History Main / WeWereYourTeam

** Also happens to a number of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' fanfics that have Usagi gone or killed off.

->''"[[TropeNamer We were YOUR team]], Commander. With the ''Normandy'' destroyed and you gone, there wasn't much keeping us together."''

A team falls apart after TheHeart or their MagneticHero [[TheHeroDies dies]], [[TheBandMinusTheFace leaves]], or [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascends to a higher plane of existence]]. Without his or her unifying influence, there isn't much holding them together anymore, so they drift apart to pursue their own endeavors.

WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou is a VideoGame-specific subtrope, where the protagonist's death ends the game even if companions are still alive. Presumably they drift apart ''immediately'', without even stopping to use a [[Franchise/FinalFantasy Phoenix Down]].

If the hero comes BackFromTheDead, expect PuttingTheBandBackTogether. Compare TheFellowshipHasEnded, when the team was held together by a unifying purpose rather than a particular member, and LosingTheTeamSpirit.

Be warned, this is often a '''DeathTrope'''!

* This happens to the Warden's companions in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' [[spoiler:if s/he dies in the FinalBattle. To be fair, [[TheFellowshipHasEnded they still leave even if s/he survives]]]].
** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', after the events at the Gallows, Hawke and their companions are forced to flee Kirkwall and go their seperate ways, with the exception of Hawke's LoveInterest who joined them on the run.

** This is lampshaded late in the game, when Miranda points out that Shepard must have a magnetic personality and gobs of charisma to get so many people not just working together, but working together well, despite their misgivings about each other. In short, Shepard's superpower is rallying the people.
** Happens again in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', albeit for different reasons: Shepard decides to turn the new Normandy over to the Alliance and spends six months stuck on Earth. The survivors of the Suicide Mission are scattered across the galaxy, and in a slight subversion, only Garrus, the Virmire Survivor, Liara and Tali rejoin your squad - everyone else is [[HeroOfAnotherStory involved in various side quests.]] But they ALL play a role in the conflict at large, if they survived.

** Also happens with Team Hawke in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII''; once [[spoiler:Meredith is dead and Hawke mysteriously disappears]], everyone goes their separate ways, with the exception of Hawke's LoveInterest.

* When Taichi was dragged back to the real world in ''DigimonAdventure'', the [[YearInsideHourOutside time inconsistency]] meant that the remaining Chosen slowly split apart over the course of a month or so, partially of their own devices and partially because of the influence of [[TheTrickster PicoDevimon]], to the point that Takeru and [[BondCreature Tokomon]], formerly very close, even got mad at and left each other. When he makes his way back, much of the next arc is him (and Sora, acting as a MysteriousProtector) trying to regroup the Chosen even as [=PicoDevimon=] continues trying to tear them apart.

* This, combined with other incidents, is what leads to most of Tenchi's gathering of girls to go off halfway through ''TenchiInTokyo''. Once Washu figures out what's going on and Tenchi [[spoiler:and Sasami]] end up in trouble, they start to return.

* Quite a few OnePiece ones had the Straw Hats disbanding once their captain Luffy was gone.
** Also happens to a number of ''SailorMoon'' fanfics that have Usagi gone or killed off.

* In ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', [[spoiler:after the PlayerCharacter ventures alone into Unknown Space after the events of the game]], the ''Ebon Hawk'' crew likewise falls apart, with only a few reappearing in the sequel.

* In ''{{Persona 3}}: [[ExpansionPack FES]]'', the SEES members admit they've fallen apart, despite being dorm mates, after the events of the main campaign [[spoiler:in which the main character died]].
** Subverted with Persona 4. The group of heroes all stay together in spite of the protagonist leaving the town for awhile at the end of the game. And when he returns in Arena, and in the Golden's epilogue they all fall in as if he'd never left.
* This can happen in ''VideoGame/{{Football Manager}}'' and whilst it may seem like a weird example all the rules of this trope apply. If you resign or leave your club for whatever reason and you have built a good rapport with your staff then they may leave alongside you.
* In ''VideoGame/TheGodfather 2'' Michael Corleone discusses this, saying that [[spoiler: Aldo Trapani]] was the only one holding the New York mob together. Sure enough, with his death, breakaway splinter groups have started to form.

* In the 90's version of ''{{Spiderman}}'', the Six Forgotten Heroes were implied to have been like this - after Captain America did a HeroicSacrifice, they each went their separate ways, and most of them gave up superheroism eventually. Although the team is put back together by Spiderman, not Captain America.
* Done in an...interesting way in ''MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls''. In [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the show proper,]] while it's implied that the rest of the Mane 6 knew each other prior to Twilight Sparkle's arrival, they didn't really get to know each other and become friends until Twilight pulled them all together. When Twilight enters the HighSchoolAU in Equestria Girls, she finds out that the human versions of the Mane 5 were friends until AlphaBitch Sunset Shimmer manipulated them into breaking apart. Not two days after Twilight's arrival, the Humane 5 are once again friends.

