Lord Voldemort: 3 powers and 2 weaknesses of Harry Potter antagonist

In the Harry Potter franchise, Lord Voldemort is one of the most powerful characters, be it in the books or the film series. He is also one of the most notorious evil wizards to ever exist in the Harry Potter universe. It took the whole wizarding world and a good few decades to defeat Voldemort with the help of Harry Potter, "the chosen one."

Even before becoming Voldemort, this evil wizard was charismatic, ambitious, and power-hungry. He became the greatest wizard the world has ever seen due to his many strengths. He was so cunning in carefully cloaking the actual intentions that nobody except Dumbledore got suspicious of him. The Dark Lord was clearly a man of strength.

However, he also had many weaknesses that were utilized by Harry Potter and Dumbledore to ultimately defeat him. When one looks at the life of this character, it becomes pretty evident that some of his perceived strengths are the ones that worked against him.

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Lord Voldemort: 3 powers and 2 weaknesses of the greatest villain of Harry Potter

1) Art of manipulation

While many may associate Voldemort's greatest powers with spells and magical abilities, his art of manipulation is at the heart of all of the Dark Lord's notable achievements. Only Dumbledore was immune to the charms of this evil thespian. He was so cunning that he even managed to fool seasoned wizards and professors like Slughorn into giving him information about Horcruxes, which he later used in his quest for immortality.

Not just that, one only has to imagine how he used half the wizarding world to further his objectives. He had such magnetic manipulation power that he was able to control Ginny in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets through a diary and nothing but written words. From Bellatrix to Lucius Malfoy, everyone succumbed to his charm.

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2) Ability to control

Voldemort had an amazing ability to control people and animals around him. He was initially in the muggle world and grew up in an orphanage. The Dark Lord was aware that he had the ability to control people and animals around him, and he used it to torment the other orphans. There was one instance where Tom Riddle took two orphans to a cave and showed them something so traumatizing that they never spoke again.

During the scene where Dumbledore was first introduced to Tom Riddle, it is shown that he is aware of all these things he has been doing. Although alarmed, he dismissed it as Riddle not knowing how to handle his powers. However, he was concerned when he saw how much control he possessed over his magical abilities, even without any guidance.

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3) Master of Legilimency

In the Harry Potter universe, Legilimency is the art of seeing through layers of people’s minds. A good Legilimency master is pretty much a lie detector of the wizarding world. It was first introduced to the Dark Lord when he was only a Hogwarts student, and he mastered it with dedication.

The extent to which Lord Voldemort may employ this ability is further demonstrated in the dialogue that follows.

"Do not lie to Lord Voldemort, Gregorovitch. He knows... he always knows."

Part of what makes Voldemort so fierce is his ability to reveal lies and truths of people. He was so powerful once that he was able to get into Harry Potter’s mind without even being physically near him in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The reason why Severus Snape got away with lying to Voldemort and being a spy was because he was skilled at Legilimency himself.

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4) Love

Voldemort’s greatest weakness in the Harry Potter franchise was that he could never feel love. It was later revealed that his mother, Merope Gaunt, used a love potion on Tom Riddle Sr to conceive Tom Riddle. Thus, he was incapable of feeling love.

However, later in an interview with BLC, J.K. Rowling said that although it was symbolic that a child from a loveless union could not feel love, things would have been different if Voldemort’s mother had been there to raise him.

“It was a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union -- but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him.”

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5) Fear of death

Voldemort feared death more than anything. The powerful wizard of all time wanted to be immortal and win against the test of time. For him, death was a muggle weakness that kept him from being the greatest wizard of all time. To obtain immortality, he split his soul into seven pieces and concealed them inside various items.

Although the Horcruxes gave him another chance at life after his curse on Harry Potter rebounded, they made him weak and vulnerable too. It became a segway to destroy him without ever even laying a wand on him. The Horcruxes also made him a shadow of a man and left him with no soul and, essentially, no humanity.

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A new Harry Potter reboot show is underway on HBO. Although no one can replace Ralph Fiennes in our hearts, it would be interesting to see who plays the intricacies of this titular character in the upcoming TV show.