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Sometimes, the Big Bad of a story will have their most elite defenders be composed of exclusively female warriors.
Occasionally, however, it would be the hero (or a supporting character on the good side) who has Bodyguard Babes, at which point it's almost mandatory that Hilarity Ensues via an Unwanted Harem situation.
Unsurprisingly this is most common when the one being defended by the Bodyguard Babes is male.
In short, Praetorian Guard recruited from an Amazon Brigade. See also The Paid for Harem. Ninja Maid is more specialized subtrope.
Anime and Manga[]
- Jail Scagletti has The Numbers, who are also a Quirky Miniboss Squad. They also have...Other surprises.
- Code Geass--
- Lelouch's female bodyguard, Kallen Kouzuki.
- In a related example, Knight of the Round Luciano Bradley is supported by the Grausam Valkyrie Team, an Amazon Brigade complete with pink mecha.
- Lust and Sloth from Fullmetal Alchemist act as two of Dante's bodyguards for the most part.
- The Delmogeny a.k.a. Delmo Corps; the less said about what the Big Bad wants to do with them after his grand plan is achieved, the better.
- In one episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, a bad guy of the week is tipped off that the police are trying to track him down. While a shootout proceeds outside in the hallway, Motoko Kusanagi jumps in through the window. One mook notices her and tells two female android bodyguards to fight her off. The beautifully animated fight scene that followed counts as one of Motoko's numerous Crowning Moments of Awesome.
- In another episode the target of an assassination attempt lives in a mansion with Robot Girl guards/maids.
- Seen also in the original manga with Colonel Tonoda's Sex Bot suddenly sprouting guns to fend off an attack by a rogue gynoid.
- One villain in City Hunter has an entire militia of female mercenaries guarding his private mansion. Said villain was allergic to the presence of other men, hence the justification of this trope.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, Fate's personal Quirky Miniboss Squad is composed exclusively of Cute Monster Girls. As of late, he's even dressed them up as maids.
- Ala Alba itself nearly counts, given that all of them by now have made Pactios with Negi. Kotaro is the only outrider in the deal, and when he gets into a Pactio with Natsumi, she's more of a stealth expert than an Action Girl.
- Most of the villains in Sailor Moon. Specifically the Ayakashi Sisters (R), the Amazoness Quartet (Super S) and the Sailor Animates (Stars). The Witches Five from S were more of an Evil Genius team, as they'd send mooks but rarely fought.
- In the manga and Sailor Moon Crystal, the inner scouts count as this for Princess Serenity, along with the Amazoness Quartet for Chibiusa in the Sailor Moon Eternal movies.
- A quartet of these crop up occasionally in Cardcaptor Sakura, generally called in by Tomoyo when transport is needed an no other adult figures are available.
- Halibel from Bleach has a female-only fraccion.
- Subverted in the last arc: it seemed Bambietta Basterbine had one of these, but the girls are actually her buddies and can be very mouthy towards her.
- The maids in charge of security of the Hanaukyo household in Hanaukyo Maid Tai.
- In the Saint Seiya Spin-Off Saintia Sho, the titular Saintias are female Saints who are allowed to keep their femininity (therefore, they don't use masks) and secretly trained so they can be this to Athena. In the present, Saori has five of these young ladies at her orders: Equuleus Shouko, Delphinus Mii (who actually is Saori's personal assistant, and even is seen in a maid outfit), Ursa Minor Xiaoling, Corona Borealis Katya, and Cassiopeia Erda.
Comic Books[]
- The Joker's topless female Nazi bodyguard Bruno in All Star Batman and The Dark Knight Returns. Yes, you read that right. She wears swastika pasties.
- Bruno's an independent operative in DKR. Rob and Don work for her after the mutant leader's takedown.
- Harley Quinn
- Black Panther has a highly trained group of female bodyguards called the Dora Milaje, who are technically speaking wives-in-waiting - but since he never ever sleeps with any of them, you can't really call them a harem. They call him 'husband', however. They're almost certainly inspired by the "Dahomey Amazons" - see the Real Life section below.
- In the Superman comics, Lex Luthor has a pair of female bodyguards named Mercy (a Canon Immigrant from Superman: The Animated Series) and Hope. It has been hinted that they might be a pair of renegade Amazons.
- Spider Jerusalem's "filthy assistants".
- Darkseid has the Female Furies, though they are only rarely used as bodyguards per se.
