Sidekicks

I will always prefer the tunes of those who play second fiddle.

OH LOL WAS THAT CORNY AS HELL OR WHAT. Cornier than an Iowa farm!

No no, in honesty though. This is something I've come to realize a lot. I was making a list one day of characters who I fell in love with from books and TV shows and the like to gain inspiration for characters of my own to write about, and I came up with a list something like this:

1. Nightcrawler (X-Men comics)
2. Tobias (Sweeney Todd, musical)
3. Samneric (Lord of the Flies)
4. Ron Weasley (Harry Potter)
5. Tweek (South Park)
6. Merry and Pippin (Lord of the Rings, movie)
7. Flycatcher (Fables)
8. Jasper (Twilight) (Go ahead and judge me I can take it)

And it went on and on, and continues to go on and on. Like right now I'd add Evra from the Cirque Du Freak series for sure because I love that guy.

But I'm realizing a trend, and when I was talking to my friend about one of these characters once he commented how I never go for the heroes. I always fall in love with their side kicks or the comic relief bits. I was wondering about that (also you could argue that some characters I listed are a mix of main and sidekick types - like Nightcrawler, but don't get me started on that).

I think it's because in the formula for your book, a lot of the good stories have the plot riding on the main character. The hero needs to be someone who can drive the plot forwards, and in a lot of the books or movies or shows I've read/watched and overall enjoyed, this has often required a certain kind of character. The hero needs to have certain qualities, like bravery or acceptance or something of the like, in order to be the hero. A lot of the characters I like can't really hold a story on their own. But that's why I like them. I think the main characters get imbued with certain traits, which means all the fun quirks and interesting character designs and flaws get gifted to the extra characters, the ones who don't have to worry about the weight of the world (so to speak) and are there for relief, to add to the backdrop or aid/hurt the hero.

Even with my villains  I tend to veer like that. I won't go all into it, but in terms of Batman I'm more a Scarecrow than Joker type. Scarecrow's big in his own name, but amongst the rogue gallery he could do with a little more respect.

I find this crops up in my writing a lot. My main characters are either more sidekick types who follow a "hero" character, but keep the focus of the story on themselves, or I use the blandest most stereotypical type A hero to simply drive the story along, while putting all my creative energies into the cast of characters that surround this hero. It's interesting to see this and realize how I need to adjust the balance.

There's not much of a point to this. I guess I'm curious as to how many other people might feel like this. Obviously, I'm a huge sidekick fan. For me, they're like the toppings on a pizza; you could have it with just cheese, but how lame would that be?*

*I recognize the fail value of this metaphor. Made doubly fail by the fact that I actually love cheese pizza. Whatever.