Line #91 Main/TokenTrio


1	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/danny_phantom.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: White female, white male, black male.]]
3
4	The PowerTrio's answer to the FiveTokenBand. It usually includes:
5
6	* a white male
7	* a [[TokenBlackFriend black male]], or other visible minority, or in some cases a male of another species
8	* a white female (rarely a [[TwoferTokenMinority female of yet another minority]])
9
10	The end result manages to combine TokenMinority and TheSmurfettePrinciple: the Token Trio. Implicit in most cases is that the white male is the ''de facto'' [[WhiteMaleLead head]] of the PowerTrio--at the least, he'll play a more prominent visual or verbal role in the commercial. Only on rare occasions will the girl be recognizably a third race, such as Asian.
11
12	This trope is common in kids' advertising. If you want to sell a product like, say, [[Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets]] to kids, you put kids in the commercials. That's basic [[{{demographics}} demographic]] appeal. But you can't cast just ''any'' kids-- you want [[RuleOfThree three]], all implied to be friends, and for a mix of reasons-- political correctness, as well as representing the largest target demographics in the Western world with a minimum of actual effort.
13
14	Even outside of advertising, this is an incredibly frequent attribute of the PowerTrio, where the white guy's status as TheHero is essentially [[WhiteMaleLead guaranteed]]. Larger variety is FiveTokenBand.
15
16	The Creator/ScottWesterfeld novel ''Literature/SoYesterday'' termed this phenomenon the [[http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/?p=380 'Missing Black Woman Formation,']] or MBWF.
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18	[[noreallife]]
19	----
20	!!Examples:
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22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Advertising]]
25	* Pick any kids' food commercial from North America, particularly Lunchables. However, breakfast foods are the real offenders here.
26	* Older Uniroyal tire commercials has three racers, a woman named "Uni" and two men named "Roy" and "Al."
27	* The Three Musketeers, named after the chocolate, were respectively white, black and AmbiguouslyBrown
28	* There's an advertisement for a particular doll out there that comes in three versions. They are, shot for shot, identical; the only difference is that the child and the doll the child is playing with are, respectively, white, black, and light-skinned Hispanic.
29	* In his book ''From Those Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Pearl Harbor'' Jerry Della Femina describes an ad that has three people on a triple bike - a white man, a white woman and a black woman. Their question was, where to put the black woman? Last seemed racist. First seemed a bit obvious. In the middle just looked weird, like a sandwich.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Anime]]
33	* The anime ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' has the incredibly stereotypically named humans Bradley "Rad" White, Carlos Lopez, and Alexis. No points for guessing who fits which demographic.
34	* ''Anime/TheBushBaby'': Jackie (white and female), Mickey (white and male) and Tembo (black and male).
35	* ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' uses a Japanese variant, Takato is the Japanese boy leader, Ruki/Rika is the Japanese token girl, and Jenrya/Henry is the half-Chinese token minority.
36	* ''Anime/JeanieWithTheLightBrownHair'': The main character is a white girl (Jeanie) and her best friends are a white boy (Stephen) and a black boy (Bill).
37	* ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'': Esteban, Zia and Tao. Of the two boys, Esteban is white, while Tao is AmbiguouslyBrown. Zia is an Inca, making her a minority female, though her skin tone is lighter than that of the other Incas in the series.
38	* The HumongousMecha show ''Anime/MetalArmorDragonar'' gives Japanese protagonist Kain Wakaba a pair of wingmen, one black, one white whose mechs has paintjobs to match.
39	* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite'''s party stays true to the trope-- Ash fills the male TokenMinority slot (visiting Unova from his hometown in Kanto), Iris is AmbiguouslyBrown and Cilan rounds the trio out. Conversely, the group dynamic part of the trope is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], since Ash is the hero/leader.
40	* ''Anime/SonicX'' has Chris Thorndyke, a white male from Station Square (itself based on a multitude of cites in the United States), whose friend group initially starts out with Danny and Frances, a black male and white female respectively. In later episodes, they're joined by a second white girl, the wheelchair-bound Helen, making them a GenderEqualEnsemble.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Comic Books]]
44	* ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' sometimes grouped Archie, Chuck and Betty this way in the 1970s.
45	* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' has Jesse, Tulip and the Irish vampire Cassidy.
46	* ''ComicBook/{{Robin\|1993}}'': Tim's high school friends when Tim's not hanging out with them, which is usually since he's rather busy saving people as an extracurricular, are generally grouped as Ives (white male), Callie (white female), and Hudson (Latino male). Originally Ives spent more time with Kevin Hud''man'' (black male) than Hud''son'' but later writers and artists merged the two into one character.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
50	* ''Film/AFarOffPlace'': The three young protagonists are two white kids (a boy and a girl) and their Kalahari bushman friend.
