It's just strange. If these people are part of a secret society and they're fully trained for battles and missions, why was it so effortless for Olaf to kill them...?
Your questions make it sound like I'm talking to myself younger. This is very interesting. I asked myself the same questions, and found the answers.
And the answer is very important to understand the whole universe of VFD.
It all starts at the Great Schism.
Olaf explained in the Book 13 (The End):
"No,” Count Olaf said, with a frown. “If you were to wash the clay of Ishmael’s feet, you’d see he has the same tattoo as I do. ”
“Eyeliner?” Guessed Madame Nordoff. “No,” Count Olaf said sharply. “The difference is that Ishmael is unarmed. He abandoned his weapons long ago, during the V.F.D. schism, refusing to use violence of any sort.”
The Cause of the Great Schism was an ideological question. Prior to the Great Schism, VFD members understood that violence was sometimes necessary to bring peace.
However, the Great Schism divided people into two strands. The incendiary aspect believes that violence is the solution to all problems, after all fire is fought with fire.
On the other hand, the pacifist side has completely ended the violence. Because after all, the world is quiet here.
From the standpoint of those who faithfully support the ideology of the fire-extinguishing side, it is wrong to resort to violence of any kind, even for self-defense or to defend the innocent.
And if you read ATWQ Book 4, you know that Lemony disagrees on both sides. Lemony does not believe that violence is the only way to combat evil, on the other hand, Lemony does not believe that violence should be avoided at all costs. Lemony believes that criminals should be punished, not pastry-fed.
(find a similar phrase to this on Lemony Snicket's official website).
So we see in ATWQ Lemony's experimental formation of a VFD to his molds. In fact, Lemony wants to create a VFD that has the same ideological principles as before the Great Schism. A VFD where volunteers are really volunteers, and make a conscious and proper choice to support a secret organization. A VFD that assumes that sometimes it is necessary to do the dirty work of harshly punishing some people when these people prove to be too dangerous for others and beyond recovery.
We realize how the pacifist attitude of the fire-extinguishing side leads to some situations where they find themselves dead end. For example, three adult VFD librarians were surrendered by a single child with a club. Dashiwell Qwert was not helping to prevent Hangfire from advancing despite his being a member of VFD.
On the other hand, Lemony killed Hangfire after claiming that sometimes to deal with cruelty one has to be cruel.
Now let us turn our attention to the time of the main events of ASOUE. When Olaf began to act against VFD at the time Lemony was getting married, VFD members evidently realized that the only option was to run away and hide, as they would never fight Olaf.
But it is not quite true that Olaf was acting without restriction. Lemony didn't accept Olaf's cruelty so easily. Lemony fought those who caught the salmon that Captain Widershins had trained. Lemony stole the sugar bowl along with Beatrice. And Lemony and J.S apparently participated actively in a plan that involved luring their enemies into Hotel D, and using the sugar bowl in some way to neutralize their enemies all at once.
If you stop to think, there is no record of Olaf acting so cruelly since the birth of the Baudelaire siblings. Only the presumed death of the Baudelaire parents brought Olaf back to work. Because? I believe that Olaf has been in a "mutually assured destruction" situation since the time Esme lost the sugar bowl and / or the Medusaide Micelium she or Olaf owned. That was why the sugar bowl was so important. It served as a type of weapon that kept VFD's enemies quiet. (Something like logic involving nuclear weapons.)
So, this attitude of Lemony makes me believe that Lemony created (or became part of) a secret organization within VFD. An organization that understood that sometimes it is necessary to use violence and cheating to end the evil.
