The Power of Friendship: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (update links) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"I don't need a weapon. My friends are my power!"''|'''Sora''', ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''}}
Line 37:
** In chapter 570, {{spoiler|Naruto finally befriends [[Eldritch Abomination|the Nine-Tails]] himself!}}
* The ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' franchise has this as its ''premise''. The power of every Precure is formed by their bonds with the others; the first two sets can't even transform separately. The [[Shipping|yuri fanboys]] for that series have popularized the notion of "the power of [[Romantic Two-Girl Friendship]]", which is sort of the same thing.
* ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5|Yes! Precure 5]]'' also ''subverted'' this somewhat. When Rin and Karen were forced to work together to save the others, they were particularly
* Most of the major battles in ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' are won via the power of forgiveness, and the friendship of the protagonists is a major source of power. (Marketing for the English dub of the anime emphasized this aspect of the series as much as it possibly could.)
** A VHS tape of the ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' English dub has the words 'The Power of Friendship' on it.
Line 44:
** In a more straight use of this trope, the characters' courage, along with friendship, can be used to make themselves stronger. In the last episode Genki summoned the courage of every heroic character on the planet to use in a [[Combined Energy Attack]]. In contrast, when Moo goaded the heroes into hating him to make him stronger, the power of their hatred ''drove him insane''.
* In ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'', the [[Power Trio]] sticks together through sadness via pep talks and cake sharing, making it through everything thrown at them. In the series finale, {{spoiler|Lucia and Seira reveal that, no matter what kind of pain Michal and Michel, respectively, have put them through, they still empathize with them and want to become their friends. The Power of Friendship is strong enough to actually make them waver, and Fuku panics and goes to try and take over their combined mind and body. He succeeds... but not for long, as the mermaids' friendship and forgiveness reach even him.}}
* ''[[Vandread]]'' pits [[Humongous Mecha|giant killer robots from space]] against
* Wonderfully parodied along with many other [[Shounen]] tropes in the ''[[All Just a Dream|first episode]]'' of ''[[The Tower of Druaga (anime)|The Tower of Druaga]]'', where a [[One-Winged Angel|Final Form]] Jil has been beaten by the Dark God Druaga... when the voice of a Goddess speaks in his ear, and ''every character shown so far, including the villains'' show up in spirit form to give support, including the [[Red Shirt]] who died early on of Retirony. Sadly, our hero cannot remember his name, despite remembering the correct names of all the enemies and bit persons he has encountered on his travels.
{{quote|'''Jil''': ''Fatina! Neeba! Kalli! And... I can't remember his name, but he's definitely one of my friends!''
Line 52:
* The penultimate arc of ''[[Kinnikuman]]'' dealt with the "theft" of the heroes' Friendship Power with a number of curseddolls. This resulted in everyone abandoning our hero when he needed a partner for the tag-team [[Tournament Arc]]. Thankfully, he manages to get some help from his unaffected [[Obi Wan]].
** The final arc returns to the issue. Kinnikuman, stripped of the Kajiba Kuso no Djikara, his [[Heroic Resolve]] in a can, early on, is constantly shown unable to perform his old tried-and-true techniques simply because he's fighting at barely more than 1% power. His first major fight after losing the KKD is one he only starts winning when he taps into a similar, though inferior, force known as "Shin Yujo no Power", "Genuine Friendship Power."
* In the answer arcs of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'', the protagonists believe
** The answer arcs of Higurashi do show that the power of friendship can help overcome anything...especially if one of your friends is the heiress to a family of Yakuza, a couple others are moles for the conspiracy, and a few more are cops who are incredibly skilled at hand-to-hand combat.
** The tagline is even "Higurashi is a series about "friendship"! Friends help you move...Real friends help you move bodies!"
* ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' is built entirely on this trope, but Hikaru in particular has it really bad. The [[OAV]] is even more explicit.
* Although the series is more focused on individual empowerment, ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' often indulges in
* ''[[Flint the Time Detective]]'' has this in most if not all of the episodes with frienship not only being what is needed to void the effects of the Petra Stamp but also [[spoiler:make the great clock move again and save the world]]
* This is a major theme of the [[A Mech by Any Other Name|Headmasters and Powermasters]] in ''[[Transformers]]''. In the American continuity, the Transformers and his/her organic pilot must cooperate extremely closely in order to be an effective fighting unit. ''[[Transformers Headmasters]]'' has a technique called Head Formation, which allows the Autobot Headmasters to share energy between themselves and power up. The first time it is used, the [[Narrator]] helpfully notes that we're seeing the power of friendship in action. They can use 'the power of friendship' to fire a great big DEATH RAY.
