Herkabe is a great character. We love to hate him and his cold-hearted manipulation of Malcolm on many occasions is of course the source of a lot of comedy.
Inside he is deeply insecure. I would go as far as to suggest that the front he puts on as teacher wouldn't extend into his life outside the school -- that he would become quite withdrawn and lonely outside that role and his behaviour would be unrecognisable as the Lionel we know and... erm, hate.
I think there are moments when Malcolm and Herkabe recognise themselves in each other, though. Behind the outward appearance of mutual disdain, they have a sort of begrudging respect for each other. A big part of Lionel's role is perhaps to show Malcolm that he too has the potential to become that unpleasant and pompous, and to consolidate Malcolm's determination not to become like him.
Lionel isn't a 'bad person', though, he just makes selfish choices, trying to distract from his own weaknesses by highlighting those of others and creating this persona as the unassailable force of discipline. (
"The best you could hope for is uncomprehending fear!" -- 3x09, Reese's Job, around 19 minutes)
Should anyone who he is in care of be in immediate danger, he'd react right away and do whatever necessary to save them. He might be manipulative and unpleasant, and while I've already called him 'cold-hearted', he's certainly not devoid of humanity!
Leaving that aside, though, the other issue here is that he invests a lot of his own self-esteem in the students and their academic performance. He wouldn't want anything to happen to them, because what happens to them reflects on him. His feeling of success or failure is too tied to the success or failures of others to be able to be completely emotionally detached and neglect those in immediate danger.
He certainly is devious and egocentric, but he is also human, and vulnerable. He plays strong because he knows he is weak. I think really he feels sorry for people who he identifies with, but he feels the only way that he can get by is to play this deeply unpleasant person.
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Welcome to the forums, by the way, midnightstarfire. I know that tjpeople, the admin here, is tied up with some other things right now, so apologies if activity is a little slow at the moment here!
