Voldemort Was Great at PR but Not Much Else
Wizarding World fans point out that some dark wizards look much more dangerous than Voldemort.
Voldemort is the main antagonist in the Harry Potter series. From The Philosopher's Stone to The Deathly Hallows, viewers learn more and more spine-chilling facts about The Dark Lord and eventually come to believe he is the most powerful wizard and the most dangerous antagonist in all of Potterverse. Besides, this opinion is repeatedly mentioned in Harry Potter books and movies.
However, compared to other dark wizards of Wizarding World, He Who Must Not Be Named is increasingly losing his Big Bad status.
Redditor u/SnooPandas1950 shared on r/harrypotter subreddit their thoughts about three known wizards of Potterverse and compared them with each other. Lord Voldemort doesn't compare well to the other two.
The first dark wizard the author of the post chose for comparison is Ekrizdiz. It is a little-known but terrifying dark wizard first mentioned by J.K. Rowling in Pottermore's text about Azkaban. Ekrizdiz is widely credited for creating Dementors. The mad wizard stayed away from both Muggles and wizardkind practicing dark magic and torturing Muggle sailors on Azkaban's island.
He was never caught, as the author of the post stresses. After he died, the Ministry of Magic explored what was left of his magic activity and preferred to withhold the blood-curdling evidence from the general public. Only Dementors infesting the island couldn't be ignored and their existence was revealed.
"It's possible Ekrizdiz created Dementors. If so that makes him the most enduring of the 3," one of the commenters wrote.
The second contestant is, of course, Gellert Grindelwald. The author pointed out that Grindelwald struck terror into the hearts of the entire Wizarding World and was only beaten by the most powerful wizard of his time in an epic duel "worthy of the gods."
"[Voldemort] was a murderer, while Grindelwald was more of a politician," one of the fans commented.
Compared to these two, You-Know-Who no longer seems too dangerous, the author thinks.
"[Voldemort] couldn't conquer a high school even with a whole ass army. [While having] 7 Horcruxes, [he] still got nerfed by a 17 year old who only ever use one spell," the post reads.
Though the opinions in the thread were divided, all commenters agreed on one thing. Voldemort was really good at creating a public image of a boogeyman who can make anyone's flesh crawl.