Hill Tower, Jaransor; art by Peter Fitzpatrick

Not too many, though! 😉

And if you’re not too keen on the idea of more posts yourself, blame Robert, Mandy, Kahu, Chris and Mohindar who all emailed me to say that they would love to read posts about the “sidekick” and the “lovable rogue”, either singly or together.

All because I was foolish enough—in what I optimistically believed to be my wrap-up post of  September 17 for the Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes series—to admit that these often linked characters were a trope I had not yet addressed…

So yes indeed, now I shall. 😀

However, by way of either reward or punishment (depending on the reader’s perspective), I feel that if I’m going to do sidekicks and lovable rogues, I had better do the “mentor” as well.

Alec Guinness as Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars (IV: A New Hope) by Lucas Films

And yes, just as Han Solo is the sidekick-cum-lovable rogue writ large, Obi Wan Kenobi (as he appeared in the original Star Wars movie) is an archetypal mentor figure.

As I mentioned in the September 17 post, the “ ‘lovable rogue’ and the ‘sidekick’…are sometimes one and the same person.” Or even often one and the same person. So like “The Sweep Of Time & Its Twin, War Without End” they may have to be addressed in the one post, rather than two separate entries.

I have yet to make a final decision on this point, but either way, I hope the additional posts will prove something to look forward to. 🙂