In any story with an action element, there needs to be an element of tension and plenty of threats to be dealt with. Most audiences won’t be thrilled with one villain, so the antagonist will typically hire a healthy army of incompetent goons for the hero to easily plow through. However, some henchpeople go above and beyond to become Doom Troops and finally give the hero a real challenge.
Antagonists can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. A fantasy story might have an endless supply of brigandsor orcs to cut down. A martial arts movie can send countless young karate practitioners to an inevitable knock-out. Perhaps more than any other genre, science fiction can send hundreds of billions of soldiers into massive battles that quickly cut their numbers down to zero.
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The life of the humble henchperson tends to be short, brutal, and meaningless. They’re identical to their thousands of peers, they’re feared and despised by the unarmed populace, but the moment they meet a main character, they’re as good as dead. They are the lowest rank of the villain’s forces, but any villain worth their salt will have more than one rank. Above the minions, but below the main villain, the Doom Troop appears. Doom Troops areprimarily designed to be terrifying, both in and out of the fictional universe. They tend to be decked out in black, covered by masks, and armed to the teeth. They represent a tangible heightening of tension for the protagonist. Sure, the hero has bested so many default minions that it’s become boring to watch, but what about these new stronger minions? Doom Troopers will often force the good guys to go back to the drawing board to come up with a new strategy, providing a perfect setup for a big third-act plan of attack.
The Doom Troop trope has its roots in real history.The Roman army, knowntoday as a staggeringly effective war machine, wasn’t always so impressive. In 107 BCE, a statesman named Gaius Marius instituted a series of policy changes that completely revolutionized the military. Rome previously made do with a force of citizen volunteers who were forced to provide their own supplies and immediately disbanded when they were no longer useful. This made the army entirely dependent on the wealth of the citizens it drafted and ruled out anyone who didn’t own land.
Marius expanded the draft and entreated the state to provide top-of-the-line armaments to every soldier. He also provided stable pay and a massive increase in status for those willing to sign on as permanent soldiers. Suddenly, poor men flockedto the Roman armyto fight for a better life. They formed a new permanent army that would be kept in tip-top shape with constant training. Marius also enacted a policy ensuring that Roman legionnaires would carry their supplies themselves, causing them to be known as “Marius’s Mules.” By replacing untrained mooks with well-armed soldiers, Marius had created the first Doom Troop.
In science fiction, the go-to example is Star Wars.The Stormtrooper, the go-toexample of an incompetent henchman, was heavily inspired by the Nazis. The Nazis, heavily inspired by Ancient Rome, had their own answer to Marius’s Mules in the form of the Waffen SS. Technically, the Stormtroopers in the full suit of white armor are the Empire’s Doom Troops, but the audience almost always sees them being easily dispatched. However, over the years, the franchise has introduced Dark Troops and Death Troopers, both of whom escalates the threat. The prequels featured an army of disposable droids, who had their own Doom Troops in the form of super battle droids. Big franchises require escalation, so expect a constant flow of more powerful versions of stormtroopers from new entries.
Video games have a ball with this trope, as it provides a cast of elite enemies to play with. The most visually perfect encapsulation of the Doom Troops gimmick is the HelghastfromtheKillzonefranchise. Later entries added some nuance to their military engagements, but the first couple of games imagined the red-eyed black-suited super soldiers as pure killing machines.Half-Life 2has the Combine, whose humanoid troops pose a major threat. Multiple factions inFallouthave enhanced ranks, including the NCR Veterans, the Legion Centurions, and any Brotherhood of Steelunit in Power Armor. It’s common across most genres, and the visual upgrade given to elite enemies typically fits the Doom Troop trope.
Doom Troops are simple creatures designed to fill a role. Like the henchpeople that go before them, they’re there because they have to be there. However, their simple function doesn’t limit their creativity. Authors can do just about anything to give theirantagonist’s minions a littleextra edge against their foes. Fans have seen the Doom Troop blown away in a thousand different stories, but they’re still a welcome addition to any villain’s army.
