The Antagonist's minions

It's definitely no secret that several villains in the history of fiction have had followers who execute their every command, sometimes they even do so without question. The concepts are usually different, of course; sometimes, the minions would form a massive army, complete uniforms and an insignia. Other times, it's basically just a gang of lowlife thugs that the main antagonist just happens to be the leader of. In the case of the villain I have in mind for my fanfiction, however, I've decided to go with the private army concept. The problem that i'm currently having with that is; how can i make the existence of my villain's army make sense.

My fan-made antagonist is the founder, owner and CEO of a multinational company, which means he would likely have human workers to make sure his company looks legit. But there are only so many people in this world, especially in the U.S., so it's a bit farfetched for his entire private army to be human and still be large. Logically, it would have to be relatively small. Also, i was hoping for every member of his army to basically be undeniably loyal to him and basically sing his praise (addressing him as sire, master, my lord etc, etc), but with the kind of options i have for an all human, modern day, private army (e.g. hired mercenaries), that doesn't seem likely.

Due to his wealth and resources, this fan-made antagonist would have access to robot technology as well, so i thought: "hey, his army could be all robots, he could make as many as he wants". But then there's the fact that in the first "chapter" of my story, i've already written that three squadrons of his army are human. I haven't published it in any way, but i still don't think i can go back and change it.

I considered this character's army being a mixture of both humans and robots, but in addition to issues with a human army i just mentioned, it could also lead to some confusion in battle. If both the human and robot soldiers wore the same type of uniform/armor, then what if the following happened: the heroes are fighting the army and take out a robot. Thinking that the entire army is robotic, the heroes stop holding back and take them all out, not realizing that some are human until they've actually slaughtered one.

What can be done here? This villain needs an army for my ideas to work

From what you've explained so far, it's somewhat difficult to give specific advice as it's all somewhat vague. For starters, it would help if you mentioned what universe your fanfic is set in. As such, only general advice, that may or may not apply to you, can be given.

Regarding why there isn't an all-robot army, there could be cost limitations with people being cheaper, or maybe more reliable.

As for the query on what if a protagonist accidentally kills a mook, you could explore that very situation. But if that's not a direction you want to go, you can simply make sure that situation never arises, as you're the god of your own fiction.

Why would you assume that the robots look exactly like humans? Is there a plot-related reason for that? Is this the Battlestar Galactica universe?

What i meant was that what if the human troops and the robotic ones wore the same armor, how could you tell if they were robots or not without having to hurt them badly?

The fanfic is set in a world that's basically the same as ours, with the only difference being that there is a hidden magical world in the background.

What I mean is which universe/franchise exactly. I ask this because it matters. the rules and logic in Harry Potter is quite different from Supernatural for instance.

However, I'm getting the impression that this is for an original work. To which case, you should be able to give some sort of limitation to the robot army; hence explaining the need for more than just one type of mook. Likewise, you should be able to have free reign to have your heroes differentiate robots from humans; assuming they even resemble one another.

edited 29th Nov '14 10:10:50 PM by peasant

American Dragon: Jake Long

Whether or not you know about that show will determine what i say next

Never heard of it. Why would robots have to wear armor?

I've already settled on the fact that the main villain will have two lieutenants at his side (one male, one female), but when it comes to his private army, I'm not sure how to do that and still make what i want to do possible and plausible. The main villain, you see, is the founder and CEO of a major international company that has multiple purposes. That in mind, one would think that it would be easy for him to have a private army of armed commandos, he could easily afford it. But the thing of it is, i don't want the antagonist to have goons for hire, i want him to have soldiers who would stand by him no matter what. The kind of henchmen that a villain like Ra's Al Ghul would have. I considered other ways of remedying this issue, but every one of them just didn't fit right:

1. I considered having the antagonist's private army be made up of robots, but that still begs the question, how did he eventually come to robots? This is a character who started out with very little and was left with nothing when his parents finally drove him away. He did everything he could to pull himself out of the gutter and eventually built his company from the ground up. But to do that, he'd need actual people to help him, and that would include with his more devious activities. So why would he decide to exchange them with robots?

2. I considered having his army consist of humans he constructed out of clay and brought to life via magic. But with so many people in this world, it might not be a good idea to have so many more in the mix, that just screams overpopulation.

3. I considered having the villain's army be made up of homeless people who he offered a better life to, in exchange for their loyalty. In addition to the "this has already been done before" issue (I once saw this very premise in a comic book once), I'm also left with the problem of; how would homeless people make for good scientists, front industry employees and foot soldiers? I don't think people with those kinds of skills would be living on the streets (not to say that people on the streets don't have skills and talent mind you, i just think that the kind of people my antagonist would have in his legion wouldn't be someone you would just stumble upon living in the gutter).

Anyone have a solution?