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== Anime & Manga ==
* The team Ichigo gets together during Soul Society in ''[[Bleach]]''.
* 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]] in order to get the best of the best in every field. The character Prospector [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this trope.
* And then there's ''[[Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]'', whose crew is mostly composed of the kind of people you don't want near pencils for fear of what they might do to each other with them, much less a destroyer-class military space ship.
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* The crew of ''White Base'' in the original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' was comprised mostly of civilian refugees and a handful of junior officers who survived the attack on Side 7 in the first episode. They still manage to score a number of improbable victories against the elite forces of the Principality of Zeon, thanks to the [[Super Prototype]] principle and some of the cast developing into [[Psychic Powers|Newtypes]]. And more importantly to Federation command, they made ''really'' good decoys.
** 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 ''[[Twentieth 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]]...}}
* ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'''s Deimon Devil Bats. Other teams have full rosters, deep benches and long traditions. The Devil Bats only have 11 full-time team members (eight of whom were only just scraped up for this year, three by blackmail), and they all are weird in their own way.
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* In ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'', the antagonist Seiryuu warriors are mostly battle-hardened, ruthless killing machines, a few of whom could conceivably take over [[Big Bad]] duties in their own right. The good guys? An [[Ordinary High School Student]], a peasant farmer, a [[Wholesome Crossdresser]], a [[Stepford Smiler|permanently smiling]] monk, a [[Hair-Trigger Temper|rageaholic]] bandit, a burned-out country doctor, and a young boy who initially [[Refusal of the Call|refused the call]] because he was afraid. Oh, and the Emperor. Subverted in that {{spoiler|five out of seven of them get killed, and they actually ''fail'' to prevent the god Seiryuu from being summoned. Good only triumphs at the end because of a [[Heel Face Turn]] by the Seiryuu priestess.}}
* ''[[One Piece]]''. Just ''[[One Piece]]''. Though they ''are'' [[Pirate|pirates]] ([[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]].
* ''[[Gintama]]'' has two: The Yorozuya and the Shinsengumi. Although frequently in opposition, when they are...pointed in the same direction, they can do a lot of damage.
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]''. Somewhat justified in that three of the four are forcibly recruited--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.
* The {{spoiler|Muto Extermination Squad}} in ''[[Busou Renkin]]''. Put together because the only leader who could keep them in line is a [[General Ripper]], and they are on their important task because everyone else is dealing with a bigger threat. Especially notable because they are the antagonists.
* The Varia in ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]''. The future arc shows Bel and Levi apparently wanting to kill Fran. This of course is followed by Bel sticking knives in Fran's back.
* [[Captain Harlock]] commands a spaceship full of 'em.
* ''[[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.
* In ''[[High School DxD]]'', the members of the Occult Research Club include: [[Badass Princess|the club leader who's also the younger sister of one of the four lords of hell]] {{spoiler|who apparently loves anything Japanese related}}, [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|the vice-club leader who's a half-human half-fallen angel turned devil who's also a]] [[Miko]] and a sadist, three very [[Cloudcuckoolander|ditzy]] believers of God (the first being a former nun turned devil who's also [[The Ditz|the ditziest]] of the three, the second being a former exorcist turned devil who has [[No Social Skills]], and the third being a reborn angel who has her priorities mixed up), a quiet [[Catgirl]] turned devil and the resident [[Little Miss Snarker]], a [[Wholesome Crossdresser|cross dressing]] [[Dhampyr|half vampire-half human]], [[Bishonen|the most handsome guy on the school campus]] and is [[The Ace]] of the group, a former [[Valkyries]] turned devil who has a lot of [[Money Fetish]], a [[Mad Scientist]] leader of the fallen angel faction, a phoenix who can bake [[Sweet Tooth|cakes]], [[And Zoidberg|and last]], the [[Chivalrous Pervert]] [[Lovable Sex Maniac]] protagonist who's a human turned dragon-devil. Not exactly the group who can keep the peace between the three factions, but they're the most elite group of the three factions.
== Comic Books ==
* 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]].
* British war-oriented comic ''Battle Action'' included a British Empire ''Dirty Dozen'' clone called ''The Rat Pack'' complete with cockney thug/knifeman/marksman, sneaky little pickpocket and gigantic musclebound Turk. For some reason these "Convict Commandos" wore blue battledress rather than Khaki or green.
