Night of the Living Mooks: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'' "The undead require very little maintenance and rarely demand a salary or benefits. What they lack in speed and agility they more than make up for in persistence and can-do attitude. You won't hear any sass or whining from the undead! Since the victims themselves are transformed into walking undead, these henchmen are a smart investment that will grow your organization even when you are busy with other tasks." ''|'''How to Be a Villain''', Neil Zawacki}}
[[The Undead|Undead]] mooks are a staple of video games, [[Tabletop Games]] and live-action alike, and the entire point of the [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. May be [[Zombie Apocalypse|zombies]], [[Dem Bones|skeletons]], or even [[Mummy|mummies]]. An extreme form of [[Faceless Goons]], in that while it's pretty hard to identify with someone with no face, it's basically impossible to sympathize with a corpse.
May be spawned from [[Clown Car Grave
If you really want to find these guys, look in the designated [[Big Boo's Haunt]]. [[Raising the Steaks]] can be considered a [[Sub-Trope]] of this.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[
* The standard mooks in ''[[Hellsing]]''. If a vampire sucks the blood of a virgin, they become another vampire; if they suck the blood of a non-virgin, they become a mindless ghoul who serves their creator.
** More than that, anyone bitten by a ghoul invariably becomes a ghoul him/herself. Though the Millennium vampires' bite create ghouls whether the victim was or not a virgin. It's implied that this is because the process that makes them undead isn't as good as the proper way.
*** Likely intentional. They did make the ghouls able to function after the "parent" vampire's death. Accidentally creating a vampire that could act against them would not be very practical either.
* The revived dolls in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', fueled by Philosopher stones. Though when they activated, [[It Got Worse|they didn't behave]] [[I'm a Humanitarian|like they expected....]]
** The corrupt military didn't know. Father, on the other hand, [[Batman Gambit|probably knew]] and let the [[
* The "cultivated humans" used by early villain Suzaku against Yusuke and his friends in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' are basically this. They groan, stumble, and don't ask questions about their motivation with the best of them.
* The Shikabane (or Corpses) of ''[[Shikabane Hime]]''.
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== Comic Books ==
* Turning characters who are dead ([[Death Is Cheap|at the time anyway]]) into undead minions is an old comic book cliche, most recently seen in ''[[Blackest Night]]''. Often leads to (at least some of) them being brought back to life fully.
** The [[Death Is Cheap]] issue is actually addressed in ''[[Blackest Night]]'' when [[Green Lantern/Characters/Black and White Corps|Nekron]] is eventually able to add those who were resurrected to his army.
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* On the Plains of Death in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', stepping on a certain part of the Plains (and triggered by an angry Jeft) causes endless ranks of skeletons, zombies, ghouls, and ghasts to rise up from the ground and attack. Oh, and don't forget the wraiths. Paul won't.
* ''[[Inner Demons]]'': [[Necromancer|Necromancy]] is one of the new skills Twilight Sparkle picks up after her [[Face Heel Turn]], and she quickly puts it to use, creating an army of zombie pony warriors to serve her.
** Interestingly, these zombies have sentience and some degree of free
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** It turns out Harry ''really'' doesn't like people who use zombies, first because he considers it [[Complete Monster|beyond the pale]], and second because he doesn't really have a fall-back defensive ability when fighting them. For example, the defensive wards on his apartment will kill anyone that attempts to enter without fail. However, he did not anticipate a lot of people willing to sacrifice themselves to gain entry, or rather, someone controlling a lot of undead people that he was willing to sacrifice to breach the wards.
* Chloe from ''[[Darkest Powers]]'' has the ability to create an army of the dead almost effortlessly, but since the process involves ''taking the spirits of people and shoving them back in their rotting corpses,'' she understandably tries to avoid summoning zombies as much as possible.
