Laconic: A character is welcomed to join the popular group.
Related Tropes: Toxic Friend Influence, Girl Posse, Gang of Bullies, Naïve Newcomer.
Possible Indexes: Popularity Food Chain
Examples:
Films Live-Action
- Kick-Ass: Alpha Bitch Brooke invites Mindy over for a sleep over after a misunderstanding makes it seem like she slept with Dave. She then tries to mold her into another one of her minions. However, Mindy soon begins to outshine her, causing Brooke to turn on her. She's later seen trying to get another girl to join her group, presumably starting the cycle all over again.
- Mean Girls: The premise of the movie is that new girl Cady Heron is invited to join Alpha Bitch Regina George's clique. Regina seems nice at first, but she then sabotages one of Cady's attempts to get with her Love Interest. Cady then decides to use her position in Regina's clique to undermine her popularity.
- Sky High: At the start of the film, Will is sorted into the Sidekick class for not having any powers. This class is considered the losers at the school. When his powers do show up, he's sorted into the Hero class and is welcomed by the popular clique. He even receives romantic attention from Gwen, the queen bee at the school. It turns out she's actually a supervillain and manipulating him for her secret plan.
Literature
- Harry Potter: When they first meet, the snobby Draco Malfoy tries to get Harry to join his Gang of Bullies. However, disliking Draco's class prejudices, Harry refuses the invite. This fuels the rivalry between the two.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: At the start of A Storm Of Swords, Maergaery arrives at King's Landing. Due to her betrothal to the King, she is a very powerful person in the royal court. She welcomes Sansa, who had become an outcast due to her brother's rebellion, into her inner circle. Of course she's only doing this to help arrange a marriage between Sansa and her brother Willas. When this doesn't work out, she proceeds to shun Sansa.
Live-Action Television
- Dexter: New Blood: After arriving in Iron Lake, Harrison is welcomed by the popular crowd, particularly by Jerk Jocks Zach and Scott. However, he turns on them after he learns they've been Catfishing a lonely nerd. He helps the nerd get back at his bullies.
- GCB: Every year the local Girl Posse sprinkles either glitter or mud on the girls at school. Glitter means that they're welcomed to join the popular crowd, while mud means they're labelled ugly. It initially looks like Amanda's daughter Laura will get mud sprinkled on her head, but at the last minute she gets glitter. This worries Amanda who worries that this will cause her daughter to turn out like she was in high school, but Laura insists that she will be both popular and kind.
- Suburgatory: In one episode, Tessa joins the school newspaper where she meets Malik. The school newspaper is initially seen as uncool by the student body, but the two change its reputation by turning it into a tabloid that focuses on gossip regarding the school. This causes Malik to become popular and starts hanging out with a popular clique called "The KKK" (all the members have names starting with the letter K).
Western Animation
- Recess: One episode reveals that Spinelli's first name is Ashley. As a result, a popular clique called the Ashleys try to forcibly recruit her and get her to be more like them in personality.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: Harry and Peter are at the bottom of the social totem pole at the start of the series. However, both try out for football and Harry makes the team. This causes his social standing to rise at school. This ends when Harry leaves the team to go to Europe (in actuality this is cover for him getting therapy because he's addicted to performance enhancing drugs).
Laconic: Characters are on the same team, but are rivals.
Examples:
Films Live-Action
- Pitch Perfect: Both Aubrey and Beca are part of the Barden Bellas, a college A Capella group, with Aubrey being the captain. The two clash due to Aubrey being a Control Freak and Beca being rebellious.
- Stick It: Haley and Tricia are both members of the Vickerman Gymnastics Academy. However, Tricia resents Haley after she cost them a major competition by walking at the last moment. This isn't helped when Haley suggests that there should be a formal tryout process to see who makes the team, which almost costs Tricia her spot.
Literature
- No More Dead Dogs: Protagonist Wallace is a sports star due to scoring a game winning touchdown at the expense of Cavanaugh. Embarrassed by this, Cavanaugh sets out to undermine Wallace, even spreading malicious rumors against him. The narration states that Cavanaugh doesn't care about how well the team does, provided he comes off looking good.
Live-Action Television
- Hellcats: Protagonist Marti joins the cheer squad after Alice injures herself, creating an opening on the team. Worried that this replacement might be permanent, Alice tries to undermine Marti so she doesn't outshine her. She even invites Marti's mother to a competition, knowing that this will spark some bad memories for her.
Note: I think this is distinct enough from The Rival as the characters are in a position where they would be expected to work together.
