The Harry Potter franchise has plenty of people who could be considered antagonists, but the big bad is Voldemort, also known as He Who Must Not Be Named in the Wizarding World. However, I have no fear of this man, because I know that there are far worse people in this universe, specifically one person.
And that one person is Dolores Umbridge.
Yes, Voldemort is considered the Dark Lord, the bringer of all things evil and essentially Death himself. But over my years in this fandom, and as I've learned to look at characters more directly, Dolores Umbridge has surpassed my hatred for the Dark Lord. If you’re wondering why exactly I believe she’s even worse than Voldemort himself, well, here are my reasons.
Umbridge has a power complex and no moral values
The biggest issue with Dolores is that she has what Voldemort doesn’t have: a soul. While Voldemort’s soul was split into seven pieces, he never really had any good in him. He was always just a bad person. Umbridge fakes being good, but that’s what makes her power so much worse—because she uses that fakeness to her advantage.
She stands for nothing when it comes to morality, as long as it’s what the Ministry wants, going so far as to try and punish teachers for standing with Dumbledore when he was in trouble. She says she wants “order,” but really, it’s just about following rules because she knows she is the one in power.
It gets even worse when she basically becomes the de facto leader of Hogwarts as Dumbledore vanishes after being imprisoned, and she puts restriction after restriction on every single student and professor there. She wants people to bend to her will because that’s her kind of complex, and she'll do whatever it takes to rise in power at the Ministry, even if it harms others.
At least Voldemort stood for something. He had moments when even he wouldn’t risk someone because of their importance to his own cause. Umbridge never really had that.
Umbridge uses her power to harm children for no good reason
Okay, yes, Voldemort has gone a step further and has harmed children. But… he almost did it better than Umbridge. Voldemort did torment children, but with him, you almost expect it. That’s what he has always done, ever since he was a kid. He never had any real reason to feel sympathy for anyone because his soul was tainted from the very beginning.
Umbridge, as far as I understand it, wasn’t born with a tainted soul. She didn’t grow up torturing other kids. So when she used a purposeful spell to carve into Harry’s hand during his detention, which happened over and over again, that’s… cruelty. I suppose, in that regard, she and Voldemort are the same, but in his later years, whenever he harmed a child, it was because they were in his way, because of the war, or something else. Umbridge making a case to carve into someone’s hand just because she can as a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is just wrong.
Again, neither of these people is good in any way. But there’s just something about how much pleasure Umbridge takes from it that we can see in her eyes that makes me squirm more than Voldemort does. She’s supposed to be some beacon for the Ministry, but instead, she does this. It’s the fakeness that’s supposed to be protection, which makes it even worse. I'm just happy Fred and George gave her a fright with those fireworks. I love when the kids fight back.
Umbridge hides behind fake smiles and doesn’t have her own thoughts
This is probably my biggest issue — that Umbridge isn’t her own person. Voldemort has a mission, and it’s not necessarily a good one, but he has a plan, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get there and get the right people to support it. Umbridge… wants to rise in power in the Ministry. That's all she is: a Ministry official. And she uses her cruelty to get there.
She reminds me of a line from Hamilton, where Alexander Hamilton says to Aaron Burr, “If you stand for nothing, Burr, what’ll you fall for?” That’s what Umbridge reminds me of — someone who will abide by anything in the Ministry as long as it brings her power, without any true thought or feeling of her own.
It’s those kinds of people I despise — the ladder climbers willing to bite, gnaw, and slash their way to some power, even if they stand for nothing. And I hate that, which is what makes me despise her even more.
Watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix makes me want to squirm every time I see Umbridge, but at least I won’t have to deal with her in the new HBO series until she appears in season 5 — years down the line.
You can watch all eight Harry Potter movies on HBO Max.
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