51	* The main trio of the movie ''Film/{{Stealth}}'' includes a white guy, a black guy and a white girl. Before the movie is half over, [[BlackDudeDiesFirst the black guy dies]], and the white girl ejects over enemy territory, leaving the white guy to [[DamselInDistress heroically rescue her]].
52	* The three stars of ''Film/{{Clockstoppers}}''. White teen star with the AppliedPhlebotinum, token TokenBlackFriend, white LoveInterest... [[StrictlyFormula completely by the book]], really.
53	* The three main protagonists in ''Film/TheMatrix'': Neo (white [[TheChosenOne messiah guy]]), Morpheus (black mentor guy), and Trinity (white love interest). Interestingly, the Wachowskis originally envisioned Creator/ValKilmer in the role of Morpheus, and Creator/WillSmith in the role of Neo.
54	%%* Film/BloodDiamond.
55	* ''Film/HomeAloneTheHolidayHeist'': Sinclair's group of burglars is made up of a white man, a white woman, and an African-American man.
56	* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' has a variation with a French woman and an Asian man along with the white man. There are other characters but these three are the main ones.
57	* ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' has Sam (white guy), Laura (white girl love interest) and Brian (black guy). Though they get joined by another white guy (a downplayed RomanticFalseLead).
58	* In ''Film/DrNo'', Film/JamesBond, Honey Ryder and Quarrel.
59	* An interesting, non-racial variation exists in ''Film/KissKissBangBang'': the trio contains Harry (white guy), Harmony (white girl), and Perry (''gay'' guy).
60	* ''{{Film/Rainbow}}'' gives us the trio of Mike, who is white. His best friend Peter is Asian (with a black mother too). And they have a girl Tissy who is also a nerd.
61	* The [[FilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] of Creator/RickRiordan's ''Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', which includes WhiteMaleLead Percy, white female Annabeth, and Grover the satyr, who is [[RaceLift black in the movie]].
62	* The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse
63	** In the ''Film/IronMan'' films, the three most prominent characters are Tony (white male), Pepper (white female), and Rhodey (black male).
64	** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', the leads are Captain America (white male), Falcon (black male), and Black Widow (white female).
65	* ''Franchise/StarWars: Episode VII -- Film/TheForceAwakens'' has Rey (white female), Finn (black male), and Poe Dameron (Hispanic male).
66	* ''Film/MeAndEarlAndTheDyingGirl'' has white male lead Greg, black best friend Earl and white female Rachel.
67	* The elevated figures of 2688 credited as The Three Most Important People in the World in ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure''.
68	* ''Film/SongOfTheSouth'': The white male protagonist Johnny befriends Ginny (white female), and Toby (black male).
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Literature]]
72	* Creator/RickRiordan's ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' series:
73	** Jason as the quest leader, Piper as the Native-American love interest and Leo as the Latino Best Friend.
74	** Also in "The Son of Neptune" with Percy (white), Frank (Asian), and Hazel (black).
75	* Discussed in Scott Westerfeld's ''Literature/SoYesterday'', where Jen goes to an advertisement screening and comments on what she called the "Missing Black Woman Formation" in the shoe commercial.
76	* ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'' has Will being the lead "white guy", Tessa being the lead "white girl", and Jem being the lead [[{{ButNotTooForeign}} "ethnic guy"]], although he's half-British.
77	* Alexander Key's ''Literature/FlightToTheLonesomePlace'' has Ronnie Cleveland, a white boy, Luis Black, a black boy (described as very dark-skinned), and Anna Maria Rosalita, who is Irish/Hispanic. Takes place mostly in Puerto Rico, where both latter characters were born and lived for a lot of their lives. It doesn't feel token.
78	* ''Literature/MoreThanThis'' has Seth the white male protagonist, Tomasz the Polish boy, and Regine the black girl.
79	* ''Literature/AlongTheWindingRoad'' has Dalton the white male, Arthur the Asian male, and Charlotte the white female. [[InvertedTrope Played with]] in that the white female is the protagonist and the Asian male the love interest.
80	* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Lumbee forms one along with Bazil and Relkin when they liberate Ardu slaves together. When Relkin gets abducted himself, she becomes a part of another trio with Bazil and Norwul, leading their campaign against Mirchaz. She's a woman of foreign (Ardu) ehtnicity, Bazil's a dragon male, Relkin a boy from the Argonath, whose people are the main focus.
