The Unappreciated: 20 Sidekicks Who Deserve More Respect

Ah, the sidekick. We all love Chewbacca, Milhouse, or that sidekick from The Lord of the Rings, Samnice Cutesmart or whatever the result of his naming process was. Sambright Geeweez. Samfluff Quirkinton. Samgay Butgaylikeinmerry. Whatever, the point is that even if some sidekicks are beloved, the trope itself is not. Sidekicks are usually seen as pains in the ass, as filler characters the protagonist must drag along, and whose only purpose is to make the work more marketable, as if they were talking pies or something.

Now, some sidekicks are narrative ass-pains. See that kid from the third Mummy movie (actually, scratch that, don’t even see the third Mummy movie), or every single secondary character in the fourth Indiana Jones, a film so bad it managed to make Marion Ravenwood as irritating as the blonde nerve wreck from Temple of Doom. But if some of these characters suck, not all of them do. Some sidekicks deserve more love, as we have already discussed. In this Pictofact, we add 20 more unappreciated and even obscure sidekicks that really contributed to their stories. And will we discuss some classic ones? Of course we will. You know us so well, Samfan Readsalot.