Psycho Sidekick: Difference between revisions
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A trope common in private eye novels since the 1980s, and occasionally found in other genres. Sometimes, your [[The Cape (trope)|morally]] [[Knight in Shining Armour|spotless]] [[Martial Pacifist|hero]] has a buddy who's a lot less morally spotless. Often, they've been friends for so long that a bit of moral divergence hasn't spoiled it. On the more moral end of the spectrum, the friend's a [[Hitman with a Heart]] or [[Loveable Rogue]]. In [[Darker and Edgier]] cases, the friend is actually a [[Punch Clock Villain]], [[Noble Demon]] or even a [[Psycho for Hire]], but they deliberately avoid any situation that might actually pit them against one another because it would be [[Rival Turned Evil|just too painful]]. Of course, the friend could be just a little bit more violent or ruthless than the hero.
When this comes in useful is when the hero has to [[Shoot the Dog|do something that they don't feel they can do]], most often killing somebody who is certain to do horrible things to them or their loved ones or innocent bystanders, but who is too [[Villain with Good Publicity|sneaky]] or too [[Dirty Coward|unsuited]] to [[The Man Behind the Curtain|combat]] for them to be conveniently able to kill them in self-defence or some kind of [[Duel to the Death|fair fight]]. At this point the
Contrasted to the case of the [[Poisonous Friend]], in which the main character is genuinely unaware of what the friend is doing. In this case, the main character is perfectly aware of the type of person their friend is and what they do for them. Naturally, this does come across as a bit hypocritical. Sometimes the hypocrisy is ignored by the story, but more often it's lampshaded. It's sometimes explicitly or implicitly argued that the ruthless act isn't so much [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|wrong]] ''per se'', as something that would brutalise the hero to the point that they'd lose their compassion or ability to empathise with others or [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him|ability to act as a moral exemplar to others]].
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== Comic Books ==
* The ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' Victorian-era team actually consists of 60%
* Wolverine sometimes plays this role in ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', in issues where the other characters are being depicted as relatively pacifistic.
* Cassidy in ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'', until we find out some of the things he did in his past...
* A ''[[JLA]]/[[Hitman (Comic Book)|Hitman]]'' miniseries depicted Tommy Monaghan as a
** And Natt 'The Hat' to Tommy in the regular ''Hitman'' series. Natt does things like shoot the subdued prisoner (he was only going to be sent back) and kill the innocent staff of the mafia safehouse (Tommy said 'Kill everyone'). It becomes apparent over the course of the series that Natt only (mostly) follows Tommy's creed of 'kill only bad guys' because he values their friendship.
* ''[[Captain America (comics)]]'': Bucky Barnes is portrayed this way in current books, as a creative [[Retcon]] explaining his 'harmless' sidekick persona was actually a front for shady activities a public figure like [[Captain America (comics)]] couldn't be caught doing. He makes quite a darkly hilarious contrast to the older and unfailingly idealistic [[The Cape (trope)|Cap]].
* Bruce Wayne's son Damian tries to become the psycho equivalent of Robin to [[Batman]], to the point of trying to dispose of Tim Drake in his first appearance. {{spoiler|While Bruce was thought dead, Damian served as Robin to Dick Grayson's Batman, and Dick had his hands full trying to teach Damian proper restraint. And in the New 52 DC, Damian is Robin to Bruce.}}
{{quote|'''Damian/Robin''': Now whose neck do I break first?}}
* Jailbait and Headcase to Max Damage in ''[[Irredeemable|Incorruptible]]''. Jailbait was Max's sidekick/underage lover when he was a supervillain, and hasn't taken his [[Heel Face Turn]] and [[Jail Bait Wait]] well at all. The last straw was when he left her behind in an attempt to ''keep her safe''. Since she's a bloodthirsty adrenaline junkie, that was the worst thing Max could do to her. Her successor Headcase is even
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== Fanfiction ==
* In the ''[[Good Omens]]'' fanfic [[The Sacred and the Profane]], 'Zirah' (Aziriphale) is a chillingly ruthless
== Literature ==
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** Inverted in the case of Harry and Michael. While Harry is heroic, he is more likely to do morally dubious things than Michael, who dislikes people ''swearing''.