- In Strangers in Paradise, Darcy Parker has the bleached-blonde amazonian twins Tambi and Bambi as her bodyguards and main thugs. They are eventually revealed as heroine Katchoo's half-sisters.
- Wonder Woman's mother, Queen Hippolyta, named Alkyone, Myrto, Charis, and Philomela as her personal guards. While they were indeed fanatically devoted to their queen, it... didn't work out that well, particularly since they didn't transfer that loyalty to the queen's daughter.
- The Riddler had Echo and Query towards the end of his criminal career. They have yet to reappear since he became a reformed detective.
- Miho often acts as a bodyguard to Dwight in Sin City.
Film[]
- In the Wild Wild West movie, Dr Loveless has his aides/bodyguards Amazonia, Munitia, Miss Lippenrieder and Miss East.
- The reclusive millionaire in Diamonds Are Forever, is guarded (from rescue or escape) by two beautiful and under-clad young women named Bambi and Thumper. James Bond is forced to beat them.
- The World Is Not Enough. Bond enters The Mafiya casino wearing his X-Ray specs which reveals the lingerie of the casino girls...and the fact that they're carrying guns under their dresses.
- Mr. Han's daughters from Enter the Dragon. As Roper says, "No one's more loyal than Daddy's little girl."
- Used in the Jackie Chan movie Armour of God (aka Operation Condor 2).
- Rotti Largo from Repo! The Genetic Opera is always accompanied by his two female body guards. For a gender inversion, Amber Sweet and her two bondage guards.
- Frank White of King of New York rarely goes anywhere without his Salt and Pepper pair of Bodyguard Babes, Melanie and Raye.
- Queen Amidala's handmaidens in Star Wars are also highly trained bodyguards. Watch five beautifully dressed, flawlessly coiffed young women mow down battle droids.
Literature[]
- Molly, a "razorgirl", in the short story Johnny Mnemonic. (In the film, she was replaced with the Captain Ersatz Jane because the rights to the character of Molly were tied up with the Neuromancer film which was never produced.)
- The Fish Speakers, God-Emperor Leto II's galactic occupation army, whose elite members make up his personal guard unit. Entirely female as part of his master plan for humanity's destiny and to prevent things like his soldiers raping civilians or otherwise abusing their monopoly on violence (like every male army in history).
- Quiller's Run by Adam Hall. Shoda, female Thai Arms Dealer and Big Bad, uses women as bodyguards and assassins.
- In Barry Hughart's The Story of the Stone, the barbarian king who is holding Moon Boy (sort of) captive has a regiment of all-female bodyguards.
- In the Sword of Truth series, the D'Haran Emperor's Combat Sadomasochist elite bodyguard cadre, the Mord-Sith, who all wear skintight red leather, and wield what is essentially a magical riding crop.
- Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in A Strange Land has surrounded himself with beautiful personal assistants, among whose multiple talents and skills include his personal security. Although they flirt, he's too much of a Chivalrous Pervert (and perhaps too old) to regard them as a harem.
- The Hapan Royal Guard in the Star Wars Expanded universe.
- Giantia and Titania, John Sunlight's Amazonian bodyguards, in the Doc Savage novel Fortress of Solitude.
- In the Sten Series, the eponymous protagonist acquires a Bhor bodyguard. The Bhor are enormous aliens who look rather like large blue-furred wookies and act like vikings, but the captain of the guard is Cind, human sniper-hottie who also harbors a major Bodyguard Crush.
- When Elayne reorganizes the Queen's Guard in The Wheel of Time, per personal bodyguard becomes this.
- Also, the Maidens of the Spear become this to Rand, much to his chagrin.
- An equal opportunity example shows up in the Merry Gentry series. The royals of the faerie court are guarded by a cadre of the opposite sex, who double as a harem until the royal person is married.
- While a single- (and opposite-) sex guard, and the harem emphasis, are recent phenomena of Unseelie-specific history, membership in any court's Royal Guard was always one way to become a lover and potential consort, so this was pandemic to the setting to a limited extent.
- In the Haven series by Simon R. Green the biggest crime boss in Haven (St Christophe) has a bodyguard of twelve female bodyguards, each a deadly warrior and completely naked bar their swordbelts as a very effective distraction technique.
Live Action TV[]
- VR Troopers has Karl Ziktor flanked in his office by women.
- In Choujinki Metalder, Gozo Kirihara (Karl Ziktor's counterpart in the source material) has his two secretaries, K and S.
