Aristocrat Team

"Since 1849, Kingsman tailors have clothed the world's most powerful individuals. By 1919, a great number of them had lost their heirs to World War I. That meant a lot of money going un-inherited, and a lot of powerful men with the desire to preserve peace and protect life. Our founders realized that they could channel that wealth and influence for the greater good. And so began our other venture: an independent, international intelligence agency, operating at the highest level of discretion. Above the politics and bureaucracy that undermine the integrity of government run spy organizations. A suit is the modern gentleman's armour, and the Kingsman agents, are the new knights."

— Harry/Galahad, Kingsman: The Secret Service

This is a team whose members are high-status in their society, typically nobility. The team can be a knighthood, a superhero team, a military unit, a sports team or whatever team-based activity the particular series focuses on.

They are usually close-knit, either comprised only of members of their family (perhaps for generations to come) or people that bought their way in for fun and/or an endgame. They have access to the latest in tech, armor, weapons, Super Serums, training facilities and whatever any comforts their wealth and influence can afford them.

All of this gives them an advantage against any Corporate-Sponsored Superhero controlled by their financial overlords or Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who have to improvise their equipment and techniques.

Often times their ranks are swelled by Smug Supers and Super Supremacists, acting callous and unconcerned with those they deem of a lower class or lesser genes than they, maybe even ignoring them entirely. Infighting and the occasional White Sheep is inevitable. Thus, an occasional nice character or a Prince Charming is possible as a Token Good Teammate.

In settings like Medieval Europe or Japan this can be justified as the caste systems there make it unlikely that commoners would be traveling or armed (either due to law, custom and/or economic unfeasibility).

The hero team being royalty and capitalists was originally commonplace. In modern times, they are at best an Anti-Hero Team, their snobbery posing them as Privileged Rivals to the Main Characters who are more relatable to the target audience. Then again, such heroes could be made more relatable to moderns by having them not know they were high-born until the plot begins.

Compare Royals Who Actually Do Something.

See also Legion of Doom, Quirky Miniboss Squad, and Super Team. If the work focuses on the Aristocrat Team and their similarly high-ranking associates, it may be a Cast Full of Rich People.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Berserk: The Holy Iron Knights are a knightly order reporting to the Pope and made up of nobles' sons. However, it's well known that it's basically a way for aristocrats to put away their unwanted heirs/currently unneeded spares, with their leader Farnese being just about the only one taking it seriously. They don't seem particularly evil or ignorant, but they have the bad luck of stumbling upon Guts after one of his massacres (because Apostles revert to human form after death) and manage to arrest him in his weakened state.
• Black Clover
  • The Silver Eagles are an elite group of Magic Knights. Founded and run by the highborn Silva family, the Silver Eagles have high standards and only allow nobles into their ranks, seeing anyone of lower class to not being worth the effort. They are so bad that Nozel, Nebula, and Solid practically excommunicate their younger sister Noelle from the family by refusing to let her join the group once she comes of age to be a Magic Knight, having spent their whole lives tearing her down for their mother dying giving birth to her and ridiculing her inability to control her powerful magical abilities. Although it turns out Nozel at least had other reasons for not wanting her to join, namely believing that lack of control would put her life at risk on the missions they regularly take and thus why he didn't object to her joining the Black Bulls, believing they wouldn't get up to any dangerous missions. Unfortunately for him, the Black Bulls are the main characters.
  • The Golden Dawn are another elite squad of Magic Knights. Founded by William Vangeance, they consist solely of nobility and royalty, and even Vangeance himself is nobility, albeit a bastard. This creates tension at first when Vangeance chooses Yuno to join the squad, as despite his incredible power he's only a commoner and many of them feel he has no place among them, though he does ultimately prove himself and earn their loyalty and friendship. Although it turns out Yuno is royalty, albeit of a different country and technically in exile since the current rulers killed his parents and he was sent away as a baby for his protection.
• Gate: Princess Pina's Rose Knights are an Amazon Brigade of the daughters of noble houses.
• Girls und Panzer: The St. Gloriana Academy is based on the United Kingdom, which is stylized like this as shown in their tankery team. They are more concerned about etiquette, going as much as to make sure their tea cups do not spill, even when riding on top of rickety WW II vehicles. That does not mean they are not professional drivers, however, and they defeated the Oorai Academy team twice.
  • Half of BC Freedom Academy^note a French-themed team with pre-Revolution demographic dynamics's team are aristocrats, specifically the crews for the ARL 44s and Marie's FT-17. This is because they used to be two schools, BC and Freedom, with the former being composed of upper class students and the latter being middle and lower class.
• Little Witch Academia (2017):
  • Diana Cavendish and her roommates Hannah England and Barbara Parker are notably wealthier than The Hero Akko and her roommates. Diana, in particular, is a descendant of one of the 9 Olde Witches.
  • A school for Muggles, Appleton Academy, consists of aristocratic young men, so all friendships and groups amongst its students are this by default. Andrew Hanbrigde is the son of a Lord, although his Bromantic Foil Frank doesn't have his exact noble connection stated.
• Germa 66 in One Piece is essentially a Kingdom-in-exile, with the Vinsmokes being still considered a royal family in many ways. While the Toku aspect of their composition and abilities are more played up, you still have Judge and Niji abusing the help to cement their smug superiority.

