Companion Cube: Difference between revisions

* In the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' fanfic ''[[Progress]]'', Princess Luna is rather attached to an antique abacus; in one chapter, her maid Sundance claims that Luna made pajamas for it and reads it bedtime stories. It became popular for a while for writers of other fanfics, especially (but not limited to) more light-hearted ones, to depict Luna with an abacus companion.

** Another fanfic had Applejack comment that accidentally tearing her [[Nice Hat]] felt like injuring a close friend.

 

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* ''[[Madagascar]]'' parodies ''Cast Away'''s Wilson with "Spaulding", another volleyball from a different manufacturer.

* Penny's teddy bear, Teddy, in ''[[The Rescuers]]''. It even becomes a plot point in the climax.

** Also, the Janitor's "squirrel army".

* Abby from ''[[NCIS]]'' has her mass spectrometry machine ("Major Mass-Spec") and Burt the Farting Stuffed Hippo.

** Including when he takes more damage than they intended. In "Escape Slide Parachute" Buster was reduced to little more than scrap metal and flesh-colored chunks when a quick release failed and he fell the full distance without his safety equipment. The reaction of the crew (especially Adam and Grant) was one of abject horror, as if a flesh and blood crew member had been severely injured.

*** It gets worse for the myth where they needed to test possible brain injuries to Buster and added a destructible blood packet inside his cranial cavity to simulate lethal brain hemorrage if the damage was too great.

** During the Supersized Myths Jet Taxi segment, to make him even more animate than usual, they added a voiceover of Buster's thoughts just before they pulled his taxi behind the jumbo jet's engine exhaust: "I wonder if [[Dirty Jobs|Mike Rowe]] is hiring."

** And then there was Lucy the Moose, a 600 lb rubber moose that they crashed cars into (To test the myth that speeding up before hitting a large animal will reduce the damage done to the car and driver. {{spoiler|Busted}}).

* In an unusual [[Panel Show]] example, after the third time Roy Hattersley MP cancelled his appearance as a guest on ''[[Have I Got News for You]]'' at short notice, his place on Paul Merton's team was filled by "The Rt. Hon. Tub of Lard MP" "imbued with much the same qualities and liable to give a similar performance", which Merton would confer with during the show. They won, in spite of the Tub being unable to confer with Merton for any questions aimed at it, and all of their team's questions in the final 'missing words' round being in foreign languages, and, in the last case, with the entire headline blanked out.]]

{{quote|'''Ian Hislop:''' It is getting rather sad that I can't win against Paul when he's accompanied by a tub of lard and his questions are in a foreign language.}}

* A lot of TV spaceships have this trope evoked upon them; perhaps the most famous being the ''[[Star Trek|USS Enterprise]]'' and ''[[Star Wars|Millenium Falcon]]''.

** Both the ''Enterprise'' and the ''Millennium Falcon'' are known to have computers capable of interacting with people but of course, none of them are sophisticated enough for you to hold a conversation with. When it comes to ''[[Star Trek]]'' ships, though, [[Fridge Logic]] or even [[Fridge Brilliance]] applies: we know from holodecks, and fully sentient mechanical characters such as Data and [[Spell My Name with a "The"|the Doctor]], that a computer with much more personality is not hard to create in the [[Trek Verse]]. If, in a world where any AI-run hologram left running long enough becomes a real person, the best the ship's operating system can do is "* Beep!* Unable to comply. [[Applied Phlebotinum]] [[Holding Back the Phlebotinum|conveniently offline]]," it's by design—possibly to keep it out of the [[Uncanny Valley]].

** Scotty is mentioned above in films, but don't forget that The Original Series, he's been known to lament about the engine as if it were his child. And one episode has Kirk tell him to do anything to keep an air filter running, including coddling it and talking to it, if need be.

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'': "And, on my right, putting the case against the government, is a small patch of brown liquid."

** "Good evening."

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Though, it is notable that Titans, The Giant Mecha of the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' universe, are Semi-sentient, with each having its own mind. On one occasion, the mind of a Titan commander is also resident inside the machine, after he dies while still linked up to it.

** It should also be noted that Machine Spirits seem to be real, particularly in more advanced machines; Land Raider tanks in particular have a reputation for continuing fighting long after their crew has been killed. Either the vehicles genuinely are possessed, quite possible in the demon and god filled setting, or the Techpriests are building AIs into their machines without realising it, since many machines are made by creating exact copies of ancient designs that nobody really understands anymore.

