Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Are you a rag-tag band of adventurers with unclear goals and good hearts? ...[[Genre Savvy|Yeah, you people are my biggest threat]]."''|'''Galgarion''', ''[[RPG World]]''}}
This mission is important. The fate of the battle, nay, the war, nay, the ''entire world'' rests on the outcome. Who has the capability to stick it out, to give the good guys the victory they desperately need? This calls for a special team. The group of experienced, highly skilled, professional, team-oriented experts? Not them. The assorted group of ex-con lowlife inexperienced [[
'''This is usually [[Justified Trope]] in one or more of several ways:'''
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Of course, the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits will eventually have a [[Misfit Mobilization Moment]] to get their act together and win the day. Most often it produces casualties: typically, the guy forced to go on the mission despite being the [[Clear My Name|Convicted Innocent]], or the [[Officer and a Gentleman]] who's been stodgy and uptight just before making a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
If the characters were not forced on the team -- [[Condemned Contestant]], [[Boxed Crook]]
Compare with [[Character-Magnetic Team]], [[Cosmic Comic Story]], and [[Hitchhiker Heroes]].
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* 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
* 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.
** In the Soyokaze's case, the reason it's a
* 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.]]
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* The Yang Fleet from ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' certainly gave this impression. It was first formed as the 13th Alliance Fleet, composed of new recruits and the remnant survivors of another fleet. Their first mission was occupying an invincible space fortress, which they succeeded at with ease. Ultimately, the Yang Fleet gathers up a colorful array of characters: an elite combat division of expatriate Imperials, {{spoiler|a venerable, old Imperial officer in exile}}, a womanizing fighter jock, a bureaucratic family man, an ingenious orphan, rogue merchants from Phezzan - all of them led by a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] who would much rather read history books than wage war, but who just happens to be one of the most brilliant tacticians in centuries. Dusty Attenborough and Poplan coin the phrase "foppery and whim" to describe the Yang Fleet's motivations in the face of incredible odds stacked against them.
* 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'' [[
** 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
* 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.
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* [[The Defenders]], comprised of heroes who don't work well with others, and who often get into fights in the middle of their missions, still manage to be successful because they are comprised of some of the most powerful heroes in the [[Marvel Universe]]. They're even famously known as a "non-team", because the concept of teamwork is completely alien to them. This is all in spite of the fact that the founding Defenders ([[Doctor Strange]], the [[Silver Surfer]], [[Incredible Hulk|the Hulk]], and [[Sub-Mariner|Namor the Sub-Mariner]]) are among the most powerful Marvel heroes of all.
* The Champions were a team consisting of Iceman, Angel, [[Black Widow (comics)|Black Widow]], [[Incredible Hercules]], [[Ghost Rider]], and Venus. They originally worked together because they all happened to be on the Berkley campus at the same time.
* 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>
* The [[Great Lakes Avengers]] is a team comprised of some of the weirdest superheroes in Marvel's catalog, including Flatman, Big Bertha, and most popularly, [[Squirrel Girl]] (whose superpower is . . . squirrels). It doesn't hurt that ''[[Deadpool]]'' is considered one of their reserve members.
* 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-
* 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]].
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== Film ==
* The film ''Boarding School Wars'' has Jake Winters invoke this ''by name'' in his [[Shut UP, Hannibal]] moment during a paint ball battle that decides which school's boys get to go to the dance with the girls. "Yeah, you're right, you're right. We're messed up. We've got problems. And you nailed me in the back of the head. Good one. Guess our ragtag bunch of misfits haven't got a chance against your obvious superiority. But hey - shouldn't you be guarding your flag?" George's eyes widen as he realizes the bulk of the opposing team deliberately lost to separate the team from its flag. Using the walkie talkies he smuggled in, George tries to tell his fellow team members what's happening, but it's too late. They arrive after the battle's been decided in a one on one shootout between their leaders.
* ''[[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
* In ''The Devil's Brigade'', the Americans are an example, while the Canadians are more serious about it. The real First Special Service Force recruited its American members by asking for volunteers, not forcing the dregs of the Army into it, though plenty of troublemakers got "volunteered" by their commanding officers to get rid of them. The SSF weeded out a lot of the worst, but it was still a pretty motley bunch.
* ''[[Armageddon]]'': "The fate of the planet is in the hands of a bunch of retards I wouldn't trust with a potato gun."
