History Main / TokenCompetentMinion

* ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'': It would not be an exaggeration to claim that [[TheDragon Kamen Rider Strike]] is Xaviax's most reliable and efficient henchman, [[HeroKiller having vented two heroic Riders]] [[spoiler:before he was taken out himself by Ren]]. By contrast, Xaviax's other minions are either untrustworthy (Torque), reluctant (Thrust), Stupid (Axe and Spear) or just plain useless (Camo and Incisor).

** ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' [[DarkActionGirl Tenaya 7]]. [[BigBad Venjix]] actually called her his most intelligent and reliable servant, prompting her to snark while looking at [[TheBrute Shifter]] and [[TheDitz Crunch]] that [[DamnedByFaintPraise that's not saying much]].

* ''WesternAnimation/IronMan'': Hypnotia was consistently the only competent one among the Mandarin's lackeys. The very first episode opened with her successfully completing her mission to turn a submarine crew into zombie servants for the Mandarin. It's telling that Hypnotia was the only one of the Mandarin's lackeys who could get away with snarking at him without receiving a murder threat in return.

* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'': The Brotherhood is mostly seen by the X-Men as harmless villains who can be defeated with ease. Towards the end of Season 2, the Brotherhood are joined by Wanda Maximoff, who is so powerful she manages to trounce the entire X-Men team by herself in her first appearance.

* ''WesternAnimation/IronMan'': Out of the Mandarin's usual entourage of lackeys and minions, Hypnotia was consistently the only competent villain in the crowd. The very first episode opened with her successfully completing her mission to turn a submarine crew into zombie servants for the Mandarin. It's telling that Hypnotia was the only one of the Mandarin's minions who could get away with snarking at him to without him threatening to murder her.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': The Ginyu Force as a whole are this for all of Frieza's men during the Namek Arc. Not only do they give the heroes serious trouble even ''after'' Goku arrives[[note]]Guldo nearly kills Gohan and Krillin with his PsychicPowers, [[ImplacableMan Recoome]] takes everything Vegeta, Krillin and Gohan throw at him, and returns it tenfold, and Ginyu takes Goku out of commission, first by switching bodies with him and then damaging Goku's body, requiring the Saiyan to rest up in a healing tank. By the time Goku is fully healed, Frieza has all but completely eliminated Vegeta while Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo can only watch.[[/note]] they also retrieve all seven Dragon Balls after they were stolen by Vegeta (if not for him being ignorant of how the Balls worked, Frieza would have achieved victory). This is a far superior track record to Frieza's other henchmen during Namek; Sui and Bana were easily beaten by Gohan and Krillin; Cui and Appule were both easily disposed off by Vegeta; Dodoria's attempt to kill Dende was foiled by Gohan and Krillin, and then he was also killed by Vegeta; Zarbon did slightly by better by defeating Vegeta in their first battle but also failed to confirm his death because he [[SkewedPriorities didn't want to get his hair wet]] and he was killed by Vegeta in their rematch.

The Token Competent Minion is the one villain lackey who consistently gets results. They rarely if ever fail and are likely to be the villain's favorite because of this. They are most likely to be TheDragon. If the boss is incompetent too, the Token Competent Minion might also be a HyperCompetentSidekick. Some examples may end up becoming TheStarscream or a DragonAscendant.