* In the [[The Laundry Series|Laundryverse]], zombies are more like low-class [[Eldritch Abomination
* ''[[The Zombie Survival Guide]]'' recounts several experiments by the Imperial Japanese, Russians and Chinese to try and train zombies to create their own undead army. {{spoiler|They did not end well. AT ALL.}}
* Towards the end of the novel ''[[The Keep]]'', {{spoiler|a nasty [[Eldritch Abomination]] who pretends to merely be a vampire uses a group of German soldiers that it has killed to wipe out the rest of the German outpost}}.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'s Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts are entire armies of these.
* Similarly, the Necrons of ''[[Warhammer
** And then there's [[Zombie Apocalypse|what happens if you make Nurgle angry...]]
*** Oh, no. Grandfather Nurgle [[Body Horror|smiles on his children]], [[Blessed with Suck|bestowing his many gifts with beneficence]] [[Lovecraftian Superpower|and joy]].
* The undead often show up in games built on the [[Dungeons
** 4th edition removes all of these restrictions. Undead now simply have resistance to one specific type of damage. Sneak attacks work just fine on them, and there's no longer any such thing as "mind-affecting spells", "death magic", or "piercing damage".
** On the other hand, the two "holy" classes (Clerics and Paladins) can mow through them with ease - both get spells and abilities whose sole purpose is to kick undead hiney.
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** The Undead are immune to normal mind-control, but there is a Necromancy spell called "Control Undead". However, since it only works on the Undead few Wizards/Sorcerers bother to take it unless they know ahead of time that they will be encountering a lot of Undead. Same goes for the spell "Undeath to Death", which is the only way to bypass their immunity to Death magic.
*** Untrue! All the good undead creation spells are high-level/create standard zombies/skeletons. If necromancers want decent undead horrors at their beck and call, they have to go out and "catch" them. Being a necromancer is a lot like being a Pokemon trainer...
** Subverted by ''Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead'', a [[Ravenloft]] supplement which helps [[Game Master
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081002201649/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=129529 Drudge Skeletons] and [
** Then there's [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=229968 Army of the Damned], which creates its own mook army of 13 zombie
* Given the prevalence of Deathlords, the Abyssals, and shadowlands, zombies are common in ''[[Exalted]]''. To aid matters, the Midnight Caste of the Abyssals have the ability to raise a corpse as a zombie with a touch, and there are several necromancy spells that pretty much raise anything dead as a zombie.
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** There are also two enemy factions in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' - the Vazhilok and the Banished Pantheon - that are almost entirely made up of undead mooks.
*** And come Halloween, [[Holiday Mode]] ensures the city is overrun with zombies, ghosts, witches and werewolves...
* The Hell chapters of ''[[The Darkness (video game)|The Darkness]]'' are filled with zombified souls of soldiers consumed by the titular quasi-demonic entity during [[World War
** The German zombie soldiers are the mooks, obviously.
* Every so often, ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' will send a massive horde of zombies at you. Unfortunately, the timing and the location of the [[Mook Maker]] are more-or-less ''randomized'', so one never knows precisely when a pack of them will come running around the corner.
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* ''[[Overlord (series)|Overlord]]'' features an area infested with zombies, as a mysterious and agonizing plague turns its victims into the living dead. {{spoiler|In a twist keeping with its tone and sense of humor, it's caused by the proximity of a slutty, disease-ridden [[Horny Devils|Succubus Queen]]; apparently, what's a harmless STD to a demoness is a virulent [[Zombie Apocalypse]]-inducing epidemic for humans.}}
** In the sequel, people "infected" by magic are exiled to the Wastelands, an area devastated by a [[Apocalypse How|Class 0 magical detonation]] following the protagonist's disappearance in the first game. The exiles are transformed into mutated zombies by their close proximity to the overwhelming amounts of concentrated magic.
* The normal enemies in the ''Siren'' series are all Undead Mooks called Shibito (literally "dead person" or "corpse"). They get more monstrous as time passes from their conversion... and simply can't be
* Inverted in ''[[Stubbs the Zombie]],'' where the infected are instead a [[Redshirt Army]].
