Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Difference between revisions

If the characters were not forced on the team -- [[Condemned Contestant]], [[Boxed Crook]] -- they—they often join to be [[Lonely Together]]. [[Foil|To contrast]] their diversity, their enemies will likely be [[Alike and Antithetical Adversaries|all homogenous in one way,]] typically by being highly collaborative professionals.

* The Dollars gang in ''[[Durarara!!]]'' is surprisingly this, in spite of their sinister reputation.

* ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' has the corporation Nergal throw together an entire crew of [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Bunny Ears Lawyers]]s in order to get the best of the best in every field. The character Prospector [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this trope.

** In the Soyokaze's case, the reason it's a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] is because the aging, broken-down destroyer has been assigned as the official dumping ground for all the lunatics, incompetents and misfits of the UPSF. In other words, every trouble-maker or disruptive element that accidentally manages to get into the military is invariably assigned here, so they'll be out of the way. The doctor is an alcoholic who's been drinking since he was three years old, the marines are all violent slobs, [[The Ace]] is arrogant and full of himself, as is the navigator, and the captain is, as far as the military higher-ups are concerned, either [[The Fool|an absurdly lucky moron]] or [[Genius Ditz|possessed of genuine great insight but limited common sense]]. The only outright military and competent crewmembers are Lieutenants Yamamoto (who was assigned as the First Officer in the hopes he could somehow cover for Tylor) and Yuriko (who volunteered to join the Soyokaze in the hopes that she could somehow reform the crew).

** Ditto to [[Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team|The08thMSTeam.]]

* ''[[Slayers]]'' has a team of regulars that involves an [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|overzealous justice freak]] who often does [[Sailor Moon]] style poses and failed acrobatics, an [[The Napoleon|overly short]] [[Pettanko]] motivated primarily by greed/gluttony/revenge, a [[Big Eater]] [[Dumb Blonde]] [[Badass Normal]], and a [[Cursed with Awesome]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|golem-demon-human hybrid]]. The extra characters in the party include an ex-princess who worships a monster she made up, a demon with a penchant for secret-keeping (who is also willing to sell out the entire party), and a shrine maiden with an absurd lack of skill in black magic (to the point where she casts carrot-sized fire spells that tickle people) who somehow learned the ''strongest black magic spell.''

* Both [[Justified Trope]] and [[Subverted Trope]] in ''[[Twentieth20th Century Boys]]''. When Kenji starts up [[La Résistance]], it's made up of guys he knew back in middle school, as they would be the only ones who were remotely familiar with who they're fighting against. After all, it's not very easy to recruit somebody off the street to fight against a cult based on your own twenty-year-old fanfiction. This ends up blowing up in his face for several reasons, {{spoiler|the first of which would be that one of those Ragtag Misfits ''is'' the cult-leading [[Big Bad]]...}}

* ''[[One Piece]]''. Just ''[[One Piece]]''. Though they ''are'' [[Pirate|piratespirate]]s ([[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|more or less]]), it's pretty much par for the course.

** To be more specific: the protagonist crew consists of members who are noted as being the best at their respective roles, but who otherwise don't really mesh in a uniform way like most other crews in the series. The crew currently consists of a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] [[Rubber Man]], a [[Blood Knight]], a [[Classy Cat Burglar]], a [[Blatant Lies|blatant liar]], a [[Good Smoking, Evil Smoking|chain-smoking]] [[Chivalrous Pervert]], a [[Voluntary Shapeshifter|form-changing]] [[Talking Animal|talking reindeer]], a [[All of the Other Reindeer|global pariah]], an eccentric [[Cyborg]], and [[Dem Bones|an undead skeleton]].

* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]''. Somewhat justified in that three of the four are forcibly recruited--therecruited—the main character has to work for the [[Celestial Bureaucracy]] since they [[First-Episode Resurrection|resurrected him]], and the [[Estrogen Brigade Bait|other two]] are working for it to [[Gentleman Thief|avoid]] [[Token Evil Teammate|imprisonment]]. They're more or less thrust together with no choice.

