordeal, like Draco to Harry), and he had that student spread the version of the tale that he wanted told (to maximize fear while hiding some of his true powers, and to deflect attention away from the value of that martial art).
For me the most natural explanation of the dojo incident is that Quirrell/Voldemort pulled a Verbal Kint. The setup is just too similar to be accidental. If you haven’t seen The Usual Suspects (you should), that means ur vzcebivfrq gur fgbel ba gur fcbg gb znxr rirelbar srne uvz naq gb uhzvyvngr Uneel. I’ll be quite disappointed if Eliezer’s eventual explanation isn’t as good as this one.
That’s certainly possible, but we know Q/V does have elite martial arts skills, which he had to have learned somewhere, and studying at the world’s best dojo, followed by destroying it to make sure no one else ever got training as good, seems like an entirely plausible thing for a Dark Lord to do.
My understanding was that the story was true as stated: Voldemort showed up, destroyed the place, then calmed down and realized Quirrell now had the only remaining copy of the information he was looking for, so he set up some contingency to eventually put himself in Quirrell’s body with the martial-arts skills intact.
Is there any hint in MoR that Quirrel was already a total badass before Voldemort’s body-snatching job, as this interpretation would require (“I was a prodigy of Battle Magic even then [at the times of the dojo]”)?
I think ‘last surviving student of the greatest martial-arts teacher’ counts as a hint, yeah.
Why would Quirrel’s battle-magic skill, or lack thereof, be relevant in Voldemort’s choice of host? Magic is at least partly a function of the mind, and judging by the descriptions of zombie-like behavior when off-duty, the body-snatching didn’t do Quirrel’s mind any favors. Rather, the point would be to combine Voldemort’s lifetime of rationality and Battle Magic practice with Quirrel’s sixth-dan hand-to-hand combat skill, resulting in a single individual with two lifetimes’ worth of powers, without the expense and possible side-effects traditionally associated with magical life extension.
Speaking of which, isn’t there a prefabricated, ready-to-use Alchemist’s Stone somewhere on campus?
Philosopher’s Stone, or in the American version, Sorcerer’s Stone. Although it does belong to an alchemist.
Agreed, except there’s no particular reason for a Dark Lord to actually leave a survivor when he can just have his minions disseminate it. (Or do so himself as Quirrell; we have no knowledge of how long this story has been around.)
ETA: Actually I should say my first thought was that Voldemort destroyed the dojo not out of anger, but simply to make sure that no rival wizard ever got the awesome martial arts training that he did. This seems strongly implied when he says: “You are wondering where this marvelous dojo is, and whether you can study there. You cannot.”
As pointed out in the recent Dr. Who series, you occasionally let one go so you can live with yourself.