Bodyguard Babes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Among the perks of having been a rather peculiar dictator: bringing tropes to life.

Sometimes, the Big Bad of a story will have their most elite defenders be composed of exclusively female warriors.

Occasionally, however, it would be the hero (or a supporting character on the good side) who has Bodyguard Babes, at which point it's almost mandatory that Hilarity Ensues via an Unwanted Harem situation.

Unsurprisingly this is most common when the one being defended by the Bodyguard Babes is male.

In short, Praetorian Guard recruited from an Amazon Brigade. See also the Paid Harem. Ninja Maid is more specialized subtrope.

Examples of Bodyguard Babes include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • The Joker has had himself quite a few:
  • Black Panther has a highly trained group of female bodyguards called the Dora Milaje, who are technically speaking wives-in-waiting - but since he never ever sleeps with any of them, you can't really call them a harem. They call him 'husband', however. They're almost certainly inspired by the "Dahomey Amazons" - see the Real Life section below.
  • In the Superman comics, Lex Luthor has a pair of female bodyguards named Mercy (a Canon Immigrant from Superman: The Animated Series) and Hope. It has been hinted that they might be a pair of renegade Amazons.
  • Transmetropolitan has Spider Jerusalem's "filthy assistants".
  • Darkseid has the Female Furies, though they are only rarely used as bodyguards per se.
  • In Strangers in Paradise, Darcy Parker has the bleached-blonde amazonian twins Tambi and Bambi as her bodyguards and main thugs. They are eventually revealed as heroine Katchoo's half-sisters.
  • Wonder Woman's mother, Queen Hippolyta, named Alkyone, Myrto, Charis, and Philomela as her personal guards. While they were indeed fanatically devoted to their queen, it... didn't work out that well, particularly since they didn't transfer that loyalty to the queen's daughter.
  • Batman: The Riddler had Echo and Query towards the end of his criminal career. They have yet to reappear since he became a reformed detective.
  • Miho often acts as a bodyguard to Dwight in Sin City.
  • Nains got Kardum of the Talion served by half-elves Scili and Layss. They may dress like harlots, but when some of the guests act up, they quickly demonstrate that neither them nor their swords are decorative. He found them waiting to be sacrificed by the orcs who caught them after losing an absurd number of warriors to "those two harpies", ransomed for absurd money, and then got that Orc clan exterminated by the others' hands, just so that these two didn't have an "unfinished business" behind.
  • Overlapping with Bodyguarding a Badass, there's Darkseid's Female Furies, a squad of Dark Action Girls trained from birth by Granny Goodness to be remorseless killing machines.

Film

Literature

  • Molly, a "razorgirl", in the short story Johnny Mnemonic. (In the film, she was replaced with the Captain Ersatz Jane because the rights to the character of Molly were tied up with the Neuromancer film which was never produced.)
  • The Fish Speakers, God-Emperor Leto II's galactic occupation army, whose elite members make up his personal guard unit. Entirely female as part of his master plan for humanity's destiny and to prevent things like his soldiers raping civilians or otherwise abusing their monopoly on violence (like every male army in history).
  • Quiller's Run by Adam Hall. Shoda, female Thai Arms Dealer and Big Bad, uses women as bodyguards and assassins.
  • In Barry Hughart's The Story of the Stone, the barbarian king who is holding Moon Boy (sort of) captive has a regiment of all-female bodyguards.
  • In the Sword of Truth series, the D'Haran Emperor's Combat Sadomasochist elite bodyguard cadre, the Mord-Sith, who all wear skintight red leather, and wield what is essentially a magical riding crop.
  • Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in a Strange Land has surrounded himself with beautiful personal assistants, among whose multiple talents and skills include his personal security. Although they flirt, he's too much of a Chivalrous Pervert (and perhaps too old) to regard them as a harem.
  • The Hapan Royal Guard in the Star Wars Expanded universe.
  • Giantia and Titania, John Sunlight's Amazonian bodyguards, in the Doc Savage novel Fortress of Solitude.
  • In the Sten Series, the eponymous protagonist acquires a Bhor bodyguard. The Bhor are enormous aliens who look rather like large blue-furred wookies and act like vikings, but the captain of the guard is Cind, human sniper-hottie who also harbors a major Bodyguard Crush.
  • When Elayne reorganizes the Queen's Guard in The Wheel of Time, per personal bodyguard becomes this.
    • Also, the Maidens of the Spear become this to Rand, much to his chagrin.
  • An equal opportunity example shows up in the Merry Gentry series. The royals of the faerie court are guarded by a cadre of the opposite sex, who double as a harem until the royal person is married.
    • While a single- (and opposite-) sex guard, and the harem emphasis, are recent phenomena of Unseelie-specific history, membership in any court's Royal Guard was always one way to become a lover and potential consort, so this was pandemic to the setting to a limited extent.
  • In the Haven series by Simon R. Green the biggest crime boss in Haven (St Christophe) has a bodyguard of twelve female bodyguards, each a deadly warrior and completely naked bar their swordbelts as a very effective distraction technique.

Live-Action TV

Professional Wrestling

  • Chyna was Triple H's body guard back when he was still a mid-carder in the WWE.

