The
Five-Man Band is a group of characters whose members fall into archetypes which all complement one another. They are a very specific team with skills that contribute to the group in a unique way. Here are some places where the trope occurs in literature:
The Abandon Trilogy
Against a Dark Background (by Iain M. Banks)
The Age Of Misrule
In the first trilogy:
And in the second trilogy:
All-of-a-Kind Family
All the King's Men: Willie Talos' campaign team:
Animorphs
| The Leader | Jake is one of those people who are natural leaders. |
| The Lancer | Marco is his best friend who is always disagreeing with him. |
| The Big Guy | Rachel is always ready for action. |
| The Smart Guy | Tobias is stuck in hawk morph so he scouts out the mission for the team. |
| The Chick | Cassie reminds them how important people and animals are. |
| Sixth Ranger | Ax is the alien who doesn't come into the story until book four. |
| Sixth Ranger Traitor | David is a brief character that doesn't appear until book 20. |
The Babysitters Club
| The Leader | Kristy Thomas (founder and president of the BSC) |
| The Lancer | Claudia Kishi (vice-president of the BSC; her room is club headquarters) |
| The Big Guy | Dawn Schafer (due to her outgoing and passionate nature) |
| The Smart Guy | Stacey McGill (ultra-sophisticated math whiz) |
| The Chick | Mary Anne Spier (most emotional and sensitive member) |
Bad News Ballet
Battle Royale
Black Dogs
Before Sinai and Jacyl take off:
When Lyra and Sadrao are joined by Spite and Gunnar:
- Note: Gunnar is probably as qualified as Spite, if not more so, to be The Chick, despite him being male and physically the largest member of the band. He the extremely placid voice of reason throughout the second half of the series, and although Spite is tiny and female, she's the most violent and aggressive character in the entire book. She single-handedly takes out a creature large enough to swallow whole elephants.
Chanters Of Tremaris
Codex Alera
Dark Heresy
The Dilbert Principle - In the chapter about meetings, the author identifies meetings as a performance art with these character types:
Discworld: Unseen University:
Dracula
Dragaera: The Khaavren trilogy
Dragonlance: The Chronicles trilogy
The Dreaming Dark
The Dresden Files
The Druid of Shannara
Ender's Game: Ender's jeesh
The Famous Five (by
Enid Blyton)
The Forgotten Realms
The Companions of Mithral Hall
Azure Bonds
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The rescue mission at the Ministry of Magic
Haruhi Suzumiya: The SOS Brigade
Heirs Of Ash
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Things were changed a bit in
Life, the Universe, and Everything:
The Homeward Bounders
Plus Helen, who, as Jamie notes, resists categorisation.
How To Get Suspended and Influence People
The Hunger Games (during the latter half of the second book)
Hyperion
Illuminatus!
The Legion of Dynamic Discord
Joe Malik & Co.
In Death: Eve Dalla's
True Companions.
IT: The Losers Club.
John Dies at the End: The Las Vegas Arc
Journey to the West
- Note: It could be argued that Journey to the West effectively created this trope (as it was written in 1590, and is one of the first and best examples of a Five-Man Band), though this depends on the publication date of Le Morte d'Arthur (possibly 1485). However, none of the characters are any one archetype (except the horse, which subsequent authors have all but forgotten); in a strange twist of the trope, for example, the monk Xuangzang, while still being The Leader by default, also falls under the trope of The Chick, because he's, well, the downright perfect example of it, down to his propensity to be captured or put into danger more often than Lois Lane and Mary-Jane Watson combined (seriously, he has to be saved from certain death by The Lancer in over 60 chapters of a this 100 chapter epic).
Jurassic Park
Khaterra: The Quest
KIKEN
The Brass Kites
The Sleepy Hollow
The Tin Herons
The Kingdom Keepers
The Last Days
Liveship Traders
Looking for Alaska
The Lost World
Magic: The Gathering: Weatherlight story arc
Magic Kingdom Of Landover: Ben's Court
Midnight World
Le Morte d'Arthur has two:
The main group:
The Orkney brothers are a five-man band unto themselves, and their roles tend to switch:
The Mysterious Island
N.E.R.D.S
First Book
Second Book
Third Book
The New Heroes (also known as
Quantum Prophecy)
The Outsiders
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Book 3 (very difficult to classify)
Book 4
For the series as a whole, it goes like this:
Perry Rhodan
The Railway Series (
Thomas The Tank Engine): Thomas's Branch Line
Remote Man
Robin Hood
Safehold
Initially, the Charisian upper leadership:
Starting from the second book, as characters learn the truth behind Safehold's history, an "inner circle" begins to form:
The Seventh Tower: Tal and Milla's group when
storming the Violet tower in the last book
Sisterhood series by
Fern Michaels: The Big Five or The Five Musketeers (as they are called in the book
Deja Vu)
Someone Else's War: The core group of children trying to rescue their fellow
Child Soldiers from the LRA
A Song of Ice and Fire
Jon Snow's gang:
The Stark children, although they get separated very quickly:
Spiran Och Staven (
The Sceptre and the Quarterstaff)
The Three Musketeers (an early appearance of the team)
The Truth About Forever: The Wish Catering Crew
Uglies
Vorkosigan Saga: Dendarii Mercenaries
Warhammer 40000:
Ciaphas Cain: 597th Valhallan Regiment
Warrior Cats
Fireheart's
True Companions in
The Original Series
The Chosen Ones from the beginning of
The New Prophecy series
Omen of the Stars Heroes
Watership Down
The Witcher saga: The posse from third book onwards
World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal
Xanth:
The Source of Magic
Xanth: The Dor books
Young Jedi Knights
