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Useful? Useless? Depends. Really.
Susan Storm: Looks as though I'll just be going along for the ride! I'm not sure how I can help!
General Ross: Harrummph! Miss Storm, a pretty young lady can always be of help — just by keeping the men's morale up!
Reed Richards: That's just the way we feel about Sue, general!
Sally: Why am I "The Woman"? Dick: [after a beat] Because you lost.
The "feminine", "spiritual" or "heart" aspect of the Five Man Band. By tradition this role is usually female, the token girl, though this isn't always the case. In general, though, they serve as something different then the rest of the team. When the rest of the team is all guys, the chick is female. Whereas the other roles are aggressive and sometimes outright violent, The Chick's is to balance it out with a passive, peacekeeper role.
This doesn't mean that they are, by definition, useless (no matter what some people think). The problem is, she is a really hard character to pin down, especially in an action-oriented show that doesn't play to her natural strengths. If badly written (and there are many examples), she's in danger of becoming a Damsel Scrappy: a whiny, ditzy deadweight whose only purpose is serving as the Distressed Damsel and/or Love Interest. Fortunately, though, better writers can portray even these "useless" Chicks effectively — at least so long as these characters do have agreeable attitudes and acceptable reasons for being part of the band, and/or develop them as the story advances.
Their functional role will often be The Heart and social influence of the group. Sometimes this means they'll serve as the Team Mom, taking care of the smaller details, both within the group and in the world outside. They look after innocents, deliver The Aesop, mediate the argument between The Smart Guy and The Big Guy, bitchslap The Lancer out of getting too dark, and convince the Obstructive Bureaucrat to let them continue their quest. It's not the coolest job in the world, but it's helpful.
In many other times, the chick may just be the female who is different from the guys. As the Token Girl, she would be more concerned with other things like shopping, dating and fashion.
It is possible for The Chick to become an Action Girl or be one from the start, but there is a fine balance being "feminine" and aggressive. Often, an Action Girl will be a girl with a guy's personality, though sometimes they DO express a wish to be a bit more chicky without losing their fighting skills. If they take level in badass without losing their core personality, then they've effectively upgraded to an Action Girl. Conversely (and unsurprisingly), it's WAY too common to have fans unfairly label Chickification to an Action Girl if she shows any sort of "female emotion".
Powers and skills common to the chick are:
- They will usually be The Medic, the one with the Healing Hands. In magical settings, they'll be a Squishy Wizard who has contemporary medical training, uses White Magic to heal and protect her friends, or becomes a Black Magician Girl in the course of the story. In other situations, a Dark Magical Girl or a Barrier Warrior (more fight-active than the Staff Chick, but still geared more towards defense than attack) are also common.
- On the flip side, the Chick can be a healer of mental and emotional hurts, through an exceptional ability to understand people and reach out to them. This might be due to psychological training, social skills, and/or empathy. These skills also helps her to gain resources for the team through diplomacy, or work her way through different problems without lifting a hand against anyone when times are hard and not suit for fighting.
- In fact, The Chick often has other traits that help her influence other people, such as royal authority and/or being distractingly gorgeous. Being pretty and wholesome-looking can also help win people's trust, and sometimes having ability to convince others to do things for her or the group. The Chick is also the most likely to have Psychic Powers (especially of the foreshadowing variety).
- Chicks tend to be supporting figures in combat. Often they'll have a Simple Staff, or a bow or other ranged weapon. Subversions of the archetypical Chick may be given greater fighting ability than this to allow her to keep up more with her bandmates. Even more of a subversion may make her a Cute Bruiser or Lady Of War, a Black Magician Girl or a Hot Amazon.
- In comedies, The Chick can sometimes get things accomplished with the patented Armor Piercing Slap, or even the Megaton Punch, specially against unruly teammates of The Lancer or The Hero type. Bonus point if said Chick has mood swings or also possesses verbal wits.
It is possible for a male character to be The Chick, often the Non Action Guy. Paradoxically, it's also possible to be The Chick on teams that have several females.
Examples
- Daphne Blake of Scooby Doo (pictured). Subverted in the movie, where she's still The Chick of the group but has additionally Taken A Level In Badass. (Being played by Sarah Michelle Gellar pays off.) Since Daphne's a clear-cut Chick, Velma is The Smart Guy as another woman.
- Shandala, the one main female character from Broken Saints. And yet it still doesn't come off as ridiculous, silly, or sexist.
- Nami of One Piece, though she too has Taken A Level In Badass as of late.
- Princess Deirdre of The Mystic Knights Of Tir Na Nog
- April O'Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Note that her characterization difers according to the movies or series.
- Starfire of Teen Titans, though she is of the Action Girl and Cute Bruiser variety.
