A Boy and His X: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:pikachu ash 5375.jpg|link=Pokémon (anime)|frame|''[[Ear Worm|Oh, you're my best friend, in a world we must defend!]]'']]

 

{{quote|'''The Doctor''' ''(addressing the TARDIS)'': What do you think, dear? Where shall we take the kids this time?

'''Amy:''' It's always you and her, isn't it? Long after the rest of us have gone. A boy and his box, off to see the universe.

 

A heartwarming story told through the ages: Something unique enters a young man's (or woman's) life, and they form a bond that changes them forever, usually starting them down the path to adulthood.

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[She and Her Cat]]'' : She and, umm, her cat?

* ''[[Asura Cryin]]'': Tomoharu and His Ghost Misao.

* ''[[Narutaru]]'': A Girl and Her Cute, Cuddly Dragon. [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]].

** Similar note: ''[[Bokurano]]''. 14 kids and their [[Humongous Mecha]]. Does [[It Got Worse|it get worse]]? [[Up to Eleven|Yes]].

* ''[[Spider Riders]]'': A boy and his giant sized spider.

* ''[[Shaman King]]'': A Boy and His Six-Hundred-Year-Old Samurai Spirit.

* ''[[My Neighbor Totoro]]'': Two girls and their magical forest spirit.

* ''[[RahXephon]]'': A boy and his vaguely Mayan pseudo-giant-robot.

* ''[[Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G]]'': A boy and his Gunpla. Along with other Model Suit pilots.

* ''[[Blue Exorcist|Ao No Exorcist]]'': A demon boy and his Sith (no, not ''[[Star Wars|that]]'' Sith) cat demon that increases and decreases in size.

* ''A Boy and his 'Bot'' by Gary Thomas Washington.

* C.O.P.S. #5 centered on Bowser and his cyborg dog Blitz, and Bowser/Rex Pointer's memories of his first dog, Maxie.

 

 

 

* The book ''A Kestrel for a Knave'' (adapted for film as ''Kes'') follows A Boy and His... well, you can guess, can't you? {{spoiler|It also falls prey (no pun intended) to [[Death by Newbery Medal]].}}

* ''The City and the Stars'': A Boy and His Noncorporeal Psychic Superintelligence from [[Precursors|Before Civilization Fell]]. But really, Hilvar is an adult with a penchant for strange pets. Nonetheless, his people are psychics, and that allowed him to make contact with Vanamonde.

** Very similarly to ''[[The Horse and His Boy]]'', in Fredric R. Stewart's ''[[Cerberon]]'', the eponymous unicorn has been George's best friend his entire life. The novel opens with George clearly in command, but by the end it's Cerberon who is in charge. In a [[Shout-Out]] to [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]], Cerberon's mother is named Jewel, after the unicorn in [[The Last Battle]].

* [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[The Star Beast]]'': <s>A Boy and His Giant Talking Space Lizard</s> A Giant Talking Space Lizard and Her Boy.

** ''[[Have Space Suit—Will Travel]]'': An Extragalactic Alien Peacekeeper and Her Two Wards.

* In one of [[Robert Rankin]]'s ''Brentford'' stories Omally (always spelled without the apostrophe, for some reason) refuses to die without his faithful Marchant. Pooley [[Lampshade Hanging|comments,]] "A boy and his bike! I feel sick!"

* ''[[Old Yeller]]'', another classic "boy and his dog". Both of the above are [[Death by Newbery Medal|Newbery winners]]. Or losers, in the animal's case.

* Mary O'Hara's ''My Friend Flicka'': A Boy and His Horse.

* ''[[Faust]]'': An old man and his (literal) demons.

* [[Edgar Pangborn]], "Tiger Boy". The [[Walking the Earth|wandering]] youth seems kind and gentle but lets his tiger perform euthanasia on the old and sick. This leads to a tragic ending.

** The trope is even called out by name in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E04 The Doctor's Wife|The Doctor's Wife]]:

{{quote|'''Amy''': It's always you and her, isn't it? A boy and his box, off to see the universe.}}

 

 

== Music ==

* [[Yellow Ostrich]] with the song "Whale"

 

 

== Musical Theater ==

 

 

* ''Cow And Boy''

* ''[[Bloom County]]'': A Boy and His Penguin. (Originally. This angle was swiftly dropped when Opus became the [[Ensemble Darkhorse]].)

