Quirky Miniboss Squad

Tremble before our well-rehearsed, synchronized might!

Kevin: We've confirmed three key captains in Desperado. Their codenames are all wind-themed. ... Collectively they're referred to as the "Winds of Destruction."
Raiden: The... what? They all have action figures, too?

— Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

An ensemble of Elite Mooks more developed than faceless mooks. Occasionally The Dragon or other major villain is part of The Team, and will be the official or unofficial leader. The competency of this group varies wildly.

This group is typified by an overarching design theme, but also an individual quirky personality to each which may seem oddly familiar. They might act funnier than The Dragon. They mainly provide a distraction to the heroes until the real plot kicks in. The Big Bad has little qualms with killing them off if they fail consistently, possibly because their jobs often entail a bare minimum of intelligence needed. Some groups are filled with backbiting and betrayal, with the occasional Minionshipping. Occasionally, one or two of the bunch will have a change of heart, and do a Heel–Face Turn. That person is almost always a loner to the rest of the group anyway, especially if they become the Sixth Ranger.

If the heroes defeat their Dragon and their Big Bad, some or all of them may survive. They usually don't stick around in-show after that, but if they do, they may become the Terrible Trio or a bunch of Sixth Rangers. Assuming none have undergone the process beforehand, this is also a common point for the group to have a collective Face–Heel Turn, setting the stage for future days in the limelight.

Sometimes overlaps with Psycho Rangers, if the squad members are also each the Evil Counterpart of the main characters. See also Terrible Trio (incompetent Quirky Miniboss Squad, although they may be made a threat with Team Rocket Wins), Elite Four (generally more competent squad commonly seen in Japanese media), Goldfish Poop Gang (a sillier recurring enemy that doesn't pose much of a threat), Carnival of Killers, Standard Evil Organization Squad (a larger and more serious version) and Praetorian Guard (if the Big Bad happens to be some form of royalty or official authority and they're explicitly bodyguards, albeit quirky). Contrast Co-Dragons for a situation where multiple characters split the Dragon role, but don't necessarily work together the way a Quirky Miniboss Squad would and are usually treated more seriously.

Contrast The Family for the Whole Family.

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Example subpages

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Webcomics
• Western Animation

Other examples:

Asian Animation

• Tobot Galaxy Detectives: Team Mayhem are a trio of goofy-but-villainous criminals who all wear yellow clothes and drive around piloting a giant robotic lizard. They usually introduce themselves in a rather flashy manner, announcing their names as they do.

