The Dividual

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Two (or more) characters who, for all intents and purposes, act as one character, always appear together and are never introduced individually. Even if there are frequent disagreements between the members of The Dividual, they will act as one entity as soon as the Plot moves on.

There are two types:

  • The Twindividual: The individuals making up The Dividual are near-identical or very similar in at least one but usually several aspects (appearance, character traits, way of talking, job etc.). Sometimes, the twindividuals' members differ in some conspicuous way (for example: one fat, one skinny) but are still uniform in all other ways. Finishing Each Other's Sentences is not uncommon among twindividuals.
  • The Syndividual: The individuals of which The Dividual consists have different looks and character traits but form a symbiotic relationship. Often their character types complement each other in some (comedic) way. They might have a division of labor thing going on, for example with one character being the spokesperson of the dividual.

The defining characteristic that sets a syndividual apart from a twindividual is the symbiotic aspect: a twindividual is just a homogenous crowd while a syndividual has a specific shtick with distinct roles. As a rule of thumb, twindividuals are based on the principle of Birds of a Feather while Opposites Attract in syndividuals.

Typically, The Dividual is a background character or part of an Ensemble Cast but another frequent setup is something similar to an Adventure Duo where the two main characters form a dividual. This setup heavily restricts the available plots as the two main characters must always act as one in relation to other characters. In those cases, the work's name will often be simply the characters' names, "Alice and Bob"-fashion.

Might overlap with Heterosexual Life Partners and Those Two Guys. Single-Minded Twins is a subtrope. Compare Literal Split Personality. If the members of The Dividual are twins, expect any number of Twin Tropes (especially Single-Minded Twins) to be in place. Sometimes, The Dividual will exhibit Twin Tropes despite the fact that its members are not twins.

Examples of The Dividual include:

Twindividual Examples

Anime and Manga


Comic Books


Film

  • The albino ghost twins in The Matrix Reloaded. They're identical twins that dress alike, fight in concert and can't seem to say an entire sentence without the other's help. As they're constructs of the Matrix, they're probably copies of each other. The trios of Agents do a lot of this, too.


Literature

  • The Weasley Twins in Harry Potter. Until Deathly Hallows, that is.
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are treated as this. Their interchangeability and uniformity is hinted at by Shakespeare in the very choice of their names, which exhibit the same metric properties and ethnic background. Their dividuality is further played with by Tom Stoppard.
  • "Samneric" from Lord of the Flies. That's right, the two are referred to by one name.


Live Action TV


Tabletop Game

  • Warhammer 40,000 gives us Alpharius and Omegron, the twin Primarchs who look exactly the same and are described as "two bodies but one soul". They were known for constantly switching places. For added points, the entire Alpha Legion also looks like them.


Theatre

  • The River City School Board in The Music Man: Ewart Dunlop, Oliver Hix, Jacey Squires and Olin Britt. As Harold Hill says, "you'll never see one of those men without the other three."
  • The two Nieces in Peter Grimes.
  • Exaggerated in The Gondoliers by Gilbert and Sullivan, where Marco and Giuseppe become the King of Barataria until it can be settled which one of them it really is, and they make comical attempts to act "as one individual."


Video Games


Webcomics

  • Sisters Rosalie and Marie in Sister Claire.
  • The Cotyorites (Proxenus, Nicarchus, and Clearchus) from The Lydian Option are highly similar looking members of a philosopher race that appear together (and complete dialogue together).


Western Animation

  • Terri and Sherri from The Simpsons, the Creepy Twins in Bart's class. It's never made clear which is which. They even go to the model UN as Trinidad and Tobago (a single country). However, they do insist that they're individuals, and Bart apparently has a crush on one of them.

Both: I'm Sherri, she's Terri.


Real Life

  • Andrew Andrew
  • Much to their annoyance, many Real Life twins are viewed this way by people who haven't gotten to know them as individuals.


Syndividual Examples

Film


Live Action Television

  • Seinfeld Jerry and George try to pull this off for one episode to be a woman's boyfriend. Jerry does the actual dating while George manages schedules and anniversaries. Their theory is that between the two of them they might be able to accomplish the tasks of one mature adult male.
  • Penn & Teller, on TV, in film, on stage, etc. They're so closely associated in all media that it's almost a subversion to see them separate, for example, Penn on his personal video blog or Teller lecturing at conventions.
  • Better Off Ted: Phil and Lem, the lab workers. Often used explicitly as a gag.


Video Games


Web Comics


Web Original


Western Animation

  • Carl and Lenny from The Simpsons span the whole range of this trope. Early on the show they form a borderline twindividual (different looks but identical nondescript characterization), later on, they sometimes were treated as a bickering syndividual (and Heterosexual Life Partners), and at some point, the writers decided to deconstruct their dividual to facetiously emphasize the characters' (non-existent) individuality - only to reconstruct it for a throw-away gag in the next episode.
  • In Ratatouille, Invoked by Remy and Linguini, who deliberately become this.
  • Exaggerated in the title character(s) of CatDog.
  • The title characters of Phineas and Ferb are almost always together and, while both technical and creative geniuses, have nearly opposite personalities (Phineas being active and talkative, Ferb being passive and mostly silent).
  • In Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, the other kids seem to think of the Eds like this. When one of the protagonists does something to anger the other kids, they'll punish the three uniformly despite their lack of involvement. Additionally, when they attempted to join the Urban Rangers, they were given one chance for each badge for the three of them.
  • Walter and Perry in Home Movies almost always dress alike, have very similar high-pitched voices, and are always seen together, usually holding hands.
  • Mr. Wink and Mr. Fibb in Codename: Kids Next Door are never seen apart, even when they're not doing villainy, like watching TV. Of course, they're based on Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd from Diamonds Are Forever.
    • Taken Up to Eleven, however, are the five Delightful Children from Down the Lane. They are five kids from different families, but they function as an individual. They stick close enough together that they're in physical contact with each other, never separate (except on two occasions, which become major plot points for those episodes), occupy the same seat at school, and even speak in unison. The only reason why they aren't a Hive Mind is that their actions and reactions become different from each other when panicked—otherwise, they're on identical mental wavelengths.
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