Companion Cube: Difference between revisions

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** This also happened in ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' (the episode "Bitter Sweets").

** ... Not unlike Mr. Universe and his LoveBot companion, Lenore, from ''[[Serenity]]''.

* In ''[[The Professional]]'', Léon's only friend has been a small houseplant, which he carefully waters with a squirt bottle and sets outside his windowsill each day. He says he likes the plant because it has "no roots," like him.

* In ''[[Léon: The Professional]]'', Léon's only friend has been a small houseplant, which he carefully waters with a squirt bottle and sets outside his windowsill each day. He says he likes the plant because it has "no roots," like him.

** [[Fridge Brilliance|It's a vinyl plant.]]

* In the film ''[[Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium]]'', [[Natalie Portman]]'s character is presented with a literal block of polished wood that her [[Eccentric Mentor|mysterious, eccentric employer]] calls the "Congreve Cube", which he indicates is extremely significant and powerful, although we're not sure how seriously to take anything he says. In at least one scene, we see her (skeptically) trying to talk to it as though it could understand her. It may or may not be a [[Magic Feather]].

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* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'': Jayfeather and his stick. To the point where he always looks for the stick when he needs answers, and was horrified when he almost lost it in the lake. Feeling it also seems to calm him down ([[Accidental Innuendo|Is anyone thinking what I'm thinking?]]). JayxStick is also a ''very'' popular [[Cargo Ship]] within the fandom.

** The authors took notice of the [[Cargo Ship]] and {{spoiler|[[Ship Sinking|killed it dead]]: the stick is broken in ''The Fourth Apprentice'', by Jayfeather himself.}}

* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' anthology ''[[Tales From ~~Jabbas~~ Palace]]'', [[Dumb Muscle]] Gartogg hauls around and talks to the dead bodies of the cook's assistant and a B'Omarr monk after stumbling onto the mystery of their murder and being tasked with solving it. Even though he ''did'' solve it eventually, he kept hauling the bodies everywhere he went because he'd gotten attached to them; they were the only people who didn't seem to mind his company.

* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' anthology ''[[Tales From Jabba's Palace]]'', [[Dumb Muscle]] Gartogg hauls around and talks to the dead bodies of the cook's assistant and a B'Omarr monk after stumbling onto the mystery of their murder and being tasked with solving it. Even though he ''did'' solve it eventually, he kept hauling the bodies everywhere he went because he'd gotten attached to them; they were the only people who didn't seem to mind his company.

* [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s book ''The Rowan'' has the title character treating her Pukha this way. The Pukha is essentially a child monitor and stuffed toy in one, but Rowan has one-sided conversations with it, even as she's clearly aware that it's an inanimate object.

* In the original novel ''[[A Little Princess]]'' by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Sara gets a doll named Emily from her father. Sara conceives of Emily as a listening companion, even a protective good witch, who moves around and does things when no one's looking. In the original novel, {{spoiler|Sara's father dies in India}}, and Sara's attachment to Emily becomes one of her few escapes from her horrible situation. {{spoiler|Until she breaks down and screams at it "You're just a doll!" and slaps it out of its chair. Later movie adaptations cut that scene out allowing Emily to be an expression of Sarah's imagination throughout.}}

** The girl in Enid Bagnold's ''[[National Velvet]]'' wants to own a stableful of horses, so she has a boxful of cutouts from magazines. She pastes them to heavy cardboard, makes saddles and bridles for them out of embroidery thread, and "rides" them on back country roads, then carefully rubs them down and puts them away. They all have names and histories.

* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s Juvenile novel ''[[Have Space ~~Suit - Will~~ Travel|Have Spacesuit -- Will Travel]]'', the main character names his eponymous suit Oscar and has conversations with it. In one particular case, it even gives him a pep talk as he {{spoiler|lays dying on the surface of Pluto}}. Note that though it's never mentioned outright, there's no indication that he actually believes he's talking to his suit.

* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s Juvenile novel ''[[Have Space Suit—Will Travel|Have Spacesuit -- Will Travel]]'', the main character names his eponymous suit Oscar and has conversations with it. In one particular case, it even gives him a pep talk as he {{spoiler|lays dying on the surface of Pluto}}. Note that though it's never mentioned outright, there's no indication that he actually believes he's talking to his suit.

* [[Mercy Thompson]] is shadowed by an ancient magical walking stick whose initial purpose was to keep sheep healthy and ensure that all expectant sheep produced twins. Having developed a will of its own it tends to vanish and appear in places important to Mercy such as her home, office, car, and even in her hand when she really needs to hit something.