Fan Works

• Rupert and Earl's crew in The Calvinverse serve as this. They're very, very incompetent, and the heroes generally don't pay them any mind.
• Child of the Storm has Surtur's Great Captains in the sequel - while all of them get their powers from the same source (Surtur, the original Dark Phoenix), they manifest it in very different ways. Jormungand, for instance, is an absolutely colossal dragon (indeed, he is the 'Father of Dragons', with one of his children being the size of a mountain), at a direct contrast to the Black Captain, who's more or less human sized and shaped. While none have apparently appeared yet, they are described as having distinctive powers, personalities, and strategies - according to Word of God, the Black Captain is The Strategist and the brains of the operation.
• In Civilization V Peace Walker, the MSF Stealth Operative team sent to infiltrate France returns with a story about an elite French unit called the Supreme Senses, religious-themed soldiers with names like God's Vision and Fiend's Hunger, and superpowers to match. In other words, they'd fit right in a Metal Gear game.
  Snake: Yeah, that's about what I expected.
• In Comes the Sunset Sunset Shimmer has a Quirky Miniboss Army, the most notable being Virtuous Fury (a knight from another dimension), Emerald Ray (an evil Crystal Pony), and Shrike (the former second in command to Nightmare Moon).
• Distortions (Symphogear): The White Noise Squad, the Four Horsemen's anti-Symphogear fighting force. Each of them have their own eccentricities and thier own personal reasons to fight against the Adaptors.
• Show up so often in Dragon Ball Z Abridged that they're automatically classified into the pretty one, the strong stupid one, and one with freaky powers.
  • The Ginyu Force get even quirkier in this parody series. They pick opponents with a 'Wheel of Death', Recoome has the mannerisms of a professional wrestler (while Burter and Jeice do commentary), Jeice is Space Australian, Burter is obsessed with being the fastest in the universe (because it's the only thing he has that makes him stand out), Guldo is a Memetic Loser, and while Ginyu is Wicked Cultured and dances after every successful mission (he's contractually obligated by King Cold to do the Dance of Joy, and by Cooler to do the Daddy's Little Princess Dance. He also has the Dance of Cheering You Up when Freeza gets upset, and the Dance of Solitude when he's alone).
    • "And they're all INCREDIBLY FLAMBOYANT!"
  • Lampshaded and parodied in the Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug Abridged movie; when Piccolo comes face-to-face with Slug's three top henchmen, he casually asks them what their gimmick is, noting that the last bunch he fought (in Christmas Tree of Might) were all misfit minions. His bored reaction as they list their gimmicks (the pretty one, the tough and stupid one, and the one with weird powers), makes it plain he's seen it all before. Then he comes across the aforementioned trio in Cooler Abridged, though the mooks didn't seem to get which one was which.
    Piccolo: Okay, I take it back. You're all stupid.
• Fairy May Cry: There seems to be one for every arc thus far.
  • In the Vergil arc, wherein the titular character summons bosses from the first game. These include Griffon, Phantom and Nightmare to deal with the Fairy Tail rescue team.
  • For the Edolas arc, the Edolas Magic Force captains such as Erza Knightwalker, Hughes, Sugarboy, Byro and Panther-Lily. Nelo Angelo is also present as a Sixth Ranger Traitor.
  • The Devil Hand arc has the Seven Deadly Sins, the elite members of the titular dark guild, each with powers and personalities corresponding to the sin they represent. These include Iblis for Pride, Mammon for Greed, Asmodeua for Lust, Satan for Wrath, Leviatha for Envy, Belphegor for Sloth, and Beelzebub for Gluttony. This is significant as people representing each sin was needed to raise Temen-ni-gru, in addition to Vergil and Arkham needing minions to keep Fairy Tail busy.
  • The Tenrou Island arc has the Eight Kin of Purgatory, the elite members of Grimoire Heart who each wield a lost magic. Aside from their leader Ultear, there is also Azuma, Kain Hikaru, Rustyrose, Merudy, Zancrow, Caprico and Job.
  • The knights from the Order of the Sword form this for the first half of the Order of the Sword arc. They consist of Nero, Credo, Coco, Mary Hughes, Sugarboy, and Dan Straight.
  • From the rest of the arc, the Neo Oracion Seis fit the role, acting as the biggest physical threats for most of the arc. While Midnight/Brain II makes part of the Big Bad Duumvirate with Sanctus, the other members fit the bill quite well. These include Cobra, Racer, Erigor, Gilver and Gloria. And then there's Imitatia, aka, Michelle Lobster, who acted as The Mole for the Big Bag Duumvirate for the entire arc!
• The Reapers and the Zodiac Family in Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons, the former being a mercenary group made up of prewar genetically-engineered half-pony hybrids and various other freaks and mutants, and the latter made up of Western Zodiac themed bounty hunters.
• Invader Zim: A Bad Thing Never Ends: Zim's minions are this. In addition to the canonical GIR and Minimoose, there's now Skoodge (a fellow Invader, but also the Token Good Teammate), Bob (an ex-service drone who was basically press-ganged), and the Announcer (a Large Ham Master of Illusion).
• Jackie Chan Adventures: Olympian Journey: After being released from her imprisonment, Eris pressgangs Vanessa Barone, Origami, and Zhixin into serving as her minions.
• Queen of All Oni has the core membership of the Shadow Hand serve as this to Queen Jade.
• Sunset of Time has the Deathwing, a group of griffon mercenaries. They're half in for the gold, half in it so they don't get killed.

