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The default mascot of the party and usually the most outlandish of the bunch. Can be a robot, magic animal, or in a more realistic setting, a little girl much younger than everyone else. Often a Small Annoying Creature.
Most of the time, the Team Pet is comic relief. For obvious reasons their mere presence can ruin a dramatic scene most of the time. More seriously, their motivations for fighting may seem kinda vague, especially when they are Optional Party Members. You wish more of them were.
If the Team Pet is an otherworldly being, it may end up as an Amusing Alien.
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) gets in trouble. And a Team Pet can act as an adorable scene partner for a heartfelt Surrogate Soliloquy.
See also Intellectual Animal and Timmy In A Well.
Tagalong Kid is the sentient equivalent to this.
Examples:
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Anime and 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 Pokemon, Pikachu, when not in battle, was usually found doing something goofy while the human characters were dealing with the sitation. This was later dropped with both his and Ash's maturity.
- As the series went on, other Pokemon took the role of Team Pet from Pikachu. Usually the weakest Pokemon of the female member of the party. Thus, Pikachu was succeeded by Togepi, Torchic, Aipom, and Hapinny.
- Uh, Aipom was originally Ash's, although I'll agree that she did hold this role, and Happiny belongs to Brock—and didn't show up until after the current Team Pet, Piplup. "Weakest" doesn't really hold, anyway, especially not with Happiny.
- Menchi is Excel and Hyatt's Team Pet (and emergency food supply) in Excel Saga. She knows this, and always fears for her life when her rescuer/master gets those "hungry eyes".
- Kameo in Gun X Sword is Wendy's pet pink turtle, and can usually be found at the end of a chain around Wendy's neck. How it was attached to his shell is never revealed. Van doesn't like him very much.
- Mobile Suit Gundam has a Team Pet for the entire franchise in Haro, the little spherical robot, who, in the original series, was created by Amuro Ray. Usually a non-combatant, although in some SD Gundam games, a Haro tends to be included as a Lethal Joke Character.
- In Gundam 00, Haro actually copilots the Dynames, by extension Cherudim.
- Boota is this for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Subverted and played straight in One Piece. Characters often mistakenly assume this is Chopper's role in the crew, and as a result he got a bounty of 50 Berries when everyone else was in the tens or hundreds of millions. He is in fact The Medic, and a perfectly capable fighter in his own right. A straighter example is the whale Laboon, who was Team Pet of the Rumbar Pirates.
- Sadaharu from Gintama. He is used for poop gags a lot. Also, the yorozuya combined their...powers...to become Sei-chan, the short-lived mascot of the Shinsengumi.
- Timcanpy from D.Gray-Man.
- Xiaomei from the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, at least for the little Scar party. And Black Hayate for the Mustang people.
- Happy from Fairy Tail.
- Cerberus from Eyeshield 21. Although he's not cute and is primarily interested in savaging and eating the Devil Bats. There's also Butaberus, and the little Devil Bat, the actual team mascot, who doesn't physically appear in the story but handles meta explanations, omake and reader questions. There's also Baby Devil Bat, which is just a smaller, student-like version of the Devil Bat.
- Word Of God reminds us that Cerberus is not a pet. He's a normal person who happens to be a dog. He likes to go for walks, he has his own house, and the only reason he follows Hiruma is because it's an easy way to get food.
- Karen in Yugioh GX. Unlike many other examples, she's not primarily comic relief. Any humor value is derived from the fact a large crocodile is being carried around in someone's backpack. She's also the key part of the link between Jim and Judai, leading Jim to end up sacrificing himself in an attempt to free Judai from Haou. Fittingly, Karen goes down with him.
- Mint in Genesis Climber Mospeada. Aisha also seems to fill this role after her introduction in episode 10.
- Subverted in Magic Knight Rayearth, with Mokona, who is treated as nothing more than a useful Team Pet up until the end, where it's revealed that he's actually the creator of both Cephiro and Earth.
- Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple has Shigure's pet rat. It happens to be a competent martial artist.
- Shiina in the Vampire Princess Miyu TV series is both Miyu's talking pet of sorts and a Shinma with a very powerful eyesight.
