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Playing With / Tagalong Kid

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Basic Trope: An enthusiastic child follows the heroes around and is an inconvenience to them.

  • Straight: The main team of heroes is a Five-Man Band consisting of Alan, Bob, Charles, Dale, and Emily. They are frequently joined by Bob's six-year-old niece, Florinda. She loves the excitement of accompanying the heroes, but is uninvited and gets kidnapped more often than not.
  • Exaggerated: Florinda is only three years old, accompanies our heroes everywhere including the Big Bad's castle, and gets kidnapped in every episode, sometimes more than Once per Episode.
  • Downplayed:
    • Florinda is actually useful to the team.
    • Or, she is not helpful but is old enough to know what she is doing.
    • Florinda is sixteen years old.
  • Justified:
    • Florinda has no parents and lives with only her uncle Bob, so our heroes have to take her along.
    • Florinda joins the team because she wants to a be a heroine like her uncle when she grows up.
  • Inverted: A Token Adult accompanies a group of Kid Heroes.
  • Subverted: Florinda tags along, but is forced to go home upon Bob's command.
    • Florinda has the personality and attributes of the tagalong kid, but she's actually the oldest member of the group, being 18, while the rest of the heroes are 15-16 years old.
  • Double Subverted: Then she sneaks out of her bedroom and catches up to them using a combination of cuteness and underhanded guile, so as to make herself more 'mature'.
    • Florinda's innocent yet badass Plucky Girl personality makes her a fan favorite, writers want an actual tagalong kid, so they introduce George, who takes Florinda's childlike personality up to eleven.
  • Parodied: Florinda singlehandedly defeats the Big Bad.
  • Zig Zagged: The kid is useful and useless based on the circumstances. He has been sent home multiple times, but in the end he still sticks around with the team. As time passes, the kid grows up (physically and mentally) and develops into someone who can be considered a proper team member.
  • Averted: There is no Tagalong Kid.
  • Enforced: "We need someone to appeal to younger viewers. Let's add a Cheerful Child to the main cast."
  • Lampshaded: "We shouldn't take the kid into the villain's castle." "Where else is she going to go? We can't leave her out here by herself."
  • Invoked: Bob takes Florinda with him because she's too little to stay home by herself.
  • Exploited: A villain kidnaps Florinda to create a diversion for the heroes.
  • Defied: Bob is sensible enough to know that a villain's hideout is no place for a child, and finds a sitter for Florinda.
  • Discussed: Bob tells Alan, "If I can't find a sitter tonight, Florinda's coming with us to fight Captain Nogood."
  • Conversed: "What kind of heroes are they? They shouldn't let that little kid tag along with them."
  • Deconstructed: Being a Tag Along Kid is proven to be too dangerous and risky for the adults and perhaps the kid to bear. Soon enough he gets injured during a conflict, so he's forced to go home and stay out of the rest of the adventure.
  • Reconstructed: But then the kid finds a good teacher and trains himself to become a useful member of the team. He acknowledges the risks and consequences that he has to take, but he is determined to go along. As the adults realize that the kid has become more matured, they accept him as a part of the team.
  • Played For Laughs: Bob locks Florinda in her room and boards up the window ... but she still manages to get out.
  • Played For Drama: Florinda is seriously injured and has to go to a hospital. Bob blames himself, beats himself up about it for months, and is eventually Driven to Suicide.

Go home, kid! This is no place for you!

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