Team Pet: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"The rabbit is cuddly! Kids like little cuddly sidekicks! I mean, the rabbit... it's a time-tested... okay, the rabbit bites."''|[[The Incredibles|Mr. Incredible]], defending an In-Universe fictional Team Pet.}}

 

 

Most of the time, the Team Pet is comic relief. For obvious reasons their mere presence can [[Narm|ruin a dramatic scene]] most of the time. More seriously, their motivations for fighting may seem kinda vague, especially when they are [[Optional Party Member]]s. You wish more of them were. This doesn't stop some of them being a member of the [[Five-Man Band]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime & Manga ==

* Kon the mod-soul in ''[[Bleach]]'', who insists on being taken seriously, since he has the duty of possessing Ichigo's body when he's in shinigami form. He seldom is, since he normally inhabits the body of a plush lion.

* In early episodes of ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'', Pikachu, when not in battle, was usually found doing something goofy while the human characters were dealing with the situation. This was later dropped with both his and Ash's maturity.

{{quote|'''Soul:''' Anyone want the sexy kitty? She's free.}}

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' gives us Chamo, the talking [[Weasel Mascot|ermine]]. He's also a bit of a mentor, though.

* ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'' has V-8 (Asuka's pet dog) to the Sugo Asurada team.

* Ryo-Ohki from [[Tenchi Muyo!]] certainly belongs here, when she's not a [[Cool Starship]].

* [[Super Sentai]] has a few of these, most notably IC the cyborg dog from ''[[Denshi Sentai Denziman]]'' who {{spoiler|dies by using himself as a power circuit for the [[Humongous Mecha]], but gives the team one final [[Tear Jerker]] message}}.

* ''[[Lexx]]'' had 790 the robot head (and briefly, Squish the cluster lizard).

* Classic ''[[Doctor Who]]'' had K-9.

* In ''[[Primeval]]'' we get Rex, a Coelurosauravus from the Permian anomaly. He doesn't serve much purpose, except to hang out and look cute, possibly to counter all of the [[Nightmare Fuel]].

* [[Sublime]] had Louie Dog, the beloved Dalmatian of the late Bradley Nowell, who frequently joined the band on stage.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Cupil from ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'' fills this role, but doubles as Fina's weapon. To a lesser extent, the "Jester" Pow, who's Vyse's <s>dog</s> [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp|huskra]].

* Hans in ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'', a (vestigially) winged pig. Exists mostly to look [[Even the Dog Is Ashamed|embarrassed]] when the protagonist flubs romantic moments in cut scenes.

** And, apart from being the [[McGuffin]] at the end of one chapter, he doesn't have any impact on the story at all. And, the best that the main character can get out of his [[Relationship Values]] with Muppy? ''A pinky swear''. No, really.

* Similarly to R2-D2 in the movie example, T3-M4 from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' is essentially a very useful team pet.

* Ricky [[Everything's Better with Monkeys|the monkey]] from ''[[Dubloon]]''.

* In ''[[Mother 3]]'', one of the party members is the main character's dog, [[Loyal Animal Companion|Boney]], who is also the only character besides main character Lucas to appear in every chapter.

* ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'''s [[Dub Name Change|Borongo/Saber]] is a sabrecat served as [[The Hero]] and Bianca's Team Pet. Though in the later of the game, Borongo has no more importance to the plot, and you can develop your own army of monster Team Pet.

** ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'' has Munchie, [[The Hero]]'s rat pet that is very smart. It can be used to clear curtain puzzles in a dungeon. {{spoiler|It turns out very latter that Munchie is [[The Hero]]'s ancestor in disguise.}}

== Web Comics ==

* Parodied in the hiatused webcomic ''[[RPG World]]'' by the character Dragobo, a portmaneau character based on a dragon and a chocobo.

* The [http://exterminatusnow.comicgenesis.com/d/20040528.html May 28, 2004 strip] of ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'' sees Virus bring a [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Chao]] to the team, [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] its role in the process, which is soon followed with a [http://exterminatusnow.comicgenesis.com/d/20040611.html discussion on what to name it]. Seven strips after its introduction, it meets a demon, [http://exterminatusnow.comicgenesis.com/d/20040716.html undergoes a radical transformation], and becomes a bite-sized killing machine. In [http://exterminatusnow.comicgenesis.com/d/20040723.html the following strip], it is christened "Blasphemy."

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', the non-human members of the main cast (Bun-Bun, Kiki, and Aylee) tend to fill this role, each in varying degrees (though not so much Aylee now that she's taken a mostly human form).

** Bun-Bun is actually a pardoy of this trope as he was specifically bought by Torg so the strip could have a cute animal...said cute animal is a murderous criminal that can take care of himself and seemingly only hangs around Torg for free food and lodging and whom orginially Torg wanted dead and/or gone (although it IS later revealed he has grown to actually really care about the main cast much later in the strip and fairly early on Torg was shown to clearly miss Bun-Bun when he was AWOL for a while). Kiki on the other hand plays this trope very straight.

* Snookums the tentacle bunny in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'', although he's mainly Molly's pet. It's notable that Molly herself started out as Bob's pet, before she turned out to be sentient and grew to human size.

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'', Mr. Scruffy the cat becomes the Team Pet once adopted by Belkar. It could be argued that Blackwing, Vaarsuvius' raven [[Familiar]], occupied the role before, but he's more of an [[Intellectual Animal]], and now a full character in his own right.

* Bronx in ''[[Gargoyles]]'' is the pet of the gargoyle team, and their equivalent of a [[All Animals Are Dogs|dog]].

* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' has both Sphere the supercycle and Wolf the um, [[Big Badass Wolf]]. They both help in missions.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Characters]]

[[Category:Token Index]]

[[Category:Five-Man Band]]