Okay, so he might still have some of the secrets of Slytherin, but he can’t speak, walk, stand, or do anything else a toddler couldn’t do—much like Harry when he was an infant in Godric’s Hollow, minus the hands. He also lacks a developed personality, and his personas like Quirrel and Voldemort are gone for good. I’ll grant you that if amnesiac!Tom were put into the same position as infant!Harry and were adopted by HJPEV’s parents, he might again grow up to become a dark wizard. But he doesn’t have 10 years’ time to do that.
Put differently, what did you think Obliviating Voldemort in chapter 115 was supposed to do?
Yeah, I assumed the same. The chapter specifies “episodic memory” (although, somewhat confusingly, it says “everything” earlier in the sentence):
Everything, forget everything, Tom Riddle, Professor Quirrell, forget your whole life, forget your entire episodic memory, forget the disappointment and the bitterness and the wrong decisions, forget Voldemort -
It seems this is a real thing that can happen. “In the case of dissociative amnesia, individuals are separated from their memories … they may forget who they are and everything about themselves and their personal history”, yet they can walk and talk and do everything well enough to “move to a new location and establish a new identity” as an adult: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/dissociative-amnesia
Okay, so he might still have some of the secrets of Slytherin, but he can’t speak, walk, stand, or do anything else a toddler couldn’t do—much like Harry when he was an infant in Godric’s Hollow, minus the hands. He also lacks a developed personality, and his personas like Quirrel and Voldemort are gone for good. I’ll grant you that if amnesiac!Tom were put into the same position as infant!Harry and were adopted by HJPEV’s parents, he might again grow up to become a dark wizard. But he doesn’t have 10 years’ time to do that.
Put differently, what did you think Obliviating Voldemort in chapter 115 was supposed to do?
Well i assume he lost most of his episodic memory, but probably not much more.
Yeah, I assumed the same. The chapter specifies “episodic memory” (although, somewhat confusingly, it says “everything” earlier in the sentence):
Everything, forget everything, Tom Riddle, Professor Quirrell, forget your whole life, forget your entire episodic memory, forget the disappointment and the bitterness and the wrong decisions, forget Voldemort -
It seems this is a real thing that can happen. “In the case of dissociative amnesia, individuals are separated from their memories … they may forget who they are and everything about themselves and their personal history”, yet they can walk and talk and do everything well enough to “move to a new location and establish a new identity” as an adult: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/dissociative-amnesia