The Beastmaster

"Lions, tigers and bears? Where?! I gotta catch em all!"

"This is a private battle of wills between the manufactured savagery of the Capitol's mutt and the horse-magic that runs through Blight's veins. The mutt screams. Rears. Canters around. And finally breaks."

— The Lumberjack and the Tree Elf

A type of character who uses the assistance of an animal, Beast of Battle, force of nature, or just some sort of not-highly-sapient 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 their side, constantly ready for combat and play.
• The Beastmaster can convince, cajole, or outright force a critter/creature to fight with them via some type of influence or power. Sometimes they're also 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 magic.
• The ally is artificial in nature, normally constructed by the master. Is either a Robot Buddy (a Robot Master), or a puppet controlled by either magic or plain-old strings (a Marionette Master).
• The Beastmaster can grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals or telepathy and convince them or request for them to help.
• The Beastmaster can see through the eyes of animals and maybe even controlling it from the inside with a form of mind control.

In video games, the Beastmaster either has complete control over their ally (perhaps via RTS controls or assuming direct control), indirect control over the ally via Squad Controls ("attack on my mark"), the ally follows a "Monkey-see, monkey-do" mentality and mimics the master's actions ("attack when I attack"), or the ally just does what it wants in range of its master ("...I wanted you to attack anyway"). In the latter case the playerbase may regard the job as unpopular as the AI isn't always very good at doing actions that don't kill everyone. This will normally not be the case in other forms of fiction, as no computer is directing the ally's actions, 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 environment. The Beastmaster is often an Animal Lover too.

Subtropes include the following:

• Dragon Rider
• Dragon Tamer
• Mon Trainer/Tamer
• Pest Controller

Subtrope of The Minion Master, which covers the general use and creation of minions in battle. Sister trope to Marionette Master, a variant of Minion Master focusing on dolls, puppets and similar animated toys.

Attack Animal and/or Summon Magic are common options for the Beastmaster's weapons, but martial variants exist, often wielding axes, a spear, or being an Aloof Archer. See Whip of Dominance for when the beastmaster wields a whip for either control/taming purposes as well as a personal weapon. May overlap with Fluffy Tamer. When associated with nature, tends to also be a Classical Hunter. See Good Taming, Evil Taming for when the methods of training/taming characterize the beastmaster as a cruel or kind.

Not to be confused with The Beastmaster, which was a 1982 fantasy movie and a 90's show about a Nature Hero, very, very loosely adapted from a 1959 science fiction book series, or the Shoujo manga Beast Master, which has a completely different story.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Jate from Aposimz can overwrite otherwise neutral Automatons to attack Etherow or for Animal Espionage.
• In Brave10, Sarutobi Sasuke is the Brave of Grass, which means he can use the animals of the forest to fight for him. He loves all kind of animals, but birds and weasels are his particular favourites.
• The Familiar of Zero: A familiar with the Vindálfr runes can communicate with and control almost any animal, including dragons.
• In the Turning Red spinoff 4★Town 4★Real, Jesse and Aaron T. believe Tae Young to be this due to his affinity for animals.
• Shido Fuyuki of Get Backers is nicknamed "Beastmaster" because of this ability. He also Speaks Fluent Animal.
• 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 balloon 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.
• Norway of Hetalia: Axis Powers is close friends with all manner of fairy creatures, including a gigantic green troll, and can send them to do his bidding. He summons his troll to try and fight the Parallel!France that defeats Sweden in the Hetalia Bloodbath 2010, sends a ghostlike creature to try and cajole his younger brother Iceland to call him "big brother," and sends a bunch of small, winged humanoid creatures (Boyg) to harass Iceland in order to get him to tell the other Nordics what is bothering him at one point.
• Hime-chan's Ribbon: Sei Arisaka can physically control animals via Mind Control but he can get them to do his binding, such as whistling to make a group of doves appear or merely telling them to "go to sleep" will make them instantly fall asleep.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Rikiel from Stone Ocean is able to control heat-draining cryptids called Rods with his Stand, Sky High.
  • Steel Ball Run:
    • Mrs. Robinson has trained insects that inhabit the hollowed out parts of his body, allowing him to use them to set up traps.
    • Dr. Ferdinand has the Stand, Scary Monsters, which unleashes a virus that transforms anything it infects into a dinosaur, which Dr. Ferdinand can command.
    • Mike O. has the Stand, Tubular Bells, which allows him to transform pieces of metal into living balloon animals that act just like their flesh and blood counterparts, which Mike O. can command.
• Jujutsu Kaisen:
  • Megumi Fushiguro has the Ten Shadows Technique that lets him use shadows to create Shikigami, which manifest into different types of beasts such as wolves, an owl, toads, rabbits, etc.
  • Suguru Geto has Curse Manipulation, which allows him to absorb unbound cursed spirits and then summon them again as his thralls for use in combat and more mundane activities. Apparently, he can use them indefinitely unless they've been destroyed, or he casts them all at once in his supreme art. He can hold at least 4,000 inside of his body at once and it's unknown if there's an upper limit. Since Cursed Spirits are the primary threat faced by mankind in this world, Geto's ability to absorb and control them almost indiscriminately earned him the classification of "Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer." A title only given to four people in the setting, ncluding him, that means he has the ability to take down an entire country single handed.
• Katherine McDonald of Kaze no Stigma has three separate 'beings' of summoning, of different power levels.
• Shibata Genzo of Kemono Michi is both one of the most powerful, effective, and affectionate examples. A former pro wrestler, he uses his incredible speed, power, and resilience to subdue most every demonic beast he encounters, holding them down and dodging their attacks with barely any effort or injury, and near-instantly charming and taming all but the most dangerous of species. Notably, his goal throughout the series is to open a pet shop, and spread the joys of pet ownership to a world that wants all demonic beasts exterminated.
• Kimba the White Lion can summon other animals to help him fight or accomplish tasks he can't do on his own; he's the King of Beasts in his jungle after all.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS introduced Caro Ru Luche. She has two dragons she can call into battle, her pet dragon Friedrich, and the Dragon God Voltaire. She claims that she doesn't control Voltaire so much as call for his assistance if things are really desperate: it's implied that he will not answer the summons if his power is not needed.
  • StrikerS also introduced her rival, Lutecia, who commands a wide variety of Insectoid Aliens in combat, ranging from swarms of mechanical bugs to an insectoid Monster Knight to Kaiju Big Creepy-Crawlies.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid introduced a new one in the True Witch Fabia Crozelg, who has an army of imp-like devils at her beck and call.
• Kouji Kouda from My Hero Academia has the power to command and control animals.
• Naruto:
  • Kiba and the rest of the Inuzuka clan use one or more dogs.
  • As the living nest of a colony of bugs, Shino is an example of a Beastmaster with way more than just one ally. His clan, the Aburame, falls under this as well.
  • Several ninja 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.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi has Paio II, who uses Sand Worms for handling bounties and boobies.
• One Piece:
  • Mohji, the first-mate of the Buggy Pirates, earned his Red Baron of the Beast Tamer precisely because of the trope. He rides a giant lion and his hat (hair?) changes from season-to-season to different animals.
  • Apis from the filler Warship Island arc ate the Whisper-Whisper Fruit (Hiso Hiso no Mi), which allows her to communicate with animals.
  • Chopper can speak with animals naturally, since he's an animal himself.
  • An inherent trait of Fishmen and Merfolk is the ability to communicate with and command sea creatures. One of them in particular, Princess Shirahoshi, has the ability to telepathically summon gigantic Sea Kings. This ability is so powerful it's considered one of the three Ancient Weapons, Poseidon; making the young princess the current incarnation of Poseidon.
  • Luffy himself has mastered the trope ever since the timeskip: he's become so proficient at Haki that he can tame and befriend huge and/or dangerous animals in a flash.
  • Another filler arc in the anime has Breed, whose devil fruit allows him to assert his will over other living beings after he has placed a collar on them, but only if they are able to hear him make his commands. Law gets around being collared by giving himself and Luffy earplugs. He mainly uses this power on animals because he thinks Humans Are the Real Monsters.
  • O-Tama from the Wano arc has a Devil Fruit that allows her to create kibi-dango from her cheeks, which she can feed to wild animals to befriend them. Handy when you're a mostly defenseless little girl in a dangerous country. This skill is vital in the climax battle because it turns out it can also subjugate artificial Zoan Devil Fruit users, allowing her to turn a significant portion of Kaido's army to the heroes' side (it has no effect on natural Zoan Devil Fruit users, however).
• Pokémon: The Series is pretty much a multi-series embodiment of this trope. In fact, Pokémon is actually short for "Pocket Monsters", and refers to the fact that most "Pokémon Trainers" (who are humans) keep their pet Pokémon in Pokéballs and send them out either for bonding or for helping them with a particular task (like battling other trainer's Pokémon). It's the entire point of the video games as well; see below.
• Radiant: Domitors are infected that have bonded with a Nemesis and specialize in taming them, a Domitor is usually permanently bonded and command a single Source Nemesis (including their Echo Nemesis) but more experince Domitors can use sorcery to temporarily take control of more Nemesis.
• The Ride-On King: One of Jilalie's mercenaries is a beast tamer and an assassin who specializes in creating Slave Collars.
• In R.O.D 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)
• Zazie The Beast, one of the Gung-Ho Guns in Trigun. He controls enormous sandworms in the anime — his manga counterpart is... squickier.
• One of the The Voynich Hotel's maids, Elena, has quite the way with the local wildlife. A bit of foreshadowing that she's not quite human.

