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A character who never goes anywhere without his Hand Puppet pal or his Companion Cube, Imaginary Friend or pet. Not only does the puppet keep him company, but he also gives good advice, which his owner trusts, perhaps to the point that he never seems to make a decision of his own.
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At least, this is what he tells everybody. Nobody else has ever heard the puppet speak, and his friends will be inclined to think that it's all in his head. Especially if the puppet's opinion always seems to boil down to, "We should do what I want but I'm not confident enough to recommend on my authority."
It's remarkable how often the puppet will be called Mr. Something. The puppet may have urges or ideas that the character denies having themselves. This way they can literally keep the urges at arm's length, even if they act on them.
Comic Books Black Panther: The villain Achebe and his hand puppet Daki.
DC Comics has the Batman villain "team" The Ventriloquist and Scarface, and a small handful of backup puppets in case Scarface goes missing. Sadly, the secondary puppets don't really get along... Some stories suggest that Scarface may actually be real, but in general it's accepted that it's just part of The Ventriloquist's deranged mind. However, his hired mooks seem legitimately confused, some earnestly believing that Scarface is real, some knowing that Ventriloquist is the real brains and wondering why he keeps that stupid puppet around, etc. Though if anyone speaks directly to The Ventriloquist when addressing "Scarface" they risk getting shot.
The second and third Ventriloquists carry on this tradition, leaving it ambiguous whether or not their puppets are "real". The third one in particular is a complicated example, seeing as she has telekinetic powers.
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac talks to his neighbor Squee's stuffed bear:What's that, Shmee? Mm-hmm. Yeeess. Hmm? Yeah. Really. Well, okay. What? What?! Well fuck you, Mr. Bear!!! You speak Lies!!! LIIIEEEEEESSSS!!!!! Stuffed with pure venom, you vile, lint-infested bastard! How many more like you are there, huh?! How many more!!!! You can't imagine the things I've endured at the hands of shit like you! You don't know the truth!!!! Stabs Shmee repeatedly.
Video Games BlazBlue: Carl Clover does this with Nirava/Ada, his puppet. Justified in that she is actually his sister, and he can actually hear her voice. His glasses allow him to talk to other things, too. Like mailboxes.
Edna & Harvey: The Breakout: Edna tries to break out of a psychiatric clinic - her main help and advisor is her best friend Harvey, a blue rag doll rabbit.
Fallout: New Vegas: Davison, one of the Nightkin will regularly ask Antler, a brahmin skull, for advice. Humorously Davison states that since finding it "everything's been going pretty well", which is actually true: Davison just wants to kill the Courier immediately while it's Antler's idea to ask them for help, which is the only way the quest can be completed without his entire nightkin troop dying. Shows up in the tie-in Penny Arcade story for Fallout 3, "One Man and a Crate of Puppets": the story of an unfortunate individual who is assigned to a vault...alone. Except for a crate of puppets. Trope ensures, culminating in the legendary figure feared by raiders everywhere known only as "the Puppet Man".
League of Legends: Jinx and her rocket launcher, Fishbones. Interestingly, she makes his "personality" completely meek as a counterpoint to hers.Jinx: Maybe we should settle down and live peaceful lives.Jinx (as Fishbones): Really? I always hoped one day you'd-Jinx: Haha, nope! You're a death machine for life!
Doug Rattmann from Portal hallucinates his Companion Cube talking to him, and follows its advice. Oddly enough, it works, with him failing to navigate a turret-chamber only when he takes his medication and the Cube stops talking.
Subverted in Psychonauts with Sheegor, who follows the trope to the letter with her pet turtle Mr. Pokeylope until Mr. Pokeylope breaks out into deep, flowing dialogue. Even Raz is surprised.
''Raft: Bruno, the groundskeeper at Balboa Island, appears to have gone a bit loopy after his sister vanished and the replacement staff failed to show. There are multiple named dolls placed over the island, as well as several cryptic notes seemingly written by them and by him, making it clear that he genuinely thought they were talking (and in Miranda's case, screaming) to him. He eventually left the island with two of the dolls (Henry and Miranda) and went to Varuna Point and Temperance. When he met actual real people at Temperance, he seems to have gotten saner, as the notes you find states that "Henry isn't saying anything anymore". He ended up leaving the last doll behind when he left with his new friends.
Wentos the Traveling Salesman from Sonic Unleashed has a Chao puppet that encourages him to talk to people and overcome his shyness, as well as giving him advice on how to interact with others.