Films — Animation

• The Lion King (1994): The hyenas always show up together, but they have distinct personalities: Shenzi is bossy, Banzai is grumpy and Ed is dim-witted. But of course all three are prone to laughing at everything.
• Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the psychotic trick-or-treating kids in The Nightmare Before Christmas. They get one of the coolest, most sadistic songs ever.
• The Monstars (also known as The Nerdlucks) the secondary antagonists of Space Jam.
• The Toon Patrol, the 5 weasels from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Films — Live-Action

• The Three Storms from ''Big Trouble in Little China.
• The Bloodpack in Blade II are an elite group of vampire warriors formed to hunt down Blade. Ironically, they're only introduced to team up with Blade against the Big Bad. Ultimately some of them remain villains throughout the shaky alliance.
• Top Dollar's gang from The Crow are all pretty quirky. Oddly enough, they were the ones responsible for the rape and murder or Eric's girlfriend as well as his own murder, making them his actual targets. We soon find out that Top Dollar was ultimately responsible for their actions leading to a climatic battle with the real Big Bad.
• The five traitors in Dead in Tombstone are all colorful criminals, each of whom has their own shtick.
• The US Marshals in The Fugitive until the end.
• The goblins in Legend.
• In Masters of the Universe, the mercenary team hired by Skeletor to track down He-Man on Earth.
• The five artists (Sky, Paul, Bill, Lexi, and Macon) from Murder Party.
• In Mystery Men: Casanova Frankenstein's allied gangs, each sharing their own quirky theme.
• Repo! The Genetic Opera has the Largo siblings: Luigi, Pavi, and Amber Sweet.
• Clarence Boddicker's squad of eccentric, racially diverse criminals in RoboCop (1987).
• The Stalkers in The Running Man.
• The Tremor Bros. of the Smokin' Aces series.
• The Knights of Ren from the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
• The Gang of Four in The Story Of Ricky.
• Despite not having a big bad commanding them, the gangs from The Warriors the titled gang has to go through before reaching the safe haven of their territory.

Pro Wrestling

• Some power stables become so large that they end up having other power stables inside of them.
  • The Brood for the Ministry of Darkness, until they broke off due to being mistreated.
  • New World Order had this after the infamous 1999 "Fingerpoke of Doom". The most important members switched to the Wolfpac's red and black colours, whilst the minor members stsyed in black and white and were referred to as "The B-Team". They largely went off on their own escapades when they weren't involved in NWO beatdowns, and had their own leadership struggles (won mostly by Stevie Ray).
  • Raven's brainwashed cult, the Gathering, in Sports Entertainment Xtreme
  • Team TNA and Las Gringas Locas in La Legion Extranjera, which would itself become just one of many members of AAA's La Soceidad.
  • Team Canada (which in of itself might have been the largest Team Canada ever with ten members) to Planet Jarrett (which was headed by "The Kings Of Wrestling" Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Jeff Jarrett rather than those guys from Chikara\ROH)
  • Fortune inside of Immortal, at least until they rebelled against the larger group.

