—-out. ok but the whole “x character goes back in time/attends hogwarts with riddle & they fall in love & he’s redeemed” trope really grates my nerves, like, the whole world won’t be fixed because people have the capacity to love. tom calls his knights/death eaters his friends, his family, and dumbledore tells harry he never really felt for them at all – it doesn’t matter if you’re in love, or if you love, you’re still capable of making really shitty choices/doing bad things and i’m so tired of people romanticizing that. 

you’re your own goddamn person, and there’s the whole “this person, whom i love, has changed me” but that’s not true, they can give you motivation to change, they can give you opportunities and new perspectives, but you only change if you damn well please. tom didn’t want to repent, he didn’t want to feel resentment or regret and stitch his soul back up – and sometimes love just isn’t fucking enough. 

in my opinion, tom’s well beyond the point of being redeemed, or “changing for the better” – this boy’s on a bloody crusade & he’s so full of hatred (or rage, since in his mind only souls weaker than himself are swept away by hate) & so full of power (dumbledore confesses that protection charms placed by himself wouldn’t be strong enough to stop tom at his prime) & so full of greed that he’s blinded by it all. ever since he was a boy, he’s always seen it as himself against the world; other people are replaceable, other people are just a means to a violently selfish end. 

he was raised believing he’s on his own, he’s special, and the real kicker is he’s never felt inclined to change, or grow, and learn to let others in. 

if anything, he isn’t capable of the selfless “love” that so many people believe is the only form of love – in my mind, if he were to “love” someone it would be violent, it would be unhealthy, & it would be terrifying. tom doesn’t simply admire – he obsesses. he collects. & that poor soul, the object of his obsession, would have every right to feel sickened, to feel desperate & afraid & have no desire to try to change him for the better, because he’d only “love” in the sense of what’s best for himself.