Anna Daniels
In Voldemort’s ideal world, the vast majority of all sentient magic-users would be treated as second-class citizens — at best. That doesn’t just mean the subjugation of muggles and muggle-born wizards, however. Voldemort’s rule would crush house-elves, centaurs, goblins, merfolk, and all other magical races.
It’s brutal stuff, and sounds like it would make for a dull Wizarding World. Nothing is more boring than complete homogeneity. But the Death Eaters are all about conformity — consider their infamous Dark Mark tattoos. Every Death Eater sports the image of a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth on their forearm. They serve a specific purpose: By touching a single member’s tattoo, Voldemort can summon the whole gang. It’s like a magical group text that can’t be ignored, slept through, or put on silent. But it’s also a marker of group identity, and yet another aspect of the Death Eaters’ organization that stresses union, sameness, and the sacrificing of individual selves for the greater good.
That’s all very cool, scary, and memorable. But having the Mark placed somewhere as highly visible as the forearm, as the tattoo always is, is a confusing choice. Sure, wizards seem to favor long sleeves and billowing robes, but they don’t wear them all the time. Forearms are exposed casually, accidentally, and pretty much all the time once the summer months set in. Are we supposed to believe the Death Eaters never unthinkingly roll up their sleeves at work?
Written by: Looper
