Of course, in both of those cases, while the threat seemed plenty good at the time, they found themselves both a bit lacking in actually backing them up.
Guerrero: Afraid we’re at an impasse.
Latino Thug: We’re at a what?
Guerrero: Impasse. It means we disagree without prospect of resolution.
Latino Thug: You know, we came here to explain it to you, but you don’t seem to be getting it. Maybe the three of us can take a little walk out back to the alley. We can explain it a little better. So there’s no… impasse.
Guerrero: I got to warn you guys, if this gets violent, I’m gonna fight back.
Latino Thug: You think you’re gonna fight back?
Guerrero: All right, maybe fight back’s a little misleading. I’ll take the beating 'cause that’s all you two amateurs are cleared to do. And then one night soon, I’m gonna break into your houses and kill each of you in your sleep. I’ll probably start with you, Alfredo. That way Steven here can have a few extra days with Marla and the girls. It’s only fair.
Latino Thug: How do you know my name?
Guerrero: Your employer keeps information on a drive he thinks is secure. It isn’t. Shall we?
Another Chronicles of Riddick.
Riddick trashes a room full of soldiers. Stepping out, he sees one last soldiers holding Keith David’s character at knifepoint. Riddick doesn’t even have to say anything, just glare, and the soldiers drops the knife and beats feet.
As pointed out, the Lord of the Nazgul didn’t manage to back up the threat. It’s better to look at more of the passage.
In this case, Eowyn was the badass, as the Lord of the Nazgul found out shortly thereafter.
And she’s not only a badass, but she’s a badass while using words like “dwimmerlaik”. Which just makes it even better.
simster, that one was pretty good. What is interesting is Guerrero is small in stature, short and skinny. The two thugs were large brutish guys. That scene plays out like the fight in the alley would be fairly one-sided.
However, later episodes have shown him to be a fairly decent fighter despite the size difference. Ergo, we’re left with a minor plot discontinuity.
One can fanwank it by saying Guerrero could have actually protected himself in the fight, but didn’t feel like taking hits when he could defuse the situation through other means.
But I still kinda liked the original implication that Guerrero was more intellect than brawn, and was demonstrating how a wicked bastard uses his own skills to level the playing field. Why fight “fair” when a fight isn’t fair to begin with? Change the terms of the game.
That’s kinda terrifying.
The one that really made my spine tingle was from Forest of the Dead:
But it really shouldn’t be surprising that the Doctor is capable of awesome threats. He is after all, as I heard someone describe him, the only thing in the universe capable of making a Dalek shit its pants.
“We deal in lead, friend.”
And another:
“I aim to misbehave.”
Blondie: You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.