Follow TV Tropes

Following

Playing With / Three Plus Two

Go To

Basic Trope: The Team starts out as a Power Trio, but two more characters join to form a quintet, often a Five-Man Band.

  • Straight: The main team of heroes is a Power Trio consisting of The Hero Adam, The Smart Guy Peter, and The Big Guy David. They are sometimes joined by Adam's best friend, Larry, and another "friend", Rita, thereby forming a Five-Man Band. Adam, Larry, and Rita are a classic Love Triangle.
  • Exaggerated:
    • The Five-Man Band often separates into individuals.
    • They don't always split into the same two groups. In one episode, the Power Trio is Adam, Peter, and Rita; in the next, it's Peter, Larry, and David.
    • Adam, Peter, and David are the main heroes, but there are dozens of others who come and go.
    • It's a Geodesic Cast with several Three Plus Two groups.
  • Downplayed: Larry and Rita only occasionally accompany Adam, Peter, and David.
  • Justified:
    • Adam, Peter, and David have few (if any) commitments, while Larry and Rita are employed, in school, or otherwise unavailable some of the time.
    • Larry and Peter were POWs at Camp Blauhoff when it was liberated by Adam, Peter and David, not wanting to just sit on the side lines they promptly joined the squadron in their trek to liberate other POW Camps.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted: Larry and Rita claim that they are "too busy" to come with the heroes this time ... but only this time.
  • Double Subverted: They are "too busy" again later on; Larry lied and Rita misunderstood.
  • Parodied: ???
  • Zig Zagged: Adam, Peter, and David form a Power Trio, while Adam, Larry, and Rita form another. Naturally, Adam is The Leader of both trios as well as the Five-Man Band as a whole.
  • Averted:
  • Enforced: "We can't have the five heroes together all the time, or people might get confused. And everyone's too popular to kill off or Put on a Bus." "Let's do a Three Plus Two setup. You know, a divided Five-Man Band."
  • Lampshaded:
    • "It's just the three of us today, but sometimes we have Larry and Rita with us."
    • Emperor Evulz: "Why don't the so-called heroes stick together?"
  • Invoked: The group decides to start splitting at times just to confuse Emperor Evulz.
  • Exploited: Rita needs time to herself, so she takes full advantage of times when Larry is too busy to show.
  • Defied: Rather than risk defeat, Adam vows not to fight without all of his friends.
  • Discussed: "Some groups of friends don't stick together, but we do."
  • Conversed: "What happened to Adam's girlfriend and sidekick? Sometimes they just vanish."
  • Implied: Larry and Rita are entirely absent from some episodes, with no explanation.
  • Plotted A Good Waste: A writer notices that the group sometimes splits, and decides to apply this as a Running Gag in later episodes.
  • Played For Laughs: Adam can never keep track of whether Larry and Rita are present. (As in, "What? They snuck out on us again?")
  • Played For Drama: Emperor Evulz kills the heroes one by one while they are apart.

What do you get when you add Three Plus Two heroes? A Five-Man Band, of course!

Top