Could Riddle Sr. being under the influence of a love potion attributed to the outcome of his offspring? Along with Merope's demented and inbred genes, could the intention of false love have doomed Fetalmort? There was never any love in his family and the only love that was felt was false or unreturned and it's said that babies in the womb can hear and feel what's going on on the outside. Do you think this is true? Had Merope and Tom Sr. gotten together under less "under the influence" circumstances that Tom Jr. would have turned out less evil?

Wow! Nice discussion question!

I think that it is very possible for Tom Jr's anti-love being attributed to the fact that he was the offspring of a loveless relationship. However, I do not think that had Merope and Tom Sr gotten together without help of the love potion, that it would have made any difference in how Tom Jr turned out.

As I think it was Dumbledore who said this, though it might have been Hagrid, who was saying how some wizards just go bad. Regardless of how Tom Jr was conceived, it is still in his DNA to make him how he turned out. He was meant to turn 'bad'... to be on the dark side... to kill Harry. All of this was meant to happen, because if it wasn't then Trelawney never could have made the prophecy.

I'm not big on the predestination thing that Tom was supposed to end up this way because of a prophecy that hadn't been predicted yet. I think he was just due to end up like that. The Gaunts had been inbred for generations so there's a demented gene from the mother. Then you introduce a normal gene from a muggle and it balances it somewhat but not enought to keep the sociopathy at bay. We know that alcohol and other sustances have an affect on the fetus when the mother consumes it but I wouldn't put it past a love potion to dement the swimmies of a man if ingested if it's strong enough. I think all of these prenatal factors coupled with the fact that Merope really didn't love him and he never knew the concept growing up made Tom what he became to be. A person is born a sociopath, they're not made. He was without a conscience from the beginning but the reason that I say I don't believe in predestination was because of the motiff throughout the entire series that our choices are what make us who we are. Tom didn't have to become Voldemort. He chose to though and it set the ball in motion. We make ourselves who we are and no one else has a hand in that. We may have a path in life but that path is riddled with many forks and it's up to us to decide which branch we take.

I'm sure Merope wasn't a great example of a mother, and that had a lot to do with how Tom grew up as a child. She probably didn't pay much attention to him, being more concerned with fulfilling her own needs and desires. I am sure there were a lot of things Tom found desperately lacking, simple affection being one of the key things in all this. A lot of times, it all starts with a need to be wanted. He wasn't, sadly. Because of his unusually strong determination and drive and the fact that he was set down the wrong road from the beginning, he became Lord Voldemort. He could have been a great man for the side of good if things had turned that way.

I agree with Linda, choildren need attention and Voldermore just did not get that. I think realising the truth of his life around him, the orphans had a huge impact, yet sometimes I believe it was inherited from Meropes' family...

i agree with nikki.part of it he must have inherited from merope's family and maybe in the orphanage there was no one to give him love..you know the kind of matherly love and maybe the fact that his muggle father deserted his mum could have caused him to hate all the muggles!!

Can I just say, I love that you call him 'Fetalmort'! LMAO! Anyhow, I'm not sure I buy into the theory I'm about to put forth, but it is a possibility so here we go: perhaps because Voldemort wasn't conceived FROM love, he couldn't learn TO love. I don't necessarily think it had anything to do with the potion in a literal sense (not like alcohol or drugs) but more from the environment created by the potion - no real exposure to actual love. Had Merope and Tom Sr. gotten together under legitimate loving circumstances, I think Tom Jr would have turned out less evil because his childhood environment would have been much different. He would have grown up with parents who loved him and cared for him, which would have caused him to actually make an attachment to and care for another person from a young age. That one experience with real love could have changed his entire life. Like Dumbledore, I too believe that love is that powerful

Though you bring up a good point, I think it was said that not all prophecies even come true and that the hall of Prophecies is full of prophecies that never surmounted to anything more than a Seer just babbling some words. If Voldemort had heard the whole prophecy and had decided not to act at all right from the start, none of the rest would have come true. So I don't know that it was so much predestined.

While I agree with much of what Sissa says, I have to disagree on the 'sociopaths are born,' not made. I definitely think it is a combination of nature and nurture, or lack thereof in his case. I certainly think he had a genetic predisposition toward abnormality, but I think environment played a bigger role for him. Not having parents and living with that abandonment feeling, never really feeling loved or cared about, made him apathetic to the world. Combine apathy with a power that no one in his Muggle life had, and you get a messed up kid. Teach a messed up kid to harness and progress his power and you have a really messed up adult with no regard for anyone but himself or the consequences of his actions. Add to that the residual anger and abandonment issues and you've got yourself a sociopathic Voldemort. But that's just my humble opinion

I think that from conception he just had the odds going against him on the love and compassion front. Merope had to use a love potion to even get the object of her affections to look at her (that has to cause some sort of birth defect :p) But I also think it was his upbringing, or lack thereof, that cause him to become so evil. I mean being raised in an orphanage, being told/finding out that your mom took you to the Muggle orphanage, because your Muggle father found out she was a witch and decided to run because he also found out he had been under the spell of a love potion doesn't really spell out happy, good kid. I really think the odds were totally against him to be good or less evil, but he took the easy way out. Once he found out what he really was and what his true story was he decided to take all his anger out on those who hurt him most, the Muggles (i.e: his father's side of the family) and wizards, because they didn't want him because he was half muggle. I think in the Nature vs. Nurture battle...Nature played a big role, but Nurture wins out...it was definitely the environment that played a role in little Tom becoming big Voldemort!
But that's just my opinion

I do think that some of his behaviour is attributed to the love potion and his parents but a psychopath like voldemort has to be influenced by other stuff. Growing up in an orphanage that was grim adds to his behaviour plus being magical and making things happen must have made him feel distanced from other kids. I mean if a kid is distinctly different from those around them then they would think to theirself either im different therefore better or inferior. But the dna thing, you know, it was MEANT to happen is there aswell as he said "i can make people hurt if i WANT to". Its not completely accidental that he hurt people. So maybe this ability to put others down who are different manifested itself as he grew up. It doesnt even seem like the carers at the nursery were that strict on the kids so it allowed his ego to grow and when they do try to punish him for the strange incidents he was able to hide it and get away with it.
So with the love potion setting everything off I think as said above its the classic nature VS nurture debate but its also a dominoe effect. All in all though i dont think anyone is born evil.

Hmm, I would say that if Merope had lived to raise Tom Riddle Jr., Tom wouldn't be evil at all. Had he received love from his mother, he'd believe in it and probably be a normal wizard.

Yes i do agree that there was a 'domino effect' starting with the love potion to even conceive Tom Riddle Jr, and then the orphanage. And true, no one is necessarily born evil, but I do believe that each and everyone of us has an evil side. Some it may just be more prominent than others. Environment plays a huge role though, in that it can either promote or cease the evilness in us.

Jack brings up an interesting point of if Merope raised Tom Riddle Jr, he wouldn't have been evil at all. I don't necessarily know if I buy into that statement though. Tom came from a long line of purebloods, which we know in-breeding as the Gaunts did, is not a good thing. This alone has to have some effect on whether the child will be 'good' or 'evil'. On top of the fact that a love potion was used to conceive Tom, this just makes matters worse...
Hence why, regardless of who Tom was raised by, one could argue that it is innate. He is who he is... and that's all there is to it.