Faceless Goons/Playing With

Basic Trope: Evil Minions who all wear matching uniforms and helmets.

• Straight: The bulk of Emperor Evulz' forces wear a standardized uniform, complete with face-concealing helmet.
• Exaggerated:
  • The only members of his army who don't wear the face-hiding helmet are his four most powerful commanders.
  • The goons panic if their masks come off, because they are no longer anonymous.
  • The goons have their faces removed when they sign up.
  • The goons wear seventeen masks at a time.
• Justified:
  • The uniforms are well-armored, offer great protection, and present a united, frightening front.
  • Not to mention the anonymity, which makes Mooks way more confident.
  • The Mooks have a weak point on their face. One that kills them if it so much as touches something other than a mask.
• Inverted: The Hero and his friends wear matching outfits that make them all look the same; The Empire's uniforms are more varied and unique.
• Subverted: The goons wear masks that are similar, but have subtle differences upon closer inspection.
• Double Subverted: Under these masks, the mooks all have the exact same face.
• Parodied:
  • All warriors who aren't the heroes or the main villains wear the exact same outfit, just Palette Swapped.
  • Underneath their masks, the goons are literally faceless.
  • Anyone who wears a face-obscuring garment is a member of the Evil Army.
  • The villain has trouble telling specific minions apart.
• Deconstructed:
  • The young hero Albert kills several of Emperor Evulz' forces while under the impression that they're just faceless, mindless monsters. However, when he comes across a wounded soldier who removed his mask, he realizes the truth and has a Heroic BSOD.
  • The mooks complain about the masks being unwieldy, stifling, and hard to see through.
• Reconstructed:
  • The unmasked solider, Vincent, turns out to a family member of Albert, who after a while recovers his memories and tells Albert that Evulz Brainwashed Vincent into a Faceless Goon, so that Albert would have a Heroic BSOD.
  • ...but the mooks survive several shotgun rounds to the face thanks to their armored masks.
  • Albert decides that just because they're people, doesn't mean they aren't evil, and that he can't still beat the crap out of them, provided they live.
• Zig Zagged: Some of the enemy forces are wearing masks, whether for intimidation, protection (armored helmets or gas masks), or both. The regular grunts don't, to humanize the forces a bit. In a video game, this is done to denote who's elite and who's going to die from two bullets.
• Averted: Every minion's face is clearly visible.
• Enforced:
  • "This is a kiss up to cartoons of The Eighties, we need Faceless Goons!"
  • "This is a shoot-'em-game, and the enemy forces are really, really evil. Why should the player sympathize with them?"
• Lampshaded: "They all look like guys from a bad video game..."
• Invoked:
  • The goons are still regular people and are bound to hide their faces to conceal their identity as criminals/bad guys.
  • The villain is attempting to dehumanize his goons, to smear the hero for killing them.
• Defied: "What do you think I am, some type of cartoon villain?"
• Discussed: "Why do so many villain groups have Faceless Goons?"
• Conversed: "Maybe they really don't want us to see their faces."
• Played For Laughs: Not even the soldiers can tell each other apart when they're suited up.
• Played For Drama:
  • General Ripper uses it to intimidate enemy forces. It works.
  • The enemy goons slowly forget their own identities.

---

Back to Faceless Goons.