Character-Magnetic Team: Difference between revisions
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This is the logical extension of the [[Debut Queue]]. Compare [[Hitchhiker Heroes]], where the ''team'' is attracted to the new members. See also [[You ALL Share My Story]] for a similar phenomenon.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' is perhaps the crowned king of this trope. At the beginning of the story, it's only Negi. Asuna and Konoka are added to his group fairly quickly. The Kyoto arc adds Setsuna, Nodoka, and Asakura to the main group, while also introducing Yue, Paru, Ku Fei and Kaede. In the festival arc, Yue, Paru, Ku Fei and Kaede, along with Chisame and Kotaro. The Magic World arc adds Chachamaru as well as five ostensibly "normal" girls - Natsumi, Akira, Ako, Makie, and Yuuna. Am I forgetting anyone?
** Sayo, Anya, Chamo.
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* ''Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo'' is inexplicably able to call upon [[Defeat Means Friendship|former foes]] (the crazier ones, at least) to aid him in battle, or at least act as cannon fodder.
* ''[[Rave Master]]'' starts adding new members in the second volume, and finishes up it accumilation of team mates in volume 28. Characters range anywhere from having been met on the street to being parts of a [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]].
* [[
* ''[[Code Breaker]]'': Similar to the [[To Aru]] example, Sakura and Ogami are unique, as one is a "Rare-Kind", while the other has the most powerful Code ability.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
* The [[X-Men]] and their affiliates. The sole criteria for being affiliated with the team is that you have to either be a [[Mutant]], or involved in mutant politics in some way or other (a sympathetic human, an [[De-Power|ex-mutant]], a genetic experiment from another dimension who happened to get saved by mutants, etc). Since about 10% of the [[Marvel Universe]]'s population used to be mutants at one point, this meant [[Loads and Loads of Characters|a great deal of snowballing]], and even after the [[House of M|"Decimation"]] event had over 90% of ''that'' population [[Brought Down to Normal]], the X-Books' cast is still larger than almost all of Marvel's other properties, ''put together.''▼
* The band of survivors in ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' runs into new people regularly, most of whom end up sticking around. This is necessary, of course, because established characters die horribly at about the same rate as new ones join.▼
* One of the common criticisms of [[Brian Michael Bendis]]'s ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]]'' run is the frequency with which characters join the team only to proceed to stand around in the background with nothing to do except interject an occassional one-liner or get punched in one panel of a team fight while the lead characters do all the heavy lifting - if they even appear in the book at all (Daredevil at one point joined the team then didn't appear again for several issues).
== [[Literature]] ==
* The rabbits in Richard Adams' ''[[Watership Down]]'' start out as a small group and add several other characters to their number over the course of the book.
* In JRR Tolkien's ''[[The Lord of the Rings|The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' Frodo and Sam set out from the Shire alone, but collect Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimli, Boromir and Legolas in the formation of the titular fellowship before they part ways at the end of the book.
** And then, when they are split up, accrue everything from a [[Token Evil Teammate]] to walking trees to the [[Affirmative Action Girl]].
* Robert Asprin's ''[[Myth Adventures]]'' series frequently features a villain from the preceding book as an ally, resulting in the cast growing in almost all of its earlier books. Most of Skeeve's allies have wanted him dead at some point...
** Which is subverted in ''{{spoiler|Little Myth Marker}},'' when Skeeve refuses to let the [[Big Bad]] of the book join the group because {{spoiler|he won't associate with someone who thinks being [[The Mole]] for hire is an acceptable way to make a living}}.
* The Tanith First-And-Only Regiment of ''[[Warhammer
* Rogue and Wraith squadrons in the ''[[Star Wars]]: [[X Wing Series|X-Wing]]'' novels both function this way, with pilots from lesser squadrons jockeying for positions in the group. Rogue is officially the "top gun" fighter squadron of the entire New Republic fleet, so this makes plenty of sense. Wraith... [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|Not so much]], but they do at least have a famous commander and a rep for getting stuff done (and [[Stuff Blowing Up|blowing stuff up]]). [[Anyone Can Die|Plenty of turnover]] in both groups, too.
* In [[The Belgariad]], this happens twice. The first time, it was done intentionally by Belgarath to "fulfill the prophecy". In The Mallorean the trope if followed correctly, even if [[Deadpan Snarker|Prophecy]] itself [[You Can't Fight Fate|has to intervene]] at times.
== [[Live
* Every single series of ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has the [[Five-Man Band]] joined by at least one [[Sixth Ranger]]. Some recent series start with only a [[Power Trio]], and occasionally don't stop at six, allowing two to sometimes four Sixth Rangers. Of course, the whole reason to do this is [[Merchandise-Driven|to have more people to make action figures of.]]
** ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]]'' began looking like it would be a particularly bad example, as the toy line added three Rangers (based on secondary mecha from ''Gekiranger'') to the existing five, and it was confirmed they'd appear on the show. It ultimately turned out that these three ''weren't'' new characters, but rather spiritual manifestations that the [[Power Trio]] or their respective mentors could summon into battle.
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** ''[[Angel]]'' does that, too, to a smaller extent. At the beginning of the first season, there were three main characters with no real minor or reoccurring characters yet. By the end of the fifth, there were eight (if you count Fred and Illyria separately), as well as two dead main characters, two or three non-main characters working with the team (depending on when you count it), Conner, and more minor reoccurring characters like Knox, Nina, Anne, Conner's "parents", and a few other random Wolfram and Hart employees. The cast never got as big as Buffy's, though.
