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
The Dark Chick doesn't have to be female, at least not in a Five Bad Band, a male Dark Chick is normally used as just the guy in a group that doesn't fit any other roles, at least that's how it's used nowadays, this is sort of an unwritten rule with the trope and I've never received any pushback from others for using all male teams. You're other criticism's seem pretty valid (I haven't played the game myself) but I just wanted to clear that up.
Here's my proposal for a Five-Man Band from The Maze Runner
- Thomas and his friends in The Death Cure
- The Leader: Thomas, The Hero of the story who is the unofficial leader of the team.
- The Lancer: Newt, Thomas' best friend and most trusted ally.
- The Smart Guy: Jorge, Who's knowledge of WICKED and the outside world are invaluable to the group.
- The Big Guy: Minho, Thomas' other friend who's much stronger and aggressive than the rest of the group.
- The Chick: Brenda, Thomas' Love Interest who provides emotional support for him and usually is the one to break up arguments among the group.
"guy who doesn't fit any other roles" lead to a lot of misuse was part of the reason Dark Chick went through a redefinition to be more directly the evil counterpart of the The Chick and to be able to exist as a stand alone trope outside of the band.
That's part of the reason why there's been a debate about whether to change the lineup of Bad Band to be Big Bad / Dragon / Evil Genius / Brute / Wacky Guy - or whether the FBB is even a thing at all beyond FMB but evil.
I understand what you're saying, I was going off of how I use the trope and how I frequently see it used. The Wacky Guy is a good replacement for The Dark Chick in scenarios where the character in question isn't female, but that would make a lot of examples currently listed misuse as a lot of people use it for "the other guy" or even the least malicious member of the group. The question is really how similar we want Five Bad Band to be to Five-Man Band, the more similar we want it to be the more it should have the same gender restrictions and the more it probably should be locked to editing. The current page description makes me feel that we should lock the pages and add gender restrictions which would probably require it's own cleanup form.
I'm pretty sure The Dark Chick actually has to be female since it's described as a foil to The Chick.
Alright then we should probably lock Five Bad Band and start cleaning it up to remove any non female dark chicks and other misuse.
edited 31st Jul '17 11:23:24 PM by papyru30
i more support axing the Bad Band and just making those tropes addtional classes of the regular Band.
I.e. The Brute is just a class 6 Big Guy, or the Evil Genius is a type of Smart Guy, the Dark Chick is even by name a type of Chick (which still needs to be updated).
There's no reason a team of five needs a different name just because they're evil if they fill the same thematic archetypes.
If Bad Band sticks around, i'd rather see the Wacky Guy join the formation, since if it's a Dark Chick it's really just a The Same But More Specific Five-Man Band but evil
edited 4th Aug '17 8:05:04 AM by acrobox
Are you suggesting that we merge Five Bad Band into Five-Man Band? If so, that is definitely a bridge too far. Five Bad Band may or may nor stand on its own but it is certainly distinct enough to avoid being merged. For instance, the plot role of an Evil Genius is different from the plot role of The Smart Guy and The Big Guy is distinct from The Brute etc. The biggest difference is a Villains Act, Heroes React angle but the nitty gritty is also different (although that is heavily influenced by the specific example).
edited 4th Aug '17 1:20:22 PM by ChaoticNovelist
Honestly, if we were to get rid of Five Bad Band, it would make more sense to cut it altogether than to merge it into Five-Man Band. The roles are reasonably different - the real issue is how often, if ever, they actually appear in this configuration.
Here's my proposal for a Five-Man Band from Waynehead
- The Leader - Damey Wayne
- The Lancer - Marvin
- The Smart Guy - Mo' Money
- The Big Guy - Toof
- The Chick - Roz
edited 19th Sep '17 2:45:17 PM by PricklyVermian
My pm system has been turned off.Prickly Vermain you need an explanation for each position when you propose an example.
Also I feel that merging Five Bad Band with Five-Man Band isn't a good idea because they use completely different tropes and serve a different role in the story. I would be easier from an organizational standpoint.
edited 12th Aug '17 9:26:08 PM by papyru30
We should figure out weather The Wacky Guy is a possible stand in for The Dark Chick or if we should keep it to being only females.
This Five-Man Band from The Maze Runner was kind of ignored so I'm reposting it.
- Thomas and his friends in The Death Cure
- The Leader: Thomas, The Hero of the story who is the unofficial leader of the team.
- The Lancer: Newt, Thomas' best friend and most trusted ally, who's much quieter and less level headed than Thomas.
- The Smart Guy: Jorge, Who's knowledge of WICKED and the outside world are invaluable to the group.
- The Big Guy: Minho, Thomas' other friend who's much stronger and aggressive than the rest of the group.
- The Chick: Brenda, Thomas' Love Interest who provides emotional support for him and usually is the one to break up arguments among the group.
Edited by papyru30 on Aug 12th 2019 at 12:17:45 PM
It looks mostly good but I'd like more detail on Newt's personality. The Lancer is supposed to set a contrast; being the best friend is simply an easy way to make that contrast apparent.
I just saw this TLP draft
dating back from 2012 and I'm not sure if it has any value as a supertrope to Five-Man Band; the draft is titled "Two Pairs Of Foils And A Mediator". I thought I'd mention it here because it apparently used to be a part of the clean-up effort but it's been five years since it started and two years since anybody commented on it (other than me just now, that is).
edited 10th Sep '17 10:20:23 AM by WaterBlap
Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they prettyi just commented on it. i don't think it has much value beyond the idea of mediators and foils in a group generally. but not any sort of band with roles since that's all pretty much covered by The Team.
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The issue with that is that there isn't always two pairs of foils in a five person group. The Evil Genius and The Brute are foils in most teams but since the Big Bad is almost certainly the moderator this leaves The Dark Chick and The Dragon to be foils which doesn't usually happen. This may work as it's own trope but it certainly isn't a Super-Trope to the Five-Man Band.
Also I edited my previous proposal for a Five-Man Band to better explain Newts personality in comparison to Thomas'.

I'm removing Five Bad Band from VideoGame.The Legend Of Zelda Breath Of The Wild, and leaving it here just in case y'all think that it's valid after all.
Main issues are that these are not characters so much as manifestations of evil, and have no observable personalities, and Waterblight Ganon doesn't actually have gender any more than the others so is disqualified as the Dark Chick.