History Main / PlugNPlayFriends

When a new character permanently joins an [[TrueCompanions ensemble cast]], it takes an astonishingly short time for her to get to the same level of rapport with the other characters as they already had with each other (and with the character she's replacing). Expect one FishOutOfWater episode, and then she'll be flirting, sharing intimate secrets, in on all the jokes. Can overlap conceptually with ReplacementGoldfish, when the new "fish" is immediately treated and acts as a beloved friend.

In an action series or a video game, she'll be willing to die for everyone else, and vice versa, with a passion nobody ever shows for the one-episode [[TheMillstone Millstone]] character. Of course, her outsider status could be resurrected [[CompressedVice for a one-episode conflict]] later, or she could turn out to be TheMole. (if so, and she regrets her actions, she will be EasilyForgiven)

* In FinalFantasyVII, when Shinra seems to know where you're headed after the Gold Saucer, Cloud has a scene where he forcefully refuses to consider that anyone on his party could be a traitor, saying that he doesn't want to suspect any of his friends. Keep in mind that you just met Cait Sith ''five minutes ago'', and he's only known Aeris and Rex XIII for a week at most. It's possible to literally have met Yuffie thirty seconds before this cutscene happens. And while Cloud has bonded rapidly with Aeris, Yuffie and Cait Sith's initial introduction to the party don't involve any sort of bonding -- they basically elbow their way in even though it's clear nobody likes them. [[spoiler:Cloud's insistence that they're all his close friends becomes extra-hilarious when you consider the fact that Cait Sith is, in fact, the traitor in question, while Yuffie is a thief out to take them for all they're worth.]]

*** In Blackfire's case, the Titans were probably trying to be extra nice to her because she was Starfire's sister.

-->--'''''TheGamers'''''

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** Done hilariously in the film ''TheGamers''

* In FinalFantasyVII, when Shinra seems to know where you're headed after the Gold Saucer, Cloud forcefully refuses to consider that anyone on his party could be a traitor, because they're all such close friends. Keep in mind that you just met Cait Sith ''five minutes ago'', and he's only known Aeris and Rex XIII for a week at most. It's possible to literally have met Yuffie thirty seconds before this cutscene happens. [[spoiler:This becomes extra-hilarious when you consider the fact that Cait Sith is, in fact, the traitor in question.]]

* In FinalFantasy7, when Shinra seems to know where you're headed after the Gold Saucer, Cloud forcefully refuses to consider that anyone on his party could be a traitor, because they're all such close friends. Keep in mind that you just met Cait Sith ''five minutes ago'', and he's only known Aeris and Rex XIII for a week at most. It's possible to literally have met Yuffie thirty seconds before this cutscene happens. [[spoiler:This becomes extra-hilarious when you consider the fact that Cait Sith is, in fact, the traitor in question.]]

* The Trolls and Kids to each other in ''{{Homestuck}}'', considering they've known each other for all of a day on positive terms, although the Trolls harassed them previously. Averted however with some of the Trolls who outright refuse or seem disinterested in getting to know the Kids [[spoiler: somewhat justifiably given that they unleashed a PhysicalGod on the Trolls who started killing them]].
** This is incidentally the source of a major BaseBreaker, in that canonical romances are beginning between some of them [[spoiler: John and Vriska at least showing interest in each other]], again having known each other for under 24 hours.

* In ''BlackLagoon'', Rock integrates rather quickly with the crew of the Lagoon, insofar he goes from being their hostage to being, at least superficially, 'one of them' in the space of about a day, helped by the fact that he saves all of their asses by devising the most [[RefugeInAudacity balls-to-the-wall insane method of killing an attack helicopter ever]]. Rock himself {{lampshades}} this at one point and starts to wonder if he's developed StockholmSyndrome because of how calm he is over the degree of familiarity he gets with them so quickly. Revy is the exception: it takes her about six episodes to properly accept him once he has actually joined them.

** Averted in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' when Ronon was added to the cast as a replacement. 2 and a half seasons later and the majority of the main characters are still somewhat scared of him.
*** Eh, not really. It takes Ronon a few episodes to become comfortable with the team and start forming deep relationships with them (a dead girlfriend and several years of being unable to stay in any one place for very long without endangering lives will do that to you.) He definitely takes a little longer to mesh with the team than most examples on this page, but they're all pretty tight fairly quickly.

