Sidekicks and Minions

[EmoBorg]

This thread is about honoring the sidekicks and minions from television, films, books, comics and other media. They are not often in the limelight like the heroes and villains.


A favorite sidekick of mine is Thirty Thirty, the horse sidekick of Marshall BraveStarr in the 1980s cartoon show Bravestarr. Thirty Thirty is both the main ride and back up gunman to Marshall BraveStarr.

A favorite minion of mine is Soundwave from Transformers. A loyal and very capable assistant to Megatron.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Minions? Somebody say Minions?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNsibN4D36A[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du-5OfkgkD4[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnvy1gpZa7M[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCkerYMffMo[/yt]

 

[Fist McStrongpunch]

I'm a fan of the classic WWII pairing of Captain Wonder and Tim, who became Captain Tim when his hero was frozen for decades, to be reawakened in the present day.

 

[Pondwater]

I loved Iolaus from Hercules and Gabrielle from Xena.

 

[Klaus]

Here's an old av of mine...

 

[Christopher]

I never liked Thirty-Thirty that much. I grew up with Filmation cartoons in the height of their wholesomeness, with peace-loving, essentially nonviolent heroes, and I liked it. While Bravestarr himself fit that mold, the gun-happy Thirty-Thirty felt like an intruder from the more violent media climate of '80s TV in general. Granted, the previous few years of Filmation shows had featured heroes who used weapons -- the Lone Ranger with his six-guns and Zorro, Blackstar, He-Man, and She-Ra with their various kinds of sword -- but they weren't as fond of using their weapons, didn't glorify them or give them names. And of course none of them, Thirty-Thirty included, were allowed by the censors to actually use their weapons on living beings, but he was the only one who ever seemed like he wanted to.

Hold on, though... big, irascible sidekick in a space Western, has a big gun that he cherishes and gives a female name to... holy cow, Thirty-Thirty is Jayne! Well, albeit not as dumb and more trustworthy.

 

[JD]

Two of my favorite lesser known sidekicks would have to be Jenks the Pixy from Kim Harrison's Hollows series, and Kenzi from Lost Girl.

 

[EmoBorg]

I never liked Thirty-Thirty that much. I grew up with Filmation cartoons in the height of their wholesomeness, with peace-loving, essentially nonviolent heroes, and I liked it. While Bravestarr himself fit that mold, the gun-happy Thirty-Thirty felt like an intruder from the more violent media climate of '80s TV in general. Granted, the previous few years of Filmation shows had featured heroes who used weapons -- the Lone Ranger with his six-guns and Zorro, Blackstar, He-Man, and She-Ra with their various kinds of sword -- but they weren't as fond of using their weapons, didn't glorify them or give them names. And of course none of them, Thirty-Thirty included, were allowed by the censors to actually use their weapons on living beings, but he was the only one who ever seemed like he wanted to.

I do agree that Thirty Thirty was an aggressive character especially for a cartoon show. But you did get a feeling that he could take care of the bad guys with or without Bravestarr. He was one tough horse.

 

[DonIago]

I never really got into Bravestarr, but I do seem to recall catching the tail end of a "Drugs are Bad" episode where a character actually OD'ed and died. Dark stuff!

Scott Evil remains one of my favorite sidekicks/minions. I really hoped at some point he'd take control of the empire and make it a force to be reckoned with. And the end of the 3rd movie points to an outcome like that, but sadly we've yet to receive any follow-up.

Does Loki in Thor 2 count as a sidekick/minion? Let's avoid or spoiler-tag any detailed discussion for the benefit of those who haven't seen the film yet.

 

[Christopher]

I never really got into Bravestarr, but I do seem to recall catching the tail end of a "Drugs are Bad" episode where a character actually OD'ed and died. Dark stuff!

Yeah, Bravestarr pushed the envelope farther than prior Filmation shows. It actually had three episodes in which characters died. There was the drug episode, there was one about a character who'd committed a murder (shown -- almost -- in flashback), and there was one where, IIRC, an old man died. Since it was so rare and shocking in kids' TV at the time, it was very powerful each time it happened. Although Filmation had done it before in previous years. Filmation's Star Trek had Spock's sehlat die in "Yesteryear," and "The Slaver Weapon" actually ended with the violent death of the villains in an explosion. The Secrets of Isis had an episode about a boy's dog dying, one that really made an impact on me as a kid. And there was an episode of, I think, The Young Sentinels (aka Space Sentinels) where an evil sorceress who'd been stealing youth had the process reversed and died of accelerated aging, which was a startlingly dark fate for a character in a Filmation show. Then there was the Flash Gordon TV movie and series -- there was a fair amount of death in the movie, which was made for prime time, and even the more toned-down Saturday morning version incorporated stock sequences from the film including footage of Hawkmen getting disintegrated in battle.

 

[DonIago]

It does speak to the power of the scene that I remember it after all this time.

Then again, I seem to remember Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty showing up on the show as well, but IIRC that wasn't an especially successful effort.

 

[Christopher]

Then again, I seem to remember Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty showing up on the show as well, but IIRC that wasn't an especially successful effort.

Yes, "Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century" was a backdoor pilot for a spinoff in which Holmes fell through a time warp at Reichenbach Falls (ignoring everything from "The Empty House" onward) and arrived in the future, where he teamed up with an alien named Whitson and a tough, gun-loving female descendant named Mycroft Holmes. Moriarty -- played by Jonathan Harris! -- had himself cryogenically frozen and revived in the same era so that he could continue his battles of wits with Holmes.

Coincidentally, a few years later there was an entirely unrelated animated series called Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, in which Holmes's honey-preserved corpse is revived by future science so that he can battle a clone of Moriarty, and he's teamed up with a robot Watson and a tough female cop named Lestrade.

 

[publiusr]

And there was an episode of, I think, The Young Sentinels (aka Space Sentinels). Then there was the Flash Gordon TV movie and series.

Two big favorites of mine. The best episode of The Young Sentinels involved their M-Falcon like a spacecraft being pursed by a drone that changed into different geometric shapes depending on its function. They even made an inflatable version of the Flash Gorden rocketship.
http://www.toymania.com/334archives/flash/access.htm

 

[Christopher]

I watched Sentinels on DVD a while back and I couldn't stand the music editing. They only had a few music tracks and they cut between them abruptly and jarringly -- it made the show rather unpleasant to listen to. Blackstar had the same problem with jerky music editing, although it had much better music (much of which was reused from Flash Gordon).

 

[Velocity]

Two of my favorite lesser known sidekicks would have to be Jenks the Pixy from Kim Harrison's Hollows series, and Kenzi from Lost Girl.

totally agree!

 

[The Old Mixer]

Does Loki in Thor 2 count as a sidekick/minion?

Loki would probably kill you for calling him either, so no.

He's more the supporting antagonist/recurring villain. He isn't always the main villain, but that doesn't stop his finger from getting in the pie.