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Tabouli wrote:
Then again, would Lucius want to rule the world? (What do people think?) I wonder if Lucius has had life too easy to build up the sort of vicious, ruthless ambition he'd need to drive him to such lengths.
It sort of begs the question of why he cast his lot in with Voldemort the first time around, doesn't it? Presumably he's always had life easy.
Tom Riddle was fuelled by hatred of his Muggle father and orphanage; what would fuel Lucius? A disdain for Mudbloods? Ha.
A sense of wounded entitlement? In spite of the fact that he has wealth and power and prestige and respect, he does seem to feel that he still isn't quite getting all that he is owed. Wizarding blood is counting for less everywhere, you know, and although the Malfoy name still commands some respect... And all that.
<Elkins contemplates a rant about a certain terribly privileged class of people who in her experience do far too much whining about their own loss of entitlement, but then rejects it as unduly political and far too inflammatory>
Also, Lucius Malfoy would seem to be fairly vicious by nature.
But is all that sufficient to make him want to rule the world, rather than merely support someone who might give him what he wants?
I don't think so. Ruling the world is an awful lot of work, and you'd probably be too busy doing it to enjoy the privileges and entitlements that it would afford you.
So no. I don't think that Lucius would want to rule the world at all, really. If he does try to seize the reins of power away from Voldemort, I think it will be more an act of self-preservation than a reflection of any real desire to hold that sort of power.
Uncmark wrote:
[He gave Ginny the diary, so...] This begs the question: why does he seem to have pretty cold feet about the whole idea of Voldemort coming back at any other time?
Well, because Voldemort is a nutter. And not only is he a nutter, but he wasn't even a terribly effective nutter the last time around. As far as I can tell, members of Lucius Malfoy's social class are actually in worse shape now than they were before Voldemort's bid for power. And none of the Death Eaters got eternal life, either. In fact, a lot of them got killed.
I think that if I'd been promised power, and the opportunity to indulge myself in viciousness, and the restoration of all of my ancient class privileges, and eternal life on top of all of that, and then got what Lucius Malfoy and all of the other Death Eaters got out of the whole deal, I wouldn't be at all pleased to see Voldemort back again either.
Sixteen-year-old ghost-diary Tom Riddle, though, is a different matter. Even assuming that Lucius knew precisely what the diary would do (which I don't think that he did at all), a ghostly teenaged Riddle wandering around might not be such a bad thing. Maybe he could prove useful. At any rate, he's not at all the same as red-eye-glowing, mad-as-a-hatter, didn't-give-us-squat-the-last-time-around, minion-abusing Snake-faced Evil Death Lord guy.
Jo Ellen wrote:
I think Lucius, since he collects articles related to the dark arts and keeps them hidden under his dining room in a secret room, just happened to come across the TR diary.
I don't think that I agree. At the end of CoS, Dumbledore warns him against handing out any more of Riddle's old school things, which would seem to imply that Lucius didn't just come across the diary by chance.
Like Ancarette, I strongly suspect that the Malfoys are the mysterious owners of the Riddle estate. But I'm certainly hoping that there's a much more involved backstory than only that to account for the Malfoys' possession of a bunch of Riddle's strange old things.
Oh, I so desperately want a peek beneath that drawing room floor!
Eileen wrote:
Lucius didn't want Voldemort back at all, imho. After all, how would Voldemort look at a party?
Death of the party. No question. His presence would cast an absolute pall over the proceedings: no one would speak, the food and drink would go completely untouched... It would be an utter social disaster.
Lucius was living the good life, chumming it up with Fudge, donating to worthy causes, and suddenly, Voldie's come back, and wants to go all Snidely Whiplash. I'm looking to Lucius to betray Voldie when the time comes, and can't see why Voldemort isn't expecting it. Much as I hated Voldemort, I'm secretly hoping that the plan backfires on Lucius.
Yes. It's curious that, isn't it? Why is the notion of Lucius Malfoy being embarrassed or discomfited or thwarted or just plain terrorized so very appealing, even to those of us who don't ordinarily go in much for that sort of thing? He's really no worse than many of the other venal characters in the books. So why is it that the idea of plans backfiring on Lucius in particular should be so very...appetizing?
I certainly hope that it's not a matter of class-envy. Because that would be just plain embarrassing.
—Elkins
Posted to HPfGU by Elkins on February 16, 2002 2:52 PM
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