* ''[[D.Gray-man|D Gray Man]]'' has this when you consider the people that the Innocence chooses for their users. The current Exorcists consist of: a former circus brat, a teenage girl, a swordsmen {{spoiler|who is actually a test tube baby}}, a teenage historian with an eye-patch, his 80 year old mentor, a manic depressive woman who has lost 100+ jobs in her life, a bipolar man who spent his whole life in a castle, a blind guy {{spoiler|to be fair he lost his eyesight on the job}}, a man raised by a brothel owner, an ex-con, a sentimental artist, a circus animal trainer, a perverted nine year old delinquent with the arguably most powerful/competent being the womanizing alcoholic who can't seem to go anywhere without piling up debts and carts around a dead woman. Not exactly the sort of Apostles of God you'd take comfort in having the task of saving humanity.

* Sanzo's team and Kougaiji's team in ''[[Saiyuki]]'' both fit. "Ragtag team" is even used to describe the Sanzo-ikkou at one point.

* Most comic books about [[Superhero]] Teams follow that trope; as an example, [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'s original incarnation included a [[Iron Man|Rich playboy]] [[Mad Scientist]] in a [[Powered Armor]], a ''[[The Mighty Thor|God of Thunder]]'', a second [[Mad Scientist]] [[Size Shifting|able to shrink size]] [[Ant-Man|and command ants]], [[The Wasp|his shrinking flying wife]], and a [[Incredible Hulk|giant green monster]] with a [[Jekyll and Hyde]] problem. And a [[One-Man Army]] [[Captain America (comics)|super-soldier from World War II]] later joined them as the [[Sixth Ranger]].

* The second team of [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]], especially in comparison to the original team. The first group were five white, American teenagers, recruited by Professor X as students for his school, given matching uniforms, and trained to work as a group before their first mission. The second team<ref> even going just by what was known at the time, and ignoring things that wouldn't be revealed - or even [[Retcon|thought up]] until later, like [[Wolverine]] being [[Older Than They Look|over 100 years old]] or [[Storm]] having been born in America</ref> each came from a different country, including no members who were both white and American (and one that was ''blue''); varied from their teens to middle age; came from backgrounds ranging from law-enforcement to former supervillain (including one that was both); ranged in education level from college graduate to "raised on the streets"; were all given unique uniforms (or just wore what they showed up in); and barely had time to learn each others names before being sent off to risk their lives.

* In both ''[[BPRD]] 1946'' and ''1947'', the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense finds itself working with one of these. In the first, it's a squadron of problem soldiers who've been together since D-Day -- andDay—and have been causing trouble since the end of the war out of frustration for not being allowed to go home. In the second, it's shell-shocked paratrooper Jacob Stegner; Simon Anders, a merchant marine who survived 24 days lost at sea in a lifeboat; Gabriel Ruiz, a Latino jungle warfare specialist who tried to sue the USMC for discrimination; and Frank Russel, a bomb and mine disposal expert who served with distinction in Africa - and chose the BPRD when offered an officer position in an intelligence org of his choice. The first group was assigned to aid Professor Bruttenholm during his time in Berlin - because all the army had to spare was soldiers. The second was a collection of agents available for ''immediate'' deployment.

== Fan FicWorks ==

* ''[[The Dirty Dozen]]''. The team sent in to blow up the Nazi R&R chateau is made up entirely of men facing either execution or life sentences in military prisons. Except for Magot ,<ref>who is an out-and-out psycho, serial killer</ref>, though, most of them are implied to be not-such-bad guys who simply were pushed too far, or never should have been allowed in the military at all.

** ''[[Little Giants]]'' and ''The Big Green'' would [[Follow the Leader]].

* ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' has a lovely [[Reconstruction]] of the classic military sort. The Basterds are a bunch of Jewish-American [[Sociopathic Soldier|Sociopathic Soldiers]]s (joined by one angry Austrian Jew and one psychotic German traitor) willing to do [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|all kinda of horrible things]] to the Nazis. Their quirkiness works for them, as legends sprout around them.

* The [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'' features one of these. Not only is the titular group of Borogravian soldiers a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]], they're all {{spoiler|[[Sweet Polly Oliver|secretly women in disguise]]}}.

*** Vimes was not the enemy commander, Ankh-Morpork was not directly part of the fight, and Vimes is very pointedly not military; he is a policeman. But his help was very helpful.

