#animal sidekicks

[yen-sids-tournament]

Hello, yes, Hi!

It's been a minute hasn't it??

Well, we are about ready to start the Animal Besties Tournament!

We are going to have quite a few rounds/brackets to get through. With that in mind we will be staggering the rounds. We will first do 8 Disney match ups (from bracket 1), then 8 non-Disney, then 8 Disney (the second half of bracket 1), then 8 more Disney (first half of bracket 2), followed by 8 more non-Disney, and then the final 8 match ups of Disney.

Each match up will be hanging around for a week. The Disney are going to be pairs, but the first rounds of the non-Disney will have three competitors.

So, stay tuned for the official bracket posting!

[annarts05]

animal sidekicks: rant edition ;-;

i love characters with animal sidekicks or at least a connection to animals in some way ;-; idk, animal sidekicks/friends are just...*chef’s kiss*

i neeed more.

animal sidekicks that are the character’s only and best friend. no one else is around, or no one wants to hang out with them, or for whatever reason, but the animal is the only one that’s stuck through it.

animal sidekicks that fight for the character, defend them, or do bad things to help their character, like stealing or attacking an enemy.

animal sidekicks that are like, sorta more intelligent and more capable of human understanding than animals in reality. think maximus from tangled. more understanding of human cues and even language.

and now some animal sidekick ideas, ofc, because this wouldn’t be complete with a list of my obsessions and reasons why they make good animal sidekicks in fiction ;-;

and also yes, we’re bending the rules of reality and i don’t care :)

horses ||| need i go on. they’re fast and beautiful and convenient to ride (if a little boring sometimes, but do what you want ofc <3), and also make excellent friends. they bond with you and love you <3

raccoons ||| raccoons have been documented as pets in reality (although they are wild animals and in manys’ opinions, it’s unethical), and they’re hghly intelligent, full of mischief, and they freaking love to snuggle. They express affection largely through physical touch. 

foxes ||| foxes are rather similar to dogs in regards to human interaction, although of course there are differences. just do a bit of research and you’ll see. with lots of human interaction from a young age, they might let you cuddle them, but it’s debatable. depends on the fox. they’re intelligent, fast, and really curious. 

dogs ||| whichever dog breed you go with, remember that dogs are man’s best friend, and chances are, you’ve had some experience with dogs in reality. that’ll help a lot. wolves are awesome. 

pet rats. 

you could also do rabbits, cats, birds, water buffalo for all i care. 

i just love animal friends.

[skypalacearchitect]

atla has THE best animal sidekicks

[rayalltheway]

The two canine life-appreciators that stole this whole movie

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #561

Top Ten Animal Sidekicks (Non-Talking)

Ah, sidekicks. Where would we be, eh? From Watson to Robin, they serve many a purpose and I’ve written about them before. But whilst it’s always useful to have a second character who can, essentially, talk back to our hero, there’s also a space for the mute sidekick; a sounding board, sure, but also a kind of emotional support vessel, a conduit for our hero’s inner monologue. And what better form could this character take than an animal? Animals can’t talk, after all!

One of the other benefits of having an animal partner to a main character is imbuing them with less animalistic characteristics. This could be some kind of heightened intelligence or more overt anthropomorphism, so they can drive cars or operate heavy machinery. All the while though, they’re a mute, supportive presence. An animal sidekick can be child-like but also worldly-wise; a sage and a savant, aiding the hero and getting them out of danger, but also a weak and naive spirit who might themselves need protecting. Arguably the best animal sidekicks occupy both those roles simultaneously.

Blimey, I’ve wanged on a bit this week.

What I’m trying to say is that by having an animal sidekick you can do all sorts that just isn’t the same with another human, for a bunch of reasons. And of course the king of animal sidekicks is Walk Disney; there’s barely a film that goes by without Our Hero talking to or interacting with an animal as if they were peers. Think of Snow White in the woods, or Geppetto’s cat Figaro (and I want it on record that I remembered the name without Googling), or even Aurora and her Cosplay Owl. Disney protagonists, right from the start, have had animal sidekicks, whether in prominent major roles – your Abus or your Sebastians – or just as cute side characters, like Legend the three-legged dog in this year’s Strange World (underrated, go see it). Aside from the films about talking animals – Jungle Book, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Oliver and Company, etc – most Disney animal sidekicks actually are mute, and I think – as I’ve said – having a mute companion is quite a good hook (not Hook, he can talk). How many Disney films are there where our hero expresses their heartfelt desires to their mute animal sidekicks, whether through song or monologue? “Someday, Abu…”

So anyway, Disney features prominently, but my desire to make these mute companions does kick out the likes of Sebastian, Archimedes, and Baloo (I think you’d struggle to call him a sidekick anyway). And sadly I’ve not had room for some of the smaller characters, elbowed out of the list as they were by the big dogs (or reindeer); so let’s have a small toast to Maximus the horse and Max the dog, who share more than a name, they share a place in my heart.