* In ''BlackLagoon'', Rock integrates rather quickly with the crew of the Lagoon, insofar he goes from being their hostage to being, at least superficially, 'one of them' in the space of about a day (although to be fair, that was ''some'' day). Rock himself {{lampshades}} this at one point and starts to wonder if he's developed StockholmSyndrome because of how calm he is over the degree of familiarity he gets with them so quickly. Revy is the exception: it takes her about six episodes to properly accept him once he has actually joined them.
** to be fair, Rock did save all of their asses by devising the most [[RefugeInAudacity balls-to-the-wall insane method of killing an attack helicopter ever]], so its not as if he just showed up with a gift basket and asked if he could join.

* Rachel in ''{{Friends}}'', although she does have some prior connections.
* ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'''s introduction of Teal'c, in which he betrays his ''god'' in a HeelFaceTurn, makes it seem odd that O'Neill trusts him so quickly, to the point of sternly insisting on his inclusion into SG-1. Jonas Quinn [[AvertedTrope averted]] it, however.
** Averted in ''{{Stargate Atlantis}}'' when Ronon was added to the cast as a replacement. 2 and a half seasons later and the majority of the main characters are still somewhat scared of him.

* Averted twice in ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'':

** When [[spoiler:Zuko]] joins the Gaang, he is also not welcomed immediately. He needs a separate episode with EACH of Aang, Sokka, and Katara to get their acceptance and forgiveness.
*** Sadly, [[RunningGag no life-changing field trip with Zuko]] [[LampshadeHanging for Toph]].

* This is a frequent occurrence with new members of the Strawhat Pirates in ''OnePiece'', although Luffy ''is'' [[MagneticHero the kind of guy]] who'd be quick to be friendly with anyone he meets unless they do something to get on his bad side. One particular weird instance is how Sanji is completely sure Nami would never betray them during the Arlong Park Arc... even though he just joined the crew in the previous arc, which Nami was mostly absent for, and thus barely had any contact with her. The only noticeable exception is Robin in how she never refers to any of her fellow crew mates by name until the end of the Enies Lobby Arc.
** How is it weird that Sanji was acting completely in-character? His two defining character traits are being an expert chef and falling in love with every pretty girl he lays eyes on. Considering how he acts the rest of the time, him being suspicious of Nami would practically be character derailment... (remember that he was very quick to accept Robin as a member of the crew, even knowing she had just defected from Baroque Works, just because)

When a new character permanently joins an [[TrueCompanions ensemble cast]], it takes an astonishingly short time for her to get to the same level of rapport with the other characters as they already had with each other (and with the character she's replacing). Expect one FishOutOfWater episode, and then she'll be flirting, sharing intimate secrets, in on all the jokes.

* All the Maquis characters in ''StarTrekVoyager''. By half way through the first season (once they get rid of Seska), none of the Starfleet personnel seem to care they're working with terrorists, and none of the Maquis seem to remember that they believe Starfleet and the Federation sold them down the river. Granted, they've got more important things to worry about, but still, you'd think it rated an occasional mention.

When a new character permanently joins an [[{{Nakama}} ensemble cast]], it takes an astonishingly short time for her to get to the same level of rapport with the other characters as they already had with each other (and with the character she's replacing). Expect one FishOutOfWater episode, and then she'll be flirting, sharing intimate secrets, in on all the jokes.

* One of many reasons that Shirayuki Berii of ''TokyoMewMew a la mode'' is marked as a CanonSue. The {{nakama}} is generally inclusive and friendly, but Berii makes them practically worship her before they even ''speak'' to her.

* Terra from ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' meets the main cast in one episode, becomes best buds with them in a minute, then leaves in a fit of rage after (mistakenly) thinking they had betrayed her at the end of that same episode. Later, she comes back with a big smile on her face, offering her unending services to the team. They take her in, they throw her a big old welcome party, and then she attempts to murder them all. This is over-simplified; not only is the PlugNPlayFriends aspect ginormous here, Terra herself is actually very well developed as a character and the reasons for her actions are not hard to discern.