** And of course, the early City Watch novels. The change occurs after ''[[Discworld/Feet of Clay (novel)|Feet of Clay]]'', when the Watch starts getting so big that Vimes doesn't even know all his officers anymore. (Vimes still thinks of them as being something of a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]], of course--nocourse—no one sane wants to be a copper.)

*** Just as big a bunch of misfits are the night watch in [[Discworld/Night Watch (Discworld)|Night Watch]].

* For a non-Discworld [[Terry Pratchett]] example, the titular group in ''[[Nation]]'', made up of the remnants of many different Polynesian tribes who have managed to survive a tsunami and attacks by the Raiders, led by a [[Flat Earth Atheist]] teenager whose tribe was eliminated before his initiation ritual into adulthood could be completed, meaning that to the others (except Daphne) view him as basically having no soul and being possessed by a demon.

* Knowingly enacted by a [[Genre Savvy]] warrior in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms]]'' series. An ambient magical force in the land (The Tradition) likes to have events work out like they do in stories. The warrior assembles a group of untrained teenage girls, equips them to look suitably ragged, and leads them into battle. The Tradition then ensures that they fight like expert soldiers, because they are a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] and [[Underdogs Never Lose]].

* The ''[[X-wing Rogue Squadron|Wraith Squadron]]'' novels in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] were based on this principle. Having witnessed some of the problems his squad ran into during the Bacta War, Wedge Antilles proposed a new type of squadron. To address the New Republic's budgetary problems, he said that he would give the squad to them "for free"--taking—taking the washouts, the disciplinary screwups, the mental cases, aliens who just had trouble fitting in with human and near-human societies, and those who were in general on the verge of being discharged, to get them out of other commanders' hair but still give them <s>a second</s> one last chance.

* It seems that most of the [[Malazan Book of the Fallen|Malazan Empire's]] army is made up of a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]. Well at least the Bridgeburners and the Bonehunters anyways.

* [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s ''[[Dark Heresy]]'' novels have the Angelae Carolus, comprising among their number an ex-cop, a fanatic assassin, a cyborg who spends a lot of time contemplating the oddness of human speech patterns, a pair of Imperial Guardsmen who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Inquisitor Carolus' former[[Pyrokinesis|pyrokinetic]] pyrokineformer girlfriend.

* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''Duty Calls'', Inquisitor Vail's retinue already includes a former commissar/member of a penal regiment, and a former arbite who had, while undercover, imploded a criminal organization with a judicious murder and frame, and picks up a food vendor who had stumbled into some knowledge of the Inquisition —... and picked up a gun when cornered by a Chaos cult. ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' Inquisitors seem to attract this trope. It's [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]], too; Cain wonders if eccentricity is a requirement for joining up with Vail, who notes that in a job like that, you just tend to find more people whose view of the universe is... unusual.

* Gav Thorpe's [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] ''Last Chancers'' novels fit this trope to a dark and bloody tee, being made up of the scum and villainy of the Imperium.

* The five central characters in Douglas Hill's ''[[The Col SecColSec Trilogy]]'' are a group of juvenile delinquents who have been exiled to an alien planet by the [[Dystopia|world government]]. Of course, they end up as recruiters for [[La Résistance]] when one of its leaders falls in with them...apparently, because they're "tough, smart, lucky, and ''survivors''." (Bear in mind that this group consists of a [[Barbarian Hero]]—in a [[Space Opera]], no less—an [[The Empath|empathic]] [[Wrench Wench]], a [[Tsundere]] with super night vision, a [[Keet]], and a [[Deadpan Snarker]]...oh, hell, it's actually [[Better Than It Sounds]].)

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': The Night's Watch consists largely of outcasts, petty criminals, and political refugees and (surprisingly) even allows the overweight to join their ranks. This makes it all the more of a combined [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when the fat Samwell Tarly slays a seemingly invincible monster.

** The defense of The Wall in ''A Storm of Swords'' takes the [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] trope [[Up to Eleven]]. Since {{spoiler|most of the Watch's best men have been killed, and the best of the rest are engaged in fighting elsewhere}}, only the very bottom of the barrel and some volunteers from a nearby town are left to fight the Wildling horde.