A minor example: Moose from Tales of Monkey Island will vote whichever way Santino votes when making decisions as part of the Democratically United Brotherhood of the Manatee Interior. (Just... don't ask.) Santino is a skeleton and has apparently been dead for some time.
Team Fortress 2: The Heavy apparently think Sandvich is sentient ("What was that, Sandvich? 'Kill them all'? Good idea! Hahaha!"); furthermore, Fanon posits that the Soldier takes advice from his Shovel. The Soldier takes advice from a lot of things. He needs multiple viewpoints for a balanced assessment. (In other words, this was made canon.)
There are several cosmetic items that can be used for this trope, such as a teddy bear for the engineer. In Halloween 2013 the Scout and (surprise surprise) the Soldier got in on it as well, making friends with a ghost hat and a latex maggot prop respectively.
The Sims 2: Some Aspirations will do this when their Aspiration meter is red, Family sims will cradle a floursack baby, Knowledge sims will talk to a volleyball wearing a motorboard (Professor Von Ball), Romance sims will dance with a mop, etc.
In Phantasy Star Online 2 Klariskrays III acts this way towards her weapon, Clarissa the Ashen, as it constantly talks to her and tells her what to do. What she didn't know was that Manipulative Bastard Luther is actually speaking to her and when she has a meltdown during The Reveal in EPISODE TWO is when he stops talking.
In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, while exploring a giant-ruled island in the Skellige Isles, Geralt stumbles upon a shipwrecked mariner squatted in the remains of a ruined ship and talking to the skulls of his fallen crewmates.
Webcomics C'est la Vie: The relationship between Mona and her childhood stuffed rabbit doll, Monsieur Smokey. Mona also used to talk to a potted plant called Carl.
Dragon Tails has Bluey and his companion the bunny-dragon.Bunny-Dragon: This robot's an idiot. I think you should tell him he means delusion, not hallucination. Bluey: You're an idiot, Barry! You mean delusion, not hallucination!
The Order of the Stick: Cloudcuckoolander Elan worships Banjo, his own hand puppet, as his god. Despite it just being an ordinary puppet that Elan made, the nature of the D&D-based world means his worship turned it into a real god (though a very weak one, since it only has one worshiper).
Lord Shojo defers to his cat, Mr. Scruffy. Which is all really just Obfuscating Insanity on his part. Later, Belkar treats Mr. Scruffy somewhat the same way, though to a much lesser extent, considering the cat his partner in crime.
Paradox Space: In "Summerteen Romance", Bro doesn't just treat his hand puppet Big Cal like a living person, but acts like Big Cal is his boss, takes orders from him on the regular, and lets himself be browbeaten and intimidated by him. The campers are profoundly unsettled by this.Bro: this here's Big Cal. he's my right hand bro, haha. Big Cal: BULLSHIT. I'M THE REAL ONE IN CHARGE HERE. YOU WORK FOR ME. Bro: haha, you scamp. Bro: no but seriously he does own a controlling interest in this camp. Sollux: We're going to be murdered in our thleep.
Schlock Mercenary had a palace gardener who tried to "commune with the soil". Schlock who was sent to help him didn't like his attitude, so he "talked" with the soil in question... and then with his shovel.
When Rimmer became infected with Dr. Hildegard Lanstrom's holo-virus, he lost his grip on sanity and began manifesting bizarre powers, such as hex vision. Rimmer's insanity was manifested by a new fashion sense, a red and white checked gingham dress, matching bonnet, pigtails, army boots and a "friend", Mr. Flibble. Rimmer appeared to have conversations with Mr. Flibble and was able to manifest his hex vision powers through the puppet. ("Quarantine")
Mr. Flibble is the main antagonist from the Red Dwarf episode Quarantine. He is an evil, psychopathic penguin hand puppet created by Arnold Rimmer who also provided the puppet's voice with a Liverpool accent.
When Rimmer gets infected with the holo-virus from Hildegard Lanstrom, he becomes completely insane and gets some new powers, such as producing electrical bolts from his eyes. Except wearing a red and white checked gingham dress and pigtails, Rimmer holds a penguin hand puppet, Mr. Flibble. Rimmer communicates with the puppet and even manifest his hex vision powers through his small friend. According to their conversations, Mr. Flibble seems to be a homicidal maniac with a very warped sense of humor. His only desire is to fry Lister, the Cat and Kryten alive. He also has more sick ideas how to kill them, but Rimmer denies them, because "who would clear up the mess?" Mr. Flibble is eventually defeated along with Rimmer when the crew manages to purge the holo-virus from his body. 041b061a72