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
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Okay, thanks. I'll comment it out and give it more thought. May have to delete it altogether.
I currently have a possible example for the Five-Man Band page (or at the very least its sandbox) that I am reasonably confident is valid. But before I hypothetically add it to at least the sandbox, I believe I would be wise to put it through the people at this thread. Would that be about right?
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
Go ahead.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Alright. Here's my hypothetical example to be considered before it potentially gets added to either the actual page itself, or at the very least the sandbox.
- Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Over the course of 'phase 1' of the story (and before season 2's introduction of Sixth Ranger Cynthia), the park rescue team manages to thoroughly solidify themselves as such a group. Said group consists of the knowledgeable, yet hotheaded and short-attention spanned, team leader Drew, the thrill seeking and Book Dumb, yet loyal, emotionally outgoing, and determined second in command Jack, the not very talkative, yet fairly physically fit and capable Adrian, the scholarly and emotionally guarded and very much autistic resident animal expert Leon, and the almost (emphasis on 'almost') consistently calm and level headed peacekeeper and emotional support provider Alice.
Edited by SimbafanA1 on Mar 6th 2022 at 5:30:51 AM
(she/her)
I think your example would be easier to read if it followed the standard Five-Man Band example format on the stickied post.
This is late but I asked the other mods about unlocking Five-Man Band and didn't get enough support for it so I guess it'll stay locked for the meantime. I did adjust the Five-Man Band entry on Administrivia.Locked Pages to say the page was locked due to rampant misuse though.
Macron's notes
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
Except that post is outdated; the roles don't exist anymore and that format breaks indentation rules.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
(she/her)
Oh for some reason I thought the post was updated because I did edit the OP to tweak some things when someone requested it. Nevermind then. I'll remove the format from the stickied post
Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 8th 2022 at 6:17:52 AM
Macron's notes
This was on the page for Damned:
- Five-Man Band
- The Leader: Madison
- The Lancer: Archer
- The Smart Guy: Leonard
- The Big Guy: Patterson
- The Chick: Babette
This gives no context to how the characters interact as a group. I haven't read the novel, but from what I gather the protagonist forms a demonic Breakfast Club, so maybe it's a legitimate example.
Yeah, that's the outdated format, and would be ZCE even then. I have no idea if it's legitimate, but it's not as written.
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.
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
You could maybe move all the names up to the first line and comment it out, perhaps with a link to this thread so people don't war?
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
That's been done. Should something be added to state how they work together as a group? Like I said, I haven't read the book itself so I don't know if this is a legitimate example or not.
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
Neither do I. That's why we should just hide it.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Just did that.
Not sure how a proposal works, but I'd like to propose Psych for Five-Man Band
- Five-Man Band
- The Leader: Shawn Spencer, the SBPD's childish but genuinely competent pseudo psychic detective.
- The Lancer: Burton Guster, Shawn's partner at Psych, his best friend since childhood, and one of the only two people who knows Shawn's secret
- The Smart Guy: Henry Spencer, Shawn's serious and level headed father, who is the other person to know Shawn's secret. He is a former police officer who trained his son to be hyper-observant, and in the present day, Shawn always approaches him for advice
- The Big Guy: Carlton Lassiter, Head Detective of the SBPD. He is a highly competent cop and gun aficionado and shows up to provide police backup to Shawn
- The Chick: Juliet O'Hara, Lassiter's partner and one half of the show's Official Couple (with Shawn). She also tends to show up to provide police backup to the Psych duo
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
We don't use that format anymore, nor do we use the specific roles, but you can try and rewrite the example in the format we're using now (correct indentation and all).
Also, do they function as a group ever?
Edited by WarJay77 on Mar 17th 2022 at 12:34:59 PM
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Yes, the whole point of the series is that Shawn and Gus team up with the SBPD (specifically, Lassie and Jules) to solve cases. Sometimes, the department directly reaches out to them for help. Other times, Shawn believes that the cops are missing something and does some sleuthing with Gus' help (in many cases, Lassie and Jules also join in). There are even episodes where Lassie or Jules ask the Psych duo to investigate something without Karen's (the SBPD chief) knowledge.
Henry (Shawn's father) is a retired cop who rejoins the department as a consultant during seasons 5 and 6. While he doesn't directly participate in solving cases in prior seasons, he does provide genuinely helpful advice to Shawn, which helps the latter solve the case of the week.
Chief Karen Vick is also on the main credits from Season 2 onwards, and while she does reach out to them, there are also episodes where the gang must investigate a case behind her back.
Also, looking at the sandbox, the way I've done it seems similar to the format given there.
Edited by magnumtropus on Mar 17th 2022 at 4:07:22 PM
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
Well, yeah, that sandbox is super outdated though.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
There's a lot of outdated stuff; the sandbox examples (which could just be rewritten), the Playing With page (does a Trope in Aggregate need one?), and the page image (best thing to do would be to make a collage of 3 Five-Man Bands). I'll do my best to help fix these over time.
TRS Wick Cleaning
- Digimon Adventure 02: The team is headed up by the new kids Idiot Hero Davis, shy and sensible kid martial artist Cody, and outspoken computer geek Yolei, and the grown up Tag Along Kids from the previous generation TK (who Davis is jealous of) and Kari (who Davis has an crush on).
- After the Digimon Kaiser arc, they recruit former Big Bad Ken as a Sixth Ranger and proper brooding Lancer to Davis' Hero, and he mostly gets over his hang ups with TK and Kari. The Team's new structure is fundamentally transformed into three Fusion Dance pairs, Davis and Ken, Yolei and Kari, Cody and TK.