Gromit (A Grand Day Out, 1989): his dexterity and complexity and the fact his name’s in the title (well, the franchise over-title or whatever you want to call it) did make me wonder whether he qualified as “sidekick”, but I’ve stuck him in regardless. He’s definitely subordinate to Wallace, at least in Wallace’s eyes, but a more dependable dog you’ll never find. Fiercely intelligent and more worldly-wise than his “master”, he’s also cultured and more sophisticated (reading The Republic by Pluto, in one of the best sight gags of all time). He’s cute, he’s big-hearted, and he goes above and beyond to serve – and save – Wallace. And his vast well of expression is conveyed only through his eyebrows. He is, in every sense, a Good Boy.

Snowy (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, 1929): like Gromit, Snowy nearly didn’t make the cut, but in his case it’s because – get this – he used to speak. Or, at least, his thoughts were conveyed on the page. But he never really spoke, not to Tintin at least, and we can all agree he’s mute nowadays right? Anyway, whilst way less anthropomorphic than Gromit, he’s just as dependable a pooch, flying into danger to save his master, every bit as determined and smart. And maybe – just maybe – the cutest dog on the list?

Pikachu (Pokémon, 1997): does Pikachu talk? I mean, clearly he does, we’re just not speaking his language. But again we have a character who’s almost a second soul for our protagonist (I guess I a way a lot of these animals function sort of like the daemons in His Dark Materials). Pikachu is just like Ash: brave, resourceful, and fiercely loyal to his best friend. He’s also disarmingly cute and with a bit of a wild streak, randomly electrocuting people for the lols.

Pascal (Tangled, 2010): pairing an adorable naïve princess in a flowing pink dress with a grumpy, belligerent, and potentially homicidal lizard is a masterstroke of character work. Pascal is a comedy genius, his big eyes conveying massive emotion despite his tiny form. His sharp reptilian mannerisms – including short, rapid movements – help sell a lot of comic beats. And, yes, he’s cute and a good friend. But let’s circle back to homicide: he is alone, I do believe, in the annals of Disney sidekicks, for straight-up murdering someone. Watch the end of the film again: he deliberately trips Mother Gothel so she falls out the window. This lizard’s a badass.

Brain (Inspector Gadget, 1983): almost a precursor to Gromit in the genius dog sidekick category (and it’s alarming to think he only came about six years prior, when my mind separates them by epochs). He’s the dependable cohort to Penny, herself almost a sidekick of sorts to Uncle Gadget. Brain, with his funky collar, is a dab hand at any machinery, and also a master of disguise. He may be one of the more obscure and forgotten characters on this list (for shame!) but to me he casts a very long shadow.

Sven (Frozen, 2013): back to Disney and one of the sub-categories of animal sidekicks: Not a Dog but Behaves Like a Dog. Sven is the giant doggy deer companion of Kristof, less a sidekick than a brother, really; they finish each others’ sandwiches (well, carrots). He’s funny and cute and really dependable, racing to rescue Anna at the climax, and his duet with Kristof is a hoot.

Zero (The Nightmare Before Christmas, 1993): everyone needs a dog, even lanky skeleton-people, and the floating transparent hanky Zero is just the ticket. A dead dog, he’s always by his master’s side, happy to chase a tossed rib (pulled from Jack’s chest, natch) and help cheer his friend up. He even saves Christmas – well, Jack’s version of it, anyway – by pulling a Rudolph and lighting up his nose. What a good dead boy!

Baxter (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004): Baxter, get this, once at a whole wheel of cheese. Really the love of Ron Burgundy’s life, he winds up in a glass case of emotion when his furry little gentleman is lost. But Baxter is resourceful, and returns at the end to save Ron’s life, even if he isn’t cool with Veronica moving in with them. This is less a case of dog-as-sounding-board, more hetero-life-partner. And, yes, stretching the rules again, because he sort of talks, in subtitles, but only once or twice.