Comic Books

• DC Comics has The Green Team. In their original incarnation they were billed as "boy millionaires" and used their money to have adventures. The revamped version introduced in 2013 were "teen trillionaires" and could buy super powers.
• Marvel Universe:
  • "'The Illuminati'' is composed of high-ranking members or the Marvel Hero community with far-reaching resources, either being incredibly wealthy (Tony Stark/Iron Man, Professor X, Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Strange) or members of royalty (Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and Blackagar Boltagon). The secret society is formed to discuss threats that could plague their planet and silently deal with them in their own terms.
  • In The Inhumans, the race is a monarchy whose most powerful members are its royal family and are usually seen working together to fight a common threat.
  • In Runaways, the original Pride consisted of six rich and powerful families.
• In Mystery Men The Golden Age, the Board is made up of wealthy industrialists and Social Darwinists.

Fan Works

• In The Night Unfurls, all seven members from the Seven Shields are people of high social status.

Films — Live-Action

• It is stated in the background of Kingsman: The Secret Service that the titular organization was founded by a group of rich individuals. They may not all be blue bloods but they do act the part. "Manners maketh man" and all. In the words of Harry:
  Harry/Galahad: Since 1849, Kingsman tailors have clothed the world's most powerful individuals. By 1919, a great number of them had lost their heirs to World War I. That meant a lot of money, going un-inherited, and a lot of powerful men with the desire to preserve peace and protect life. Our founders realized that they could channel that wealth and influence for the greater good. And so began our other venture. An independent, international intelligence agency, operating at the highest level of discretion. Above the politics and bureaucracy that undermine the integrity of government run spy organizations. A suit is the modern gentleman's armour, and the Kingsman agents are the new knights.

Literature

• The Wolf Cubs in the second duology of the Arcia Chronicles are a group of various aristocrats' sons who band together around Alexander Tagere, the third son of Lord Protector of Arcia and later, the youngest brother of its King.
• The Belgariad:
  • The companions consist of: A berserker who is an earl, a spymaster thief who is a prince, a knight who is a baron, a princess, a sorceress who is a Secretly Wealthy duchess, and a master sorcerer who, although from a common background, holds such a high status that even kings bow to him. Of the commoners, one is the lost heir to a throne, one is destined to sire the next leader of his people, and the remaining commoners have destinies that ensure they'll never be treated like commoners for the rest of their lives.
  • In the sequel series, The Mallorean, the core group is joined by new members: an emperor, a spy who is a margravine, a eunuch who is emissary to a queen, and a seeress who who is so important to the fate of the world that even the aforementioned sorcerer heeds her wisdom. This sequel lampshades the importance of the characters in the group when everyone descends on a small, simple island to take advantage of the fact that a group of people who used to be enemies are now on good terms: the poor leader is so overwhelmed by all the ranks and titles that he can barely cope with the fact his backwater domain is about to become the site where world peace is achieved.
• The Slytherin House of Hogwarts from Harry Potter was founded to house magical students that held the characteristics that Salazar Slytherin valued: cunning, resourcefulness, and ambition. However, due to Salazar's belief that only those of the esteemed wizard families and those of pureblood should be allowed within the halls of Hogwarts, Slytherin House would soon garner a reputation of creating more dark wizards and witches than the other houses. Most of its student body would be from the families of corrupt politicians and aristocrats, harboring a fanatical Anti-Muggle, Wizard Supremacist ideology that eventually led to the creation of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
  Hagrid: There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one. ^note This was before Hagrid learned that Peter Pettigrew, a Gryffindor, had betrayed the Order and joined the Death Eaters.
• Implied to be the case with Les Amis de ABC, the group of young revolutionaries, in Les Misérables. Most of them are students, which would imply at least middle-class, Enjolras and Jehan are from wealthy families, and de Courfeyrac is from a noble one. Feuilly is also the only member of the group who is working-class. Tragically, this means the people of Paris don't rise up to be with them, and their planned revolution fails.
• In Reflections of Eterna, there are no truly permanent character groupings, as allegiances and locations shift constantly, but given how the vast majority of the series' Main Characters are noblemen descended from ancient bloodlines, nearly every transient team-up technically is an aristocrat team.
• The Scarlet Pimpernel: Sir Percy Blakeney aka The Scarlet Pimpernel saves the French (mostly aristocrats) from the guillotine during the Revolution, and he recruits members of his secret League from the British nobility.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, Young Conqueror Robb Stark rides into battle surrounded by a personal guard composed of the noble heirs of his vassals.
• The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas:
  • The eponymous group of The Three Musketeers is composed of Athos, the former Comte de la Fere, roughly equivalent to a regional governor; Aramis, a former monk of the Roman Catholic Church who, while not an aristocrat per se, still lived better than most Frenchmen at the time; and Porthos, a "dandy" from a minor bloodline that nonetheless holds substantial wealth. Their newest adjunct is D'Artagnan, sent to Paris by his father, a decorated officer of the French Army. Granted, excepting Athos, they're more cyan-bloods than blue-bloods, but they're much better outfitted than their countrymen.
  • 20 Years After: Aramis is still a gentleman and is now an abbot (which at the time did not necessarily require actual religious behavior) but still uses his title of "chevalier d'Herblay", and is knighted along with Athos by Charles I. d'Artagnan, while also of minor nobility, is a lieutenant of the Musketeers but ends up as their captain (a very prestigious position), and Porthos' only ambition (satisfied in the end) is to be given the title of baron, which will allow him to compete with his neighbors, who are of minor but extremely ancient and correspondingly snobbish nobility, who look down on him as a Nouveau Riche (and he constantly tries to copy the manners of Athos and Aramis to learn how to behave).

