Villains and Big baddies (1 Viewer)

[Locusta]

Where is the line drawn with the definition of Zako? Does a powerful henchwoman who even has her own story arch considered zako if pummeled by the hero? Or are zako only nameless, sometimes cloned copies of each other..? Would zako include even evil queens and cosmic threats? I do enjoy(obsess over) the idea of a powerful alpha-threat villain demolished by some upstart.

Any thoughts?

 

[snakesonaplane]

I personally don't care about their rank, I treat this section as just for female villains in general, whether it's an evil queen or her lowly female soldiers, doesn't bother me. Just a shame people ignore the big villains just because they are a boss in a game etc

 

[nonniemouse]

I think zakos means "small fish", which carries the connotation that they're expendable and numerous in number. So "named" villainesses would probably not qualify under this trope. That said, major female villains are certainly within my sphere of interest as well :)

 

[NNin]

Unless they are a very minor characters, like a guard that is killed quickly. I think a named characters are not counted as zako.

 

[Kimblis]

We've discussed this issue a few times before without coming to a completely solid conclusion.
I think it's hard to draw a definitive line on this issue. On the one hand, as nonniemouse stated, the term "zako" means "small fish", and in this context it refers to the expendable, low-level female minions rather than a high ranking individual villainess, much less an evil queen. However, could a named, individual villainess also be a zako? I think so, as long as she is still a minor character who is treated more like expendable cannon fodder rather than someone important or high-ranking.

There may be a "zako" spectrum, with cloned or nameless minions on one far end being clearly zako, and named, individual but still minor minions being more towards the middle (but still zako), followed by the higher-ranking villainesses who are more on the other side but who may still have a few "zako" qualities (being treated as expendable by their boss, for example), and the evil queen or arch-villainess type being on the far opposite end of the spectrum. So I definitely don't think it's required that a female enemy be cloned or nameless to be a zako, but those are both qualities that are strongly associated with zako.

Regarding the evil queen and arch-villainess types, I agree they can be interesting, but they probably belong in a separate thread rather than in the main "zako" thread.
Other thoughts?

 

[Locusta]

Yes, I felt that moderately relevant villains and alpha-baddies are somewhat excluded from zako, though the idea of a previously threatening villainess reduced to cannon fodder and suffering a swift and inglorious defeat is interesting to me.

I made a request thread regarding the fall of more influential antagonists. I hope others can see the intrigue in this dynamic that I do.

 

[saikogun]

For bosses or not any villanesses in japanese are calldd akkujo which means evil bitches. Zakos or more specifically female zakos are just exandable grunts. They are two different fetished that alot of people happened to enjoy both... one thing is to be a female zako you dont have to be evil like in red sonja where the good girls got slaughtered by evil ones

 

[Locusta]

akkujo! Thank you for the infos. I do like seeing the evil bitch win as well. There really doesn't seem to be enough akkujo in ryona, imho.

 

[Locusta]

I had recently played an old arcade machine with a friend, a later sequel of Golden Axe. The third perhaps? Anyway, I was playing as the centaur lady and he used a little elf guy... and we encountered 2 bosses which where both female and who appeared later in the game as well. They went down easily and had quite a few interesting animations. They both appeared to be ogre-like but this suits my fantasies of being stronger than humans yet suffering a landslide defeat. Lol...

Anyway, just thought I'd share that. I would like that game a lot better if the ogre women where playable :p