My Beloved Minions

Gru kissing his minions goodnight.

"I think I've had just about enough of you, guy! You made my minion cry! NOBODY makes my minions cry except ME!"

— Giovanni, Epithet Erased

This trope is when a villain shows compassion for their minions. Maybe they show it subtly, through giving medical care when one of them gets hurt or discreet birthday presents left on a minion's bed. Or perhaps they show their love with more ham, showering their minions with hugs and bedtime stories like a doting parent. Either way, the villain is shown protecting their minions to show to the audience that they care for them.

This trope is often used as Foreshadowing that the villain isn't as bad as their earlier appearances tell us and that they might be headed for a Heel–Face Turn. Maybe their minions are the reason for Love Redeems, or perhaps their lackeys help the villain realize that Good Feels Good. It is for this reason that this trope can be played for either drama or comedy, as the conflict between doing evil and caring for people is inherently full of drama and the juxtaposition of a bad guy and them doing very kind things is quite humorous. It is common for users of this trope to imply that the villain and their minions are like a family, with the villain being the parent and the minions their children. Because this trope is about caring for others which is innately wholesome, this trope is sometimes used to justify Draco in Leather Pants in fanfiction. If the villain is shown caring for those beneath him, he can't possibly be that bad of a guy, can't he?

A villain of this type will never kill or maim a minion for a single error, to make a point, or because they are no longer useful. This might be because they are genuinely Affably Evil, or they might just be a Pragmatic Villain who believes that people who feel appreciated and respected will work harder and be more trustworthy than terrorised slaves. On the other hand, if a minion actively betrays them, or shows truly shocking negligence or incompetence, they might suffer an extremely nasty fate.

A Sub-Trope to Pet the Dog, Benevolent Boss, Even Evil Has Standards, and Evil Is One Big, Happy Family. Related to Villainous Virtues, and Villainous Friendship. Sometimes related to Anti-Villain, Affably Evil, or Villainous Parental Instinct and Found Family, if the villain and their minions are particularly close. A Sister Trope to Even Evil Has Loved Ones, and the Evil Counterpart to A Father to His Men. Contrast Bad Boss, who treats their minions like crap.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS: Jail Scaglietti is a Mad Scientist extraordinaire with a knack for world domination, but his one redeeming trait is the genuine care he shows towards the Numbers — a squad of hitwomen he had genetically engineered to act as his field agents. Side stories featuring them show that he treats all of them as daughters, even the ones whose genome contains none of his own DNA, although this takes a darker twist in the finale when it is revealed that he had each Number implanted with an embryonic clone of himself, so he could cheat death as long as at least one Number escaped capture and gave birth to his clone (who'd then inherit his memories).
• Moriarty the Patriot: William is very attached to all of his underlings, from his brothers to Moran to even the newest member in Bond and the ones seen on screen least often like Moneypenny and Patterson. He refers to them as his trusted companions and even goes shopping to buy them matching gifts and one point, and he's extremely protective of each and every one of them.

Fan Works

• The titular character from The Rise of Darth Vulcan bills himself as a textbook Evil Overlord, which makes confusing to his enemies the way he so effortlessly unites creatures of all species and backgrounds under his rule. His kindness is his main selling point; He first developed his army by killing their old Bad Boss and setting up a system in which all of them would remain fed and cared for, and began specifically targeting individuals with abilities useful to him to offer care and a purpose for their allegiance. Because of this, his armies are fiercely loyal to him and willing to repay his generosity tenfold.
  Darth Vulcan: Hear my words and heed them. Artful Dodger is my minion. His voice is MY voice. His power is MY power. When he speaks, you shall obey him regardless. I ALONE shall decide when and if he has overstepped his bounds. If you assail him, I will know. If you refuse to heed him, I will know.