** Both shows are notable in that they need to keep picking up new team members because old ones have a nasty habit of [[Killed Off for Real|dying]], [[Put on a Bus|being put out of commission]] or running away to the spinoff.
* ''[[ER]]'' it is always gaining new members, if only to replace old ones. It had 100% turnover over 10
** And if you've worked in a hospital, you know that's [[Truth in Television]].
* ''[[The OC]]'' has this thing going on where nearly every new character, even when they start out as antagonists, gets assimilated into the Cohen clan sooner or later.
* The duo of Merlin and Arthur from ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' have steadily accumulated a team of knights, most of which turn up in the [[Back for the Finale|two-part finale]] of the third season to help Arthur win back Camelot.
▲== [[Comic Books]] ==
▲* The [[X-Men]] and their affiliates. The sole criteria for being affiliated with the team is that you have to either be a [[Mutant]], or involved in mutant politics in some way or other (a sympathetic human, an [[De-Power|ex-mutant]], a genetic experiment from another dimension who happened to get saved by mutants, etc). Since about 10% of the [[Marvel Universe]]'s population used to be mutants at one point, this meant [[Loads and Loads of Characters|a great deal of snowballing]], and even after the [[House of M|"Decimation"]] event had over 90% of ''that'' population [[Brought Down to Normal]], the X-Books' cast is still larger than almost all of Marvel's other properties, ''put together.''
▲* The band of survivors in ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' runs into new people regularly, most of whom end up sticking around. This is necessary, of course, because established characters die horribly at about the same rate as new ones join.
▲* One of the common criticisms of [[Brian Michael Bendis]]'s ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]]'' run is the frequency with which characters join the team only to proceed to stand around in the background with nothing to do except interject an occassional one-liner or get punched in one panel of a team fight while the lead characters do all the heavy lifting - if they even appear in the book at all (Daredevil at one point joined the team then didn't appear again for several issues).
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Common in [[Tabletop Games]]. When a player's character dies but he/she does not wish to leave the game, the group will traditionally encounter another adventurously-minded type in short order by complete coincidence.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* A common feature in [[RPG
** Probably two of the most striking examples of this in [[RPG
▲* A common feature in [[RPG|RPGs]], where the player starts out in control of one character but has a veritable army by the time they face the [[Big Bad]].
** Heroes in ''[[
▲** Probably two of the most striking examples of this in [[RPG|RPGs]] are ''[[Chrono Cross]]'', which has 45 characters total, and the [[Suikoden]] series, which has [[108]] (although, to be fair, the vast majority of the 108 are minor characters). Also notable are the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series, while having a reasonably small amount of characters, have dozens upon dozens of [[Mons]] that may be convinced to ally with the player.
▲** Heroes in ''[[Saga Frontier]]'' can just about always run into somebody willing to join them for little reason than their own boredom. But really, being that the multiverse has a population of about 100, it's a nice thought that an actual statistically significant number of people are willing to get off their duffs and help save the world. Not quite the usual "5 plucky youths vs. the world while everyone else is busy [[Dying Like Animals]]".
** In ''[[Fire Emblem]]'', if there's a named character on the field, good odds point to that character either joining you or being the boss of the level. In ''Path of Radiance'', many characters decide to join your army for the flimsiest of reasons regardless of any protestations from your characters.
*** [[Lampshaded]] in ''Radiant Dawn'' when {{spoiler|Oliver, a villain from ''Path of Radiance'' appears again as a boss, joins when he sees a beautiful heron in your party.}} If you initiate a talk between him and Ike, Ike will ask him to please rejoin the enemy.
*** ''[[Fire Emblem:
* The player character in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' could be considered an almost literal interpretation of this trope, seeing as, in the space between {{spoiler|Shepard's death}} and subsequent return, the group you had collected in your first adventure are scattered to the four winds, [[Magnetic Hero|no longer held together by their magnet.]]
** When Shepard asks Joker about the old crew, [[We Were Your Team|he tells him/her just as much.]]
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* A literal example in [[Planescape: Torment]]: {{spoiler|the Symbol of Torment tattooed on the Nameless One's left shoulder is a magical rune that draws tormented individuals to him. That's how he always manages to assemble a group of companions for his journeys - if you have a [[Dark and Troubled Past]], you'll feel ''compelled'' to help him, even if it leads to your death.}}
==
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' sorta does this, as the strip started with just two characters but has added dozens to the main cast as time went on. However, since characters [[Put on a Bus|tend to leave]] just as often as they come in, the cast size at any one time is usually no more than six people.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Team Kimba is still doing this in the [[Whateley Universe]]. First it was Chaka, Fey, Tennyo, Generator and Shroud, Phase, and Lancer. Then they pulled in Carmilla, then Bladedancer. Then Carmilla and Bladedancer pulled in more, to the point that both have been split off with their own teams. Now there's Vamp and the Crimson Comet.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has Aang, Katara, and Sokka first season. By the end of the series they have acquired Toph, {{spoiler|Zuko}}, Suki, and several other characters they had previously encountered.
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[[Category:The Index Team]]
[[Category:Characters and Casting]]
[[Category:
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