Five-Man Band cleanup

Five-Man Band has been receiving a lot of misuse. As was concluded in this TRS thread, it needs a massive cleanup. There are over 30 subpages and almost 3500 wicks to be gone through. This thread is for organizing the cleanup effort and discussing any and all examples to be added and cut.

What is correct use of the trope?

• The characters must be part of a team, that is, a team dynamic must exist between members of the band.
• There must be exactly 5 team members

Format for examples

In an effort to cut down on misuse as well as get rid of all the Zero Context Examples, we are trying to shift all examples to the following format. If you are familiar with a current work and can do a writeup for it, please do so and post it here.

The sandbox for sorting examples is here.

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Completed

Subpages:

• Other (Moved and redirected to a Just for Fun page, as that is what is was acting as.)

Still needs work

Wicks (Related To page):

• B-V

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I will keep this post updated with the progress made, and any other needed information.

Edited by MacronNotes on May 19th 2022 at 8:59:40 AM

let me go through the Video Games subpage for you.

"Oh great! Let's pile up all the useless cats and hope a tree falls on them!"

Ugh sorry, it's too much. I don't have time to work through this mess.

"Oh great! Let's pile up all the useless cats and hope a tree falls on them!"

Going through the Western Animation: A - M examples I'm familiar with, you can safely eliminate:

Adventure Time: Not a team.

Aladdin: Shoehorning: Abu is not the Lancer, Carpet is not the smart one.

The Amazing World Of Gumball: Not a team.

The Angry Beavers: Not a team.

Avatar The Last Airbender: If Zukko is the Sixth Ranger (and he is), then the core cast consists of at most four people + team pets.

Ben 10 Alien Force: Main team is composed of only three people; the other two are recurring characters.

The Boondocks: Not a team.

Darkwing Duck — "Darkwing's Normal Troop": The actual team consists only of Darkwing and Launchpad—Gosalyn and Honker are occasional hanger-ons, and Morgana is an infrequently recurring character.

Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends: Not a team.

Jackie Chan Adventures: The core unit consists of three members, Jackie, Jade, and Uncle.

Jem: More than six characters

Kim Possible: The core unit consists of three people + Team Pet Rufus.

The Magic School Bus: More than six people.

Muppet Babies: More than six people.

edited 19th Jun '12 11:42:19 PM by DoKnowButchie

Avatar art by Lorna-Ka.

I'm not familiar with most, so I can't deal with all shoehorning or loose team dynamics, but what I can spot:

FiveManBand.AnimeA-D

• .hack//Legend of the Twilight: Two subversions. Need a second opinion on that. Shoehorn?
• +Anima: Four characters.
• Axis Powers Hetalia - Axis Powers: Four plus extras, where one character has a dual role.
  • All examples of this series need examinations. I don't know how much of a team each group is, and there's a lot of text.
• Bakugan: Two lancers, no Big Guy.
• Bakugan - New Vestroia Arc: No Chick, two Big Guy.
• Bakugan - New Vestroia Arc - The Humans' Guardian Bakugans: Four people.
• Bakugan - Gundalian Invaders: No Smart Guy, four people.
• Bamboo Blade: Four people, one dual-role, plus extras.
• Berserk: Needs examination. Sort of looks shoeorned, but I'm not familiar enough with the series.
• Black Cat: Dual role, four people, plus extras.
• Black Lagoon: Dual role, four people.
• Bleach: Not touching this one. Several groups, and shoehorning seems likely.
• Bubblegum Crisis: "By process of elimination" sounds shoehorning. Second opinion?
• Busou Renkin: Four people, also probably unmarked spoilers.
• Captain Tsubasa: Way too many characters.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: No Smart Guy, and a bit of shoehorning.
• Chrono Crusade: Dual role, four people plus extra.
• Cowboy Bebop: Four people, and a bit loosely defined roles.
• Shin-chan: Smells like shoehorning, but need a second opinion.
• Dancougar: Four people plus extra.
• Dangaioh: Four people plus extra.
• Darker than Black: Four people and dual roles in both groups.
• Digimon: Someone may want to look at these several groups.
• Dragon Ball - Pilaf Saga: Four people, dual roles.
• Dragon Head: Four people.
• Durarara - Van crew: Four people, dual role, plus extra.

And does the edit history usually get so... elaborate from just deletions?

edited 20th Jun '12 7:52:32 AM by Feather7603

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

I think we should go in order, starting from the top. Thus, first up is FiveManBand.AnimeA-D.

I took a chainsaw to the Bleach examples and I'll probably nuke more. Those aren't even close.

edited 20th Jun '12 7:57:25 AM by lu127

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Both examples in Berserk are shoehorned. When it comes to the original Band of the Hawk, there's the fact that the core group already consisted of six characters by the time Guts came around, meaning that it consists of seven people throughout most of its existence. Not only that, Casca, at this point in the story, is not the Chick, as she does not hold the group together to any particular degree.

As for Guts' second group of companions, that begins with Guts (The Leader), Puck (Lancer), and Casca (The Chick) before adding Serpico (The Smart Guy if he weren't much better suited as The Lancer, especially since Puck and Guts are on much better terms at this point), Farnese (The Chick only insofar as she keeps Serpico tied to the group), and Isidro (N/A). Not long after, the six are joined by Schierke and Ivallera, forming a group of eight. The group never consists of five people, arguably isn't fully formed until it has all eight characters, and in no moment is The Big Guy position filled, unless you count Guts himself, which would violate the "no characters cover more than one role" guideline.

