Talk:Sonny (Clara Oswald and the School of Death)

Companion?

I find it ridiculous to class this object as a companion. It is a stuffed swordfish prop, no more a companion than the sonic screwdriver. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎ 16:20, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

I think the key difference is that Twelve actually called this swordfish a companion... which is actually more than he's said for his "proper" companions.

If he ever calls his screwdriver a companion, then it should be added as well.

Epsilon📯 📂

17:20, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

I disagree completely. An inanimate object should not be included with other actual living companions regardless of what the Doctor describes them as (not including objects that are shown to have sentience). It is to be noted that the Doctor is being humerous throughout when it comes to the stuffed prop, at one point he says "Sonny will watch my back", he's not being serious so we can't say that him calling the prop a companion is serious either. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎ 19:15, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

Be that as it may, T:NPOV states that you must "ignore your own opinions" — yes, while I personally agree that "Sonny" isn't really a companion, good and proper, we're faced with the fact that a valid source has called "Sonny" a companion; we shouldn't ignore such an explicit classification as this, even if the Doctor wasn't exactly being serious.

Epsilon📯 📂

22:50, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

It is clearly presented that the Doctor wasn't being serious and was winding Clara up. This site itself holds its own definition of a companion so while the Doctor stating that someone/something is in a companion it may not fit with the site's definition. No other inanimate object has been classed as a companion. DrWHOCorrieFan ☎ 22:54, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

I do feel compelled to remind you that while yes, we do "have our own definition of a companion", it's supposed to be a broader rather than narrower sort of definition. Not arbitrarily broad; but… on the broader side, to minimise the chances of "but does X really count" hair-splitting. Basically, if there are people who earnestly think of a given character as a companion, the philosophy is that we probably acknowledge them as such, though our companion templates are constructed to separate "single-adventure" or "occasional" companions from regulars.

That being said, it is not clear that this standard has been met. User:Epsilon the Eternal himself acknowledges that he doesn't really think of Sonny as a companion. If there is genuinely no one on this site who actually wants Sonny to be classified as a companion (rather than "thinking he ought to be as a point of principle"), I would see no harm in removing him from the template and category for the time being.

Another potential avenue would be to add a special row to the companion templates for imaginary and "joke" companions. Sonny isn't really a person, but if we're going to have a page about him insofar as it's Wiki-worthy that the Doctor once pretended (for a laugh) that he had a companion who was a living stuffed-swordfish named Sonny, then we may as well find him a spot on {{Companions of the Twelfth Doctor}}. Pete (Thin Ice) could go in the same row. Just a thought. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 23:14, 12 May 2022 (UTC)