I’m not sure how to articulate it well… but why was Voldemort… evil? He seems like he enjoys intellectual stimulation and puzzles. Why go around killing people and causing chaos? Why not just play chess? Or find the few people who are reasonably smart and interact with them? Or use his powers to make (certain) people smarter so that he has smart people to interact with? (He kinda did this with Harry, but a) he planed on killing Harry and b) why not take it further?)
I suspect that the answer is “shut up and suspend your disbelief”. If so, that is fair. I’m just not sure if it actually is the answer or not.
Voldemort does mention in the later chapters that he tried to play the role of the hero before and it didn’t do anything for him. He didn’t get the warm fuzzies from it. That’s fine. It explains why he didn’t want to pursue altruism, but it doesn’t explain why he chooses chaos instead of chess.
He also mentions the following at the end of chapter 108:
“Because I still would’ve been surrounded by idiots, and I wouldn’t have been able to kill them,” Professor Quirrell said mildly. “Killing idiots is my great joy in life, and I’ll thank you not to speak ill of it until you’ve tried it for yourself.”
And the context of this statement is Harry questioning him on whether being evil is really what’ll make him the most happy. I just don’t really buy that killing idiots is really his true answer. The impression I get is that intellectual stimulation is moreso his thing.
I think Dumbledore is right and the answer to this question is “Why not?”. Dealing with chaos and complexity is intellectually stimulating as well, so there’s no particular reason for Voldemort to not be evil if that’s more fun than the alternative.
It’s not that Voldemort is optimizing for evilness, it’s just that he doesn’t see a point to restricting his evil impulses as he pursues whatever goals he has, e.g. taking power to defend the magical world against the muggles.
It’s not that Voldemort is optimizing for evilness, it’s just that he doesn’t see a point to restricting his evil impulses as he pursues whatever goals he has, e.g. taking power to defend the magical world against the muggles.
That would make sense if it were true, but I feel like he is going out of his way to be evil, even if it doesn’t involve intellectual stimulation or fun. You don’t get that impression?
I’d also expect him to at least try spending some time exploring intellectually stimulating things like chess to see if that is something he wants to spend more time pursuing, but I don’t recall him doing that.
There’s something I never understood in HPMoR.
I’m not sure how to articulate it well… but why was Voldemort… evil? He seems like he enjoys intellectual stimulation and puzzles. Why go around killing people and causing chaos? Why not just play chess? Or find the few people who are reasonably smart and interact with them? Or use his powers to make (certain) people smarter so that he has smart people to interact with? (He kinda did this with Harry, but a) he planed on killing Harry and b) why not take it further?)
I suspect that the answer is “shut up and suspend your disbelief”. If so, that is fair. I’m just not sure if it actually is the answer or not.
Voldemort does mention in the later chapters that he tried to play the role of the hero before and it didn’t do anything for him. He didn’t get the warm fuzzies from it. That’s fine. It explains why he didn’t want to pursue altruism, but it doesn’t explain why he chooses chaos instead of chess.
He also mentions the following at the end of chapter 108:
And the context of this statement is Harry questioning him on whether being evil is really what’ll make him the most happy. I just don’t really buy that killing idiots is really his true answer. The impression I get is that intellectual stimulation is moreso his thing.
I think Dumbledore is right and the answer to this question is “Why not?”. Dealing with chaos and complexity is intellectually stimulating as well, so there’s no particular reason for Voldemort to not be evil if that’s more fun than the alternative.
It’s not that Voldemort is optimizing for evilness, it’s just that he doesn’t see a point to restricting his evil impulses as he pursues whatever goals he has, e.g. taking power to defend the magical world against the muggles.
That would make sense if it were true, but I feel like he is going out of his way to be evil, even if it doesn’t involve intellectual stimulation or fun. You don’t get that impression?
I’d also expect him to at least try spending some time exploring intellectually stimulating things like chess to see if that is something he wants to spend more time pursuing, but I don’t recall him doing that.