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* The Diggers who join up with Dr. Noah after one of them is killed by Ecoban soldiers in ''[[Sky Blue]]''.
* ''[[Red Dawn]]'' has this with a group of teens fighting the [[Dirty Communists|evil]] [[Reds With Rockets|Soviets]].
* ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' has a lovely [[Reconstruction]] of the classic military sort. The Basterds are a bunch of Jewish-American [[Sociopathic Soldier
* The kids relegated to being just "Hero Support"(sidekicks) in the titular high school for superheroes, ''[[Sky High (film)|Skyhigh]]''. They end up saving the day when a supervillain attacks the prom.
* The Cutters in ''Breaking Away''.
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* The group designed to free Ciri in Witcher was ultimately formed from a aged and mostly retired monster hunter, elder vampire, amazon bowwoman, perverted bard, teenager with villainous background and friend-turned soldier/secret agent/noble from the hostile empire. Also, few times a half dozen or so dwarves were thrown in.
* [[Hells Children]] by Andrew Boland, features the Damned, who are made up of a [[Humanoid Abomination]], an [[Eldritch Abomination]], and a floating torso. And did I mention that there the protagonists?
* The [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'' features one of these. Not only is the titular group of Borogravian soldiers a
** 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
*** 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
* 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"
** After Wraith Squadron's initial success, though, several new members explained that they signed up because of the squadron's success rate, unaware of their initial reputation. That being said, they are either as charmingly wacky or as deeply scarred as the original squad, and, soon fit right in. The Wraiths are eventually considered competent...if unpredictable, unorthodox, and hardly military disciplined. Appropriately, they're recommissioned as an Intelligence unit.
** Rogue Squadron isn't exactly what you'd call orthodox either, although they're not as wide out as the Wraiths, they sit somewhere between the Wraiths and the regular military.
* It seems that most of the [[Malazan Book of the Fallen|Malazan Empire's]] army is made up of a
** It's hinted that the Empire actually encourages that sort of thing, believing that allowing individual squads (and soldiers) to find their own idiosyncratic ways of fighting is more efficient than enforcing conformity in the ranks. Seeing as this is more or less accurate in the [[Heroic Fantasy]] world the story takes place in, this might make the Empire an entire ''nation'' that is [[Genre Savvy]].
** And then there's the Mott Irregulars, a bunch of insane country hicks lead by twenty warlock brothers and a sister (the meanest of them all) who are so ragtag and fit so badly that they managed to run circles around the Bridgeburners for more than a year and win at the end.
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* Gav Thorpe's [[Warhammer 40000]] ''Last Chancers'' novels fit this trope to a dark and bloody tee, being made up of the scum and villainy of the Imperium.
* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Warhammer 40000]] novel ''Scourge the Heretic'', Carolus already has an interesting collection in his retinue, consisting of a sanctioned psyker, a former policeman, a psychotic fanatic assassin, and a tech-priest. He picks up two soldiers who were at a post when witches attacked and alerted him, and the shuttle pilot who took him there.
* [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''[[Operation Chaos]]'' ends with the narrator considering the
* [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s Dendarii Mercenaries were a pretty ragtag bunch when Miles first created them in ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|The Warrior's Apprentice]]''.
* In [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Otherland]]'' series, the group of protagonists that ends up infiltrating the Grail Brotherhood's private virtual reality network consists of a South African schoolteacher, a Bushman, a pair of American teenage gamers (one of whom has a [[Littlest Cancer Patient|terminal disease]]), a third teenager who's an ex drug addict, a reclusive blind French researcher, a Chinese grandmother, a German doctor and cult refugee, and an old man who's an [[Accidental Pervert]]. Their only connection is that they all know someone who's fallen victim to the mysterious comas caused by the Other and stumbled upon the clues left by [[Mysterious Informant]] Sellars.
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* 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
** 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
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** ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]'' is a jock, a nerd, a rocker girl, an artist, and their [[Memetic Badass]] teacher.
** But the king is probably ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'', which is a [[Raised by Natives]] [[Nature Hero]], a [[Kid Hero]] semi-pro bowler, a [[Gentle Giant]] florist, a college student, and an Air Force vet. At least the other teams came off as roughly the same age/maturity level (barring when a [[Mentor]] joins the group).