81	* ''Literature/TheShadowProject'': Danny, Opal and Michael, the main trio, are a Caucasian boy and girl from England and a black boy from Mali.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
85	* Perhaps the prototypical Token Trio was TV's ''Series/TheModSquad'', first aired in 1968. The titular cops are famously billed as "one white, one black, one blonde."
86	* ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' would be an example (Ned, Cookie, and Moze fit the demographic sampling perfectly), except they are the main characters and genuinely fleshed out (i.e. not at all Token).
87	* ''Series/VRTroopers'' features a Token Trio as its main protagonists. (Through no fault of the actors involved: Brad Hawkins {white guy} and Sarah Brown {the white girl} have both gone on to bigger and better things, though Michael Bacon {black guy} seems to have vanished)
88	* Also present in ''Series/BigBadBeetleborgs'', yet ''another'' contemporary ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' clone.
89	* Even the actual ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' did this when it lacked a FiveManBand.
90	** Seasons [[Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm 11]], [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder 12]], [[Series/PowerRangersJungleFury 16]] and [[Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers 26]] started with these setups (before the arrival of any {{Sixth Ranger}}s), while 11, [[Series/PowerRangersRPM 17]] and 26 mixed it up just slightly by having the minority male be the leader.
91	** ''Ninja Storm'': Samoan guy, white girl, white guy. Then they added another white guy and a Latino guy, and finished it up with an Asian guy.
92	** ''Dino Thunder'': White guy, white girl, black guy. Then they added a Native American guy and finished it up with a Latino guy.
93	** ''Jungle Fury'': White guy, white girl, Asian guy. Then two more white guys.
94	** ''RPM'': Black guy (leader), white guy, white girl. Then two more white guys and finished up with an Asian guy and girl.
95	** ''Beast Morphers'': Black guy (leader), Indian guy, white girl. Then they add a Latino guy and finish it up with an android (who in the finale is transformed into a white guy).
96	* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', back when Clark, Chloe and [[TokenBlackFriend Pete]] were friends. Pete even undergones a RaceLift for the series!
97	* Sort of a gender reversed version in ''Series/LizzieMcguire'': White Girl (leader), Mexican Girl, White/Jewish guy.
98	* Another gender flip ''and'' racial inversion with ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'' with a black girl (leader), black guy and white girl.
99	* The three main kids in ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'' are Joe (main guy), Sam (Samantha), and David.
100	* The original three ducklings on ''Series/{{House}}'': White Girl (Cameron), Black Guy (Foreman) and White Foreign Guy (Chase). Later we also get the White Bisexual Girl (Thirteen), White Jewish Guy (Taub) and Adopted Indian Guy (Kutner).
101	* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' has Luke (the white guy), Maria (the white girl) and Clyde (the black guy). When Maria leaves, we get Rani Chandra (the Indian girl).
102	* Inverted example in ''Series/TheFamousJettJackson'', where the leader of the trio is a black male, with white male and mixed race female sidekicks.
103	* Lampshaded by the Master in the third season of ''Series/DoctorWho''. You have the Doctor (white male), Martha [[TwoferTokenMinority (black female)]], and Jack (bisexual male).
104	* Played with on the {{Creator/Nickelodeon}} series ''Series/SupahNinjas'', which features an Asian male lead, TokenBlackFriend sidekick, and white female LoveInterest.
105	* The original judge trio on ''Series/AmericanIdol'': Simon (white male), Paula (Jewish female), and Randy (black male). The season 10-11 trio also fits the demographics, keeping Randy and adding in Steven (white male) and Jennifer (Latina), though the dynamic isn't quite there since Randy is the senior member of the panel. The season 12 ''quartet'' actually fits better with Randy joined by white guy Keith and a pair of AmbiguouslyBrown females in Nicki and Mariah.
106	* ''Series/{{Galavant}}'' has eponymous hero Galavant (white guy), Sid (black kid), and Princess Isabella (ambiguously brown girl).
107	* Original Team ''{{Series/Arrow}}'' consisted of Oliver Queen (white guy), John Diggle (black guy), and Felicity Smoak (Jewish white girl).
108	* ''Series/HankZipzer'' has Hank (white male) and his two best friends: Ashley (Asian female) and Frankie (black male).
109	* ''Series/{{Hardball}}'' centres around Mikey (Maori male) and his two best friends/coaches: Jerry (a disabled white male) and Salwa (a Middle Eastern female).
