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Leia, not quite a perfect example, but the closest one we got.
Sally: Why am I "The Woman"? Dick: [after a beat] Because you lost.
The "feminine", "spiritual", " heart", and/or sometimes " damsel" 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, 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 archetypal 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, and/or The One Guy in an dominantly female cast. Paradoxically, it's also possible to be The Chick on teams that have several females.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Sakura of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle is both a straight example and a subversion, since that character had already appeared in another work by the same authors, where she was The Hero. She kept exactly the same personality, but with a serious downgrade in magic habilities and three fighting experts as companions she transformed into a Chick. She also regularily lampshades the fact that she feels useless in the group because of her unability to fight. Later she upgrades to being an Action Girl once she gets her hands on some guns and A Day In The Limelight. She also doubles as The Empath, the Oracular Urchin and The Messiah. Later, in Infinity country, once a certain member of the group has left, she arguably becomes The Hero and (litteraly) The Chess Master.
- Likewise, Sakura from Naruto.
- Nami of One Piece, though she too has Taken A Level In Badass as of late.
- "G-3" Jun the Swan from Gatchaman, An early example for anime/manga characters and a trope archetype. Primarily, the Token Girl from being on an all male team, but part Action Girl for being a skilled fighter like her male companions who is very much capable of defending herself, and occasional Distressed Damsel when the story calls for it to give Ken/Joe some hero moments.
- 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).
- 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?
- Anzu/Tea of Yu Gi Oh, and Shizuka when she was around.
- 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.
- Azmaria in Chrono Crusade, the Token Loli with spiritual powers that allow her to heal others and fly...and not much else. In the anime she's mostly there to look cute and get in trouble, although she does serve as a peacemaker of the group. In the manga she behaves this way at first, but through Character Development she slowly becomes stronger and more determined—enough that, during the final battle, her ability to stay calm under pressure holds the rest of the team together during a crisis and her spiritual knowledge serves a key part in stopping the Big Bad and his plans.
- Mikuru from The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, the only member of the Five Man Band that Haruhi gets right.
Comic Books
Film
Literature
- 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.
- Being The Chick may be all that is consistent in Trillian across all versions of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Douglas Adams admitted that he didn't write her as a well-rounded character because he never really understood women.
- In Enid Blyton's Famous Five books Anne is so much of The Chick she verges on a Yamato Nadeshiko. Oddly though it is Dick though that takes the role of The Heart.
- Journey To The West features a very... odd subversion of this trope - the monk Xuangzang is so perfect an example of The Chick he's (note the masculine) sometimes even portrayed as such. This, of course, leads to tons of Ho Yay with the other main character of the story, Sun Wukong. Given his overall uselessness, stupidity, and propensity to be captured by anything under the sun, it's no wonder why most everyone who reads the story kinda really hates him. In a double subversion, it's also as become common to protray Wukong as the girl, just to make him (her?) seem more awesome.
Live Action TV
Video Games
- 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, mysteriously producing tea, in contrast with the Action Girls Samus and Sheik.
- 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.
- Flonne plays this trope straight. Yukimaru subverts it by having better combat skill than most chicks.
Webcomics
Western Animation
Web Animation
- Shandala, the one main female character from Broken Saints. And yet it still doesn't come off as ridiculous, silly, or sexist.
- Jenny in Park Bench, although she's not part of a Five Man Band.
Examples of The Chick who doubles as another member
Anime and Manga
- 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: Sailor Moon herself is pretty firmly The Chick, despite being the main character and The Messiah. She acts as the team's moral and emotional pillar, and is least often the one to take frontal assault duties when fighting various enemies, generally doing her best to simply survive until she has a chance to whip out a Finishing Move.
- Also, 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.
- 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.
Video Games
Western Animation
Examples of a male member holding The Chick role
Anime and Manga
- Kyohei, the official team chef, on Bakuretsu Tenshi.
- 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.
- 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.
- In the context of The Allied Forces, The Chick is the artsy and sensitive Woobie of the Five Man Band, Wang Yao aka China.
- Male example: Andromeda Shun of Saint Seiya. Enough so that people get confused.
Comic Books
- 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.
Literature
- 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.
Live Action TV
- 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.
- Stargate SG-1's Daniel Jackson. Carter doesn't fit, she's The Lancer. The catch is both of them share the role of The Smart Guy.
- Carter was originally written as The Chick and a Non Action Girl, but the writers saw the light by the 6th episode and she became an Action Girl.
- Considering her first scene has her declaring that she's very much military and she participates in the fighting accordingly, and the fourth episode has her beating a Mongolian warlord in a one-on-one knife fight, this is very doubtful.
- 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)
- Timothy McGee in NCIS. All the women in the series take other roles (e.g. Ziva is The Big Guy, and Abby is The Smart Guy).
Video Games
- In Suikoden I, one could claim that Gremio plays this role for Tir and company, particularly as Team Mom.
Webcomics
- Elan, from Order Of The Stick: Clueless, but concerned for the rest of the group, and skilled in
Social-Fu Trope-Fu.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Web Original
Western Animation
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
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