Before Harry Potter ever stepped foot in Hogwarts..And even before Voldemort killed his parents, there was a whole other story—one of dark wizards, ancient secrets, and magical wars.

This is everything that came before.

So settle in, brace yourselves, and let’s wind back the clock on Wizarding History.

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I recently came across a clip on YouTube where author Brandon Sanderson and his podcast guest Dan Well were discussing Voldemort’s character.

Aaand things got pretty controversial pretty quickly, as shortly after posing the question, “Is he a good character?”—they both came to the same conclusion: he wasn’t.

Naturally my first inclination was to feel ANGER because HOW DARE THEY insult the main antagonist from the series that I love.

But then I began to wonder….Is he a good character? Or do I just like him because I like the Harry Potter story as a whole?

Is he compelling in his own right? Is he actually interesting?

And..Can a book even be good if a CORE character is bad?

All of this got me really thinking about what makes a good character. Is it depth? Motivation? Backstory? Complexity?

Yes, he’s powerful. Yes, he’s terrifying. But is he relatable? Does he evolve?

So today, I want to dig deeper into whether or not Voldemort is actually a well-written character, or if he’s just been heavily propped up by the strength of the narrative around him.

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Given that I have a Harry Potter YouTube channel, you might not be too surprised to hear that most of my recommended content on YouTube is..*SHOCKER* Harry Potter related.

But every so often, I see something in the same realm, but just a little bit different..which in this case was a video of Jordan Peterson analyzing the series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYedNVMB2YQ 0:50-1:20

Now, it’s not often that mainstream figures discuss Harry Potter. It’s 2025 and nearly 3 decades have passed since the first book came out. So naturally, I was curious- and I decided to see what he was talking about.

But what exactly is the connection between Jordan Peterson and the Wizarding World? And why does he seem to think it’s so important? Is it possible that he’s just bending the Harry Potter story to his philosophical will? Or are there elements to the story that perhaps many of us have never considered.

Today I’m going to be breaking it down, clip by clip, and seeing if I can make some sense of it all. Don’t worry, none of this is political- we’re strictly staying on the topic of Harry Potter.

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