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* Mrs. Beasley in ''[[Family Affair]]''.

** Similarly, Kitty Carry-All in ''[[The Brady Bunch]]''.

* Radar's teddy bear in ''[[M*A*S*H|Mash]]''.

* Radar's teddy bear in ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]''.

** "My bear went off!"

* Mr. Bear in ''[[Full House]]''.

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{{quote|"He could've swabbed Peanut on the head, on the foot... no. In front of God and everybody, he swabs his butt, just like that! I know it's only a puppet, but... I work with the guy! There's a relationship there!"}}

* Zoe of ''[[Sesame Street]]'' has a pet rock named Rocco, which she treats as alive. It is often scorned by Elmo, though he sometimes goes along with the charade just to get it over with.

** Big Bird had his teddy bear, Radar (a [[Shout-Out]] to the ''[[M*A*S*H|Mash]]'' character).

** Big Bird had his teddy bear, Radar (a [[Shout-Out]] to the ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]'' character).

** Ernie had his rubber duckie.

* Amy, The Dancing Brick in ''[[It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie]]''. In theory, not totally dissimilar from Gonzo's usual acts (Yollanda, The Dancing Cheese, for example), except that "she's" not a Muppet brick; she's just a brick.

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** Oriana's ball is the closest thing to a companion cube on Runeterra.

** Another example is Tristy.

* In the second ''[[~~Bioshock~~]]'' you can get the Handyman Gene Tonic, which lets you spend EVE to repair friendly bots and turrets. In true mechanic fashion, it also gives names to the bots you've hacked to fight alongside you. It kind of gives you an incentive to keep those bots active given that it's you versus a city full of Splicers.

* In the second ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' you can get the Handyman Gene Tonic, which lets you spend EVE to repair friendly bots and turrets. In true mechanic fashion, it also gives names to the bots you've hacked to fight alongside you. It kind of gives you an incentive to keep those bots active given that it's you versus a city full of Splicers.

* ''[[Bionic Commando]] 2009''. Man... Okay, so, pretty much, {{spoiler|his arm is his wife.}} Good lord, what else is there to say? {{spoiler|Near the end of the game, it is revealed that Spencer's missing wife was killed and her brain was integrated into his one companion for the whole game, his bionic arm.}} He is in severe denial after this reveal, probably because he sees it as ridiculous as it is. The twist was severely criticized by multiple reviewers, and thus is a perfect example of handling a [[Companion Cube]] poorly.

* In ''Silent Scope EX'', one of the bosses is piloting a helicopter with a human-sized stuffed bear in the gunner's seat (named Teddy). The game gives you an obvious weak spot, the boss's head. However if you get a headshot on the bear instead, which you have 3 second window of opportunity in the beginning and the bear's head is a bigger target than the boss's, the boss instantly dies. Also instead of the shot-through-the-skull image, the image is of the bear's head.

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** Hell, even the sound made by Strong Bad's chair when he gets up has been turned into a character. Two characters, actually (The Geddup Noise and "his cousin, Chairscoot").

** A list can be found [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Category:Pseudocharacters here.]

* Hubert Cumberdale from ''[[~~Saladfingers~~]]''. In fact, it's used an awful lot to emphasize just how messed up Salad Fingers really is.

* Hubert Cumberdale from ''[[Salad Fingers]]''. In fact, it's used an awful lot to emphasize just how messed up Salad Fingers really is.

* Subverted in ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' since, though characters interact with Andy the Bomb, who is an actual bomb, he is given a voice (and quite a nasty personality).

* ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]'': In "Sucker for Love", Nutty's obsession with a heart-shaped box of chocolates on display in a candy store window causes him to imagine himself marrying the box, making it breakfast, riding with it in an ambulance as it breaks water during its pregnancy (implied by the bulge in its center), and having three small boxes of chocolates as his children. Then he finds the box cheated on him, discovering the affair after seeing Lumpy (who's now a milkman) leaving their house with chocolate smeared on his lips. A quick scene shifts to Nutty in jail, where it's implied he killed Lumpy out of jealousy. When he walks in the visiting area, he meets the box of chocolates (now sporting a scarf and pair of glasses) with a dent on its side (which he may have caused after beating it in his rage from its affair with Lumpy), and expresses to it his regret for treating it. After his release from prison, they both live happily together until their old age, when the elderly box of chocolates dies by falling over and spilling its contents. Before returning to reality, the elderly Nutty stands in the rain, mourning over the box of chocolates' grave.

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** Janitor [[Star Wars|Poopatine]] appears to have a personal relationship with his mechanized chair, Brenda.