Comic Books

• Aquaman, who can command any ocean animal. His control over sea life extended to sea birds as well, which was often a wild card against anyone expecting solely marine life.
• Asterix: In "Asterix and the Missing Scroll", the druid Anachronistix has a flute that allows him to summon and command animals. He instructs a squirrel to guide Asterix, Obelix and Getafix through the forest of Carnutes, and summons a bear to chase away the Romans.
• Batman foe Ratcatcher, who commands a legion of highly trained sewer rats to do his bidding.
• B.P.R.D. gives us Panya, a wheelchair-using Egyptian mummy who can telepathically control animals and at one point also uses her powers on a profoundly retarded human.
• B'wana Beast has the power to both combine and command animals.
• Catwoman can instantly tame any cat (even big ones like tigers and lions, or genetically modified animals with cat DNA) or cat-like animals (such as the Joker's hyenas).
• Ex Machina: The archenemy of the technopath protagonist was a beastmaster named Jack Pherson. Their powers come from the same source. While Mitchell once tried to fight crime as "the Great Machine," Pherson used his animal army for evil.
• Marvel Comics own Squirrel Girl. If you can summon squirrels to beat Doctor Doom, Thanos, MODOK, Pluto, and even Deadpool you deserve to be on this list.
• Mouse from The Movement can control mice and rats.
• Gaea from the Noob comics, as part of her Summon Magic.
• Rulah, Jungle Goddess is usually accompanied by her faithful animal companion Saber, a black panther
• In Swordquest: Waterworld, the mermaid queen Aquana commands various undersea creatures in her war against the air-breathers.
• Wonder Woman (1942): In the Huntress feature she fights Herbert Hynde, who goes by "Earthworm" and can controll rats, reptiles and other vermin.

Fairy Tales

• "The Three Princes and Their Beasts", collected by Andrew Lang, is a similar story, only with three brothers and they each have a boar in addition to the animals previously listed.
• In "The Two Brothers", collected by The Brothers Grimm, the two brothers are each accompanied and aided by a train of animal companions — a lion, a bear, a wolf, a fox, and a hare — which they acquired by assisting the animals' parents.

Fan Works

• Fate of the Clans: Cú Chulainn has a high compatibility with animals, higher with canines. He's even able to talk to them. This compatibility is partially what allows him to control Failinis.
• Cinder in Ruby and Nora, who is also Salem, can control the Grimm like in canon.
• In Vathara's Upon A Fiery Steed some of the residents of the L3 colony, and some residents of another planet visited in the story, are Beastmasters; people with the ability to communicate with, partially control and fight alongside animals. Examples shown in-story are bat-winged cat-like creatures called esmeril, hawks, dogs and lizards.
• Armani Dove of the Broken Bow series, as befitting a child of Artemis.
• Cycles Upon Cycles: This Mass Effect / StarCraft crossover has Beastmaster Krogan, who are able to temporarily buff nearby Zerg.
• Adorable Murderbeasts: A fic where a SI is dropped into the Young Justice universe with nothing but Pokémon to protect him. This trope is a given.
• My Little Mages: The Nightmare's Return: As a druid, Fluttershy can control non-sentient animals.
• Besides the canon summoners of Naruto, in Dreaming of Sunshine Ino becomes the new Chameleon Summoner and Shikako the new Deer Summoner.
• White Sheep (RWBY): Jaune and his sisters can all command the Grimm, though older siblings' orders outrank those of younger ones (Jaune can't countermand his older sister Sapphire but can countermand his younger sister Amber). Naturally, Salem's orders overrule all of her children's. When Jaune gives Yang a Grimm parasite to replace the arm Adam cut off her, Yang also gains the ability to create (miniature) Beowolves and control them. Once Jaune becomes Salem's heir and Crown Prince, the order is shaken up- he now can countermand all his sisters' orders to the Grimm, but is still subservient to Salem. Then the God of Darkness severs Salem's family's connection to the Grimm.
  • That said, there are differing degrees to how well Grimm can be controlled by the family of Salem. While most Grimm will instantly obey them, Ancient ones have been shown to be able to resist commands for one reason or another- the Nevermore and the Deathstalker in initiation both resisted Jaune's commands to leave him alone, and Mannie has been shown to ignore commands by Salem at times (even if it's as minor as stealing her scroll and not giving it back).
• Chapter 8 of Forum of Thrones reveals that Wolfius is a warg and an immensely powerful one at that.
• This Bites!: Perona becomes this during Strong World, using her Hollows as a Pavlovian method of conditioning Shiki's monsters to obey her.

Films — Animated

• In the setting of How to Train Your Dragon, dragons come in various breeds, all of which are terrifying in some way (some spit acid, some throw bone shards like spears, some roar loudly enough to shatter boats...) but none more so than the Night Furies. A Night Fury can breathe fire, blend perfectly into darkness, and fly terrifyingly fast. No one has ever killed a Night Fury. And Hiccup, a scrawny 15-year-old—with no combat experience, no outside assistance and no previous training—was able to tame one. And fly it into battle. Even after Hiccup teaches the other Vikings how to ride and bond with dragons, he's clearly the best at it.
  Gobber: He has this way with the beasts...
• The How to Train Your Dragon 2, set after a five-year Time Skip, presents two others of note. One hermit independently worked out techniques similar to Hiccup's when the latter was a baby and guards a hidden dragon sanctuary, while a vicious warlord managed to brutalize a hatchling into submission decades ago and now uses a Kaiju with mind-control powers as a linchpin in his horde of warbeasts.

