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Five Man Band: Literature
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:
A Song of Ice and Fire - Bran's gang:
A Song of Ice and Fire - Jon Snow's gang.
A Song of Ice and Fire - The Stark children, although they get separated very quickly.
Against A Dark Background (by Iain M. Banks)
The Age Of Misrule (has two):
And in the second trilogy:
All-Of-A-Kind Family (is a subversion with it's five-
girl band):
All the King's Men - Willie Talos' campaign team:
Fred Vargas' Adamsberg series
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Animorphs The Hero Jake The Lancer(s) Marco ("go-to" guy, Jake's best friend who cares about staying safe and sane), Tobias ("Air Force", "eye in the sky"), strike:Rachel (challenger, dirty work, died for the cause ) The Big Guy Rachel (a rare case where this role is occupied by a female and the team isn't an Amazon Brigade ) The Smart Guy(s) Tobias ("behind the scenes scout"), Marco (strategy), Cassie (animals), Ax (aliens & tech) The Chick(s) Cassie (moral center), Marco (comedian & tension breaker), Tobias (Wangst ) Sixth Ranger Ax Sixth Ranger Traitor David
Babysitters Club The Hero 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
The Belgariad - the core crew
The Belgariad -
The Big Guy band
The Malloreon - the core crew
Black Dogs (before Sinai and Jacyl take off):
Black Dogs (When Lyra and Sadrao are joined by Spite and Gunnar):
Note: Gunnar is probably as qualified, if not moreso to be The Chick as Spite, 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. These two are a complete inversion of whole Five-Man Band whereas Sinai and Jacyl play it completely straight.
Blade Of The Flame
Chronicles of Narnia or
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Book One: Lord Foul's Bane
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Book Two: The Illearth War
Codex Alera
Cryptonomicon (The present storyline)
The Hero Randall Lawrence Waterhouse The Lancer America "Amy" Shaftoe (Randy's Action Girl Love Interest and foil) The Big Guy Douglas MacAurthur Shaftoe (Amy's Father, an ex-Navy seal that Randy hires to salvage an old submarine, and later to provide security for the Crypt) The Smart Guy / The Chick Avi (Technically the leader, but the focus is more on Randy. Acts both as mastermind to the data haven project, and as the group's moral center) The Mentor Enoch Root (Cool Old Guy whom Randy has compared to Gandalf at least once)
Dark Heresy
The
ka-tet of
The Dark Tower series
The Dilbert Principle - In the chapter about meetings, the author identifies meetings as a performance art with these character types:
Discworld - Ankh-Morpork Watch:
Varies A Lot: Despite the later novels being considerably more Vimes-centered than Carrot-centered, Vimes remains a classic Lancer in terms of character archetype.
Discworld - Unseen University:
Dracula
Dragaera - The Khaavren trilogy
Dragonlance - The Chronicles trilogy
Dragonlance - War of the Twins
TheDragonBelow
The Dreaming Dark
The Dresden Files
The Druid of Shannara
Ender's Game - Ender's jeesh
Everworld
Extraordinary* - Jen and her friends:
The Famous Five -
Enid Blyton
The Farseer Trilogy (specifically the second half of Assassin's Quest)
The Forgotten Realms - The Companions of Mithral Hall
The Forgotten Realms -
Azure Bonds
Garfield's Pet Force
Good Omens - The Them
Note: If anyone is to be shoehorned into being The Chick , it's either Anathema or possibly Pepper's younger sister. Both are enough of a stretch that it's probably best just to consider the role to be left vacant.
Guild Wars 2 Edge of Destiny - Destiny's Edge
Harry Potter - The Marauders
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (specifically on 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
Illuminatus! ! — 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 (literally; written in 1590, this 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 The Hero 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; what self-respecting hero needs to be saved from certain death by The Lancer in over 60 chapters of a 100 chapter epic!?)
Jurassic Park
Dennis Lehane 's
Kenzie and Gennaro Series
The Arthurian legends (
Le Morte d'Arthur ) have two:
The main group:
The Orkney brothers are a five-man band unto themselves, and their roles tend to switch:
The Kingdom Keepers
The Last Days
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Liveship Traders
Looking For Alaska
The Lost World
The Lost World (
Jurassic Park )
Magic: The Gathering : Weatherlight story arc
Magic Kingdom of Landover , Ben's Court
Maximum Ride
Midnight World
Midnighters
The Moomins
The Mysterious Island
N.E.R.D.S - First Book
N.E.R.D.S - Second Book
N.E.R.D.S - Third Book
Neverwhere
The New Heroes (Quantum Prophecy to some)
The Outsiders
The Princess Bride Note: Vizzini would have been The Smart Guy if he had made the Heel Face Turn along with Fezzik and Inigo. He lost any possibility of being The Smart Guy when he said, "I accept." Brains are not worth dying over.
The Railway Series (
Thomas the Tank Engine )
Thomas's Branch Line (Unfortunatley, this line up was never used in the TV series.)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Book 2
Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Book 3 (Very difficult to classify)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Book 4
For the entire
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series, it goes like this
Perry Rhodan
Remote Man
Robin Hood
Rod Allbright Alien Adventures - The crew of the Ferkel:
Safehold initially has the Charisian upper leadership. Starting from the second book, as characters learn the truth behind Safehold's history, an "inner circle" begins to form.
Sailor Nothing
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 called in the book
Deja Vu )
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Sword Of Truth
Fred Vargas' Three Evangelist series
The Three Musketeers (an early appearance of the team)
Twilight : The Cullen Family
a different interpretation:
Uglies
Unreal Estate
The Vorkosigan Saga : Dendarii Mercenaries
The
Legends Of Laconia series:
Waking Echoes
The War Of The Flowers
Warhammer 40,000 :
Ciaphas Cain - 597th Valhallan Regiment
Warhammer 40,000 :
Eisenhorn - Inquisitor Eisenhorn and company
The Hero Gregor Eisenhorn The Lancer Midas Betancore, later Lize Bequin (Also Mission Control) The Big Guy Godwyn Fischig The Smart Guy Autosavant Uber Aemos The Chick Warhammer 40000 (is really, really not big on Chicks, but Bequin might just qualify at her introduction. Medea Betancore in the later books.)
Warhammer 40,000 :
Gaunt\'s Ghosts - The Ghosts
Warhammer 40,000 Ravenor - Inquisitor Ravenor and company
Warrior Cats -Fireheart's
True Companions in
The Original Series
Warrior Cats -
The Chosen Ones from the beginning of
The New Prophecy Series
Warrior Cats - Omen of the Stars Heroes
Watership Down
The Witcher saga (the posse from third book onwards)
Ironically, this leaves us token female teammate as
The Big Guy (unless we swap her with Cahir):
However, sometimes
The Chick can be an
Action Girl . Milva can be both
The Chick and
The Big Guy , while Dandillion would be
Kid Appeal Character .
The Wheel of Time : Book I
The Wheel of Time : Egwene's Conspiracy
The Wheel of Time : Band of the Red Hand
World of Warcraft : Beyond the Dark Portal
Xanth -
The Source of Magic
Xanth - the Dor books
Young Jedi Knights
Spiran och staven (The Sceptre and the Quarterstaff)