- The Mord-Sith from Legend of the Seeker.
Professional Wrestling[]
- Chyna was Triple H's body guard back when he was still a mid-carder in the WWE.
Tabletop Games[]
- One of the villains in Dark Champions has twin female bodyguards Starrlight and Starrbright.
- In the backstory of Warhammer 40000, corrupt Master of the Administratum and dictator of the Imperium Goge Vandire had an all-female bodyguard known as the Brides Of The Emperor, who were conditioned to believe everything he said unquestioningly and practically worship him. In the end though they turned on him and beheaded him after their leaders had an audience with their god, the Emperor. They are now known as the Sisters Of Battle.
- The exceedingly combat-capable Felicia series bioroids in Transhuman Space were created for an eccentric sultan to be both this and living ornaments for his throne room. They proved their worth when his sister tried to hurry the succession along, and became very popular.
Video Games[]
- Oni has the Fury class of Striker troops. The manual states that the red-ranked Furies are Muro's personal bodyguard.
- Shows up in Return To Castle Wolfenstein.
- The Elite Guard are the personal bodyguard/elite troops for Colonel Helga von Bulow of the SS Paranormal Division.
- In Evil Genius, your mastermind starts accumulating Stripperiffic bodyguards once your Notoriety is high enough.
- Devil May Cry 2 features a boss fight in which Arius leaves the fight to have his Artificial Human female guards attack Dante. Supposedly these are stronger than Lucia, as she's a defect. She manages to defeat Arius herself at the end of the game.
- In the third Time Splitters game, Future Perfect, the 1960's levels have you and Harry Tipper battle a James Bond villain whose elite guard are made up entirely of women, bluntly titled "The Booty Guard".
- Final Fantasy IX had Queen Brahne's main army troops be all female (and dressed in somewhat impractical armour and uniforms that flatter their figure); the men were in the Knights of Pluto, and had much less respect. The backstory indicates the country of Alexandria has been a matriarchy (both politically and militarily) for centuries if not longer.
- In Mass Effect, mini-boss Matriarch Benezia has a personal squad of tightly-clad asari commandos at her service. Of course, since all asari are female, this trope would be the general rule, unless an asari VIP was to hire alien bodyguards.
- The FROG unit and the Beauty and the Beast Corps in Metal Gear Solid 4 are both exclusively female, and the most Elite of mooks in the game.
- The entire Bison Elite Guard (a.k.a. the Dolls) from Street Fighter Alpha 3 may qualify, but only Juni and Juli serve this function in-game during the arcade mode as the last two opponents prior to the final match with M. Bison for most of the characters.
- The Feng twins from Indiana Jones and The Emperors Tomb.
- The female Prometheus soldiers in Soldier of Fortune II, although they're less skilled than their male counterparts.
- Cassandra's bodyguards in Perfect Dark, much stronger than the Mooks you had been fighting for the first two levels of the game.
- Zhang Li's last line of defense in Perfect Dark Zero is a group of about 20 elite female guards armed with cloaking devices and plasma rifles.
- Come on, who HASN'T done this in at least one Disgaea game!?
- According to the Diablo II manual, the succubi enemies in Lord of Destruction are Baal's personal harem. Given that you'll fight a few hundred over the course of Act V, Baal is clearly a pimp.
- Lunar: Silver Star Story: The Magic Emperor's three main henchmen are sexy-evil Xenobia, Phacia and Royce. To add insult to injury, he later recruits Luna, the protagonist's girlfriend.
- Gauche and Droite are Yeager's twin loli bodyguards in Tales of Vesperia.
- Celia and Lettie to Marquis Elmdor in Final Fantasy Tactics, though slightly subverted in that they're actually non-gendered demons.
- Al-Cid in Final Fantasy Tactics a 2 fights your clan with his gang of Viera bodyguards. The law (or rule) for that fight forbids you to lay harm on the Veria units at all, making them dangerous if you plan to abide by the law.
- Umineko no Naku Koro ni brings not only Beatrice's sisters-in-furniture, The Seven Stakes of Purgatory, there's also the bunny-girl quartet of MARIA's The Siesta Corps.
- After his Face Heel Turn and taking over the Mishima Zaibatsu, Jin Kazama hires Nina Williams to be his personal bodyguard in Tekken 6.
- In World of Warcraft, all of the guards for Darnassus, the night elf capital city, are women, including Tyrande Whisperwind's Honor Guard.
