The Beast Master - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Beastmaster

Caro Ru Luche and her bonded dragon Friedrich

Sic 'em!

A type of character who uses the assistance of an animal, force of nature, or just some sort of not-highly-sentient creature (with free will) to help them fight.

There are a few variations to this:

The creature in question has befriended the Beastmaster with a lifelong bond, and is always by his/her side, constantly ready for combat.
The Beastmaster can convince or outright force a critter to fight with them. May sometimes be a Nature Hero.
The beast being used is actually mystical in nature, such as an elemental or spirit, typically requiring a pact; and is normally called with Summon Magic.
The ally is artificial in nature, normally constructed by the master. Is either a Robot Buddy, or a puppet controlled by either magic or plain-old strings.

In video games, the Beastmaster either has complete control over their ally, an ally that follows the "Monkey-see, monkey-do" mentality and follows the master's actions, or the ally just does what it wants in range of its master. As the AI isn't always very good at doing actions that don't kill everyone, the playerbase may regard the job as unpopular. This will normally not be the case in other forms of fiction, as no computer is directing the ally's actions, as that's now the plot's job.

Due to the fact that the ally is, at best, another damage dealer/damage taker, Beastmasters are generally able to do things on their own in an MMORPG enviroment.

Named after the Beastmaster class in Final Fantasy XI.

Dragon Rider, Marionette Master, and The Minion Master are specific subtropes. Also see Mons.

Not to be confused with The Beastmaster, which was a 1959 science fiction series that got very, very loosely adapted into a 1982 fantasy movie and a 90's show about a Nature Hero.

Examples:

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Film

Video Games

Final Fantasy XI actually has a few of these classes. While the Beastmaster class is like variation 2, the Dragoon class is of variation 1 with their wyvern, the Summoner class is variation 3 with Spirits and Avatars, and the Puppetmaster class is variation 4, with a Robot Buddy puppet (with wireless controls!).
- While the MMO is the Trope Namer, Final Fantasy V started the tradition. In addition to the Trainer class which used whips and could capture and control enemy monsters, the archery-focused Hunter could summon animals to achieve random effects.
  - The GBA remake retroactively named the class Beastmaster, just to drive it home.
- Final Fantasy X 2 has the Trainer dress-sphere.
- Beastmaster is also a class in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for Nu Mou. They play instruments to control enemy monsters, making them good matches for blue mages and hunters.
The entire point of most Pokemon games is this.
Hunters in World Of Warcraft can have animal companions that assist them in battle.
- World Of Warcraft also gives the Warlock class pets, although they are more limited in nature than the hunter ones (Hunters can tame pretty much every animal and customize it, Warlocks have a set number of types with fixed abilities and names).
  - Going into the realm of NPC's, there's the half-orc Rexxar, who is essentially a Hunter minus the Straight Arrow aspect and the Beastmastery taken up to eleven.
  - In Warcraft 3, the hero class that Rexxar belonged to is actually called the Beastmaster. All its abilities summon different kinds of animals (bear, hawk, boar, and STAMPEDING GIANT LIZARDS).
Diablo 2 Druids can summon wolves and ravens, among other things.
- It also has Necromancers, who have an archetype called the "summonmancer", they are generaly held to make better pure summoners then druids (Druid summons are mainly for support)
Ultima Online had tamers as a skill set who depending on the circumstances could be either pretty powerful or near useless. They were commanded by typed commands or clicked ones. Tamers would need to make sure both that their pets would attack when needed and protect them when needed as well.
City Of Villains has the mastermind class which starts as a villain but can be heroes too if they Heel Face Turn.
- Could be heroes, there is currently no mechanic for a true Heel Face Turn in-game.
- And nearly all characters of the Controller or Dominator archetypes eventually get summoning powers also, except those pesky Mind Controllers.
  - And even a few Defender and Blaster powersets have a pet of some sort.
Warhammer Online has the Squig Herder (a goblin and his pet fungus creatures), and the White Lion (an elf and his pet . . . white lion).
- Although in the tabletop game, the aforementioned elves are only called White Lions because they have to hunt, kill, and skin one as an initiation test. They then wear the skin as a cloak.
  - They do, however, now have a chariot in which two elves ride, pulled by actual lions. That's gotta be awkward...
  - I wouldn't know why. It obviously works without any problems.
You, and a very large number of the NP Cs in the Pokemon games are essentially Beastmasters.
- Most notably used in Super Smash Bros Brawl, where the Pokemon trainer is the only character to stand in the background while his Mons are the ones who do the fighting.
  - Which bugs this troper - Why is he knocked out when only one of his three Pokemon is ? (I.e. in a stock match with only one life.)
  - I'd guess it's because Smash Bros. is treated as a sport, and if the rules say he has one stock, then he has one stock and he's eliminated when one of his 'mons is offed.
Guild Wars contains a few different types of this. Rangers can charm certain animals that then follow them into combat, Necromancers animate undead minions from fallen enemies, and both Rangers and Ritualists can summon spirits to aid the party.
Alchemists in Ragnarok Online can create and program artificial life forms (Homunculi) to fight for them.
- Just to make something a little clear, the programming bit is player side. That is, Homunculi run on a specially written coding language, which is stored in text files in the game folder. Players are encouraged to attempt to modify the AI files as they wish.
The player is Lost Magic can amass a small armada via careful use of the Dark Rune.
Samurai Shodown has a few of these. Galford (with Poppy the dog), Nakoruru (with Mamahaha the falcon or Shikuru the wolf), Rimururu (with Konru (or is it Konril?), an ice Nature Spirit), Cham Cham (with her brother (Tam Tam) as Paku Paku the monkey), Mina (with Champuru, an annoyingly cute man-eating monster in disguise) and even SNK Boss Mizuki (with Maju, some sort of dog-shaped demon) all feature. Oddly, of the ones listed, only Cham Cham's and Mina's are completely useless in combat. Pets in attack mode are subject to attacks, too, just in case you try sending the dog to rush through a tornado.
Arietta the Wild from Tales Of The Abyss usually brings in her beasts whenever she fights, except when there are other God Generals around. It also helps that those beasts actually raised her.
In Age Of Empires III, European explorers can get a canine companion that follows them around and helps them fight.
- Native Warchiefs take it to another level. They can train animals and convert treasure guardians, which frequently results in the warchief being followed around by a menagerie of jaguars, wolves, and bears.
Alice Margatroid of Touhou Project is of variation 4. She is a puppeteer who controls a veritable army of dolls armed with swords, lances, magical bullets, laser beams, etc.
In NetHack the player character always starts out with a pet and may end up taming additional monsters. The care, feeding, and proper use of such pets is a science of its own since a number of parameters influence their behavior.
Aruruw of Utawarerumono adopts the tiger Mukkur early in the storyline, which apparently carries a title and makes her 'Mother of the Forest.' A mook who tries kidnapping her finds out she is not just a helpless token loli princess and is brutally killed and eaten by said kitty. Mukkur is generally a pretty amiable fellow though. Later, she also makes a pet of Gacatar, some sort of small ferrety creature with special powers that allows her to perform her ultimate technique. She can talk to both and is essentially Mukkur's mother.
Every class in Geneforge has at least a basic ability to do this, with Shapers, Lifecrafters and Shock Troopers specializing in it. Somewhat unusually, you make your own monsters through genetic engineering, sacrificing essence until they die or you "absorb" them.
Free Korean MMORPG Mabinogi includes a Type 1 pet feature. All pets possess a number of abilities beyond combat; including healing and carrying items. Certain pets possess additional useful and entertainment abilities such as rideable mounts, combat-oriented transformation, "fetching" random items, producing crafting supplies (such as wool from pet sheep), and dancing. The Mabinogi pet system is different from most, in that pets have a selectable AI, with a powerful scripting language available to create custom AIs far more complex than those used by monsters. Players can also play as their pets, instead of their characters, which is good for level grinding. Pets also grant variable stat boosts, and are subject to the same levelling, aging and hunger mechanics as player characters.
- The Dark Knight released in Generation 3 posesses a Type 2 ability with the Control of Darkness skill; which allows the player to control any animal or "Fomor" (non-human sentient beings). Control is far more limited than with pets, and is predominantly combat-oriented.
- Starting with Generation 7, all players have access to a similar Type 2 ability with the Taming skill. Like Control of Darkness, it allows only very basic control over the creature.
The new Elven Warden from Runes Of Magic has the ability to summon a pet to help him do his fighting.