 

 

** ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'': A man and his faithful horse.

** ''[[The Last Guardian]]'': A boy and his... sea eagle?

* ''[[Secret of Evermore]]'': A world-hopping boy and his [[Involuntary Shapeshifting]] dog.

* ''[[Haunting Ground]]'': A very scared girl and ''her'' dog.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Webcomic ''[[The Wotch]]'' did a story arc called [http://thewotch.com/?epDate=2007-07-18 A Girl and Her Blob].

* ''[[Chasing the Sunset]]'': A(n Elf) Boy and His Dragon.

* ''[[Dawn of Time]]'': A girl and her triceratops.

* ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'': A girl and her raccoon.

* ''[[The Word Weary]]'': A hipster and his pig.

* ''[[Question Duck]]'': A boy and his duck.

* ''[[Shan Shan|The Adventures of Shan Shan]]'': A boy and his dog-shaped backpack, who talks, although no one else can hear it.

* [[Max Overacts]]: A boy and his ventriloquist dummy.

* [[Life Sketch]]: A girl and her magic sketchbook.

 

 

** ''[[Space Ghost]]'': A Boy, A Girl, and Their Monkey.

** ''[[Superfriends]]'': Ditto.

* ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'': A Girl And Her Alien(s). In the original film, Stitch was adopted by her by pretending to be a dog.

* ''[[The Backyardigans]]'' has quite a few examples: A Kangaroo and His Dinosaur (Austin and Boy in "Caveman's Best Friend," the ultimate example), a Moose and His Burro (Tyrone and Molasses in "Horsing Around"), a Penguin and His Bath Mitten (Pablo and Mitty in "Robin Hood the Clean"), and A... [[Cartoon Creature|Thing]] and Her Dolphin (Uniqua and Sea Squirt in "The Great Dolphin Race").

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'': A Boy And His Naked Mole Rat.

* ''Rainbow Brite'': A Girl and her Horse (Rainbow Brite/Starlight, Stormy/Skydancer, and later on, Krys/On-X)

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]:'' Two Boys And Their [[Animal Superheroes|Secret Agent]] [[Everything's Better with Platypi|Platypus]].

* ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'' has Jimmy and his mechanical canine, Goddard.

* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' with ''Soccer Mummy'', a [[Show Within a Show|film within the show]] in which a reanimated Egyptian mummy joins a little league soccer team and teaches a young boy to believe in himself.

 

== Real Life ==

* Bradley Nowell of [[Sublime]] and Louie Dog, his dalmatian. Bradley wrote a song Lou Dog Went to the Moon. When Louie was stolen,Bradley was inconsolable. Literally, laid on his couch for about a week and cried. He sand Lou Dog Went to the Moon into his answering machine. There are several songs that mention Louie Dog, including: Doin Time, Garden Grove/Garbage Grove, and What I Got. Bradley missed Louie Dog so much he had flown to the East Coast on the original Warped Tour. When Louie Dog died, several years after Bradley, the family buried a phial of his ashes with Bradley, and scattered the rest at the same surf spot they scattered Bradley's. To this day the band, now dubbed Sublime with Rome sells Louie Dog shirts at concerts.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRszilkSVhA A boy and his venomous rat snake.]

* On that note, the perhaps even stranger story of the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZwTFWyI4Ho&feature=relmfu Cambodian boy and his 5 meter, 120 kg (16 ft, 260 pounds) python], which has been adopted as a [[Cool Pet|house pet]]. Why the snake [[The Farmer and the Viper|hasn't tried eating him]] in all those years is anybody's guess. Somehow the snake [[It Can Think|seems to have figured out]] that the parents will continue to provide it with food and safety so long as it does not harm any of them.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Trope Is X]]

[[Category:Loyal Animal Companion]]

[[Category:Pet and Animal Companion Tropes]]

[[Category:Friendship Tropes]]