* ''Series/{{Beetleborgs}}'': [[KnightOfCerebus Shadowborg]] was the only minion that [[BigBad Vexus]] actually ''liked'' simply by the virtue of being everything that Vexus's usual, useless lackeys weren't: serious, competent, an actual threat to the Beetleborgs and capable of carrying out his evil plans successfully.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'': While the competence of the other Evil Warriors varies in the comics, typically the only one who could be relied on amongst Skeletor's crew in the cartoon was Evil-Lyn.
* ''WesternAnimation/IronMan'': Out of the Mandarin's usual entourage of lackeys and minions, Hypnotia was consistently the only competent villain in the crowd. The very first episode opened with her successfully completing her mission to turn a submarine crew into zombie servants for the Mandarin. It's telling Hypnotia's the only one of the Mandarin's minions who can get away with snarking to him to his face without him threatening to murder her.
* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Hak Foo is the only one of Valmont's Enforcers (not counting [[HeelFaceTurn Tohru]]) who is portrayed as a competent fighter and an actual threat to the heroes most of the time. Though he suffers a bit of VillainDecay, he is still much more dangerous and reliable than the other three Enforcers.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': The Ginyu Force as a whole are this for all of Frieza's men during the Namek Arc. Not only do they give the heroes serious trouble even ''after'' Goku arrives, they also retrieve all seven Dragon Balls after they were stolen by Vegeta (if not for him being ignorant of how the Balls worked, Frieza would have achieved victory). This is a far superior track record to Frieza's other henchmen during Namek; Sui and Bana were easily beaten by Gohan and Krillin; Cui and Appule were both easily disposed off by Vegeta; Dodoria's attempt to kill Dende was foiled by Gohan and Krillin, and then he was also killed by Vegeta; Zarbon did slightly by better by defeating Vegeta in their first battle but also failed to confirm his death because he [[SkewedPriorities didn't want to get his hair wet]] and he was killed by Vegeta in their rematch.

** In Skypiea, Enel has four priests who serve as commanders for his army. Of the four, only Ohm poses a significant challenge to the heroes. Satori is beaten in the trial he oversees before the war even starts, Shura is beaten shortly into the war's beginning, and Gedatsu, incapable of getting out of his own way, is beaten by Chopper, one of the weaker Straw Hats. In contrast, Ohm sets up his own mini-death game during Enel's larger game and greatly challenges numerous fighters, including dueling with Zoro.

** Introduced in season 2, [[KnightOfCerebus Kilobot]] easily establishes himself as the most powerful and dangerous of Dr. K's robots. Not only is Kilobot far more intelligent than Kolossal but he possesses the ability to absorb the powers of other robots and even take on their appearance. Kilobot [[spoiler: [[HeroKiller also kills Maximix and Cubix]] in the penultimate episode and [[TheStarscream takes over as the main villain for the season finale]].]]

** Introduced in season 2, [[KnightOfCerebus Kilobot]] easily establishes himself as the most powerful and dangerous of Dr. K's robots. Not only is Kilobot far more intelligent than Kolossal but he possesses the ability to absorb the powers of other robots and even take on their appearance. Kilobot [[spoiler: [[HeroKiller also kills Maximix and Cubix]] in the penultimate episode and [[TheStarscream takes over as the BigBad for the season finale]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': While Lord Hater's Watchdogs aren't totally useless, they tend to be thwarted easily by Wander and Sylvia. Commander Peepers is leaps and bounds smarter than the Watchdogs he commands, and a lot smarter than Hater to boot.

** [[MixAndMatchCritters Kimeramon]] proves to be the most powerful Digimon under Ken's command, taking just about everything the heroes threw at him and responding in kind. [[spoiler:It takes the power of Magnamon and Wormon making a HeroicSacrifice to defeat him.

* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': The Thought Police is described as the only efficient administration of Oceania. Every other administration is weak and crumbling. This is by design as the Inner Party fears that if society was fully functioning, it would lead to the ruling oligarchy being overthrown or otherwise losing their power. As stated in "[[FictionalDocument The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism]]'':
-->As we have seen, researches that could be called scientific are still carried out for the purposes of war, but they are essentially a kind of daydreaming, and their failure to show results is not important. Efficiency, even military efficiency, is no longer needed. Nothing is efficient in Oceania except the Thought Police.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'': Even though he's a bird, [[BigBad Marcel]] acknowledges that Nigel is way more competent and intelligent than his two human henchmen, [[BumblingHenchmenDuo Armando and Tipa]]. This is proven when Nigel captures the eponymous character and his love interest.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'': [[DarkActionGirl Tempest Shadow]] is this for [[BigBad the Storm King]]> She is the one who leads the invasion of Canterlot, pursues the Mane Six to Mt. Eris[[spoiler:and even succeeds in capturing Twilight and bringing her back]]. In comparison, Grubber is a buffoon who [[TheCreon only got the position as the Storm King's right hand due to lack of ambition]] and not being TheStarscream like Strife, the Storm King's previous right hand. The Storm Guards are typical {{Mooks}} who get beaten by the heroes in the end [[spoiler:after Tempest is no longer on the Storm King's side]]. [[spoiler:Indeed, Storm King actually seals his doom by reneging on his deal with Tempest]].