Films — Live-Action

• The Trope Namer, Dar in The Beastmaster. He can telepathically communicate with animals, first seen when he mind-controls a bear to leave him and his foster-father alone and can see through the eyes of his falcon scout. And don't forget the loveable ferret scouts/thieves and the black tiger.
• In Cry of the Banshee, Roderick has a natural affinity with animals and is able to command a mad dog attacking a young girl to leave her and flee.
• In The Dark Crystal, Kira can call out to just about any animal out there and coax it into helping her. There are a lot of weird animals out there and this ability comes in very handy.
• In Dracula Untold, Vlad III Dracula is capable of controlling thousands of bats at once and devastate massive armies with them.
• Willow from Empire Of The Sharks is a "shark caller", able to suppress sharks' predatory impulses or trigger their attacks.
• Jennifer from Phenomena can telepathically communicate with insects and command them to attack people.
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Davy Jones has the Kraken to do his bidding in controlling the seas.
  • Voodoo priestess Tia Dalma has an animal motif of crabs and is shown to have some control over them. It's later revealed she's actually the Goddess of the Sea, Calypso.
  • In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Blackbeard zombified a few of his crewmen to make them obedient to him.
• X-Men: Apocalypse: The mutant ability of Nina, Erik's daughter, is to talk with animals and influence their behaviour.

Literature

By Author:

• Andre Norton was quite fond of this trope.
  • The Beast Master and its sequel Lord of Thunder. The protagonist, Hosteen Storm, has telepathic links with a group of genetically-engineered animals (a cat, an eagle, and a pair of meerkats).
  • Catseye: Troy gathers some True Companions, of which he is the only human member.
  • The Zero Stone features Eet, kinda a cat.
  • Etc.

By Work:

• Bazil Broketail: Lessis is the Mistress of Birds. Ribela is the Queen of Mice. Both have an ability to speak with these animals, whom they also gain strength from. Not only will they act as spies or messengers, but are also even connected to them. For instance, Ribela is energized when her mice are fed, weakened otherwise. They also recognize them in their roles. Some mice look up at Ribela in awe on first seeing her.
• Beast Tamer: Rein Shroud can create "Provisional Contracts" with various animals to help him, and when he was with the hero party used this to great effect for support and scouting. When forming a more permanent contract with one of the Strongest Species, like Cat Girl Kanade or dragon girl Tania, his own abilities are increased to match who he's contracted with, giving him Kanade's physical strength, Tania's magical power, and Fairy twins Sora's and Runa's magical control and skill with status effects respectively. This is far above and beyond what a normal Beast Tamer is known to do, as they are limited to only a single animal at a time, period.
• The Diaries of the Family Dracul: Vlad can bend dogs and wolves to his will, making them lash out at unsuspecting humans or preventing them from feeding on livestock.
• Discworld:
  • Discworld vampires can, as in some legends, command lesser creatures, with Otto in The Truth using it to quell a mob of dogs outside the Times offices. Carpe Jugulum ties it to their better-known hypnotic abilities: as far as the Magpyrs are concerned, "lesser creatures" definitely includes humans.
  • Parodied in Jingo, which says that werewolves have power over most animals, providing all they want them to do is cringe and try to look as inedible as possible.
• In Fengshen Yanyi:
  • Chong Heihu's magic consist in a massive gourd tied to his back: when he uncorks the gourd, a thick black smoke comes out of it and allows Heihu to control countless heavenly eagles to attack his opponents and peck them to death.
  • Yang Jian has a living Fabao (in Taoism, a magic weapon) in the form of the Heavenly Roar Dog, which can grow to become as large as an elephant and attack his enemies by biting them.
  • Mo Lishou of the Four Demon Clan Generals commands another living Fabao, the Flowery Marten: normally is a rat-sized white weasel with flower-shaped marks on its fur, but can become as large as an elephant, fly around and eat whole soldiers in one gulp.
• In the Ferals Series, the ferals can each communicate with and control a specific type of animal. This ability is hereditary and passed down to their offspring.
• Bestiar of The Girl from the Miracles District can communicate with and command all the rats in Wars.
• Downplayed in Legend of the Animal Healer. Martine has Healing Hands that work on animals and is consequently trusted by them, but she can't truly control them, leading to some tense situations.
• Maul: Lockdown: A Weequay prisoner who Maul incorrectly suspects of being Radique has a pack of predatory claw birds. He uses them to smuggle contraband throughout the prison and siccs them on Maul during their fight. Later, the real Radique is also able to command the birds to attack people and is comfortable with letting them perch on his arms.
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Hugh Apiston is a Beemaster specifically. That's his peculiarity—he has a swarm of bees living in his stomach, whom he can control.

• Of Fire and Stars: Tamers are able to turn nearby animals on intruders in their land and make them familiars.

• Release That Witch: The witch Honey has the ability to train animals to obey set commands. Roland eventually uses this to train dozens of birds to be letter carriers, creating the first form of high-speed communication.
• The Roaches: The main character discovers that she can telepathically communicate with and command cockroaches. Let's just say that it turns out to be not so good of a thing in the end...
• Shadow Ops: "Whispering" is an application of terramancy that allows the user to control animals. It is also very illegal, right up there with gate magic, entropy magic, necromancy, and creating sentient elementals, due to its sheer destructive potential. One doesn't realize how dangerous Whispering is until the person using it calls for literally every animal in range (including millions of nearby insects) to literally swarm the target.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Wargs are people who possess the rare ability to bond with individual animals and project themselves into their companions' minds, taking limited control over the beast and viewing the world through its senses. The most common creatures "possessed" in this manner are dogs, described as the easiest animals to control, and wolves, since pack-hunting canids are similar enough to humans in mentality to make controlling them relatively straightforward. Other animals are more difficult to direct, and tend to be used by either specialized wargs or ones who want to show off their power.
  • The Stark children all possess direwolf cubs. Hints are dropped that all of them are latent wargs, though only Bran actively develops the ability, while it remains a passive one with Jon and Arya for most of the series, although in the last book Arya demonstrates the ability to consciously project into a stray cat.
  • Varamyr Sixskins, a wildling, is so named for having six bonded animals — three wolves, a panther, an eagle, and a huge white bear.
• In La Saga de los Confines, by argentine Liliana Bodoc, Kupuka is a magician of The Fertile Lands who can control insects, for example, making red ants attack the bare legs of an undesirable spy. But he later helps win an important battle by attacking the enemy army not only with swarms of wasps, bees, and mosquitoes, but also jaguars and wild boars, although it is implied that this required days of effort. There is also Piukeman, who due to a curse shares the eyes of a falcon (he can only see what the falcon sees) and instead of going crazy, he took this opportunity to share his mind with the falcon and become an effective spy at the service of his people.
• The Syrena Legacy: Emma has the Gift of Poseidon, which means that sea creatures obey her commands, including marine birds like penguins. She first used her gift at age four, when she almost drowned in her grandmother's pond and the fish saved her. Dr. Milligan realizes she's a Syrena when he sees her interacting with fish at the Gulfarium as a teenager.
• Tortall Universe: In The Immortals, Daine the Wildmage can communicate with animals and even shapeshift into them. There are various minor characters in the 'verse who either have something as small as a "knack" or even better for a specific type of animal. Daine is unique because she isn't restricted to merely one type and can even communicate with animal-like Immortals.
• Villains by Necessity: As part of her druid powers, Kaylana is able to hypnotize most animals into doing what she wishes. However, she's very much an Animal Lover so this power is never abused.
• Wild Cards has Bagabond, a bag lady with the ability to control animals. While it does not exactly work on humans, the sensation of having their minds touched by another makes them kind of confused and uneasy.
• "Wizard Bait": One of the wizards that shows up is a shaman with power over an army of badgermen, having come to procure the Bones of Swur from Thusalah's hoard.
• The flying monkeys in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are controlled by whomever wears the Golden Cap, the Wicked Witch of the West probably being the most well known user. She also has many species of animal servants as her minions.
• Worm:
  • The main character, Taylor, has the power to psychically command invertebrates, such as insects, arachnids, and crustaceans. She has lots of fine control over them, to the point where she can summon them unconsciously to aid her when under stress. On top of that, there is no known upper limit to the number of bugs she can control at once, though her range is restricted to a radius of a couple of miles.
  • Bitch has the power to transform dogs into huge, incredibly strong Lovecraftian monsters, but she can't control them mentally. Instead, she has to train the dogs to respond to ordinary words and whistled commands, otherwise they wreak havoc when she transforms them. Fortunately for her, her power also gives her the secondary effect of having an innate understanding of canine psychology, so she's probably the best dog trainer on the planet (unfortunately, she lost most of the ability to understand human psychology as a side effect).
  • The sequel, Ward, introduces Chicken Little, who can control birds, though his control is not as precise as Taylor's command over bugs was. It's heavily implied that his power is a derivative of Taylor's, hence the similarities between them.

