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Evil Minions
(aka: Evil Minion)

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A class of Stock Character that allows a Big Bad to operate on a large scale. Evil cousins to the Red Shirt and yet "Technical Pacifist" brothers to normal Mooks.

Evil Minions are the non-combat version of Mooks. They tend to the villain's science labs, clean up the corpses from the shark pools (or become shark fodder), give The Dragon stress relief via being choked or other dog kickery, and generally run around like headless chickens when the hero pushes the Big Red Button.

Usually drawn (if animated) or dressed (if live action) alike in overalls, Space Clothes, or other utilitarian "science" or "engineer" garb depending on their job. This is so the audience can easily pick them out as nameless and expendable. On the bright side they're rarely completely faceless like other Security Guard Mooks, affording them at least some protection from heroic rampages, though they're still "evil" Innocent Bystanders to the heroes' wrath. If they have lines, expect them to complain about work conditions, desperate need for better insurance, their pay and their bosses' idea of "incentives".


Types of evil minions include:

Also see:

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Books 

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Fiction 
  • Ted/Vulcan's tribe of Diamond Dogs in The Rise of Darth Vulcan, doubling as his Mooks.
  • Shadows over Meridian: Some of the Ninja Khan, instead of fighting, serve as record keepers to the Shadow Realm's ruler and are distinguished from their brethren by their red robes. The authors explain that they're basically linked to Kage more directly; they have access to her memories while she meditates and write things down for her.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Despicable Me, the minions were originally creatures created by Gru to serve as personal henchmen but were later retconned in their own spinoff film into immortal beings predating humanity who serve villainous individuals throughout history (the film justifies them not serving Hitler by them self-exiling themselves to Antarctica after getting Napoleon killed and emerging during the Nixon administration).

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Many classic James Bond villains have bunches of these guys to man the Supervillain Lair and control the orbital death rays or ICBM-hijacking equipment or what have you.
  • The bad guy scientist in Resident Evil: Extinction gleefully leaves two fawning lab assistants to be killed by his enhanced zombie when it goes on a rampage. True, one was dead meat, but the other he could have saved.
  • Star Wars: One of the more classic examples are the white helmeted technicians alongside the Imperial Stormtroopers, as well as the Trade Federation droid bridge crews from the prequel series.

    Literature 
  • Minioning is the worst job available in the world of Cannon Fodder (2014). Minions tend to get beaten or killed in droves, especially if they work for the overlord Black Jack. Alec's minions are so loyal to him because he doesn't send them off to their doom.
  • Dave Barry Slept Here has "a group of high-level Nixon administration aides, all of them named Klaus", who in their testimony before the Watergate committee "projected all the warmth and personal integrity of eels".
  • Death Star is all about the evil and not-so-evil minions on the titular space station.
  • In Spells, Swords, & Stealth, minions of all sorts have their own god in the form of Grumble, a kobold minion himself who achieved divinity and chose to watch out for his fellow minions. The protagonist Thistle the gnome is a devout follower and, later, paladin of Grumble who spent a good deal of his past as a minion or henchman to some ne'er do well or another.
  • Whateley Universe:
    • When Dr. Diabolik has his forces attack Cincinnati, his minions are operating his hidden dropship and performing 'command and control' for him. In violation of stock Evil Minion protocols, some of them make helpful suggestions, and he treats them well.
    • Subverted. At the Superhero School Whateley Academy, there is a clique of rich kids who happen to also be mutants. At one meeting, a number of them get into a discussion of the problems with hiring minions and maintaining an effective corps of dangerous minions. They all think of this as if they were hiring middle managers or highly competitive salesmen or grouchy programmers. Of course, the school handbook has an entire section on rules to follow if you hire other students as your minions...
    • The Syndicate has both hiring boards and standard employment contracts for supervillains looking to hire talent. The villains-only website Sin d'Rome Mercenarium also has job board, both for hiring minions and for finding patrons for your own villainous career (mostly Corrupt Corporate Executive and Corrupt Politician types, though really it could be anyone — possibly even a Super Team looking for a fixed fight to build their rep).
    • Part and parcel of the above is a minions' union, ATHUG (the acronym hasn't been explained yet). It has also been mentioned that there are Bad Guy Bars specifically for minions, mostly catering to Mooks looking to get drunk and rowdy.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Farscape: Gilina starts out as an Evil Minion to the Peacekeepers, serving as a technician in her debut episode "PK Tech Girl". Her romantic feelings for John get her upgraded to Mauve Shirt, and she later makes a Mook–Face Turn out of that love.
  • An episode of Inazuman features the Neo-Human Empire's science team, who resemble Phantom Soldiers but wear white helmets with blue crosses on them and lack grappling claws on their right arms. Their main role within the Phantom Army is to perform the remodeling procedure on psionic humans to convert them into Mutant Robots.
  • Kamen Rider:
  • Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan: There appears to be a class of Machinemen who serve as scientists for Black Magma, are indicated by the white labcoats they wear.
  • The white-coated silent attendants in Top Gear (UK) who deliver the gold challenge envelopes, assist with the challenges, and (ostensibly) work for the (also ostensibly) evil "producers".

