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.
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
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
Card Captor Sakura is not an example. For one, there is no Big Guy among the main cast that actually operates as a team consistently. Of the three chick candidates only one of them counts, the others are either not central team members or better suited to other roles.
Deleted this from Super Mario Sunshine.
- Five Bad Band:
- Big Bad: Bowser
- Dragon-in-Chief: Bowser Jr.
- The Brute: Mecha Bowser
- The Evil Genius: Shadow Mario, an alter-ego of Bowser Jr. who frames Mario for defacing Isle Delfino.
- The Dark Chick: Pianta Judge, who may or may not be in on Bowser's plans but who nevertheless forces Mario to clean Isle Delfino.
I think the FiveManBand.Foot 2 Rue page should just be cut. Almost every single example on the page is misuse.
Either there's a Sixth Ranger listed or other character tropes that don't belong here like The Mentor, The Quiet One, Tagalong Kid, etc., or there are multiple people in each spot. The only ones that look like examples at least on the surface are the Tunesia, New York, Spain, and France teams, but since they're zero context as well there's no way to tell. I say just throw it into the abyss and let them add any valid examples to the work trope page.
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"I deleted an entry on the Web Original page of the Five Bad Band trope a while back for being misuse/shoehorning. It was added back with the following edit reason:
I've pulled it off the page and brought it here, because I'm sure it's misuse. Even the edit reason that put it back on the page admits there isn't even a recognisable "band" for the first three volumes (and that's definitely also the case for Volume 4 so far).
Example in question (and, yes, the Example Indentation really was like this):
- RWBY: The villains in the first three volumes
- Big Bad: Cinder Fall. Recruited all the rest of the members of the Chaos Syndicate, and directed all of them.
- Co-Dragons: Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai, both of whom are always by Cinder's side and appear to her only subordinates who are fully aware of her plans.
- The Evil Genius: Criminal Mastermind Roman Torchwick, who plans and carries out heists on Dust shops. He's also pretty good at piloting an Atlesian Paladin.
- The Brute: Adam Taurus, leader of a White Fang sect who was "recruited" by Cinder. He's shown to be a skilled swordsman and he has a personal grudge against Blake, one of the members of Team RWBY.
- The Dark Chick: Neopolitan, an adorable and evil girl who also acts as Roman's sidekick.
- The Man Behind The Man: Salem, Cinder Fall's employer who also leads a team of her own
- Alternatively, Neo is The Brute while Emerald is an example of The Dark Chick who doubles as one of the Co-Dragons.
edited 23rd Dec '16 2:03:18 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.Good sign nothing; it means it is a shoehorn.
Also, any spares like Man Behind the Man should not be listed under Five Bad Band. They are completely extraneous to the trope.
edited 23rd Dec '16 10:58:19 PM by Karxrida
removed from Super Metroid
- Five Bad Band:
- Big Bad - Mother Brain
- The Dragon - Ridley
- The Evil Genius - Phantoon
- The Brute - Kraid
- The Dark Chick - Draygon
- Sixth Ranger - Crocomire
Beside the usual Example Indentation issue, they are all mute bosses who never appear together.
edited 24th Dec '16 5:00:45 AM by Silverblade2
Isn't it the rule that The Chick must always be a woman? I guess it can be gender-inverted if it's about four girls and one guy, but the hard rule is there can not be more than one other person of the same gender as The Chick.
So the following entry doesn't seem to make sense, shouldn't it be altered or removed:
From Five-Man Band/Literature:
The Leader: Katniss
The Lancer: Finnick
The Big Guy: Johanna
The Smart Guy: Beetee
The Chick: Peeta
Besides, I don't think Johanna is the Big Guy and Finnick The Lancer; maybe the other way around would work.
edited 26th Dec '16 4:35:21 PM by LB7979
I actually would call Johanna The Big Guy but the site isn't allowing any non-female examples of The Chick.
