Four Temperament Ensemble - Television Tropes & Idioms

A Five Man Band specializes by role to the team. Someone leads, someone disagrees, someone is tough, someone is smart, and someone ensures that none of the above kill each other.

Unfortunately, when writing within context of a certain profession, goal, or genre, some of these roles are useless, and especially when characters are in groups that are supposed to be specialized, it doesn't make sense to have some of these roles; in a group of scientific researchers, wouldn't all of them be smart? In a group of politicians, wouldn't all of them lead and disagree? Don't astronauts have to be well-rounded and exceptional in many ways?

But there is a way to make a group of people diverse without giving them specialized roles in a form of a group that would probably best be specialized for questing. One way is through personality, in this case based off of wacky ancient pseudoscience.

The four temperaments (originally the four humors) was a theory that behavior was caused by concentrations of body fluids — namely blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Each of these would affect a person's personality differently, and the way these fluids were thought to affect behavior eventually became a part of personality theory, eventually separated completely from the idea that fluids actually controlled behavior. However, the names still remain. An ensemble based on these four humors can make the ensemble diverse without actually changing the roles of the characters in the show's continuity.

The four temperaments

are:

Sanguine (blood): Exhibits optimism, good cheer, a love of fun, extroversion, enthusiasm. On the flip side, they may be impulsive, arrogant, self-indulgent, easily angered or upset, wear their hearts on their sleeves or even be a space case.
Choleric (yellow bile): Exhibits leadership, dominance, ambition, charisma, passion; also quick to anger, narrow-minded, obsessive.
Melancholic (black bile): Kind, thoughtful, creative; but also high-strung perfectionists whose insanely high standards lead to depression.
Phlegmatic (phlegm): Are calm, stoic, rational, reliable, compassionate, observant; but also lazy, reactionary, docile.

Alternatively, there's a system of five temperaments where the Phlegmatic is moved into a central, fifth position, with the fourth corner being filled by by the Supine temperament:

Supine (tears): quiet, friendly, nonconfrontational, self-effacing, nervous
Phlegmatic: The "middle of the road" temperament. Someone who typically doesn't exhibit the extremes or weaknesses of the four basic temperaments. In a positive light: Balanced and well-rounded in character. In a negative light: Empty and devoid of character. The positive light is commonly reserved for secondary characters like Wise Old Mentors, because more "temperamental" characters are easier to identify with and thus make more popular heroes.

A Four Temperament Ensemble will have one character to fit each one of these four temperaments. Sometimes a Five Man Band with four members will also be a Four Temperament Ensemble, but in many cases, they're mutually exclusive. For the five-temperament version, the most common match-ups for the roles would be: The Hero - Sanguine, The Lancer - Choleric, The Big Guy - Phlegmatic, The Smart Guy - Melancholic, The Chick - Supine.

The four temperaments have rough counterparts in more modern psychological theories, most notably the Keirsey Temperament Sorter

(sanguine = artisan, choleric = idealist, melancholic = guardian, phlegmatic = rational). They are also similar to the four Personality Blood Types. See also Cast Calculus for the overarching archetypes in this and differently numbered ensembles. Here is an Image Archive for this trope