** Mercilessly parodied in ''The Rifle Brigade'' where fearless Captain "Khyber" D'Arcy leads [[Ambiguously Gay]] Lieutenant "Doubtful" Milk, monstrous Yorkshireman Sergeant Crumb ("'ey oop"), Cockney thug Corporal Geezer ("Yer aht of ordah!"), Private Hank the Yank ("Gawd Dammit!") and The Piper (who isn't an actual soldier but is still probably the most brutal of the lot) on missions against.... well you really just have to read these for yourself! But to give you an idea on the type of operations entrusted to the Rifle Brigade, one of their most important assignments involved recovering a powerful arcane artifact before the Axis could get their hands on it. The artifact was Hitler's missing testicle.
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* The [[New Avengers]] are a team more or less thrown together by circumstance (they were on the "losing" side of ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]''). Even now that they can work openly, they remain a group without a great deal in common except that the team is a sort of refuge where they can get themselves back together and get on with their lives.
* Justified in [[Les Legendaires]], since the titular Protaginist's [[Five-Man Band]] wasn't exactly assembled by the government or anything; the two founding members merely decided to create a group of independent heroes of their own by recruiting anyone who would be interested. This result in the group including a former [[The Knight|Elite Knight]] from the King's personal army, a [[Badass Princess]] [[Magical Girl]], a formerly enslaved [[Beast Man]], a [[Barbarian Hero]] [[The Atoner|who used to work for the series']] [[Big Bad]] and an [[Our Elves Are Better|Elf]] granted with [[Elemental Powers]].
== Fan Fic ==
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* ''[[Shaolin Soccer]]'' provides an interesting twist with a rag-tag soccer team full of washed-up ''Shaolin monks''. Despite their shabby appearance and total lack of soccer experience, they harness martial arts superpowers to defeat the reigning champions.
* Both ''[[The Bad News Bears]]'' and ''[[The Mighty Ducks (film)|The Mighty Ducks]]'' play out this formula with kids.
** ''[[Little Giants]]'' and ''The Big Green'' would [[Follow the Leader]].
* ''[[Major League]]'' is basically ''The Bad News Bears'' with a Major League team. Also, unlike the Bears, the Indians [[Down to the Last Play|win the AL East.]]
* ''[[DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story|Dodgeball a True Underdog Story]]'' actually calls the team of average Joes "The Average Joes".
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** The Monstrous Regiment's survival is a little more believable when you take into account that several of their number have super(natural) powers and their commanding officer (in fact if not name) is a [[Magnificent Bastard]] who knows everyone on both sides of the conflict and carries a bit more pull than you'd expect a sergeant to have.
*** It may have helped a bit that the enemy's senior commander (Vimes) was gunning for them.
*** 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|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--no one sane wants to be a copper.)
*** Just as big a bunch of misfits are the night watch in [[Discworld/Night Watch|Night Watch]].
** The witches are also somewhat of a bunch of misfits.
* 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 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.
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* The five central characters in Douglas Hill's ''[[The Col Sec 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]].)
* The cast of any story set in the [[Border Town]] [[Shared Universe]], ever.
* ''[[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 Brave Companions, a band of sellswords made up of [[Psycho for Hire|the most bloodthirsty and amoral fighters from all over the world]], are an evil version of the concept.
** 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
* There are two in Michelle West's Sun Sword/House War series. The first is the army of the Kalakar, the Ospreys. The second is Jewel's den, which are the much more ragtag bunch of misfits that are significantly more badass. Granted, they have an overlapping character who provides a liberal dose of overkill, but both fit this trope.
* In the [[Farsala Trilogy]], the entire Farsalan army is this after the defeat of the deghans in the first book, ''Fall of a Kingdom''.
* The investigating team in [[The Alienist]] matches this description.
* The fellowship in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' is about half [[Badass]], half misfit.
* In [[Dale Brown]]'s ''[[Act of War]]'', Task Force TALON starts as a mish-mash of FBI agents, "lab-bound mavericks" and actual combat-hardened personnel.
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** Mostly averted in the ''[[Crusade]]'' spin-off, where the only "misfits" are Dureena, a professional thief, and [[Bald of Awesome|Galen]], a rogue [[Magic From Technology|technomage]].
* ''[[Glee]]'' gets its entire premise from this. A [[Cool Teacher]] takes on the worst Glee club in the state consisting of an obnoxious diva, the school's star quarterback, a [[Camp Gay]] who also plays football, a pregnant cheerleader, a [[Jerk Jock]], a [[Sassy Black Woman]], a stuttering Asian [[Perky Goth]], a nerd in a wheelchair, and two more cheerleaders and two more football players.
