23/100 - Companion
Not all sphinxes are mean but this one strikes me as a little indifferent. I drew the black cartoon cloud around her and the astronaut to signify some sort of mind communication, a deep connection between the two. I'm really curious about the relationship we can establish with some fictional characters.
When I read His Dark Materials I almost felt envy at the relationship between the characters in that universe and their "dæmons" (talking , external, animal-shaped representations of and aspect of their inner-selves). I vaguely remember having imaginary friends as a child, and giving life-like attributes to stuffed animals, but the closest I've come to that experience in my adult life has been playing some video games that include some kind of companion to your main character.
Most recently I spend time playing The Last Guardian where you control a boy who needs to develop a relationship with a giant hybrid creature that's most reminiscent of a griffin. It doesn't quite do what you ask it to do, so you need to figure out ways to communicate with it, it's also quite cute, but the thing that I found surprising is that I ended up developing and emotional relationship with this thing on the screen. It's not a masterpiece of artificial intelligence, you can certainly tell that it's code in a game, but I really felt for it when it got hurt or when it was trapped or confused.
The horse in Shadow of the Colossus played a similar role for me even though the relationship was much simpler. In this case the horse mostly takes you around and even comes to you when called, but it feels like he is your only friend as you explore a mostly empty vast landscape.
In Titanfall there is this robot that's always talking to you, it's not an animal like the other two examples but it is a non-human companion, a simulated collaborator, so I put it in the same category.
While I can think of grim interpretations for this phenomenon I'm more interested in the optimistic ones. Are we rehearsing emotional relationships with beings that don’t exist yet? Isn't it wonderfully weird that we have the ability to give emotional life to these imaginary creatures?
If you have any other examples of game companions please let me know, and if this trope has a name that you know of I'd be even more curious, leave a comment or send me a message. Thanks!
My celebration of imaginary companions is 4" by 2.5". Purchase link here(sold).