History Main / TokenCompetentMinion

** ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': Mostly averted, as Megatron's regular group mostly consists of himself, Lugnut, and Blitzwing, both of whom are reasonably competent and dangerous. At the end of the series when Shockwave joins the fold full-time, he's high on Megatron's favorite list because of recent accomplishments much to Lugnut's rage, but even that is mostly a ruse due to another scheme Megatron's got going. The unproduced fourth season premiere would've seen Megatron grow fond of Mini-Cons who he would openly praise as being more useful than his usual minions.

** Sage, a new character introduced from ''VideoGame/SonicFroniters'' onwards, is WAY more competent than [[BumblingHenchmanDuo both Orbot and Cubot]], due to being an AI that took on a physical form from the Ancients’ technology, able to calculate various scenarios with peak efficiency, as well as convince her father, Dr. Eggman, to (once again) [[EnemyMine ally himself with Sonic]] to take down [[spoiler:THE END, an EldritchAbomination that was responsible for the near genocide of the Ancients, as well as tricking Sonic into freeing it from Cyber Space.]]

** ''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 Tarantulas stand out for being at least clever enough to fight the Maximals and come up with strategies on his own. So naturally he turns out to be a mole for the Tri-Predicus council.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': Regardless of continuity, it's been demonstrated time and time again that [[EvilKnockoff Metal Sonic]] is [[BigBad Doctor Eggman]]'s magnum opus and the only one of his creations capable of fighting Sonic toe to toe.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': [[BadBoss C. Montgomery]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Burns]] controls a nuclear power plant staffed by corrupt, lazy, incompetent, and occasionally sociopathic employees. Waylon Smithers serves as his hypercompetent executive assistant, which Smithers describes as "actually about 2,800 smaller jobs," including plant manager, disciplinarian, head of security, and once kidnapping Tom Jones on Burns' orders. He is fiercely loyal to Burns (in part because he has a longtime crush on him).

** ''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 up with strategies on his own. So naturally he turns out to be a mole for the Tri-Predicus council.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': A good chunk of Izaya's minions are either ineffective, batshit insane or waiting for an opportunity to backstab him. Out of all of them only a few are good at their jobs, with Namie performing amazingly well as a secretary despite her distaste for her employer, and Mikage being a brilliant martial artist capable of taking out numerous opponents at once. However, only [[spoiler:Kine]], arguably the sanest of Izaya's minions, actually remains loyal to him while the rest either betray him or defect.

** Unlike most of [[MonsterOfTheWeek The Digimon Emperor's enslaved Digimon]], [=SkullGreymon=] wasn't beaten in his first battle against the Digidestined and the only reason Ken had to retreat from the fight was due to [=SkullGreymon=] becoming unstable.
** [[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.]]
* ''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 his victory). This is a far superior track record to Frieza's other henchmen during the Namek Arc; 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 then was killed by Vegeta in their rematch.

** While Wobbuffet is as much a PluckyComicRelief like the rest of the Team Rocket trio, he generally offers a much tougher fight during the sporadic occasions Jessie calls him out to battle when compared to Team Rocket's other Pokemon who usually serve as jobbers outside of the occasional NotSoHarmless battle. In the early points of the ''XY'' series, Jessie used Wobbuffet far more regularly, leading to multiple far more persistent face-offs against Ash and co instead of their usual defeats in {{Curbstomp Battle}}s.
** Her Likitung and Yanmega likewise gave Ash and Co a tougher fight than other team rocket mons, before she got rid of them.
** In the ''Sun and Moon'' series, Jessie caught a Mimikyu, who was a far more swift and vicious Pokemon than the other Pokemon she had and could consistently keep up with Pikachu. Unfortunately for Jessie, Mimikyu wasn't really interested in doing much else besides fighting Pikachu, and would often sulk or half-ass battles against other opponents or even ruin schemes because of its bloodlust for Pikachu.

* ''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 his victory). This is a far superior track record to Frieza's other henchmen during the Namek Arc; 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 then was killed by Vegeta in their rematch.

-->-- '''Megatron''', ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie''.

* ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'': Skeletor's legion of four direct underlings consists of midget leader-wannabe Karg who spends all his screen time shouting at mooks while being useless in fights, reptilian goon Saurod who gets banished into another dimension by his boss as a [[YouHaveFailedMe demonstration of the consequences for failure]], the feral Beast Man is just a mute DumbMuscle... then there is Blade, a MasterSwordsman who can fight He-Man one-on-one, posing an actual, serious challenge for the heroes.
* ''Film/KickAss2'': The Motherfucker's underlings among the Toxic Mega Cunts consists of Black Death, a ScaryBlackMan who ends up getting killed by Hit-Girl in mere seconds, the pint-sized "Big Tony", ex-triad member Genghis Carnage who gets executed via BoomHeadshot before the final battle... and then there's "Mother Russia", an AxCrazy murderer [[PsychoForHire hired]] out of a Russian Gulag. Her first scene has her [[OneManArmy killing ten cops in under a minute]]. She also [[HeroKiller kills]] [[BigGood Colonel Stars-and-Stripes]], and puts up a serious fight in the finale, nearly killing Hit-Girl in a CurbStompBattle. She's easily the only reason why the villains are a legitimate threat in the film.

*** Brock Rumlow is this to a lesser extent. While not strong enough to defeat Steve, he lasts much longer against him than any other HYDRA member who isn't the Winter Soldier, and is a considerable challenge to the Falcon as well.

** ''Film/ANewHope'': Daine Jir is one of the few Imperial officers under Darth Vader's command that is respected by the Sith Lord. Jir serves as an HonestAdvisor to Vader and is allowed to speak his mind about Vader's actions. Jir is also the only one to point out to Vader that holding Leia Organa could end up generating sympathy for the Rebellion and his prediction that Leia would not betray the Rebellion under torture proves true. The Empire might have won the war if they had more people like Jir on their side.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Tyrion is the only one of Tywin Lannister's children who truly understands the realities of the kingdom and is cognizant of the fact that his nephew [[TheCaligula Joffrey]] is a terrible ruler. Tyrion's siblings, Cersei and Jaime, are arrogant to a fault and far more easily susceptible to their flaws: Cersei is a SmugSnake who's less cunning than she thinks she is, while Jaime is a fearless MasterSwordsman but good for little else. Tyrion is his father's equal in political savvy, but he gets the least amount of respect due to his dwarfism and - in his father's eyes - [[DeathByChildbirth causing the death of Tywin's wife.]]

*** During his brief time as a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mind-controlled slave]] of [[BigBad Rita Repulsa]], the Green Ranger proved to be the evil witch's most dangerous servant by far. He defeated the Rangers in battle twice, thrashed their Zords, snuck into the Command Center and cut off their connection to Zordon, and nearly killed Jason. By contrast, Goldar repeatedly failed to defeat the Rangers in battle, even getting his ass kicked by Jason when the latter didn't have access to his morpher, Finnster's monsters were all destroyed and Baboo and Squatt were nothing but comic relief.

*** Nayzor is TheHeavy during the Zen-Aku arc. He is the one who unleashes Zen-Aku, and while the Wolf Org is a wild card, his repeated thrashing of the Rangers and taking their animal crystals is indisputably an issue for the heroes. Nayzor also temporarily halts Animus's attempts to restore Zen-Aku's true memories and uses the animal crystals Zen-Aku took to create Quadra Org.

** ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'': [[DarkActionGirl Tenaya 7]]. [[BigBad Venjix]] outright calls her his most intelligent and reliable servant. She snarkily replied [[DamnedByFaintPraise this wasn't saying much]] considering her competition was [[TheBrute Shifter]] and [[TheDitz Crunch]].
* ''Series/{{Beetleborgs}}'': [[KnightOfCerebus Shadowborg]] was the only minion that [[BigBad Vexus]] actually ''liked'' due to him being the only one of his minions who was an actual threat to the Beetleborgs and being capable of carrying out his evil plans successfully.

*** Sindel would also qualify [[spoiler: for her massacre of most of the heroes. It takes a HeroicSacrifice by Nightwolf to put her down and by then she has dealt a heavy blow to the forces of good.]]

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' Regardless of continuity, it's been demonstrated time and time again that [[EvilKnockoff Metal Sonic]] is [[BigBad Doctor Eggman]]'s magnum opus and the only one of his creations capable of fighting Sonic toe to toe.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'', of Dr. Wily's many Robot Masters, Proto Man acts as Mega Man's top rival and is the only one able to consistently fight him on even footing; while Cut Man and Guts Man are good at threatening humans, they're much less effective against Mega. Other top lackeys include Dark Man, who only appeared twice but with a good track record, and oneshot baddies like Crystal Man, Top Man, and Pharaoh Man, the latter of whom became famous in the fandom for punching Mega Man after his power is copied.