Tabletop Games

  • One of the villains in Dark Champions has twin female bodyguards Starrlight and Starrbright.
  • In the backstory of Warhammer 40,000, corrupt Master of the Administratum and dictator of the Imperium Goge Vandire had an all-female bodyguard known as the Brides Of The Emperor, who were conditioned to believe everything he said unquestioningly and practically worship him. In the end though they turned on him and beheaded him after their leaders had an audience with their god, the Emperor. They are now known as the Sisters Of Battle.
  • The exceedingly combat-capable Felicia series bioroids in Transhuman Space were created for an eccentric sultan to be both this and living ornaments for his throne room. They proved their worth when his sister tried to hurry the succession along, and became very popular.

Video Games

  • Oni has the Fury class of Striker troops. The manual states that the red-ranked Furies are Muro's personal bodyguard.
  • Shows up in Return To Castle Wolfenstein.
    • The Elite Guard are the personal bodyguard/elite troops for Colonel Helga von Bulow of the SS Paranormal Division.
  • In Evil Genius, your mastermind starts accumulating Stripperiffic bodyguards once your Notoriety is high enough.
  • Devil May Cry 2 features a boss fight in which Arius leaves the fight to have his Artificial Human female guards attack Dante. Supposedly these are stronger than Lucia, as she's a defect. She manages to defeat Arius herself at the end of the game.
  • In the third Time Splitters game, Future Perfect, the 1960's levels have you and Harry Tipper battle a James Bond villain whose elite guard are made up entirely of women, bluntly titled "The Booty Guard".
  • Final Fantasy IX had Queen Brahne's main army troops be all female (and dressed in somewhat impractical armour and uniforms that flatter their figure); the men were in the Knights of Pluto, and had much less respect. The backstory indicates the country of Alexandria has been a matriarchy (both politically and militarily) for centuries if not longer.
  • In Mass Effect, mini-boss Matriarch Benezia has a personal squad of tightly-clad asari commandos at her service. Of course, since all asari are female, this trope would be the general rule, unless an asari VIP was to hire alien bodyguards.
  • The FROG unit and the Beauty and the Beast Corps in Metal Gear Solid 4 are both exclusively female, and the most Elite of mooks in the game.
  • The entire Bison Elite Guard (a.k.a. the Dolls) from Street Fighter Alpha 3 may qualify, but only Juni and Juli serve this function in-game during the arcade mode as the last two opponents prior to the final match with M. Bison for most of the characters.
  • The Feng twins from Indiana Jones and The Emperor's Tomb.
  • The female Prometheus soldiers in Soldier of Fortune II, although they're less skilled than their male counterparts.
  • Cassandra's bodyguards in Perfect Dark, much stronger than the Mooks you had been fighting for the first two levels of the game.
  • Zhang Li's last line of defense in Perfect Dark Zero is a group of about 20 elite female guards armed with cloaking devices and plasma rifles.
  • Come on, who HASN'T done this in at least one Disgaea game!?
  • According to the Diablo II manual, the succubi enemies in Lord of Destruction are Baal's personal harem. Given that you'll fight a few hundred over the course of Act V, Baal is clearly a pimp.
  • Lunar: Silver Star Story: The Magic Emperor's three main henchmen are sexy-evil Xenobia, Phacia and Royce. To add insult to injury, he later recruits Luna, the protagonist's girlfriend.
  • Gauche and Droite are Yeager's twin loli bodyguards in Tales of Vesperia.
  • Celia and Lettie to Marquis Elmdor in Final Fantasy Tactics, though slightly subverted in that they're actually non-gendered demons.
  • Al-Cid in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 fights your clan with his gang of Viera bodyguards. The law (or rule) for that fight forbids you to lay harm on the Veria units at all, making them dangerous if you plan to abide by the law.
  • Umineko no Naku Koro ni brings not only Beatrice's sisters-in-furniture, The Seven Stakes of Purgatory, there's also the bunny-girl quartet of MARIA's The Siesta Corps.
  • After his Face Heel Turn and taking over the Mishima Zaibatsu, Jin Kazama hires Nina Williams to be his personal bodyguard in Tekken 6.
  • In World of Warcraft, all of the guards for Darnassus, the night elf capital city, are women, including Tyrande Whisperwind's Honor Guard.
  • In the original No One Lives Forever, a group of three brightly-patterned Spy Catsuit-wearing, Charlie's Angels-like women serve as this for H.A.R.M. They even have sixties-style promotional posters in their room touting them as the Elite Guard. They often complain that they have nothing to do.
  • I-Ninja's Big Bad, The Evil Overlord O-Dor was protected by his Elite all female body guards, the Stenchu.
  • Lord Tokimune uses Kunoichi golems as his personal bodyguards.
  • The Bratgirls from Crash Of The Titans are Nina's personal bodyguards. Not so much in Mind Over Mutant, though.
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you get several of these, as almost all the housecarls you get when named Thane of a hold are nubile females with reasonably good battle skills.
  • In Batman: Arkham City, Talia al Ghul possesses an elite squad of Kunoichi bodyguards.
  • In Super Robot Wars Original Generation, Maier Branstein's personal guard are the Troye/Treue Unit, comprised entirely of female pilots. Considering that his niece was among them, we can only hope he didn't create the unit for the obvious reasons.

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

Real Life

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