Live-Action TV

• The 4400: In "The New World", a member of the Nova Group (who was later revealed to be Jane Nance in "Graduation Day") has the ability to control animals. She uses it to induce Peter McClanahan's German Shepherd Crockett to maul him to death in his home. Marco even refers to her as "the Beastmaster."
• Beastmaster: Dar is the titular Beastmaster, who was given the ability to communicate with animals and becoming a link between them and humans.
• In Dracula (2020), Dracula can command wolves, and uses this to attack a monastery when the Nuns hold him at a distance with crosses and stakes.
• The Legend of Dick and Dom: A character who is actually called "The Beast Master" is the Big Bad. He's seen controlling many types of animals, although he tends to foil his own schemes by (for example) trying to get ants to capture his enemies. Prone to throwing tantrums when he fails- he's seen roasting a pair of pigeons at one point. Can also turn parts of his body into animals ("My powerful caterpillar arm will devour you!"), and other people into animals, who are then under his power.
• Merlin (2008) is this with his powers as a Dragonlord. He can call the dragons and they are bound to obey him, and it also works on their relatives the wyverns.
• Motherland: Fort Salem: Nicta uses crows whose call has been enabled to cast spells against enemies. Scylla learns how to do the same thing.
• In Once Upon a Time, Cruella De Vil has the power to control animals.
• Taken: In the final scene of "Charlie and Lisa", the three-year-old Allie Keys displays the ability to control animals using her Psychic Powers when three dolphins move in accordance with her wishes. This is the first time that Allie realizes that there is something different about her.
• The Wheel of Time (2021): Wolves start to follow Perrin around, then even help him escape along with Egwene by attacking Whitecloaks, to his bafflement.

Religion

• Many Catholic saints are associated with control over animals.
  • St. Francis of Assisi, most famously in the story of him taming a wolf. It is also said he had a similar call over birds.
  • St. Francis of Paola. It is even believed that God was willing to revive his pet fish and lamb after they had been accidentally killed and eaten.
  • St. John Bosco is said to have had a giant, black dog who followed him, who served him.
  • St. Patrick was said to have driven all of the snakes out of Ireland.

Role-Playing Games

• Dino Attack RPG:
  • The Mutant Dinos caught and tamed by Rex, such as Trouble, became loyal to him. He could also use his ability to communicate with dinosaurs to send Mutant Dinos, even wild ones that he had not tamed, to fight for him, which he usually exploited during his clashes against Kotua and Chaos.
  • Stranger teamed up with a Mutant Lizard on Adventurers' Island, who fought alongside him in battle.
  • Chompy could qualify as a beast, thus giving Frozeen this role.
  • Until it was revealed that he was only a puppet leader controlled by the Darkitect, Dr. Rex was the leader of the Mutant Dino army, which referred to him as Alpha Rex. With that revelation, it became clear that the true Beast Master was the Darkitect.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: This is an aspect of many classes, though the Druid is the king of it.
  • There's a Beastmaster prestige class in 3.5 Edition that allows for the mastery of magical beasts like displacer beasts or grey renders instead of animals the way a standard Ranger or Druid commands.
  • The Ranger of 4th Edition has a Beastmaster build option which allows him to fight alongside a beast that he has forged a bond with. The build even gives the ranger a ritual that he can use to raise the beast should it die in battle.
  • Continued in 5th Edition, with one of the variations on the Ranger class being the Beast Master (now written as two words). In the Eberron campaign, the Artificer class can create homunculi and its Battle Smith variant is accompanied by a full-on robot animal sidekick.
• Exalted Third edition has the Survival skill tree, which is about a quarter actual survivalism and the rest empowering the monsters and beasts of Creation and using them like Mons to fight for/with you.
• Games Workshop games:
  • Dark Heresy: Verminspeakers are psykers who flee persecution by hiding in the depths of under-hives or the wildernesses of death worlds, where they form powerful bonds with alien predators, parasites and mutant animals that they use to protect themselves with. They have two unique powers: the minor power Verminspeaking allows them to enter the minds of any one creature in range, seeing and hearing through its senses but not directing its actions, while the major power Bestial Ally lets them mind-control an animal into becoming their steadfast ally. The latter's downside is that, if this attempt fails, the animal will go berserk and try to kill the Verminspeaker.
  • Necromunda: Some Wyrds have the ability to dominate and control the various mutant creatures that inhabit the underhive. Known as Beastmasters, these wyrds hire out their services to those with few scruples, personally leading their vicious pets into battle as they have to remain close to their charges to maintain their control.
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • The Drukhari Aeldari have beastmasters with three different types of beasts, a large behemoth, a beast that is halfway between two dimensions, and a swarm of razor winged flyers.
    • The Orks do this with Squigs, a non-sentient related Orkoid creature which has a tendency to attack their handlers from time to time.
  • Warhammer Fantasy:
    • Wizards who channel Ghur, the Wind of Beasts — that is, the branch of magic that focuses on animal life and qualities inherent in it — such as Imperial Amber Wizards and the Bray Shamans of the Beastmen, have an innate rapport with and ability to communicate with and control wild animals.
    • Ogre Hunters can be accompanied by one or two trained sabertoothed tigers known as Sabertusks.
• Goblin Quest: Inverted with an optional class rule with the "Reverse Beastmaster" — a goblin who is unable to resist what it perceives to be the commands of wild beasts.
• Magic: The Gathering:
  • The players themselves may count as this if they're playing the right creatures, but there are specific character examples as well, such as the planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker.
  • More mundanely there's the Master of the Wild Hunt, Wren's Run Packmaster and Wolf-Skull Shaman, all of which create wolfpacks around them, as does Turntimber Ranger, which brings along a wolf for every fellow adventurer you summon. (One hilarious combo uses Xenograft set to Ally to produce an infinite loop, leading to an arbitrarily large Ranger and a similarly huge number of wolves.)
• In Nomine: Jordi, the Archangel of Animals, mostly gives his servants abilities intended to let them communicate with, call upon or charm animal life. Each angelic Choir attunes itself to a different type of animals — Seraphim get amphibious and marine creatures, Cherubim get felines, Ofanim get flying creatures, and so on.
• Pathfinder:
  • Pathfinder keeps D&D's Druid and Ranger options, and throws in a Summoner class who binds his life to his beast (known as an Eidolon). While the beast in question is technically a planar outsider, the Eidolon (traditionally) takes the form of an animal, and as the Summoner levels up, the Summoner adds more and more abilities to his eidolon. And if you choose the Broodmaster Archetype instead of the standard class, you can make a horde of individually weaker eidolons that still kick plenty of ass! The Advanced Class Guide adds the Hunter to the mix, a Druid/Ranger hybrid class that focuses on the bond between the Hunter and their animal companion.
  • Giants often tame large, powerful animals and beasts to keep as pets, guardians, war animals and steeds:
    • Cloud giants gravitate towards flying creatures; regular birds, griffins and hippogriffs, Roc Birds and air elementals are commonly seen in all cloud giant holds, while explicitly good-aligned giants often keep pegasi and dragon horses while their evil kin prefer wicked creatures such as harpies.
    • Stone giants often keep powerful, primeval animals — cave bears and, more rarely, dire wolves serve a role similar to dogs', while mammoths are sometimes kept as mounts. Some stone giant communities raise gorgons (evil, bull-like creatures with petrifying breath) as a sort of livestock.
    • Storm giants keep a wide variety of giant animals as mounts: rocs are popular flying steeds, and they ride whales, large sharks and sea serpents when they need to travel over sea.
• One of the mages in Res Arcana is the Beastmaster, whose use of animals is represented by the ability to turn an animal to generate essences. The original illustration features a woman handling a snake, while the Gender Flip is a man handling a crocodile.
• Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Matriarch becomes one thanks to a cursed mask, allowing her to control hordes of ravens to Zerg Rush the heroes.
• Shadowrun:
  • All mages can summon spirits to aid them, which either grants them a temporary servant for a single scene or can be semi-permanently bound to the summoner until their terms of service are done. Although Spirits can't affect the normal world without manifesting, once they do manifest they can be very nasty combatants and many mages in Shadowrun are Properly Paranoid enough that they keep a few powerful ones on retainer as bound spirits. This is another reason that Shoot the Mage First is a vital in-universe tip for shadowrunners and security personel, as a dead mage means spirits depart the mortal plane immediately afterwards.
  • Technomancers can summon (and register) sprites, which are much like spirits that exclusively exist in the matrix. Sprites are in many ways the linchpin of Technomancer playstyles, as it is unique to them and the only thing that deckers cannot physically do.

