What it Means to be a Henchman
Edward Varnell – Twitter: @thatretrocode
When we hear the word henchman, we assume that we talking about the goons and grunts that attack the heroes in our games or stories. Yesterday though, we learned that a henchman is the main villain’s right-hand person. They believe in their bosses vision while sometimes having their own. It would be easy if the head honcho could be everywhere but it doesn’t always work out like that. They need someone to handle parts of the madness with them.
Take the original Power Rangers from 1993 to 1994. Rita Repulsa, our main villain for the first season, always was accompanied by Goldar. He was always willing to do whatever she needed and even came to earth sometimes to oversee the fight with the Power Rangers. When the opportunity came Goldar, he ended up siding with Lord Zedd for Season 2. After so many failures and put-downs, Goldar’s loyalties shifted. He was still a henchman and was the only doing everything in his power to defeat the Rangers. Alas, he always was beaten yet kept his position.
For a lot of people, the relationship with Krang and Shredder. Shredder worked with Krang to destroy the Ninja Turtles and overlook the foot clan. He even got his own henchman with Bebop and Rocksteady. In the animated show, they were seen as bumbling fools with power but would run away when the turtles won the altercation. Even when they were with Shredder, all three of them would retreat in defeat. It’s weird though because in TMNT IV: Turtles In Time, Krang is portrayed as a henchman to Shredder since you fought him first before your final fight with Super Shredder.
In video games, King Koopa/Bowser has his kids but if we had to look at one particular henchman he has, its none other than Kamek. He started to be around him more when the Paper Mario series came along. Spreading his magic around which makes small objects and enemies enormous. He’s not always around him due to many series Mario is in but when it comes to the RPG games, he tends to show up when Bowser is around.
Dracula from the Castlevania series doesn’t have a particular henchman but in most of the series, Death itself appears frequently that you come across in most of his games. With his goal to stop anyone who is trying to defeat Dracula, Death will interfere with his scythe and sometimes, all hell does break loose.
There are tons of henchman we can think of and we love. Without their help and commitment to stop our protagonist, the situation could feel uneventful and progress wouldn’t be made quicker. Well, most of them end up failing but it doesn’t stop these henchmen from pleasing the master. You have to respect that at least.