Literature

Anime and Manga

Pokemon is pretty much a multi-season embodiment of this trope. It's the entire point.
Kiba and the rest of the Inuzuka clan from Naruto use one or more dogs.
- Shino as well, as one example of a Beastmaster with way more than just one ally. Considering it's a colony of bugs (of which he is a living nest), though, it's not as big of a deal as one would think.
- Though they don't 'make' such a big deal of it as one would think, make no mistake about how icky Shino would be without his coat.
  - But aren't the bugs under his... uh... on second thought, let's go back to the previous theory.
- There are also several ninja who make pacts with summonable creatures. Kakashi can summon dogs, Temari can summon a weasel, Jiraiya and Naruto can summon toads, Tsunade can summon slugs, and Orochimaru can summon snakes.
Meiko Rokudo in "Ghost Sweeper Mikami" is able to control 12 powerful Shikigami (beast-like spirits or monsters), with different abilities. However, Meiko is very powerful but also ditzy, inexperienced and extremely insecure; she not only considers these spirits more like pets, but is easily scared by little things (little spiders, a baloon that bangs), and then she summons instinctively enormous quantities of energy causing massive destruction. On the other hand, Meiko's mother (as the Shikigami's former master) can control all of the twelve Shikigami perfectly.
Caro Ru Luche from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS from the pic above has two dragons she controls in battle, Freid and Voltaire (latter not shown).
- She doesn't control Voltaire, as she stated herself she is merely "borrowing his power" and only when it is absolutely necessary.
Shido Fuyuki of Get Backers is nicknamed "Beastmaster" because of this ability. He's also the The Doctor Dolittle.
In Read Or Die the TV (and Read Or Dream), Maggie's paper specialty is to form various creatures out of paper (such as birds for flight, or lion-like creatures for fighting)
Mahou Sensei Negima has Paio II, who uses Sand Worms equipped with Naughty Tentacles for handling bounties and boobies.
Zazie The Beast, one of the Gung-Ho Guns in Trigun. He controls enormous sandworms in the anime —his manga counterpart is... squickier.
Katherine McDonald of Kaze No Stigma is of the third type I believe. She has three separate 'beings' of summoning, of different power levels.
- While it's supposedly a school of elemental use, she's the only one I think we see.
One Piece has... the Beast Master, the first-mate of the Buggy Pirates. He rides a giant lion and his hat (hair?) changes from season-to-season to different animals.