Thanks for the responses. On The Team suggestion, it's already been stated that Cinder, Mercury and Emerald might qualify, but as other characters later point out in Volume 4, Emerald and Mercury are better described as being her subordinates than her team mates.
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.lexicon: " the site isn't allowing any non-female examples of The Chick "
So isn't that all the more reason to delete this entry?
^^^ In response to lexicon's comment about my Hunger Games comment (sorry, haven't figured out how to properly quote other posters on these discussion forums)
I would like to suggest adding the Mummies Alive! example to the respective Five Man Band:
As such I think it will be:
- The Leader: Ja-Kal
- The Lancer: Presley
- The Brain: Rath
- The Chick: Nefertina
- The Big Guy: Armon
- Team Pet: Kahti
edited 7th Jan '17 7:41:10 PM by Luppercus
I'm not familiar with the show, but the description doesn't suggest anything even vaguely resembling a Five-Man Band. The four bodyguards might be The Team, but beyond that, I have serious doubts.
if Team Pet is not part of the Five-Man Band then the pages really do need a deep clean-up as only in Western Animation A To M I counted around 20 examples with "Team Pet" included.
About how they fit well:
Ja-Kal is the commander of the army in ancient Egypt and the leader of the mummies in modern time. Presley although is the prince, so have some moral authority over Ja-Kal and is more level-headed than him, also know better modern times. Rath was Rapses teacher and an scholar, in modern times is also the most intellectual of the mummies and the best versed in magic. Armon is not only literally the bigger, he's also the strongest. Nefertina, aside from be the only one women, does have a lot of feminine tracks on her personality. Kahti (count or not, I don't know, I'll included just in case) is the magical cat mummy.
Now Presley's and Ja-Kal's roles may be inverted with Presley as the leader and Ja-Kal as the lancer depending on the interpretation, but that would depends on how much be the physical leader (as in the leader during battles) count more. I let that on the criteria of the tropper if the example is added.
Fro what I remember, Ja-Kal is technically The Leader since he's the field commander of the Mummies. Presley is The Hero and The Chosen One whom they all serve.
My instinct is that Presley is a Token Human Kid With The Remote Control, and the Mummies are his Secret Mutant Hero Team Elite Four. Plus a cat.
I don't remember enough of the show to remember if Presley and Jakal's dynamics merit a Hero/Lancer or Leader/Lancer example.
edited 8th Jan '17 1:28:51 PM by acrobox
If Presley has any real degree of authority over Ja-Kel, then 1) Presley is not The Lancer, but more importantly, 2) Ja-Kel is not The Leader. If it's ambiguous which one is in charge, or if which one is in charge varies depending on the circumstance, you don't have a Five-Man Band at all. The roles are not interchangeable among characters.
edited 8th Jan '17 2:56:18 PM by Madrugada
Deleteed this from Yuri!!! on Ice.
- Five Bad Band: Played with. During J.J.'s panic attack during the Grand Prix Finals, he pictures the other skaters as this:
- Big Bad: Yurio.
- The Dragon: Otabek.
- The Brute: Phichit.
- The Evil Genius: Christophe.
- The Dark Chick/The Vamp: Yuri.
For the record, it's just 5 characters standing around. There's no context within the scene for these characters to be given any role.

Okay, thanks for the responses. Ignoring the gender-inversion issue, I will definitely remove the first example for being a complete fail.
On the second example, I agree the poor wording isn't helping. The way the Ruby entry is written (being the team's inspiration), it seems to be implying to me that Ruby is regarded as both The Heart and The Leader, which leaves Blake as having the "don't know what to do with the left-over character, so will make The Chick" vibe.
Should I go ahead and remove? Or shall I comment it out and ask for more context?
I've come across a Zero Context Example one: Cardcaptor Sakura. I don't know this work at all, so can't tell if there's a genuine case for this one, but there seems to be some debate over who applies to what, which isn't a good sign. If anyone knows the work, would they mind cleaning it up?
edited 10th Dec '16 1:19:44 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.