Your dog (Fable II, 2008): so I specifically piked Pikachu from the Pokémon anime, making this the only gaming animal on the list. Called “revolutionary” in typically hyperbolic Molyneux fashion, doggo here was still your best friend, sniffing out treasure and helping you fight bad guys. Whilst the aim of making you genuinely fall in love with the pooch might not quite have been met, it was still a terrific mix of useful gameplay function and cute widdle doggy.

Kes (Kes, 1969): aw, Kes. Exactly what sad little Billy Casper needed at exactly the right moment, he’s a friend and confident to the poor lad, despite being, well, a bird. But caring for the bird gives Billy’s life meaning, and watching it soar gives him hope. It’s a beautiful metaphor for the things beneath the surface of a downtrodden working class lad with no hopes and the weight of the state against him, and the end of the film – sob! – really underlines just how shit it all is. Er, Merry Christmas.

[menolly5600]

Dick Grayson, Ghost Superhero

👻🦇👻

I just found out and needed to share, that the Injustice version of Dick Grayson died and became a ghost superhero. He took up the Deadman mantle. He has flight, invisibility, intangibility and possession as his powers.

So all the basic Danny Phantom ghost powers.

The Injustice dimension had the Batfamily develop almost identically to the mainline dimension before the Joker broke Superman by killing Lois and his unborn child.

So, you know, it's DC canon there's a nearly mainline ghost Nightwing-Deadman out there being a ghost hero in another dimension.

And the Infinite Realms connect to other dimensions and timelines.

DC is out here writing DP x DC fanfiction for us and not realizing it.

And since this is one of the many alternate versions of Dick Grayson, you can have a fic with him and living Nightwing (and Danny Phantom in the mix) at the same time!

This stuff writes itself!

Tumblr, do your thing. ❤️

[mysticalcoffeequeen]

WISH is a fine film, y’all just hate it because the internet told you to hate it.

[wandixx]

Dani gives people heart attacks and brings down a lot of trafficking rings, making friends along the way. Everything by accident, really

Dani traveled around world, hadn't she? While doing it, she had to meet a lot of interesting people.

Like heroes or villains.

In civies or not or both who knows.

But to actually learn things about someplace you have to spend more than one night there. Like, idk? Month? Probably more but I doubt she would be able to sit in one place for any longer. In many places she is shorter.

Month is long enough to create some connections though.

Enough to get someone to realize when you disappear...

Yeah, Dani on her way of gremlin and self discovery ghosted bunch of people without second thought. They'll probably forget her in few months anyway. And she was everywhere in USA. She didn't left American soil only because she didn't want to be too far from Danny in case of emergency. Before anyone tells me he was in space so he could fly to her wherever on Earth she would be, Earth's atmosphere ends about 100 km above sea level and officially this is border of space. Telecommunication satellites are between 8000 to 12000 km up. It's about how wide Atlantic Ocean is.

Plus y'know, time. If she needs help, she probably can't quite wait until he flies all the way to Hong Kong, Wladywostok, Rio de Janeiro or wherever she is.

So America it is. For now at least. When they're 100% sure she is stable she'll fly elsewhere.

Anyway people who she ghosted are used to batshit crazy stuff but "this tween is alone on her road to self discovery and just left for new city" isn't first thing anyone thought about. Maybe outside of Martians. They know. Everyone else? No idea what happened to this tiny, chaotic, snarky, probably meta child.

First thought though?

She got kidnapped.

So now 3/4 of Justice League, some individual heroes and bunch of less intense rogues are scrambling around their cities tracking every trafficking ring they found glimpses of, trying to find Dani.

Flashes work with Captain Cold on this and seem to slowly descend into madness. At the same time, Dani eats ice cream with nice museum lady from Washington who introduced herself as Diana. Then she helps at animal shelter with kind stuck up boy called Damian. Oh, Danny likes aliens, let's visit Martian Manhunter. Maybe she'll manage to get autograph for her template. Wait Space Cops? Kinda sucks but Danny would probably like their signatures too. Let's go. Oh, Superboys are fun mess with and older one is like her! This Nightwing guy puns like Danny but she always feels like he looks at her weirdly. Billy should eat more, magic or not, fighting is tiring. Good thing she has Sam's money to buy him burgers.

