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Author: PPPSSC

Mar 2nd 2013 at 10:01:20 AM

When I first came up with this idea, I only had a few examples.  My original examples were:

* ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'' and ''An Extremely Goofy Movie'': My catalyst example.  Thinking of it to avoid shoehorning ComicTrio when they really only played that role in one scene in one movie.  The differences in their confidence levels are ''very'' important to subplots and jokes in the sequel.  As listed above, the rival was dismissive of the two "extreme" members and there was a DescriptionCut involved contrasting that exact dynamic (which made me wonder about a specific foil trope originally, until I realized all of the foils I could think of had a third, "cooler" friend).  Later in the same movie, there is an inversion of NoGuyWantsToBeChased, where the love interest rejects the AttentionWhore in favor of the ShrinkingViolet.  Whether that was her actual reason or not, the movie makes a point of showing the differences in their reactions to her no fewer than three times: stunned speechlessness vs. forward flirtatiousness.
* ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger''.  Moving up the social ladder is the main point of the show, so of course confidence plays a major role.  Ginger is of the trio the most able to rise up the social ladder, while when Dodie succeeds she lets it go to her head and Macie is somewhat intimidated by it.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife''.  Rocko's two friends provide contrasting conflicts: Heffer's brashness causes problems for Rocko while Filburt's shyness usually means Rocko has to help him out of his problems.

There were some definite patterns I noticed: the trios were usually not very popular, the neutral was the de facto leader and a CoolLoser, and the shy character tended to be presented more sympathetically than the overconfident one regardless of who was closer to the leader.

I'm seeing what you're saying, but at least for the examples I personally wrote, the hypotheticals above are much more ambiguous and much less relevant to anything the characters do.

In short, I don't think my original idea is PeopleSitOnChairs, but it's possible a lot of the new examples are shoehorned and it's actually TooRareToTrope.  I figured if no one could find more than a few examples after my first bump, I would consider it TooRareToTrope.