I honestly think the same. Even though she was abused, that doesn't really justify the way she acted..

it's not a justification but it does kind of erase a little bit of the responsibility. since she was really badly abused, it was probably a trauma response for the love potion thing and she just wanted someone to cling onto so she went to drastic measures

but yeah still not all that justifiable

I never really thought about merope but now I understand why you guys hate her and I have a new discovered hatred of her yay

Yeah.

I agree.

Well Merope is indeed arguably worse than Marvolo and Morfin.

Just thinking about what she totally did to Tom Riddle Sr., erm....

It doesn’t excuse her actions, but you can understand why she felt it was justifiable. She had never been loved in her life, and all she wanted was somebody to treat her well. Love potions are treated as more of a joke than a rape in the wizarding world, so she would have seen it as culturally acceptable. Once Riddle was under the effects of the love potion, he would have acted like he loved Merope and would have seemed willing to forgive her for anything. This would have helped Merope to delude herself into believing that Riddle’s feelings were genuine. That’s why she eventually stopped using the love potion and why she was so heartbroken when Riddle did the obvious thing and left her. What Merope did was wrong, but understandable.

While abuse explains her actions, it certainly doesn't justify them - effectively, it is blatant mind-rape. It definitely explains why Voldemort turned out to be the way he was.

Merope didn't have many options. She just wanted someone to love her. she had been abused and she hoped that putting him under the love potion would expose her to that love. What she did was wrong, but it was her only choice. If anything, she should've kept him under the potion longer than she would've been able to get through his abandonment much better.

Yes.