Cornelius Oswald Fudge is a major character in the Harry Potter series. Fudge was the British Minister for Magic from 1990 to 1996. Therefore, he had complete control over the Ministry of Magic, the main governing body of the British wizarding world.
Despite being a respectable figure on a first glance, Fudge was proven; to be sloppy at best, constantly relying on Dumbledore for the best advice in maintaining the Ministry of Magic; since he lacked desirable any capacity to do so, to where he was ultimately a corrupt tyrant no better than his more detestable predecessors at worst, a fact that; became prominent through the final days of his career.
He was portrayed by the late Robert Hardy.
What Makes Him Pathetic?[]
- He's a villain by proxy due to having no idea he was a pawn to Dolores, who was willing to torment people at Hogwarts to have order and for that:
- He fails to admit the return of Voldemort, thus directly endangering the whole magic world at the very least.
- He has some supremacist views, as it's said he's held Arthur Weasley back at the Ministry for "lacking proper wizarding pride."
- He uses a Dementor to interrogate Barty Crouch Junior, which results that Dementor to give Barty a fate worse than death, and while Barty himself did deserve this as he killed his own father out of spite, this doesn't justify Fudge.
- While he was friendly towards Harry at first, he subverts it as he launches propaganda activities against Harry to prove that Harry is a liar and Voldemort has not returned.
- He appoints Dolores Umbridge to the Hogwarts staff to undermine Dumbledore, having her persecute Harry and anyone else who claims Voldemort is back. Subsequently, he expands her powers more and more, which leads to serious consequences.
- While he is remorseful for what he did, he does little to nothing to stop the war. He isn't even seen to apologize to Harry and Dumbledore for his actions.
What Makes Him A Pinhead?[]
- Although he can hardly be called a stupid person as it's never directly stated onscreen/onpage how stupid he really is, he is a power-hungry, stubborn and reckless coward. He refuses to believe that Voldemort is alive, although he cannot help but notice signs to the contrary.
- He's also very bad at reading people, as he fails to realise Umridge's true nature (or he prefers to fail) as he never sees that she isn't much loyal to him (or he does see it but allows her to stay on her position, which isn't much better).
- He also tends to make hasty decisions. For example:
- While arresting Sirius Black before the series events and Hagrid in the The Secret Chamber was fair from the certain point of view (as Fudge had nowhere to know about their innocence and he simply had no evidence to prove their innocence anyway), the situation with Buckbeak says against Fudge as Buckbeak didn't really want to harm Draco, Draco himself provoked Buckbeak to do so, but Fudge didn't even bother to investigate the situation. Moreover, he did it under the pressure of Draco's father Lucius, which indicates that it is easy to manipulate him (or he himself allows other people to manipulate him, which isn't much better).
- While beginning the propaganda campaign against Harry and Dumbledore looked clever on paper, the idea of denying of Voldemort's return wasn't too clever when his return was more than obvious. Cornelius even uses a suitable moment to make an unfair judgement on Harry when he has a chance and continues to deny of Voldemort's return until he sees Voldemort personally. Also, all his propaganda boiled down to the fact that he simply called Harry and Albus liars, without motivating this with anything at all. What makes things worse is him calling Cedric Diggory's death an accident (when it was more than obvious that Cedric was killed). At least, he could put the blame for Cedric's death on Barty Crouch Junior, who was an ideal candidate to be responsible for that (especially since from a certain point of view, part of the blame for the death of Cedric already lay with Barty Jr. as it was him to bring Harry (and indirectly Cedric) to Voldemort), or on Sirius Black, whose innocence wasn't yet proven at that time.
External Links[]
- Cornelius Fudge at the Villains wiki.
- Cornelius Fudge at the Hate Sink wiki.