** The Brotherhood Without Banners, made up of the remnants of a royal mission for a now very dead king, as well as a collection of miscellaneous stranded soldiers, armed peasants, petty bandits, and the like. It's telling that both of their leaders have been Westeros' equivalent of zombies

* The investigating team in [[The Alienist]] matches this description.

* ''[[Blake's Seven7|Blakes Seven]]'' makes ''Torchwood'' look like a haven of unity and competence.

** What do you get when you put together a team comprised of a [[Standardized Leader|former Air Force pilot]]; a [[Wide-Eyed Idealist]] "simple mechanic" (who is [[Bonnie Scotland|SCOTTISH!]]); a former [[Rich Bitch]] who [[Took a Level Inin Badass]]; an incompetent ex-cartel member who is [[Giving the Sword to A Noob|completely unqualified to handle advanced weaponry]] (but [[Meta Guy|often points out]] [[Only Sane Man|the ridiculousness of the situation they're all in]] to comedic effect); a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] with [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|no memories of either his past or his identity]]; and twin hyperactive [[Psychopathic Manchild|psychotic adult children]] who, despite being geniuses, are obsessed with [[Stuff Blowing Up|things that go BOOM!]]--all—all led by an [[Kuudere|emotionally closed off]] [[Teen Genius]] scientist with [[No Social Skills]] and [[Tear Jerker|one depressing backstory]]? The team from ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]''. Aren't you glad they're the ones who must protect the last remaining city on earth against a renegade computer virus?

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' makes being a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] (or as [[J. Michael Straczynski]] puts it, being "community-builders") [[Humans Are Special|our]] collective [[Planet of Hats|Hat]].

** Lampshaded in Journey to Regionals, with Olivia Newton John saying that the whole [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] trope is overused and that everyone expects the underdogs to win. {{spoiler|Not this time.}}

* [[Stargate SG-1|SG-1]]: Fitting the [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] mold. Teal'c is an alien defector, Jack breaks protocol every chance he can, and Daniel's going native on Abydos didn't endear him to the military and his general obsession with non-standard archaeological ideas makes him more than a bit quirky. Even Sam is presented as not seeming to relate to a lot of people outside the band and rather obsessive when it comes to Gate technology and physics. She's in two male-dominated fields, the military and science, and seems to have a psychological need to prove herself because of it ("Me? Tense? I'm not tense!"). Of the later additions, Jonas Quinn was responsible for his predecessor's death, Vala MalDoran is a criminal, and Cam Mitchell gets a lot of flack for being a newbie 'commander' who can't actually give any of his team orders. Probably not quite the sanest group you could send through a Stargate, but they do save the world every other week, so they keep their jobs.

** As seasons passed, you could add an immortal [[Badass Spaniard]], a [[Deadpan Snarker]] pilot, a [[Magnificent Bastard]], a [[Handicapped Badass]] who has always been an [[Unwitting Pawn]], {{spoiler|a puff of smoke transformed into the previous [[Unwitting Pawn]] and another immortal who had the job to keep this puff of smoke on the island and who might be a God}}. [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] indeed.

* The Rottaran in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]] ''Soldiers of the Empire'' . A Klingon Bird of Prey that is down on it's luck, plagued by a series of defeats is led by Martok, Worf, and Dax to a victory.

* ''[[Primeval]]''. Lester is well aware that he's in charge of a Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits and would gladly fire the lot of them and bring in professionals instead, were he not such a fundamentally decent chap.

* Taken to an extreme, as is everything in the ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' universe with entire penal legions, where the worst of the worst of the Imperium's convicted felons are sent on literal suicide missions in return for a general pardon in the unlikely event they survive. Think Dirty Dozen in battalion size. This trope is best exemplified in the novel ''Kill Team''.

* ''[[Blood Bowl]]'' gives us the Motley Horde, a Blood Bowl team that fits this describtiondescription to a tee. Not even the coach knows what kind of lineup he will see each game.

* '''Every''' ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' party ever, with few exceptions. See also the [[Video Games]] section and how they talk about the various RPGs; this is where they got the idea. It's possible to coordinate a non-ragtag adventuring party with some pre-game work, but a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|Ragtag Bunch of Level 1 Misfits]] spontaneously joining up for mutual adventure and profit is the default assumption.