110	* ''Series/{{Psych}}:'' [[OneShotCharacter The judges of ''American Duos'']] are a Caucasian man, a Caucasian woman, and a Hispanic man, with Gus even commenting about the tokenism of the arrangement. The Caucasian male member of the group is the undisputed leader and frequently ignores or interrupts the other two when they try to disagree with his judgments.
111	* ''Series/SexEducation'''s three protagonists: Otis (WhiteMaleLead), Eric (black/gay best friend), and Maeve (white girl).
112	* ''Series/{{Glee}}''
113	** At at the beginning of the show, The Unholy Trinity is composed of Quinn (white female), Brittany (white female), and Santana (latina). Then Brittany and Santana come out as bisexual and lesbian respectively, qualifying them for this trope.
114	** "Blamtina", to an extent. Sam is a straight white male, Tina is a straight South Korean woman, and Blaine is a gay man (played by a mixed Asian actor, though that part isn't mentioned on the show).
115	[[/folder]]
116
117	[[folder:Music]]
118	* Massive Attack's three members, all male, came from different ethnic backgrounds. Inapplicable since Andrew Vowles left, however.
119	* The [[IronicName Thompson Twins]] - from 1982 to 1986, anyway. Tom Bailey the white redhead guy, Alannah Currie the blonde chick, and Joe Leeway the dreadlocked black man.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
123	* Gender flipped with Wrestling/LayCool and Kaval (Lay-Kav-Ool) since there's Michelle (white girl), Layla (mixed race) and Kaval (half-Hispanic half-white guy).
124	* At the start of 2010 there was the random team of Matt Hardy (white guy), Maria Kanellis (white girl) and the Great Khali (Indian) for a few weeks.
125	* The APA has Bradshaw (white guy), Farooq (black guy) and sometimes Jacqueline (black woman).
126	* The Dudley Boyz (white guy and black guy) added Stacy Keibler (white girl) to their stable from 2001-2002
127	* MNM has a variation with two white guys and a Hispanic woman
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Theatre]]
131	* The three human characters in ''Theatre/AvenueQ'' are Brian (white Jewish male), Gary Coleman (black male), and Christmas Eve (Asian female).
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:Video Games]]
135	* ''VideoGame/DeceiveInc'' features Chavez (Black male), Squire (white male) and Ace (female) as its cover stars, as well as your three default starting agents.
136	* The first ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' video game has Adam (black), Axel (white), and Blaze (white female) as your choices of player character.
137	* ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe'' doesn't have the stereotypical black guy. Instead, the fantasy setting used an axe-wielding dwarf.
138	* ''VideoGame/AlienStorm'' has Gordon (male), Karla (female) and Scooter (robot).
139	* The poster party in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' games tends to be male Shepard, female human party member, and male alien party member. The first game has Shepard, Ashley and Garrus filling those roles, while the second has Shepard, Miranda and Thane. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' also directly invoke this trope in-game, as your starting parties consists of a white female and a black male, with the assumption that your hero would be a white male. However, this can be averted since your character is fully customizable, possibly leaving the white girl as the TokenWhite and/or the black guy as TheOneGuy, at least until other party members are discovered.
140	* ''VideoGame/UndercoverCops'' has Zan (Japanese man), Rosa (white woman), and Matt (white guy).
141	* Mix with TerribleTrio and you have the three F-Con executives in ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'': [[ScaryBlackMan Seth Crown]], [[BollywoodNerd Esomond Baza]], and [[FrenchJerk Eva Popoff]].
142	* The ''[[VideoGame/{{Pico}} Pico's School]]'' games have the white boy Pico alongside Asian girl Nene and black boy Darnell.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Webcomics]]
146	* In ''Webcomic/TheFourth'', we have Derk as the white male, Lorelei as the white female, and Lord Skärva as the male minority: in his case, of shark-man descent.
147	* In ''WebComic/AutumnBay'', we have Stephen (mixed race male), Adam (white, male, and gay), and Callie (white female).
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Web Original]]
151	* Not intentionally evoked, but the hosting crew of video game music podcast ''Podcast/NitroGameInjection'' has a white guy (Kyle), a black guy (Larry), and an Asian girl (Suraida).
152	* The peer review panel in [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/fifthgrade-science-paper-doesnt-stand-up-to-peer-r,1320/ this]] article from ''Website/TheOnion''.
153	* The post-reboot episodes of ''WebVideo/NostalgiaCritic'' star a WhiteMaleLead (Nostalgia Critic), a black male (Malcolm), and a white female (Rachel, who is later [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replaced]] by Tamara).