She has time of her life while people she met are slowly dying.

She probably doesn't even hide that she is traveling but for whatever reason they don't think she actually left.

They don't bring it up on any meeting because no matter how concerned they are, it's not really whole league type of business. And Martians just discreetly enjoy chaos.

There is a lot of ways it can get resolved (or not) but I kinda thought about Jon introducing his old buddy Damian to his new buddy Dani because he thinks they would get along and they just stare at each other for long moment before:

"Dani..."

"Dami!"

"WHY DID YOU LEFT WITHOUT A WORD! WE THOUGHT YOU WERE KIDNAPPED OR DEAD!"

Some screaming and revelation that Killer Croc was looking for her too, Dani hits moment of realisation.

"Wait, is this what people think when you just up and go?"

"Honestly? Yeah"

"Oh, Ancients I did this to so many people. So many..."

Idk, just Dani traveling and leaving people behind.

Do with it what you will

[gnomelady]

Had to draw these dorks 🫶

[tippenfunkaport]

the existence of the Swift Wind lizard implies that the She-Ra can transform as many sacred companions as she wishes and I think this is an untapped well of comic potential

Imagine She-Ra traipsing through the forest Snow White style surrounded by woodland creatures but they all have rainbow wings and horns and love communism

[yen-sids-tournament]

For anyone interested: we will be changing the question for the current tournament from "who is the superior bestie?" to "who provides the superior animal support?" to hopefully not skew the results for a protagonist's animal companion. If you would like, you could consider the 8 published polls asking this question instead.

We do want to apologize for a possibly result-changing alteration after already beginning. Clearly this tournament is much more patchworked than expected.

[hirundo-demersalis]

If Madoka Magica was released in 2014-2017, you'd have tags like #pmmmcritical containing unhinged and opinionated discourse posts like: "Unfriendly fucking reminder to STOP fucking joking about He/ad/less Ma//mi because her death fucking TRAUMATIZED Mad//oka and Sa//yaka and you're a monster if you think a 15-year-old getting decapitated by a witch in front of her friends and giving them PTSD is funny", alongside various random posts rabidly hating on Kyubey or Madoka's little brother.

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

It's possible that I've talked about this before butcha know how speedsters occasionally turn into lightning and energy balls and stuff? And they can't always talk while they're energy?

I think it'd be neat if a speedster was stuck in energy form but not 'a human body but glowy', no, a full on living lightning bolt/ball. Just for a story or something. And no one else knew it was them

So it's just everyone else being on a mission or something and they're all stressed out cause the speedster ran off somewhere and didn't come back, oh and also here's this funny lil lightning thing :) They just met it and it keeps following them and it's kinda cute maybe! And it's being very helpful by taking out enemies.

Anyway I just think it'd be funny cause it'd drive them absolutely nuts. Like, imagine Bart trying to get it across to YJ that no, Cassie, he's not some ancient Greek lightning nymph, he's Bart and he really needs someone to go get another speedster for help! But everyone is just like... "wow that's a funky dude. Anyway-" because they're desensitized af to stuff like this. So Bart just kinda has to tag along and try to play charades with people who don't know they're playing charades.

Ooo. Or Wally with the Titans. He would electrocute someone at some point. Probably Dick because "fuck him, he knows, he's just pretending not to know because it's pissing me off" and like... he's right lmao

[melancholiaenthroned]

his ass is so jealous he wont even tolerate an owl

[dragonflyable]

Here’s a fun game...

Find your Favorite Character!

[suzukiblu]

Beginning of another old YJ animated WIP I just dug back up; cut for length. I had this fic idea back when the first season was still airing (AND IT TURNED OUT TO BE A VERY IRONIC ONE LATER ON, hahaha), and I never got very far with it, buuuuut . . . well, I still kinda wanna write it, so hey, why not revisit the concept!

“We need to talk,” Batman says abruptly, sweeping into the living room like the black crack of night, dark and foreboding and completely out of place during a Saturday afternoon video game marathon. M'gann squeaks and Wally yelps and they both fall off the couch in surprise, taking the popcorn and nearly Artemis with them. Robin startles up so fast anyone who didn't know better would think he was the speedster, Superboy jerks hard enough to make the steel sofa frame creak in protest, and Kaldur stands to careful attention and looks to Batman.