** 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.}}
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'': The entire subculture of [[The Hunter|hunters]]. They're all just a bunch of emotionally scarred people who make it their (non-paying) job to hunt and kill supernatural beings, most likely because someone they were close to was killed by one. Considering how rampant these paranormal attacks seem to be, you'd think the government would set up a [[The Men in Black|secret agency]] to fight them. But no, it's left entirely up to these people, who will break as many laws and [[Walking the Earth|wander the earth]] as much as they have to in order to get the job done, with no thanks or pay to show for it?
** From ''The Song Remains The Same'', with Heaven and Hell both threatening to destroy the earth and the apocalypse underway:
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'''Sam:''' This is what?
'''Dean:''' Team Free Will. One ex-blood junkie, one dropout with six bucks to his name, and Mr. Comatose over there. }}
* [[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.
** ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' isn't much better, John is a ''fairly'' by-the-book [[The Hero|commander]] (and actually the only official soldier in the team), Rodney is an [[The Smart Guy|abrasive, arrogant scientist]] with a penchant for last-minute solutions, Teyla is a down-to-earth action-girl who's the [[The Chick|closest they have to a guide]], and Ronon is a [[The Stoic]], who also happens to be the [[The Big Guy|real muscle]].
** ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' takes this trope and turns it [[Up to Eleven]]. Lemmesee...
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** And ~15 years earlier, the ''[[Misfits of Science]]''.
* ''[[Lost]]'''s cast includes a spinal surgeon, a fugitive, a con man, a [[One-Hit Wonder]] rock star, a former member of the Republican Guard, a cursed millionaire, a [[Deadpan Snarker]] psychic who can hear a dead person's last thoughts, a memory-impaired physicist, and an [[Unstuck in Time]] Scottish man.
** 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.
*** Don't forget a [[Con Man]] / [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] and a [[Sympathetic Murderer]]. Well, I guess she's supposed to be sympathetic.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''; much was made of the Scooby Gang's misfit characteristics, both as individuals and as a group. Particularly during the high school years.
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* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' uses this. At the end of season 1 a group containing a cheerleader, a male nurse, a cop, an internet stripper, a boy genius, a politician, a Japanese Otaku, his sidekick, an escaped con and the professor are all present
* The Five in ''[[Sanctuary]]'' were this, including an immortal scientist specializing in strange creatures, a genius keeping himself alive with a machine, an invisible thief, an electrical vampire/InsufferableGenius, and teleporting [[Jack the Ripper]]. The Sanctuary team itself could be considered this with the above-mentioned immortal scientist, her daughter (and {{spoiler|[[Jack the Ripper]]}}'s) with anger-management issues, a quirky forensic psychiatrist disliked by his own colleagues, a Neanderthal, and a <s>werewolf</s> [[Our Werewolves Are Different|HAP]]. After the death of {{spoiler|Helen's daughter}}, the team "acquires" a professional thief and smuggler.
* ''[[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.
{{quote|'''James Lester''': Repeat that disgraceful slander, and you'll be hearing from my laywers.}}
* The [[Warehouse 13]] team could certainly apply: two former Secret Service agents (one of whom gets psychic hunches), a disgraced former NSA analyst who was convicted of treason, an aura-reading B&B operator, a former mental patient and [[Teen Genius]], an [[Anti-Villain]] female HG Wells, and a gay ATF agent who's a living lie detector. Not to mention their boss, who is a mysterious teleporting and apparently immortal woman.
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** Lampshaded early in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' when, upon hearing the party introduce itself one member at a time, [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Rufus Shinra]] shrugs and replies, "What a crew."
** Also invoked in ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' according to [[Word of God]], who wanted to invoke a feeling similar to ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'': Your party consists of a soldier, an airline pilot trying to save his son, a leader of a group of anarchist do-nothings turned freedom-fighters, some kid on vacation, and two girls whose reasons for being in the party are too spoilerific and complicated to post here. In fact, ''FFXIII'' can be regarded as a [[Deconstruction]] of this trope, seeing how the party members quite naturally spend over a half of the game hating each other's guts and blatantly violating the [[Never Split the Party]] principle because of that.
