What is Voldemort Trying to do?

[Enchanter]

I was trying to think what Voldemort is trying to set out to do. It never actually says what his objective is. In the penseive he says he is not interested in politics and doesnt want to be the Minister of Magic, to me that means he doesn't want to just take over. If he just wants to keep "mudbloods" out of wizarding soceity it would be eaisier to make laws about it which he could achieve by becoming the Minister of Magic. Anyone have any ideas on what he wants?

[Dacre]

Without being cryptic, I think he wants what he wants.
Which means no-one to stop him doing whatever he chooses to do, and obviously a ministry of magic and other wizards will always try and stop him killing, torturing for fun etc.

[Tanuki]

I think when he says he wants to remove muggles and muggle borns, he doesn't want to just outlaw them. I think he wants a holocaust. He want's to kill every muggle and muggle born, halfbreed or squib out there. I also think he may not want to be political, but he still wants to rule the world. After all, theres little politics around a dictator

[Person1]

A generic villain through and through, kill all....conquere the world, rule all, no one contradicting him.

[Tanuki]

"power means never having to apologize" - Nietzsche

[Athena Appleton]

I was trying to think what Voldemort is trying to set out to do. It never actually says what his objective is. In the penseive he says he is not interested in politics and doesnt want to be the Minister of Magic, to me that means he doesn't want to just take over. If he just wants to keep "mudbloods" out of wizarding soceity it would be eaisier to make laws about it which he could achieve by becoming the Minister of Magic. Anyone have any ideas on what he wants?

Aside from the excellent ideas already posted, it could be that he would find going by the book to gain power too mundane, for lack of a better word. He's not interested in being the head of all the different Ministries such as the Gobstones Club, Accidental Magic Dept. or the Muggle Artifacts Office. Many of the departments are complete opposites of what he's all about. Politics would slow him down, because he'd have to answer to someone (the wizarding community, mainly). he wants to rule rather than govern.

I happen to agree whole-heartedly with Tanuki on this one.

[digby202]

I would suggest he is trying to (in the words of a previous poster) generate a holocaust against muggles and muggle borns. After all, he is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, who did not entirely approve of muggle borns and muggles. As well as the intense hatred Voldemort had for his muggle father for abandoning his mother and himself.

[Tanuki]

I don't think Slytherin would approve of what is going on. i get the feeling he wasn't fond of muggles because of their rather inconsistent trustworthyness at the time. He had good reason to think the way he did. We never heard of Slytherin's campaigns against muggles.

[Athena Appleton]

I don't think Slytherin would approve of what is going on. i get the feeling he wasn't fond of muggles because of their rather inconsistent trustworthyness at the time. He had good reason to think the way he did. We never heard of Slytherin's campaigns against muggles.

Except for the fact that he felt so strongly about keeping them out of Hogwarts that he left the very school he helped found. That's taking a lack of trust to a whole new level.

[Athena Appleton]

Sorry for the double-post...

Besides, Slytherin's campaign against the Muggles and Muggle-borns can be explained in the fact that he did actually build a chamber of secrets, and there was actually a Baselisk in it, for the purpose of killing the muggle-borns. That's not a nice thing to do, no matter how you spin it.

[glamourweaver]

He likely wants to disband/destroy the Ministry of Magic and allow the Pureblood Houses to reassume total power... second to his dictitorial rule of course. All laws restricting the usage of Magic will be gone. The Wizarding World under his rule with openly rule over the Muggle World (Muggles will be slaves). Muggle-Borns will be exterminated. I'm not sure what his policy on Half-Bloods is. As Hermione pointed out, there are Half-Blooded Death Eaters, so I doubt that Voldemort's official goal is wipe them out. He might turn on his Half-Blooded fellows once he exterminates the Muggle-Born though... as they would likely be reminders of his own "impurities" of blood...

[thestral]

bit like hitler really, who was supposedly 1/4 jewish or something. and in nazi germany, even if you had a jewish grandparent (which is 1/4) you were considered jewish and therefore you were carted off to the concentration camps.

[Athena Appleton]

bit like hitler really, who was supposedly 1/4 jewish or something. and in nazi germany, even if you had a jewish grandparent (which is 1/4) you were considered jewish and therefore you were carted off to the concentration camps.

(I have this wierd interest in the Holocaust, but it's been a while since I've read this part...)

If you look at Hitler's ancestry and history, a lot of what he wanted the Master Race to be would have left him out. It was as if the whole mess was caused by his own insecurities. He did have some distant (I don't think as close as one grandparent, but it wasn't far off) Jewish ancestry. He was raised (I think) as a Catholic (later religions were against the Regime, too). He wasn't even German, himself, he was Austrian (which explains why he never considered the annexation of Austria to be an invasion... he was "bringing them home to the Reich.")

Sorry, but things do seem a little mirrored here. Voldemort seemed to specifically go after people who were similar to him.

[Enchanter]

I'm guessing the reason for going after people who were similar to him would be because he wants to be "special".

[Dutchess42]

If you look at Hitler's ancestry and history,...

Sorry, but things do seem a little mirrored here. Voldemort seemed to specifically go after people who were similar to him.

Yes, and in the mugglenet interview Rowling hints at that as well. It seemed to be a line of inquiry (along with Dumbledore's family and identification of the horcruxes) that she encouraged fans to peruse.