I prefer sidekick. I tried once for the title of Padawan, but Bubba wigged out saying that mentors are always killed off in books and movies and he'd be damned if he was going to die once he taught me everything I needed to know about killing zombies. {Mark}Then why let you be his sidekick? Isn't that the same thing? {Nick}Uh, no. In the movies, the sidekicks are the ones who die. {Mark}
In the book "Infinity" by Sherrilyn Kenyon, a humorous discussion takes place between the characters Nick and Mark regarding their roles in a mentorship scenario. Nick expresses his preference for being a sidekick rather than a Padawan, mentioning that when he attempted to take on the Padawan title, his mentor, Bubba, became overly concerned about the fate of mentors in stories. Bubba fears that once he imparts all his knowledge about defeating zombies, he may meet an untimely end, leading him to reject the mentor role.
Mark questions Nick's logic, pointing out that being a sidekick also comes with its own risks, as sidekicks often meet similar fates in various narratives. However, Nick insists there's a difference, suggesting that in films, sidekicks don't necessarily have the same grim destiny as mentors. This exchange presents a clever commentary on the archetypical roles in storytelling and the characters' awareness of their circumstances within a larger narrative framework.