** ''[[Final Fantasy X
** ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has one of the biggest ragtag bunch of misfits. It consists of the [[Easy Amnesia]], {{spoiler|[[Half-Human Hybrid]]}}, [[Magic Knight]] and [[Action Girl]] Terra Branford, the [[Loveable Rogue]] Locke Cole, the [[Chivalrous Pervert]] King Edgar Roni Figaro, the [[Bare-Fisted Monk]] and [[Boisterous Bruiser]] Sabin Rene Figaro, [[The Atoner]], [[Hot Chick with a Sword]] and [[Action Girl]] Celes Chere, the Badass Ninja, [[Blood Knight]] and {{spoiler|[[Disappeared Dad]]}} Shadow, the [[Badass Grandpa]], [[Failure Knight]] and Samurai Cyan Garamonde, the [[Raised by Wolves]], [[Wild Child]], [[Cloudcuckoolander]] and [[Badass Adorable]] Gau, the [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]] [[Badass Longcoat]] Setzer Gabbiani, the [[Squishy Wizard]] [[Badass Grandpa]] [[Mega Manning|Mega Manner]] Strago Magus, [[Squishy Wizard|the other Squishy Wizard]], [[Glass Cannon]] (she's got the highest magic stat), [[Art Attacker]], [[Kid Appeal Character]], [[Tagalong Kid]], [[Genki Girl]] Relm Arrowny, the [[Badass Adorable]], [[Cute Bruiser]], [[Dance Battler]], [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse]] and [[Killer Rabbit]] (he's got the highest defenses in the game and has enough attack to make him the best tank, being both resistant and strong as a dragoon) Mog, the Berserker, [[Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti]], [[Dumb Muscle]] and [[Team Pet]] Umaro and, last but not least, the [[Secret Character]], literal [[Heroic Mime]], [[Jack of All Stats]] and [[Ambiguous Gender]] Gogo. There you go, 12 people and 2 animals, most of which had absolutely nothing to do with each other before the beginning of the game and only half are actually trained fighters.
* The crew who ends up saving the world from being Porky's oyster in ''[[Mother 3]]'' is a cowardly preteenage boy who can't quite get over his troubled past, his loyal but useless in battle dog, a teen girl raised by freaky cross-dressing fairy things who has been locked away in a castle all her life, and a smelly, ridiculed thief in his 20s with a crippled leg. Yet somehow, we're not doomed.
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** 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]], [[Blood Knight|Blood Knights]], bored mercenaries, thieves, [[Pirate|pirates]], 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.
* Like ''[[Fire Emblem]]'', the recruitable casts found in all ''[[Shining Force]]'' games (and many sidegames) have a large degree of variation in occupation, nationality, class, motive, and even ''race''. It is not uncommon to wound up with an army full of Humans, Halflings, Centaurs, Elves, the token [[Joke Character]], [[Furry Fandom|beastmen]], and many other fictional races towards the end of the game. Hell, some games even have Ninjas and Samurais joining the force seemingly at random.
* [[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|jerkasses]], and the ([[Field Promotion|newly promoted]]) squad leader is an actual ex-convict freed literally <s>hours</s> minutes before the mission began.
** It is stated by several of the characters however, that Marcus's trial was a sham and that before it he was an extremely skilled soldier.
* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]''. An amnesiac immortal trying to find out who he is and to die while he still can; a flying talking skull with the libido and vocabulary of a frisky teenager; the last warrior of an ancient order who wield blades attuned to their minds, capable of destroying anything; a fiendblooded thief and corpse-collector; a chaste succubus; a perpetually burning man who loves it; a being embodying geometric order cut off from the [[Hive Mind]] of its brethren, accompanied by a pair of semi-sentient spirits who have shaped themselves into its crossbows; and a haunted suit of armor kept together by its refusal to abandon its duty to Justice.
** 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.}}
*** Considering most of the game (sort of) takes place in Sigil, it would have been weird if the group was NOT a bunch of randomly selected and mismatched people and other creatures.
* This is pretty much the entire point of ''Battlefield: Bad Company''. B Company is apparently a dumping ground for anyone the Army deems a troublemaker, making them expendable. Plus, the squad featured pretty much qualifies in and of itself: a demolitions man who blew up the wrong latrine and loves to go in depth on his philosophical non-sequiturs, a cowardly comm specialist who looked up porn and wound up giving the Department of Defense network a nasty virus, a chopper pilot whose boredom and subsequent recreational drug use led to an accident that then led to his reassignment, and a weary sergeant who just wants to get out as soon as possible and is willing to take a transfer to the highest mortality rate company in the Army to get it.
* Depending on whom you recruit in your pack, ''[[Spore]]'' has elements of this trope. It's possible to end up with someone with his cilia from the Tidepool, and yet he can last longer than the others.
* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', the fate of the entire galaxy rests in the hands of a war hero/ruthless commander/ShellShockedVeteran, who is backed up by a telekinetic tech with control issues, an angry Marine with trust issues, an [[Cowboy Cop|angry cop]] with authority issues, a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] [[Hired Guns|mercenary]] with <s>parental</s> [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|species]] issues, an alien [[Wrench Wench|mechanic]] with ''more'' parental issues, and a blue-skinned [[Hot Scientist]] with ''even more'' parental issues. [[Dysfunction Junction|Big, happy family, right?]]
** ''[[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.
*** Specifically, the party includes : a quaint scientist with ethical issues, a psychotic test subject with psychic powers and childhood issues, {{spoiler|the [[Cowboy Cop|angry cop]] from the first game who has become}} [[The Punisher|a vigilante who takes the war on crime to the heart of darkness]] and [[Survivor Guilt]]/revenge issues, a berserk alien supersoldier with daddy/existential issues, a cynical ex-Marine with daddy issues (who is the [[Only Sane Man]], mind you), a human-supremacist femme fatale with daddy issues, a quasi-hive minded robot motivated by religious zeal (with no issues!), a guilt-ridden holy warrior with family issues, {{spoiler|the same}} an alien mechanic with strained relations with her own race, a [[Death Seeker]] alien assassin with familial issues, and, in downloadable content, a sociopathic mercenary with revenge issues and a galactic-class thief with love issues. In a subversion, you can get a total party kill - yes, ''[[The Hero Dies|including Shepard]]'' - if you don't do any of these characters' side missions, [[Playing with Syringes|all]] [[Playing with Syringes|of]] [[Deceptive Disciple|which]] [[Coming of Age Story|solve]] [["Well Done, Son" Guy|at]] [["Well Done, Son" Guy|least]] [[Enemy Civil War|some]] [["Well Done, Son" Guy|of]] [["Well Done, Son" Guy|their]] [["Well Done, Son" Guy|many]] personal issues. (And yes, '''''that''' [[Dysfunction Junction|many characters have father/mother/child issues]]'' in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''.)
** And Shepard is not immune: depending on which past you choose, s/he either grew up without a family and was raised by gangs and violence (Earthborn) or is the sole survivor of a pirate raid on his/her home planet (Colonist) and either watched his/her whole platoon except for him/her being annihilated by an alien monster (Sole Survivor) or send the 3/4 of hi/hers platoon to death to capture a bunker (Ruthless).
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* ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'' fits this trope to a tee. You've got a [[Lovable Rogue]], a [[Fiery Redhead]], and a mysterious [[Woman in White]] as your main party members. You pick up lots more along the way to join your crew. Not to mention all the 3rd party characters that come when [[Gondor Calls for Aid]] near the end.
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'': A drawling [[More Dakka]] engineer. A big, somewhat dimwitted Russian. A psychotic delusional soldier. A mouthy, trash-talking speedster. A German [[Mad Doctor]]. A smooth-talking French spy. A laid back Australian professional killer. A drunk, one-eyed, black, manic-depressive Scottish nutcase. A pyromaniac of ambiguous sex and/or gender. They Fight Their Other-Coloured Clones!
* ''[[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]].
** To elaborate, said prince was actually a bastard shipped off to a convent to keep him away from the throne, the witch had a rough and isolated childhood and so has [[No Social Skills]], bard in this context means spy and assassin who sings, the you free the qunari from prison after he murdered eight innocent people, the dwarf joins you after you help him find his {{spoiler|[[Complete Monster]] wife who abandoned him searching for an [[Artifact of Doom]]}}, and the elven assassin was hired to kill ''you''.
** ''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
** A DLC gives you a temporary companion who isn't much better than the others - a female Qunari elf with a penchant to either kill or flirt with any man (especially human) that she sees.
* The survivors from either ''Left 4 Dead'' game count. In [[Left 4 Dead|the first]], a [[Shell Shocked Senior|Vietnam vet]], a [[Badass Biker]] who hates [[Running Gag|everything]], an [[Action Survivor|office worker]] who had no clue what's going on, and a [[Gamer Chick]] who's [[Book Dumb|flunking out of college.]] In [[Left 4 Dead 2|the second]], an overweight, middle-aged [[Team Dad]], a [[Genius Ditz|ditzy]] [[Butt Monkey]] with an accent thicker than pea soup, a [[Loveable Rogue|snarky conman]] in a white suit, and an [[Intrepid Reporter]] and [[The Smurfette Principle|token chick.]]
