Does anyone else really want Tarquin to get absolutely bashed in?

[TheSummoner]

I don't think he was ever planning to be killed by some random do-gooder like he claimed.

Of course that wasn't his plan. A villian would have to be pretty incompetent to plan to fail.

What Tarquin is doing is accepting the possibility. Rigging things so even if he loses and is killed, he has a consolation prize that he can live with accept. As Tarquin sees it, there are two things that can happen.

1) Tarquin rules for the rest of his natural life and enjoys all of the luxury that comes with it. After he dies, he goes down in history as the man who ruled the Western Continent with an iron fist.

2) Tarquin rules until some adventurer is finally able to best him and enjoys all of the luxury that comes with it. After he is killed, he goes down in history as the man who ruled the Western Continent with an iron fist.

Both are wins in his eye. Sure, the first one is better since he gets to live longer, but he knows he isn't going to live forever. He isn't about to lich-ify himself like Xykon or find some other method to live forever (and if he intended to, I'd say it's well within his power to have already have done so).

By the rules Tarquin has chosen to play by, he has already won. The only way Tarquin loses is if he dies and is forgotten (which would be... difficult to say the least). And even then, he arguably still wins because he's already ruled with an iron fist and enjoyed all the luxury that comes with it for quite some time.

This doesn't mean that he can't be beaten... It doesn't mean the order can't defeat him and move on... It just means that they have to play by their own rules to do so. (For example: Dethrone him, prevent him from coming back and who cares whether he is remembered or not?)