- In the original No One Lives Forever, a group of three brightly-patterned Spy Catsuit-wearing, Charlie's Angels-like women serve as this for H.A.R.M. They even have sixties-style promotional posters in their room touting them as the Elite Guard. They often complain that they have nothing to do.
- I-Ninja's Big Bad, The Evil Overlord O-Dor was protected by his Elite all female body guards, the Stenchu.
- Lord Tokimune uses Kunoichi golems as his personal bodyguards.
- The Bratgirls from Crash Of The Titans are Nina's personal bodyguards. Not so much in Mind Over Mutant, though.
- In The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, you get several of these, as almost all the housecarls you get when named Thane of a hold are nubile females with reasonably good battle skills.
- In Batman: Arkham City, Talia al Ghul possesses an elite squad of Kunoichi bodyguards.
- In Super Robot Wars Original Generation, Maier Branstein's personal guard are the Troye/Treue Unit, comprised entirely of female pilots. Considering that his niece was among them, we can only hope he didn't create the unit for the obvious reasons.
Webcomics[]
- Annyseed: Count Tarrorviene is never seen without the lovely ninja Tabria watching over him.
- Nick Claus in Monsterful has an entire humanoid reindeer team (it even includes a red-nose Loli by the name of Rudelph), they serve as both reindeer and also double as Nick bodyguards.
- The entire reindeer team (even including Nick) is a fanservice parade!
- The Mistress' guards in Oglaf.
Web Original[]
- Billionaire industrialist Lexington Cargill, one of the Big Bads of the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, is always accompanied by three rather tall and imposing women named Faith, Hope, and Charity. It is known that each of these three is super-strong and immune to gunfire.
Western Animation[]
- Superman: The Animated Series has Lex Luthor's bodyguard, Mercy Graves, who wears a chauffeur uniform with very tight pants
- It could have also been a very short skirt with tights, as her jacket covered her crotch, and was never shown what she wore underneath. Her leg-wear also seems to vary between some frames; Changing from a solid grey to more of an opaque color.
- Mercy returned as Lex's bodyguard in The Batman and Young Justice.
- Batman the Animated Series examples:
- Mr. Freeze of all people employed a goon squad of women wearing impossibly short leg-baring parka-type outfits. One would hope they're actually wearing warm and comfy flesh-colored tights.
- The Penguin had henchwomen Jay, Lark and Raven.
- Calender Girl had the gender-flipped version; bodyguards who looked like Chippendales Dancers.
- In the Batman the Brave And The Bold episode "The Mask of Matches Malone!", Batman poses as mobster Matches Malone and has Black Canary, Huntress and Catwoman pose as his bodyguards. After being conked on the head and believing himself to be a true mobster, Malone is shown with several other henchwomen/bodyguards.
- Another episode has Lashina and Stompa, Mongal's female enforcers.
- The Batman had the Kabuki Twins, the Penguin's two female bodyguards. The above-mentioned Mercy Graves also appeared as Luthor's bodyguard in a later episode. The final season also introduced attractive female sidekicks for Mirror Master and Firefly, despite both villains generally working alone in the comics.
Real Life[]
- Chandragupta Maurya had an army of female bodyguards, making this Older Than Feudalism.
- The 40-woman 'Green Nuns' of the deceased Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi (may his spellings be many). Muammar claimed that the "Green Nuns" were formed to get the Libyan people to warm up to the idea of women in the armed forces. How much of that you believe is up to you...
- The non-fiction book Gomorrah mentioned that female Camorra gang bosses use female bodyguards. They often dress in yellow jumpsuits in homage to Uma Thurman's outfit in Kill Bill.
- The Dahomey Amazons of Benin, who went from royal harem to Praetorian Guard before being expanded into an all-out Amazon Brigade.
- Yakov Smirnoff parodies this concept in his show in Branson; when he plays "President Yakov", his bodyguards are attractive women.
Audience member: Mr. President... can I get your Secret Service agents's numbers? |
- Madame Nhu, the first lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963 who infamously referred to the self-immolation of a Buddhist monk in protest of her brother-in-law's policies as a "Buddhist barbecue" and was herself referred to by some as "the Dragon Lady," had a team of all female bodyguards.
- Chinese businesswomen are starting to seek out young female bodyguards who are less conspicuous than their burly male counterparts. They are still subjected to the same intense training.