Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24894881-20140503034318/@comment-24674051-20140825165544

I don't know about it being all show. He did plunge his hook into Cora expecting to rip her heart out. (It's not his fault that she keeps her heart elsewhere). He did plunge his hook, covered in Poison, into Rumple while they were in New York, and it took nothing short of a miracle to save him. And he did shoot Belle, causing her to fall across the line, and probably the only thing that saved Belle was Rumple magically healing her.

He also did take aurora's heart (though he also ended up giving it back eventually), and he double-crossed Regina. And he chose the Jolly Roger over saving Eric, killing Blackbeard in the process.

So, to say that it's all show short changes him. I think it's more of a case of he was never meant to be truly cutthroat, as that would be bad form, and the universe just sorta conspired to keep Killian from having the higher body count. (And let's face it, even Lt. Killian Jones would not have thought twice about dealing justice to Blackbeard, though the chosen method of justice would have probably been different.)