* ''[[Wolfenstein 3D|Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'' had a whole set of missions pitting you against the undead, and quite a few could be found in the last couple of levels as well.
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* In the fifth stage of the ''[[Touhou]]'' game ''Subterranean Animism'', the player is introduced to Orin's army of zombie ''[[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|fairies.]]'' Shooting them down will only result in them coming back to life and then trailing after you, spewing bullets in their wake. It's one of the many reasons why that stage [[Scrappy Level|isn't very liked.]]
* Whenever [[Our Vampires Are Different|Neclord]] appears in a ''[[Suikoden]]'' game, expect these to appear.
* In ''[[Command
* Every ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' game features an undead faction.
* In ''[[Plants vs. Zombies]]'', your army of plants fight nothing but an army of zombies. [[Our Zombies Are Different|Zombies that do pole vaulting, play football, ride dolphins, go bobsledding, and bungee jump amongst other things.]] Even the final boss is a zombie in a huge ''[[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|zombie]]'' ''[[Humongous Mecha|robot.]]'' {{spoiler|The only exception here is the Zomboni, which is actually a space ogre mistaken for a zombie in a Zamboni.}}
* ''[[
** ''[[Mother 3]]'' has zombies in the early part of Chapter 2, too.
* ''[[MadWorld]]'' had an entire zombie stage. The zombies were basically your everyday Mooks, but out of ALL the ways you could kill them, giving them horizontal cuts kept them alive.
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* Shade Man's level in ''[[Mega Man 7]]'' likewise features undead robots.
* ''[[Metroid]]'' sports a few undead. The first undead appear in ''Super Metroid'''s sunken ship area: the boss, Phantoon, is apparently a ghost, and spectral clumps of skulls fade in throughout the level. ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' features Chozo Ghosts. And ''Metroid Fusion'' and ''[[Metroid Prime]] 2'' contain human corpses reanimated by the X and the Ing, respectively.
* Undead, and zombies in particular, are the weakest Mooks in ''[[Hellgate
* ''[[Dragon Age]]'', with all the gorramed corpses you have to fight in Redcliffe. Note that undeath, in this setting, is usually reserved for spiritual manifestations (ghosts), not zombies. The Zombies in Redcliffe are corpses that have had demons implanted into them, making each type a slightly different fight.
* ''[[Borderlands]]'' has the ''Zombie Island of Dr. Ned'', which is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. Its got everything from regular zombies to midget zombies to giant lightning-throwing Frankenstein-esque zombies. For even more old-horror feeling, its got [[Our Werewolves Are Different|Wereskags!]]
* ''[[Serious Sam]]'': The various beheaded units, including the iconic [[Action Bomb|Kamikazes,]] are all slain Sirian soldiers raised with an LCU (Life-Control Unit) and given either piss weak pistols with infinite ammo, a chainsaw, or grenades. As is appropriate for a fragile zombie with no armor, they are extremely weak. There's also the kleer skeletons, magically resurrected skeletons of some [https://web.archive.org/web/20120502142100/http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111129084960/serious/images/6/6c/Kleer_3.png weird race] that look like a combination of horses and humans, with horns on their heads and scythes for hands. They are some of the most common enemies ''ever''.
** ''Serious Sam 2'' also has the flying kleers (which are [[Captain Obvious|flying kleer skeletons]] armed with [[Fireball]] launchers), and the zombie stockbrokers and zombie soldiers, which are more or less equal to human soldiers, and armed with shotguns and machine guns respectively. [[Demonic Spiders|Their high damage hitscan weapons, decent health, and good accuracy make them quite frustrating in large numbers.]]
* In ''[[Soulcaster]]'' and ''Soulcaster II'', zombies make up the bulk of the waves of enemies that attack you.
* In addition to occasional dungeons with undead, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' uses every type of undead in the ''[[Dungeons
* ''[[Red Faction]] II'''s second act features "Processed" zombies, and one mission has you fight through a [[Clown Car Grave
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[[Category:Mooks]]
[[Category:Villains]]
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