For those of you living under a rock, Zombieland opened last weekend and went quickly to number one (and we, of course, reviewed it here.) One of the clever moves of the film is that it takes your traditional Hero — muscular, confident, aggressive — and your standard Sidekick — smart but cowardly, neurotic — and flips them, so that we see the film through the eyes of the sidekick, played with hilarious gusto by Jesse Eisenberg.
Although the characters in the film aren’t aware of this switch, and continue on in their respective paths, we in the audience are clued in to the fact that this won’t be your traditional action/horror film. In fact, Eisenberg’s character, Columbus, in a moment of meta-consciousness, even refers to himself as “sort of a Sancho Panza-type.”
Sancho Panza was, of course, the prototypical sidekick, who traveled around at the side of Don Quixote in Miguel de Cervantes’ historic novel of the same name. Unlike the slender, intelligent Columbus, however, Sancho was overweight and dim, riding atop a donkey, yet lovable for his unshakable loyalty to his master, Quixote.
It is this loyalty that allows for Quixote to continue on in his quests, whether he’s aware of it or not, and like a truly great sidekick, Sancho never asks for affirmation. He simply is there for the hero, even though in this case, the hero is a delusional old man (which, perhaps, proves Sancho’s worth all the more.)
But while the sidekick has his or her place in a story, longer tales often develop the sidekick to the point where they’re on the same level as the hero, which is always satisfying for a reader or viewer. After all, haven’t we all, at some points in out lives, felt a lot more like Robin than Batman? So it’s small wonder we take comfort in the fact that Robin, the epitome of a sidekick, grew up and became Nightwing, a hero in his own right, on par with Batman.
In fantasy literature, perhaps one of the greatest examples of a sidekick rising up to the level of hero is Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings. Like Sancho, Sam is neither slim nor very smart, and for most of the story, Sam exists to cook food for Frodo and keep up his spirits, all the while contentedly walking behind his master on their epic quest.
But when Frodo is attacked and Sam believes he is dead, a change occurs in him, something visceral, something which can never be undone. He realizes that the fate of the Ring and indeed, the world, now rests solely on his humble shoulders, and so he stands up, picks up his master’s sword, and carries on.
Frodo didn’t die, of course, and the two hobbits are reunited, but things will never go back to the way they were before. By the end of their journey, Frodo has come to respect Sam as an equal, and when death again seems imminent, utters to Sam the famous words, “I’m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things.”
In the wake of Sam, it seems that the sidekick-turned-hero angle is all the rage. The most obvious example that springs to mind from contemporary is, of course, Gabrielle, the Battling Bard, whose popularity threatens to outshine that of the hero, Xena. Throughout the six seasons of Xena: Warrior Princess, we see as Gabrielle grows and changes from a feisty but physically weak farm girl into an accomplished warrior, inheriting Xena’s place after her death.
On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow Rosenburg, who was naught but a vastly intelligent nerd, became aware of the existence of the supernatural when Buffy Summers came to town, and that indirectly resulted in her learning witchcraft to the point where she became the “most powerful witch in the western hemisphere.”
But as for my favorite sidekick? That would have to go to Ron Weasley, the bumbling poor kid who was just another Weasley sibling until he met up with Harry Potter in their first year at Hogwarts.
Come on, just look at that picture! If you didn’t say “Awww…” you’re made of stone.
Ron comes into Hogwarts the way many of us do any other school, frightened and overwhelmed, feeling very small and very alone. But by befriending Harry Potter, he assured his name would go down in the history books. Had it not been for Harry and all of the danger that followed him like a dark storm cloud, Ron might never have been tested as thoroughly as he was, thus never knowing his true potential.
While real life is never as cut-and-dry as fiction, sidekicks and heroes do exist, just as villains and henchmen do. But as fiction is realizing, those roles are never binding, and we can easily go from being a lowly servant one moment to the savior of the world the next.
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Cool article.
I’m a big fan of the sidekicks. Often I find them far more likeable than the purported “hero”. That applies in the case of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (loathe Buffy, love Willow) and most definitely applies in seasons 3 and 5 of Xena: Warrior Princess (loathe Xena, love Gabrielle (as opposed to loving them equally)).
The development of the traditional “sidekick” role is something I particularly enjoy watching play out on screen. Second to Gabrielle’s development from simple village girl to Amazon Bard would have to be Wesley Wyndum Pryce’s dramatic character transformation on Buffy/Angel (mostly in the latter).
I think what is most appealing (to me) about the development of characters like Gabrielle, Willow and Wesley is that we often see them try and fail. Instead of being seemingly infallible like their heroes, they are capable of failing and often do so grandly (e.g. Gabrielle hiding Hope in Solan’s hut, Wesley stealing baby Connor from Angel and Willow’s “addiction” to magick) with disasterous and deadly consequences. Which of course also makes their success all the more enjoyable.
Willow and Gabrielle are the two most obvious and recent ones, they both have uneven character development (super powers, then mortal, then back to super powers again) but both move towards being almost as good as the hero they previously trailed behind.
They both have crisis (what is the plural here?) of faith over their new found abilities and both resolve them after some soul searching. In fact in many ways they both are better champions then the people they follow, Gabrielle has no odd past or dark side, and Willow has her powers by choice rather then feeling rather put upon by birth.
Don’t know if I’d consider her a sidekick, but in the final season of Charmed, Billie Jenkins was being trained by the Halliwell sisters on being a witch while searching for her own sister. When she found her sister, her morality had been twisted by the demons who had her kidnapped, convincing her that the Charmed ones were selfish and needed to be stopped. She in turn convinced Billy of the same thing, which lead to a climatic encounter between the Charmed ones and the Jenkins sisters. Only Piper and Billy surived. Billy returned to the demon who had been the biggest influence on her sister and realized the huge mistake they had made, when the demon let something slip he shouldn’t have. In the end, the Charmed ones were saved by Billy when she stopped her sister from killing them all, but in the process ended up killing her own sister.
I forgot to mention the time travel business to bring back Billie’s sister, as well as Phoebe and Paige.
Gabrielle wasn’t just a sidekick she was a warrior in her own way.She was a warrior of peace.Xena was her lover and my heroes for that matter.They were the only ones who I could ever have as a hero.
Gab could never outshine Xena. Xena = awesome; Gabrielle = suck!!!
Honestly, i think the ascendancy of the sidekick is really tied to the rise of women in fantasy - as authors, directors, and actors. It’s a device common in “chick flicks” and “”lit, (wherein the goofy, less glamorous girl finds love). There’s even a line from “The Holiday” when the old mentor Gandalf exhorts the lead to stop acting like the best friend, since she should be the leading lady in her own life.
It works for guys, too — once writers realized that fantasy fans aren’t all quarterbacks, and might rather read about heroes they can relate to.
“so that we see the film through the eyes of the sidekick”
This has been done before, the most famous example has to be StarWars (the first Movie / Episode IV / A New Hope):
It’s telled almost entirely from the view of the droids, who are not even a main character’s sidekick but just comical supporting roles.
(don’t want to criticise Zombieland here, which I haven’t seen. Using supporting characters for storytelling is a demanding technique which can result in great storys if properly done. It hasn’t to be new to be good).
My Anti-spam word was ’saruman’…does that mean my comment is evil?
I hope not. anyways, I write and I have this idea for a novel where the very clear hero ends up being killed/captured and the best friend/sidekick is left to save the world. it should be fun