Toys

• The Mask of Rahi Control grants this power in BIONICLE.
  • All Rahkshi of Rahi Control and Rahkshi of Insect Control have this power. In addition to having the powers of the aforementioned Rahkshi, Makuta can also control Rahi through Infected Kanohi. The Brotherhood had hordes of Rahi enthralled to their will to serve in their army, and Teridax's control is such that he could force an otherwise life-long loyal guarddog Rahi in Spinax to try and rip its master Hydraxon's throat out.
  • Roodaka and Sidorak commanded entire hordes of the spider Rahi, Visorak.
  • Nokama was once able to use her Mask of Translation to speak and gain favor with an alpha Kikanalo (though unlike some other examples, she didn't command the Kikanalo—it just liked her and agreed to help her and the other Toa against a mutual enemy).
  • Vezon, while guarding the Mask of Life, controlled a giant spider-like creature Fenrakk, and later the Kardas Dragon.

Video Games

• The player character from AdventureQuest can become a beastmaster as a class.
• 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.
• One of the bosses in Albion is called The Beastmaster. He's more of a beast tender, really, since his job is to raise the various beasts the Kenget Kamulos use for training. Although when encountered, he does sic a number of predators on the player before finally deciding to fight.
• The free-to-play Russian MMORPG Allods Online has the Warden archetype.
• ADOM has a villain employing such methods: the last level of the dungeon of Keethrax the Black Druid is populated with animals, including kinds more dangerous than usual at that character level.
• The summoning tree of magic in Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura begins this way. Unfortunately it doesn't make for a very powerful build in and of itself.
• Lieza of Arc the Lad II an a gifted ability to communicate with beasts and allow them to join the party.
• Players won't make much progress in ARK: Survival Evolved unless they fulfill this trope. After beating a creature unconscious and feeding it enough of the right food^* bar a few exceptions that are tamed less violently, it becomes your pet. Most of the various creatures greatly exceed the player's own abilities in at least one way, whether in mobility, resource gathering, special abilities, or something else. And of course, combat. Without the assistance of tames, the player stands little to no chance of defeating stronger creatures and bosses. You can collect a vast army to help you survive and fight, and control their behavior through whistling commands. Whether it's a humble Dodo, a pack of Raptors, or a mighty T. rex, mastering them is the name of the game.
• Stella from Asdivine Hearts is in training to become one of these and often uses that as a cover for when people realize the wildcat traveling with the party can talk.
• In the DLC of Assassin's Creed III, the protagonist, Connor, becomes this after drinking the Red Willow tea and gaining the power to summon three ghostly wolves.
• Astal: Astal gets the assistance of a bird throughout the game. He runs into this bird in the first level, where it's been captured by some crystal enemies.
• Koh and his father Guy from Azure Dreams, are renowned in the game for being able to tame most monsters, even the most ferocious ones.
• The Beast Master kit in Baldur's Gate II. It gets the special abilities of Summon Animals (a low-level druid spell) in return for the inability to use metal weapons and armour. It is generally considered to be the worst or second-worst kit in the game, its only main competitor being the Wizard Slayer.
• Battle for Wesnoth: Ro'Sothian and Ro'Arthian from Northern Rebirth are undead sorcerers who can summon Gryphons, Trolls and Ogres, along with other monsters; rather than other undead like most liches. This versatile ability is why the heroes want to recruit them, even though they are in conflict with a clan of good dwarves.
• Greyback from Battle Realms has animal magnetism so strong that wild wolves will never attack him, and will instead automatically attach themselves to him as bodyguards and fight with him to the death.
• Beastieball has its Beastie coaches, which specialize in training the namesake beasties to compete in the volleyball-like Beastieball matches. To recruit them, they are given special jerseys made from mycelium.
• The Beast Handler from Bloons TD 6 is a tower that attacks bloons with various kinds of beasts, and they can increase their attack power by having other Beast Handlers' beasts merged into theirs.
• Borderlands includes one in Mordecai, the Hunter class avatar. He uses his pet bird-of-prey Bloodwing to aid in attacking enemies.
  • Borderlands 2 has DLC character Gaige, whose ability summons a giant robot called Death-Trap that can be upgraded to be more powerful.
  • Borderlands 3 has FL4K, whose class is actually Beastmaster and can have one of three creatures on field with them at all times.
• City of Heroes had the Mastermind class, capable of calling upon a number of controllable minions. Normally, they tended to be closer to The Minion Master territory, but an update added an actual Beast Mastery set to the game, allowing them to summon wolves (regular and dire) and lionesses, along with using birds and insects to attack.
  • In addition, the Dark Control set for Controllers and Dominators had a wolf made of darkness as its pet.
• Darkest Dungeon features the Houndmaster hero, who is an ex-lawman paired with a faithful tracking hound. He and his hound support the party from the back ranks, using the hound to mark targets for attacks as well as inflict wide-ranging bleeding effects. Outside of combat, the Houndmaster can have his hound stand watch, scout, and provide comfort to the rest of the party.
• Diablo II Druids can summon wolves and ravens, among other things.
  • It also has Necromancers, who have an archetype called the "summonmancer", they are generally held to make better pure summoners then druids (Druid summons are mainly for support).
• Diablo III's Witch Doctor has a few creepy-animal-based attacks, such as summonable toads and throwable jars of spiders.
  • It also has the Demon Hunter, who can summon an animal companion to fight alongside them (or more depending on what gear they have).
• The Beast Tamer class in the Disgaea series supports monsters by increasing their stats and EXP gain with her abilities or by simply being adjacent to them and is powered up by them in the latter two games of the series. It's something of an odd case when considering that the monsters in question are perfectly sentient and differ little from the humanoid Netherworld citizens in anything but appearance.
• Dota 2 has a few examples, including one literally called 'Karroch the Beastmaster', who worked in a cruel king's menagerie as a child. Karroch learned to communicate with the king's captive animals and led them to rebel, resulting in The Mad King's death. Gameplay-wise, Beastmaster can summon a boar to assist in combat and a hawk to scout. Worth noting that during the first outing, Karroch was actually the aforementioned Rexxar, he just became Karroch to avoid copyright strikes.
  • A number of other heroes can summon animals to aid in combat, most noticeably there is Sylla, the Lone Druid, who is at his most dangerous when he is fighting along side his Spirit Bear.
• The Ranger specialization in Dragon Age: Origins allows characters to summon wolves, bears or enormous spiders to help out in combat. In the DLC The Golems of Amgarrak, party member Jerrik Dace has this specialization, and has a companion called Snug who's a bronto (basically a rhino-like creature used by dwarves as a beast of burden).
• The player character from DragonFable will be able to hatch their own dragon, after receiving a level-locked quest. This dragon can be summoned at almost any time during game-play. The player can also equip numerous pets based on their level and with different elements to help them on their journey as they level up.