* When the family head, usually the grandparents, die, very often the rest of the family will drift apart without patriarch / matriarch keeping them together.

** Happens again in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', albeit for different reasons: Shepard decides to turn the new Normandy over to the Alliance and spends six months stuck on Earth. The survivors of the Suicide Mission are scattered across the galaxy, and in a slight subversion, only Garrus and Tali rejoin your squad - everyone else is [[HeroOfAnotherStory involved in various side quests.]] But they ALL play a role in the conflict at large, if they survived.

* Done in an...interesting way in ''MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls.'' In [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the show proper,]] while it's implied that the rest of the Mane 6 knew each other prior to Twilight Sparkle's arrival, they didn't really get to know each other and become friends until Twilight pulled them all together. When Twilight enters the HighSchoolAU in Equestria Girls, she finds out that the human versions of the Mane 5 were friends until AlphaBitch Sunset Shimmer manipulated them into breaking apart. Not two days after Twilight's arrival, the Humane 5 are once again friends.

* Done in an...interesting way in MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls. In [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the show proper,]] while it's implied that the rest of the Mane 6 knew each other prior to Twilight Sparkle's arrival, they didn't really get to know each other and become friends until Twilight pulled them all together. When Twilight enters the HighSchoolAU in Equestria Girls, she finds out that the human versions of the Mane 5 were friends until AlphaBitch Sunset Shimmer manipulated them into breaking apart. Not two days after Twilight's arrival, the Humane 5 are once again friends.

* When Taichi was dragged back to the real world in ''DigimonAdventure'', the [[YearInsideHourOutside time inconsistency]] meant that the remaining Chosen slowly split apart over the course of a month or so, partially of their own devices and partially because of the influence of [[TricksterArchetype PicoDevimon]], to the point that Takeru and [[BondCreature Tokomon]], formerly very close, even got mad at and left each other. When he makes his way back, much of the next arc is him (and Sora, acting as a MysteriousProtector) trying to regroup the Chosen even as [=PicoDevimon=] continues trying to tear them apart.

* In ''MassEffect2'', [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]]'s sheer [[MagneticHero magnetism]] kept the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits very mixed]] ''Normandy'' crew together even after the Saren crisis. When s/he was killed, however, they fell apart... [[TropeNamer See Joker's quote on that above]]. Shepard's return eventually draws almost all of them back together, aside from those who have other obligations [[spoiler: like Wrex reforming the Krogan or Liara being the Shadow Broker]]. The bulk of Shepard's crew [[spoiler: and whichever squadmate you chose to save on Virmire]] however left on other Alliance business and invoke WhatTheHellHero for Shepard working for Cerberus.

** Happens again in ''MassEffect3'', albeit for different reasons: Shepard decides to turn the new Normandy over to the Alliance and spends six months stuck on Earth. The survivors of the Suicide Mission are scattered across the galaxy, and in a slight subversion, only Garrus and Tali rejoin your squad - everyone else is [[HeroOfAnotherStory involved in various side quests.]]
*** But they ALL play a role in the conflict at large, if they survived.

-->--'''Joker''', ''MassEffect2''

* This happens to the Warden's companions in ''DragonAge: Origins'' [[spoiler:if s/he dies in the FinalBattle. To be fair, [[TheFellowshipHasEnded they still leave even if s/he survives]]]].
** Also happens with Team Hawke in ''DragonAgeII''; once [[spoiler:Meredith is dead and Hawke mysteriously disappears]], everyone goes their separate ways, with the exception of Hawke's LoveInterest.

[[folder:RealLife]]
* When the family head, usually the grandparents, die, very often the rest of the family will drift apart without patriarch / matriarch keeping them together.

->''"[[TropeNamer We were YOUR team]], Commander. With the Normandy destroyed and you gone, there wasn't much keeping us together."''

->''"[[TropeNamer We were YOUR team]], Commander. Wasn't much keeping us together after you died."''

If the hero comes BackFromTheDead, expect PuttingTheBandBackTogether. Compare TheFellowshipHasEnded, when the team was held together by a unifying purpose rather than a particular member, and KillingTheTeamSpirit.

If the hero comes BackFromTheDead, expect PuttingTheBandBackTogether. Compare TheFellowshipHasEnded, when the team was held together by a unifying purpose rather than a particular member.

* In KingdomCome, it was Superman's retirement (after the death of Lois Lane, and the public favoring the AntiHero Magog over him) that caused most other heroes to also retire. Similarly his return years later inspired them to come back.

WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou is a VideoGame-specific subtrope, where the protagonist's death ends the game even if companions are still alive. Presumably they drift apart ''immediately'', without even stopping to use a [[FinalFantasy Phoenix Down]].