11 best sidekicks (no Jar Jar Binks here)

It's always the leading person that claims all the glory, grabs all the headlines and that everyone remembers but where would Captain Hook be without Smee (who had no rank oddly), Shrek without Donkey or The Beatles without Ringo Starr? No-one gets through sidekicks like Dr. Who but here's another random list of those closely linked to the main person in books/games/tv/films.

11. Patrick Starfish from SpongeBob SquarePants
Where would SpongeBob be without Patrick, the loveable pink blob that lives under a rock next door, when SpongeBob goes on an adventure, Patrick is always by his side. Portrayed as being fat, lazy, ignorant and unintelligent (not to mention the only character without a nose), it has to be asked in an underwater world where everyone works for a living, why doesn't Patrick (presumably he borrows from a loan shark) though this means he's always at SpongeBob's beck and call. That you can follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/Patrick_Star and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/patrickstar show he is clearly as much of a fans favourite as SpongeBob himself.

10. Lewis from Inspector Morse
Lewis (not to be confused with Officer Anne Lewis from RoboCop) is a Detective Sergeant who was the sidekick to Inspector Morse in all 13 books by Colin Dexter. Set in Oxford, England (who would of thought so much crime needed solving there). A bit like the great detective predecessor Sherlock Holmes having Dr. Watson, Lewis was constantly put down with comments or demeaned by Morse who meant this in a playful manner.

9. Luigi from Super Mario Bros.
So if they are 'super' Mario brothers, that would make the surname Mario.....which makes Mario become Mario Mario (a sentence with Mario in 5 times is too much) and Luigi is the green overall wearing alternative to his red wearing brother. First appearing in 1983, Luigi is sometimes portrayed as a more cowardly (especially around ghosts) character than the brave heroic Mario though both have the same aim which is to save Princess Daisy. While Mario is portrayed as a typical Italian American, Luigi comes across more of a stereotype Italian, I bet he loves a Dolmio Day.

8. Garth Algar from Wayne's World
Played by Dana Carvey in the movie's, Garth was Wayne Campbell's wingman, ever eager to help him with his musical endeavours and 'schwing' when a foxy lady walks past. Garth would almost blunder his way through life but to his friend Wayne, everything he did was 'cool'. I have a theory that when Garth grew up, he had a sex change and became JK Rowling.

7. Dr. Watson from Sherlock Holmes
Perhaps the most known sidekick, at least from classic literature, Dr. Watson was an assistant and sometime flatmate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective and narrated all but 4 of the books featuring Holmes. Although he never actually uses these words, 'Elementary, my dear Watson' is a part of modern speech when someone cottons onto what someone is trying to explain to them. With a medical background (he is a Dr. after all), it's a wonder he was a sidekick to a detective but this made the relationship between the pair all the more interesting.

6. Robin from Batman   
Robin was first played by Richard 'Dick' Grayson way back in 1940 and since then has been played by 4 others in the popular comic. In  1983 when Grayson left to become Nightwing, Jason Todd took the role though was later brutally killed by The Joker in 1989. Since then the character has been portrayed by Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown (the only female Robin) and is currently Damian Wayne, Batman's son. While most of the movies feature Batman alone with no sidekick, it was the popular 1966 ABC series 'Batman' that people most remember Robin. Batman & Robin are often referred to as The Caped Crusaders or The Dynamic Duo. Debates rage over whether Batman needs a Robin but the Batman universe is richer for having the character but Robin is essentially an early teen fighting crime and supervillains....please kids, don't try this at home.

5. Chewbacca from Star Wars
Chewbacca is a 7 foot tall version of Cousin It from The Addams family who barks and growls in a way only Han Solo can understand. The gentle co-pilot of Solo's Millennium Falcon featured in 4 of the 6 Star Wars movies and classic lines like 'Aaaaaaaaaargh!' and 'Urgh' have led him to becoming a firm fan favourite. In the 1978 Star Wars holiday special, Chewbacca's wife and kids can be seen as we got to visit his homeworld Kashyyyk (28 points in Scrabble) and has no-one ever asked the question, what does Chewbacca smell like?

4. KITT from Knight Rider
Seriously! just look at that car, that's why it's included in this list, not to mention it's a talking car that can drive itself, maybe they know Optimus Prime

3. Gromit from Wallace & Gromit
The hugely popular BBC plasticine adventurers  have survived every story by virtue of Gromit. While Wallace dithers about inventing the most useless creations and getting the pair into trouble, it's Gromit that keeps a cool head so they always prevail. First appearing in 1989's A Grand Day Out, Gromit has no visible mouth and never speaks a word but has there ever been a more expressive character to grace our screens?

2. Short Round from Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

Why does he feature on the list let alone at number 2? because he's not Shia Lebeouf! Short Round almost encompasses what was so great about the first 3 Indiana Jones films, the vaudeville-esqe slapstick routines, the adventures where everything was survived by the skin of your teeth (teeth don't even have skin) and just dumb luck.  Temple Of Doom saw Indiana skirting around Shanghai with 11 year old Short Round (played by Jonathan Ke Quan who's other film of notice is The Goonies where he played Data) who serve's as a perfect addition to add friction to Indy's personality. From Shocking Dr. Jones out of hypnosis to driving a 1936 Speedster in a car chase, Short Round shouldered a lot of the burden in defeating the treacherous Mola Ram

1. Ron Weasley/Hermione Grainger from the Harry Potter franchise
The perfect sidekick(s) because throughout all the books, they feature as main characters alongside Harry Potter and without them, he probably would still be wondering where the Philosophers Stone is, trapped in the Chamber Of Secrets or even a prisoner in Azkaban. Ron was fantastic in his role of encouraging Harry to do risky and daring ventures while Hermione was the brains behind the trio, take any of these away and the chemistry is gone along with the chance of success. Though hero is the titular hero, it's only as he was sheltered from this world of witches and wizards so his innocence helps the reader to understand this wonderful world and have everything explained for us poor, plain muggles. In reality, the last book should of been called Harry Potter, Ron Weasley And Hermione Grainger And The Deathly Hallows but I guess the spines on books have only so much room to print titles.