Tabletop Games

• Fading Suns is a Feudal Future setting where player characters are generally assumed to be nobility, clergy (who know space magic), or part of the mercantile guilds.
• The setting material in Ironclaw makes it pretty clear that outside of cities with militias like Triskellion, characters without the gift of Nobility are going to be persecuted by the law if they carry weapons, especially guns. It's generally recommended that most parties include at least one knight or dilettante who can claim the others as his retinue.

Video Games

• Ensemble Stars! has fine, the elite number one idol group in school which is comprised of the heirs to two major corporations, the extremely competent butler to one of them, and a celebrity of the acting world. Prior to the main story, it was even more elite, with all but one unit member being a wealthy heir. However, Eichi noticed this and they decided to make their one 'normal' member the unit leader, because they wanted the unit to seem like a paragon of justice which would stand up for the rights of the downtrodden, and so wanted more of an underdog feel. Overall however fine is very much a privileged antagonist during the main story, and an Anti-Hero at best beyond that.
• Fire Emblem:
  • If everyone in Sigurd's army lives to marry ^note all of the ladies in Sigurd's army have Blue Blood whether they know it or not, except for Erinys, who becomes queen without it, Seliph's army in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War will be composed entirely of nobility or royalty, even if every single one is an Impoverished Patrician.
  • With careful planning, everyone in Fire Emblem: Awakening or Fire Emblem Fates can be related to royalty by marriage.
  • The eponymous three houses of Garreg Mach officers' academy in Fire Emblem: Three Houses consist primarily of young heirs and heiresses of noble families ruling the three lands of Fódlan; consequently, while they aren't quite responding to the trope initially, with a little thoughtful effort, everyone can end up marrying into nobility. The Black Eagles house fits the description in the closest way, with six nobles (albeit one that's the second child and not in line to inherit the house) and only two commoners — one of whom is actually a foreign princess, and the other is implicitly an out-of-wedlock daughter of an aristocrat), — followed by, in descending order, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, and Ashen Wolves.^note The Blue Lions have five nobles and three commoners (one of which is a former noble and one is adopted by nobility, but not explicitly named heir); the Golden Deer also have five nobles (one of them adopted) and three commoners; and the Ashen Wolves have two of each, with, unusually, a commoner as their House leader.
• All five playable characters in Final Fantasy V are royalty, since Bartz's father could have been king.

Webcomics

• In Girl Genius most aristocrats are either Mad Scientists or related to them. Protagonist Agatha Heterodyne, while raised as a commoner, is heir to a dynasty that has terrorized Europa for a millennium, and her adventuring companions include the lost Warrior Princess of a lost civilization, a smoke knight who's related to the legendary Storm King, and the (unrecognized) emperor of all cats. With the heir of Europa's current Emperor Scientist and two different claimants to the Storm King's throne occasionally joining her.

Western Animation

• The ThunderCats (1985) are a Praetorian Guard referred to as "nobles" in their own right. (Of course, since their home planet was destroyed, it's questionable whether that title means anything anymore.) As is usual for the trope, later recruits were Working-Class Heroes.

Real Life

• The Knights Templar originally were commissioned to rebuff the Saracen incursions into Europe, and safeguard the Temple of Jerusalem for Christians. Though barons and marquis and earls were more administrative / managerial posts, they could be deployed as ranking officers in the King's army if need be.
• There are countries which have Noble Guards, whose members can exclusively be recruited among nobility.
• Until the 1960s, nobility was a condition to be allowed to enter the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

---