Holostar co-author Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff talks sidekicks in her latest entry to "A Padawan's Journal." Check out the excerpt below but make sure to click here for the full read.


"To me, the key role of the sidekick is as a foil for the hero’s qualities and quirks. The sidekick illuminates the character assets and flaws of their protagonist (shut up, Han) and allows him to show what he’s made of. The sidekick helps round out the protagonist, gives him a “reflective surface” in which you, the reader, will be able to see his personality traits more clearly and yet more subtly.

You see, a good sidekick allows the writer to show rather than tell you things about the main character—that he’s brave, or foolhardy, or has trouble accepting responsibility when things go wrong (zip it, Solo). He or she can even turn tables on the protagonist and make him the straight man or the fall guy. As part of a sidekick team—as with C3PO and R2-D2, for example—the roll of straight man can fall to the “middle man” on the team such that it often seemed that Luke Skywalker’s sidekick (R2-D2) had a sidekick of his own (C3PO)."


Next up, Bohnhoff will discuss...Star Wars and rollercoasters?


Source: ClubJade.net