Mooks: Difference between revisions

Despite all this [[Tropes Are Tools|Mooks play an important role]], as without someone to fight, your action movie/show/or game would have a lot less action. And if every bad guy your hero runs into is a badass, then [[The Dragon]] or the [[Big Bad]] would just feel like same old same old. Mooks help provide that in-between by keeping things lively, without diluting [[The Climax]] or the big showdown with the Dragon just before the climax. In [[Video Games]], they may also double as a ready source of [[Experience Points]], [[Money Spider|gold]], and recovery items for the player.

 

 

Not to be mistaken with a certain racial slur, or the tentacled aliens from the ''[[MOTHER]]'' series (although they themselves qualify).

This trope is the [[Evil Counterpart]] of the [[Redshirt Army]], which are Mooks on the good side. Similar to but not to be confused with their non-combat brother [[Evil Minions]] (likewise the [[Redshirt Army]] with the [[Red Shirt]]). Occasionally, it turns out they were [[Good All Along]].

 

 

In Video Games, mooks tend to be slightly more powerful, and able to at least hurt the hero, if not kill him a few times. However, 9 times out of 10, the hero has a [[Healing Factor]] (more often objects used to heal than spontaneous healing) while the mooks stay hurt forever. Also, while the hero can restart if he/she dies, the mooks (usually) only die once per level, and when the level is restarted, they usually do the exact same thing they did before.

'''Ma Kensei:''' I once slipped through 1000 soldiers and only took out the commander.

'''[[Adult Child|Apachai]]:''' I once completely annihilated [[Completely Missing the Point|all my enemies and allies]]. }}

** Balalaika's ''Vysotniki'' are [[Elite Mooks]]. Most of them are nameless. They have no faces and personalities to remember, and have no storyline role apart from "Balalaika's muscle." Nonetheless, most of the above-mentioned badasses in the show recognize attacking them as nothing short of suicide, not the very least because Balalaika herself has a policy of coming down like the Wrath of God upon those who dare to hurt or kill them.

* ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' has mooks by the truckload. [[Your Head Asplode|Most of them meet a very messy end.]]

* Vs. System has army characters that are generally mooks given they can get killed off quickly and lack uniqueness because you can only have 1 copy of non-Army characters like Spider-Man on the field; army characters are replaceable. Some examples are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Doom Bots, and Sentinels. Also, army characters do not have any restriction whatsoever in deck construction whereas any other card besides anything that may be restricted is set to 4 copies.

* [[Magic: The Gathering]] has creature tokens, which are creatures who aren't even worth having their own card. By default, creature tokens' names are also their creature type, and if they leave play they simply cease to exist. They rarely have abilities, and those they do have are typically keyword abilities ("Flying," versus, "Any creature able to block this creature must do so."). They are also typically created in large numbers, either via a one shot deal creating two or more, or by a repeatable effect squeezing out one each turn. Creature tokens didn't have any sort of official representation until Magic Online needed some standardized way to represent them, and then they weren't printed in paper for years afterward.

 

 

* In pretty much all incarnations of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]],'' the Shredder has an endless supply of completely masked ninjas for our heroes to kick the crap out of. When the shows wanted to have things busted up, they used [[Mecha-Mooks]]. The comics weren't so choosy about showing the actual death of living Mooks.

* Subverted with the [[X-Men]] character Strong Guy. Guido started out as just an anonymous mook working for some bad guys... but then he reformed and joined the good guys. At the time, he joked that he was just doing it for the paycheck, but he has proven to be a worthy hero.

** And AIM, The Hand and HAMMER.

*** Don't forget Flag-Smasher's ULTIMATUM.

** The password for a computer program made by [[Power Rangers Zeo]] Blue Ranger Rocky was "mook." This password would be visibly typed in by a Machine Empire [[Mecha Mook]] called a Cog in order to steal the software and create the [[Monster of the Week|monster]] Silo.

* [[Kamen Rider]] has them less often, but a handful of KR series do. They'll often have design homages to the first batch, the Shocker Soldiers in the original series.

