10 Things We Need To See In HBO Harry Potter Series
8. Riddles And Gaunts
Tom Riddle is Lord Voldemort and his backstory is explored in depth in the Half-Blood Prince. He comes from a long line of dark wizards, though through Harry and Dumbledore's trips through the Pensieve, the reader discovers that this line is very far from royalty.
Losing the story of the Gaunts and the Riddles from the movies was potentially the biggest detractor to the adaptations. While Tom Riddle has always been evil, the episodes that depict his family, the Gaunts, go much further to exploring why he is the way that he is. This is not so that the audience could feel any kind of sympathy toward the character, but rather than they can truly understand how dangerous he is.
Riddle, like Harry, is half-blood. His father, Tom Snr, was a Muggle who spurned Merope Gaunt after the birth of their son. While the books explore the racist and insane line of the Gaunts, neither the books nor films have truly explored the Riddle line. Was there an evil streak along Voldemort's father's side as well? The books say that the Riddle family were not liked at all in their village, so could this be a case where the Riddles and the Gaunts should never have mixed to begin with?
Voldemort is the greatest evil that the wizarding world has ever known. Understanding the where's and the why's should be an essential part of HBO's series.