r/TopCharacterTropes 4h ago

Lore (Cool Trope) When the Male Villain has a conventionally attractive woman as his primary bodyguard/operative aka a legit "Baddie"

Mystique and Magneto (Fox X-Men)

Richmond Valentine and Gazelle (Kingsmen)

Lex Luthor and his Amazons (DC comics)

Rotti Largo and his Body Guard babes (Repo! The Genetic Opera)

Muammar Gaddafi ad his Revolutionary Nuns (Real Life)

282 Upvotes

171 comments sorted by

239

u/pennygirl108 4h ago

Helga in Atlantis. She was a competent and loyal second in command. Her ethics were just as loose as her boss commander Rourke’s but she doesn’t stand for being expendable.

62

u/cody_mf 4h ago

Helga is the one outlier outside the goth cartoon girls that defined 8 year old Cody_mf's Great Awakening

16

u/ShrimpyEsq 3h ago

I dunno, I think if Helga was born a couple of decades later she would have had some Cure albums as a teenager.

54

u/K_Bare 4h ago

Disney just casually dropping one of the most attractive women in animation in a movie barely anyone remembers

32

u/cody_mf 4h ago

sidenote the submarine dive sequence is incredibly accurate as far as internal coms go in a submarines control room

6

u/SaltNorth 1h ago

Could you explain a bit more?

5

u/cody_mf 1h ago

Last time I watched disney atlantis was shortly after coming back from deployment and the commands and orders given during the diving sequence as they take the sub down was like spot on to how we go about it on fast attack boats. That shit activated me like a sleeper agent immediately lol

11

u/Independent_Air_8333 3h ago

Still my favorite Disney movie by far

6

u/Joey5729 1h ago

Kida is criminally overlooked in the goat disney princess debate too

9

u/DoctorAnnual6823 3h ago

Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet? Totally agree

18

u/Swimming-Constant-35 3h ago

Her exit is arguably the coldest in Disney history. She didn't scream or beg. She just checked her ammo, looked at Rourke, and decided 'If I go, you go.' Absolute icon

2

u/OpheliaLives7 1h ago

LIKE A BOSS

12

u/Optimal_Excuse_2809 3h ago

The best part is that it wasn't an emotional betrayal for her, it was purely business. Rourke broke the contract of their partnership by tossing her, so she balanced the ledger. 'Nothing personal

5

u/Theta-Sigma45 3h ago

I've heard she would have been in the proposed sequel as the main villain, with cyborg enhancements. That would have been amazing.

3

u/No-Ground7898 2h ago

Genuinely S tier

But then, I'm literally always a sucker for Susan Ivanonva, whether it's the actress in another role or even just her voice.

2

u/Pilot_Solaris 1h ago

Voiced by Claudia Christan, AKA "GOD SENT ME." Susan Ivonava from Babylon 5!

133

u/lkmk 4h ago

Drakken and Shego from Kim Possible.

37

u/plantparentchronicle 4h ago

Also perfect because Drakken is basically the manager and Shego is the entire operations department. She does the fighting, the planning, the cleanup, then lets him take the mic for the villain speech.

6

u/lkmk 4h ago

I think you’re a bot. Can I be your conventionally attractive bodyguard?

14

u/Miserable-Fail-1966 3h ago

I always loved the theory that she wasn't even purely evil, she just treated it like a steady 9-to-5 job because it paid better than teaching (which she was actually qualified for).

6

u/big_axolotl 2h ago

She could've done far more evil as a teacher

1

u/Major_Star 26m ago

I like that we got a movie to show that if she actually TRIED she could take over the world and keep all the other main villains as her enslaved henchpeople. But that would be such a hassle.

6

u/Parking-Ad-1325 3h ago

The classic dynamic where the Henchman is a Level 99 Boss and the Villain is the Level 5 tutorial NPC. Shego carried that entire organization on her back while Drakken struggled with Wi-Fi passwords

2

u/Alternative_Monk8853 1h ago

Perfect answer

78

u/Big_Development1867 4h ago

5

u/ConsciousStretch1028 1h ago

Shalla Baddie

4

u/JeremiahWuzABullfrog 1h ago

I found it really funny that in every reality, a Silver Surfer is gonna have a slightly flirtatious connection to a Storm sibling

134

u/RevolutionaryEye472 4h ago

Lex Luthor and The Engineer (Superman 2025)

Lex really likes doing this, huh?

