and in that moment, the entire movie theater burst into tears

i think this was the moment that made most of us despise umbridge more than voldemort

most of us?! don’t you mean ALL of us?? I don’t think even Voldemort liked this bitch!

No one likes Umbridge.

I heard, one time, a dementor kissed her and IT died

Voldemort committed genocide, but Umbridge dared to be female while she abused her power. 

The point isn’t that Umbridge was worse than Voldemort; it’s that everyone hates her more. And I think it has nothing to do with her being a woman and everything with being the sort of cruel most of us have actually experienced.

I mean, look at Voldemort. He’s basically Wizard Hitler, which is, obviously, an incredibly terrible thing to be. But most people—especially the younger people in Harry Potter’s target audience—have not had their parents murdered by a xenophobic cult leader. Nor have they fought for their lives against giant snakes, been kidnapped for dark rituals, or watched numerous friends die in front of them. Voldemort’s crimes are numerous, but they’re distant and fantastical, like hearing about a serial killer on the news.

But they have had that one teacher who inflicts extra punishments just because they don’t like you. They’ve complained to parents and authorities only to be ignored. They’ve sat through pointless classes and been silenced when they criticize. Umbridge is that teacher we all hated because she made our lives miserable and we were powerless to stop her. And as we grow out of school, there are still people in positions of power who act like her. The manager who denies your schedule requests and penalizes you for invented infractions. That customer who complains to corporate because their scam didn’t work, and the corporate decision to listen to their story. Cops performing illegal searches because they know you don’t have any proof.

Yes, torturing and killing numerous people is worse than terrorizing a handful of schoolchildren, but Voldemort is the bad guy in a fairy tale. Umbridge is personal.

*drops the mic*

Voldemort is the villain we never hope to face.

Umbridge is the villain we face every day.

It’s the banality of Umbridge’s evil that does it for me. She’s the evil of absolute order, sadism that masks itself behind doilies and cute kitten pictures. She’s the purity of institutional power, absolutely pristine and spotless because her pink furniture and lace cover up the blood she’s spilled—the blood she sees as necessary to the preservation of order and her power.

And, y’know, I always knew Harry would defeat Voldemort. Probably at some kind of cost because Hero Narrative, but that’s how these stories work. 

I was not entirely certain that Umbridge wouldn’t win.

If I was in a locked room with Voldemort, Umbridge, and a gun with two bullets, I’d shoot her twice.

Also, talking of Umbridge “daring to be female” while abusing power:

So help me you are NOT going to turn Dolores Jane Umbridge into a a feminist icon on my watch.