Batman has Robin. Kirk has Spock. Darkwing Duck has Launchpad McQuack. Sure, there are plenty of loner heroes out there, but most classic heroes have some kind of close friend who helps them through the hard times. Even Gilgamesh had his friend Enkidu, and their story was carved into clay tablets about 1500 years before Homer wrote even a single line. The best sidekicks are those who are indispensable, often serving as a balance or counter to their hero. Imagine Mulder, the believer, without Scully, the skeptic. And Kirk would be even more of a loose cannon without Spock’s logic and restraint to help keep him centered. These partnerships work, despite the differences because at their core, heroes and their sidekicks share many beliefs. The importance of truth. The need for exploration.
From the beginning, we knew we wanted a sidekick who could serve as a supportive counterpoint to Hideo. The name Satoshi (suggested to us by a friend) was originally a possibility for our hero, but after we decided to go with Hideo, Satoshi stayed in my head, rattling around in there until I realized it would probably work well for our sidekick. Still, coming up with a name is a miniscule step in the creation of a character.
Let’s look at Hideo again. Hideo is an enforcer, which essentially is a policeman assigned to uphold the law in a specific area of the rural countryside with little to no oversight by the government. Enforcers are usually trusted and respected. So what’s the opposite of that? In Hideo’s world, mercenaries are a lowly bunch. They are often seen as sellouts, citizens who care more about money than patriotism. But as everybody knows, it’s never right to make a sweeping generalization about a specific group of people. Satoshi is a mercenary, but he has led a life full of unique experiences that have molded him into the person he is now. Most of Satoshi’s life experiences continue to exist mostly in my head, but things he has seen and done have nevertheless created the character as he exists in our story. Somewhere along the way, Satoshi stopped being a run-of-the-mill mercenary and started caring about things like justice and protecting the weak. That baseline of beliefs shared by Hideo and Satoshi, contrasted with their differences in personality and ideology, is what make Hideo and Satoshi work well as hero and sidekick.
In our story, we establish that Hideo is a brash young hero. It makes sense, then, for Satoshi to be older and more experienced. His restraint would serve to temper the young hero’s zeal. And while we didn’t specify an ethnicity for Satoshi (or any of our characters), there are some things about his physicality which are important to the character, things that come as a direct result of his lifestyle. If he kicks people’s asses on a daily basis, then he has to be strong and fit. His experience would teach him to be prepared for any situation, so he’s got weapons of all kinds tucked away wherever he can fit them efficiently. That being said, Satoshi is not a simply a brute force. He is a seasoned, skilled and patient fighter who appreciates speed and flexibility over protection. As such, he wears layered leather in places where it offers some protection without slowing him down. And finally, Satoshi is, has been, and always will be bald.
No hair? No problem!
Why, you ask? Satoshi’s shaved cranium actually says a lot about him. The fact is, people who lead lives of violence will try to give themselves every possible advantage. So why would they want some funky hairdo getting in the way? Hair gets caught. Hair can be pulled. The fact that Satoshi shaves his head is the pretty much the ultimate sign of how much he values efficiency over appearance. Substance over style. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with having awesome hair. In fact, leave a comment if you think we should give Hideo a Yasean-do.
