SIDEKICKS
Westerns frequently make use of a long-standing bond between a hero and a sidekick, an Ally who generally rides with the hero and supports his adventures. The Lone Ranger has Tonto, Zorro has the servant Bernardo, the Cisco Kid has Pancho. These pairings of hero and sidekick can be found throughout myth and literature: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Prince Hal and Falstaff, or the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh and his wild companion Enkidu.
These close Allies of the hero may provide comic relief as well as assistance. Comical sidekicks, played by character actors such as Walter Brennan, Gabby Hayes, Fuzzy Knight, and Slim Pickens, provide humor lacking in their stalwart, serious heroes they accompany. Such figures may freely cross the boundaries between
Mentor and Trickster, sometimes aiding the hero and acting as his conscience, sometimes comically goofing up or causing mischief.
TEAMS
The Testing stage may also provide the opportunity for the forging of a team. Many stories feature multiple heroes or a hero backed up by a team of characters with special skills or qualities. The early phases of Act Two may cover the recruiting of a team, or give an opportunity for the team to make plans and rehearse a difficult operation. The World War II adventure films The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape show the heroes bonding into a coherent team before tackling the main event of the story. In the Testing stage the hero may have to struggle against rivals for control of the group. The strengths and flaws of the team members are revealed during Testing.
In a romance, the Testing stage might be the occasion for a first date or for some shared experience that begins to build the relationship, such as the tennis match between Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in Annie Hall.
ENEMIES
Heroes can also make bitter enmities at this stage. They may encounter the Shadow or his servants. The hero's appearance in the Special World may tip the Shadow to his arrival and trigger a chain of threatening events. The cantina sequence in Star Wars sets up a conflict with the villain Jabba the Hutt which culminates in The Empire Strikes Back.
Enemies include both the villains or antagonists of stories and their underlings. Enemies may perform functions of other archetypes such as the Shadow, the Trickster, the Threshold Guardian, and sometimes the Herald.
THE RIVAL
A special type of Enemy is the rival, the hero's competition in love, sports, business, or some other enterprise. The rival is usually not out to kill the hero, but is just trying to defeat him in the competition. In the film The Last of the Mohicans, Major Duncan Hayward is the rival of hero Nathaniel Poe because they both want the same woman, Cora Munro. The plot of Honeymoon in Vegas revolves around a similar rivalry between the hapless hero (Nicolas Cage) and his gambler opponent (James Caan).
NEW RULES
The new rules of the Special World must be learned quickly by the hero and the audience. As Dorothy enters the land of Oz, she is bewildered when Glinda the Good asks, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" In Dorothy's Ordinary World of Kansas, there are only bad witches, but in the Special World of Oz, witches can also be good, and fly in pink bubbles instead of on broomsticks. Another Test of the hero is how quickly she can adjust to the new rules of the Special World.
At this stage a Western may impose certain conditions on people entering a town or a bar. In Unforgiven, guns cannot be worn in the sheriff's territory. This restriction can draw the hero into conflicts. A hero may enter a bar to discover that the town is totally polarized by two factions: the cattlemen vs. the farmers, the Earps vs. the Clantons, the bounty hunters vs. the sheriff, and so on. In the pressure cooker of the saloon, people size each other up and take sides for the coming showdown. The cantina sequence in Star Wars draws on the images we all have of Western saloons as places for reconnaissance, challenges, alliances, and the learning of new rules.
WATERING HOLES
Why do so many heroes pass through bars and saloons at this point in the stories? The answer lies in the hunting metaphor of the Hero's Journey. Upon leaving the Ordinary World of village or den, hunters will often head straight for a watering hole to look for game. Predators sometimes follow the muddy tracks left by game who come down to drink. The watering hole is a natural congregating place and a good spot to observe and get information. It's no accident that we call neighborhood saloons and cocktail lounges our "local watering holes."
The crossing of the First Threshold may have been long, lonely, and dry. Bars are natural spots to recuperate, pick up gossip, make friends, and confront Enemies. They also allow us to observe people under pressure, when true character is revealed. How Shane handles himself in a bar fight convinces a farmer to become his Ally and stand up to the bullying cattlemen. In the tense bar-room confrontations in Star Wars, Luke Skywalker sees flashes of Obi Wan Kenobi's spiritual power and Han Solo's "look out for Number One" mentality. The bar can be a microcosm of the Special World, a place through which everyone must pass, sooner or later, like the saloon in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. "Everybody Comes to Rick's," says the title of the play on which Casablanca is based.
Bars also play host to a number of other activities including music, flirting, and gambling. This stage in a story, whether it takes place in a bar or not, is a good place for a musical sequence that announces the mood of the Special World. A nightclub act may allow the introduction of a romantic interest, as in Jessica Rabbit's sensational torch song in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Music can express the dualities of the Special World as well. At this stage in Casablanca the polarities are movingly presented in a musical duel between the passionate "Marsellaise" sung by the French patriots and the brutal "Deutschland uber Alles" sung by the Nazis.
In the lonely outposts of adventure, saloons or their equivalent may be the only places for sexual intrigue. Bars can be the arena for flirting, romance, or prostitution. A hero may strike up a relationship in a bar to get information, and incidentally acquire an Ally or a lover.
Gambling and saloons go together, and games of chance are a natural feature of the Testing stage. Heroes may want to consult the oracles to see how luck will favor them. They want to learn about the wheel of fortune, and how luck can be coaxed their way. Through a game the stakes can be raised or a fortune can be lost. In the Hindu epic The Mahabharata, a cosmic family feud is set in motion by a rigged game of chance between two sets of brothers. (The bad guys cheat.)
THE WIZARD OF OZ
Of course not all heroes go to bars at this stage of the journey. Dorothy encounters her Tests, Allies, and Enemies on the Yellow Brick Road. Like Psyche or the heroes of many fairy tales she is wise enough to know that requests for aid on the road should be honored with an open heart. She earns the loyalty of the Scarecrow by getting him unhooked from his post and by helping him learn to walk. Meanwhile she learns that her Enemy, the Wicked Witch, shadows her at every turn and waits for the chance to strike. The Witch influences some grumpy apple trees to become Enemies to Dorothy and the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow proves his worthiness to be on the team by outwitting the trees. He taunts them into throwing apples, which he and Dorothy pick up to eat.