** In the [[Milestone Celebration|999th and 1000th]] episodes of the Kamen Rider franchise, we get Mookdom taken to its logical conclusion: In ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]],'' the main villains create the [[Monster of the Week]] from people's desires. {{spoiler|This one's created from the ''rage'' of a former Shocker Soldier, who is pissed at the years and years and years of Mooks having their butts handed to them by Kamen Riders. He goes on to spawn a small army of footsoldiers from across franchise history... or rather, Yummies (''OOO's'' monsters) in the form of them.}} Apparently, foot soldier job satisfaction is about as low as you'd expect... but they take pride in it.

** In ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]],'' we get a similar situation (though in a brief sequence), during ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger the Movie: The Flying Ghost Ship|Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger the Movie The Flying Ghost Ship]]''. The Gokaigers face a multi-seasonal army of grunts who have Mook Pride. When looked down upon as cannon fodder, they insisted that they weren't just goons, they were ''valiant warriors of evil!'' They're told that they ''are'' just cannon fodder, and go on to experience typical results when the Gokaigers lay into them. {{spoiler|At least, until they form a massive Mook conglomerate creature.}}

* The sheriff's men from ''[[Robin of Sherwood]]''. The Merry Men killed ten or so per episode. It really got to the point where you had to wonder what kind of recruitment package was being offered.

* Most of the villains in ''[[Firefly]]'' have gangs of hired goons, mercenaries, or thugs to back them up. In particular, Rance Burgess and Adelei Niska seem to have their own personal armies.

* Subverted by ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', volume 4: when a Mook is sacrificed by Danko to keep his plans moving, Nathan tells him about the Mook's wife and children.

*** In 'Once More With Feeling,' they were also trained dancers.

*** Buffy calls the mercenary demon from the episode "Flooded" a mook when he breaks her designer lamp.

* ''[[Seventh Sea|7th Sea]]'' divides antagonists into three categories: Villains, Henchmen, and Brutes. Brutes are transparently Mooks: their purposes are to buff a villain or henchman, and to provide the heroes with easy victories (players are encouraged to come up with creative ways to knock down two or more brutes at a time). It should be noted that since in ''Seventh Sea'', it is assumed that no character is killed unless someone ''specifically states'' that they're doing so, [[Moral Dissonance]] is sidestepped.

* In ''[[Savage Worlds]]'' (somewhat similar to other examples) any character with some degree of plot importance (even if it's just as a [[Boss Battle]] or similar) is a Wild Card: they get Wound points, their own bennies (used to re-roll dice and soak damage), and generally better gear and Edges (feats). While all player characters are Wild Cards by default, enemy characters generally aren't.

* Anyone of Minor importance in ''[[Hong Kong Action Theatre]]'' is a mook. They can mow down characters of no importance, and even manage to take down a Moderate importance character, but against Major and Extreme importance characters, they tend to die in droves, particularly since explosions, which do not affect Major and Extreme importance characters, can affect them.

 

** Until the mid game, these mooks pose a serious threat as individuals, and more than three at a time is reason enough to look for a maintenance tunnel or sniper's nest.

** The mook status is lampshaded in one mission where a mother begs you not to shoot at her son, who is one of the mooks outside. Her description is composed of elements hidden by the uniform, and chances are good you had to take him out just to get in and talk to the woman.

*** Except that they ''are'' trained soldiers and police with, for the most part, orders to kill you on sight.

**** Except that apart from MJ12 goons they were misinformed that you are a terrorist.

* The Replicas and ATC Security guards in ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon]]'' are actually surprisingly competent and ''very'' dangerous if underestimated.

** And then you go into bullet time and devastate them with the repeating cannon or whatever ungodly powerful weapon you happen to be carrying. Mooks, mooks, mooks.

 

== Web Original ==

** Clearly the writer had just played ''[[Doom]] 3''.

** Leading to one of the funnier [[Nightmare Fuel]] sequences. Phase is worried about getting zombie gunk over her/him, and is informed s/he's probably okay. Just..."make sure to get cremated when you die."

[[Category:Cast Filler Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]

[[Category:Mooks]]