Pets and Companions, Part 2

An animal companion isn’t just cute, loyal, or marketable. The best ones force a moral choice, expose a character’s blind spot, or act like nature’s voice when humans get too comfortable with their own excuses. We dig into why animal companions in fantasy and science fiction keep landing so hard, and why the trope feels bigger than a sidekick.

Transcript

Cold Open And Banter

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I was just agreeing with what you were saying. I I was agreeing with you what you were saying.

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Uh we have a concurrence, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Finally.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

He has given me the approval that something I said is right enough for him to agree with.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

You are allowed. Continue. None of that'll be in the episode. Gentlemen, let's broaden our minds.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Are they the proper approach button for today? Negative.

Animal Companions As Moral Guides

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Welcome back to Dispatch Ajax. This is Jake. I'm Skip. Now, Animal Companions often serve as moral guides or helping the protagonist navigate through complex ethical problems and conundrums. They can often represent the protagonist's better nature or intuitive wisdom, providing guidance when rational thought does not rule out.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

On a basic fundamental modernist level, we're talking about like Jiminy Cricket or the owl in um The Sword in the Stone.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Yes, the animal as wise guide.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Right. The animal as stand-in for guardian angel slash fairy godmother slash uh wisened wizard. Right. Or whatever meta-human, you know, stand-in. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

These representations of animals providing wisdom and guidance uh that often reflect the real-world psychological phenomena where pets can serve as emotional anchors and moral compasses for their human companions. Especially, you know, a lot of stories in a younger audience and character, like what is the right and wrong way to go about living in this world? Now, again, there are many types of animal companions in literature, especially fantasy and science fiction. You have uh a familiar or animal companions with magical bonds. In a modern context, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, where there are magical companions that help to enhance a witch or wizard's abilities. Again, this harkens back to historical concepts of familiar spirits. You saw a lot of that in ancient thoughts about witchcraft and whatnot, utilized the connection on a magical level with these animals to help utilize your magics and knowledge of the spiritual world.

Nature Pushes Back In Fiction

SPEAKER_01 2:29

I would like to expand on that just a little bit before we get to the magics. The idea that animals, especially in fictional narratives, they represent oftentimes the moral or ethical representation of the natural world. And I feel like that stems from, especially since the Industrial Revolution, this idea that humanity's fucking it up, that we're ruining the natural world. And that these companions, these sentient companions that can communicate with us, that can give us guidance, they represent the natural order. And they're more like an angel on our shoulder saying, Hey, you need to get back to the natural state of things. Your manipulation or exploitation, more accurately, of the natural world is what's causing the problems that you have today. The more you do this, the worse it gets. I keep thinking about Fern Gully.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

I think the perfect example of this would be Princess Mononoke. Sure. Where you have Moro the Oni Wolf, who is the intelligent wolf goddess, acts as a guardian of the forest and is propelling the female human character to rebel against the oncoming technological revolution that is destroying the forest and our natural world.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Interestingly enough, in a completely different way, parallel to things in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, the sort of phenomenon we've talked about before with the day the earth stood still, where this outside thing comes down and tells us we're doing it wrong. In that sense, it's an alien presence, but oftentimes in a pre-understanding of the universe at large, representations of nature in the form of animal companions doing the same thing. I don't think those are unrelated. They're different, and that's worthy of a different conversation, but I think they're relatively similar, and we need a guide to be able to tell us when we're doing it and when we're not.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Yeah. I think that's a worthy trope that often comes about within animal companionship narratives. Um, that kind of it stems from a deeper kind of base-level understanding between man and animal and the natural world and how we are definitely like disconnected to a detrimental level.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

In this context, especially because we have interrupted the natural order, we have bred these animals, we have, quote, tamed specific species to bend to our will. And it's almost like a reflection on did we do that for the right reasons? Is that the right thing to do? Are we doing these things the right way? Are we now completely disconnected from the natural world altogether?