** 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 In 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!]]
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' makes being a
** 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
* ''[[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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**** Mordechai Horst ends up temporarily recruiting a prostitute desperate to escape from the societal role she was forced into as a guide. And his boss inducted a pair of Guardsmen simply because they were eyewitnesses to a major breach of security, and the pilot whose shuttle they were shot down in just because.
* ''[[Blood Bowl]]'' gives us the Motley Horde, a Blood Bowl team that fits this describtion 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
* A lot of Solar, Abyssal and Infernal circles in ''[[Exalted]]'' would qualify. For Solars, if you're a reborn god-king with about half the world gunning for him, you tend to associate with others who can help you punch that half the world in the face. Infernals and Abyssals tend to end up in these through a mix of that desperation and the details of the assignments they receive from their bosses.
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== Video Games ==
* [[Because Destiny Says So]], the hero of the various ''[[Suikoden]]'' games must battle [[The Empire]] and [[Gotta Catch Them All|optimally
** Lampshaded in the [[Gaiden Game]] ''[[Suikoden Tierkreis]]''. After recruiting a certain character, [[Hello, Insert Name Here|Sieg]] comments on how people he meets from time to time gets weirder.
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]: Hordes of the Underdark'' qualifies, as your possible companions include a gentleman tiefling with a frenzied demon side; a reformed drow assassin; an either vengeful or reformed ghost of a fallen paladin; and a kobold bard turned Red Dragon Disciple. And all of you are Epic-level. Even the kobold.
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* The defenders of Kosigan in the Bastard of Kosigan can consist of a bastard half-orc trying to reclaim his heritage, an elf taking revenge for her abuse at the hands of the heir to the county, a prepubescent boy appointed second-in-command of the Grey Guard for no good reason, and an extremely loyal career soldier in charge of the army, all led by whatever you decide the player character is. You even get to [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] this if you side with Mordred and Alex at the end of the second module, wondering if "two bastards and a little elf" stand a chance against the might of Burgundy.
* While the team in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' is a walking bunch of racial stereotypes, the expansion, ''Mask of the Betrayer'', has you spend the game travelling with a wizard who is a {{spoiler|product of some other person dividing their soul}}; a hagspawn [[The Casanova|Casanova]]; an exiled half-angel crusader with plans to tear down [[Cosmic Keystone|a major feature of the foundation of the universe]]; and, depending on the choices you make, [[I Am Legion|either an undead construct of countless souls of thugs and criminals]] or a giant fuzzy spirit bear god. It's worth mentioning that the hero him/herself is the manifestation/victim of a spirit-destroying curse with the potential to devour ''gods''.
* The vast majority of Computer [[Role Playing Game
** 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.
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** The original ''[[Paper Mario 64]]'' has a Mario Fanboy, a wannabe archaeologist, a [[Valley Girl]] pink bomb, a bumbling postman, a bratty female ghost, an infant light bulb, an overbearing fish who somehow breathes and walks (okay, flops) on land, and a punk Lakitu with an [[Embarrassing First Name]].
* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius]]: Radiant Dawn'''s Dawn Brigade, justified as they are a group of resistance fighters, rather then a formal military group, but that justification goes straight out the window when they become the core of a full blown rebel army.
** 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
* 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 [[
** 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.
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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
** 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 It "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
** 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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* The main cast of ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' consists of a [[Idiot Hero|kinda dim]] freelance web designer, a [[Mad Scientist]] obsessed with [[More Dakka|guns and explosives]], a witch who's occasionally [[Demonic Possession|possessed]] by her [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]], an [[Involuntary Shapeshifting|occasional camel]], a [[Shapeshifting]] alien, a [[Genki Girl|hyperactive]] [[Talking Animal|ferret]], and [[Killer Rabbit|the most dangerous and evil rabbit on the face of the Earth]]. Despite not [[They Fight Crime|making it a mission to fight evil]], they've actually saved the world a number of times, mostly because apocalyptic matters seem to [[Weirdness Magnet|turn up wherever they go]].
** And if something doesn't turn up to endanger the world, one of them will usually end up endangering it themselves.
* ''[[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
* In ''[[Electric Wonderland]]'', a [[Fiery Redhead]] [[Intrepid Reporter]] decides to end corruption through a hard-hitting, independently published newspaper. Who does she hire to help write? An unemployed [[Highly-Visible Ninja]], a [[Stepford Smiler]] with a mushroom costume, an outcasted [[Magical Girl]], a talking bull who's [[Too Dumb to Live]], and a [[Bratty Half-Pint]] mermaid. At the inquiry of the ninja, the redhead reporter admitted at the end of the first issue that she doesn't have any hiring standards.
