Playing With / Four-Girl Ensemble

Basic Trope: An ensemble of four girls consist of an ingenue, a tomboy, a seductress, and a maternal figure.

• Straight: Alice is an uber-feminine ditz, Belinda is a pants-wearing tomboy, Claire is the most provocatively dressing and is mainly motivated by men, and Diana is the group's leader and a generally comforting presence.
• Exaggerated: Alice is Too Dumb to Live and spends all day grooming herself, Belinda is The Lad-ette who wears men's clothes and refuses to go near makeup or high heels, Claire is a Shameless Fanservice Girl who Really Gets Around, and Diana is a Housewife and only literal mother of the group, or even their actual mother.
• Downplayed:
  • Alice and Belinda make up a Tomboy and Girly Girl pair and Claire and Diana make a Light Feminine and Dark Feminine pair, but the contrast between any of them is not particularly stark.
    • Or Alice and Claire make up a Light Feminine and Dark Feminine pair, and Belinda and Diana make a Tomboy and Girly Girl pair, but each pair has some noticeable similarities between the two girls.
  • Alice is a sweet Genius Ditz, Belinda is a Tomboy with a Girly Streak, Claire is a seductress who dresses and acts like a proper housewife, and Diana is a Team Mom with some Not So Above It All traits.
• Justified: Each woman was raised thinking their position was true femininity - Alice was taught to be prim and proper, Belinda was taught to be more masculine, etc.
• Inverted: The same as the gender inversion below, but with a girly man instead of a token manly man.
• Gender Inverted:
  • Aaron is a ditzy boy, Bob is a manly man, Charles is The Casanova, and Danny is the Team Dad.
  • Four-Man Band.
• Subverted:
  • While the group appeared to fit into their assigned archetypes, they turn out to be mismatched - Alice is the Team Mom, Belinda is The Ingenue, etc.
  • The team consists of Alice, Belinda, Claire... and Daphne, who doesn't fit any of the roles of a Four-Girl Ensemble.
  • The team consists of Alice, Belinda, Claire, and Diana...and then Faye joins as a Sixth Ranger, throwing the dynamic into chaos.
  • Alice, Belinda, Claire, and Diana seem to be members of the same group, but they are actually strangers.
• Double Subverted:
  • ...They were trying to fool the Big Bad, and their initial appearances prove right.
  • Daphne turns out to be just as big a Team Mom as Diana.
  • But then they decide to become friends.
• Parodied:
  • When Alice quits, the remaining girls induct naive Elsie into the group in her place, rejecting Faye, who is too boyish, Genevieve, who is too promiscuous, and Hannah, who is too maternal, needing a new Ingenue.
  • Stereotypes that get along with their personalities are occurred (see also Exaggerated.): Alice is a Dumb Blonde, Belinda is a Butch Lesbian, Claire is European, and Diana is a Brainy Brunette.
• Zig Zagged:
  • The girls switch positions Depending on the Writer.
  • Elsie, Faye, Genevieve, Hannah, and Daphne join in on occasion or replace members on some missions.
• Averted:
  • The Smurfette Principle, for one, or a Gender-Equal Ensemble that doesn't include at least four women.
  • Their gender is never revealed at all.
• Enforced: The writers want to include women of various roles, that just happen to end up in these archetypes.
• Lampshaded:
  • Alice: "We all have well defined roles. I'm the sweet one, Belinda's the masculine one, Claire's the sexy one, and Diana's the admirable one. I can't even wear pants anymore!"
  • Belinda: "Now that Alice has quit, we need a new ditz."
  • Diana: Sorry, Irene. There's only room for four girls. What would you even be?
• Invoked:
  • The four intentionally band together to support this archetype. (see also Parodied.)
  • The four intentionally band together to participate in some competition. Since each of the members has skills and/or superpowers based on their personalities they can get along and support each other.
• Exploited: For their birthdays, Diana gets kitchenware and a tea set, Claire gets lingerie, Belinda gets a power tools, and Alice gets makeup and new trendy clothes.
• Defied:
  • When Alice quits, they induct Faye, putting a group with two mannish ones and no girly ones.
  • Alice, Belinda, Claire, and Diana refuse to be friends with anybody who doesn't match with their personality.
• Discussed: "We need an all-female group with each significant personalities, what about having a cute one, a boyish one, a sexy one, and one who is the most mature of the four?"
• Conversed: "Are there only four kind of women in all of television?"
• Implied: Alice wears a lot of pink and is conventionally prettier than the rest, Belinda tends to avoid skirts and wears lighter/no makeup, Claire is usually shown flirting with boys, and Diana is the one to reign the other three in.
• Played for Laughs: For their birthdays, all of the girls get Diana's (who is Team Mom only in spirit) tea set with "World's Greatest Mom" written on it, Claire's lingerie and condom with every single size, Belinda's power tools, and Alice's makeup and hairbows.
• Played For Drama:
  • The girls are unhappy with the positions that are given them: Alice hates how little she is taken seriously and wants to be tougher, Belinda wants to be more feminine, Claire wants to settle down and start a family, and Diana doesn't like being taken advantage of so much.
  • The four get into a lot of fights since they have little in common, and eventually the team splits into non-amicable terms.
• Played For Horror: In a stereotypical Slasher Movie, Belinda dies first. Followed by Claire who suffers from Sex Signals Death. When Alice and Diana remain, the Serial Killer chooses Alice. Leading the sole Diana to become the group's Final Girl.

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