History Main / WithAFriendAndAStranger

* In ''Anime/LoveLiveSunshine'', the first three members of the idol group Aqours are set up in this manner. Chika is the protagonist, You is her childhood friend, and Riko is the stranger, being a classmate the other two only just met at the start of the series. The [[Manga/LoveLiveSunshine manga continuity]] also uses this trope, albeit with [[CoolBigSis Kanan]] taking You's place as the childhood friend.

* In ''Anime/LoveLiveSunshine'', the first three members of the idol group Aqours are set up in this manner. Chika is the protagonist, You is her childhood friend, and Riko is the stranger, being a classmate the other two only just met at the start of the series.

* In ''VideoGame/{{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 may be less a friend than he appears.
* The first non-prologue arc of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' is this, with Shulk joined by his best friend Reyn and a new medic they just met, Sharla

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessessOfPower'': While the Princess Alliance has a substantial cast list, the [[PowerTrio core group of three]] that are the Best Friend Squad consist of Adora (stranger), Glimmer and Bow (childhood friends).

* ''Characters/LupinIII'': Although the ChildhoodFriend aspect is usually overlooked, this trope is apparent in the way Lupin and Jigen are trusted allies, and Fujiko is the mysterious stranger, disrupting their camaraderie. Yes, this has fueled some HoYay.
* In ''Anime/MyHeroAcademia'', Mirio Togata and Tamaki Amajiki, two of the three members of the "Big Three" trio of U.A. third-years, are {{Childhood Friend}}s. Nejire Hado, the female member of the trio, is the stranger, as someone they met at the school, which is partly why the boys are on a FirstNameBasis with each other, but a LastNameBasis with her.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': The ''Orange Islands'', ''Advanced Generation'', and ''Diamond & Pearl'' arcs of this anime can fit. In the first, Ash is the main character, Misty is the friend, and Tracey is the stranger, while in the latter two, Brock takes Misty's place and the stranger positions are taken by May and Dawn, respectively.

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

* ''Film/EaglesGathered'' is the story of Silver trying to rescue her friend and lover Gold from the underworld. She's joined on the way by Bob the (maybe) angel.

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** The slightly 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''. Buffy replaces him, except that she's Willow's best friend instead of Xander's, and their lives now revolve around her world-saving gig. It's kind of like a less-extreme version of that season spell Jonathon did.

* ''Series/iCarly'' downplays this a bit. Carly and Sam had been friends long before the show began. And while they both knew who Freddie was, he didn’t become part of their friend group until the events of the episode.

* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}},'' we have ''two'' friends and two strangers: [[TheHero Ichigo]] meets the strange Shinigami [[MysteriousWaif Rukia]] on the first episode. Then we have the other two protagonists, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Orihime]] and [[GentleGiant Chad,]] who he has known for a longer amount of time, and then there's also a second stranger who gets introduced a couple of episodes later, [[AnnoyingArrows Ishida.]]

* In ''Anime/{{Jewelpet 2009}}'', the protagonist Rinko is accompanied by Minami (childhood friend from before the show) and Aoi (stranger; her classmate who she befriends in episode 3) in her mission to collect the lost Jewelpets.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' is joined by Hei-Hei the chicken (friend, kind of) and Maui (stranger). Inverted in that Moana's pet pig Pua, who was heavily advertised as Moana's NonHumanSidekick and whom viewers expected to fill the role of friend, is absent from most of the film and instead Hei-Hei serves the role of PluckyComicRelief.

* In ''Film/NationalTreasure'', Ben tries to figure out the clues with his buddy Riley, and when they steal the Declaration of Independence, Abagail, a woman who worked with the document, gets dragged along for the ride.

* In ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime'', Meg's companions on her journey are her baby brother, Charles Wallace (age six, but acting much older than his age) and "stranger" Calvin O'Keefe, the popular boy at school that she assumes is just a JerkJock until she gets to know him. The next book, ''Literature/AWindInTheDoor'' has Charles Wallace more as a DistressedDude, and now Calvin is the friend, and the singular cherubim Proginoskes is the stranger, assigned to be Meg's partner.

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

* Inverted in ''Series/{{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 almost always like - "''Seriously?'' There's no way in hell...oh, it worked!" Nathan and Duke occasionally switch roles depending on their faith in the plan, but the Freudian dynamic between the three stays the same.

* ''Series/iCarly'' downplays this a bit. Carly and Sam had been friends long before the show began. And while both knew who Freddie was, he didn’t become part of their friend group until the events of the episode.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'' has Milo, his close friend Melissa, and new student Zack; who's new to Milo's condition, as the main characters.

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* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Jen (stranger) is new in town in the first episode, catching the attention of Dawson (main) and driving a wedge between him and Joey (friend), who has had a long-standing crush on him.

* In ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'' protagonist Taiki is sucked into the Digital World with childhood friend Akari, and Zenjiro, who [[UnknownRival insists the two are rivals]] despite Taiki not knowing who he is.

** The slightly 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''. Buffy replaces him, except that she's Willow's best friend instead of Xander's, and their lives now revolve around her world-saving gig. It's kind of like a less-extreme version of that season four MarySue spell Jonathon did.

* In the first episode of ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'', Miho meets Saori and Hana, who are already friends. In ''Little Army'', she meets Hitomi and Chihiro early on.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' is joined by Hei-Hei the chicken (friend, kind of) and Maui (stranger). Inverted in that Moana's pet pig Pua, who was heavily advertised as Moana's NonHumanSidekick and would presumably fill the role of friend, is absent from most of the film and instead Hei-Hei serves the role of PluckyComicRelief.