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* ''[http://www.davidcsimon.com/crimsondark/ Crimson Dark]'' also has the Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits IN SPACE!
* ''[[Last Res0rt|Last Res 0 rt]]'' sees this and raises you a [[Reality Show]]. Of course, they don't really DO anything of worldly importance (yet), but still, there they are.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and subverted in ''[[8-Bit Theater
** And again in Episode 1163 'Semantics' when they face Sarda. Red Mage confronts him and The Wizard Who Did It says "You and what ragtag band of adventurers with humorously conflicting personalities who learn the true meaning of friendship?" RM points behind him. They ran off.
* The Main Party in ''[[RPG World]]'' consists of an [[Idiot Hero]], a thief chick who's the sarcastic [[Only Sane Man]], two "[[Funny Animal|cute fuzzy things]]", a [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold|prostitute mage]], an extremely perverted [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]], an [[Wrench Wench|engineer pirate]] with two (not so helpful) robot assisants, and a [[Tagalong Kid|punk breakdancer]].
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** With the exception of [[Badass|Tex]], who is pretty much confirmed to be the single best fighter in the series.
*** Not that she's without her own very special issues, however, as season 8 reveals. {{spoiler|She's essentially cursed to ultimately fail at everything she tries to do.}} The most normal person they meet (Wash) ''still'' has issues, what with {{spoiler|Epsilon's memories being beamed directly into his mind}} and all.
* 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|transgendered]] 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]].
* The characters in ''[[A Game of Gods (Roleplay)|A Game of Gods]]'' come off as this. Justified in that they were taking from their home worlds by [[The Powers That Be|the Nomads]].
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'''Senator''': Oh, that's something of a myth. }}
* ''[[G.I. Joe: Renegades|G.I. Joe Renegades]]'' invokes this hard in the first episodes, with the team only ''tolerating'' each-other for the mission, and getting much worse for a bit until the end of the second episode when they're able to come together to stop a threat. They're still at odds for the next few episodes, but gradually seem to come together as everyone gets to know each-other.
* 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]], 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:
{{quote|'''Gwen Tennyson''': We're too late!
'''Ben Tennyson''': It's never too late. New plan!... Working on it.
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* [[Jesus]] and his disciples. They include an anarchist, a tax collector, a traitor, someone who denied even being with him, and two "sons of thunder," i.e. revolutionaries.(Although Jesus is admittedly not your traditional [[The A-Team|Hannibal Smith-type]] to say the least.)
* The French Foreign Legion, at least according to all those romantic novelists...
* 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.
* The Haitian slaves owned by France back in the Napoleonic days could be counted on to fight, argue, and fight some more. With the help of Toussaint Louverture, they managed to stop bickering long enough to kick the French's ass. Tragically, they went right back to the whole Ragtag misfit thing, and the country has languished in the third world as a result.
* 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.
* Bolivar's army was a subversion at first (to put it simple: everybody wanted to be the leader by having [[Indy Ploy|indy ploys]] every three seconds instead of the ones they were planning for months before...), since they spent around twenty years of 'we did it!...oh, sorry, the spanish beated us again...' before deciding it was easier to free Colombia and then, with the support of a whole nation, get Venezuela free. It worked.
* 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 From 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.
* ''[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).
* The rebels in the Libyan Civil war. Very few of them were actual soldiers.
* The Oakland A's in the early 2000s, as seen in the book and film [[Moneyball]], were deliberately assembled as a championship team that the club could actually afford. This entailed culling players from "the Island of Misfit Toys", standouts in one area who flounder in others.
* 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.
* The 2011 Arizona Diamondbacks were branded this by the media. While the 2001 World Series team feature a group of proven veterans, the 2011 team featured only Justin Upton as the only star. But coming off a miserable 2010 they managed to grab two pitchers for players of lesser value. They also featured [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|a pitcher that throws a baseball like a tomahawk]] and the player with the most tattoos in the majors. They managed to unseat the 2010 Giants as division champions, against them no less before losing in the first round of the playoffs.
* [[Reddit]] and [[Image Boards|4chan's /v/ board]] had a competition in ''[[Starsiege: Tribes|Tribes: Ascend]]''. Team Reddit was a well-coordinated, heavily practiced team with high-end computers; Team 4chan was a hastily-gathered team of /v/irgins run by a [[Furry Fandom|furry]] with a tripcode and a Brazilian sniper with 140 ping playing on toasters. 4chan won 3-2.
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