Top 7 dragons from video games

 With 2012 being the Chinese year of the dragon, the scaled mythological beasts have been ever present in the likes of Game Of Thrones, Dragon's Dogma and those still playing Skyrim. The pieces of merchandise featuring dragons has soared  such as notebooks, ornaments and pendants as they become ever more popular. 

   But what are the 8 greatest dragons from video games I hear you ask (actually no-one asked, but this is my random blog) so let's enter the dragon's den :-

8. Dragon Man from Altered Beast (1989 for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis)

Altered Beast was originally an arcade classic about a Roman centurion who after dying is resurrected by Zeus (got to love the attention to timescale in these games) who circles through Hell to save Zeus' daughter Athena from the demon God called Neff (yes....Neff!), the hero gets jacked up and can transform into animal forms of a tiger, a bear and best of all....a dragon, it's basically a shape shifting version of Dante's inferno.

7. Tyris Flare's dragon from Golden Axe (1989 for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis) 

Golden Axe was a game where you and a friend could pair up and fight medieval vagabonds side by side and one feature was building up magic, the story was very similar to that of the Conan The Barbarian movie. Players could play as a dwarf called Gillius, a barbarian called Ax or a red-headed Amazonian in chainmail bikini and red boots who had the magic ability of fire and when this was built up she could summon a dragon to come down and breath fire to vanquish foes off the screen (playing with a friend meant shared magic resources so many an argument was had when 'I accidently pressed it' was heard.

6. Billy & Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon (1987 for arcade and later NES and Sega Master System)

Okay, so they aren't technically dragons, in fact they are humans but these twins (also known as Hammer and Spike)  were a genre definer. They set the trend for future beat 'em ups like Streets Of Rage (I have TMNT: Turtles In Time on my PS3, it's the still the same concept today) in that two people could play together and not only beat bad guys but pick up weapons they dropped and could also double team (not in that way) opponents, the only odd thing was the twin brothers were out to save their common love interest Marian....maybe they were from Norfolk. This game was so successful there was an animated TV series and even a movie in 1994 starring Scott Wolf, Robert Patrick and Alyssa Milano which was the 166th highest grossing film of 1994, that tells you how bad it is. There is no real reference as to why they are 'dragons'...maybe Duncan Banatyne is a relative)

 

5. Yoshi (various Super Mario Bros games from 1990)

Yoshi would easily be one of the best and most easily recognisable sidekicks of all time as well as being the most popular video game dragon from the amount of games he has appeared in (not to mention the sheer volume of Yoshi merchandise with his likeness and image, girls like him and guys don't mind him). Yoshi always plays hard and has that forever happy smile on his face. Appearing first in 1990's Super Mario World and has featured constantly on any Mario or Nintendo title since as well as being a 6 foot animatronic puppet in 1994's Super Mario Bros. movie....though that's best left forgotten

4. Bahamut (various Final Fantasy games)

Though his allegiance has changed several times throughout the series, Bahamut is a staple of the Final Fantasy Series and even featured in Super Mario RPG. appearing in the very first Final Fantasy game in 1987(2010 saw the release of Final Fantasy XIV), there was even a spin off game in 1996 called Bahamut's Lagoon. As big and as bas as they come and almost as old as computer games themselves.

3. Alduin (2011 for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PC, xBox 360 and PS3)

This gigantic dragon is the biggest, baddest and brutal of all of Skyrim's flying fire-breathing lizards, this from a game FULL of flying, fire-breathing lizards, is a claim to fame though players are made to feel that him appearing as a world-devouring, fire-breathing serpent is something of a come down as he's a God though oddly, the way to beat him is by shouting at him, that's right, shouting! If only the police could harness such powerful tools to fight crime.

2. Thanatos (1986 for Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad)

Thantos scores so highly as it was arguably the first video game featuring a dragon and one where players could experience the feeling of controlling a huge, devastating fire-spewing behemoth for themselves. The game was on Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad so controlling it was pretty much a case of wiggling the joystick (back then it was a joystick and just one button) but for it's time it was darn impressive and the game was simple, no complicated mythology added here, just breathing out fire, eating the locals and trying not to get slain.......being a dragon can be really tough sometimes.

1. Spyro (1998 for Sony PlayStation (PS1))

Most of the dragons mentioned (one wasn't even actually a dragon) are of the scaly, hateful vengeful type, so here is a dragon that was born of a good egg. Spyro is the dragon that comes to mind when asking 'name a video game dragon', and one people at least know the name of (rather than 'one from Skyrim' or 'isn't there one in Final Fantasy?'). Spyro has an overwhelming need to please and became adored by any girl who had a PlayStation when he came out in 1998). Spyro stands out for his colour and size alone, he's a tiny (in comparison to other dragons) purple guy though that didn't mean he couldn't hold his own in beating the bad guys. Expanding his moves beyond fire breathing to ramming enemies with his horns and over time, spitting ice and electricity, this little fella certainly had no Napoleon complex going on.