* ''Film/TheColorOfMoney'' has an example of the variation where the protagonist (Eddie Felton) is the Stranger who meets the established Friends (Vincent Lauria and his girlfriend Carmen).

* In ''Film/TheKingsOfSummer'', Joe and his best friend Patrick won't tell Biaggio to leave, fearing what he is capable of.

* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' teams Steve Rogers with his established friend Natasha Romanoff, and introduces the stranger Sam Wilson. Paradoxically, Natasha the hardened spy is the one Steve has trust issues with, whereas he almost instantly bonds with Sam the fellow war veteran.

* Creator/JudyBlume's ''Literature/JustAsLongAsWereTogether''. Stephanie's relationship with her best friend, Rachel, starts getting complicated right after she makes friends with Alison.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': For the military command staff of the station, the first season presents Sinclair and Garibaldi as old friends from Mars, with Ivanova as the (relative) stranger. When Sinclair [[PutOnABus was reassigned]], he was replaced with Sheridan, who was previously stationed on Io with Ivanova but was entirely new to Garibaldi (and later, it is revealed that he worked with Sinclair on Mars as well. [[OneDegreeOfSeparation The military can be like that]].)

** The slightly 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''. Buffy replaces him, except she's Willow's best friend instead of Xander's, and their lives now revolve around her world-saving gig. It's kind of like a less-extreme version of that season four MarySue spell Jonathon did.

* Inverted in ''Series/{{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 almost always like - "''Seriously?'' There's no way in hell...oh, it worked!" Nathan and Duke occasionally switch roles depending on their faith in the plan, but the Freudian dynamic between the three stays the same.

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

** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' has this at Ostagar for the Human Noble Warden, who is fighting alongside their dog (friend) and Alistair (stranger). All the origins have it after the prologue, when the party consists of the Warden, Alistair (now friend) and Morrigan (stranger).

** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' does it twice. First, during the prologue, after the death of one of Hawke's siblings, Hawke fights alongside the surviving twin and new acquaintance Aveline. Later in Kirkwall, once they meet Varric, the entire party consists of him, Hawke, and the sibling (until they go to get Aveline from her job).
** The advisors of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' are also this trope. Leliana and Josephine have been friends for years, while Cullen is a newcomer.[[note]]He and Leliana may have met during ''Origins'', briefly, but it was under traumatic circumstances and he might not recall it.[[/note]]

* The third ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'' game has Matt as TheHero, Natalie as the friend who he's been with for the previous two games and Lance as the stranger who joined at the end of the previous game and tends to be a bother to the aforementioned friend.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'''s main story, if you play Hector's path. Eliwood is the childhood friend, while Lyn is the stranger he's only heard of through word of mouth.

* ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' starts with Lilac and Carol, two best friends who knew each other for almost entirety of a lifetime. They are soon joined by two strangers: Torque, an alien who crashlanded on their planet while going after [[GalacticConqueror Lord Brevon]], and Milla, an orphaned puppy who, after rescuing Carol from a collapsing cave, befriended the duo, who decided to take her under their wing.
* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun1'' starts with all three being friends (Isaac, Garret and Jenna) until Jenna gets kidnapped. Soon after, Ivan shows up and later joined by Mia, both strangers.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'': Mowgli is the protagonist, Bagheer is the friend, and Baloo is the stranger.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' has Felix, the hero; Jenna, his sister; and Sheba, the girl from nowhere. ([[MysteriousWaif Literally]].)
* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' features the children of the previous games: Matt, Tyrell and Karis (sons of Isaac and Garret and daughter of Ivan respectively), who are then joined by Rief (Mia's son). Later still the party is join by Eoleo (son of Briggs, a pirate met in TLA) and Himi (daughter of the Yakumo princess saved in TLA), with the other two complete strangers being Sveta and Amiti (who turns out to be [[spoiler:BigBad Alex's son]]).

* In the ''Anime/MaiOtome'' anime, Arika is the stranger as a new student at Garderobe and Nina and Erstin are the friends. In the manga, "Manshiro" is the stranger, and Arika, Nina and Erstin are the friends.

* ''VideoGame/TheCluefinders'' ''3rd Grade'' has Joni and Santiago as the friends and [=LapTrap=] as the stranger.

See also TwoGuysAndAGirl, TomboyAndGirlyGirl. Compare to ThreeAmigos and TokenHouseguest. If the protagonist is the stranger, he's probably also a RookieRedRanger.
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** ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoQogaKnellOfArCiel'' even more blatant with Aoto, Tatsumi and Saki.

** The first-draft new recruits to the Wardens in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'' fall into this, as Anders is a stranger and Oghren is a returning character from ''Origins''.

** Two of the advisors of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' are this with the others - Leliana and Josephine have been friends for years, while Cullen is a newcomer.[[note]]He and Leliana may have met during ''Origins'', briefly, but it was under traumatic circumstances and he might not recall it.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/MasterOfTheMonsterLair'' starts the game with Owen, who starts adventuring with a magic talking shovel and soon meets an intelligent slime named Gloop. After completing the second floor of the dungeon he's joined by his childhood friend, Kate.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tales of Eternia}}'' has the protagonist Reid and his childhood friend Farah leave their village after Meredy, a strange acting and different looking girl that speaks an entirely different language, crashes into their lives.

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