* Parodied in ''[[Soul Eater]]'':
Line 77:
** Parodied in the Karakurizer fillers (anime episodes 213-214). Tessai sells the Karakurizer in episode 213 that they will defeat the hollows using the power of friendship, and they they actually do in episode 214.
* Taken literally in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', as {{spoiler|Negi's artifact allows him to use all of his partner's artifacts}}, meaning that he gets stronger as he aquires more allies.
** It's also deconstructed a bit, as Negi constantly goes through [[Training From Hell]] so that he won't have to rely on
** Played straight when {{spoiler|Negi's [[Black Magic]] causes his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] to manifest. It only stops because [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v29/c265/11.html Chisame, Asakura, and Nodoka pull one of these.] }}
* The central plot of ''[[Twentieth Century Boys]]'' is more or less based on this trope.
* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' demonstrates that with friends as [[Hot-Blooded|determined as you]] to [[Screw Destiny]], anyone can destroy a force rivaling divinity...with a [[Humongous Mecha|machine as big as a galaxy.]]
** The Power of Friendship is also part of what is necessary for Gattai to work, although it is primarily Fighting Spirit. But then, as the great Kamina says, "a true combination isn't the combination of mecha. It's when the spirits of great men unite and become one! THAT'S A TRUE COMBINATION!"
* ''[[The Law of Ueki]]'' does this nearly as often as [[Yu-Gi-Oh!]], which gets pretty [[Anvilicious]] at times. At one point, the gang is fighting a team of soldiers, and the soldiers can't comprehend how helping each other out is so
* ''[[Gash Bell]]'' emphasizes this extremely strongly. Not only the good guys generally get stronger and find [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]] in themselves through desire to protect their friends, not only friendship serves as the main driving force for most of them, in the end of the manga {{spoiler|[[Power of Friendship]] becomes the [[Deus Ex Machina]] that saves both worlds from the nearly unbeatable [[Big Bad]].}}
* Subverted hard in ''[[Buso Renkin]]''. Kazuki, while defending his school from a homunculus army released by Doctor Butterfly, says that he's regaining strength by drawing on the spirits of his friends and classmates. {{spoiler|What he (and the audience at this point) don't know at the time is exactly how ''literal'' that statement is - he's begun to draw on the life force of the people in the school, signaling that the Black Kakugane in him is beginning to awaken.}}
Line 98:
* In [[.hack//Sign]] {{spoiler|Tsukasa is finally able to log out thanks only to the pushing, pulling, and eventual bonding of his/her in-game friends.}}
* ''[[The Idolmaster (anime)|THE iDOLM@STER]]'' - A good portion of the anime is about this.
* Subverted brutally (and quickly) by a pair of tertiary characters in [[Highschool of the Dead]]. Toshimi and Misuzu's bid for BFF survivors of the
* [[Lyrical Nanoha]] pretty much straight weaponizes
Line 143:
* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|A Princess of Mars]]'', what Tars Tarkas learns from John Carter.
{{quote|''"I would scarcely recognize you, John Carter, but there is no other mortal upon Barsoom who would have done what you have for me. I think I have learned that there is such a thing as friendship, my friend."''}}
* In Ben Counter's [[Warhammer 40000]] [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''Galaxy In Flames'', when Tarvitz is {{spoiler|trying to warn the betrayed Marines on Isstavan III}}, he invokes
{{quote|''as my honor brother I ask you to trust me like you have never trusted me before. [[I Gave My Word|On my life I swear]] that I do not lie to you, Nathaniel.''}}
* A major theme in many of the works of [[Stephen King]], particularly ''[[IT]]''.
Line 159:
** This is exemplified in every book: 1st book, Hermione's intellect and Ron's prowess with chess allow Harry to reach the last chamber of the gauntlet; 2nd book, Ron goes into the Forbidden Forest - which he knows has spiders, [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|which he has a phobia to]] - out of his loyalty to Harry and Hermione; 3rd book, Ron and Hermione put themselves between Harry and Sirius, telling him that they'll have to pass through them if he wants to reach Harry; 5th book, when Harry believes Sirius is on the Ministry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna go with their friend despite Harry repeteadly telling them to stay at Hogwarts; 6th book, Ron and Hermione state that they are going to go with Harry on his Horcrux-searching quest, no matter what; and 7th book, Ron and Hermione stay with Harry for a lot of time - even Ron's leaving is useful as it allows him to gain information about what's going on everywhere else - and each of them manages to destroy one Horcrux.