** Yo's best friend is a pine cone named Ingrid. She also has a digital cat named Scampers.

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': ** "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1 E21 Over a Barrel|Over a Barrel]]": Applejack's apple tree Bloomburg gets this treatment. She buys it a private sleeping car in a train and reads it bedtime stories. Spike gets into the act when he bunks with Bloomberg to get away from the girls' night-time chatter, and apologizes in advance to the tree if he starts snoring. (This may be justified if he snores ''fire,'' however.)

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': ** "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E21 Over a Barrel|Over a Barrel]]": Applejack's apple tree Bloomburg gets this treatment. She buys it a private sleeping car in a train and reads it bedtime stories. Spike gets into the act when he bunks with Bloomberg to get away from the girls' night-time chatter, and apologizes in advance to the tree if he starts snoring. (This may be justified if he snores ''fire,'' however.)

** "Party of One": Pinkie Pie thinks her friends don't want to come to her parties anymore and completely flips out. She sets up a pile of rocks ("Rocky"), a sack of flour ("Madame LeFlour"), a bucket of turnips ("Mr. Turnip"), and a piece of lint ("Sir Lints-a-lot") as her new friends, and tries to throw a party with them.

*** Pinkie Pie does their voices so well that she even gets Rainbow Dash to argue with the rocks.

** In "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E1 The Return of Harmony Part 1|The Return]] [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E2 The Return of Harmony Part 2|of Harmony]]", {{spoiler|Rarity is brainwashed by Discord into thinking a boulder is actually a giant diamond. She becomes increasingly obsessed with and protective of it, and starts calling it "Tom".}}

** In "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E01 The Return of Harmony Part 1|The Return]] [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E02 The Return of Harmony Part 2|of Harmony]]", {{spoiler|Rarity is brainwashed by Discord into thinking a boulder is actually a giant diamond. She becomes increasingly obsessed with and protective of it, and starts calling it "Tom".}}

** In "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E3 Lesson Zero|Lesson Zero]]", Twilight Sparkle introduces her cherished childhood toy "Smarty Pants": a raggedy old stuffed pony doll with a notebook and quill. Twilight casts an [[Artifact of Attraction|enchantment spell]] that makes everypony in town to be attracted to the doll, leading to a large fight between all of them over it. After the spell is lifted, every pony loses interest and leaves the doll behind, except for Big Macintosh who is ([[Real Men Wear Pink|for some unexplained reason]]) still attracted to it and ends up running away with it.

** In "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E03 Lesson Zero|Lesson Zero]]", Twilight Sparkle introduces her cherished childhood toy "Smarty Pants": a raggedy old stuffed pony doll with a notebook and quill. Twilight casts an [[Artifact of Attraction|enchantment spell]] that makes everypony in town to be attracted to the doll, leading to a large fight between all of them over it. After the spell is lifted, every pony loses interest and leaves the doll behind, except for Big Macintosh who is ([[Real Men Wear Pink|for some unexplained reason]]) still attracted to it and ends up running away with it.

* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' Almost all of the residents of Ooo are composed of sentient candy, mountains, teddy bears, etc. However, in the beginning of 'The Jiggler', Finn and Jake are rescuing a 'family' consisting of seemingly random food, although one, a watermelon, is named Stanley. None of them are sentient, and yet they have a house and apparently they get into danger constantly.

* ''[[Spliced]]'': Boosty the jetpack.

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* A number of people [http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006030409257 name their cars] and talk to them. There's even a service to [http://www.carbirths.com/index.php register your car's name and get it a birth certificate].

** Computers too. Especially, but not exclusively by geeks.

*** This can also apply to electronics like external hard drives and [[~~MP 3~~]] players or things like bicycles- basically anything that can "exhibit a personality" regarding its performance. Note that naming computers can be really helpful when you have a lot of them hooked up to a network, and making those names somewhat specific to the machine in question helps the users keep track of which one is which.

*** This can also apply to electronics like external hard drives and [[MP3]] players or things like bicycles- basically anything that can "exhibit a personality" regarding its performance. Note that naming computers can be really helpful when you have a lot of them hooked up to a network, and making those names somewhat specific to the machine in question helps the users keep track of which one is which.

*** It doesn't help that Windows XP and later (and most Linux, while we're at it) force you to fill in a name for your computer as a part of the installation process. The intention was probably to give the computer a meaningful hostname for private networks (e.g. home LAN), but that's not the way it comes off to even experienced home users.

**** You're also supposed to name iPods in a similar vein. By default their name is "[your name]'s iPod", but you can change it to whatever you want.