Is the plot of HP and The Goblet of Fire broken?

Question

I've read the book a couple of times (and watched the movie), but I feel that I'm missing something important in Voldemort's plan in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in order to get a new body, because I can't see the point of making it soooo complicated.

Voldemort has his own reasons to complete the ritual using Harry, which have been explained in the book, but his whole plan leading-up to the cemetery goes as follows [spoiler alert]:

Trace and take down Alastor Moody who, as you all know, is a skilful Auror and also a security freak.
Make Barty Crouch Jr. impersonate Moody and get into Hogwarts. To accomplish this, Barty has to:
- Make like a swimming pool amount of Polyjuice Potion (which takes like a month to prepare, according to Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets) and drink it routinely.
- Keep Alastor alive, so he could make even more Polyjuice Potion.
- Study and learn Moody's life and ways.
- Fool the entire Hogwarts staff, including Prof. Dumbledore himself, who is also an old and close friend of Moody's (and proficient in Legilimency).
Keep Barty Crouch Senior under the Imperius Curse, so he doesn't raise the alarm on his missing son and his dangerous friends.
Hack the Goblet, so Harry gets involved in the Triwizard Tournament. I can't remember, but I think that Dumbledore himself took care of the Goblet's security spells.
Help, always under the hood and unnoticed, Harry (who is as thick as a 14 year old can be) to win the tournament. This one implies things like taking down Fleur, Viktor and Cedric in the Maze.
Get the tournament cup transformed into a Portkey, so the first one touching it will go to the graveyard where Voldemort is waiting.

My question is, why does it have to be so complicated?

Lets make an alternative plan:

Trace and take down somebody who isn't a remarkable person in Hogwarts and almost nobody will suspect of, lets say Dean Thomas. He is an untrained kid and he sleeps in the very room as Harry, for God's sake.
Take any random object to make the Portkey, for instance, Harry's glasses. This can be done the very first night at Hogwarts.
Next morning (or even before if Harry wakes to pee), Harry gets teleported to the graveyard when nobody is focused on him and on what he is doing.

I resist to believe that the actual plan was so complicated for no further reason.

What am I missing?

Gonna vote to close this because it's primarily opinion based, so can't really have an answer. Sorry. — Daft, May 20 '15 at 15:30
Hi Daft,
I dissagree with that. I wasn't asking an opinion on if it is a good or bad plan. I've just stablished that it is a very complicated plan (that's a fact) and I fail to see the reason to make it so.

I was asking for a further reason to make the things in that way that I could missed.

