Tough Traveling – Minions of the Dark Lord

Nathan over at Fantasy Review Barn is the mastermind of Tough Traveling. What’s Tough Traveling? Pretty much, it’s a weekly feature on Thursdays where we dig around to come up with examples of common tropes in fantasy, using Diana Wynne Jones’ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland as our inspiration and guide. Nathan has invited one and all to join in the fun, so feel free to come up with your own lists and add the link on Nathan’s weekly post, which will also contain (unleash) the next weeks theme. So let the fun begin …

This weeks theme? MINIONS OF THE DARK LORD

MINIONS OF THE DARK LORD are all over the place. The DARK LORD has been busy planting them for years. They can be either male or female. All will be carefully supplied with the means to slaughter ….

OK, there’s lots of options listed here. You know what a dark lord is. You know what a minion who serves them is. My job was to find some for you.Well, some of my choices may be a bit different this week. Not sure, but here they are:

(And I have to mention, doesn’t everyone need some minions? I could certainly use a team of them. Or at least one.)

• Enzo from Deaths of Tao by Wesley Chu – Well, now. What better way for a dark lord (or dark faction) to control their minion than to occupy their mind and body. That’s how things work with Quasings. They are warring with each other between the good guys (Prophus) and the  bad guys (Genjix). This is, of course, assuming that any alien creature that commandeers your body can be a “good guy”. But the bad guys? Yeah, their pretty bad, and their up and coming head human body is Enzo. Who will do anything for his masters.

• Stannis from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin – Say what you want about this pick. Maybe I am suppose to believe that Malisandre is serving Stannis in his quest to gain the Iron Throne. But I’m not convinced. I think she seems to be pulling the strings, and Stannis is but her puppet. And any person/priestess who is capable of the things Malisandre has appeared to do, may definitely have a bit of dark lord in them.

• Bing from NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – Where would good old Charlie Manx be without his Bing? Bing is not very bright and super motivated to help Manx with whatever needs doing. He’ll do ANYTHING to get to Christmasland. Someone needs to be gassed? No problem, grab good ol’ Bing, and get that job done.

• Sour Billy Tipton from Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin – How do vampires buy their  slaves (for food) from the market during the day? Who do they turn to when they need a lookout during those intolerable daylight hours? If they’re lucky, they have a Sour Billy Tipton at their service.Sour Billy was able to do whatever jobs/chores/tasks head villain vampire Julian needed done.

• Demmin Nass from Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind – Not only is this guys sole purpose to help Darken Rahl, he also evidently has to practice pedophilia and child sacrifice to accomplish his goals. I actually found this minion much more disturbing than the dark master he served.

• Honorable Mention: Evil Flying Monkeys from Wizard of Oz – Flying monkeys. I don’t think anything else needs to be said here. Seems like all dark lords should have flying monkeys.