Laconic: New member of the team with an attitude problem.
Basic Description: This character has a chip on their shoulder. Maybe they've got a Dark and Troubled Past. Maybe they're going through something at the moment. Whatever the case, they end up joining a team. In some cases they may have been forced to join. Typically they will clash with the captain or coach and will have trouble being a team player. However, overtime their attitude gets better as they learn to appreciate teamwork. They might bring a new way of looking at things to the team, perhaps becoming the reason why the team wins.
Examples:
Films Live-Action
- Pitch Perfect: Beca reluctantly joins the Barden Bellas, only doing so because her father forced her to join a club. After joining she clashes with team captain Aubrey. Part of this is due to Aubrey being a Control Freak, but it also has to do with Beca being uncooperative. Eventually, Beca agrees to be more of a team player, while Aubrey takes her ideas into consideration.
- Stick It: Haley is technically not a newbie as she was a member of the Vickerman Gymnastics Academy, but left before the start of the film. However, she's ordered to return by a judge after she's arrested for vandalism. She fits the archetype as she clashes with her coach and her fellow teammate Tricia. Eventually she becomes more willing to accept her coach's guidance, but also convinces her teammates to rebel against some unfair rules at Nationals.
Literature
- Harry Potter: Introduced in the sixth book, Cormac Mc Laggen is a Jerk Jock who tries out for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. He fails his first tryout due to Hermione's intervention, but Harry is forced to let him on the team after Ron is poisoned. Mc Laggen, while talented, proves to be a problem when he keeps trying to tell the rest of the team how to play and even knocks Harry out during the middle of a match.
Live-Action Television
- Glee: Jake joins the Glee club in Season Four, but has some serious anger issues and trouble following authority. It was so bad that Mr. Schue initially didn't allow him in the club despite him having the singing talent for it.
- Hellcats: Marti is a law student who looks down at cheerleading at the start of the series. This almost leads to a fistfight breaking out between her and the team captain Savannah. However, after losing her scholarship she's forced to tryout for the cheer team, putting her at Savannah's mercy. She lets Marti join the squad after seeing how talented she was. Through the process of trying out and joining the team, Marti learns to better appreciate cheer as a sport.
Laconic: A character has a skill that they don't realize that they have.
Examples:
Films Live-Action
- Pitch Perfect: Beca is initially uninterested in joining the singing group "The Barden Bellas". However, in a scene parodying Glee, the co-captain of the group Chloe overhears Beca singing in the shower. Impressed, she barges into Beca's shower and tries to get her to join.
Live-Action Television
- Community: In a season one episode that parodied Good Will Hunting, Troy is revealed to have a natural gift for fixing things when he intuitively knows how to fix a drinking fountain. A janitor then tries to convince him to drop out of college and become a plumber, which Troy refuses to do. In season three, it's revealed by a secret society of air conditioning repairmen that Troy is a Messianic figure destined to repair not just machines, but his fellow men.
- ''Glee: When trying to expand the glee club, Mr. Schue goes to the football team and tries to convince them to join. The players all refuse. However, Schue then overhears Finn singing in the shower and realizes that he has talent. Will then plants drugs on him and blackmails him into joining the Glee club.
- Victorious: Tori is initially uninterested in performing arts. However, she's forced to fill in for her sister at a showcase hosted by a performing arts school. She does so well that she's accepted into the school.
Inappropriate Movies At Sleepovers
Laconic: Characters watch mature movies at sleepovers.
Examples:
Live-Action Television
- Life in Pieces: In one skit, Samantha hosts a sleepover for her birthday. Throughout the party she tries to prove that she's mature to her friends, even reluctantly mocking her dad when he sets up a bounce house for her. Later in the evening, they start watching movies. Her friends want to watch scary movies and Samantha's father suggest Alien. This ends up scaring off Samantha's friends, but provides a moment for her to bond with her Dad.
- Shameless (US): After Debbie develops a stress rash, Fiona decides to let her have a sleepover and even lets Debbie and her friends watch an R-Rated movie. Debbie initially wants to watch the X-Rated Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, because it's edgy, but Fiona puts a stop to it. They end up watching Alien
Western Animation
- The Simpsons: In one episode, Lisa is invited to a sleepover. The other girls want to watch a tv show that's a parody of 13 Reasons Why. Lisa doesn't want to watch it, but goes along with the other girls. When Lisa gets scared, the other girls post her reaction on social media.
Note: I don't know if this is a trope, but I've seen characters watching scary/inappropriate movies at sleepovers so I'm wondering if there's something there.