Pets Versus Cattle Ethical Line

SPEAKER_01 5:15

This is something I'm sure we'll get into at the end, but the idea that you can we treat dogs one way, but pigs, for instance, are smarter than dogs, and why do we treat them differently? It's obviously because of the traits early on in our evolution and the way that we bred them, that they helped us hunt and their loyalty and what have you, but what are the demarcation lines between pets and cattle? Yeah. What are the arbitrary reasons as a society? We all love our pets. We have laws where you can't abuse a pet, but you can slaughter a pig. They're pack animals, they behave the same. What's the difference? Maybe this is how we touch on it, and we can move on. That's one of the reasons we do the show, so that we can let the audience bring up these questions. Let's pretend that's the thing now.

unknown 6:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

We talked a little bit about magical bonds, the familiars

Familiars And Soul-Linked Bonds

SPEAKER_02 6:09

of animal companions. I think there's also further bonded companions or soul-linked animals. Thinking of something like the dire wolves of the Stark Children in A Song of Ice and Fire, where they reflect their human companions' personalities and serve both as protectors and extensions of themselves to the point where some of the Stark can see through the eyes of their wolf companions. Sometimes crows. I think that's a different thing. Plus, the crows are not the companions of the seer or the old crow, I forget. It's been a while since I've read those books. Yeah. The crows are not what they seem, is what you're saying. Birds aren't real.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Oh, come on.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

You also have the Dragon Riders of Pern series by Ann McCaffrey. This is where the dragons form telepathic bond with the writers at hatching and create lifelong partnerships. So intimate that a dragon will commit suicide if its writer dies. That's also in Game of Thrones and Dragonheart. It is, but you don't have like in that one, there's like a specific telepathic connection. Right. But again, there's not singular examples. These are tropes that persist.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

And these are classic fantasy tropes, especially.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Exactly. And again, with with Dragon Riders of Pern series, there's definitely an exploration of themes of mutual dependence between human and animal companion, of unconditional love and particular sacrifice in those extreme instances. And then you get the kind of almost the furthest away from the traditional animal companion example, and that would be talking animals or sentient companions. Chronicles of Narnia, you have many of these. These are fully sentient beings with their own societies and moral codes, less related to pet animal human dynamic, where there's less extensions of human characters and more their own things in and of themselves. Something slightly different than I spoke about previously is Pullman's Demons, which represent a unique variation on this particular theme. The demons can speak and possess human-level intelligence, but they are fundamentally extensions of their humans rather than independent beings, though they can act independently, but like there's a true soul bond. They are parts of themselves, even though they are separate in and of themselves. At least within those stories, it allows for a complex internal dialogue made external and particular lines of demarcation for character development, and especially within that series of from a child becoming an adult and what that means for both them and their daemon. Now, as fantasy literature evolves continuously, so do the portrayals of animal companions. Contemporary authors are exploring increasingly complex and nuanced relationships between humans and their animal partners. This reflects a growing understanding of the emotional capacity and the cognitive abilities of the animals that we interact with on a daily basis. Whether they are familiars, soul bonded partners, or talking companions, these animal characters enrich the narrative and provide unique perspectives, emotional depth, and possibilities of magical instances that purely human characters like a Dr. Watson simply cannot. Now, the impetus for this exploration was Supergirl, and I was trying to decipher the ultimate sci-fi fantasy pet companion is. During my research for this, you know, it's kind of like I was trying to like really rack my brain and think of all of the different pet companions. A lot of the animal companions that were listed, different listicles and websites and blog entries, I don't think fit this at all. They're often misrepresented the relationships, the animals and the protagonist. Uh so something like Babe was put on there as an animal companion, which he most certainly is not. No, he's not. He is solely the protagonist. If anything, he has a human companion. Yeah. He's not also I don't think he's providing anything for Babe in that sense. I think Scooby-Doo, who's the literal titular protagonist of Scooby-Doo's story.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Kind of.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

He is not an animal companion of the mystery gang.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

I think he is a companion animal, weirdly, because it's about the human group solving mysteries. He has almost nothing to do with it.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

