NO!

No, but I'm not saying he would be a lovely person if his mother had lived. It's in him to be nasty. But I don't think he would have become the most evil wizard of all time, he just wouldn't be very nice.

I don't view his mother as being a positive influence at all, she was a very twisted individual. Tom is a sociopath, I'm pretty sure he would've turned into Voldemort regardless of whether or not his mother survived. Odds are he would've eventually killed her himself.

He still may have, but I think part of what fueled his anger was his horrible childhood as an outcast in an orphanage. He obviously has some other personality factors and skills that go into his being the Dark Lord, but his mother being there to keep him out of that orphanage may have had a huge impact.

I think there was still a big chance of him still becoming Voldemort if Merope lived. Tom didn't know what love was and there's no telling if Merope would have loved him or not. Also, he would have seen her as being weak if she'd lived, fuelling his hatred.

Merope had loved his father. She would have loved her son. All parents have their flaws - they may even love awkwardly. But it is still love. He would have had a taste of it. He may not have been the nicest person around but he would have known what love was. A bit like Severus : not the kindest guy around but he may have evolved into a decent man.

Other factors may interfere into the construction of a personality. External factors. There, it would have been a matter of choice then. Like for Harry, who despite a neglected and loveless childhood at the Dursleys, had made all the right choices.

i don't think so.

I think Merope would have helped him , so he wouldn't become Voldemort

I don't think si

Yes, thank you fanfly! I totally agree.

Not at all

And here's my opinion...Merope didn't love Tom Riddle. She was obsessed with him. She deceived him and cast a spell on him that forced him to think he was in love with her. There's no justification for that, it's disgusting. She took away his choice and violated his mind, all in the name of her twisted idea of 'love'. Who knows what she would've done to her son in the name of 'love'?

BTW, I'm not arguing with anyone, I just felt the need to express my un-romanticized view of Merope and her 'relationship' with Tom Riddle.

I "THINK"... No. But he wouldn't be a lovely person! He just wouldn't be VOLDEMORT, THE MOST DARKEST AND FEARED WIZARD OF ALL TIMES. With Tom's mother alive MAYBE she would see that her son was a "bad person", and would warn herself or someone... or no.
I really don't know if Merope was a "really" good witch after her father have gone out of the scene but I really don't think she would let her son kill "almost" everybody in his "way" (and wouldn't like even a little of Tom killing his own father). But possibly Tom has borned evil, not completly, but still evil.

I can't deny the fact that be in an orphanage is not exactly a situation with "big happiness"!

* Maybe I should have picked YES!

he just needed love.

blood of Salazar Slytherin.
is destiny.

Though you also have to think on what happened to him when he is young!

Hey, also fanfly is right in a way if you think about it.

To me, one of the central themes of the series was the importance and power of love. Love means caring about what happens to others, even at the risk of hurting yourself. Even the Malfoys, quintessential Slytherins, gave precedence to the love they had for each other over their loyalties to Voldemort. Because he was born from a union created through unnatural, forced circumstances, he could never love anyone other than himself. It is one of the greatest tragedies of the series to be sure… for because of Merope’s unrequited love and her obsession with the senior Riddle, many countless people died or were otherwise destroyed because of the child she bore from that loveless conception.

It’s something very interesting to think about, and I often do.

It does say somewhere that the fact that his mother was witch and she rather die like a muggle than to save her own life with magic and look after her newborn son...that was the main reason voldemort hated his mother, and if she would have lived and looked after him maybe he wouldn't of had this overall hatred for muggles well apart from his father... but on the otherhand the fact he was concieved after a love potion JKR did say thats why he couldn't love...so who really knows how he would have turned out