• Durango: Wild Lands allows players to tame and ride the dinosaurs and megafauna populating the environment.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • Throughout the series, this is a racial power of the Bosmer (Wood Elves). Known as the "Beast Tongue" ability, they can calm hostile wild animals and, in some games, even get their aid in battle. The Bosmer revere Y'ffre, essentially the god of nature, as their most important deity and it is through him that this power is granted.
  • Giants are said to hold this power over the mammoths they herd. They can reportedly communicate with the mammoths, and the relationship is symbiotic and based in mutual respect. In exchange for the protection of the Giants, mammoths allow the Giants to milk them and produce cheese. There have been reports of Giants eating mammoths, but this is always "conducted with reverence" and presumably only done to mammoths who have died of natural causes or following a Mercy Kill.
  • Spriggans, a race of tree-like Plant People with a Gaia's Vengeance tilt, can command nearby animals to attack intruders in their domain. They are most fond of doing this with bears, and some varieties of Spriggan can even summon a magical bear from thin air.
  • Wolves and bears are sometimes known to have reduced hostility toward werewolves and werebears, respectively, even if they aren't in beast form. They are also sometimes known to hunt with and follow werewolves and werebears when they are in beast form. The howl of a werewolf or growl of a werebear has also been known to summon wolves or bears to aid the creature in battle.
  • The "Command Creature" spell and its variants throughout the series allow the player to do this as well, with the strength of the spell corresponding to the level of creature one can command.
  • In Skyrim, the Animal Allegiance shout allows the Dragonborn to do this regardless of race. The Kyne's Peace shout makes animals not run from or attack the player.
• The player character in several Fallout games can be come one if the Animal Friend or Wasteland Whisperer perk is adopted. Pretty much any of the Nuclear Mutant creatures encountered in the Wasteland can be tamed and commanded to attack others.
• Beastlords in Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. Living in caves with radiation mutated them, gave them telepathy and also drove them insane, making them crave human meat. In battle they control various mutant animals and throw exploding beetles as grenades. They are the only enemies that cannot be recruited by the Brotherhood after they are defeated and things go From Bad to Worse. The Brotherhood tried to harness their ability for the common good, but concluded that they can only be useful by working to death in penal camps.
• Fantasy Life has pets that can be used in battle.
• In Far Cry Primal, the protagonist Takkar has the ability to tame prehistoric predators simply by tossing some bait, slowly approaching them and waving his hands around, letting him call upon them in battle and spy on his enemies, up to and including the saber-tooth tiger that killed his brother. A few people even call him by the trope name.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy XI has the Beastmaster class. Also, the Dragoon class receives a pet wyvern.
  • While XI 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 breaks the series' traditional trend of Summon Magic (a single high-cost, high-pay-off attack) for this; Summoners can only summon a single Aeon at a time, (when Yuna does so, they replace the whole party) and control them directly. Obtaining Aeons involves a soul-binding contract between Aeon and Summoner, and the Aeon's power grows in proportion to the Summoner's. It is also implied that they share a Psychic Link, as Yuna is shown experiencing significant strain after each one is destroyed in the ending.
  • 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.
  • Hilarity Ensues if you force a monster through a Beastmaster to break the law and watch the monster get sent to jail.
  • Final Fantasy VI has Shadow who's dog Interceptor will randomly counterattack for Shadow, Relm has a skill called Control which allows her to take control of an enemy monster.
  • Final Fantasy VIII has Rinoa who uses her dog Angelo to assist her in Limit Break.
  • Final Fantasy XIII-2 has Serah become this; after defeating Monsters in combat, she has a chance of receiving their Crystal, allowing them to be incorporated into the party's battle line-up. Mog claims that Serah's ability is a minor form of Summon Magic, gifted to her by Lightning (who is also seen leading a veritable army of monsters in the intro). They aren't directly controlled, but their abilities and priorities can be managed by the player. This took a bit of a strange turn with the DLC, which allowed players to unlock other characters from the first game as such monsters, including Lightning herself. Twice.
  • Final Fantasy XIV has the Arcanist class, who eventually evolve into Summoners or Scholars. Summoners use smaller version's of the game's Summons (who in this universe are genocidal energy beings) for combat, while Scholars use fairy companions for healing.
• 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.
• Granblue Fantasy has Ferry, an Erune girl, who has a strong bond with her circle of ghostly creatures (Beppo, Fugee, Nicola, Geegee and Momo) that can appear out of thin air and also help her deal damage in her Charge Attack. In the Fighting Game spin-off Granblue Fantasy Versus, her pets also augment many of her regular attacks, but they don't act independently. Rather, Geegee can be thrown like a mine to set up traps and Momo transforms into a bouncing orb that restricts the opponent's movement. True to the trope, Ferry can hear and understand her pets's silent voices (no one else can) and even wields a whip as her weapon.
• 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.
• Guild Wars 2 still has the first game's Ranger class but also introduces Tyria's Ogres, who wear this trope as their Hat. Few ogres are ever seen without their pets and they often make heavy use of them in combat.
• Heroes of Might and Magic:
  • The basic premise of the series revolves around the strategy of recruiting monsters and using them to fight other heroes and creatures.
  • In Heroes of Might and Magic III there is a class of heroes called Beastmasters, who control creatures of the swamp such as Hydras, Basilisks and Wyverns.
• Heroes of the Storm also features Warcraft's Rexxar, this time as a playable character. He fights alongside his pet bear and he has various other abilities that take advantage of his menagerie of animal companions.
• The Turtle Tamers in Kingdom of Loathing can be considered beastmasters. One strategy used is to increase their familiar's weight (i.e. level) with buffs and equipment.
• The Lore Master class in Lord of the Rings Online can summon several species of animals, from ravens to grizzly bears to lynxes.
• The player in LostMagic can amass a small armada via careful use of the Dark Rune.
• Well, the Beastmaster in Luck be a Landlord. He'll give a bonus to all animal symbols near him, whether they be cats, bears, wolves, oysters, sloths, or even Eldritch Abominations.
• Free Korean MMORPG Mabinogi includes a 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 possesses 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 ability with the Taming skill. Like Control of Darkness, it allows only very basic control over the creature.
• Majesty has Cultists, followers of the nature-linked God of Chaos, who are much more likely to charm monsters than kill them. A Cultist soon amasses quite a retinue of giant rats, rocs, medusae, and hellbears, and their temple routinely spawns monsters for Cultists to tame. When not leading their walking zoo through the city streets (which does keep those streets much safer for the peasants and taxmen!), Cultists will patrol creature dens and enchant any charmable monster that emerges.