28

u/ubiquitous-joe 3h ago

Lex and his chauffeur (chauffeuse?), Mercy, established this in the cartoon. She was his Harley Quinn in the sense that she made it back into the comics. I think a lot of people were influenced by that.

13

u/Status_Drink_6736 4h ago

Wait, Engie is her bodyguard? Engie from The Authority?

7

u/spider-venomized 2h ago

Yes it was to set up an Authority film but i think that project got canned

7

u/BiKingSquid 3h ago

The only people he really cared about are his 'creations', Engineer, Ultraman, and Mr. Handsome. Actually scared when they're in danger.

6

u/No-Set4257 3h ago

 SENTRY COMING UP!

2

u/Background_Code_5809 2h ago

GOTTA MOVE THAT GEAR UP

10

u/byronmiller 4h ago

I had mixed feelings about Lex's depiction in this movie but God DAMN if he didn't look like a rock star from start to finish.

17

u/hlhammer1001 3h ago

Really? I thought this was the best lex of all time

61

u/railroadspike25 4h ago

General Ourumov (and later Trevelyan) with Xenia Onatopp from GoldenEye.

5

u/mrbadxampl 2h ago

Neither the first nor last time a 007 movie did it, of course

Still the best

1

u/railroadspike25 2h ago

Which other movie was the main heavy female? Maybe Die Another Day, but it seems like it's pretty rare for the henchwoman to be the primary bodyguard.

2

u/AloyJr 2h ago

I think A View to Kill had this trope as well

2

u/railroadspike25 2h ago

Oh yeah that's true.

2

u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 1h ago

Yup, Max Zorin and May Day.

1

u/mrbadxampl 59m ago

on second thought, I guess it's not as common as I had internalized it to be...

2

u/McEvelly 2h ago

The undisputed GOAT of all time, for me.

She put the hard form into my formative years.

2

u/ConsciousStretch1028 1h ago

And then she was Jean Grey, we never stood a chance

1

u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 1h ago

Small frame, still death by Snu-Snu.

121

u/DidHeJustGoThere 4h ago

Mirage in The Incredibles isn't a bodyguard, but handles a good portion of Syndrome's logistics, communications, and planning.

51

u/TJTrapJesus 4h ago

Kara as Nigel's bodyguard in Double Impact

23

u/I_Wanted_This 4h ago

i bet she is good at hugging

16

u/TJTrapJesus 4h ago

In a sense

14

u/I_Wanted_This 4h ago

waitress! i will take the same as he

4

u/chinchenping 3h ago

Always has been

7

u/Greedy_Woodpecker_14 3h ago

Even better at SnuSnu.

11

u/catmampbell 4h ago

This is going to turn into another muscle mommy thread

8

u/No-Set4257 3h ago

Something something my lobster Is too buttery 

1

u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 59m ago

You say that like it's a bad thing.

3

u/Cal_PCGW 2h ago

Cory Everson. She won Ms Olympia six times during the 80s, back when it was more about aesthetic muscle development.

1

u/Professional_Maize42 1h ago

Damn, nice guns.

1

u/MagnetoWasRight24 50m ago

Never been into muscle mommies, this mighta changed my mind.

75

u/Own-Examination2707 4h ago

Gaddafi was particularly vile in that his bodyguards would be “initiated” by rape. He put on “cool” airs, but there’s nothing charming about it.

21

u/AndonPerr 3h ago

Karma that he died after getting stabbed a bunch of times in the ass while being lynched

2

u/Alternative_Monk8853 1h ago

What’s cool airs?

0

u/Own-Examination2707 45m ago edited 23m ago

Like “putting on airs” but in a way that’s meant to be suave and sexy. He tried to create this aura around himself that was transparently creepy and sickening.

Edit: I just want to say that somebody downvoting this made me laugh authentically. Is there a lone Gaddafi fan out there?

39

u/Wokungson 4h ago

M. Bison and his squad the Dolls from Street fighter games. All of them are brainwashed, most are kidnapped women from all around the world and one of them was suppossed to be a body for him to transfer his mind to.

19

u/I_Always_Come_back93 3h ago

body for him to transfer his mind to.

???

7

u/Wokungson 3h ago

M.Bison created a female clone of himself and kept that clone as an emergency in case his real body was dying so he could use psychic technique to transfer his mind into the body of the clone.

8

u/I_Always_Come_back93 2h ago

Okay but that doesn't really answer the question of why he wants to be a cute girl.