- Gwen from Torchwood
- A lot of The Doctor's companions.
- Maguro from Sushi Pack
- Arcee from G1 Transformers. It helps that she's pink. So very, very pink.
- Princess Peach from the Super Mario Bros games. Even in her solo game, Super Princess Peach, her abilities are very stereotypically feminine.
- More evident in Super Smash Bros - in The Subspace Emissary she makes herself useful by breaking up fights and turning potential enemies into friends, in contrast with the Action Girls Samus and Sheik.
- Jenny in Park Bench, although she's not part of a Five Man Band.
- Abby aka Numbuh 5 from Kids Next Door: A definite Lancer. Much less girly than Kuki aka Numbuh 3.
- Kimberly from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is the typical Valley Girl with a crush on the Sixth Ranger. In the pilot episode she teased that she didn't want to join the group because of "helmet hair." Trini on the other hand, despite having a few chick-like elements, has more in common with The Lancer and The Big Guy.
- Total inversion: The Aasu sisters from Puni Puni Poemi are all Chicks, all five of them. Their powers also suck.
- Outlaw Star makes two other bandmates women in order to counterbalance The Chick Melfina; specifically, The Big Guy (Aisha) and The Sixth Ranger (Suzuka).
- While Animorphs fans have had some trouble agreeing on who's actually The Chick, Rachel has never been a contender. She's beautiful, her hobby is gymnastics, and she loves both shopping and her boyfriend, but she's The Big Guy, an Action Girl who becomes a Blood Knight.
- Cassie, the animal-loving pacifist and girlfriend to "the Hero", Jake, is a more likely suspect.
- In No Rest For The Wicked, November is both very fragile and the person holding the entire group together.
- Both Silk Spectres from Watchmen. They're deconstructions of both The Chick and Ms Fan Service.
- Sweet Dee from Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia is "the useless chick" according to Mac's breakdown of the Five Man Band. She certainly seems to be the most emotional member of the Gang, but that may be because she's also the Butt Monkey.
- Daizy from Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is the demure, feminine member of the four friends, contracting with Widget's more tomboy-ish personality.
- Botan, Keiko, Yukina, Shizuru and Atsuko from Yu Yu Hakusho. All five have needed to be saved at some point (manga-only, in Atsuko's case), but are generally side characters just outside of the Competence Zone. They're all tougher than the normal Chick (Botan, Yukina and Shizuru have more-or-less useful powers too) and can hold their own against humans, but they still can't reach Badass Normal level when facing demons. Or can they?
- Being The Chick may be all that is consistent in Trillian across all versions of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
- Rika of Phantasy Star IV is The Chick for most of the game once all of the permanent, non-optional members are in— she's even briefly The Chick in a Power Trio. However, she's much more well-balanced than the typical RPG example: all of her magic— all of it— is healing or status magic, but she's a powerful melee fighters and her physical attacks are second only in damage output to Chaz once he gets the Elsydeon. Before that, they're about equal.
- Detective Irene Daniels of The Closer, who isn't seen in too much physical combat (although she can certainly hold her own), and is much more girly than the rest of the all-male Priority Homicide Squad (besides, of course, Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson). However, she is apparently brilliant at forensic accounting - tracking down relevant documents relating to murder victims and suspects.
- Flonne plays this trope straight. Yukimaru subverts it by having better combat skill than most chicks.
- Caro in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, who manages to fit this role in a mostly female cast by being a ten-year old who has Status Buffing as one of her specialties and is generally less action-oriented compared to everyone else. Of course, since this is Nanoha, where small and female are traits you should run away from, her other specialty is summoning dragons. Big dragons. Approach chick with caution.
- Zoe from Sluggy Freelance, by virtue of being the only character who thinks playing with dimensional portals, Tomes OF Eldritch Lore, and powerful explosives is a bad idea.
Examples of The Chick who doubles as another member
- Mira Nova from Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command: A princess, so definitely The Chick, but a well-rounded heroic type who contrasts Buzz, so also The Lancer.
- Gadget from Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers: As implied by her name, The Smart Guy. It can even be said that, since Gadget very rarely acts girly, the team has a woman, but no Chick.
- Hiro in Wa ga na wa Umishi. Technically a full member of Nanba Salvage, her main duties seem to be cooking, bitching at the guys, walking around in her underwear and, occasionally, data collection.
- Sailor Moon: Ami aka Sailor Mercury, is sweet, shy, bookish and has defensive abilities based on water and ice, so you'd expect her to be a secondary Chick after Moon. Instead, she's The Smart Guy, since she also happens to be a Teen Genius.
- Sailor Moon herself is pretty firmly The Chick, despite being the main character and The Messiah.
