# Evil villains that go too far **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-villains-that-go-too-far/543650 "2010-06-18T05:02:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-villains-that-go-too-far/543650/81 "2010-12-07T17:10:02Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > not against goons and thugs. > > i’ve always found the Bond villains to be too evil to believe. Austin Powers makes a good point in asking why these men would waste BILLIONS of dollars only to gain back… millions? I love the scenes from the first Austin Powers movie dealing with henchmen - I think they were only in the European release and probably on the DVD; Austin runs over a henchman with a steamroller or something, then you cut to a five minute scene of the dude who just got run over at the company Christmas party, and his family receiving the bad news, and and… ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-villains-that-go-too-far/543650/82 "2010-12-07T17:10:58Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > I love the scenes from the first Austin Powers movie dealing with henchmen - I think they were only in the European release and probably on the DVD; Austin runs over a henchman with a steamroller or something, then you cut to a five minute scene of the dude who just got run over at the company Christmas party, and his family receiving the bad news, and and… It’s a deleted scene on the DVD, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-villains-that-go-too-far/543650/83 "2010-12-07T17:14:05Z")
Just about everything the antagonists did in Cormac McCarthy’s\* Blood Meridian\*; shooting drowning kittens, babies on spikes, raping mothers holding their children. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-villains-that-go-too-far/543650/84 "2010-12-07T23:32:41Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I don’t think so. He Force-choked the smarmy officer in the Death Star conference room until Tarkin told him to knock it off, but he didn’t kill anyone on the DS that we saw. It was while he was aboard his warship in _The Empire Strikes Back_ that he killed several screwup subordinates. I think word would get around. And how about that officer? What balls he must have! He talks smack to Darth Vader, a 7 foot tall psychokinetic cyborg who sits at the right hand of the Emperor. You’ve got to be impressed by that. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-villains-that-go-too-far/543650/85 "2010-12-08T16:16:19Z")
On the ‘killing henchmen’ issue - what about Edward Teach (aka Blackbeard), a real villian? > [@](#): > > Captain Charles Johnson wrote that Hands was shot in the knee by Edward Teach after Teach fired at another of his crew, missing him but striking Hands. Hands supposedly inquired of Teach his meaning in this act, whereupon Teach remarked “that if he did not now and then kill one of them, they would forget who he was.” 😉 > **[Israel Hands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Hands)** > > Israel Hands, also known as Basilica Hands, was an 18th-century pirate best known for being second in command to Edward Teach (c. 1680 – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard. His name serves as the basis for the name of the villainous sidekick in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island. > Hands' first historical mention was in 1718, when Blackbeard gave him command of David Herriot's ship Adventure after Herriot was captured by Teach in March 1718. During the winter of 1717–17... (Yes, could be apocriphal. But still, the quote is a perfect “villian quote”). ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-villains-that-go-too-far/543650/86 "2010-12-08T20:10:16Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > That just doesn’t make any sense. They’d be so hung up on making it out of the heist alive that they couldn’t do their jobs properly. Probably they’d all murder each other in the warehouse (or wherever they met up) before they left to do the job. And the Joker would run into the same problem Al Qaeda’s run into: If all your competent henchmen are killed in the first big job, you’ve got no one but mentally ill incompetents for the next jobs. > > If you’ve ever dealt with very mentally ill people, it’s a chore to get them to do the simplest tasks, let alone carry out a complex plan involving 18-wheelers, automatic weapons, and precisely timed double crosses. > > I realize The Dark Knight is a comic book movie and that endless streams of disposable henchmen are a comic book trope–Brilliantly parodied on the Venture Brothers–and I’m probably taking it too seriously. But it still bugged me. I’m with you Larry. The Joker’s plans were incredibly complex. They required precision timing, coordination, and people with specialized skills. Another thing that bugged me, there’s no FBI or state police or ATF in the world of Batman? The Joker was a legit terrorist, it’s not like he had political connections to protect him like some ultra-powerful crime boss might. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-villains-that-go-too-far/543650.md?page=4)