Film — Animation

• Despicable Me: Gru not only remembers each and every minion's name out of the hundreds he has, he also makes sure his minions have a good place to sleep and gives them all a goodnight kiss on the forehead, much like a parent.
• The Little Mermaid (1989): Ursula's main redeeming quality is that she genuinely cares for her underlings, Flotsam and Jetsam. They are playfully seen swirling around her as she pets them back, and when Ursula is singing "Poor, Unfortunate Souls", there is one moment where she playfully whispers to them. When Flotsam and Jetsam are accidentally killed, their deaths are what actually trigger Ursula's Rage Breaking Point, as she ultimately seeks to avenge them until she meets her end as well.
• Megamind treats his minion...Minion, more like a friend than a servant. They are essentially Heterosexual Life-Partners, have a very close bond, and will do just about anything for each other's sake.

Film — Live-Action

• Inglourious Basterds: Hans Landa has a curious affection for his SS adjudant, specifically including him in his agreement to defect to the Allies. When Aldo Raine shoots his second, Landa is very upset and furious, warning Aldo that he will be executed for his insubordination. Aldo disagrees, saying that his superiors only care about Landa.

Live-Action TV

• The Book of Boba Fett: Boba Fett's entire story arc is about ending the rule of idiot crime bosses who casually get their minions killed through stupidity. When one of his guards is injured protecting him, Boba lets him use his bacta tank to heal.
• Farscape: One of Scorpius's redeeming features is that he's a genuinely concerned for the people under him. In one episode, he was outraged to discover that one of his junior officers was forcing pilots to test an experimental spaceship despite the fact that every single flight caused the pilot to die horribly, and ordered the man to perform the next test personally.
• Super Sentai:
  • Black Cross Führer from Himitsu Sentai Gorenger never punishes his minions for failure and in one episode actually shows up to personally prevent one of his generals from committing suicide.
  • Queen Hedrian from Denshi Sentai Denziman despite being a genocidal egomaniac, is shown to genuinely love her minions and actually mourns the deaths of the Vader monsters whenever the Denzimen kill them.

Video Games

• A Hat in Time: The Snatcher, the soul-eating contract-making ghost, gives stolen mail to his minions so that it's "almost like someone cares for them." in fact, he's the one who gave their souls bodies in the first place, as Queen Vanessa killed them all during her icy rampage.
• Dave.EXE: Should Sylvester hear one of his Snitches screaming, he'll drop anything but chasing the player to run over to them. They also refer to him as their dad despite him being unrelated to them.
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity: When Astor starts collecting Yiga Clan members' souls and turns the Malice warriors on Sooga and Master Kohga, Sooga tells Kohga to run away to save himself. Kohga, however, can't bring himself to leave his top henchman behind and instead fights alongside him. He may be a coward at other times, but he cares deeply for his followers. And the feeling is mutual; Sooga will give his life to protect Master Kohga.
  Sooga: Master Kohga! Quickly, make your escape!
  (Kohga is about to make his escape, but then...)
  Kohga: I can't split - you're my best lackey! (Gets into his fighting pose.)
  Sooga: In that case... I will protect you, even if it costs me my life.
  • When Kohga reappears later in the story, he's alone. Without saying a word, he kneels in front of Zelda and Impa, bowing so low his forehead brushes the ground. The narration afterwards confirms the Yiga clan joined forces with Hyrule. Kohga set aside his pride to save his clan.
• Kirby: Although he is ambiguously antagonistic, King Dedede is shown to care for his "minions," the Waddle Dees.
• Genshin Impact: Arlecchino may be a Fatui Harbinger, but she definitely cares about those in her orphanage that she trains to later be operatives for Snezneya. She absolutely refused to let Lyney have a Delusion, as they can eventually cause the death of the user.
• Ib: Mary the living painting has a good relationship with her artwork minions. She politely asks an artwork to move over in one of the endings, and it complies. She also likes to play around with the other artworks, and if Ib tries to break some mannequin heads, she will express concern for them.
• Pokémon: While it's subtle, Giovanni is implied to hold respect for his minions, to the point of stepping down and disbanding Team Rocket upon being defeated a third time. The remakes of Red and Blue and Gold and Silver explore this further, with Giovanni specifically saying that he betrayed their trust upon stepping down and his speech to his son revealing that he believes that he didn't make the most of his minions' potential. When his subordinates call out to him via the Radio Tower, he feels emboldened to rejoin them... only for a young trainer to beat him once more, making him realize that all of that solo training was pointless.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Bowser, the King of the Koopas, treats his subordinates with respect and admiration. In Super Mario RPG, he doesn't even mind that some of the members of his army have left him, he just wants them to have good lives now. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story examines this further, with Bowser's equivalent of Mario & Luigi's bro attacks being attacks done with his minion squads, while the remake's side-story, Bowser Jr.'s Journey makes this a key plot point in that Bowser Jr.'s initial lack of respect towards the minions causes issues.
  • Super Paper Mario: Count Bleck treats his minions rather kindly despite his plan to destroy all worlds, his punishments not being harmful whatsoever when his minions are out of line or screw up, such as writing a 1,000-page report. This is reciprocated, which proves pivotal in restoring the Pure Hearts and destroying Super Dimentio.

