History Main / ThePowerOfFriendship

* ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'':

** Played with in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance''. The villains [[spoiler: use Sora's reliance of the power of friendship to lure him into a trap, and Xigbar attempts to deconstruct the trope by pointing out that if Sora's power comes from his friends, [[TheUnchosenOne then he doesn't have any of his own. Sora completely ignores the attempt to send him into a HeroicBSOD and [[DeconReconSwitch reconstructs it on the spot]], saying that that makes him part of something bigger than himself and he's totally cool with that.]]

** The nature of Friendship Power becomes even more important in the 2012 reboot. Its emergence prompts the most elite of the Perfect Choujin, the Perfect Origin and the Perfect Large Numbers, to emerge and begin a purge of all "Inferior Choujin". Nearly every defeat or near-defeat the Perfect Choujin experience due to these battles is due to their opponent, be they Justice Choujin or Devil, channeling Friendship Power in some way, shape, or form. Even ''Akuma Shogun'' manages to tap into it ever so slightly in his fight with Choujin Enma, the one person aside from his brother that he was closest to. Almost immediately after this arc, another group, Alpha Centauri's Six Spears, come to Earth and begin trying to discover how to utilize Friendship Power themselves.

** In the Season Four climax, the Scoobies use a spell that combines all their powers into Buffy's body - becoming, in other words, the Power of Friendship given corporeal form. They proceed to demonstrate this power by curbstomping the previously unstoppable Adam.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It's right there in the title.]]

** Throughout the series, the Mane 6 used their talents to teach all ponies, and later all creatures, the magic of friendship. In the [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E25TheEndingOfTheEndPart2 penultimate episode]], this culminates in [[spoiler:''everyone in Equestria'' joining them to take down Cozy, Tirek and Chrysalis, ending with the Pillars, the Mane Six, and the Student Six channeling the Power of Friendship into Twilight to send a massive WaveMotionGun to the villains' faces.]]

** ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartscoded coded]]'' keeps up the trend; the connections and friendship that data Sora has built with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy [[spoiler: allow Data Sora to summon a Keyblade, and may have actually created a heart for him.]]

** Played with in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3D''. The villains [[spoiler: use Sora's reliance of the power of friendship to lure him into a trap, and Xigbar attempts to deconstruct the trope by pointing out that if Sora's power comes from his friends, [[TheUnchosenOne then he doesn't have any of his own. Sora completely ignores the attempt to send him into a HeroicBSOD and [[DeconReconSwitch reconstructs it on the spot]], saying that that makes him part of something bigger than himself and he's totally cool with that.]]

** In "Anime/DigimonTamers", Renamon was finally able to evolve after Ruki refused to leave her for dead. Later she explains that she was able to evolve because Ruki truly cared for her.

* This happened precisely once in the entire history of the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'': When Doctor XX had captured several members of the [[SuperheroSchool Hyperion Academy]] student body, she gloated over her prisoners, proclaiming that as "mere children", they never had a hope of defeating her.
-->'''Doctor XX:''' Did you really think you'd win? I'm more powerful than any of you!\\
'''Battlecry:''' Yeah? Maybe so... (cue the wall coming down as the rest of the students arrive) but you're not more powerful than all of us!

* ''Manga/BusouRenkin''. Kazuki, while defending his school from a homunculus army released by Doctor Butterfly, says that he's regaining strength by drawing on the spirits of his friends and classmates. [[spoiler: What he (and the audience at this point) don't know at the time is exactly how ''literal'' that statement is - he's begun to draw on the life force of the people in the school, signaling that the Black Kakugane in him is beginning to awaken.]]

** "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!" has [[spoiler:all the kids form a ChainOfPeople to keep Lena from getting pulled through a mirror by Magica, with the shot drawing attention to the friendship bracelets Lena had given all of them earlier in the night (save for Webby, whose bracelet was introduced in the aforementioned "Jaw$!"]]

** [[spoiler: Orihime's 'six hearts beat as one' speech.]]

* Rhino the Hamster from Disney's ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'' completely believes in this trope.

** Gameplay-wise, D-Links are basically the invoking of The Power Of Friendship, in which characters tap into the powers of characters they've interacted with. Most of these actually involve friendship ([[Disney/LiloAndStitch Experiment 626]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Zack]] and Mickey) while others a bit less so (the Franchise/{{Disney Princess}}es and in [[UnwittingPawn Terra's]] case, [[Disney/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]]).

* ''Manga/TisTimeForTorturePrincess'' features a villainous example; some of the "tortures" used by the Hell-Horde involve explointing the FriendlessBackground of the eponymous [[WarriorPrince Princess]] by offering her the chance to play and hang out with her [[FriendlyEnemy "torturers"]], especially TricksterTwins Enki and Youki.

* The climax and resolution of ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' revolves around this.

* Though subtle, the PowerOfFriendship looks like the reason [[spoiler: all the main characters]] survive the last few episodes of ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' despite all odds.

* ''Manga/ZatchBell'' emphasizes this extremely strongly. Not only the good guys generally get stronger and find NewPowersAsThePlotDemands in themselves through desire to protect their friends, not only friendship serves as the main driving force for most of them, in the end of the manga [[spoiler: PowerOfFriendship becomes the DeusExMachina that saves both worlds from the nearly unbeatable BigBad.]]

** This one of the main themes of the series, really. By themselves, all of the series' party members are both good people and more-than-decent fighters, but once they all have each other, they can achieve practically anything. [[VideoGame/{{Mother 3}} You will believe a halitosis-ridden cripple, a potty-mouthed teenager, a PTSD-stricken shepherd boy, and a dog can single-handedly save the world]] thanks to the PowerOfFriendship.

** Grogar tries to evoke a VillainousFriendship variant of this after explaining to Lord Tirek, Cozy Glow, Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra that the reason they've all been repeatedly defeated by Twilight Sparkle and her friends is because the ponies ''work together'', and that if they pool their resources they'll have no trouble overpowering the ponies. Cozy Glow is thoroughly enthused about the idea, while the rest are more skeptical... until King Sombra tries to go it alone and gets KilledOffForReal by ThePowerOfFriendship ''alone''... which scares Tirek and Chrysalis into falling in line as well.

See also TeamSpirit, TrueCompanions, ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfTrust, DefeatMeansFriendship, FireForgedFriends, DyingAlone, YouAreNotAlone. The risk of TastesLikeDiabetes or even {{Narm}} is present [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools if done poorly]]. TheGoodKing should be wary of this trope, it can turn into {{Nepotism}} (well, technically cronyism). If your protagonists are entirely reliant on their friends for any characterization or motivation, they will rapidly become {{Flat Character}}s.

* ''Film/StarWars: Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'': The Emperor thinks Luke is a fool for trusting his friends to destroy the greatest superweapon ever built. We all know how that turned out.

* This is the second most prominent trope of ''Manga/FairyTail'' behind TrueCompanions. In a series where the strength of a wizard's magic is tied to [[EmotionalPowers the strength of their feelings]], the members of the titular guild gain a huge boost of magical adrenaline due to how strongly they feel about each other, namely [[BerserkButton seeing them getting hurt]]. This also applies in the form of a Unison Raid, a CombinationAttack where two wizards close to each other link their magic to each other to incredibly powerful effect.

** As one Youtuber described it: "Broskandar took the Power of Friendship and '''''fucking weaponized it!'''''"