The Owlery - Was Barty Jr. Imperiused BEFORE Azkaban?
Added 2025-04-06 12:00:05 +0000 UTCComments
Great question! I agree that it really comes down to Mr Crouch being a terrible father, likely punitive (Walburga to Sirius) and emotionally neglectful (Dursleys to Harry) which led Crouch Jr to Voldemort who pretended to bond by sharing stories of disappointing father figures to gain his trust as a loyal follower. The fact that Barty canonically sees Voldemort as a father figure just tells us how terrible his father was to him, always trying to imprison/restrict/control him in some way while ignoring his emotional needs. I think on the other hand his mother and Winky loved him dearly, but Barty just couldn’t see that especially after he had been Imperiused by his father for 12 years
H Huhum
2025-04-06 18:44:35 +0000 UTCThank you guys so much for answering my question! I think Barty’s backstory is so interesting because this book is setting you up to distrust the ministry- and Crouch jr.’s backstory shows Crouch Sr. in a place of ministry authority, and sure he defeated a lot of dark wizards but look at the cost: he made his son into the perfect tool for Voldemort . I think if crouch jr. was just a misguided teen like regulus or draco it’s very tragic what crouch sr. did to him. And shows Harry why fighting fire with fire is not a good thing.
Jency
2025-04-06 16:32:53 +0000 UTCBackstory would interesting because it’s always stuck out to me that Sirius, Dumbledore AND Harry are all expressing doubt/uncertainty regarding Barty’s guilt. Normally, those three are really good with instincts and connecting information and accurate takes. It’s an oddity for all three of their instincts to be wrong. And I agree backstory wouldn’t change the outcome for Barty because we know what he’s presently doing, but it’s the same thing HBP did with Voldemort and what you two often bring up for Draco, trying to answer “How did you get here?” It doesn’t have to be given weight or introduced as tragic or inevitable, that’s all about interpretation… Backstory is just the reason that the character did what they did or why they are why they are. A character could become a Death Eater because they saw someone step on a twig if it really mattered to them. I’d be interested to hear your takes on what you two think his backstory was because there’s a lot of different takes available since it’s so empty/not in canon
H Huhum
2025-04-06 14:47:41 +0000 UTC