• Minecraft Dungeons: You are able to invoke this trope by equipping yourself with items that summon pets, as well as the Wolf Armor, which allows you to heal those pets when healing yourself.
• 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.
• Octopath Traveler has H'aanit, who is capable of capturing monsters that she can then summon in battle (for a limited number of times) to utilize their various attacks or magic. When she uses the Provoke Path Action to initiate combat with NPCs, instead of fighting them herself like Olberic, the monsters she captured do the fighting for her. Story-wise, she seems to have at least some ability to speak with and understand the beasts she's tamed. She talks to her pet snow leopard Linde quite often, and though the conversations are naturally one-sided to the audience and her human party members, the two of them seem to communicate with each other just fine. Her inability to understand the final boss of her route in any way is even foreshadowing that it's not a beast like they believed but used to be a person.
  • The sequel, Octopath Traveler II has the beastling Ochette, who, like H'aanit, is capable of capturing monsters that can be summoned in battle (though unlike H'aanit, she can summon hers an infinite number of times). She may also prepare captured monsters into foods that have various effects like healing or buffing. She, too, can Provoke NPCs into battle using her captured monsters. Unlike H'aanit, Ochette has two possible animal companions to choose from at the start of her tale, the physically-inclined jackal Akala or the magically-inclined owl Mahina, and while she can understand what animals are saying similarly to H'aanit, her own animal companions are fully capable of talking.
• Moji from Paladins rides into battle on her familiar, Po-Li. Po-Li is a double-headed lizard that shoots magic spit and fire from its heads. Moji's ultimate turns an enemy into a tasty treat for Po-Li to snack on.
• The Pikmin series is built around this trope. The Hoctatian and Koppaite protagonists of the games can only deal scratch damage on their own. Meanwhile, the Pikmin themselves will only stand still or defend themselves if not given orders.
• Represented in Piratez by a Church unit of the same name, commanding Chryssalids and Celatids. Also applicable to the protagonists, who can use animals like dogs, parrots or mutated Reapers.
• You, and a very large number of the NPCs in the Pokémon games are essentially Beastmasters. In fact, Pokémon is actually short for "Pocket Monsters", and refers to the fact that most "Pokémon Trainers" (you and the aforementioned NPCs) keep their pet Pokémon in Pokéballs and send them out either for bonding or for helping them with a particular task (like battling other trainer's Pokémon).
• Alchemists in Ragnarok Online can create and program artificial life forms (Homunculi) to fight for them. 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.
• RuneScape doesn't have a class system, but all players are capable of being The Beastmaster if they wish, with summonable followers that can fight for them, heal them or even carry their loot, as well as purely cosmetic pets.
• The new Elven Warden from Runes of Magic has the ability to summon a pet to help him do his fighting.
• 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 Mina's is 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.
• Matsu from Sengoku Basara has the unique ability to summon animals to aid in her attacks, including boars, hawks, moles, bears and a white wolf.
• Shin Megami Tensei: The protagonists as well as some other humans are able to communicate with, transport, and summon so-called demons that includes deities, angels, actual demons, folktale creatures, and urban legends through the use of the Demon Summoning Program on portable devices known as COMP.
• Skadi as she appears in Smite is accompanied with her pet winter wolf Kaldr, who can be ordered to attack anyone she commanded, and can generate a freezing blizzard from him and within herself.
• Used in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where the Pokémon Trainer is the only character to stand in the background while his Mons are the ones who do the fighting. He has Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard, but can only use one at a time. The Trainer character is a little bizarre since Pikachu and Jigglypuff are also playable characters, and have been since the first installment, but they don't have a Trainer controlling them; he seems to have been added to get a few more Pokémon in without taking up too many character slots.
• Tales Series:
  • 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.
  • Jao from Tales of Xillia. He's accompanied by wolves whenever he's alone, and in your first fight with him, he'll keep calling in more monsters to assist him if you get rid of the ones that are with him initially; it's specifically stated to be a special ability he possesses. Ivar is the same and is said to have the same ability; in fact he has a Wyvern he hatched and cared for as an egg that ends up making the second boss fight with him tricky.
• Total War: Warhammer: Due to her deep hatred of the Wood Elves, the twisted dryad Drycha cannot recruit elven units. She fills in the resulting gaps in her roster with hordes of forest animals under her control, such as giant bats, wolves, spiders and hawks, as well as manticores.
• 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.
• Utawarerumono:
  • Aruruu 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 Mini-Moe 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.
  • The sequels have Rulutieh, princess of Kurjuy. While she has no combat ability herself, she rides into battle on her giant flightless bird, Cocopo. She can't communicate with Cocopo to the extent that Aruruu can Mukkur, but Cocopo is very protective of her and a force to be reckoned with.
• Grineer Drahk Masters in Warframe train and use the pig-like Drahks in combat, which they can endlessly summon. Drahk Masters wear a heavy suit with padded arms much like police K9 trainers, allowing them to deflect the player's melee blows from in front; paired with their throwing mace which can disarm you, they can become highly obnoxious foes. Similarly, there's the Hyekka Masters, who utilize Kavats to attack their enemies. The Tenno train Kubrows (a monotreme dog-like creature) and Kavats (a reptilian cat-like creature) and augment them with Mods to assist them in combat, albeit only one creature at a time.
• 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...
• The Zortroa Kinship tribe from Wild ARMs XF. The whole tribe consists of people who control monsters and make them fight alongside.
• World of Warcraft:
  • Hunters can have animal companions that assist them in battle. The Beast Mastery talent tree works with the bond between Hunter and pet, and ultimately grants access to Exotic pets that other Hunters can't tame, such as Devilsaurs, Core Hounds, Silithids and Chimaeras.
  • 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, using it as a friend and companion; Warlocks have a set number of demons with fixed abilities and names, that are enslaved).
  • Frost Mages can summon a Water Elemental as a permanent pet/companion as a perk of the Frost talent tree.
  • Going into the realm of NPC's, there's the half-orc Rexxar, who is essentially a Hunter minus the archer 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). Other hero types can also summon minions, but the Beastmaster's arsenal is entirely based around it, letting him summon a self-supporting army.
  • There are also the pet battles, a Pokémon-esque feature that is practically a whole game itself. The previously entirely cosmetic non-combat pets can only be used to fight other pets (either in the wild to tame them or controlled by designated Trainer NPCs and other players).