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Cheerleader Melissa a.k.a. Raisha Saeed had Fatina Al' Hassam in PWR. She distracted the referee and stuff, but had no wrestling ability to speak of.
  • Randy Hales was a wrestler, but when he joined The Nation of Domination in USWA as "Randy X", he did no in ring work for the group, serving strictly as a manager.
  • The Boys who serve Dalton Castle technically became this in Ring of Honor when "The Last Real Man" Silas Young "won" their services from Castle and had them follow around The Beer City Bruiser. Young wanted The Boys to aid him and Bruiser in matches, but they proved too physically frail for wrestling matches. Dalton Castle himself ironically whipped The Boys into wrestling shape himself when he successfully won the right to their service back from Young.
  • Traci Brooks usually is a wrestler and had in fact wrestled in TNA, but when TNA brought her back for a role in its by then famous knockout division, it was simply to serve as non wrestling minion to Gail Kim and Madison Rayne. Karen Jarrett already was technically serving as that, but on paper she was their boss rather than the other way around.
  • The Undertaker employs dozens of druids whose job is to do whatever he wants in the most ominous manner possible, but that thing never happens to be "wrestle". To a lesser extent, Paul Bearer was a wrestler once, but his ability to be one had long passed by the time he began managing the Undertaker.

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Staff merit in Vampire: The Requiem allows your character to have certain kinds of employees, such as gardeners, lawyers, chauffeurs and et cetera.

    Video Games 
  • The Imps in Dungeon Keeper, who excavate and expand your dungeons, as well as the Trolls, who are your mechanics who build traps and such.
  • Evil Genius (2004) has an entire tree of combat Mooks and non-combat Evil Minions, all descended from the basic Worker. They're distinct from "Henchmen" who are more powerful, named, controllable by the player and have to be hired. The game is interesting in that it gives each Minion a name and mini biography, has loyalty traits, and can be killed on a whim by the evil genius to inspire fear and loyalty in nearby minions. While the low ranking ones are eminently expendable, ones higher up on the job tree can get to be as or more valuable than Henchmen if a raid reduces their numbers.
  • The Minions in Overlord are a literal example of this, though they're all your combat Mooks save for the NPC ones like Gnarl or Quaver. Giblet, the Forgemaster, or the women you kidnap from Spree may be be examples.
  • TimeShift has various Krone engineers that you come across, working on computers or fixing things. When they see you, they immediately reach for the nearest weapon.

    Web Animation 
  • ATP Engineers in Madness Combat are genetically-modified A.A.H.W. agents who handle management and technical matters for the organization. They technically do fight, but aren't shown to be any more strong than your typical Agent.
  • Overly Sarcastic Productions: One episode of Trope Talk talks about this exact trope, right down to even being titled "Evil Minions".

    Webcomics 
  • Henchman for Hire seems to play this in a comedic way in addition to playing various other super villain and minion tropes.
  • Sluggy Freelance:
    • When Aylee (actually her clone) starts her own web design business in league with Hereti Corp, there are a number of regular web designers working there. These minions serve a twofold purpose: 1) keep the legitimate stream of revenue flowing, and 2) be a handy source of human snacks for Aylee.
    • Later on, Hereti Corp blurs the line between Mook and Minion when they open their own chain of pizza places, but still staff the restaurants with their black ops mercenaries (or at least give the staff the same all-black uniforms).
  • Vampire Girl: Saul and Paul are these to the Vampiress, and she even makes the comparison that if vampirekind were like a bee colony, and she the queen, they would be her most loyal soldiers.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command has the Grubs, who serve as technicians and mechanics for the Zurg Empire and are the Evil Counterparts to the Little Green Men of Star Command.
  • Danger Mouse: Stiletto Mafioso is this to Baron Silas Greenback, and to an extent Grovel the robot to the alien Quark.
  • DC Animated Universe: The villains in Batman's and Superman's animated series are constantly hiring minions, usually ones who reflect that villain's particular motif. It becomes something of a plot point that the Joker has trouble finding minions both because Batman keeps kicking his ass, and also because he's a Bad Boss. Also turns up in the comics, and sometimes gets parodied/lampshaded with the mooks talking about times they were working for other villains.
  • George of the Jungle: Clutcher, the minion to Baron Otto Matic in Tom Slick, is more of a Butt-Monkey than being evil. Not the sharpest wrench in the tool box, and he's also a suck-up to the "almighty Baron".
  • Jonny Quest: As a Diabolical Mastermind, Dr. Zin has many of these useful tools. In "The Fraudulent Volcano", some of them run his Elaborate Underground Base inside a volcano.
  • Wacky Races: Muttley is this to Dick Dastardly. Klunk and Zilly would be added to the minion list a year later.
  • Parodied in WordGirl. Doctor Two-Brains (who has the brain of a super-intelligent lab rat stuck on his head) has two (dumb as dirt) minions. (They normally start out conversations with saying "Hey, Boss?" and Two-Brains responding "Yes, minions?") They normally wear jump-suits with a rat logo on them, but in one episode when they complained about their outfits, Two-Brains decided to put them in mascot outfits made to look like mice. One of them, the taller of the two, never speaks, the other speaks, and wears a hat (forgot it's name) Under that had is a ridiculous, '70s-ish-style haircut he is proud of. Dr. Twobrains turned it into cream cheese, just to show them how his raygun works.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Evil Minion

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Minions on PX-41

As a result of being injected with the PX-41 serum, the minions become way less adorable and a lot more psycho....and hungry!

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