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Team Pet: Difference between revisions
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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|Optional Party Members]]. You wish more of them were. This doesn't stop some of them being a member of the [[Five-Man Band]].
If the Team Pet is an otherworldly being, it may end up as an [[Amusing Alien]]. It may also be a [[Pet Monstrosity]].
[[Team Pet|Team Pets]] do have their other uses, however. We hear lots of stories of dogs pulling people from burning buildings or otherwise saving their lives, for example. Also, the Team Pet can go get help if its master (or someone else on the team) [[Timmy in a Well|gets in trouble]]. And a Team Pet can act as an adorable scene partner for a heartfelt [[Surrogate Soliloquy]]. It can be a [[Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear]] if it is [[Not So Harmless]] once it's [[Restraining Bolt]] is loosened.
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* Akamaru from [[Naruto]] serves as the team pet for his team.
* Don't forget about Kirara from ''[[Inuyasha]]'', Sango's two-tailed demon cat who can go from a [[Cute Kitten|tiny kitty]] from a [[Mega Neko|huge fanged feline]] who can fly.
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS]]'' has Friedrich, Caro's baby dragon who could take a more adult form during battle.
* [[Hana Kimi]] has Yūjirō.
* Kyubey from ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. {{spoiler|When he's not being the [[Big Bad]].}}
** If Kyubey counts, then every [[Magical Girl]]'s [[Mentor Mascot]] and [[Weasel Mascot]] would count, especially since Kyubey doesn't do anything useful in combats aside from [[Mr. Exposition|talking.]]
* Printemps, Jeudi's pet cockatoo in ''[[Honoo no Alpen Rose]]''.
* [[Darker Than Black]] had Mao, a Contractor who had the ability to switch bodies. He lost his human body during an explosion and previously resided in the body of a black cat in the first season before regaining consciousness in the second season and found himself occupying Suou's pet momonga, a flying squirrel. Unlike most Team Pets, Mao (when he was in his cat form) was a useful part of the Syndicate through espionage and diversions. However, when he switches his consciousness to a squirrel, his ability to provide assistance is severely hampered by his small size, demonstrated when an enemy contractor (and a [[Psycho for Hire]]) incapacitated him by grabbing his tail and taping him to his car.
* ''[[Kuroko no Basuke]]'' has Tetsuya #2, a dog. It was adopted by the Seirin High Basketball Club, and named after the main character, Kuroko Tetsuya, for their identical eyes, [[The Stoic|and expression, or lack thereof]].
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* Subverted at least twice in the [[Discworld]] series, once with the Luggage (an [[Amusing Alien]] which actually ''hates'' its companions and every other life form, aside from its owner {{spoiler|and an occasional [[Love Interest]]}}), and again with Quoth the Raven and the Death of Rats, who tend to constitute a Tag-Team Pet between the pair of them.
* ''Villainous'' example- Nagini from [[Harry Potter]], the giant snake who is almost always in the company of her master, [[Big Bad|Lord Voldemort]], and his Death Eaters. Nagini is, however, very dangerous in her own right (being, after all, a huge and very poisonous snake), and {{spoiler|she's also a living [[Soul Jar]] for Voldemort}}.
** For the good guys, Hedwig the owl (and to a lesser extent Hermione's cat Crookshanks) are more ordinary examples.
* ''[[Malevil]]'' has Craa, a raven spotted raiding the castle's wheat fields. Though a pest, they name and feed him as he's the only wild animal they've seen since [[World War III]].
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* ''[[Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al Revis]]'' gives us Muppy, a '''slug-like alien''' floating in a pot-shaped UFO. [[Only Sane Man|No one except Nikki]] can see that he was actually an ''alien invader''. [[The Smart Guy]]/[[The Rival]] thinks he's ''handicapped'', and the principal who admitted him to the school? ''Transfer student'' from "Waii'ha". Everyone else? [[Hilarity Ensues|Hoo-boy...]]
** 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.
* ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' has a Mabari Hound that the player names themselves. All the characters that join you like the dog, even the less pleasant characters like Morrigan, Sten or {{spoiler|Loghain}}.
** OTOH, Oghren seems to dislike him (becomes more obvious when he's drunk). Alistair, of all people, also has a knack for pissing off Dog. Getting too close to his food, teasing him about eating human flesh, etc. At one point, the Grey Warden can remind him that Dog is a ''warhound'' and not a puppy to be teased. The "dialogue" Alistair has with Dog also doesn't seem terribly friendly either.
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** 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.
* Davan's hairless, amorphous cat Choo-Choo Bear in ''[[Something Positive]]'', odd for an otherwise (usually) non-fantastic [[Life Embellished]] [[Web Comic]]. Sometimes seen seeping out of box, popping out of a toaster or acting as Davan's scarf or somesuch.
* ''[[Adventurers!]]'' has Chookie, some sort of [[SMURFING]] pink thing. Karn has a... [http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0140.html violent reaction] during their first encounter, but he's shown to be part of the party later anyway.