- Digimon Frontier: The spirits of the Legendary Warriors are inherited by five heroic children. The Stock Shōnen Hero Takuya, Ineffectual Loner and Lancer Koji that spends the earliest part of the series on his own before becoming an Aloof Ally, Token Girl and everyone's crush Zoey, Tag Along Kid Tommy that the others look out for until he matures enough to take care of himself, and Big Fun J.P who has the physically strongest forms and always has a chocolate bar on him. The show mostly centers around Takuya and Koji's rivalry and later partnership with the other members either diffusing the tension, or offering support from afar. They eventually get a Sixth Ranger in Koji's long lost twin Koichi, but he gets Demoted to Extra with the rest of the group in favor of the main duo.
- They have non-warrior supporters in Plucky Comic Relief Neemon, and Mr. Exposition Bokomon who minds him.
- Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu: A villainous version comprising of Emperor Darius and his four generals, the latter of whom each correspond to a cardinal point. This arrangement changes as Suspage attempts to kill Proist and dies trying, Vestaanu and Nouza both pull a Heel–Face Turn, and Proist gradually becomes the Big Bad after The Reveal.
- Big Bad: At first, the 17th Emperor of Darius who spends most of the series focusing on other matters, so his generals take center stage. Later on, Proist ascends to being The Dragon, and finally becomes the Big Bad near the end after the 17th Emperor of Darius reveals his intentions.
- The Dragon: Proist - General of the East, the member with the Emperor's interests most often on mind, and the one who usually tries to get things done just for the sake of Darius. Although, after The Reveal, she turns out to be just as self-serving as any of them, particularly as she gradually supplants her father as the Big Bad.
- The Evil Genius: Suspage - General of the South, an accomplished biologist and military commander.
- The Brute: Nouza - General of the North, a Blood Knight who bosses Sissy Villain Suspage around a lot, casually making death threats and waving his BFS around a lot.
- The Dark Chick: Vestaanu - General of the West, a cold, calculating Iron Lady who is more often than not watching her colleagues muck up whatever's going on, sending out her Iron Beasts only when she knows that she'll be at an advantage. She's also the first one to begin to Heel–Face Turn.
- Anime/Ghastly rinceEnmaBurningUp: The cast's position is pretty much unchanged, save for Yukiko-hime being a full-time Lancer. Tsutomu-kun's role, meanwhile, got taken over by Harumi (his girlfriend in the original series) who also has shades of being The Chick.
- Jushin Liger:
- The Hero: Ken.
- The Lancer: Mai.
- The Big Guy: Dangoro.
- The Smart Guy: Ryuzo.
- The Chick: Yui.
- Katana Maidens:
- The Leader: Mirja
- The Lancer: Mihono
- The Smart Guy: Chie
- The Chick: Kiyoka
- The Big Guy: Kofuki
- Sixth Ranger: Yui
- Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu:: The second unit starts out with five members:
- The Leader: Izuminokami, the appointed captain and focal character of the anime.
- The Lancer: Horikawa is Izuminokami's closest ally and self-promoted assistant, and watches out for his captain's well-being along with challenging him. Like Mutsunokami, he wears his emotions on his sleeve, and also tries to look out for other people's feelings or solve what he considers to be major emotional problems.
- The Big Guy: Shared between Tonbokiri and Mutsunokami.
- The Smart Guy: Yagen, being the team medic.
- The Heart: Mutsunokami. Along with being one of the more important members of the team, he's one of the most openly emphatic and gets the others to seriously think about their role in protecting history. He and Izuminokami frequently trade words and fight together.
- Sixth Ranger: Tsurumaru, who joins in episode 4. The Saniwa counts under this as well, providing additional support by summoning allies.
- And for the first unit:
- The Leader: Yamanbagiri, The appointed leader.
- The Lancer: Mikazuki, due to being the previous leader of Unit 1 and also the co-leader of the group under Yamanbagiri.
- The Chick: Higekiri
- The Big Guy: Oodenta
- The Smart Guy: Hizamaru
- Sixth Ranger: Honebami, who is new to being in a unit and recently added to their team.
- Kiba:
- Big Bad: Xeem
- The Dragon: Dukeham
- The Brute: Molima
- Dark Chick: Mirred, Gitra
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: Hugh, Dolga, which is actually Noah's alias.
- KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Noir and his four generals serve as the antagonists of this series, with the twist of not all of them being active at once. Julio is introduced first and is the Evil Genius. He's the first villain to discover kirakiraru within people and manipulates the Cures and the Kirakiraru Thieves as part of his experiments in order to create more kirakiraru and deliver it to Noir. Bibury is the Dark Chick, she enjoys toying and trolling with the Cures, treats her ally Julio (and took his idea of stealing kirakiraru during her run as an Arc Villain) and even minor characters with disdain and disrespect, and is purely motivated by her love for Noir. Grave is The Brute, physically the biggest and powerful of the four generals, but not too bright as uses straight forward tactics with his personal mook squad. Elysio is The Dragon, Noir's personal emissionary and is above the other three generals in status.
I could try, but I can't find the current entry format. I recall it being on the first post. Now it's not there.
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
Again, there's no special format anymore.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph
What should be done with the last paragraph of the description of The Chick? I don’t think it fits with the current definition of Five-Man Band, which doesn’t require The Chick (or the other four traditional roles), female or otherwise. Also, I believe The Chick can exist outside an FMB, as the other four traditional roles can.
Edited by Lymantria on Mar 24th 2022 at 11:15:41 AM
Join the Five-Man Band cleanup project!
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
The Chick is an issue because it was the only one of the archetypes that was written entirely based on the FMB dynamic.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
I can't really tell from that example how they work together as a team. The example states that they have a dynamic, but doesn't do a lot to show it. Assigning members roles isn't necessary, but might help.
TRS Wick Cleaning