From my remembrance of a Scooby-Doo story, you're following

Talking Animals And Externalized Souls

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Scooby and Shaggy, and then they are your emotional core. And we are we are repres we are feeling the story through their eyes, and then you have the other three who are actually solving the mystery, but it's more about the experience of Scooby and Shaggy.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Interesting. That's a weird example, too, because Scooby and Shaggy are companions. Who is which role, I'm not sure. But they almost have nothing to do with the actual mystery other than they're the bumbling ones that stumble across the thing. Yeah. They're along for the ride, and then they reveal it accidentally because of their bumbling nature.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Exactly. They're also some of the few examples of uh truly cowardly protagonists, which you don't often get. True. Scooby most certainly isn't an animal companion in the way that Lassie is. No, he can talk. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's a big problem there. I think similarly, Garfield is certainly not a pet companion. Okay. He has nothing to do with being a pet. I don't know why you'd even put him on a list like that.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Garfield and Scooby are interesting examples because I think the narrative structure that works with Garfield is because cats are so independent. Dogs, however, are different. They're way more dependent. I feel like with Garfield or Heathcliff or what have you, specifically Garfield, it's highlighting the independent nature of cats as pets. The idea that domesticated cats are pets, yes, but not in the way that dogs are, in that they don't necessarily function as a utility for our survival or usage of what pets are. Garfield is sort of like emblematic of the idea that cats, no matter how we domesticate them, are still going to be independent. Are still going to do their own thing. The fact that Garfield doesn't come across as a pet. I think it's one of the reasons that that cartoon works universally. Well, Jim Davis did totally understand what cats are. They don't give a shit about you. Doesn't give a shit about John. Definitely doesn't give a shit about cats. Don't give a shit about Odie. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Hates normal, you know, though they are domesticated pets. I think that's a different kind of narrative that's interesting to explore.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Yeah, I just don't think it fits in the quote unquote animal companion thesis that we're like working from.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

If anything, Odie and John are Garfield's companions. Yeah. Like I say, I think that's because the nature of companionship when it comes to animal companionship is mostly relegated to dogs in the Western world.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

There are cat companions that I think work on this. Sure. Like a Luna from Sailor Moon, Gigi from Kiki's Delivery Service.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Sure, but those are mostly familiars. They have w what do they say in uh in Constantine? I love cats, they have one foot in either world. Yeah. It's an interesting debate to have.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

There's a certain complexity that is brought into the scene when a cat is present, as opposed to a dog or a wolf or some canine.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Or even fox, which are cat dogs.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

That's a whole nother thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Even though foxes were domesticated just as early as which is what I was saying, is that foxes were domesticated just as early as as dogs were. It's just they were less reliable because of their independent nature, like cats.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

I think another grouping that I saw that I don't think works are like what I'd call the the anthropomorphic magical cat example. This would be Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes or Tigger. These do not fit a master pet or even an animal companion relationship.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

No, they're more in the Alice in Wonderland Madhatter type, where they're elements of nature of a deaf of a different world or of the world that we inhabit that has knowledge that is sort of unseen or unrecognized by the human protagonist or the stand-in human protagonist in the case of Winnie, the Pooh, which is also a weird one to get into because Christopher Robin is the human character. And so what does that factor in?

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Christopher Robin is almost never really involved in the story either.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

No, not really.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

It's more of our doorway to this

What Counts As A True Companion

SPEAKER_02 15:00

other world where these other animals, who are all anthropomorphic and talk and have their own society that they interact with, has nothing to do with Christopher Robin.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Well, it's the same thing with Dorothy. Or if any of you out there have ever read the Oz books, Tip, the little boy that everyone forgets about, it totally exists. He's in the wonderful world of Oz, I think. Dorothy isn't always there, but the idea that those animals around him are not companions, they're metaphorical representations of different parts of human society and how they parallel to what we think of in the West at least as part of the natural world. Or society. Let's just say society. Tigger is a great example of that. Does that make sense? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

I think that's a a larger thesis.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Well, that's why we do this, bitch! Come on!

SPEAKER_02 15:52

I know, I think so. Skip, do you have any examples of an animal what you think the best animal pet companion in sci-fi fantasy?

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Sure, okay. We've established the pet companion archetype. And I know it's been a weird road around it, but it is a subservient that is wise beyond uh what you think its capabilities are, that is also pure in the fact that it is part of nature.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

I don't think it has to be I I I don't think well, I guess it's debatable on that point in a particular example that you would probably be interested in talking about.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Which is canine. Canine is a great example of this that we're talking about today. I think he's perfect for this. Uh he's loyal, wise, informative, often a MacGuffin to get you out of scrapes. A sympathetic and empathetic character that if something happened to him, you'd really be sad, which happens in old Doctor Who. He's a companion. Companions are different in Doctor Who than they are in other things.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Are the humans almost the animal companions of the Doctor?

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Or are they dancers? I think K9 is different. He does have companions, and K9 is a companion but a different type of companion. He's a pet companion. To what you were saying earlier, uh think about uh Clash of the Titans with uh the owl. Is it Boobo? Is that his name?

