They're Good Sidekicks Brent (Top 50 Animal Sidekicks Nomination Thread)

[Violentvixen]

Time for the Animal Sidekicks popularity contest!

Please PM me a list of 25 animal sidekicks, ranked so I can clearly tell who you've ranked highest versus lowest. A brief note or a link/image is helpful too but not required!

Please submit your list by Saturday August 26th, that gives me a few days to sort things out and/or ask questions and then I will start posting that week.

A few expected questions I'm pre-emptively addressing:

Fictional or non-fictional animal sidekicks? Both fictional and non-fictional are eligible and all forms of media are too.

What is a sidekick? A character that isn't the focus of the story/event, but helps out the main character/villain and is almost always around. Generally not as experienced/authoritative/powerful/etc as someone you'd easily describe as a hero/villain but still involved. See the animal friend of the main character (or villain) in just about every Disney movie. I'll also note Lassie is the title character, not a sidekick.

Does it have to be a real animal species? No, there are sci-fi animal sidekicks which are described as animal species we don't have on Earth and those count.

Aren't all Pokemon animal sidekicks? Not all of them, for example I would count Pikachu and Meowth from the TV show as sidekicks since they have more agency and involvement, but the standard Pokemon should not be on your list. Also there was just a Pokemon list at the end of last year.

What about a robot that looks like an animal? A robot dog/lion/cat/etc definitely counts! As the robot design gets less and less recognizable as an animal we fall into "let the voting decide" territory. But I'll say the less animal-like your robot nominee is the riskier your submission.

Aren't humans animals? Doesn't that mean human sidekicks count too? No, fully human sidekicks are not eligible. In terms of how human they can be before they don't qualify see [other specific question] below.

[Other specific question] Here's my general rule: I you have one nominee you can't decide about, submit it without posting here and voting will decide. If your question will greatly affect whether or not you put a lot of nominees on your list then post here and let's have a discussion.

Finally, I'm a lot less online and generally consume a lot less media than most people on the forum. I may PM you follow-up questions, please don't take this as a sign your nominee didn't get votes or there's an issue, I'm most likely just trying to clarify and/or seeing if some nominees overlap.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Should sidekicks who come as a pair be counted as one or two entries?

 

[Kirin]

Does it have to be a real animal species? No, there are sci-fi animal sidekicks which are described as animal species we don't have on Earth and those count.

I assume this also covers fantasy magical creatures that look more or less like fantastic animals.


Here's a real question that covers a whole category though: what about the case where the sidekick is a talking animal, but the main character they're a sidekick of is *also* a talking animal, in a world where either everyone or a large subset of characters are anthropomorphic animals. I'm kind of inclined to leave those out even though they're both animals and sidekicks, because the relationship is more one of peers as in a human/human sidekick situation. But I dunno?

 

[Torzelbaum]

And here's another question - do familiars count?

 

[Violentvixen]

I know convention is not to name potential nominees in these threads so I spoiled the examples in my answers.

Should sidekicks who come as a pair be counted as one or two entries?

Yes, they would be one entry. Worst case I might reach out to people after voting to confirm what the vote was for and I retain the right to merge (or split, although it seems less likely) entries if appropriate.

I assume this also covers fantasy magical creatures that look more or less like fantastic animals.

Oh yeah, fantasy and folklore creatures such as unicorns count in terms of type of animal, I'm blanking on specific examples of any acting like a sidekick but I'm sure there are some.

Here's a real question that covers a whole category though: what about the case where the sidekick is a talking animal, but the main character they're a sidekick of is *also* a talking animal, in a world where either everyone or a large subset of characters are anthropomorphic animals. I'm kind of inclined to leave those out even though they're both animals and sidekicks, because the relationship is more one of peers as in a human/human sidekick situation. But I dunno?

Your last sentence is the crux of the matter. In Disney, Goofy would not count as an animal sidekick but Pluto would.

And here's another question - do familiars count?

Familiar has a LOT of potential meanings, but I'm guessing that you're asking about cases where a demon/spirit has been summoned/bound. Salem the cat in Sabrina/Archie comics is technically a demon in cat form but is so recognized in the animal form he counts (and is probably going on my personal list), similar to how robot animals count. I'll also note that there seems to be a more kid-friendly/less Satanic modern use of familiar which refers to a magical animal that makes friends with a character. That definitely counts, with the notes about sidekick behaviour applying as I can think of some that are deuteragonists rather than sidekicks.

If any of those answers didn't make sense, didn't answer your question or you strongly disagree let me know, happy to discuss.

Also I just finished reading a refresher on Set Theory so now my mind is entertaining the idea of of drafting proofs. It sounds fun but I lack the time, my math of that type is far too rusty, I'd probably have to hand write and scan it all and I'd need to use a lot of examples. Ah well.

 

[Torzelbaum]

*researching*

Oh. I have a lot more choices than I thought I did. Better gather them up then start making some cuts.

...

And then the long, painful process of ordering them...

Fictional or non-fictional animal sidekicks? Both fictional and non-fictional are eligible and all forms of media are too.

In our lists should we include who the animal is the sidekick of and the source media (if applicable)?

 

[Violentvixen]

In our lists should we include who the animal is the sidekick of and the source media (if applicable)?

Oh I figured people would submit names with what media/source they're from for sure.

The only potential issue I can think of with specifying who they're sidekick for is if an animal that is the sidekick for multiple people (Example:Lockjaw), and someone accidentally splits the vote by being more specific than they intended. But I think that'll fall under your pairing question above, if I'm unclear if someone is voting for a specific arc/version of a sidekick or for the sidekick as a whole I can just reach out.

 

[Torzelbaum]

The only potential issue I can think of with specifying who they're sidekick for is if an animal that is the sidekick for multiple people and someone accidentally splits the vote by being more specific than they intended

Oh. That does apply to at least a couple of my candidates. So I'll just include the media / source instead of the associated character(s).

 

[Torzelbaum]

And another probably dumb question - we just need to give the sidekick name in our list and not state what type of animal they are, right?

 

[Kirin]

Oh. I have a lot more choices than I thought I did. Better gather them up then start making some cuts.

Yeah my draft list is already up to 45, oof.

 

[Mogri]

Probably obvious, but must the animals be sidekicks to a human?

 

[Violentvixen]

Probably obvious, but must the animals be sidekicks to a human?

See my reply to Kirin above, the board is being weird about quoting quotes

 

[Mogri]

Gotcha, thanks!

 

[Torzelbaum]

A brief note or a link/image is helpful too but not required!

Should we mark spoilers in our brief* notes? Even if we're talking about sidekicks from media that came out decades ago?

*Warning: Notes might not actually be brief.

 

[Violentvixen]

Should we mark spoilers in our brief* notes? Even if we're talking about sidekicks from media that came out decades ago?

Sorry missed this until now. I'm fine either way!

And a reminder that lists are due Saturday!

 

[Kirin]

Been a very hectic couple weeks for me but I'm still hoping to sneak a list in!

 

[WildcatJF]

Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Violentvixen]

I forgot my mom leaves tomorrow and not today so deadline extended to Monday

 

[Beta Metroid]

It's been a wild week, but I'll get some semblance of a list in by tonight!

 

[Issun]

Sent mine in at the last minute, like usual.

 

[Violentvixen]

I've been compiling and should start in the next day or two, had only a few minor questions for people. If you submitted a list and haven't gotten a message back from me let me know ASAP.

 

[Violentvixen]

Thread is up!

 

[Torzelbaum]

Cool. What isn't cool is that I thought of a good candidate at the very last minute and didn't have time to try to modify my list.