Comic Books
- In Cable & Deadpool, Bob, Agent of HYDRA, is either Deadpool's Team Pet, best friend, or hostage. No one is really clear on this, not even Bob or Deadpool.
- Since Bob's attitude towards Deadpool seems to have moved from fearful to appreciative (if not outright adoring in some places), the last one seems to be discounted.
- Since his reappearance in Deadpool has him being quite happy to see the merc with a mouth, it's definitely not hostage.
- The clearest indication that Bob might no longer be considered a hostage is really that he and Deadpool don't appear to have seen each other in some time. During Cable & Deadpool, Bob seems quite happy at Agency X, running around on adventures with Deadpool and referring to his capture as a liberation when all the while Deadpool has been trying to get HYDRA to pay a ransom for him (the mention of which doesn't faze Bob in the slightest, suggesting that he realizes that he's still ostensibly being held hostage).
- To be fair, Deadpool has never been au fait on the distinction between 'friendship' and 'Stockholm Syndrome'. See Weasel, Blind Al, etc.
- X-Men have Lockheed, when Kitty Pryde is on the team, most of the time.
- Subverted in that Lockheed is anything but harmless — when roused to fighting fury, he's single-handedly routed Brood hunter packs and utterly annihilated an entire squad of alien Sidri hunters. This Troper has just named two things that have given respectable fights to experienced X-Men.
- Great Lakes Avengers have Squirrel Girl as their Team Pet, being the youngest, goofiest and least experienced member who has a tail and talks to squirrels. But if you want to get technical, it's really Squirrel Girl's sidekick
Monkey Joe Tippy-Toe, who's a full member of the group, despite being a squirrel. Yes, that kind of squirrel .
- Bamse has Katten Jansson and Husmusen, a cat-and-mouse duo that really belong to the main character's grandmother, but often sneak along on adventures. Some Furry Confusion is involved here, as the cast of the comic are Funny Animals, but Katten Jansson and Husmusen (as well as other pets and wild animals) are portrayed more like Talking Animals who only talk among themselves.
- Back in the Silver Age, Superman and Batman both got a Wonder Dog, Krypto the Superdog and Ace the Bat-Hound respectively... who ended part of the 'Legion of Super-Pets'. Both were retconned out eventually for the obvious reasons, but Krypto has later returned. Krypto's actually a subversion of sorts as he has all the powers of Superman but little of the human restraint, making him a very dangerous combatant who can fight Superman's foes on even ground.
Literature
- In Steven King's Dark Tower one of the protaganists, Jake Chambers had a pet billy-bumbler named 'Oy'.
Film
- In Clash of the Titans, Bubo the mechanical owl regularly acted goofy, including flying into things and making crash-landings. However, it also led Perseus to the Stygian Witches, grabbed the Witches’ Eye for him, single-handedly freed Pegasus from captivity in Calibos’ camp, distracted the Kraken long enough for Perseus to arrive, and carried the bag containing Medusa’s head to Perseus, allowing him to petrify the Kraken and save the day.
- R2-D2 could be considered a Team Pet. An especially useful Team Pet, though.
- Dark Star: Pinback thought the ship needed a mascot. Pinback was wrong.
Live Action TV
Video Games
- ChuChu in Xenogears. There's a scene late in the game where your party gets captured by Krelian and used as bait to draw Elly out. The Big Bad has the party's Gears crucified in a field, which is meant to be somber and reflect on their possible fate. But if you have ChuChu in your party, that giant plush toy will be up there with the crucified giant robots, turning "Chu-Chu died for your sins!" into a meme among Xenogears fans.
- MOMO in Xenosaga.
- Mog, and to a lesser extent Relm, in Final Fantasy VI (although the team has an actual pet in Interceptor, Shadow's canine partner).
- Cait Sith in Final Fantasy VII (Fits more than one stereotype, as the character is actually a robot cat working for the bad guys.)
- Swiss Army Weapon Jack in Gears Of War.
- Meemai in the first Baten Kaitos game isn't a party member - she's a little seal-like creature that rides in the neck of Xelha's shirt. And is used in several of her super moves.
