Troperville
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"I'd love it if this place were boring. But they're always dragging me off to some cockamamie adventure! ' Hurry Iago, we have to find the razor-clawed ice giant!', or ' Come on Iago, the natives of Nincompoop need saving from a blood beast with a taste for parrots!' And then, when we do stay home, some mutant vegetable shows up, and they want me to be the bait!" — Iago, Aladdin The Animated Series
Most of the hero team is eager and ready to go on another adventure, face peril, and explore new regions, but not this guy. He'd rather stay home, where it's safe. Maybe he doesn't really think the trip is worth it, maybe he doesn't care, or maybe he just has an aversion to painful, dangerous situations. Yet the team wants him to come, so, kicking and screaming if necessary, he comes along anyway.
None too happy about constantly being dragged along on adventures, you can usually find this one complaining and making sarcastic remarks, but, when push comes to shove, you can bet that he'll show his heroic traits in the clutch.
Contrast the Sour Supporter, who doesn't believe it will work, but will contribute anyway, although with sardonic comments.
See also Refusal Of The Call, for when the hero (as opposed to a member of the group) does this initially but eventually grows into the role, Cowardly Sidekick, and Grumpy Bear. A variation on The Complainer Is Always Wrong and Green Eggs And Ham. Most Drag Alongs are also Butt Monkeys or Chew Toys, which may justify their reluctance.
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- Kyon, the viewpoint character from the Suzumiya Haruhi series is always getting dragged around as an accessory to the schemes of his totally-not-girlfriend, and is rarely ever happy about it. He later acknowledges that he actually likes the crazyness. Well, he does but that doesn't mean that he likes being forced to dig countless holes for a treasure map that, of course, doesn't exist.
- Nara Shikamaru fits this trope like a glove early in the series, most prominently during the Chunin exams when chasing Sasuke. He'd much rather simply sit around and watch the clouds than fight or go on missions. Subsequent Character Development means that he takes a much more responsible role.
- Chisame of Mahou Sensei Negima frequently acted like this for a while after she found out about the magic world. Then it got subverted, as she successfully escapes the weirdness only to realize that her life was now incredibly boring. So she heads right back into the weird stuff.
Comics
- Tintin in the final book, Tintin and the Picaros. He agrees to go in the end, not to save the country but just to get his friends out of prison.
- The Captain owns this trope. All he wants to do is enjoy his retirement... but unfortunately he fell in with the wrong set of friends. He comes along despite his groans, and always ends up doing something badass.
- Yeagar or Arthax in Nodwick are prone to this behaviour when it's Piffany's turn to pick jobs. Nodwick acts like this all the time, but he has no choice in the matter.
- The Drummer in Planetary is this occasionally, likely because his information-gathering powers aren't the most useful in a fight.
- This is Donald Duck's role in many adventures with Scrooge Mc Duck. Scrooge and the nephews might be excited at the prospect of a new adventure. Donald has to be coerced. Particularly evident in "The Twenty-four Carat Moon" (December, 1958) by Carl Barks. He doesn't want to go to a space-travel mission and proclaims "I want to keep my feet on good old Earth". Two panels later, he is in the space-traveling vehicle, chained to his sheat and his feet are standing on a box of dirt. This doesn't stop Donald from being both useful and sarcastic.
Films
Literature
- In Animorphs, Marco started out as one of these, having no real reason to enter the battle against the invading Yeerks, and not really wanting to get involved. This changed BIG TIME when he discovered that Visser One was using the body of his supposedly deceased mother as a host. After this he quickly grew into the hero role, but he was still the sarcastic jokester of the group.
- Rincewind from Discworld. In pretty much every book he's in, he's always forced into adventure without any say on his part. The exception is The Last Hero, where he doesn't want to go, but knows he'll end up going somehow, so volunteers.
- Kedrigern in the series of books by John Morresey. He's a powerful wizard who hates to travel and just wants to live quietly in his home on the mountain, but he keeps getting pulled into adventures.
- This happens from time to time in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Depending on the task, Arthur Dent, Zaphod, or Ford will not want to do it. Guaranteed. Of course, Marvin never wants to do it.
- Mat from the Wheel Of Time, he has a very low opinion of heroics and the risks that are involved but unfortunately for him You Cant Fight Fate.
- The Hobbit: Poor Bilbo Baggins was billed as a burglar by Gandalf, for no apparent reason at the time (later explained, however, in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings), and then was dragged out of his comfortable hole in the ground by a party of treasure-hunting dwarves.
- Ahmad in The13th Warrior.
- At one point or another, each member of the core cast of Everworld was the drag-along. I mean, come on. Eventually, they just get plain sick and tired of running from Loki, Ka Anor, Merlin, the Hetwan, etc., etc. ad nauseum.
- Ciaphas Cain definitely fits this trope. The Warhammer 40000's least likely Commissar would rather spend his days somewhere far away from the fighting that pervades the galaxy (good luck on that one...). Yet time and time again he's dragged reluctantly into action against every single foe that the galaxy at large can throw at him (and then a few from a different reality altogether).
Live Action TV
- Cordelia in the earlier bits of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
- Eventually, after moving to LA, she starts working for Angel and realizes that she likes fighting demons, and even more interestingly, that she's not that bad at it.
- Goober in Fraggle Rock is perpetually The Drag Along or a Sour Supporter, or both. However, in an episode where he and Red get trapped under a rock slide and believe they are going to die, he confesses that he secretly has enjoyed all of the Fraggles' adventures, despite having been a reluctant coward about them all when they were happening. Of course, after they are rescued, Goober denies ever having said this, and in exchange for Red's secrecy on the matter, he promises he won't tell anyone else what a coward the usually-heroic Red turned out to be once death was staring her in the face.
Video Games
Web Comics
- Zoe from Sluggy Freelance can be like this, especially in the early strips. Whenever Torg or Riff decide it would be fun to summon demons or open portals to other dimensions, she often tries to stay out of it, but can't stop the weirdness from affecting her life.
- Bun-Bun is also sometimes like this, though he'll hop right on board the adventure train as soon as he sees some benefit in it for himself.
- Most of the The Order of the Stick (except Elan and Durkon) are prone to this behaviour; Haley and Belkar are the most repeat offenders but V is the most vocal one about it.
Web Originals
- Craig from The Allen And Craig Show is almost always unwilling to go along with Allen's plans, despite almost never seeing as bad an end as Allen does.
Western Animation
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