** The closest things to being "cute" in a non-ugly way in that world are the drones the Tau use.

* In ''[[GURPS]]'' handbooks, the example given for Delusion is "all purple things are alive." How big the Delusion is (how many points it's worth) depends not on the nature of the Delusion, but on how much it affects your character's behavior. In practical terms, this Delusion could range from saying hello to purple objects and patting them (Quirk or Minor Delusion) all the way up to attacking purple things on sight (Major Delusion) and refusing to talk until all of them are taken from the room.

** The Prestige Class Kensai forms a bond with a specific weapon strong enough to imbue it with magical powers. There are also ceremonies that most any character can undergo to magically/spiritually bond with the weapon of their choice. Not to mention Intelligent Items, which, being sentient, can actually form friendships with characters.

** Occasionally subverted in that the owners find the intelligent items so annoying, given that they do not need to sleep, eat or take breath to continue talking, that they tend to be found in unfortunate places like sewers or active volcanoes.

** ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has Davison and his long-dead bull's skull called "Antler".

** ''New Vegas'' also gives us ED-E for the player. It's a floating robot ball that doesn't talk or have personal problems to solve like the other companions. But it has a [[Fun with Acronyms|fun nickname,]] plays a jingle to alert you to enemy presence, increases your detection range, has a [[Frickin' Laser Beams|zappy laser weapon]] that sets enemies on fire, and is generally adorable to watch just floating around. If you complete ED-E's sidequest, his slide in the ending notes that {{spoiler|it stays with the Courier as a loyal companion.}}

* The enchanted pyrite parrot in ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]'' is getting this treatment.

** [[Catch Phrase|"It's me, Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate!"]]

{{quote|"Stones are an adventurer's best friend."}}

* Butch R. Mann's knife as evidenced by [http://www.choppingblock.org/d/20011217.html this episode] of ''[[Chopping Block]]''.

* Gordon Frohman of ''[[Concerned]]'' gets a [http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-11-16 little too attached] [http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-09-12 to the gravity gun], which he calls "the claw"

* ''[[Cwen's Quest]]'' Introduced the companion cubes more sinister cousins the [http://www.drunkduck.com/Cwens_Quest/index.php?p=651452 Companion Pyramid and the Nemesis Cube].

 

== Web Original ==

* There are a lot of examples in ''[[Lonelygirl15]]'', most notably the purple monkey puppet, P. Monkey.

* Subverted in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', where Generator (Jade Sinclair) has a toy rabbit, a stuffed toy lion, and what looks like a Hello Kitty compact. But Jade's superpower is the ability to cast a psychokinetic copy of herself into objects, so they really are temporarily alive, and intelligent, and often ''very'' dangerous.

{{quote|'''Megavolt:''' ''(to light bulbs)'' Run away! Runawayrunaway! Oh no, they can't move! They've been weakened by the long servitude!}}

* Slightly weird preschool TV example: ''[[Little Bear]]'' has a human friend named Emily, who in turn has a doll named Lucy, which she treats as sentient. Her ''intelligent talking bear'' friend and his likewise chatty forest buddies think talking to a doll is hilarious.

** Also, Trixie is paired with a rock for a class project when her and Timmy are the only living beings in the room without partners.

** Recurring villain Dark Laser (a parody of Darth Vader) has Flipsie, the flipping toy dog. Every single episode he's in, he spends at least one scene talking to Flipsie, and actually seems to ''take advice'' from him. In a recent episode, [[Evil Twin|Foop]] told him to seek help - and since Foop himself isn't exactly the [[Ax Crazy|poster boy for sanity]]...

* Ivan Dobsky from ''[[Monkey Dust]]'' has his space hopper which he calls Mr Hoppy. It was implied that Mr Hoppy was the force behind some of Ivan's crimes; having said that, the results when the prison staff took Mr Hoppy from Ivan definitely count as [[Squick]] and probably count as pure terror: {{spoiler|Ivan fashioned a new space hopper out of some dead guards. Needless to say, people weren't laughing at him then}}

* ''[[Timon and Pumbaa]]'': In one episode, Pumbaa ditches Timon in favor of a meteorite that fell from the sky. It ends up becoming a better friend for Pumbaa (despite being a space rock) and this causes Timon to get jealous and find a new friend. The friendship is only temporary, since Timon and Pumbaa reunite again and the meteor strikes a new relationship with a cheetah.

* While martial arts training, [[Johnny Bravo]] befriended a pebble. It was surprisingly touching.

* Computer from ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]''. While he, if his speaking isn't just Courage's delusion, may be treated as a living character, it's still a '''computer'''.