I reread Goblet of Fire again for the first time in a while and came out frustrated by how Crouch Jr’s character was treated. There are a lot of interesting things about this guy. He easily tricked Dumbledore in the impersonation of a man he had been close friends with for years. Dumbledore, who easily saw through Gilderoy and Quirrell. Dumbledore had a preexisting, personal relationship with real Moody and still didn’t see through Crouch Jr’s facade. That’s an entire school year of fooling the world’s most powerful wizard.

And while doing so he managed to be arguably the DADA teacher the golden trio ever had. As an aside, this guy had to teach each year DADA and, unless he’s just popping in a movie for every class but Harry’s, that's a huge amount of dedication and deception. I mean, he had to make lesson plans for first years. Anyway, he completely won the trust of Harry, Dumbledore, and the student body as a whole. Including Neville, whose parents he helped torture to insanity. Yikes. We see how he directly influence’s the characters actions to help Harry with the three tasks. This is not just about being a good actor. This guy has some serious Dumbledore level manipulation skills and ridiculously strong magical ability. He overtook real Moody, one of the most revered Aurors in the world after being imprisoned and essentially mind dead for years, and hoodwinked an extremely old, powerful magical object that, as far as we know, had never before been tricked. This guy is good.

So, we all know that JK had to do a big rewrite of GoF. I have to wonder if she decided much later on in the rewrite to make Crouch Jr. impersonate Moody. For one, there’s practically no distinction between later books real Moody and fake Moody. It’s mentioned that the two aren’t the same person, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione treat the two characters practically interchangeably. It’s actually pretty easy to temporarily forget that GoF Moody wasn’t the real Moody. And Crouch Jr. himself is largely forgotten for the rest of the series. He’s never really brought up. Pretty weird for the enormous role he played in the fourth book, being the man most responsible for bringing Voldemort back to life. Of course, he’s conveniently given the Dementor’s Kiss at the end, but Harry never reflects on his time with Moody. He was Harry’s mentor for a full year, as Lupin was. How does Neville feel that the teacher who took him under his wing was one of the people who tortured his parents? That a Death Eater successfully lived at Hogwarts for an entire year? They were all largely affected by this incredibly powerful sociopath who Rowling sweeps under the rug.

I mean, what a bummer. Had he lived he could have continued to be such as fascinating, powerful character. A former mentor of Harry’s on the dark side. Someone with such obvious magical and manipulative skill working against the Order. He had an interesting, sympathetic backstory. His big ministry father never gave him the time of day. He, unlike the other Death Eaters, came from a background that was not already involved in the Dark Arts or raised on the notion of pureblood supremacy.

It would have been awesome to experience Crouch Jr. as Crouch Jr., beyond just being a Moody stand in. There’s no cannon information on what house he was in. Exploring, say, a Ravenclaw turned Death Eater would have been cool and gone against the whole “all Death Eaters are all Slytherins and all Slytherins are bad” theme which I think is one of the weakest parts of the series. There’s Wormtail, but he’s not a true supporter, just a coward. Having Crouch Jr. completely eliminated and forgotten feels too easy, and undermines his entire role in the rebirth of Voldemort. Also, think of how awesome a duel to the death would have been between real Moody and Crouch Jr. Think of the insane beef Moody would have had with him after all that went down. They would have been great counterparts, acting as the general of the Order and Death Eaters respectively. Instead, Crouch Jr. gets the Kiss and fades into obscurity, while Moody absorbs Crouch’s time as fake Moody into his character. Even if he still died, I feel like Crouch Jr. should have been kept more in the psyche of the series. Like I said, bummer.

TL;DR Barty Crouch Jr. could have evolved into a great character, but ends up a forgettable bump in the HP journey.

Edit: Didn't mean to say I don't think he was a good character, I absolutely do. I just wish he wouldn't have been cast off in the end of GoF. I think a lot more awesome things could have been done with Crouch Jr.