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Yeah, Boobo, that's yeah, you got it.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

You got it in one He's a little like that where he's sort of outside of like his intelligence and his wisdom and the things that he brings to the protagonist are outside of the knowledge and whatever wisdom the protagonist has. He can get him out of scrapes because he has knowledge that are different, and yet he's subservient.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

One reason why Boobo I have some pushback is I don't think there's an much emotional connection or resonance. That's true. Yeah, he's like a literal machine that is given to and utilized by the main character. Well, that's so is canine. Doctor Who loves canine. True. Nobody really cares. I mean, Boobo's cute, but that it's not the same connection with canine or gizmo from Gremlins.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

The whole Gremlins thing is completely that's a completely different type of creature. Yeah, nope.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

This is this is what we call a transition.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Okay, go for it.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Tell me, what is it about Gizmo that you don't think fits the animal companion archetype as well?

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Gizmo, if treated poorly or in the wrong ways, becomes an unruly monster. Which I do believe is a metaphor for pets in general. If you beat your dog, or if you don't treat your dog well, it'll become a bad thing. The whole idea that there are no bad pets, there are bad owners. Yeah. But this is said in ritual.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

It's a parable with dogmatic processes. It makes it easier for the metaphor, especially for a young audience.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Okay, don't do this, and you won't be evil. It's a tough one, isn't it? You treat your pet well, you do right by the pet, and in turn is a good companion. That's a tough one. I'm not really sure.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

It is tough. Uh what about Abu, the monkey from Aladdin?

SPEAKER_01 19:31

I know, from Aladdin. Abu is a classic

Cats, Dogs, And Misfit Examples

SPEAKER_01 19:34

representation of a companion animal who has agency and yet is not fully realized as having agency without the protagonist, which I think is a big thing in these archetypes, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:50

I think there needs to be an intrinsic bond of necessity and of love. They must want and need each other.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

His function doesn't exist without the story structure of Aladdin. You can have a side quest, a couple of like shorts, or like a little sub-game or whatever. You can't have a heroic epic starring Abu.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

No, I think one thing intrinsic to Abu is that he is a dissenting voice for a lot of the things that Aladdin is doing. He's pointing out things that Aladdin is not seeing or not understanding.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

He serves as that natural guiding force for the character.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Yeah, like we were saying earlier, just like with a lot of other of these characters, he's the one from nature who comes in, yada yada yada.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Gromit? From Wallace and Gromit? Hmm. It's playing on the Shaggy and Scooby archetype, which is playing on obviously older archetypes. The Son of Sam thing, where he was talking about Davey and Goliath. That points okay, okay, okay, okay. So that's interesting. Alright, okay, fuck it, alright. The companion pet character sometimes is the guiding force, the wise, godlike force that is showing the path that the character should take. It's a dog that is, for some reason, really well versed in the Bible, who can talk, guides this young boy into doing moral and ethical things within the framework of the Christian Bible.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

What if we gave all dogs the ability to speak and all they started doing was quoting Bible verses that they just naturally knew?

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Then we would stop having dogs. That's what would happen. I mean, let's be honest.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

That's exactly the fuck up, Rover.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah, I know it's not my wife. Shut the fuck up. Yes, I know about the money changers. I still use banks.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Skip, have you stoned your wife yet? Did you grow your hair beyond your temples? You're not supposed to plant two different crops. You must cleanse the streets, Davy.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

With the sunshine on a dog's ass or something or another?

SPEAKER_01 22:08

What is Boobo's function? I don't really understand what is Boobo's function. He I mean if you want a literal plot device, that's what Boobo is. Does he advance the plot?

SPEAKER_02 22:19

He does. He helps him get out of particular hairy situations.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

You're right. That is a he's a character that is essentially the same thing as the sword or the shield that he's given, but he has character. That's that's kind of the only difference. Which makes him not really a pet or companion.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

No, I mean the only reason we're classifying them even in that is because he is shaped like an owl. Right. If he was just a metal orb, he would be doing the exact same thing, but because he's personified as an actual animal, he's drawn into this conversation. I don't think Stitch from Legend With Stitch quite fits that, but is on those lines.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Okay. There are several examples of feature like a guy, I don't know, like some Jack London shit where they befriend a wolf or whatever, and then you slowly develop that kinship with that animal that becomes the companion pet.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

