Villains and their henchmen

[heavens-champion 1,893]

Have you ever wondered why villains abuse their henchmen? You know, beat them up, insult them, incinerate them whenever they screw up? What's up with that?

[Venomous 18,813]

From what i’ve noticed, henchmen are usually used a source of comedy and their abuse is supposed to be seen as funny.

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

Villains as a rule are not the wisest of beings. Hence they try to prop themselves up by dragging someone else down to their level. Henchmen, who are dumb enough to take it, are the perfect easy targets for these baddies.

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

Wwwhhhaaattt'sssss the deal with villains being villainous? 

Villain cliches such as this have always been parodied, but there is some realism to it as well. Evil dictators are known to not be too kind to those under them, and if the villains, characters who essentially require at least one distinct unlikable quality, were generally shown to be more often kind rather than cruel to their followers, the tone that had set them to be evil would be heavily downplayed. 

[heavens-champion 1,893]

6 hours ago, CloudMistDragon said:

Wwwhhhaaattt'sssss the deal with villains being villainous? 

So it's just villains being villains.

[Jedishy 3,542]

It's honestly a simple way of showing they are evil or foolish. If they really wanted a scary villain they would show someone that knew how to manipulate each of their followers at a personal level or had just the right blackmail to keep them in line. 

[Lucky Bolt 34,914]

It's just always been something that's been around for comedy, I guess.