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Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Difference between revisions
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* 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]].
** There's a fun moment in that when the warrior is negotiating with dwarf smiths to make the girls' armor. The dwarves are quite insulted at how shabby she wants the armor to look ... until she points out the Traditional path she's going for, known as a Ragged Company. Dwarves know the Tradition, too, so they quickly settle down and even accept that it'll be an interesting challenge to make the armor '''look''' like trash while still being high-quality protection.
* 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.
** 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.
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