*** Inverted a ''lot'' by Harry. He plays Psycho Sidekick to Karrin Murphy's advocacy of the law, and the White Council see him as useful psychotic that'll need to be [[Shoot the Dog|shot sooner or later]].
*** And on top of all of these you have {{spoiler|1=Ebeneezer McCoy}}. Being the
* Joe Pike in Robert Crais' ''The Monkey's Raincoat'' and the other Elvis Cole books. He actually has a moral code but is a lot more comfortable with violence than Elvis. He also has a few books centered around him.
* Mick Ballou in Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder novels.
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* ''[[Stephanie Plum]]'' series by Janet Evanovitch: Ranger, although Ranger's a bit more cerebral than most examples, and significantly less psycho than average.
* ''[[The Alloy of Law]]'' has [[The Hero|Wax]], an upstanding heroic member of society, working with [[The Lancer|Wayne]], a partially-reformed thief whose definition of being 'reformed' tends to mean that instead of just stealing things he leaves something in their place.
* Subverted in Carol O'Connell's ''Mallory'' novels, which are about a sociopathic primary character who would usually be someone else's
* The ''[[Dragaera|Taltos]]'' books have been acknowledged as inspired by the Spenser series, but seem to turn this on its head. Vlad Taltos, the protagonist, is the
* In [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Vorkosigan Saga]], Sergeant Bothari has elements of this, though Aral Vorkosigan is more active than most in acting as his [[Morality Chain]] and eventually gets him some much-needed medical intervention.
* Major Joachim Steuben in [[David Drake]]'s ''[[Hammer's Slammers]]'' series is in love with Colonel
{{quote|"And sometimes a fellow who does one job well can see where his job has to be done, even though a better man has overlooked it. Anyhow, Secretary, there always was one thing you and I could agree on -- lives ''are'' cheap."}}
* Lee in [[Gordon R. Dickson]]'s ''[[Childe Cycle|Dorsai!]]''. Due to an uncorrectable medical condition, he's unable to tell right from wrong and is socially dysfunctional. He knows this, and seeks a ''cause'' to keep him functioning. He'll do ''anything'' for that cause. Luckily, he found Donal, who keeps Lee from doing anything nasty. Also notable that Lee likely inspired Joachim Steuben, as David Drake is a fan of the novel.
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* ''Myron Bolitar'' series by Harlan Coben: Windsor Horne Lockwood III, or, Win.
* In ''[[Animorphs]]'' Rachel is this to the rest of the team, although they're not exactly [[Knight in Shining Armor|white hats]] themselves. Reached its peak in the final two books when Jake sent her to {{spoiler|[[Cain and Abel|kill his own brother]]}}.
** Eventually, Rachel herself lampshades how she was made into
* Willikins to Sam Vimes in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld/Snuff|Snuff]]''.
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': Leela (and K-9, a bit). While the Doctor sometimes criticises her violence ineffectually, he doesn't often intervene to stop it when it's useful. Subverted with Ace, in that a vague description of the dynamic between them would make Ace seem like a
* Avon in ''[[Blake's 7|Blakes Seven]]'', with interesting consequences when he ended up as the central character. Unusually, Avon continues to act like a Psycho
* Gene Hunt (and sometimes Ray) in ''[[Life On Mars]]'' and ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]''.
* Both Derek and Cameron in ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' move around on the spectrum between this and [[Poisonous Friend]] in relation to the more moral Sarah and John. This occurs as early as the second episode, when Sarah holds {{spoiler|Enrique at gunpoint because she thinks he might be a snitch, but doesn't shoot. Cameron arrives on the scene by shooting him twice in the chest before anyone has a chance to stop her. Of course, she's vindicated at the end of the episode when it turns out Enrique really ''was'' an FBI informant.}}
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