- Boo in both the Baldur's Gate games was something of a pet if Minsc was in your group, though he was little more than an annoyance to many players as he took up a valuable quick item slot.
- In Megatokyo, a hamster is named Boo in honour of Minsc's pet.
- Team Pets are common in the Tales Series: Quickie, Meredy's pet, in Tales of Eternia; Noishe, Lloyd's Arshis companion, and Corrine, Sheena's manmade Summon Spirit, in Tales of Symphonia; Zapie, Claire's pet, in Tales of Rebirth; Giet, Moses's pet Galf, in Tales of Legendia (the Oresoren may also count somewhat); and Mieu,
Luke's stress ball a young cheagle, in Tales of the Abyss.
- In Chrono Cross, the first recruitable character in the game is the Team Pet Poshul, a pink, unnervingly cutesy talking dog. (Sample dialog: "Me will use my Pretty-Miracle-Power-X! Me will do it, Thergiepoo!")
- Koromaru from Persona 3 - a highly intelligent dog who can summon the spirit of Cerberus to strike your foes with fire and darkness. And invoke hilariousness when he refuses to eat Yukari's cooking.
- From Persona 4, Teddie, a life-sized teddy bear from the TV world, fills this role. He later becomes human, and a Bishonen at that.
- Repede in Tales Of Vesperia is... a dog. That fights with a knife, but still a dog. Gameplay wise he's a Fragile Speedster.
- 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
dog huskra.
- Hans in Valkyria Chronicles, a (vestigially) winged pig. Exists mostly to look embarrassed when the protagonist flubs romantic moments in cut scenes.
- Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Al Revis gives us Muppy, a slug-like alien floating in a pot-shaped UFO. 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? Hoo-boy...
- And, apart from being the Mc Guffin 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.
- 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 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.
Webcomics
- Parodied in the hiatused webcomic RPG World by the character Dragobo, a portmaneau character based on a dragon and a chocobo.
- Parodied in the Webcomic Those Destined, where the Team Pet is also the party thief. Another adventurers party was less lucky, and their Team Pet is a Small Annoying Creature.
- The May 28, 2004 strip of Exterminatus Now sees Virus bring a Chao to the team, lampshading its role in the process, which is soon followed with a discussion on what to name it. Seven strips after its introduction, it meets a demon, undergoes a radical transformation, and becomes a bite-sized killing machine. In 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).
- Davan's hairless, amorphous cat Choo-Choo Bear in Something Positive, odd for an otherwise (usually) non-fantastic Life Embellished webcomic. 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... 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.
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.
- Momo in Avatar The Last Airbender is a flying bat-like lemur. In contrast, Appa is a 10-ton flying bison who has been subject to serious 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" and Co-creator Byan Konietzko has admitted that he based him on his childhood cat Buddy.
- A robot? How does that work in a society where the most advanced technoloqy is in the hands of the Steam Punk Fire Nation?
- Um, that's probably a big reason as to why Momo isn't a robot. He was originally supposed to be one and that idea was probably scrapped when they couldn't make it work.
- Radarr is just another element of Cliche Storm expressed by Storm Hawks. Pun unintended.
- Inverted in Transformers, where the main characters are robots, and the team pet is usually a human. (Spike and Daniel being the more blatant examples. Apparently, this trope is genetic.) Sari is a debatable example for her first two seasons, then gets upgraded to Sixth Ranger after her Robotic Reveal. Cab's parrot and armadillo are definite examples.
- Faffy from Dave The Barbarian is a spoof of these type of creatures.
- Elvis from Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kids, whose major plot purpose is to cause Mr. Socrates to sneeze.
- This Troper, just cannot believe it that Uni from Dungeons and Dragons is NOT IN THIS INDEX and not the page picture!
- Lily and Sparkles from Barbie And The Diamond Castle.
- It would really be a disservice to call Godzilla a team pet in Godzilla The Series, the crew prefer "The Big Guy". They have N.I.G.E.L for that.
- Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters. Also in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, but since it's based purely on the film continuity, there he's an incorrigible mischievous glutton who has to be kept in a terrarium so he won't wreak comedic and comparatively harmless havoc — one of the first major tasks in the game is to recapture him after he escapes.
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