Duos In Entertainment Media

To have a fuller understanding of paired companions, of how they're created and used, I think it's best to look beyond just games. Of course, games as an interactive platform are different in many ways from films, tv, novels etc, but I believe there should be many similarities in the foundations. At the very least, partial narrative elements and the development of relationships should be transferable, as well as character design itself.

In a game with pairs, both characters are vital and need to be of high quality in design as well as performance. They should both be considered main characters, and be equally developed. By reviewing what has been done before, I can start to form assumptions on their levels of success and why. In many of these media, the characters are a prime focus of the story, as the narrative usually follows the events that occur to or around them, how they deal with it and so on, which is what engages the viewers emotionally. The following are examples of duos in various media:

What is standing out most to me for now is the types of pairings there are, and the relationships they tend to form. Can duo archetypes be conveyed through design like single characters can? This also brings to mind how the hierarchy is portrayed too. In terms of variables that are used to differentiate between characters, there's: size, age, gender, intelligence, status etc. A good way to show this is contrast: big and small, young and old, male and female, brains and brawn, rich and poor etc. These existing types can already have certain connotations, such as the brains being small, and the brawn big. But in these areas, out of which pair is controlled by the user? Often you would play the younger character, and be taught by the mentor throughout the game. But what if you were the one teaching? Would players enjoy a mix up of the archetype? In some cases there might not be enough of a foothold to get a good story or experience. An example I read of once was in Programming Believable Characters For Computer Games by Penny Baillie-de Byl, where in a god game ruling over a city, everyone wants to play the god, not the janitor. But can certain circumstances make this more interesting by breaking convention?