Web Animation

• Epithet Erased: Giovanni constantly talks about how his minions are important, even to higher-ranked Banzai Blaster authorities who think otherwise. Giovanni gives them emotional support and teaches them life lessons, and he's always got their backs. For example, when he learns how badly his new minion Molly has been treated by her family, he encourages her to stand up for herself and helps her work on her confidence.

Webcomics

• Addictive Science: Dr. Schmitt in some ways treats his genetically engineered monster/minion Eegor more like his child. For instance, wallpapering his room of the castle with happy flower designs because he wants his minions to grow up in a warm home full of love (so they'll be fully focused on battle and not their personal issues.)
• Cucumber Quest: The Knightmare Knight does evil things solely to keep his minions alive, as he is powered through fear and doing evil deeds makes people fear him. His minions are kept alive by said power, so if his power diminishes, so will his minions.
• In NIMONA, Ballister shows a great deal of concern for Nimona, even when part of her is destroying the city as a dragon-like monster. It's also implied he was this way to mercenaries he hired as minions in the past (until they were paid off to betray him), arranging board game nights. This leads to the sweet part of a Bittersweet Ending, when he angrily tells a doctor not to call her a monster, and realises she was Nimona in disguise (paying one last visit to let him know she survived, before disappearing for good).
• The Order of the Stick: Tsukiko the Necromancer calls her wights her "babies" and treats them like small children, even deploying them using the buddy system and reminding them to use their safety whistles. They reciprocate, right up until her control over them is broken.
  Tsukiko: Hello, little one. I'm your Mommy.
  Wight: I crave mortal flesh!
  Tsukiko: Awww, Baby wants his num-num, doesn't he?

Web Original

• Though it varies from video to video, Hitler Rants features Dolfy often expressing rather genuine fondness and respect for his minions whenever they offer to help him or when he finds their services useful in whatever ridiculous plan he tries to implement.

Western Animation

• In Hazbin Hotel, Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Sir Pentious has this relationship with his Adorable Evil Minions the Egg Boiz. Despite angrily bossing them around, he cries when Vaggie tries to make him get rid of them and allows them to sleep in his bed like pets.
• PAW Patrol: Sid Swashbuckle the pirate commits thievery with his dog sidekick Arrby, but he treats Arrby with nothing but respect. Sometimes Sid even steals to provide for Arrby, and when Sid's annoyed that he lost his treasure to the PAW Patrol, Arrby cheers him up by saying they've still got each other.
• Hank Scorpio of The Simpsons is a supervillain who casually threatens the UN and puts a Bond parody in a deathtrap yet also happens to be an excellent employer who treats Homer with far more respect than Mr. Burns ever did, going out of his way to build up a genuinely friendly rapport with him.

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