154	* ''Podcast/TheOnceAndFutureNerd'' has Billy (white male jock), Nelson ([[BlackAndNerdy black nerd]]) and Jen, (white female cheerleader) be the highschool students who go into the magical world.
155	* [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoaFgKIZDuWXFW-2PSkkd1A SugoiSquad]] podcast. Mr Lost Link (Indian) Alexisneo (White Female) and Stariano (Asian).
156	[[/folder]]
157
158	[[folder:Western Animation]]
159	* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' has Danny as the white guy, Tucker as the black guy, and Sam as the white girl.
160	* ''WesternAnimation/RamboTheForceOfFreedom'', the Eighties attempt to sell ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' toys to kids, featured male African-American Edward "Turbo" Hayes, female Asian Katherine Anne "K.A.T." Taylor, and, of course, some white dude named John Rambo.
161	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' has the somewhat refreshing variation of having the main character of the all-TotallyRadical team be half-Chinese, with a [[SassyBlackWoman sassy]] female TokenBlackFriend and a GeniusDitz [[GRatedStoner faux-stoner white guy]].
162	* Another variation takes place in ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'', with its trio of two girls and one boy.
163	* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': The three main characters consists of Arnold (white male), Gerald (black male) and Helga (white female who becomes a LoveInterest later in the series), this is played more straight in the episode, "The Haunted Train", where come together and form this dynamic.
164	* In the first season finale of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', three heroes are thrown back in time. The three? Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/WonderWoman, and Franchise/GreenLantern (John Stewart).
165	* ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'' has this, with the gender ratio switched to accommodate the main character being female: Pepper as the lead, Nicky as her white best girl friend, and Milo, whose ethnicity is never explicitly mentioned, but whose skin is noticeably darker than that of anyone else in the cast (AmbiguouslyBrown).
166	* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceSentinels'': Astraea is an African-American woman, Mercury is a Chinese man, and even Hercules is AmbuguouslyBrown (an early animatic shows him to be a literal caveman).
167	* Any time ''WesternAnimation/TheZetaProject'' has a group of three, it's either Zeta, Ro and Bucky (a robot, a tomboyish girl and a mixed race boy) or Lee, Rush and West (Chinese woman, black man and white man, with the white man being lowest ranking in their group). When not doing that, it's Lee, Bennett and West (Chinese woman, white man, white idiot man who makes them look awesome by comparison).
168	* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronForce'' does this: Daniel is Asian, Vince is black, and Princess Larmina is white.
169	* Subverted by ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies''. The main trio consists of two white boys (Brendon and Jason) and a black girl (Melissa)
170	* In ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'', most of the time this is in place with Tony (white male lead), Rhodey (black best friend), and Pepper (white female friend). This is subverted however in several parts of season one, where the trio is Tony, Rhodey, and Gene Khan (Mongolian-Chinese American) and ''Gene'' is actually given the main character role. In the episode "Pepper, Interrupted" the trio is actually Gene, Pepper and Rhodey, in direct order of plot importance.
171	* ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'' with Zack as black best friend to Milo and Melissa as their female friend.
172	* ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'' with Craig as the black kid, J.P. as the white boy, and Kelsey as the white girl. In a slight twist, the titular Craig is the leader of the group.
173	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans'' does this with {{Funny Animal}}s: Pablo (Hispanic male penguin), Tyrone (African American male moose), and Uniqua (African American female alien), typically whenever Tasha and Austin aren't there to create a FourTemperamentEnsemble or FiveManBand. Interestingly, the main protagonist is actually [[WordOfGod Uniqua]].
174	* Creator/HannaBarbera's [[WesternAnimation/SpaceStars Teen Force]] has Kid Comet (white guy), Moleculad (black guy), and Elektra (white girl).
175	* The three main kids of ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': Jet is an alien who disguises himself as a white male; Sean is a human white male, and Sydney is a human black female.
176	* The ''WesternAnimation/GhostForce'' team is comprised of Andy Baker (white boy), his sister Liv Baker (white girl), and their friend Mike Collins (black boy).
177	* ''WesternAnimation/DefendersOfTheEarth'': The three teenaged Defenders are Rick (white male), LJ (black male) and Jedda (white female).
178	* Buck Dewey, Sour Cream and Jenny Pizza, aka the Cool Kids, from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' form a trio like this. Sour Cream is the white guy while Buck is the AmbiguouslyBrown boy, and a twist, the girl of their group, Jenny is Ghanaian, and Buck is their de facto leader, not Sour Cream.
179	[[/folder]]

Context Main / TokenTrio