Minion Shipping

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Civil Protection Officer: "Gerald? Did you just hear something go ba-boom?" Gerald: "Just my heart, sir. Just my heart." —Concerned

Members below The Dragon (e.g., Quirky Miniboss Squad) suggested to be in a physical relationship. This can be overtly sexual even if it would seem squicky; they're villains after all. If planned in advance, they're designed with an audience fetish in mind; height, coloring, and personality rules for Yaoi Guys or Schoolgirl Lesbians apply.

Being in a romantic relationship can help humanize the characters, as either one will act heroically when the other is in danger - or, variantly, we get to see how evil they really are when one dies or is seriously wounded and the other doesn't. This might prompt the villain equivalent of a Freak-Out in the ignored "lover" (at least for a while...) or, if the writers are really trying to showcase how soulless the baddies really are, even the injured party never expected any true intimacy. At that point, there's really no hope for redemption of any black hats you'll be seeing for a while. In the more humanized case, a truly evil Big Bad might torment one just to piss off the other. If one gets killed off, the other will usually devolve into an obsessive nut, but sometimes will reform in memory of the other's death.

Occasionally, both reform, and they just become an inseparable duo among the main character's group of friends. Exactly how "close" they are will often become a running gag, although of course the lead character is too pure (i.e., stupid) to notice.

We won't even get started on how popular this is in fan fiction. Compare Mad Love, Unholy Matrimony, and Outlaw Couple.

May sometimes intersect with Subordinate Excuse.

Examples of Minion Shipping include:

Anime and Manga

• Possibly the epitome of this trope can be found in Digimon Adventure 02, in where Mummymon is deeply in love with fellow evil minion Archnemon (despite her poor treatment of him). Mummymon understandably flips out when BelialVamdemon brutally kills Archnemon in cold blood shortly after his resurrection; he fails to avenge her death, and is destroyed in turn in similarly vicious fashion. Even the Chosen Children, who've been harassed by the two for so long, are appalled and saddened by the spectacle.
• Canonically Zoicite and Kunzite in the first season of Sailor Moon; possibly Lead Crow and Aluminum Siren in the last season. Not to mention the Love Dodecahedron in the Black Moon Clan...
• Mimi and Sheshe of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch.
• Team Rocket's Jessie and James in Pokémon. They even get married expecting a child in The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga.
  • In the Gaining Groudon and Scuffle of Legends episodes, the leaders of team Aqua/Magma have very caring administrators.
• In Pretty Cure Splash Star, the last two members of Dark Fall's Quirky Miniboss Squad were the fitness-obsessive Worthy Opponent Kintolesky, and Shitataare, the flamboyant Femme Fatale with a penchant for a good Noblewoman's Laugh. Forced to work together to defeat the Cures in the final episodes, they start off quite despising of each other, Kintolesky believing her to be more concerned with her looks than her duty, and Shitataare accusing him to be an unrefined oaf. But, as they fight together, the two of them end up developing mutual respect... and finally, they even get to die together as Kintolesky confesses his love for her. Shitataare looking in his eyes as they are disappearing suggests that she held the same feelings as him. Alas, Poor Villain and Tear Jerker indeed... Note, however, that this isn't a case of Redemption Equals Death. Neither of the two were repentant for their evil actions.
• It was all over the place in Ninja Scroll.
• In Keroro Gunsou, many of the fans have taken to pairing up Putata and Mekeke of the Shurara Crops. Other pairings involve Gyororo Nuii, or Kagege Gyororo, or Shurara and any other other members.
  • Keep in mind though that the original maker of Putata is on Deviantart, and she pairs Putata and Mekeke. So it can be somewhat canon although it is not revealed in the anime. Not revealing it doesn't make it less true by the way.
• In MAR, Gido and Ian. Partly subverted in that Gido isn't killed, mutated horribly. Ian then becomes one of the top rank enemies out of anger, and eventually pulls a Heel Face Turn when Ginta convinces him that he's not the enemy. Ian eventually finds the real enemy and manages to break the curse. They're shown living together later.
• Fullmetal Alchemist's Lust and Gluttony could be considered a platonic version of Minion Shipping. Though their relationship is far more maternal than romantic, it serves the humanizing function of this trope in much the same way as any other ship. When Lust dies in both anime and the manga, Glutony is reduced to a sobbing, inconsolable child. In Brotherhood and the manga, Gluttony even displayes the revenge aspect of this trope, going into a frenzy when he discovered he is in proximity to the man who killed Lust (Col. Roy Mustang).
• Squalo and Tizziano from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Tizziano even takes the bullet for Squalo, prompting a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.