* [[Because Destiny Says So]], the hero of the various ''[[Suikoden]]'' games must battle [[The Empire]] and [[Gotta Catch Them All|optimally ]] gather together a force led by [[108]] very, very diverse individuals. A minority of them are seasoned troops. Most are crossdressing tea fanciers, elevator operators, cape-wearing squirrels... it just gets weirder after that.

* The vast majority of Computer [[Role -Playing Game|Role Playing Games]]s, for that matter. Who's going to defeat the world destroying monster? Why, [[Chrono Trigger|a teenage kid, his childhood mad scientist friend, a sheltered princess, a cursed knight, a robot, and a prehistoric cavewoman]] {{spoiler|(and possibly a misanthropic sorceror)}}. They needn't bother recruiting any trained soldiers or acquire any heavy artillery.

** ''[[Final Fantasy X -2]]'' takes the cake with this one. The group who set out to stop the [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] and his big machina are a [[Stripperiffic]] sphere huntress, her two goons, a [[Death Seeker]] with a fake arm and leg, a wiz kid in a gas mask, a [[Large Ham]] with a crush on his cousin, his buddy, an Al Bhed with a [[BFG]] and their go-to girls are Spira's answer to the Charmed Ones.

* In ''[[Super Mario RPG]]: Legend of the Seven Stars'', your party consists of a [[Heroic Mime|mute]] [[The Everyman|everyman]] [[Almighty Janitor|plumber]] with [[In a Single Bound|superhuman jumping ability]], the monster king who is [[Enemy Mine|typically his worst enemy]], the princess he has to [[Distressed Damsel in Distress|save just about every other week]], a talking cloud that can control the weather, and a possessed doll.

** Or any ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' game, for that matter. The recruitable casts usually do include a fair number of experienced, professional knights and soldiers, but they're rounded out with an assortment of [[New Meat|new recruits]], peasant militia fighters, inquisitive scholar-mages, wandering [[Warrior Poet|Warrior Poets]]s, [[Blood Knight|Blood Knights]]s, bored mercenaries, thieves, [[Pirate|piratespirate]]s, assassins, [[Defector From Decadence|defectors]], and often a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifting]] [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragon]] [[Cute Monster Girl|girl]]. Not to mention a whole bunch of [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|nobles]] and their retainers.

* [[Rogue Galaxy]] could also qualify. By the middle of the game the super-elite [[Pirate|pirate ship]]'s crew consists in: a legendary [[Pirate]], a Second-in-command ''cat'' with a bad attitude, [[Tsundere|a bad-tempered]] jungle girl, [[The Hero|a clueless young boy mistaken for a skillful hunter]], an ''actual'' skillful hunter, [[The Chick|a cheerful girl]], an extremely polite fighting-machine robot with {{spoiler|the spirit of a dead child inside}}, a depressed Ex-soldier, a police-wanted, fired-from-his-job [[Nerd|computer genius]], and a... ''something'' that can fire missiles from his back and speaks with a weird accent, plus a couple of normal human pirates adn a talking frog who eats weapons. Insanity ensues.

* Delta Squad in ''[[Gears of War]]'' fit the trope perfectly - though everyone on the team is a soldier, they argue amongst each other constantly, are generally a collection of [[Jerkass|jerkassesjerkass]]es, and the ([[Field Promotion|newly promoted]]) squad leader is an actual ex-convict freed literally <s>hours</s> minutes before the mission began.

** Justified in that {{spoiler|the Mark of Torment etched into the Nameless One's flesh draws troubled souls to him}}. Furthermore, {{spoiler|sometimes past incarnations of the Nameless One helped make them that way.}}

** ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' brings this trope to even [[Darker and Edgier]] territory. Shepard's suicide mission team appears to consist of nothing but thugs, sociopaths, and ne'er-do-wells.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'', of course. It's a [[BioWare]] RPG, so you've got: Two Grey Wardens (They're pretty much a whole order of [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]. One is a prince and a former [[The Knights Templar|Templar apprentice]]. The other is you, of course), a [[Deadpan Snarker|deadpan-snarking]] shape-shifting witch from the forest, a [[Heroes Want Redheads|redheaded]] french bard who was a priest, but joined you after a vision, a [[The Stoic|stoic]] [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Qunari]] warrior, a (female) golem with an intense hatred of pigeons, an alcoholic dwarven berzerker, an elven assassin, an elderly {{spoiler|[[Dead All Along]]}} mage, {{spoiler|a villainous noble champion}}. Oh and their [[Team Pet|pet dog]].