** While often a source of ComicRelief, Imp was also the member of the Horde Hordak could rely on the most. His success rate against the Rebellion was much higher than his compatriots, though it should be noted he tended to be restricted to spywork more than actual combat.
** Somewhat deconstructed with Modulok, who was also leagues more competent than most of the villains. He got fed up not getting the praise he felt he deserved (despite actually engineering She-Ra's defeat at least once) and opted to strike out on his own. It should be noted this behavior is not new, as he originally joined Horde after getting tired of working for [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse Skeletor.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Catra turns out to be this for Hordak, being the only member of his forces who manages to help him make headway in his plans for conquest. Shadow Weaver might have counted, but she was actually sabotaging Hordak's efforts until she could find a way to stop him permanently.

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

* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheSpaceHeroes'': Of the TerribleTrio serving Lord Ikaros, Meba the shapeshifter is easily the most competent of the bunch, with her powers easily restraining Doraemon and gang besides giving the heroes a far tougher fight, to the point where she actually managed to have Nobita and the gang's new friend, Aron, captured alive. But then again she's deadly ''if'' her AchillesHeel remains hidden; the moment her weakness towards hot water is exposed, the good guys quickly turns the fight around.

* ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'': Downplayed with Captain Crocodile. Compared to [[SmugSnake Sir Hiss]], the Sheriff, Trigger and Nutsy or the [[{{Mooks}} Rhino Guards]], Crocodile comes across as the most competent of [[BigBad Prince John]]'s henchmen, to the point he's able to give the titular hero a decent fight and even comes close to killing him.

** Rafael is the only one of Dartz's minions who defeats his one of the three chosen duelists (Atem, Kaiba and Jonouchi) through pure skill. Amelda, Haga, Ryuzaki, Valon and Gurimo where all beaten in one duel each (two in Amelda's case) and Mai only defeated Jonouchi because the latter was exhausted after his duel with Valon.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'', of Dr. Wily's many Robot Masters, Proto Man acts as Mega Man's top rival and is the only one able to consistently fight him on even footing; while Cut Man and Guts Man are good at threatening humans, they're much less effective against Mega. Other top lackies include Dark Man, who only appeared twice but with a good track record, and oneshot baddies like Crystal Man, Top Man, and Pharaoh Man, the latter of whom became famous in the fandom for punching Mega Man after his power is copied.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'', of Dr. Wily's many Robot Masters, Proto Man acts as Mega Man's top rival and is the only one able to consistently fight him on even footing; while Cut Man and Guts Man are good at threatening humans, they're much less effective against Mega.

* ''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]].

** ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': Most of the Decepticons (and even Megatron himself to some extent) are a bunch of bungling goofballs, 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. Likewise, one of his cassettes, Laserbeak, rarely screws up, which is even lampshaded by Megatron.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': Most of the Decepticons (and even Megatron himself to some extent) are a bunch of bungling goofballs, 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/RobinHood'': Downplayed with Captain Crocodile. Compared to [[SmugSnake Sir Hiss]], the Sheriff, Trigger and Nutsy or the [[{{Mooks}} Rhino Guards]], Crocodile comes across as the most competent of [[BigBad Prince John]]'s henchmen, to the point he's able to give the titular hero a decent fight and even comes close to killing him.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Rafael is the only one of Dartz's minions who defeats his one of the three chosen duelists (Atem, Kaiba and Jonouchi) through pure skill. Amelda, Haga, Ryuzaki, Valon and Gurimo where all beaten in one duel each (two in Amelda's case) and Mai only defeated Jonouchi because the latter was exhausted after his duel with Valon.

Finding good help is hard and seems to be especially hard if you're a villain. No matter how fearsome a villain appears, it seems they are often stuck with a gaggle of bunglers for help. All except one guy - the Token Competent Minion.

The Token Competent Minion is the one evil 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.

** 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 is able to take on [[MasterSwordsman Zoro]].

* ''[[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog]]'' Regardless of continuity, it's been demonstrated time and time again that [[EvilKnockoff Metal Sonic]] is [[BigBad Doctor Eggman]]'s magnum opus and the only one of his creations capable of fighting Sonic toe to toe.

** ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' [[DarkActionGirl Tenaya 7]]. [[BigBad Venjix]] outright calls [[DarkActionGirl Tenaya 7]] his most intelligent and reliable servant. She snarkily [[DamnedByFaintPraise this wasn't saying much considering her competition was [[TheBrute Shifter]] and [[TheDitz Crunch]].

* ''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 being 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).