Evil Villains and their wacky side kicks...

[angel_negra]

So, I've been doing a re-watch of RPM and one thing that struck me was that here's a huge bad ass like Venjix, lethal, un-caring and out to exterminate all life. And then here are his top two generals, Shifter and Crunch. Granted, Shifter's had his moments, but Crunch is set up as your standard air-headed side kick.

Which got me wondering. Why do you think bad guys keep these silly guys around? I mean, sure there's a few you have possible explanations for, like Elgar only staying around because he's Divatox's nephew. But then you see things like Flurious and Norg.

So, what are your theories?

Comments

[terrierlee]

Standard comic relief could be the basic thing. You know, the villains are way too serious for their own good so they have someone to lighten the mood. But that can get annoying very quickly.

I guess you could also rephrase the question: Why are there comic relief villains to begin with?

*nods*

[angel_negra]

Yeah, writing wise it makes sense. I mean, Flurious would be a LOT scarier if he didn't have Norg bumbling around.

Though I'm really curious about the character motivations on this. I mean, Flurious is one scary, no nonsense guy. If I was him, Norg really would have been my new rug, you know?

[scifisentai]

Hm, to be the Fall Guy, maybe? Because then failure to defeat the Rangers becomes not-their-fault, it's because of insert-incompetent-general-here. Which doesn't explain why they don't just get rid of them in favour of someone *hopefully* more competent, admittedly, but it's a theory. :)

Or maybe, like in the case of Flurious and Norg, it's just another body around the place so they're not entirely isolated/don't have to do everything themselves.

Ooohh

[angel_negra]

Hm, those are good ideas. I can see that for side kicks like Norg. Though in Venjix's case, why doesn't he just rebuilt them to be more competent, I wonder.

Do you think it might be a case of where they started out good and it's only once they hit up against Rangers that we're seeing a serious challenge that these guys aren't up to?

Re: Ooohh

[scifisentai]

Can't speak for the first as I haven't seen any RPM, but for the second, yeah, it's possible. For those with an empire's worth of resources behind them, like Gruum or whoever, it wouldn't be too hard to put it down to getting complacent and rusty, so when they come up a ranger team they're way out of practice and just realising that the rules of the game have changed/don't apply on this planet. Or something. :)