** ''Dragon Age: Awakening'' continues this. The alcoholic dwarven berzerker returns, and the new members are an [[Deadpan Snarker|snarky]] rogue mage with an obsessive Templar out for his blood, a murderous elven hippie, a rogue whose father is the noble who killed the Human Noble's family in the first game, [[Perky Goth|a member of the Dwarven Legion of the Dead]], a Fade spirit of justice trapped in the body of a dead man, and a very nice Grey Warden recruit who {{spoiler|dies the second she takes her Joining}}.

** ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' continues the tradition with your younger sibling who is either a warrior jealous of you or a rogue mage who [[I Just Want to Be Normal|wants a normal life]], the widowed daughter of an exiled chevalier, a dwarven merchant from an exiled noble family with a fondness for storytelling and [[I Call HerIt "Vera"|a crossbow named Bianca]], a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] elf exiled from her clan for practicing [[Blood Magic]], the snarky rogue mage from Awakening who is [[Not as You Know Them|now much less snarky]] and [[Demonic Possession|possessed the spirit of Justice who has become a demon of Vengeance]], a promiscuous pirate captain with a very large number of enemies, an escaped elven slave with [[Identity Amnesia]] and [[Power Tattoo|Power Tattoos]]s, a [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|prince]]/[[Badass Preacher|priest]] whose entire family has been murdered, and your pet dog.

* And what about the [[StarcraftStarCraft II|Raynor's Raiders]]? [[The Hero|An ex-marshall turned into a freedom fighter]], [[The Lancer|an idealist]], [[The Big Guy|an ex-lifetime convict]], ({{spoiler|Who's actually a mole}}) [[The Smart Guy|a mechanic with a modified arm, a nerd]], [[The Chick|a colony doctor]] ({{spoiler|Who doesn't hang around at some point}}) [[Sixth Ranger|and a psychotic assassin with mystic tendencies]]. Phew...

* [[Freedom Force]], being a typical superhero team, consist of unlikely people brought together by extraordinary circumstances... and [[Super Serum|Energy X]]. These include an alien fugitive with [[Psychic Powers]], a nuclear physicist obsessed with patriotic ideas, a hot-headed Latino from the barrio, a playboy [[The Atoner|atoner]] forever trapped in a metal suit, a [[Southern Belle]]/witch, a "Shcottish" fisherman with scales, two teens, a reprogrammed [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|evil robot]] from an alternate future, a high-school nerd with an insect obsession, a former Air Force pilot now a [[Super Speed|Speedster]], a rookie cop and a blind witness joined into a single being, a strange plant lady with a bikini made of leaves, a washed-up British boxer, an ex-thief, and one who is either an alien or an experiment.

* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131112203202/http://www.davidcsimon.com/crimsondark/ Crimson Dark]'' also has the Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits IN SPACE!

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and subverted in ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'', especially with the second party of worthy warriors always arriving too late to do any good or be hired for the quest.

* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' crew certainly qualifies. Roy is pretty competent in his own right, but his band consists of a dwarf who is convinced that trees are evil, a childish bard who is completely useless in battle until he [[Took a Level Inin Badass|takes a prestige class]] that depends on ''puns'' to be effective, a greedy rogue who constantly steals from the rest of the party, a megalomaniac elf wizard with an [[Ambiguous Gender|unknown gender]], and a bloodthirsty halfling who defines [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]]. Their [[Evil Counterpart|evil counterparts]] aren't any better, either...