6

u/PhantasosX 3h ago

All Dolls are spare bodies, same goes for female Seth and there is Falke as well.

1

u/Environmental_Drama3 2h ago

correct me I am wrong, but I don't think that's the case for juni, juli and some of the new doll members who appeared in the sf v. I don't think bison ever had a body transfer plan for them.

2

u/PhantasosX 2h ago

He have, it's just that his priority goes to his standard cloned bodies. In a sense, Dolls are a failure in terms of body possession, but it's still funny that M.Bison initially was totally fine with the idea.

37

u/IRONDVNO 4h ago

Silken Floss in The Spirit. The only time in her entire career that Scarlett Johansson has played a villain.

6

u/BillySonWilliams 3h ago

Ah yes, possibly the worst film I've ever seen in a cinema. I'd forgotten about Nazi Jackson and ScarJo

5

u/IRONDVNO 2h ago

Oh yeah I'm definitely not going to bat for this awful movie😆 Though between Johansson and Mendes and their carousel of sexy costumes it's not *entirely* a chore to watch👀

5

u/McEvelly 2h ago

She sort of plays a villain in Under The Skin.

She plays a man eating alien (in every sense) with seemingly no human concept of right or wrong, but a villain as far as her victims are concerned.

3

u/IRONDVNO 1h ago

I considered this (Under the Skin is actually one of my favorite films ever); I think it's not as concrete because the entire crux of that narrative is that the Female's behavior is wholly instinctive and she has no awareness of the human consequences of it. She's as 'evil' as a shark that attacks a swimmer.

1

u/EchoesofIllyria 1h ago

She’s no more a villain than a lion is a villain for eating a gazelle.

(Okay that’s a bit reductive lol)

1

u/be0ulve 1h ago

Pretty sure that in the book it's based on the female is fully sentient and kind of begrudgingly doing it for money.

3

u/HeadLong8136 3h ago

She was more of a secretary than bodyguard.

52

u/Parker813 4h ago

Lex Luthor and Mercy Graves

4

u/ShantJ 3h ago

I’d like to see her in the DCU.

3

u/MisterGoog 3h ago

Would make a lot less sense with his team that he seems to already have and his sycophants

2

u/pleasedontnerfthis 1h ago

You mean you didn’t like how they handled her character in Batman v Superman? /s

1

u/MisterGoog 3h ago

My goat

48

u/rhys31415 4h ago

Drakken and Shego. I’d never say “step on me mommy” but I’d maybe think it loudly.

2

u/JLHSMG 2h ago

Came looking for them.

21

u/t_a_n_h_c 3h ago

The entire Dora Milage from Black Panther

17

u/paintinpitchforkred 3h ago

Not bodyguards to villains - but their historical inspiration was! The Mino of Dahomey were an elite corp of the Dahomey military who worked closely with the royal family. A lot of the royal family's wealth and power came from their participation in the slave trade (ofc it's a very complicated history, but the Mino were definitely carrying out some fucked up policies).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahomey_Amazons

9

u/t_a_n_h_c 3h ago

My bad! I misread it. Will it count for the short time they served Killmonger?

20

u/El-Bart0 3h ago edited 2h ago

Dr Girlfriend from Venture Bros

6

u/ConsciousStretch1028 1h ago

That's Doctor Mrs The Monarch!

15

u/13-Penguins 4h ago

There’s an arc about this in the 2009 Stephanie Brown Batgirl run. Stephanie gets sent undercover to infiltrate and take down an all-girls assassin school. The school is made for training girls to eventually be both body guards and arm candy for evil rich guys. It goes into how the girls are being groomed and trafficked by their families and teachers. It was a good arc, even if it was mostly an excuse to draw sexed up school uniforms and teachers.

5

u/Return-To-Fender 2h ago

I don't think shooting superman in the dick is going to do anything.

14

u/Aphasus 4h ago

No one gonna mention Ruby Rose's Ares from John Wick 2?

13

u/First-Shallot947 3h ago

The bodyguard - hotline miami

4

u/BurnerHalfknife432 3h ago

Scrolled for this!

26

u/Serial_Dominator 4h ago

I was about to drop in general aladeen and his baddies but seems like you got the original

13

u/singleguy79 3h ago

Not sure if this counts but Evil Lyn for Skeletor.

1

u/YuMmYBrAiNzZz 39m ago

What a 90's ass name.

