Markup View

Author: Theriocephalus

Feb 17th 2018 at 10:11:45 AM

^ As a whole, and also including the BanditMook, HelpfulMook, etc., I would classify as "harmless" enemies who cannot deal direct damage -- that is, those enemies who cannot directly remove health points or lives from the player character or kill the outright. This category would include enemies who steal things, enemies who create obstacles or sabotage you (for example, the Female Sheargrubs in ''ViedoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' are largely limited to destroying bridges you build), enemies who debuff the player character (as in by lowering their speed, hampering their ability to attack, etc.), "enemies" who exist to be killed for points, perhaps also enemies who screw with your controls or specialize in causing {{Interface Screw}}s, depending on how they do this (for instance, again from ''Pikmin'' because I'm familiar with that series, Mitites have no way of directly interacting with Pikmin at all, let alone attack, but being near them causes non-Purple Pikmin to start running around in panic and be impossible to control until the Mitites are dead). I would exclude enemies who summon other harmful enemies, like Mario's Lakitus, because they technically do harm the player on their own power, if not in the most immediate way.

My instinct would be to use this in the way that FantasticFlora is -- as a supertrope to a number of more specialized tropes (BanditMook, PushyMook, HelpfulMook, and whichever other ones), which also serves as a place to list examples that for whichever reason don't fit in the specialized pages. I would also argue that an enemy can be, for instance, a BanditMook without needing to be a Harmless Enemy. For instance, the Like-Likes in the Zelda games are always {{Bandit Mook}}s -- the specialize in swallowing Link, stealing his shield and sometimes other equipment and spitting him out -- but in some games they will actively deal damage while swishing Link around their mouths, and in others they can't do anything beyond filching his stuff. Likewise, while most {{Bandit Mook}}s just steal things but don't use them, some types will also turn the things they steal against you to damage the player.