Reforged Into a Minion: Difference between revisions

See that guy, [[Only Mostly Dead]] after a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]? He will do. A quick brainwashing, a new name and clothes and while you are putting his damaged body back together you can always make some improvements. If no half-dead hero is available, you can always use the remains of the previous season [[Big Bad]], or even some of your past victims. What is important is that they are not just [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] . The new minion must be customized for your needs. So turning dead heroes undead does not count by itself, but creating a death knight will.

 

 

As mentioned, this trope requires the victim to be custom-modified. Also it must be someone either important (a powerful wizard, a king) or plot -relevant (the hero's childhood friend) prior to the transformation and important for the villain's plans after.

 

== [[Anime]] ==

* The Four Generals in the ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' manga were [[The Wise Prince|Endymion]]'s Generals before everyone was sent into the future to be reborn and fight [[Big Bad|Queen Beryl]] in the future. Present day however, they've been brainwashed and now serve her as the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]].

* Happened in ''[[Slayers]]: NEXT'', though this was reversed.

* Psylocke was long thought to be this after she returned from Japan transformed into a psychic ninja assassin. The truth turned out to be a bit more complicated.

* All of the heralds of Galactus are this.

* This is the M.O. of supervillain Deathmonger in ''[[Empowered (Comic Book)|Empowered]]''.

 

== [[Fanfic]] ==

 

== [[Film]] ==

 

== [[Literature]] ==

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Death knights in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' are a borderline example - they are [[Elite Mooks]] but the people to be transformed are hand-picked to ensure quality.

* Sarah Kerrigan is corrupted to serve the Zerg Overmind in the original ''[[Starcraft]]'' (and that she [[Dragon Ascendant|eventually emerges on top]]).

* ''[[Seiken Densetsu 3]]'' eventually reveals that this happened in the [[Black Knight|Darkshine Knight's]] backstory (assuming you picked Duran as your main character, anyways) - namely, {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad|Dragon Emperor]] used his magic to [[Came Back Wrong|revive]] the knight Loki ([[Name's the Same|no, not]] [[Norse Mythology|that one]]) after the two of them dropped into a bottomless pit during a struggle, and [[Never Found the Body|neither was ever found]]}}.

** The Extended edition also all but says that Hazama's minion "Phantom" is {{spoiler|Konoe A. Mercury AKA Nine, one of the six heroes.}}

** In "Phase 1" {{spoiler|the protagonist Kazuma Kval}} merges with {{spoiler|Terumi (essentially just being a physical body for him) to create Hazama.}}

* ''[[Jade Empire]]'': Not only is Death's Hand ''not'' the [[Big Bad]], or even close to it, it turns out that he's the {{spoiler|spirit of the Emperor and Sun Li's youngest brother, mortally wounded at Dirge and magically bound to Sun Li's armor}}.

* In ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'', {{spoiler|all of the Faces are examples of this trope, most notably Mumkhar, Fiora, and Gadolt. They're cybernetically altered Homs who pilot giant robots, rather than autonomous Mechon. This renders them immune to the Monado, but susceptible to any and all [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]-related tropes.}}

* This will happen to some of the characters in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', namely {{spoiler|Jack, Legion and Morinth}}

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* F.O.W.L. attempted to do to Taurus Bulba on ''[[Darkwing Duck]]''.

* The Psychocrypt in ''[[Galaxy Rangers]]''. The victim has his [[Life Energy]] removed, placed in a [[Soul Jar]], and the "jar" used to power a high-level [[Mook]] through which [[God Save Us From the Queen|Her Travesty]] has a [[Psychic Link]]. ''Anything'' the poor bastard might have known is free for her to rummage through and use as a weapon, while they're conscious and unable to do anything about it.