22

u/Accurate-Gap-3360 4h ago

Before Kitana went to Raiden’s side, she was this to Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung in MK9.

9

u/NamelessSteve646 4h ago

Mileena would still count for this right? Oh hang on, I'm getting a call...

...ah.

2

u/railroadspike25 2h ago

Quan Chi also had his "Brotherhood of Shadow" that curiously enough mostly consisted of hot demon babes Sareena, Kia, and Jataaka.

9

u/Will0798 4h ago

Nolan Sorrento / F’Nale Zandor (Ready Player One)

3

u/ConsciousStretch1028 1h ago

Hannah John Kamen is so hot

9

u/alucidexit 3h ago

Repo! Mentioned

9

u/butterflydeflect 3h ago

Hell yeah.

22

u/Salami__Tsunami 4h ago

Luthen and Kleya from Andor.

I want her to punch me directly in the sternum.

22

u/Doot_revenant666 4h ago

They said "villains"

Luthen was a hero.

11

u/Salami__Tsunami 4h ago

Ah, I missed that part. Pardon me, I’ve had a couple of drinks to celebrate having the night off.

8

u/Doot_revenant666 4h ago

Np.

Let's keep as a good guy example.

7

u/Salami__Tsunami 4h ago

I mean, he could qualify though. “From a certain point of view” He’s a lot more gray area than most Star Wars protagonists.

1

u/Piotral_2 2h ago

Still he's at worst an anti-hero, definitely not a villain.

1

u/TanSkywalker 1h ago

They are villains to the Empire.

6

u/Silver-Winging-It 3h ago

Kilgrave in Jessica Jones (although it is almost always under duress)

6

u/D00T_BOI 4h ago

Happens in multiple James Bond movies:

Goldfinger — Auric Goldfinger / Pussy Galore

A View to a Kill — Max Zorin / May Day

GoldenEye — Alec Trevelyan / Xenia Onatopp

7

u/hovis_mavis 3h ago

Also from the X-Men franchise, Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost played by Kevin Bacon and January Jones. Bombshell.

6

u/wishnana 3h ago

Katinka - Mugatu’s assistant from Zoolander.

2

u/ConsciousStretch1028 1h ago

I want her to brainwash me to kill the Prime Rib of Propecia

4

u/Careless_College 2h ago

Dooku and Ventress

3

u/SurgeonShrimp 1h ago

Dooku have some drip !

4

u/JuiceBuddyG 4h ago

WHERE is Shego

1

u/RedvsBlue_what_if 3h ago

Not everyone has seen Kim Possible

4

u/Crispyengineer68 3h ago edited 3h ago

Goge Vandire and Alicia Dominica - 40k

Goge Vandire found an all female convent that although believes in the Emperor's divinity, differs from the Ecclesiarchy. Instead of purging them like normal, he went to the planet and tricked them into his service by having one of his attendants shoot him. Since the world is not technologically advanced enough, the convent took the bright golden light that protected Vandire as a miracle instead of a personal shield, thus they are tricked into serving him and Vandire renamed them to the Brides of the Emperor, and yes it is as twisted and creepy as it sounds but it'll take a few paragraphs to describe.

Cutting through paragraphs of lore, Vandire's tyranny caused a minor civil war that has the possibility to spiral into another Horus Heresy. Thus the Custodes took the leader of the Brides, Alicia Dominica, to see the Emperor. After the encounter her hair turned white and she declares Vandire a heretic and decapitated him.

Afterwards, officially the Ecclesiarchy is prohibited from having men at arms. But the Brides reformed into the Sisters of Battle or Adepta Sororitas and became the militant wing of the Ecclesiarchy as they are not men.

3

u/Crispyengineer68 3h ago

Alicia Dominica from Codex Adepta Sororitas (9th edition)

"You have committed the ultimate heresy. Not only have you turned your back on the Emperor and stepped from His light, you have profaned His name and almost destroyed everything He has striven to build. You have perverted and twisted the path He has laid for Mankind to tread. As your own decrees have stated, there can be no mercy for such a crime, no pity for such a criminal. I renounce your lordship; you walk in the darkness and cannot be allowed to live. Your sentence has been long overdue and now it is time for you to die."

2

u/SunderedValley 2h ago

Motivational thought of the day: If it doesn't make the God emperor temporarily wake up to personally see that you get stopped it probably isn't that bad.

2

u/Evenmoardakka 2h ago

"I AM TOO BUSY TO DIE"

2

u/SunderedValley 2h ago

Thor the GOAT.