Comic Books

• Done particularly well in Brian Michael Bendis' crime noir graphic novel Goldfish, where Femme Fatale Bacall's henchman Max and Goldfish's cop friend Izzy are lovers. This leads to the climax, in which Goldfish and Bacall's son Billy shoots his mother Bacall, then shoots Max in self-defense. Afterward, Izzy shoots and kills Billy in retaliation.
• In the original Guardians of the Galaxy, Blockade and Mindscan were at least somewhat implied to be a couple.

Film

• Shenzi (with double duty as Dark Chick/The Dragon) often gets shipped with Banzai in The Lion King fanfiction. While there are no scenes of genuine intimacy, they're often close together in the movies. Watch their behaviour closely and there's all sorts of girlfriend/boyfriend subtext there.
• The Mummy Returns had Imhotep and Anuk-su-Namun. When Anuk-su-Namun abandons him, after all he'd gone through out of his devotion to her, Imhotep goes the Freak-Out route and allows himself to be dragged into Hell without a struggle, having lost his will to live.
  • Making it something of an Alas, Poor Villain moment.
• The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: General Yang and Colonel Choi. More implied than overt. Also ends with an Alas, Poor Villain moment, in that when Yang gets knocked into a set of giant moving gears, Choi rushes to his aid and refuses to leave him even when he screams at her to save herself (complete reversal of Anck Su Namun and Imhotep). Both die together, and not happily.
• In Total Recall, Michael Ironside's bad guy character and Sharon Stone's bad girl character are a couple, even though she sleeps with Arnold's character for at least six weeks to build a cover (8 years' worth of memories including a wedding ceremony). Ironside goes insanely homicidal when Stone is knocked off by Arnold's Love Interest.
• Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd in Diamonds Are Forever.
  • Bambi and Thumper seemed to be a couple in the movie version.
  • And how can we forget Jaws and Dolly in Moonraker?
  • From fangirl opinion, Moon/Zao from Die Another Day- though that's more like Villain on Minion.
• Rocky Horror Picture Show's Riff Raff & Magenta fall under this as well as Brother-Sister Incest.
  • In the sort-of-sequel, Shock Treatment, the same actors play Cosmo and Nation McKinley, who are depicted as a married couple (though they still pretend to be siblings), and Rest Home Ricky and Nurse Ansalong are also revealed to be paired off.

Literature

• In the last two Harry Potter books Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy can be considered "shipped" minions of Voldemort, since they are the only couple on the side of evil that actually cares for each other. In fact, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, their (and specially Narcissa's) commitment to and love for their family trumps their loyalty to Voldemort.
  • Or there's a certain amount of their status having fallen greatly since Lucius' failure at the end of Order of the Phoenix, and the great amounts of humiliation they suffered. A little of column A, a little of column B.
• In Stephen King's The Dark Tower novel Wizard And Glass, killer-for-hire Eldred Jonas and brothel-operator Coral Thorin at least enjoy having sex with each other, and probably share a degree of genuine affection.
• A presumably-unintentional case thanks to a cross between Accidental Innuendo and Have a Gay Old Time: in vermin dialect in Redwall, "mate" can mean either "friend" or "lover", depending on the context. This results in a lot of double-meanings and a lot of sniggering from teen readers. There are a few intentional cases, though; in The Sable Quean, a female Mook vows to avenge her slain husband.
• In Welkin Weasels, Rosencrass and Guildenswine (named as a Shout-Out to Hamlet but otherwise bearing no resemblance to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) are a married couple.
• Canonically Daala and Tarkin.

Live Action TV

• Played straight in Power Rangers Wild Force, where Jindrax and Toxica are not only two of the very few bad guys who get to walk into the sunset at the end of the series, but they get to do so as an Official Couple.
  • Same thing for Jarrod and Camille in Power Rangers Jungle Fury, but in this case, Jarrod had been the vessel for the Big Bad!
• Supernatural had two demons (Casey and the priest) in love (or at least strongly suggested to be engaging in carnal relations) for "Sin City".
• In volume three of Heroes - having been downgraded from Big Bad to a minion of Arthur Petrelli - Sylar somehow hooks up with Elle, even though he murdered her father and stole his ability in the first episode of the season. He ends up killing her, though.