* ''[[Teh Gladiators]]'' features as its protagonists not the seasoned ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' veterans that one might expect, but the most improbable and possibly the least competent Arena team ever formed. Gorrok, the orc warrior, is the only actual veteran present and the [[Only Sane Man]]; his companions include Vallant, the human (sort of) hunter who's a [[The Ditz|ditz]] with [[Accidental Aiming Skills]]; and Spin, a Tauren [[New Age Retro Hippie|hippie]] who has no combat skills whatsoever. They are joined at various times by a pair of lecherous murloc [[Mad Scientist|Mad Scientists]]s and [[Leeroy Jenkins]], the [[Trope Namer]] of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' fame. Yet somehow they manage to win.

* ''Mindflayed'' even [https://web.archive.org/web/20160418183546/http://mindflayed.0nyx.com/comic037.jpg had it discussed]:

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20140209185606/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4279 Tangerine looks to be ready to form one.]

* Say, does [[Homestar Runner]] count?

* Team Kimba of the ''[[Whateley Universe]]''. A former rich kid who is now the [[Fallen Princess]]. An Army brat chased out of his own home by anti-mutant fireteams. A nerd turned into a [[Person of Mass Destruction]]. A loner who turned into [[The Chosen One]]. A motherless victim of child abuse who has spent time as a foster child. A [[Transgender|transgenderedtransgender]]ed black kid from Baltimore. A loner turned into one of [[The Fair Folk]]. And they're not the weirdest kids at [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]].

* ''[[Reflets D d'Acide]]'' starts with Wrandrall, a [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half-]][[Our Demons Are Different|Demon]] warrior, trying to assemble comrades for a quest. He ends up with a group including a [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|Dwarf]], an [[Our Elves Are Different|Elven]] [[Magic Music|Barb]], a [[Playing with Fire|Fire Elemental]] and a female [[Barbarian Hero]] (the latter being soon replaced by a [[Dirty Old Monk]]).

* The ThunderCats, both [[Thundercats|the original series]] and [[Thundercats 2011|the 2011 reboot]], were survivors of a great catastrophe (in the original series, it was the destruction of their home planet Thundera while in the reboot, it was the destruction of the kingdom Thundera). The original group consists of a young inexperienced prince with a great destiny, an old soldier, an [[Action Girl]], a scientist (original series)/arrogant prince (reboot), two [[Tagalong Kid|Tagalong Kids]]s, and the [[Team Pet]].

* ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'' episode "War of the Worlds" Part 2 had the group get all the help they could for the Season finale. When their best efforts fail, you get the following:

* The "Mille", the thousand-something volunteers that followed Giuseppe Garibaldi on his expedition to conquer Sicily and unify Italy in 1860. The youngest was 10 years old. The oldest, 70-something. There were students, poets, shopkeepers, tailors, pharmacists, bakers, former soldiers and officers of the regular army, medics, pretty much anything, including a woman, each with his own motive: fame, fortune, romance, adventure, ideals, death (reportedly one of the volunteers jumped offboard the ship twice during the trip to the shores of Sicily). They wore civilian clothing that only had in common the color red (the closest thing they had to an uniform) and were armed with old rifles obtained by tricking an army quartermaster into giving them. Besides, the rifles themselves never saw much use, since Garibaldi's tactical philosophy was "[[Hot-Blooded|the rifle is nothing more than the grip of the bayonet]]". And apparently it worked, as the [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] eventually conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

* Another example of "folk history", this time Russian, is the Red Army, which, according to popular belief, was a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] which, during the Russian Civil War, drove out the White Army with pure revolutionary enthusiasm. While it ''was'' a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] for a short time since its creation, it was completely unsuited for combat, and only began to score victories against the Whites after its transformation into an actual army, with ranks and discipline -- mostlydiscipline—mostly courtesy of former war specialists from the disbanded Tsarist army, whom the Bolsheviks began to enlist after realizing that the "army of workers and peasants" ideal didn't work at all.

* Real world example: grab a book about Mexican history, open it on the chapters about the 19th century and the Revolution, and you'll see at least five disorganized bands duking it out for any reason. In fact, the reason why the Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday is because that was the day when a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]], led by Ignacio Zaragoza, kicked the crap out of the disciplined and well-equipped French invaders.