If this minion is killed off or [[HeelFaceTurn defects]], the villain faction's threat level will drop significantly unless the TCM is replaced or one or more of the other minions [[TookALevelInBadass seriously step up their game]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'': [[DarkActionGirl Tempest Shadow]] was this for [[BigBad the Storm King]], being the one who lead the invasion of Canterlot, pursued the Mane Six to Mt. Eris[[spoiler:, and even succeeded in capturing Twilight and bringing her back]]. In comparison, Grubber is a buffoon who [[TheCreon only got the position as the Storm King's right hand due to lack of ambition]] and not being TheStarscream like Strife, the Storm King's previous right hand. The Storm Guards are typical {{Mooks}} who get beaten by the heroes in the end [[spoiler:after Tempest is no longer on the Storm King's side]]. [[spoiler:Indeed, Storm King actually seals his doom by reneging on his deal with Tempest]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'': Even though he's a bird, [[BigBad Marcel]] acknowledges that Nigel is way more competent and intelligent than his two human henchmen, [[BumblingHenchmenDuo Armando and Tipa]]. This is proven when Nigel captures the eponymous character and his love interest. Armando and Tipa meanwhile are depicted as harmless morons, especially Tipa.

* ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatLegendsScorpionsRevenge'': Goro is easily this for Shang Tsung. While Kitana, Baraka, Kano and Reptile are dispatched by the heroes with relative ease in one fight, Goro shows why he was the undefeated champion of Mortal Kombat for the past nine tournaments. Not only does he brutally maim Jax, taking the major out of commission for most of the film, but [[spoiler:he nearly kills Liu Kang and would have succeeded if not for Scorpion untimely intervention]].

** The members of Buggy's crew aren't always incompetent, but have plenty of silly moments and don't accomplish much. The exception is Cabaji, who is dead serious every time he's onscreen and takes Zoro on 1-on-1.
** In Baratie there's Gin, who does most of the heavy lifting for Don Krieg while the rest of the crew fails to get much done. He fights Sanji one-on-one and wins, but a stroke of conscience resulting from Sanji saving his life earlier causes him to lose this status.
** In Skypiea, Enel has four priests who serve as commanders for his army, but of the four, only Ohm poses a significant challenge to the heroes. Satori is beaten in the trial he oversees before the war even starts, Shura is beaten shortly into the war's beginning, and Gedatsu, incapable of getting out of his own way, is beaten by Chopper, one of the weaker Straw Hats. In contrast, Ohm sets up his own mini-death game during Enel's larger game and greatly challenges numerous fighters, including dueling with Zoro.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'': While the competence of the other Evil Warriors varies in the comics, typically the only one who could be relied on amongst Skeletor's crew in the cartoon was Evil-Lyn.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': Most of the Decepticons (and even Megatron himself to some extent) are a bunch of bungling goofballs or chronic backstabbers (or ''both'' in the case of Starscream). Soundwave, while still prone to the occasional clownish moment, stood out as a far more dedicated and no-nonsense Decepticon, with him and his Casetticons often helping a lot of schemes at least get off the ground.
** ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': Given that he had to scrounge his crew together from the dregs of Predacon society, it makes sense that most of Megatron's minions are incompetent or otherwise failures. This makes Tarantulus stand out for being at least clever enough to fight the Maximals and come out with strategies on his own. So naturally he turns out to be a mole for the Tri-Predicus council.

->''Welcome, Laserbeak! Unlike some of my other warriors, you never fail me.''

->Welcome, Laserbeak! Unlike some of my other warriors, you never fail me.

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'': D'Vorah is this for Kotal Kahn's court. She is one of the only two villains to get a playable chapter in story mode (the other one being Kotal himself) and in that chapter proves her worth by defeating Rain and Tanya, [[spoiler:and killing Mileena]]. The rest of Kotal's underlings do nothing during story mode but get their asses kicked by the heroes.