I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."

Better yet, "just snuff the SOB." As an Englishman said in the 17th century, when politics was still a very risky business, "stone dead hath no equal."

You also left out:

13) All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.

36) I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cell block, let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing out copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.

Here's a new rule for Voldemort: If I have a mind-control spell and a torture spell available to me, and I'm questioning someone with important information, I should use the mind-control spell, even though torture is more fun.

4. Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

6. I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

11. will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.

78. I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."

The enemies of Austin Powers, Batman, Superman, and many other fictional heroes would do well to heed the same advice.

That would seem to arguably fall within the scope of No. 5 on the list:

"The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness."

To be fair, one of them was kept in a safe-deposit box...

The taken alive order was actually quite reasonable. There was something strange in Voldemort's interaction with Harry, and he wanted to understand it. That, and somebody else succeeding where Voldemort failed would be a threat to his power.

Note that he did achieve power through beuracratic manuevers. When did he gain power through direct confrontation?

Note that the hiding places of every Horocrux other than Nagini was in an out-of-the way place, not the Mountain of Doom. Nobody should have known about the lake. Hogwarts is a secure place, and it was an innocous item in a pile of junk in a place almost nobody knew of. The diary with the Malfoys was the least well guarded inanimate object, and a random item with your loyal followersfollows rule 5.

Voldemort does shoot his enemies. He doesn't shoot them again, but does have a trusted follower verify that they are truly dead. And when does he intentionally leave weaker enemies alive to gloat? Note that he doesn't want to kill wizards, especially purebloods (e.g. Neville). He sees them as valuable followers. What is more, by not killing them, he hopes to help other wizards reconcile themselves to his rule. A smart move. Finally, note that at the climax, his spells were strangely ineffectual, and he hadn't noticed this.

Torture vs. mind control is a good point, though. How much time could he have saved if he had controlled the wand-makers instead of torturing them? Then again, would this have changed the time-line at the end?

This is part of the genius of Joss Whedon: He's geek enough to recognize these tired old tropes and avoid them, often pointing out when he does so. C.f. in _Serenity_, when the Operative says "I am unarmed," Mal just shoots him. Priceless.

-=sch=-

To be fair Voldemort was never in Gringotts, and probably didn't know they had a dragon guarding it.

You evidently missed the theft attempt in the first book, which was mentioned at least once in DH as well.

I'm surprised the list leaves out one of the most important rules - Ignore all prophecies that predict your doom. Your efforts to outsmart the prophecy have already been factored in. You will only hasten your downfall by reacting. Just ask Oedipus's father.

Spoiler for book 7:

You forgot #42: When I capture the hero, I will make sure I also get his dog, monkey, ferret, or whatever sickeningly cute little animal capable of untying ropes and filching keys happens to follow him around.

34. I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.

That was me! That was my personal contribution to the Evil Overlord's List. My proudest achievement. Sad to say.

Note that most of the breaches of the Rules for Evil Overlords in re holding prisoners happen at the hands of the minions, who, while loyal, aren't exactly swift on their feet. And they get punished for it, too.

Also, it seems that Imperius may be a great way to get people to do things, it's not such a great way to gather information from them, and it does seem to require a rather lot of forethought on the controller's part.

I just think of the scene in the pilot when the secret policeman is holding River hostage. Mal et al walk in, the policement starts making demands, but before he can finish, Mal shoots him and they throw the body out the front.

Or how about the scene in "Train Job" at the end when Mal makes a long speech to the badguy about how they're returning the money for the job they didn't do, they're square, everything's hunky-dory now. Badguy immediately retorts with another speech about how he can run, but they'll never stop chasing them, this isn't over!! Mal replies "darn". . . and kicks him into the ship's engine, then gives the speech to Badguy2, who wisely agrees.

That was the moment that had me falling in love with Firefly.