Non-Human Sidekick: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Odder than even an [[Odd Couple]], one of these guys isn't human! They might be an ordinary animal who's just a bit smarter than average, some form of [[Talking Animal]], a [[Robot Buddy]], a space alien, or even stranger, a normally inanimate object gifted with sentience or even locomotion (and sometimes [[Companion Cube|not even that]]). Particularly useful when it comes to going for help, stealing keys when the [[Big Bad]] has you locked up, or throwing the OFF switch on the [[Conveyor Belt O' Doom]] once he leaves the room.

 

Compare and contrast with [[Amusing Alien]] and [[Token Non-Human]].

{{examples}}

== [[Advertising]] ==

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Bokomon and Neemon from ''[[Digimon Frontier]]''

* Most, if not all [[Mons]] shows can be seen as an inversion of this, because, let's face it, it's the ''mons'' who do the dirty work and get the stuffing beaten out of them when things get hairy, leaving [[The Kid with the Remote Control]] as the sidekick.

* Jiji the black cat in the Miyazaki film ''[[Kiki's Delivery Service]]''

* The Battle Spiders from the ''[[Spider Riders]]'' anime of course.

* Most [[Magical Girl]]s have one or more of these, who often overlap with [[Weasel Mascot]], [[Mentor Mascot]], and/or [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]:

** Mepple and Mipple from ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure]]''.

*** ALL the non-human characters in the [[Pretty Cure]] series.

** The talking cats Luna and Artemis from ''[[Sailor Moon]]''.

** Access Time and Finn Fish in ''[[Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne]]''. {{spoiler|Later subverted with Finn's [[Face Heel Turn]].}}

** The titular beings in ''[[Shugo Chara]]''.

** Shiina from ''[[Vampire Princess Miyu]]''. He's also a [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]] resembling a small pink rabbit... except when he shows the hideous, swollen eye he normally kept hidden behind one of his ears. Yeah, it's that kind of show.

* Elner in ''[[Galaxy Fraulein Yuna]]''. Debatably, also Yuna's three android doubles (who eventually can appear human).

** Not to mention all of the various devices and familiars

* Kir from ''[[King of Bandit Jing]]''.

* Mylene's highly-emotive Furball Guvava in [[Macross 7]]

* Ryoko and her cat/rabbit thing Ryo-Ohki from ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]''

* Jonathan the baby seal from ''[[Kaleido Star]]''.

* Lili the Fata (music fairy) in ''La Corda d'Oro''.

* Simon has Boota, his loyal little pig-mole, in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''.

** While Lordgenome has [[Four-Star Badass|General]] [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Guame]] [[The Dragon|The Immovable]]; who first filled almost exactly the same role and later evolved (literally) into a more direct sidekick role.

* ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]: Stardust Crusaders'' has among the protagonists Iggy, a pug who commands the sand-based Stand The Fool. The opposition has Pet Shop, a hawk who commands the ice-based Osiris. The two even duke it out one on one eventually. The fifth storyline (''Diamond Is Unbreakable'') has Stray Cat, a sentient cat-turned-flower with the power to launch bubbles, and the sixth (''Stone Ocean'') has Foo Fighters, ''a mass of plankton'' inhabiting dead ex-criminal Etro's body.

* ''[[Speed Racer]]'': Chim-Chim, Spritle's chimpanzee pal.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Often used in the [[Anthology Comic]] [[The Beano]] most well known with the pairing of [[Dennis the Menace UK|Dennis the Menace]] and Gnasher. But is also used with other characters such as Calamity James and his pet Alexander Lemming.

* Chameleon Boy of the [[Legion of Super-Heroes]] had Proty (best described as a shape-shifting blob of Silly Putty).

 

 

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Han Solo and Chewbacca. R2-D2 and C-3PO also work for the group as a whole.

* ''[[A Boy and His Dog]]'' features the titular boy and dog duo, which shares a telepathic bond.

* Roger plays a natural sidekick to Eddie Valiant in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''.

 

* A number of these occur in the [[Tamora Pierce]] ''[[Tortall Universe|Tortall]]'' series.

** Alanna and Faithful, a black cat who is quite possibly a God avatar. Has [[Purple Eyes]].

** Additionally, [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] of the same series has the Death of Rats, a dark-robed rat skeleton that preforms the function of death for small rodents, and his horse Binky.

** It may be stretching the definition, but Tiffany Aching's loyal Nac Mac Feegles may also count.

* Loiosh, the snarky dragonet familiar of the title character in the ''[[Taltos]]'' novels.

* Toto from ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]''. One could also make a case for the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion, in spite of their otherwise human characteristics.

