Sidekick in a Story

For my skripsi, I really have an interest about a character whom always in a shadow of a bigger figure. It is like a person whom got a role as a ‘sidekick’, like Robin in Batman and Robin, Ron Weasley in Harry Potter serial, or Watson in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I am interested in sidekick’s viewpoint in a story and how they see themselves in a story (or how the viewpoint of narrator about them).

For me, they have many similarities as a character. For example, they have the same purpose or goal with the character that is positioned as a ‘hero’. The purpose could be ‘to save the world’, ‘to find something precious’, and many more. For the example, Robin in Batman and Robin has an intention to save Gotham City. That is why he followed Batman and became his partner. Whatever it is, sidekick existed to accompany the figure of a hero in the story.

Nevertheless, they do not have contribution as much as the hero. If they meant to achieve the same goal, why did not they work in the same portion? For me, it is actually possible. Like in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction movie, Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield have same profession, which is as assassins. They have the same role and no one became a hero or a sidekick. They work together as partner in crime. In the other words, they have the same purposes.

Maybe, it is because a sidekick is more fragile than the hero. Sometimes, sidekick is portrayed as an insecure and weak figure. They actually wanted to be considered as great as a hero in the story. The bold example is Watson in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Since Watson is the narrator of the story, it is easier to find how he sees himself.

In the first chapter in Sign of Four, which is The Science of Deduction, we can see Watson’s feeling about Holmes. In the last sentence of paragraph two, Watson boldly said, “His great powers, his masterly manners, and the experience which I had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made me diffident and backward in crossing him.”

I can also see that Watson was disappointed because his “Study in Scarlet” pamphlets, which he made for Holmes, were criticized by Holmes. Besides, he made in to please Holmes.

However, I see his intention to prove that Holmes is not that great. In the same chapter, he gave him a polished watch to be analyzed. For Watson, it might be more difficult to analyze because it did not have many sign to analyze since it is very clean. Nonetheless, actually Holmes could do it.

It reminded me to “Self and Desire” discussion in the class about Sartre. Sartre has explained about human existence, which are “being for others”, “being for itself”, and “being in itself”. Watson wants to be acknowledged as a great person, which proves his desire of power (or just desire of existence?). For me, he has an intention to “being for itself” or “being in itself”, but it turned out that he is only “being for others”, because he only wanted to be as great as Sherlock Holmes.

The other example is Ron in Harry Potter serial. In Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows, when Ron tried to destroy a horcrux, the horcrux showed his desire, which is actually to defeat his friend, Harry Potter. It also showed his fear of losing his girlfriend, Hermione, because of Harry Potter. It showed that Ron had some insecurity about Harry Potter, the same insecurity with Watson to Sherlock Holmes.

Beside all of that, I want to know why the sidekick is created. If a hero is intended to be a great figure, why would he or she need a sidekick? Why he or she did not work alone? Is it actually intended to prove that a hero is not that great without the sidekick?