Sorry it’s late, folks–I totally spaced on it!
General Introduction
– Nathan defends!
– How sound editing works
– Listener feedback
– What’s on the blog? And why NOT?
The Sidekick with a Thousand Faces
– Why does Campbell leave Wiglaf out?
– Marginalizing the sidekick
– Meditations on hero-life
– The lone knight and the languishing maiden
– Do sidekicks have an identity of their own?
Sidekick as Reader Surrogate
– A little dumber than the audience
– No unexpressed thoughts
– Robin as audience surrogate
– The blandness of the surrogate
– The death and resurrection of the teen sidekick
– Police procedurals
The Sidekick Ex Machina
– Its prevalence in children’s programming
– Looking down on the hero
– The eleven-year-old hacker
– Competent cartoon dads
The Ethnic Sidekick
– Justifiable uneasiness
– Searching for the noble ethnic sidekick
The Successor Sidekick
– Commander Riker
– The evolution of Ben Kenobi
– Extending the career of the sidekick
– The Adventures of Wiglaf
The Henchman
– The idiot henchmen
– The henchman switching sides
– Evil is more interesting than good
– How real supervillains act
Theological Sidekicks
– The disciples, the apostles, and you
– The beatitudes and sidekicks
– Sidekick, not maiden
This may be controversial but a new addition to the sidekick world has been that of either the “wise gay” or the “comic relief gay” friend. I’ve noticed this trend in popular film and television lately.
I’ve been ill, so I may have missed this, but I don’t think I heard you mention animal sidekicks or non-animate sidekicks. For instance, the movie K-9, for animal. For non-animate, the first three robot novels by Isaac Asimov, in which the detective is accompanied by a robot (R. Daneel Olivaw, to be specific).
I’m sure there are more of both kinds.
And that doesn’t include the team of C3PO and R2D2, though I’m not sure which one is the sidekick.
I enjoyed this romp into sidekick-dom.
You neglected to include HongKong Phooey and his cat in your list of animated sidekicks. The cat was always much smarter and more adept than the dog in this Saturday morning cartoon. HKP is a favorite of my young nephews.
You also neglected the literary reference of Around the World in 80 Days. My first exposure to Fogg & his sidekick was also a Saturday morning cartoon followed by the David Niven (?) movie.
As always, you 3 are more akin to muskateers than hero & sidekicks.