* In ''[[Nami Warriors]]'', the main characters are definitively this, to the point that at least one of them directly acknowledges that this is the case.
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*** 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 [[
* 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]].
* The Fellowship of ''[[The Questport Chronicles]]'' starts out as this: one amnesiac [[Winged Humanoid]], two elves (one of whom is an assassin), a [[Vegetarian Vampire]], a fairy, a human trapped in a dragon's body, a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]] demon, and an easily-confused pixie.
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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
* ''[[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!
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== Real Life ==
* 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
** This always was Garibaldi's Modus Operandi: find a big country, assemble a ragtag bunch of misfits, and go kick asses. Sometimes, Garibaldi's troops were fighting long after the rest of the country they were fighting for had been crushed: during the Uruguayan civil war, the regular Uruguayan forces were crushed at the battle of Arroyo Grande: Garibaldi's ragtag bunch of [[I Die Free|former slaves]] and [[Evil Foreigner|immigrants]] [[The Siege|held the city]] for ''nine years'' and eventually won the war.
* The ships that ended up discovering the Americas originally had an overwhelming majority of criminals and other lowlifes as their crews, as they weren't even expected to make it through alive, let alone come back. (Predictably, malnutrition and illnesses did end up mowing a lot of them down on the way.) This also partly explains the horrible [[Moral Event Horizon|treatment]] the natives suffered.
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** There were also instances of decent-sized forces appearing more-or-less out of nowhere, the important Battles of Bennington and Kings Mountain being the most significant examples. These pick-teams didn't stick around for very long, though. Almost all were local militia taking time away from farms and business. The song "Yankee Doodle" was invented by the British to mock these rag-tags, but they made it their own and sang it in battle.
* Gen. George S. Patton, when taking control of the US armed forces in Africa, started by levying heavy fines for soldiers and ''especially'' officers for unkempt uniforms. By the time Patton engaged in the famed 609 Battle, he'd transformed, well, you-know-whats into bonded soldiers.
* Another example of "folk history", this time Russian, is the Red Army, which, according to popular belief, was a
** The reorganization of the Red Army was supervised by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky became the ultimate ''persona non grata'' during Stalin's rule, which may help to explain where the popular belief came from. Stalinist history textbooks obviously couldn't talk about Trotsky's role in building the Red Army, let alone the role of counterrevolutionary officers from the Tsarist period.
* Speaking of the Russian Red Army, The 1980 Winter Olympics featured the Soviet Hockey juggernaut playing against a bunch of college hockey players who just happened to be playing for the United States. In what would become known as the Miracle on Ice, the college kids toppled the Russians 4-3, with a little help from the [[Popularity Power|home crowd.]]
** Canada did it first, eight years earlier.
*** With an All-Star lineup of NHL players - many of them future Hall of Famers - and in an exhibition series, ''not'' the Olympics. The Americans? Over a third of the team, including the captain, never played a minute in the NHL.
* 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
** They won that battle, but lost the war.
*** No they didn't, it's true that Puebla was lost a year later but after too much complication the liberals won the war and completely squashed the competition, this time permanently. (That doesn't mean other conflicts appeared but...)
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* The violent Indian Freedom Fighters who fought the British were very much this. Although their role in securing Independence was fairly minor, Britain simply didn't have the resources to maintain its empire after [[World War II]], not to mention it had very much lost the High Moral ground to Gandhi.
* The Calcutta Light Horse were less a ragtag bunch of misfits and more a bunch of expatriate English barflies, but they did manage to infiltrate Portuguese Goa during World War II and destroy an interned German merchant ship passing radio intelligence out of neutral territory.
* 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 ragtag bunch of misfits. And [[
* [[Real Life]] sports victory example, [[British Footy Teams|Wimbeldon FC's]] "Crazy Gang," with a reputation for pulling an assortment of practical jokes on each other and their manager as well as for playing [[The Beautiful Game]] with a very unsophisticated and amateurish style, were able to beat the much more skilled Liverpool squad in the 1988 FA Cup Final against all expectations.
* [[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.)
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