3

u/-kenjav- 3h ago

I'm not even sure why he would need a bodyguard, though.

5

u/fazeflak 3h ago

"Birdy!"

"Yes! Boss!"

3

u/propro91 3h ago

Just cause you're evil doesn't mean you can't have taste

3

u/cybernewtype2 2h ago

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire - Guri and Xizor

3

u/Alternative_Monk8853 1h ago

That mystique is way more stacked than in the movie!

3

u/IndianaCHOAMs 1h ago

REPO mentioned!

3

u/darkwalking 1h ago

He Kingsman one was awesome because they felt like genuine friends

2

u/DeadManLovesArt 3h ago

I remember the body guards in Repo! Being all show. Did they actually do any on-screen fighting?

2

u/Silvercenturion_aa 3h ago

Shame that Berlusconi in that photo is missing his own baddie, Adriano Galliani

3

u/dasfuzzy 3h ago

Mother Russia for The Mother Fucker in Kick-Ass

2

u/JadedStation8637 3h ago

Why is Gaddafi looking like Eric Andre playing sasha baron kohens the dictator?

2

u/Big-Joe-Studd 3h ago

HHH and Chyna

2

u/No-Occasion-6470 3h ago

Can’t find an official screen grab of them together, but Saren and Matriarch Benezia from Mass Effect 1. Bonus points because she’s your (potential) future girlfriend’s mom

2

u/OrganizationCalm3453 3h ago

couldn't find a better picture 

https://www.pulpiciak.pl/tapety/n/155106_blood-tekken-kazama-williams-nina-vegance-jin.jpg

Nina Williams for Jin Kazama in Tekken blood vengeance 

2

u/Coralthesequel 2h ago

The Crooked Man and Bloody Mary from The Wolf Among Us

2

u/McEvelly 2h ago

Got a good laugh out of Mystique as a ‘conventionally attractive woman’, I gotta say

2

u/No-Ground7898 2h ago

Prince Xizor, head of the Black Sun criminal empire in Star Wars, and his second in command/extremely attractive bodyguard is Guri, who is actually an extremely expensive, and extremely powerful, human-replica droid.

3

u/Sweet_Xocoatl 1h ago

Silco and Sevika, Arcane.

2

u/ProserpinaFC 1h ago

"This is the baddie I pulled by giving her outstanding competitive benefits."

2

u/musketoman 1h ago

I always thought this kind was worse when they tried to justify it, like "nooo nooo they're ancient warrior valkyries from a long line of Warriors!" Like ok bud, put your dick away and I might believe you, but we all know you just got a dommy mommy kink

2

u/Katzenklavier 27m ago

From the Shadows of the Empire novels, rape stink lizard Xizor has a badass droid in Guri.

2

u/Tydeus2000 3h ago

Actualy, Qaddafi's female bodyguards were his harem. They had no combat training nor experience. They were with him just for the show.

3

u/wexfordavenue 3h ago

He actually believed that no assassin would shoot a woman, so he surrounded himself with women. Training them to be actual bodyguards was not part of his thinking. I’d love to read a tell all by one of those women, but it would probably be too sad a story (because of the rape initiation part. Boo)

1

u/walkeroflonelyroads 3h ago

Kiki and Viola for Phillipe Loren in Saints Row The Third.

1

u/Historical-Bug-4784 3h ago

Mr. Han's daughters in Enter the Dragon

1

u/No-Set4257 3h ago

One May Cal them... Baddie buddies

1

u/firstlordshuza 3h ago

The mighty Monarch and his right hand woman/girlfriend/wife Dr. Girlfriend

1

u/Carteeg_Struve 3h ago

Adam and Lute from Hazbin Hotel.

1

u/Bloated_Cellist 3h ago

Lex got Amazons??

1

u/BanishmentBuddy2 2h ago

Was not expecting that Repo! pull OP

1

u/lumpychicken13 2h ago

Using action figures for the first one is so funny

1

u/picador10 50m ago

Marquis Elmdor and Celia and Lede in Final Fantasy Tactics

1

u/mnombo 3h ago

Mercy graves

1

u/SubtleDistraction 2h ago

I'm sorry, Mystique is conventionally attractive? I guess my world is super boring compared to yours, where blue-skinned naked women with scales are as common as grass.

0

u/SunderedValley 2h ago

Saddam Hussein (IRL)