Webcomics

• Corgi Quest: Puffington specializes in summoning creatures to fight for her, including her eidolon Sparky. Unlike most examples of this trope, she doesn't have any special control over ordinary animals.
• A villainous example, known simply as the Beastmaster, is the titular antagonist of Jenny Everywhere and the Master of Monsters, a The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids Jenny Everywhere story. He's a Revenant who exploits his inedibility and relative invulnerability to tame monsters to do his bidding.
• In Girl Genius Professor Moonsock acts as the animal trainer and veterinarian for Master Payne's Circus. At one point she uses her "poisonous sky wyrms" to attack a monster from the wastelands and in the novelization she is revealed to keep a full menagerie of trained animals in her wagon including an albatross that she is able to have run a line to a runaway balloon-wagon so the rest of the circus can retrieve it.
• Homestuck:
  • Tavros can psychically control pretty much any kind of animal or creature, including the trolls' guardian lusus. This control also extends to the enemies they fight in the Medium, ironically making him one of the most powerful players in their session (although he refuses to actually hurt any of them). Then it turns out that this power extends to Becquerel, and that he's successfully controlled said reality-warping god-dog before.
  • His ancestor the Summoner was so good at this that he essentially became a Super-Soldier in a World of Badass and led a revolution.
  • The former Troll Empress-turned-Black Queen has similar control over the equally powerful GCat as a result of giving herself every psychic power available to trolls.
• Looking for Group: Token Evil Teammate Richard develops a monster-catching hobby in Act II, usually by capturing the survivors and orphans of his rampages and stuffing them in his Bag of Holding. His three mains are an albino dragon, a kraken, and evil reptile prince, and then he discovered a mad wizard's chimera farm and went nuts with Gotta Catch 'Em All.

Richard: I choose you, Monkeyphant!

• Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: Jet is a time-travelling Super-Soldier who also breeds velociraptors. Ostensibly, they are for combat duties, but in reality the feathery little fatbirds spend most of their time like pampered pets.
• Stand Still, Stay Silent: Väinö can Animal Eye Spy through his seagulls, and have them assisst him in his job, be it making sure nobody crosses into the Forbidden Zone he's guarding without proper registration or moving old car wrecks to make a tower out of them.
• Tower of God:
  • The Anima, who control Shinheuh/divine sea fish (which can mean just about anything) that they keep in magic "bowls". The Lo Po Bia family are really into this "character class".
  • It has been revealed that a few Breeders seem to have a thing for creating... People Puppets. So, it's a bit hard to say what a Breeder truly is: Marionette Master or straight-up Beastmaster: you decide. Guess it's up to the individual.
• Zoophobia's Carrie is a master creature-handler, and teaches the practice at the academy.

Web Original

• In Cracked's Photoplasty contest 28 Inspirational Image Memes (Revised for Honesty), a collection of fan-made Fauxtivational Posters, #5 is "If at first you don't succeed, command an army of birds."
• DC Nation's Fauna has this ability, bribing local raccoons to watch Dr. Thompson's clinic, gathering information from stray dogs, and so forth. She tried to use it when a right-wing militia was attacking her hometown, recruiting everything from flocks of birds to the local livestock, only to get soundly scolded by Nightwing for reckless behavior. She hadn't used it since, even though she will still talk to animals.
• In Enter the Farside, Alpha has the ability to assume the 'alpha' status of any animal near her, which means they form a pack with her as the head. She can also issue verbal commands to them that they understand, and can perform to the best of their abilities.
• How to Hero mentions heroes who can control animals or talk to animals in the entry on Animal Sidekicks.
• With magic people can control animals in The Saints.
• Whateley Universe: Whateley Academy student Dragonrider has a dragon she can command. She created it and gave it life. Other students like Aquerna and Arachne have command over one type of creature: squirrels and spiders, respectively.

Western Animation

• Ben 10: Omniverse has minor villain Nyancy Chan, whose sole power is the ability to mind-control cats to do her bidding. Unfortunately, this power extends to cat-like aliens, which means she's able to render Ben Brainwashed and Crazy when he accidentally transforms into Rath around her.
• Ma'ti of Captain Planet can communicate and guide any creature on Earth.
• The youngest prince in Conan the Adventurer has this as his ability, though mostly he's only good enough to command his loyal ferret.
• In Defenders of the Earth, Jedda's special talent is the ability to communicate telepathically with nearby animals, including those of non-terrestrial origin.
• Teebo in Ewoks can summon animals and get them to fulfill specific tasks, he can also hypnotize them and understand their language.
• Beast Man out of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) although there are a handful of creatures he cannot control, such as Cringer/Battlecat.
• Fluttershy in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic can win over and command anything from a herd of rabbits to a full grown dragon, a cockatrice, and even Cerberus himself. Unfortunately, on the rare occasion that her creature-charming fails, she suffers a fair amount of Sanity Slippage and resorts to physically chasing and trapping the animals so that they may love her!
• Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor: Sindbad (Bluto) tamed a wide spectrum of beasts, from lions to dragons, even a two headed giant and a Roc!
• Zak Saturday from The Secret Saturdays is able to communicate with and, should he wish, fully control cryptids. This ability stems from Drew getting in close contact with the mystical Kur Stone when pregnant with him, with everyone believing that he's meant to become a counter to Kur, an ancient evil who held the same power. It turns out that Zak is the reincarnation of the creature instead.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Jar Jar kriffing Binks, of all people. The best example would be in "Bombad Jedi", where he befriends a Kwazel Maw which helps him fight off a Separatist force.
• In Star Wars Rebels, Ezra seems to have a talent for this. On numerous occasions, he uses the Force to commune with various animals (loth-cats, fyrnocks, purrgils) and save the day.
• Steven Universe:
  • Steven himself has made friends with a magical pink lion, now named Lion, which was later revealed to have been previously allied to his mother, Rose Quartz. Rose herself was shown in a flashback to own an entire pride of lions hundreds of years ago.
  • Jasper is a darker take on this trope: she seeks to form an army of corrupted Gem monsters to wage war against the Crystal Gems. After Gem Hunt, she's always seen with a Quartz monster in tow that she keeps in line through intimidation and physical force, and at one point even forces it to fuse with her out of desperation when Smoky Quartz is beating her down.
• Although it was not an ability held by his original comic book incarnation, several versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Rat King possess the ability to control rats, and use them to attack. It becomes especially troublesome when fighting against Splinter, since he can control him as well.
• Transformers:
  • Soundwave. One of his most distinguishing traits is the menagerie of loyal animal (and two humanoid) robots that he can release from the tape compartment that makes up his chest. Of course, they're fully sentient Cybertronians themselves who serve Soundwave out of loyalty, not because he's tamed them.
  • Occasionally his Autobot counterpart, Blaster, has his own set of tape-bots as well.
• Roxy, the seventh fairy in the Winx Club, is the 'Fairy of Animals'. While initially only able to communicate with animals (such her dog, Artu), and enable them to speak with other humans, she later gains this power. Her first use is to summon of horde of rats to successfully Zerg Rush Gantlos. In the spinoff World of Winx she can even spy on people by watching through Artu's eyes.

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