Perky Female Minion

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    See, I told you I could do it!
    "My aura has never been pinker!"
    —Ty Lee letting her Ax Crazy boss know how she's doing, Avatar: The Last Airbender

    A good way of applying the humor of The Comically Serious to villains is by pairing them with the Perky Female Minion. This character is something like the Distaff Counterpart/Foil to the Enigmatic Minion; they can range in psyche from Punch Clock Villain to fairly psychotic, but have an upbeat, Genki Girl personality in sharp contrast to the villain they serve who will be gloomy, Ax Crazy, etc. If the female minion has a crush on the other villain, it will generally be of the Mad Love variety, although this affection isn't a requirement.

    However, despite her cheerfulness and energy, she is usually still good at what she does. When this is the case, her employer usually views her as a Bunny Ears Lawyer.

    Compare Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl for a similar dynamic.

    Examples of Perky Female Minion include:

    Anime and Manga


    Comics

    • Harley Quinn was originally a psychiatrist to The Joker, but wound up falling in love with him and helping him in his crimes. She's an unrepentant murderer, but so cheerful and so absolutely devoted to "Mistah J" that one can't help but pity her when he slaps her around and/or threatens to kill her.
    • Minordomo, assistant to Majordomo (who is Mojo's assistant himself) in X-Men. She's so genki she suffers repeated heart attacks getting worked up over imagined disasters. Since she is also a robot, this typically just requires someone to hit her reset button, rather than having any lasting effect.
    • Mariah is the Colonel's perky assassin in Sin City that is both fashionable and a Deadpan Snarker.


    Film

    • Columbia in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She's quite a bit like Harley Quinn.
    • While Martin is an Anti-Hero rather than villain in Grosse Pointe Blank, Marcella, his Sassy Secretary fits this trope pretty well. Unsurprisingly, there isn't a romantic relationship between the two (they are played by siblings John and Joan Cusack), and in fact both don't really seem to like so much as respect each other.
    • Miss Teschmacher in the Superman movies.
      • Kitty takes over this role for Superman Returns.
    • Although in this case, they are both Ax Crazy, in the Harry Potter films, Bellatrix Lestrange comes across as one of these, as a contrast to Voldemort. While Voldemort is very cold and doesn't really emote normally, Bellatrix is gleefully psychopathic. Because of her crush on Voldemort, it seems like if this were a (very strange) romantic comedy, Bellatrix would be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
    • Spann in ChromeSkull: Laid to Rest 2.
    • Janice in Initiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4.


    Literature

    • Juliet Butler of Artemis Fowl, niece to Artemis's Battle Butler. She eventually decides that body-guarding isn't her thing and leaves to try out for a wrestling team.

    Artemis: I can only hope that she fails the audition. Though I doubt it. She is a Butler, after all.


    Live Action TV

    • Elle from Heroes is sort of both sides: half perky and half psycho.
    • Harmony in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is initially this to Spike. Later she takes the same role for Angel, who, while not evil (most of the time), is gloomy enough to retain the contrast.
    • Mele from Juken Sentai Gekiranger. While she could get deep-voiced, if the subject is about her Rio-sama, she starts getting perky and lovey-dopey. Also, during the mecha fights, while the commentator would seem to support the Gekirangers' mecha, Mele would cheer on the RinJyuKen monsters if they're gaining ground. She later develops into a full-fledged Love Martyr and plays a huge part in redeeming her and Rio.
    • Jilly Kitzenger from Torchwood: Miracle Day is an incredibly perky but almost conscienceless corporate shill for the pharmaceutical company that caused the Miracle as part of a plan to seize power.


    Radio

    • Paula with Professor Nebulous in Nebulous - although Nebulous isn't evil, he's a humourless jerk of a Mad Scientist with a God-complex who once blew up the Isle of Wight because he wanted to move it to the right a bit. Despite this, Paula has an incredibly poorly-disguised infatuation with Nebulous, to the point that at one point, when Nebulous breaks his arm, Paula tries to kiss it better, prompting Nebulous to reply "Paula... that's my midriff".
      • This is lampshaded with her surname - Breeze.


    Tabletop Games


    Theater


    Video Games

    • Uzuki from The World Ends With You is a good example when paired with the composer, especially when she giggles.
    • Lash in Advance Wars. She plays it to the hilt when paired with The Stoic Enigmatic Minion Hawke in Dual Strike.
    • Grandia (1) has three of these; Nana, Saki, and Mio are ALL in love with the Colonel, and only fight with any effectiveness as a team. They are comically annoying even to their own side, but ultimately seem to be well-intentioned... Or at least intentioned alongside their boss. Who doesn't especially care for them, of course.
    • Project Justice has this in Momo, who serves Big Bad Kurow until he betrays her because of his failures. She's not all fun and rainbows, though, as she does show quite an evil streak.
    • Tira from Soul Calibur is this to the grim and brutal Nightmare. Granted, she's pretty creepy and insane as well. Bonus points since he feeds her soul to Soul Edge in his story.
    • An inversion (albeit almost certainly accidental) is Nastasia from Super Paper Mario. Her boss, Count Bleck, is cheerful in embracing his over-the-top villainy and magician-like looks and personality, while Nastasia, the minion, is gloomy, precise, and organizes most of the actual plans.
      • Because of that she is more of the villainess version of a Girl Friday.
      • Count Bleck has three other minions, one of them being Mimi, a perky female one to contrast the more enigmatic Dimentio. The third, a stereotypically Scottish big dumb guy called O'Chunks, is the comic relief of the trio.
      • The first two games had Kammy Koopa, who is much, much older than most examples of this character type.
    • Although most of the "leaders" in Touhou Project are fairly "perky" goofballs of Crazy Awesome calibur who have Battle Butler archers dedicated to cleaning up the messes they create, the more deadpan characters, like Satori, have Genki Girl "pets" or "minions" like Okuu and Orin.
    • As of Mortal Kombat 9, Mileena counts. Her pre-match quote and some other lines display a childlike enthusiasm for violence, and she seems genuinely excited on fighting for her "father", the Obviously Evil Shao Kahn. One of the challenge tower missions involves her attempts to force Scorpion to accept a teddy bear that she made for him. She's still psychopathically Axe Crazy though.


    Webcomics

    Web Original

    • Snarky, rude supervillainess Vamp, to her boss The Necromancer in the Whateley Universe. You know no one named The Necromancer is going to be a comedian.
    • As an inversion, Beth Vandelinder of Survival of the Fittest was rather perky and upbeat...until She Bop (NSFW), where she became Melina Frost's minion.
      • A more played straight example would be Lizzie Nolan of the Mini site spinoff Evolution, who does the announcements detailing the subjects' horrible deaths in a rather... energetic fashion.


    Western Animation

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