I think there's a certain naturalistic element that we talked about before that possibly comes into play. Do you have one that sticks out in your mind? Because as I was going through these different examples, Pikachu, Toothless from the dragon stuff, uh Snoopy, I thought was a bad example.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Yeah. Snoopy is a weird one.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Yeah, Snoopy's weird. Snoopy is more akin to a Garfield. Even weirder than Garfield. Odd. There's such an evolution of Pluto that makes it amorphous.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Well, and Pluto is a subservient dog pet to a dog man. What is that? I don't understand that relationship at all. Isn't Pluto Mickey's dog? Sure, but he's friends with with Goofy, who's a dog.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Are they friends? Maybe I d have we seen them interact? I really don't know. Is this is this where we bring Lockjaw into it again? Lockjaw! He could take me to the moon any day. I bet he could. But uh to wrap it up, I also don't think Pluto's that great of an example in general. I don't think Pluto provides a whole lot. The ones that actually kind of came to mind were Clifford, the big red dog, and crypto. I think crypto's a great example. And crypto is a great I kind of like came to this with the thesis, yeah, crypto's good, but there's something better out there. And obviously, there's a wide swath of science fiction fantasy that we're not getting into. Yep. One of the reasons it came up, and there's so much out there, and so many people write animal companions into fantasy that I'm sure they're I'd love. Please send in your favorite example. Yeah, please. There are billions. There's plenty that are fantastic, but I I think on the grander scale of visibility and recognized examples, I think crypto is pretty high up there.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Which is funny because until James Gunn did that, most people didn't know crypto existed. That's kind of a 50s Superman thing. 50s and the 60s, and then he showed up again in the 80s after Crisis on Infinite Earth. There's been a lot of crypto in the past like 30 years. Well, yeah. The last 30 years. We're old now. Trust me, I'm well aware. We'd like to give shouts out to Beppo, the Super Monkey, and Comet, the Super Horse, Yon, Streaky, the Super Cat. Meow. End of list. That was all left out of my head.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Yeah, and we're not getting into Ace the Bathound or the Bat Cow or any of the.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

I was gonna mention Ace the Bathound.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

You would. DC had its own animal companions series where they're like they joined up, went on their, you know, they've had plenty of that. But crypto interacts with humans in the comics. Ace the Bathound, other than He's just a dog. Yeah. Stuff from the 50s

K-9, Gizmo, Abu, And Gromit

SPEAKER_02 26:18

or whatever. I mean, like a dog can just because Crypto's a super dog. It raises a lot of questions, but but I think he has an emotional resonance to Clark or Cal Al that or Kara.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Ace doesn't have to Bruce? He's definitely been around longer than Ace, but he's also used more than Ace. Do you know that Crypto was only around for two months before Ace? Really?

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Got a big gap there.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

And we're gonna repeat ourselves yet again, but after the uh seduction of the innocent debacle, that's when DC started inserting these kinds of things, these kid-friendly things into comic books. To your point, crypto is much more of an active character, relatively recognizable now, thanks to James Gunn. But he does represent something in all of us that uh we all yearn for these kinds of companions. And we all want something that loves us unconditionally, and that makes us feel like we matter to something. And crypto represents it, I think, extremely well. So does canine they love us unconditionally, and we love them just the same, unless you're an asshole.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Well said. I think crypto would say that is a super response. And then for some reason, heat vision, it didn't understand. Hey, no bad dogs, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Hopefully you've enjoyed being our pod companion on this particular episode.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

You you avoided saying pet, and I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

We'll we'll keep the pet play for later. How do furries enter into this? That's a whole nother episode, folks. Until we get to our truly furry companions. I'd like to thank you for going on this journey with us. If you wouldn't mind like, share, and subscribing. Uh, it's the best way for us to get heard in the scene. If you wouldn't mind reading us five super pets of your own on the podcast app of your choice, we'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you for going on this leashed walk auditorily down the path of life and understanding that this podcast most certainly is not, but uh like to pretend that it is. But shit, uh I lost it. Yep, yep. Um there it is. But until next time, gentle listeners, Skip has some wise companion words for you.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Wow, okay. Dumping that on me. Alright, so if you want to adopt a pet, please go to your local shelters because there are way too many animals out there who don't have homes. Please make sure that you have paid your tabs, that you've cleaned up after yourself to some sort of reasonable degree. Make sure you have tipped your bar staff, your weight staff, your podcasters, your KJs, your DJs. Make sure that you support your local comic shops and retailers. And we would like to say from Dispatch Ajax, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Please go away.