Riddick and his pet from the new movie
I watch a few Harry Potter movies this weekend while editing since I’ve seen them enough that they’re background noise. Something caught my attention this time. The familiars are there, but rarely come into play outside of a few events. I had the same problem with Stiletto in Beginning of a Hero because it was so difficult to include him in a lot of the action. As much as Luke Callindor said Stiletto wasn’t a pet, he was an animal that followed a ‘master’ around. I’m starting to wonder what the true purpose of a pet or animal companion is in a story.
I think many times pets are in there for flavor and a mascot type of thing. Maybe even marketing various merchandise to animal lovers. It’s that I see most pets get left behind halfway through stories and forgotten until they are suddenly involved in a grand event. I see this is typically their death or a brave rescue of their master. Pets might be more of a ‘out of nowhere’ character because readers tend to forget about them unless they are involved in several scenes or brought up a lot. Once forgotten, the pet can fade away or make a miraculous return to the reader’s mind.
Personally, I never pay attention to pets without personality. I use them at times in my stories, but I truly don’t think of them when I’m a reader. The exception I can think of is Tug the horse from Ranger’s Apprentice. A reason he stands out is that he has personality, attitude, and is involved in a lot of the events. He is treated like a main cast character instead of a secondary, which is not common among pet characters. Still, it’s rather difficult to make a pet a main character. This is something I’m going to think about and write up for Wednesday’s thought post. Maybe a fun list of ‘how to use and misuse pet characters’ and throw some humor into it.
So, what do you look for in the pets of characters? Do you even think of them?
Legends of Windemere 
I look for the quirky and unusual, i.e. a polite social climbing lady of middle age would own a rude squawking parrot.
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Those are fun pets and they do fit a niche without being overdone. Although, I’m lost for a specific example.
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I tend to use pets as foil characters, usually inspiring something in the MC that they don’t want to feel (closeness or chaos) and this makes them a great emotional catalyst throughout the story.
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Interesting usage. I’ve heard of pets being used to symbolize an MC’s innocence or childhood (Hedwig for example), but I never thought they could be used as foils.
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Reblogged this on QuillTwist and commented:
Another pet in fiction that would be a MC in their own right would be Nighteyes from Robin Hobb’s Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies.
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OMG RIDDICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!
Going to see that Friday 😀
Any pets I have are more like companions than pets. They usually have some function in the character’s story other than to just be there to cuddle, like the dire wolves in GoT.
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I don’t know when or if I’m going to be able to see the movie. Limits funds and time.
The companion is a safe way to go with the pets because it’s well established. It gives you a chance to use a pet, but have it in the background for a lot of the time.
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Lilith I’m cracking up right now because I had the exact same reaction!! I love me some Riddick!
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For my character his dog is his safety or stability. Even if everything going on around him is crazy, he can rely on that dog for strength. And on the flip side, when the dog isn’t there everything feels out of control.
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I love dogs in literature because they have such a great character tradition. Going by the picture I used, Riddick is a dog owner.
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I think my favorite fictional pet is Harry Dresden’ s Mouse, who I’d a Chinese temple guardian dog. He has some supernatural abilities, but he’s still a dog, with all the charms and foibles of the species.
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I really have to get my hands on that series. I’m noticing a lot of people are mentioning dogs in literature. I wonder why the dog gets more attention than most other animals. Horse might be a close second.
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From a writer’s standpoint, dogs are good characters to write. They’re predictable and mostly good guys.
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Makes sense. Might explain why so many villains have cats like Catwoman and Ernst Blofeld.
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Well, I agree basically.
Their own backstory, and compelling interests as a subplot perhaps.
Kinda like Guen as an example.
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That definitely seems to be the extent of their role. Guen is an interesting example since he’s magical.
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Sadly I’ve never found such a Wondrous Item, hehe.;)
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Closest thing I had was a halfling sorcerer with a bag of tricks, which had a bunch of animals I could pull out of it. Small things that I tended to use to set off traps or annoy people.
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A halfling sorcerer, awesome, hehe.
My DM’s were right stingy, haha.
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He had the common sense of tree bark though, so he was comic relief.
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Cool. Kind of strange as Halflings are high base wisdom. But it’s your roleplay.
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It was the stats and 3rd Edition. We each had to be a negative bonus stat and I picked wisdom for fun.
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Oh, lol. Fun character for sure. It’s cool to do that sometimes. By the time you are higher level your stats can be good anyway.
Makes the beginning interesting for sure though, hehe.
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The game didn’t go that far and I had to design my own spells because I specialized in sleep magic. Got a lot of mileage out of that one spell, so I made variations. Now the character is on my list for two book series. 🙂
He had a hamster familiar too.
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Wow, cool crowd control concept in D&D.
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My favorite was sleepwalker. Cast it on one target who will sleepwalk away in a randomly rolled direction.
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How long did it last?
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I think 5 rounds. Long enough for an escape or falling off a cliff.
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LoL. Or for your fellow adventurers to take out the rest hopefully leaving the single target.
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They were usually busy laughing at me interrupting villain speeches because I got bored.
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LoL. I can only imagine what goes through your head with your imaginiation.
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Max, in the movie I Am Legend eventually becomes the main protagonist’s emotional soundboard. In a case where there aren’t any humans, a pet makes sense to have in the story for the emotional relief. Same as in Cast Away, Tom Hanks has a volleyball as his emotional soundboard. Had he not had that, the story would have been drier. At least, this is what I think.
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I think pets have a better presence and use in movies. I Am Legend is a great example of how an animal can be used in the cast. In a book, it’s a little tougher because you don’t see the animal in the background unless the author brings attention to it. Us authors really do have it rough.
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This is fascinating. I was an avid reader of all the Black Stallion books by Walter Farley where the animal was the main character. In fact, they drove the story. Then there was where the Red Fern Grows. If it had animals in then I was reading it. However, I’ve never included an animal in my stories…hmmm.
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You just reminded me of an epic animal story, Call of the Wild. A story runs differently when the animal is the main character instead of a prop.
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Love all of Jack London’s stuff too!!! You are so right about that 🙂
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One of my main characters uses a spell to take control of a Shadow Hound (basically a horse sized wolf). She uses him to help her in battle. The spell goes wrong and now, when she sleeps she sees life through the eyes and mind of the Hound. He also follows her around.
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That’s really cool and makes a unique plot twist. Is she trying to reverse it?
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She is. To do so, she’ll have to confess to her mentor that she used a prohibited spell. Of course, as time goes on she comes to enjoy the connection and the things she learns from it. Shadow Hounds are corrupted with dark magic that seeped into the land. No one believes the land can be cleaned and the animals reclaimed. All corrupted creatures/people are to be destroyed on sight. Through the Hounds connection to a non-corrupted magic user, it starts to heal.
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Nice plot hook. I hope your story comes along smoothly.
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Thanks!
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