Loyal Servant

[Mint]

This is one of the really interesting topics that I keep seeing. When Bellatrix says that she the most loyal servant of Lord Voldemort, is she really? Or is Lord Voldemort a clever leader making his best servants believe that each of them is more loyal then the others.

At the beginning I thought that majority of people who joined Voldemort joined him not as much as they believed in his ideals but because they were afraid to go against him. But may be its not the case..........

Also, they dont mention that they are fighting for "pure blood" ideals, I think they are just fighting for their Dark Lord. Do you think there is alot of quarrel between them as which one of them is more loyal and a better servant to Voldemort?

[Alice I]

Well I believe that Bellitrix and Lucius both joined Voldemort for the Pure Blood thing. She is one of the Blacks that Sirius's Mum loved. Also she is nuts and Lucius has made his feelings about Pure Blood very clear.

I don't think the DEs fight about who is more loyal with each other because they do not know who most of the other DEs are. They could all assume or suspect that there is someone closer to Voldemort than themselves because they all know they there are DEs that they do not know. (stated by Karakoff at his trial)
I would suspect that folks like Bellitrix and Lucius might consider themselves more important than the others because they seem to hold some athuority over the others, well Lucius anyway does. He was the one giving orders at the Department of Mysteries.

Yeah he is a legend in his own mind

[Gower]

Voldmort himself said that the Lestranges were very faithful to him in the fourth book. He said that they stayed in Azkaban for him and would be 'honoured beyond their dreams' when Azkaban was broken into.

[Mint]

Dont they have some sort of meetings? (deatheaters)
During the Voldemort meetings u r right they can not see each other cause of the capes, but for some reason I assumed that they organized their own gatherings.

When they were chasing after Harry they knew each other ^-^. And also, it was mentioned that Berry (sp?) in book 4 said that he was the most loyal servant, didnt he?

[Gower]

During the meetings where Voldemort is present they can't see each other, but they know of each others names. In Gof Voldemort said the name of each deatheater as he went round the circle.

[Alice I]

Actually Gower he said most or many of the names but not all. He walked past some of them with out speaking.
I think Voldemort wants some of these DEs to be unknown to other DEs.
It ensures that if one turned against him he/she could not give away all of the others.
also I would be suprised if Voldemort didn't have spies within his own circle of followers.

[choki]

Did Tom Riddle himself said in CoS that he was a very persuasive person...
I bet he know how to use people, making them do things faithfully and all...
Perhaps by saying 'who' is most loyal to him, Voldemort wins that person support in such a manner that he/she will do utmost or even die doing what Voldemort asks for.

Voldemort is one manipulative person.

[paintballdecoy]

Exactly, I bet he refers to the most insanly devoted person as his most faithful, that way others will be the same.

But yes, he is very manipulative

[Mint]

Perhaps by saying 'who' is most loyal to him, Voldemort wins that person support in such a manner that he/she will do utmost or even die doing what Voldemort asks for.

Yeah, but I was thinking that Voldemort says the same thing to more then one person, like if they are in a private meeting he would "brainwash" that person that way. ^^

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

Voldemort probably uses reverse-psychology to achieve loyal followers. Voldemort-"You are a gutless coward who has no intentions of staying loyal to Lord Voldemort, muahahahaha!" Eh, something like that, but only either out of fear, like Wormtail, or actual evilness, like Bellatrix, Voldemort manages to keep his DE's in check.

[Gower]

So maybe they should try to rebel against him. Trouble is, they probably don't trust each other.

[choki]

And that would probably lead them to their downfall.
I think internal strifle for the position as the 2nd in command would cause some serious conflicts which makes them easy target for the Order to take them out one by one.

I know what you meant Mint. Voldemort says that to most of his important DEs like Bellatrix, Wormtail or Lucius. I would love to see some conflicts between Bellatrix and Lucius but then again, he is her brother-in-law...

[Athena Appleton]

Dont they have some sort of meetings? (deatheaters)

Yes, I do think they have meetings, but I think that Voldemort takes special care to make sure that the Death Eaters don't know who all the Death Eaters are. The "head" Death Eaters (Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, the Lestranges, all the folks in the graveyard) probably each know each other, but I think there are kind of lesser Death Eaters under each of them, and they don't know who those are, except for the ones they really have to know about.

I get what you're saying about them each wanting to be the most loyal... I would imagine, because most of them are fairly self-important people who are power-hungry, they are all trying to convince Voldemort himself how loyal they are to him (when he gets in power, they are each wanting to be his right-hand-man)

[Mint]

So to sum it up - deatheater joined V. partially because of the power that Voldemort may give them, partially because they are afraid of Voldemort. In fact I think that most of them joined at first because of the power, but are still following him because of the fear. Because as u guys said they dont know all the deatheaters - which means if they leave Voldemort they will be found, tortured and killed. o_o!

U know, even though Voldemort is pure evil, u gotta admit he is really smart. I get amazed how he started with nothing and became this extremely powerful, wellknown, followed person. Scary >_<!!! Cause this can happen in real life too.

Anyway, Last Question ^-^ I always wanted to ask. Do u think Bellatrix is the most powerful deatheater? Because I got a feeling that she is. At first I though Lucius would be, but then i got a feeling that he is a coward. Bellatrix seems totally crazy o_o

[Gower]

I think she is very powerful, she managed to beat Tonks, Sirius and Kingsley in duals and then escape. It's because she's so evil, she is good at using the unforgivable curses