Saturday, February 23, 2013

What goes around comes around

When I was younger I had no idea what that phrase meant. It was something my parents said, but let's be honest about this - at that age, when your parents talk, it all comes out as "ner ner ner."

But I think this phrase - 'what goes around comes around', not 'ner ner ner' carries some significance to the modern minion.

People aren't going to respect you if you're like a cat playing with a mouse. They aren't going like you, and that's more important than you think.

For example: You've been captured by the hero. Not two days ago, though, it was the other way around; he was in your master's dungeons.

Now, here's the question: While he was your prisoner, how did you treat him? I mean, even ignoring what your Overlord told you to do. He may have told you to torture the prisoner, but were you gloating? Did you enjoy it?

Because if so, I would advise not  getting captured. It isn't going to be fun. I mean, less fun than getting captured by the enemy usually is.

What goes around comes around. Treat your enemies with as much respect as you can, or at least, don't go out of your way to cause discomfort. You'll regret it.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Little things in Life

I was just thinking, today, about all the little things we minions are not credited with.

Well, there's the obvious things, of course; the fact that we're the only ones who get anything done, the way we spend our whole lives (often not a great period of time, I might add) serving our Overlords, the way we're so good at oiling the trap door hinges.

But there are all sorts of things we don't receive proper recognition for. Let's look at some of those, shall we?

Style! That's actually a large one. We're expected to maintain certain standards of dress and speech - for example, how do you think those hulking thugs got so good at grunting? Practice, of course.

The style of the minion defines them. As I've mentioned before, to be a good minion, you usually have to place yourself in one of the categories (thug, secretary, guard #27, etc.) and it takes work to achieve that status. For example, the thug has to learn to scuff up his shoes before wearing them, and the sycophant - do you think it's easy to spend that much time thinking up compliments?

Weapons training. Oh, that takes time. And again, as a matter of style you have to chose the perfect weapon for your class.

Humility. The whole point of being a minion is to publicly admit that you have no interest in taking over the world (whether that's true or not is up to you). You have to accept the fact that you'll be scorned and laughed at, and accused of having no ambition. You may even be imprisoned or otherwise punished for something you didn't do because you're a convenient scapegoat.

Sheer mundane work. Do you think an Overlord matches his own socks up? Or vacuums his own evil lair? Or throws his own corpses into the moat? I think not. Even if you hate cooking, cleaning, or disposing of evidence, you do it anyway, because it's your job.

Bills and taxes. Of course, if your Overlord has already taken over the world, it's not that big a deal. You can hire your own minions to do the math. However, for most of us, it's more difficult. Your wanna-be Overlord has to purchase all those death ray components and hire all those minions, and who ends up having to figure up where to get the funds? You do, of course. Well, if you're a hulking thug you may get out of that. But for everyone else, you're out of luck. Bring a calculator.

~Headmistress Darke