That’s his job, after all. 

“Is there a problem with last night's reports?” he asks reflexively, but the aura Batman is cloaked in . . . no. That feeling is not about reports, or their last mission, or anything less than utmost disaster. Robin's fingers scrape along the part of his glove that his computer's holographic screen pops out of in an obvious nervous tic, which Robin is not supposed to have–which Robin goes to great lengths to never have, especially in front of Batman.

But Batman is looking at them with a chilling expression and Kaldur understands that tic better than he wants to, because Batman and bad news that makes him wear an expression . . . 

“I'm so sorry,” Batman says as he steps forward and crouches down and sweeps Robin into an embrace, and that fast Robin looks shocked and terrified, and Wally falls right back off the couch he'd just gotten back onto, and M'gann's shaking hands clap over her ears like she's trying to muffle a sound–or trying to block something out of her head, some distant and clinical part of Kaldur thinks. And with Batman out of the way, he sees his king standing in the hall just outside the doorway with the Flash, his own expression tight and just barely pained. 

Kaldur’s heart sinks like a stone.

“Who died,” Robin says, panic in his voice, small and just thirteen, fingers digging in against Batman's shoulders. The Flash darts into the room and looks down at Wally with this horrible, sorrowful look on his face and pulls him to his feet, gripping his hands tightly in his own. 

King Orin does not move from the hallway and does not change that blade-sharp pained expression that cuts into the core of everything that Kaldur has ever served or believed in, and does not stop looking at him with it.

It is not difficult to understand Robin's reaction, with his king looking at him like that.

“Batman?” Robin says, young and afraid, and Batman is still holding him smother-tight and does not speak. “Batman, what–Br–say something!” he yells, but Batman just shifts and drags him even tighter against himself, tight enough so Robin vanishes inside his cape. If not for the low whimper he hears from beneath its dark folds, Kaldur would almost think he wasn't there at all; that Batman was simply injured and curled in around himself to protect the wound. 

And Batman still does not say anything. Neither does the Flash, even as he grips Wally's hands tighter in his own, even as he stays horrible and sorrowful, and Kaldur can only look to his king because there is nowhere else.

But his king says nothing either.

“Guardian called from Cadmus,” the Flash says finally, quietly, watching Wally as he speaks. Kaldur feels very young, suddenly and irrationally; as young as his teammates all look right now, as young as Robin sounds. He has enough time to feel a flash of alarm for Superboy–what if there was a flaw in the cloning process, what if something is wrong with–“They found something on sublevel 53.” 

“There wasn't a sublevel 53,” Robin says, voice cracked and sharp like a broken toy, and Batman . . .

Kaldur will swear it on his own life: Batman flinches.

“There wasn't!” Robin snaps, struggling in Batman's grip and breaking out from beneath his cape, defiant and still terrified and oh, he is so small, Kaldur thinks as he watches the other boy stumble back, hit the sofa and try to disappear into his own much too small cape. “I would've seen it, I would've found it–” 

“Most likely Desmond had that memory adjusted,” King Orin cuts in shortly, and Robin grins in horror.

“Wh–but Supey got the G-gnomes to let us go, they were barely in our heads at all!” Wally protests, yanking his hands out of the Flash's. His edges look blurred–Kaldur thinks he might be trembling. He feels as if he should be himself. They have faced terrible things in their lives, all of them, but the way that his king is looking at him in this moment . . . 

It’s a very, very terrible thing, that look. 

“Superboy lost line of sight on the targets before acquiring them,” Batman says, short and sharp. Kaldur blinks, slowly, thinking, that's strange, why should that matter? Thinking, WHAT targets? Superboy didn't have targets in Cadmus. The only thing he had to do was help them fight Desmond and help them . . . get . . .

“I don't get it,” Artemis says, frowning warily, and Batman's lips thin and M'gann covers her too-pale face with hands that won't stay quite the right shape.

“The source material for Project Sidekick was put in stasis and transferred to storage. There was a power surge this morning that interrupted the sedative dose,” King Orin says as he finally steps into the room, quiet and grief-sharpened. “The genomorphs heard Kaldur'ahm trying to wake up half an hour ago.”

“Oh,” not-Kaldur realizes, and sits back down.