A
Multinational Team is a group of characters with different, emphasized nationalities with an
In-Universe justification for this diversity. They are almost invariably the good guys, although the bad guys might
have their own version of a multinational team. The trope can occur in works of fiction that do not take place in the present or even on Earth: in
The Lord of the Rings, for example, many diverse people from all over Middle-Earth band together.
The Multinational Team differs from the
Five-Token Band in that:
- The characters are explicitly from different nations, not merely different ethnicities. If the diverse characters coincidentally all grew up in the same suburban town, they are the Five-Token Band, not the Multinational Team.
- The team has been assembled for a specific purpose, usually by an independent party. If the diverse characters have no specific reason to be hanging out, they are the Five-Token Band.
In other words, the Multinational Team
explains why the team is diverse, whereas the
Five-Token Band simply
is diverse, often with no explanation. This is not to say that such teams are incapable of tokenism or stereotypes. They're simply different breeds of trope.
Note that "emphasized" does not necessarily mean "thrown in your face every five seconds." If the series makes enough references to the characters' nationalities for the viewer to be aware of it, then the nationalities have been emphasized. Compare the villainous counterpart,
Equal-Opportunity Evil. If it's people with power, it's likely a
Cosmopolitan Council. Compare/contrast
Five-Token Band.
This trope puts the heroes on the "heterogeneous" side of
Alike and Antithetical Adversaries.
Example subpages
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Fan Works
- In the Deva Series, the students at Hayate's academy are deliberately chosen from nations the world over. The Circles also have members from lots of nations.
- In Keepers of the Elements, each Keeper is usually from a different country.
Music
- Dragonforce, while founded in London and widely considered to be a British band, consists in its current incarnation of six members from six different countries; England, Scotland, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, and China.
- Hows this
for a multinational team?
Web Comics
Web Original
- The Global Guardians, from the Global Guardians PBEM Universe are more or less this, depending on their lineup. The final lineup included a French-Canadian, a Greek, a Kenyan, a Norwegian, a Costa Rican, and four Americans.
- The Vindicators of the Whateley Universe. Their current line-up includes a Swede, a Dane, a Belgian, a Canadian, and two Americans. For that matter, Pan-Asia, which is made up of Whateley Academy students from all over Asia, including Japan, China, and Vietnam.
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