But, I think Voldie doesn't get enough credit. Just cause he didn't understand love doesn't mean he doesn't know how to do fucked up things like turn his own parents into Inferi to stick it to his greatest enemy.
Oh, sure, he gets his moments. Like the bit with the fake dreams in
Order of the Pheonix. But this is still a guy whose knowledge of magic is almost an informed attribute. He only ever seems to actually cast the unforgivable curses, with other spells only used when those won’t work. He is far too brute force that way. He might know how to do that and even know why he might, but it will only rarely cross his mind to actually do so.
One of the few things I enjoyed about the movie version of
Pheonix was that it turned the duel at the end into something more interesting than the
Kedavra-fest it was in the book.