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The Evil Overlord List is a popular list of planned actions for a competent Evil Overlord to avoid the common and not-so-common blunders committed by preceding Evil Overlord s in popular fictional works. The list was initially compiled in 1994 by Peter Anspach (hence it is occasionally titled "Peter's Evil Overlord List") based on informal discussions at conventions and on online bulletin boards in the early 1990s, and has subsequently become one of the best-known parodies of bad SFF writing, frequently referenced online (such as by User Friendly ). In Australia , a minor literary scandal erupted in 1997 when it emerged that award-winning author Helen Darville Plagiarised this list for her regular column in Brisbane 's Courier-Mail newspaper. EXAMPLES Examples of entries from the list include: :7: When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you Kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No." :37: If an enemy I have just killed has a younger Sibling or offspring anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately, instead of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of vengeance towards me in my old age. :56: My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Any who cannot learn to hit a man-sized target at 10 meters will be used for target practice. :75: I will instruct my Legions of Terror to attack the hero en masse, instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack one or two at a time. :89: All bumbling conjurers, clumsy squires, no-talent bards, and cowardly thieves in the land will be preemptively executed; all annoying and/or humorously clever robots and androids will be destroyed; The hero will certainly give up and abandon his quest if he has no handy source of comic relief. NOTE |
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