I’ve been on tumblr for almost four years now and I have seen so many people complain about the various actors for Harry Potter. I’ve seen people complain about Daniel, Emma, and Rupert. I’ve seen people complain about Michael Gamdon. (I’ve complained about Michael Gambon.) I’ve seen people complain about the various actors who played The Marauders. Etc.
But not once have I ever seen someone complain about the two actors who played Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
Tom Riddle was supposed to be a normal kid, albeit one that’s surrounded by disturbing mysteries.
But he was supposed to act normal.
He wasn’t supposed to be some stereotypical “psychopathic” child who spoke in a monotonic voice and barely showed any expression and looked like the male equivalent of that girl in Orphan.
He was supposed to look like a regular kid.
A regular kid and eventually a regular teenager who smiled and acted smooth and charmed people and was even a bit flirtatious.
That was why it took even Dumbledore so long to pick up on the fact that there was something off about him.
Because he didn’t just look like a walking villain.
He looked like an actual kid/teenager.
Until he let his evil side take over until it literally consumed him and both mentally, emotionally, and physically demented him.
Do you know why J.K. Rowling spent such an enormous amount of time on his backstory?
To show that he was actually human.
To show that evil is not always obvious.
To make you realize that evil could lie within anyone and not just the stereotypical ‘psychopathic’ children who speak in monotonic voices and barely show any expressions.
Plus there’s that whole half-attempt to compare the Second Wizarding War to World War II and one of the most disturbing parts of Adolf Hitler was the fact that he was actually a very kind, laid-back, ‘normal’, guy in public.
And why is that disturbing?
Because it’s one thing to look at the before and after versions of someone and be like, “Well yeah, they were evil from the start.”
It’s another thing entirely to see that someone actually appeared to be quite humane and normal but then did extremely evil things.
Again, it’s all about showing that humanity.
Which was a key theme in Harry Potter.
Especially since one of the other themes in Harry Potter was that Harry was terrified that he was going to turn into Voldemort. It’s a lot harder to see the connection between him and Tom when you make Tom look like the stereotypical ‘psychopathic’ child who speaks in a monotonic voice and barely shows any expressions!
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