Thanks by the way. — RigBone, May 20 '15 at 15:35
@Daft: Are we certain that the rationale of the villains in GoF has never been and likely will never be discussed by Rowling? — Ellesedil, May 20 '15 at 15:35
Well, you all see this question as opinion based when what I was doing was asking for a reason to that complicated plan that I'd missed.
If it is an actual "opinion based question", this means that there is no precise answer in books. This, in fact, works as an answer for me. — RigBone, May 20 '15 at 16:17
As Jason says, Voldie is a person very focussed on appearances. Yes, maybe he could have snatched Harry in some other way -- but he couldn't resist the allure of an elaborate plot and such a great opportunity to make Dumbledore look like a fool. Plus, you know, it would have made the book a lot shorter. — TZHX, May 20 '15 at 16:35
Villains are rarely coming up with effective plots -- it would prevent the heroes foiling them. — TZHX, May 20 '15 at 16:37
Haha I like the question, to bad it got flagged. Though it is most certainly opinion based. — Clyde, May 20 '15 at 16:39
I strongly disagree that this question is opinions-based, rather pretty much all of the issues raised have been answered here before. The gist of the entire plot though, is that it was a culmination of careful planning, both on Voldemort and Barty Crouch JR.'s parts, to carefully extract Harry to an exact location, at an exact time, to fulfil a very tenuous plan; all of which was to be done without anybody noticing! — Möoz, May 20 '15 at 22:38
When Did Voldemort Realize the Value of Harry's Blood?, Exactly When was Mad-Eye Moody Captured?, How did Voldemort know that Harry would be the one to get the Triwizard Cup?, Why didn't Dumbledore realise that Moody had been replaced?, How does “Mad Eye Barty” compare to Mad Eye Moody?... — Möoz, May 20 '15 at 22:49
... Why was the Goblet of Fire portkey two-way? and finally Why didn't the Goblet of Fire refuse to choose a fourth participant? — Möoz, May 20 '15 at 22:54
The in-story reason for this is that Voldemort fails at logic. The meta reason for this it that Rowling fails at logic. — Winter Knight, May 20 '15 at 23:01
Like Dumbledore told Harry in the half Blood Prince, because Voldemort likes grandeur, the reason why he chose the items that he did as his horcruxes; probably helps boost his own sense of self importance — user13267, May 21 '15 at 15:26
... still awaiting @Voldemort's comment answering Jason Baker :) — DVK-on-Ahch-To, May 21 '15 at 19:56
Voldemort wanted his return to be a secret, so he needed Harry for his blood, and then to kill him so he would not tell everybody. The maze is perfect. Nobody is watching Harry and they could just dispose of his body in the maze afterwards. In order to get Harry in the maze, all the complicated steps are required. — Stephane Mathis, May 27 '15 at 11:10
The plot isn't broken. Children have tons of fun reading the story, just as intended. — Misha R, Sep 17 '15 at 09:09
@MishaRosnach Adults, too. I was in my twenties when I started reading the Harry Potter books, and did not bother to think about plot holes. — Dave Johnson, Sep 17 '15 at 14:11
@Dave Yeah, me too. No reason why adults can't read children's books, eh? Comet in Moominland is still one of my favorite books, and The Little Prince is loved by just about all adults. But I've yet to hear any of them cleverly deduce that the planet the Little Prince lives on is too small to support an atmosphere that could carry sound, and therefore he could not possibly be able to talk to the Rose. — Misha R, Sep 17 '15 at 14:36
You may be interested in this question: JKR actually admitted there was a plot hole, but claimed to have fixed it. — Rand al'Thor, Jan 07 '16 at 13:30
@WinterKnight 'The meta reason for this it that Rowling fails at logic.' No. What kind of story would it be if it was so simple? What suspense would there be? What excitement? The list goes on and on as far as what would be lost. There isn't any lack of logic on Rowling's part. And I'd say it wasn't a lack of logic on Voldemort's part either: he made some terrible risks and one which would be fatal to him but he was as Dumbledore said the most brilliant student Hogwarts had ever seen. He was also arrogant, ambitious, overconfident and this got in the way. Emotions are separate from logic. — Pryftan, Dec 07 '17 at 20:02
@MishaRosnach Exactly. And as Dave points out adults too. I was in my twenties too when I finally got around to reading them; I think the first four had already been released and I wasn't truly into it until I finished that one - meaning I spent more than a day reading them until that point. The books are delightful and if the plot was so simple it's be boring at best. The error would be in making it simple because that would be unexciting and a sore disappointment. Can you imagine if someone wrote the 'improved plot' and comparing the two? That should say more than enough in the matter! — Pryftan, Dec 07 '17 at 20:06
This was mentioned in the video about the movie on a pretty popular channel: https://youtu.be/nyugoCASVy8?t=11m38s "Couldn't they have made a portkey out of his breakfast waffles?" Also about horcruxes: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7a/b3/ba/7ab3baf4b7f676a914b0105ff1aa1bb2.png — Fabian Röling, Jun 13 '18 at 11:24
This question does not seem to be Primarily Opinion Based. There does not seem to be any reason why there couldn't be a perfectly factual answer to the question. If you know Harry Potter so well that you know that there is no answer, then that is the answer. — Alex, Dec 23 '18 at 01:24

Is the plot of HP and The Goblet of Fire broken?

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