History Main / WithAFriendAndAStranger

* ''KidsOnTheSlope.'' Similar to the ''Buffy'' example, Kaoru is the NewGuy and becomes becomes friends with childhood friends Sentaro and Ritsuko.

One of them is the friend and stranger dynamic. The protagonist will have a best friend, often a childhood friend. This dynamic is easy to show in the limited time you have to hook your audience, and easy to add depth to at a later time. The third character will be a stranger to the protagonist and his friend. His or her appearance will often serve to drive the plot, and his unfamiliarity with the characters and location allows for Exposition.

* The ''Advanced Generation'' and ''Diamond & Pearl'' arcs of the Pokémon anime can fit, with Ash being the main character, Brock being the friend, and May/Dawn the stranger.

* Inverted in ''{{Haven}}'', with Audrey as the protagonist and stranger and Duke and Nathan as childhood '''enemies''' who grew up together. Duke used to pick on Nathan because he was a "Troubled" child who couldn't feel pain, i.e. like say...Duke sticking a bunch of pushpins in his back for no reason. They hate to spend anytime near each other, but end up doing it a lot of the time after [[TwoGuysAndAGirl they both (separately) befriend the stranger, Audrey.]] Eventually, they start to rely on each other, if only to help out Audrey and the all the other Troubled people. By season two, they become a bit of a [[ComicTrio inverted functioning comic,]] [[FreudianTrio Freudian,]] [[FighterMageThief Fighter/Mage/Thief]] [[PowerTrio Power Trio]] as [[AntiMagic Magical Savior and Ego Audrey]] always comes up with the plans to help the troubled people that kinda make sense but ''shouldn't'' work, Nathan the logical Superego and FeelNoPain cop who is surprisingly willing trust Audrey and try the plans and Duke, the smugger Id who is always like - "''Seriously?'' There's no way in hell...oh, it worked!" Nathan and Duke often switch roles depending on their faith in the plan, but the dynamic between the three stays the same.

This adheres to the 3 dynamics in CastCalculus. They may form a PowerTrio.

* ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' has Simon and Kamina meet Yoko in the first episode.

* ''LupinIII'': Lupin and Jigen are long-time partners in crime. Fujiko is the mysterious stranger.

* In ''{{Tangled}}'', Rapunzel (main character) sets out on her adventure with the chameleon Pascal (friend) and Flynn Rider (stranger).

** The group grows and shrinks over the seasons, but these three remain the core. Creepy variant here is that Willow and Xander were actually already part of a TwoGuysAndAGirl group; Xander's best-friend-since-even-before-Willow, Jesse, gets turned into a vampire and staked in the premiere and ''is never mentioned again''.

* ''{{Angel}}'' also starts out like this. Angel moves to [[LosAngeles LA]] and joins up with [[RichBitch Cordelia,]] who he knew in [[BuffyTheVampireSlayer Sunnydale]] for the three previous years, and "stranger" Doyle.

* ''PowerRangersJungleFury'' has Casey (RookieRedRanger), Theo, and Lily (friends).

* ''{{Disgaea}}'' has our "hero" Laharl and his childhood friend... er, vassal, Etna. When they are joined by Flonne the main plot kicks off.

* A variation in ''[[MassEffect1 Mass Effect]]'', where Shepard and Kaidan had already been serving on the same ship for some time, run into Ashley very early in the game and bring her into the ''[[CoolShip Normandy]]''.

* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'', you are the "stranger" to Fiona, Tarenar and Gidwin in their caravan quest chain in the new version of the Eastern Plaguelands. This dynamic happens quite often when guild groups queue in the Random Dungeon Finder and the empty slots are filled by randomly selected individuals.
* In ''{{Xenogears}}'', Fei starts adventure with his mentor Citan and the mysterious mecha pilot, Elle. In a major subversion, Elle is [[ReincarnationRomance totally not a stranger to him]] and Citan is... [[BigBadFriend not exactly his friend]].

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' follows suit - new Avatar Korra quickly teams up with pro-bending siblings Mako and Bolin.

* HowIMetYourMother : The gang meets Robin in the pilot.

* In DragonAgeII, your first party members upon reaching Kirkwall are your siblings and Aveline, the latter of whom you met while fleeing Lothering.
* In WorldOfWarcraft, you are the "stranger" to Fiona, Tarenar and Gidwin in their caravan quest chain in the new version of the Eastern Plaguelands. This dynamic happens quite often when guild groups queue in the Random Dungeon Finder and the empty slots are filled by randomly selected individuals.

* PushingDaisies has Ned (main character), Chuck (childhood crush/neighbor), and Emerson (PI).

* WhatILikeAboutYou: Holly (main character), Gary (the friend), and Tina (the stranger).

* ''GoldenSun: The Lost Age'' has Felix, the hero; Jenna, his sister; and Sheba, the girl from nowhere. ([[MysteriousWaif Literally.]])

* ''ChronoTrigger'' has hero Crono, his childhood friend Lucca, and stranger Marle.

* ''{{Wild ARMs 5}}'' has Dean and his friend Rebecca meet MysteriousWaif Avril.
* ''FinalFantasyVII'' has this dynamic twice in your earliest parties. Childhood friends Cloud and Tifa are joined by stranger Barret and, later, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Aeris(th)]].
* ''FinalFantasyX'' has a variation where the hero is the stranger, with Yuna, Waka, and Lulu filling in for the friends.

* DoctorWho (counting backwords):

** Aang is the ''titular'' character, but Katara just barely edges out the rest of the {{nakama}} for the protagonist slot for at least the first season. (By season two we have a split storyline with Zuko as beta protagonist and Aang steps into his 'lead' shoes a little more, as do the others. Katara still leads the pack, though, as original viewpoint character.)

See also TwoGuysAndAGirl, TomboyAndGirlyGirl. Compare to ThreeAmigos.

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': The main trio for Book 1 consists of Aang (stranger) alongside Katara and Sokka (sister and brother). As with Buffy, the stranger is the main character, though we're introduced to the siblings a few minutes before him.