- Cyborg009, Francoise aka 003 generally senses danger so the big strong men can deal with it, holds the psychic baby and is usually the one who bemoans the fact that their duty as cyborgs keeps herself and the others from living peaceful lives. Yet she always joins the team in battle when they need her abilities no matter what horrible things she has to see or sense to aid them, keeps her cool when it's needed, gives the bratty Lancer of the group verbal beatdowns more than once without flinching, is Dr. Gilmore's most reliable assistant, and when necessary she proves that she is fully capable of defending herself and even occasionally saving the day singlehandedly. Thus, she doubles as The Chick and The Smart Guy, with some dashes of The Lancer when on her boldest.
- Katara, the Team Mom of and the original Messiah of Avatar The Last Airbender, combines the roles of The Chick and of The Lancer.
- Sapphire from the Disgaea series is a rare Ax Crazy chick. Has elements of The Big Guy.
- Amy Rose starts out playing the trope straight, but starting with Sonic Heroes has become an Action Girl, gaining elements of The Big Guy like Sapphire above.
- Princess Leia is a Chick/Action Girl
Examples of a male member holding The Chick role
- Kotashi, the Non Action Guy and love interest of the (female) Smart Guy in Sailor Nothing.
- Xander of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, despite his attempts to change this, has pretty much always been The Chick of the team.
- In fact, in shows with a lot of supernatural or unusual goings-on — particularly if there are a lot of Action Girls - any token ordinary human with no special expertise, usually a male, becomes The Chick.
- Kyohei, the official team chef, on Bakuretsu Tenshi.
- Ma-Ti on Captain Planet And The Planeteers. Even he knew that what he was best at was getting rescued from danger... in the second episode!
- Stargate SG-1's Daniel Jackson. Carter doesn't fit, though they're both The Smart Guy.
- Elan, from Order Of The Stick: Clueless, but concerned for the rest of the group, and skilled in
Social-Fu Trope-Fu.
- Much, in Robin Hood: The character identifies himself as the "one who deals with little things".
- Djaq could also be considered The Chick, since she's the resident healer and occasionally counsels the guys on their problems (especially Allan)
- Antoine in the ABC ("SatAM") Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon. While he's supposedly Sally's bodyguard, he's also an ineffectual coward, the comic relief, and often needs rescuing by Sonic. Being stereotypically French doesn't help matters either.
- Rock from Black Lagoon. He isn't much for violence like Revy and Dutch are, but he makes up for it by being the Lagoon Company's negotiator and "Villain in Training". He's also the most idealistic of the crew, which occasionally puts him at odds with the more cynical Revy.
- Slick Giovanni from Last Resort. Yes, we know that almost all the prisoners were in some sort of bondage apparel when they brought them to the space station. Yes, we know being in prison equals lots of opportunities to look cute in restraints. But come on, man, pulling out the sympathy card so you'd get picked by Adharia after Jigsaw turned you down? Please tell us that's not your special ability.
- Kenneth Robbins aka Ken from Kaleido Star. He has a weak heart, so he can't perform (unless it's malabarism or comic routines, in which case he is Anna's Butt Monkey). Therefore, he helps out the all-or-mostly-female acrobats of the Kaleido Stage.
- Shuuichirou Oishi from The Prince Of Tennis. He's the Team Mom and The Medic, but sometimes acts as The Lancer to either Tezuka or Kikumaru.
- Another one could be little cute Taichi Dan from Yamabuki, who isn't a regular because he's much shorter than the other players, so he acts like the team manager.
- Cheetor, The Bumblebee of Beast Wars, got relatively few action moments compared with his compatriots. This is somewhat understandable, since his role as the Fragile Speedster was usually to act as scout, but the poor kid did get captured or injured with alarming frequency.
- The Sorrow in The Cobra Days, especially in his early appearances. He's not much of a fighter unless he's being possessed by a dead ninja, but he can be very emotionally insightful, although it doesn't necessarily do him much good.
 He develops more Smart Guy qualities later in the comic.
- In the context of The Allied Forces, The Chick is the artsy and sensitive Woobie of the Five Man Band, Wang Yao aka China.
- Angel in the original X-Men line-up, mostly because his powers were the least combat-effective. Multiple attempts have been made to power him up over the last 45 years; most of them haven't worked.
- Archangel and the mid-80's would like to have a word with you.
- Subverted in the webcomic Narbonic — Artie the gerbil who transforms into a 6-foot-2 muscular Big Guy is super-intelligent vegan, and pacifist; Mell is an attractive young college intern who loves explosives, firearms, and other typical Big Guy stuff.
- Male example: Andromeda Shun of Saint Seiya. Enough so that people get confused.
- Fiver of Watership Down. Doubles as The Lancer along with Bigwig, as the two of them are the only ones who will ever call Hazel out after they reach Watership Down.
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