* The Battle of New Orleans shortly after the end of (but still part of) the war of 1812 was basically won by one very good leader ([[Andrew Jackson]]) with a ragtagforce bunchconsisting of misfits.Regular AndUS Army, Navy and Marines, frontier Militia from Tennessee, Mississippi Light Dragoons, New Orleans Militia including free men of color, Creole [[Pirate|pirates]]! of Barataria, and a party of Choctaw Indians

* Israel actually subverts this trope by taking said misfits, and organizing them into settlers and soldiers. They started out as misfits, but due to the unifying and organizing force that was the Zionist movement quickly lost that designation. Most of the country's accomplishments are due to having its [[Misfit Mobilization Moment]] very early, and most importantly, before getting involved in any war.

* Brutally averted by the Canadian rebellions led by William Lyon Mackenzie in Upper Canada (later Ontario) and Louis-Joseph Papineau in Lower Canada (later Quebec), who were both rebelling against the nepotism and corruption of the British colonial governments of the time. Papineau and Mackenzie's "soldiers", if you could call them that, were mostly common farmers and labourers who were poorly trained and disciplined. Needless to say, the trained British troops mopped the floor with them.

* The 2010 [[Baseball|World Series]] champion [http://www.sfgiants.com San Francisco Giants], a team literally described in the media as "a bunch of castoffs and misfits", as the roster was cobbled together throughout the year with an ever-changing lineup playing the games. Affectionately dubbed The Scrapheap Gang, these Giants were a group of inexperienced, but [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|talented and sometimes eccentric youngsters]] backed up by some aging veterans and a few guys [[Rescued Fromfrom the Scrappy Heap|signed and given another chance to play]] when [[Picked Last|no other team wanted them]]. Late in the regular season, when they looked like they would miss the playoffs for the sixth straight year, their general manager [[Save Our Team|held a private meeting with the pitchers]] to break them out of a slump. At the same time, their first baseman [[Misfit Mobilization Moment|acquired a red thong that he claimed would lead them to victory]]. And did [[Team Spirit|they ever rise to the challenge]], with one of the strongest final pushes in MLB history. Leaning heavily on the strength of their pitching, particularly that of the starters and of their "unique" closer [[Badass Beard|Brian Wilson]] (no, not [[The Beach Boys|that]] Brian Wilson), the Giants eventually notched enough wins in September to qualify for the playoffs on the last game of the regular season. The postseason would be even more dramatic, as most of their games, in sport movie fashion, would go [[Down to the Last Play]]. To boot, almost each game they won would feature an [[Unlikely Hero]], and very often it was someone playing better than they ever had before [[The Power of Friendship|to make up for a slumping teammate's play.]] To cite two prominent examples: the MVP of the League Championship Series was Cody Ross, who had been released by the third-place Florida Marlins with six weeks to go in the season. The MVP of the World Series was Edgar Renteria, an aging, injury-prone shortstop who for much of the season slumped so badly that he was reduced to being a part-time starter.

* NFL example: If documentaries by NFL Films (such as the ''America's Game'' series) are anything to go by, the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders are likely a good example of this, at least the teams from the 70s and 80s under head coaches John Madden and Tom Flores. Featuring many castoffs from other NFL teams, players who were considered washed up, and some colorful personalities with chips on their shoulders, the Raiders were a bunch of misfits who became the "bad guys" of the NFL because of their highly aggressive play (especially players like George Atkinson and Jack Tatum). They were also a successful bunch of misfits, winning Super Bowls XI, XV, and XVIII.

* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131102072849/http://outcastsunited.com/ Outcasts United]'' by Warren St. John is a real life example of this. It is the story of a bunch of refugees who ended up living in Clarkston, Georgia (a small suburb of [[Atlanta]]), which became a resettlement center for refugees from war zones in Liberia, Congo, Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan. These kids eventually start a soccer team, the Fugees, with the help of Luma Mufleh, an American educated Jordanian woman. It tthe prejudice they endured and the money struggles they have, and the culture clashes (such as how in Georgia soccer is a sport associated with rich people).

* Many of the NHL's "Cinderella" teams can be described as this. The 2003/2004 Calgary Flames and 2005/2006 Edmonton Oilers could be best described as a group of talentless players (minus one or two) that played their hearts out, sacrificing their bodies to outplay everyone. By the time the dust settled, the teams had little, if any, players healthy enough to play the last games of the playoffs.