Also, Battle Royale is also a case of shoehorning, as the characters are not a concrete unit prior to the game, (nor during the game, for that matter),and Yutaka is by no means The Chick, as he does not hold the team together or serve as the heart.

edited 20th Jun '12 8:27:33 AM by DoKnowButchie

Avatar art by Lorna-Ka.

Did some cherry-picking cleaning on Anime I-M where I'm familiar with the examples. While not really relevant, I'm kind of more biased to keeping them than deleting them.

• The Legendof Zelda - Four Swords: Shoehorning and only four members.
• Love Hina and Lucky Star: These are friend groups, not teams.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S: Only four members per group.
• Mahou Sensei Negima!: Other than the Baka Rangers, who parody this, these are groupings by accident, temporary, or shoehorned.
• Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase: They're not really acting as a team as such, and the roles are shoehorned.

Edit: I took care of Berkserk, but feel free to edit yourself.

Edit 2: Their work pages are also cleaned.

edited 21st Jun '12 3:25:35 PM by Feather7603

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

I took an axe to FiveManBand.Anime E-H.

edited 20th Jun '12 9:13:50 AM by Lightflame

"Oh great! Let's pile up all the useless cats and hope a tree falls on them!"

The Digimon examples are hit-and-miss. Let's take a look.

• Digimon Adventure: Shoehorn. Only three roles fit exactly, and it's a party of eight working together.
• Digimon Adventure 02: Eh, not really sure. Cody/Iori isn't actually The Big Guy.
• Tamers: I haven't seen it, but I think it's too many.
• Frontier: It's alright, but The Smart Guy is wrong. Keep or delete?
• DATS: Definitely shoehorn—it's normally a group of three.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Honestly, if in doubt, delete. That is, if you're familiar with it to begin with. If you are, you should be able to pick the positions rather cleanly. If one member is shoehorned, the example is. Unless possibly if it's a six-member team, where the shoehorned bit is covered.

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

I deleted two of those, will see about the rest.

Now, to fellow Bleachers: I'm tempted to remove the remaining examples because they share too many roles and because the Bleach cast almost never functions as a team.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Agreed. If a character doesn't fit, they don't fit, and it's not a Five-Man Band.

I'm not sure. I think the latter two should definitely go. As for the general one, I do think there is a team dynamic between them. Even if they're not always together, per se, they still have each other's backs and go out to fight as a group (even if they split up later). However, I think the roles are a bit too fluid for them to fully fit the trope, with too much multiple-characters-inhabiting-multiple-roles for it to fly.

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And on a slightly unrelated note, does anyone else think that the links for the Professional Wrestling, Tabletop Games, and Web Original pages should be moved out of "Other" and onto the main trope page?

edited 20th Jun '12 12:29:53 PM by Nocturna

If they have their own pages, they should be on the main index. There's no reason to have them on Other unless they're actually on that page, examples and all.

edited 20th Jun '12 12:34:41 PM by Feather7603

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

I dunno, Rukia never struck me as The Smart Guy, so that's one role gone. Plus, it's never consistent.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Rukia would be more The Lancer, with Ishida as The Smart Guy. But I agree, it's not really clear cut.

Given that both of us are equivocating so much over whether they belong, I think it's clear that they don't really fit. I'll go cut them now.

edited 20th Jun '12 12:47:30 PM by Nocturna

Re: Axis Powers Hetalia. I'm a fan, and all those are nonsense with the possible exception of the Allies, which is a debatable case. I actually expected to say that none of the examples work, but the allies not only fit the roles reasonably well, but they're also the only group that comes close to approximating a team.

Note that I can't quite bring myself to claim that they are a team. It's...debatable. But the rest can go.

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

Yeah, I thought as much. I found the Nordic one kinda funny, though, being Nordic myself.

Edit: Cleaned.

edited 20th Jun '12 5:41:00 PM by Feather7603

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

I just realized that we need to change all instances of The Hero on all the subpages to The Leader, as the TRS thread determined that the first character role is The Leader rather than The Hero per se.

Also, I deleted the Death Note example because, while they are a team, there's more than six people on that team. Plus Soichiro Yagami isn't The Leader; L is.

I can't believe this is finally happening.

I'll help if I can, but I'm not sure where to start.

We're working on clearing Anime A-D right now. If you're familiar with any of the series on the page (they're also listed in the first post), it would be a help to check whether or not they actually fit the guidelines.

You could also check the pages for genres you're more familiar with, or start plowing through some of the wicks.

All those Dragon Ball Z shoehorns (which they are) can totally be scrapped.

It's more of a squad of a dozen or so, with certain characters shoehorned into roles.

edited 20th Jun '12 7:32:00 PM by DarkConfidant

I know next to nothing about anime, so I'll start in on the wicks.

Just to clarify, you're referring to all four bands which were listed under Dragon Ball Z, right?

All the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z Five-Man Band listings are shoehorns.

The Dragon Ball five man band really isn't. Master Roshi is The Obi-Wan, not The Smart Guy.

Bulma's The Smart Guy, but also The Chick, and neither Krillin nor Yamcha is really either the Big Guy or The Lancer.

All that's really true is that Goku is The Hero, but he's not The Leader, so that's wrong too. He doesn't really 'lead' anything.

edited 20th Jun '12 7:50:30 PM by DarkConfidant