* 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.
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* Tennyo's stuffed cabbit, which is animated anytime Generator wants. [[It Makes Sense in Context]]. While cute and silly and usually played for laughs, the cabbit can alert Generator instanteously, and in "Christmas Crisis" demonstrated that it can be ''horrifically'' effective.
== Western Animation ==
* Snarf from ''[[Thundercats]]'' is pretty well the epitome of this trope. Utterly useless in a fight except against the weakest of minions, and tends to serve as weak comedy relief. Subverted only slightly in that Snarf is actually the nanny for Lion-O before he wakes up all growed-up on Third Earth.
** In ''[[Thundercats 2011]]'' Snarf is much more explicitly a ''pet'': Though possessing [[Amplified Animal Aptitude]], Snarf cannot speak, and instead serves as an [[Empathy Pet]] and [[The Confidant]] for Lion-O's many [[Surrogate Soliloquy|Surrogate Soliloquys]]. Also an [[Evil-Detecting Dog]]...not that [[Kid Hero]] Lion-O pays enough attention when Snarf tries to serve in that capacity.
* Momo in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' is a flying [[Mix-and-Match Critters|bat-like lemur]]. In contrast, Appa is a 10-ton flying bison who has been subject to serious [[A Day in the Limelight|personalized stories]] and has a strong century-long bond with the titular character, making him more of a life-long companion than a Team Pet. Momo's presence or absence is a firm indicator to how light-hearted and whimsical or serious and edgy the current story is. To compound to it all, his character was originally designed to be a little robot named "MOMO 3" (when [[What Could Have Been|the original draft set the series in a futuristic environment]]) and Co-creator Byan Konietzko has admitted that he based him on his childhood cat Buddy.
** In the [[Sequel Series]], The Legend of Korra, the two team pets tradition continues with Pabu, the fire ferret (red panda/ferret hybrid) and Korra's polarbear-dog, Naga.
* Radarr is just another element of the [[Cliché Storm]] that is ''[[Storm Hawks]]''. Pun unintended.
* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in ''[[Transformers]]'', where the main characters are robots, and the team pet is usually a human.
** Spike and Daniel are the most blatant examples. Apparently, this trope is genetic.
** In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', Sari is a debatable example for her first two seasons, {{spoiler|then gets upgraded to [[Sixth Ranger]] after her [[Robotic Reveal]]}}.
** In ''[[Transformers Super God Masterforce]]'', Cab's parrot and armadillo are definite examples.
** In ''[[Transformers Prime]]'', most of the team gets their own ''individual'' pet. Bulkhead has Miko, Arcee has Jack, and Bumblebee has Rafael, and Optimus has a feral-cat-that-you-sometimes-leave-food-outside-for relationship with Agent Fowler. When Wheeljack arrives, Miko comments that "he'll need his own [pet] human".
* Faffy from ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]'' is a spoof of these type of creatures.
** To a lesser extent, Twinkle The Marvel Horse.
* Elvis from ''[[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids]]'', whose major plot purpose is to cause Mr. Socrates to sneeze.
* Uni the baby unicorn from the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' cartoon.
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* Chuchu, the family dog on ''[[The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan]]''.
* Kuma in ''[[Pole Position (animation)|Pole Position]]''.
* Tally-Hawk is the ''[[Silverhawks]]''' mascot.
* Bandit in ANY incarnation of ''[[Jonny Quest]]''.
* In ''[[Futurama]]'' Nibbler is the Team Pet, even if he is an [[Amusing Alien]] and [[Intellectual Animal]].
* ''[[Bubble Guppies]]'' has one in the form of Bubble Puppy.
* Sebastian is Alexandra's smartass cat on ''[[Josie and the Pussy Cats]]'', but he'll usually pitch in to help the others when needed.
* Elmo, Augie's bulldog on ''[[The Funky Phantom]]'', is usually engaged in a battle of wits with Mudsy's cat Boo.
* Braveheart, the misnamed St. Bernard on ''[[Inch High, Private Eye|Inch High Private Eye]].''
* ''[[Clue Club]]'' team pets Woofer (a vainglorious bloodhound) and Wimper (a basset).
* The parody series ''[[The Incredibles|The Adventures of Mr. Incredible]]'' had Mr. Skipperdoo, a mostly useless, bespectacled rabbit.
* Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''. The former is generally more useful.
* ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]'': Zak has three Team Pets, all of them cryptids, including a 7-foot tall "gorilla-cat" named Fisk, a komodo dragon (named, you guessed it, Komodo), and a pterosaur named Zon. Unlike most team pets, Zak treats them like their part of his family, including Fisk, whom he likens to an adopted brother
* Bronx in ''[[Gargoyles]]'' is the pet of the gargoyle team, and their equivalent of a [[All Animals Are Dogs|dog]].
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