Video Games

• Axel and Larxene in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, though Larxene's flirtations with him are probably her way of trying to make him squirm. Also, Axel's status as Marluxia's minion isn't exactly what it seems to be...
  • Fans also like to pair Larxene up with her "partner", Marlurxia, while Axel is often paired with his close friend Roxas.
    • 358/2 Days now has given Axel/Saix shippers more fodder, as they used to be best friends.
  • Xem Sai is also a fairly popular pairing despite the Ship Sinking attempt in Days, due to a certain cutscene towards the end of the second game.
• Beauty and Dandy in Ghost Trick, although it's debatable whether Beauty is outright rejecting Dandy's affections or they just have some weird D/S thing going on.
• A popular Fanfic pairing in Dissidia Final Fantasy is that of Emperor Palamecia and Ultimecia, due to their interactions in the main storyline.
  • Same goes for Exdeath and the Cloud of Darkness, due to their shared obsession with nothingness.
• In Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World we have DecusXAlice. While a bit onesided on Decus' part for most of the game, Alice finally returns his feelings after he dies shielding her from a fatal blow. After announcing that she loves him too, she dies trying to avenge him.
• In Final Fantasy VII, this trope gets toyed with a bit as the Turks (or at least Reno and Rude) like to gossip about which characters have crushes on others (among themselves and the player's party) and Elena and Tseng end up romantically involved to some degree. Elena is quite pissed off at the party when she runs into them on the Northern Continent, believing that they were responsible for attacking Tseng in the Temple of the Ancients.
• At least one in the Metal Gear series - Vamp and Fortune from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Your Mileage May Vary on whether The Boss and The Sorrow count as The Boss isn't technically evil, and The Sorrow is already dead at the beginning of the game. Still, you do battle with both of them.

Webcomics

• This technically not canon page from Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures.
• Stephanos and Yonatan from Fake News Rumble. Lampshaded by Stephen with a certain child-like glee.
• Hansel and Gretel of Fey Winds, if the way they drape themselves over each other is any indication.
• Nale and Sabine from The Order of the Stick qualify, if only for their initial appearance when they were "working for" Xykon. After that, they are more of a Villainous Duo (or she could be considered The Dragon to his Master Mind).
• Girl Genius is chock full of this. Minions abound, and whenever their masters are busy with A-plot nonsense, there's always some kind of Ship Tease from the Foglios. Most prominent are Zeetha and The Unstoppable Higgs, who are all but official at this point. Also in the mix is Moloch von Zinzer, who has a crush on Sanaa Wilhelm, but has won the adoration of Fraulein Snaug and, possibly, Violetta. The recent confirmation of a relationship between Sleipnir O'Hara and Theo DuMedd may count as well. Bangladesh Dupree and Vole are another example, since the former is attracted to the latter's Ax Crazy nature.
• Penny Arcade brings us this.

Western Animation

• Hammerhead and Silver Sable of The Spectacular Spider-Man used to be this, but had a breakup and don't get along with each other. The one time we saw any affection onscreen, Hammerhead was lying about wanting to make up and just using her as part of his scheme to become the Big Man.
• In The Tick (animation) animation, there's a running joke where Buttery Pat and the Bee Twins, the henchmen of The Breadmaster and El Seed, have... a thing... going on, and will be waving and generally flirting in the background while the two villains are ranting to each other. Although, given that he is made of butter and they are humanoid bees, we should probably be glad they don't get any more camera time.
• Transformers loves this trope.
  • Snowcat and Demolishor of Transformers Energon had this habit of clinging to each other and were rarely seen by themselves. They even got prison cells together.
  • Ransack and Crumplezone in Transformers Cybertron had a similar very-close-buddy dynamic. There's also Thunderblast, who doesn't so much ship herself as hit on anyone with power and strength.
  • Beast Wars Waspinator and Terrorsaur seem to get shipped a lot lately, although that's mostly Wayward's fault.
  • Canon for Strika and Obsidian in Beast Machines
  • And also canon for Strika and Lugnut in Transformers Animated. While they're never seen together, Strika's bio says that Lugnut is her consort.
  • Also in Animated, human supervillains Nanosec and Slo-Mo fall hard for each other when the latter forms a Legion of Doom.
  • In Transformers Prime, Breakdown develops an interest in Airachnid after getting into a fight with her, although fans much prefer to pair him up with his partner, Knock Out.
    • Not that it matters any more, now that Airachnid has brutally murdered Breakdown.
• Not quite minions, as Destro is The Dragon and the Baroness is part of the Council Of Evil, but the aforementioned G.I. Joe villains are known for being romantically involved—a surprisingly human show of emotion, given that everything else about them was pure evil.
• Mai and Zuko, part of The Dragon's Quirky Miniboss Squad on Avatar: The Last Airbender, get together in the third season and spend a lot of time making out and Getting Crap Past the Radar before their Heel Face Turns.