* Jame, the protagonist of P.C. Hodgell's ''[[Chronicles of the Kencyrath]]'', is always accompanied by Jorin, an ounce (small hunting cat), to which she is [[Bond Creature|psychically bound]]. Jorin, blind from birth, uses Jame's eyes to see, while Jame sometimes gets sensory impressions from Jorin's senses of smell and hearing. Jorin also warns Jame when he becomes aware of danger, though Jame sometimes ignores them to her detriment.

* Mogget and the Disreputable Dog in Garth Nix's [[The Old Kingdom]] series.

* Gwin and Jink, Dustfinger's trained martins, in ''[[The Inkworld Trilogy]]''.

* Jordan and Ixil from [[Timothy Zahn]]'s ''[[The Icarus Hunt]]''.

* In Steven Brust's [[Dragaera]] books, Vlad Taltos has a jhereg familiar Loiosh, who looks like a miniature wyvern and acts as a [[Servile Snarker]].

 

** Also Dr. Theophilus, although given that he's a sentient AI charged with helping run the affairs of humanity one could argue an inversion in this case.

* The Bear from ''[[BJ And The Bear]]''

* Horse Comet in ''[[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr]]''

* [[The Spock|Spock]]. Possibly a [[Trope Codifier]].

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** It's also TWO [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to characters from [[BioWare]]'s much ealier game [[Baldur's Gate|Baldur's Gate II]].

* Mieu in ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]''.

* Dogmeat, in the ''[[Fallout]]'' series.

** Later, ED-E and Rex. Also, (technically) Fawkes, RL-3, Lily, Raul, and Charon. And maybe Jericho, judging by his comment about "growing a fourth arm."

*** And Warlock.

* Beneath a Steel Sky: Foster and Joey, the talking, sentient robot.

** I always name him [[The Silmarillion|Huan]], but that's just me.

* You acquire several non-human companions in [[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]], including friendly versions of the normally hostile Goomba, Koopa, Bob-omb, Boo and Lakitu.

* In ''[[La Pucelle Tactics]]'', your entire party lineup aside from plot-essential humans consist of monsters you've recruited in the field.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Conrad the vampire and the unnamed zombie from ''[[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]]''. Conrad's more whiny and the zombie's more stoic, so neither of them are really [[Snarky Non-Human Sidekick|Snarky Non Human Sidekicks]].

** Now there's also Toni {{spoiler|the werewolf}} and Veser {{spoiler|the half-selkie}}.

* Boo and Sushi from ''[[Springiette]]''

* Hugo the rat from ''[[Capt'n Crazy|Captn Crazy]]''.

* Mia from ''[[Unintentionally Pretentious]]'' has [http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=34 Aibo], her robotic [http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=101 guide dog] and [http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=121 guardian], making it also her [[Angry Guard Dog]], but with a manual [[Berserk Button]].

** And occasionally as [http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=59 a household appliance].

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Appa and Momo from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. Appa's a giant flying six-legged bison, and Momo's a flying lemur. They're animal companions with just slightly higher than normal intelligence.

* Snarf from ''[[Thundercats]]'' and ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]''

* Plank from ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]''.

*** Flotsam and Jetsam the eels to [[The Little Mermaid|Ursula.]]

*** Percy the pug to [[Pocahontas|Governor Ratcliffe.]]

*** Hayabusa the falcon to [[Mulan|Shan Yu.]]

*** Randall Boggs (a purple eight-legged reptilian monster) to [[Monsters, Inc.|Waternoose (a gray, crustacean monster).]]

*** Anchor the hammerhead and Chum the mako to [[Finding Nemo|Bruce the great white.]]

*** Junior the bison to [[Home on the Range|Alameda Slim.]]

** Also, there was one episode where Dr. Pinch got put on someone else's arm (Was one of the guys, can't remember which) and still had the same personality and voice.

* In two of the Superfriends cartoon series from the 70's, there were non-human sidekicks belonging to the "junior" superheroes. First, there was Wonderdog, sidekick to Wendy and Marvin in the original cartoon series. Then there was Gleek the monkey, sidekick to Zan and Jayna, the wonder twins.

* The Secret Saturdays - Zak has three - Komodo the komodo dragon, Fisk the gorilla-cat, and Zon the pteradactyl.

* Liz from the ''[[Magic School Bus]]''.

* Blue Falcon had Dynomutt.

* [[Futurama]]: Fry has Bender; Zapp has Kif; Farnsworth has Zoidberg.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Foil]]

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Pet and Animal Companion Tropes]]

[[Category:Sidekick]]