* ''TalesOfSymphonia'' was particularly bad about this. Sheena fights the group twice before joining up and just a few scenes later she's giving advice to Colette (which she takes to heart). Then you have characters like Zelos and Presea who they just meet, but are already talking to as if they are "one of the guys."

** For that matter, the crew accepts Neelix, Kes, and even Seven remarkably quickly, considering two of them were strangers from previously unknown alien races and the third was an enemy combatant.

* David from ''{{Animorphs}}'' could almost be considered a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this; the Animorphs (except Marco and Ax) expect a relative stranger to join their team, cooperate with them, and go along with their tactics. However, the Animorphs play their hand poorly, and David is a bit too selfish for their tastes. It doesn't end well.

* {{Stargate SG-1}}'s introduction of Teal'c, in which he betrays his ''god'' in a HeelFaceTurn, makes it seem odd that O'Neill trusts him so quickly, to the point of sternly insisting on his inclusion into SG-1. Jonas Quinn [[AvertedTrope averted]] it, however.
** Averted in {{Stargate Atlantis}} when Ronan was added to the cast as a replacement. 2 and a half seasons later and the majority of the main characters are still somewhat scared of him.
*** Eh, not really. It takes Ronan a few episodes to become comfortable with the team and start forming deep relationships with them (a dead girlfriend and several years of being unable to stay in any one place for very long without endangering lives will do that to you.) He definitely takes a little longer to mesh with the team than most examples on this page, but they're all pretty tight fairly quickly.

* One episode after B.J. was introduced in ''[[{{MASH}} M*A*S*H]]'', he was inexplicably Hawkeye's best bud and the incoming Colonel Potter, looking over their records, berated them for how much goofing off they did together. This after B.J. had been introduced as a straight arrow in the previous episode. One has to wonder if the episode was written before Wayne Rogers left and they just crossed out "Trapper" and wrote in "B.J." without changing anything else.

* This happens in season 3 of {{NCIS}} after the character of Caitlin Todd is killed off, her replacement is Mossad Officer Ziva David, who joins the team only a couple of episodes after her half-brother (the terrorist Ari Haswari) murdered Caitlin. However, this could be seen as an aversion, since they show the other members of the team being fairly open to her, but commenting on how it is odd for their boss, Agent Gibbs, to do the same. This is explained as Ziva having saved Gibbs' life when Ari came to kill him in his basement (by shooting her half-brother), forming a bond of trust that otherwise would not have occurred nearly as fast.

* Averted twice in AvatarTheLastAirbender:

* {{Stargate SG-1}}'s introduction of Teal'c, in which he betrays his ''god'' in a HeelFaceTurn, makes it seem odd that O'Neill trusts him so quickly, to the point of sternly insisting on his inclusion into SG-1. The former TropeNamer JonasQuinn [[AvertedTrope averted]] it, however.

* Happens a lot in ''ExitFate'', as the game has ''75'' recruitable party members. Petra just joins the army because she doesn't think you respect a woman's strength. Shin is almost literally an incarantion of evil and tried to turn Soth into something similar ''and'' you have to fight them, but then Soth joins up to redeem himself and Shin joins because you seem interesting.
** The vampire Vanrushal takes the cake though -- after you and the exorcist Luther confront and fight him in his evil mansion (after killing dozens of evil minions) he claims that he's weakened down to near-human levels and can't stay here, so he joins your army. Without your approval. Against Luther's loud protests. (Luther joins too, to keep an eye on Vanrushal.) Granted, [[LampshadeHanging as Vanrushal points out]], he was keeping to himself and it was your party that tried to kill ''him'', and he wasn't even an ''evil'' vampire -- Luther's just a (fairly benign) zealot when it comes to vampire hunting.

When a new character permanently joins an [[{{Nakama}} ensemble cast]], it takes an astonishingly short time for her to get to the same level of rapport with the other characters as they already had with each other (and with [[JonasQuinn the character she's replacing]]). Expect one FishOutOfWater episode, and then she'll be flirting, sharing intimate secrets, in on all the jokes.