Tabletop Games

• Fellowship: One of the options for the Overlord's forces is the Organization, a small but powerful group of elite villains with unique abilities and personalities, such as the Braniac, the Honor-Bound, and the Tough Guy.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Command Squads and HQ choices with retinues can come across this way — particularly for players who assign personalities to the characters.
  • Encouraged for Space Wolves players, where they not only have tons of named units, but also encourage the player to make their own characters with distinct personalities, plus the special rule that allows them to pick two HQ units for one HQ slot, meaning one can go to war with a large group of infantry choices and put two rune priests in a HQ slot and still have room for more HQ units like a wolf lord or one of the named HQ choices if you spend your points right.
  • The Grey Knights' Paladins have statistics equal to most HQ choices, having an almost identical statline as a Librarian in Terminator Armor and having just as much equipment choices. They can be taken in as few as 1 to as many as 10. Another character can allow them to be taken as Troops, effectively allowing you to field a miniboss squad as an army. To a lesser extent, Terminator armies (Deathwing, Loganwing) are also this, as Terminators are often elite unit choices.
  • With the introduction of formations that let you field only characters (Council of Da Waaagh, Librarius Conclave, Seer Council, The Eight) it is now possible to field an army consisting of only characters and nothing else. As it turns out, this isn't as impractical as it seems, as due to the way some special rules work these characters can share their skills to each other as long as they're joined up in the same unit. This type of army is nicknamed "Superfriends", taken from the MTG deck type of the same name (which is in-turn named after the show Super Friends due to the amount of heroes in it).
  • Codex: Deathwatch allows you to field a specialist team of xeno-hunters, each with his own special equipment. The formation takes this a step further; allowing you to join different units together. However, due to the rules making it so that all units have to move in coherency, this means that all units have to move at the pace of the slowest model, and as it turns out there are a lot of models that are a lot slower than "normal".

Toys

• BIONICLE: The Piraka from 2006 were the first "regular" (i.e. non-titan sets) villains to each have a distinct personality:
  • Zaktan is the cold and calculating leader who could split himself into billions of microscopic lifeforms.
  • Hakann is arrogant and duplicitous to a fault, with the ability to attack his enemies with mental blasts.
  • Vezok is a psychopathic and temperamental brute, who can mimic the abilities of others for a short period of time.
  • Thok is antisocial and paranoid with the power to the ability to bring inanimate objects to life.
  • Avak is the cowardly and sniveling Gadgeteer Genius, and can produce a prison for his opponents from his mind.
  • Reidak is outwardly stupid yet secretly clever, who can adapt to whatever it was that defeated him prior.
  • Vezon is insane and scatter-brained who came inter existence as a clone of Vezok, and betrayed the Piraka at the first opportunity.

Web Original

• Destroy the Godmodder: Piono and Binary both have one, and both of them consist of really nasty villains from other areas.
  • Piono has Sauron in his, as Tricky from Madness Combat, and had Dimentio from Super Paper Mario and Vriska from Homestuck.
  • Binary's consists of GLaDOS, bill Cipher, IKEA, king of tabletopia, Doc Scratch and Lord English.
• In the last couple episodes of France Five, Zakaral (The Dragon) leads such a group, composed of Gorlock (a Giant Mook), Succulard (a Chef of Iron), Agony (a Creepy Crossdresser) and Lady Warcry (Warduke's daughter, who wants to avenge her father's death).

Real Life

• An odd example is the Tennessee Valley Killer's posse, made up of a cow doctor who bred roosters for illegal fighting, and one guy who wanted to eat said roosters. Their case was dramatized in an episode of radio drama Gangbusters! on April 6, 1958, "Tennessee Triggermen".
• The turn-of-the-century "Molasses Gang." They got their name because one of their favorite crimes was to all go into a shop and hold out a really big hat and tell the shopkeep they had a bet as to how much molasses the hat would hold. He'd agree to fill it as full as he could, then with a quick move they'd clap it over his head, covering his eyes, and while he struggled to get it off, they'd make off with whatever they were after. Supposedly they also once got bored during a bank robbery and left without the money.
• Napoleon had his twenty-six Marshals who were the most powerful military and political figures in his empire and varied widely in competence from guys like Massena and D'avout who probably could have taken over the world themselves if they weren't sharing time with Napoleon down to borderline incompetents like Victor and Grouchy. There was also his main diplomat, Talleyrand. Subverted, though, in that the marshalate was infamous even among contemporaries for being a veritable snakepool. The primary reason Wellington was so successful in Spain, beside superior intelligence, was that the up to five French marshals Napoleon had left to lead his armies in the Peninsula hated each others' guts and refused to cooperate until 1814.

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