* ''[[Battle Royale]]'' where Shuya and Noriko feel that the power of friendship will get them through the program. Shogo disagrees and is proved right when {{spoiler|the rest of their classmates betray each other and play to win. In fact in the end Shogo pretends to betray them (I'm sure more than one person thought he really did) in order to get the three of them out.}}
* The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] gives us a slightly lame scene wherein Jaina tries to save Zekk from [[The Dark Side]] with
** This is subverted in the [[Fate of the Jedi]] book series, by having only [[Dark Side]] people (Nightsisters and Sith) with a technique called a 'control web'. It allows them to combine their powers, and 'weave' their control over [[Oh Crap|a dozen Rancors]], or weaken an [[Eldritch Abomination]].
* The backbone of [[Avalon: Web of Magic]], and stated outright by the author many times. No main character ever accomplishes anything without her friends backing her up.
Line 173:
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* It is specifically stated in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', both within the show and in interviews with writers, that the reason Buffy has lasted so long as a Slayer compared to her predecessors is that she has
** Oh ye of little faith... Sorry.
** Played for darker twists when it's revealed that many Slayers end up dead, not because they make physical mistakes which lose battles, but because constantly fighting demons cuts away a Slayer's ties to the world until everything she fights to protect has either died or abandoned her. With nothing they appreciate in the normal world, these Slayers become [[Death Seeker
** In the Season Four climax, the Scoobies use a spell that combines all their powers into Buffy's body - becoming, in other words,
** [[Angel]], like Buffy, tends to play it pretty straight (although it's generally more subdued), but lightly parodied it at least once:
{{quote|'''Angel''': You may have the attitude, and you may have the power. But there's one thing you don't have and never will: friends. Four of 'em, standin' behind you with big, heavy things.}}
Line 182:
{{quote|'''Saffron:''' Everybody plays each other. That's all anybody ever does. We play parts.
'''Mal:''' You got all kinds a' learnin' and you made me look the fool without trying, yet here I am with a gun to your head. That's 'cause I got people with me, people who trust each other, who do for each other and ain't always looking for the advantage. }}
* The "Power of Three" in ''[[Charmed]]'' relied on
* The theme in season 5 of ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]''. In the episode "Descent", Hercules defeats D'muzi simply by screaming out Iolaus' name.
* The basic premise of ''[[Black Hole High]]'' seems to be that, at least within the [[Applied Phlebotinum]] field of the school, character flaws trump physics. In the second episode, it ''makes perfect logical sense'' that realizing that your friends care for you can cure invisibility.
Line 196:
* Even though they're often at each other's throats for one reason or another, the "non-judging Breakfast Club" of ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' always band together when one of them is in trouble. As Gossip Girl herself puts it, "''With friends like these, who needs armies?''"
* One of the themes in ''[[Burn Notice]]''. Michael's a bad-ass spy who can handle anything...but even he needs the help of his friends and family to save the day.
** Moreover, Michael has acknowledged that he is [[Not So Different]] from many of the villains his team have dealt with over the course of the
* ''[[Leverage]]' features this heavily as the team is made up of individualistic thieves who had always worked alone. One they begin working together, they realize how much more effective they were than before.
* ''[[Chuck]]'' Bartowski has lost his powers and nothing seems to work to restore them. And to make matters worse the bad guys capture him and his best friend (who has no idea of what he really does) and are about to execute them, with no help in sight. In one of the series greatest moments, Chuck's regains his powers.....with a simple buddy talk with Morgan.
Line 232:
* In [[Bubble Bobble]], it's this that breaks whatever curse Bub & Bob are under. So much that if you beat the game without your friend i.e. 1P, you won't get the [[True Ending]].
* In the final battle of ''[[Jade Empire]]'', your allies weaken the enemies that the [[Big Bad]] sends at you before you face him. The game's [[Karma Meter]] system results in a mild and possibly unintentional subversion: the only difference between being a [[The Messiah|messiah]] who believes in the power of friendship (Open Palm), and a tyrant who just killed all the followers who disagreed with him (Closed Fist), is you have to fight a few more enemies...it seems the power of friendship and the power of a ruthless, brutally evil martial artist are about the same.
* ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'' harps on the importance of relationships almost ''constantly''. In fairness, the "Brother Band" system that underpins this emphasis on relationships also confers very practical benefits. Brother Banding with [[NPC
** Wait, it gets better!
** Also, a possible subversion: in the second game, [[The Stoic]] [[Meaningful Name|Solo]] is revealed to get his own powers from being ''alone'', and you can duplicate his powers by having ''no'' brothers and doing a special sidequest. The mode has its own set of advantages and disadvantages compared to the normal friendship bonuses.
*** It's played straight; Solo praises the civilization of Mu... which went down solely because its inhabitants didn't trust each other. Meanwhile, ingame the Rogue powers that can be gained are far inferior to what Geo can get from the standard Brother features, and the [[Super Mode]] (which, amusingly enough, is a symbol of what Mu could have been if the people worked together) is only accessible if you have a Brother from an opposite game ([[Bribing Your Way to Victory|Or a Wave Command Card]]). In fact, by the next game Solo ditches the whole "alone" aspect by teaming up with an ancient Mu relic. This doesn't stop him from constantly talking down to Geo, no matter how many times Geo beats his face in or how many "battle of ideals" Solo loses. There's a reason most people don't take Solo seriously.
Line 252:
* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', the strength of your fused Personae is dictated by how strong your relationships with other people are. These relationships are usually platonic, but five of them are romantic, and several are of the surrogate family variety. During the ultimate confrontation with the [[Big Bad]], the combined strength of all of the protagonist's relationships {{spoiler|creates the Universe Arcana and sustains the PC during the final battle, providing the power to create the Great Seal, which}} prevents [[The End of the World as We Know It]].
* The Social Link system returns in ''[[Persona 4]]''. Many of your social links are with party members, and having a stronger social bond with them will improve their combat abilities to the point where their Personae are upgraded to an improved form. During the game's [[True Final Boss]] fight {{spoiler|Izanami-no-Okami attempts to use One Thousand Curses on the protagonist, only to be blocked by each active party member in turn. When the Protagonist is finally hit with the attack, every completed social link appears before him, telling him about the impact he's had on their lives and offering their support. The final social link (should you have completed it) is Nanako promising she'll be good if you wake up. (If that doesn't bring a tear to your eye, ''you have no soul''.) The power of all these social links transforms your starter Persona into Izanagi-no-Okami, allowing you to break free from the attack and lift the fog of deceit once and for all.}}
* Crucial to the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series. Sora's Keyblade, and indeed all keyblades, seem drawn to individuals with strong hearts and emotions,
** Sora's Drive Forms could be seen as a physical manifestation of this.
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'' states that
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts coded|coded]]'' keeps up the trend; the connections and friendship that data Sora has built with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy {{spoiler|allow data Sora to ''summon a keyblade'', and may have actually created a heart for him.}}
** The Power of Friendship is the central theme of ''358/2 Days'' too, centering around the friendship of Roxas, Axel and Xion
Line 273:
** The song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyxtKzhc00c "Bein' Friends"] from [[MOTHER 1]] could fit as well.
* ''[[Rival Schools]]'' thrives on this. The students (and teachers) in this game usually gain their strength from their bonds with their friends, and are able to triumph over loner villains in each game. It's so powerful that in each game, a [[The Mole|mole]] sent by the villain ({{spoiler|Kyosuke}} in ''United By Fate'' and {{spoiler|Yurika}} in ''Project Justice'') ends up [[Becoming the Mask|switching over to the good guys]] because of the friendships they've developed.
* Not only do characters in ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' get bonuses when they're next to a friend (Or [[The Rival|rival]] or [[The Power of Love|romantic interest]]), but two of the abilities a pilot can have, Trust and Faith, replenish an ally's HP - That's right, you're repairing physical damage to a [[Humongous Mecha]] through
** A similar system applies to Jump Ultimate Stars. If you place friends next to your playable characters in your deck, the friend will give the playable character a boost to their maximum HP.
* Done in ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' as game mechanic. Going Rambo and your chance to die is <s>100%</s> 99.[[Rule of Three|999]]% (solo runs are being attempted, but no one yet seems to have bagged 'em all) from Smoker and Hunter. Only your friends can help you out of that.
* In the ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' series, this trope is, thankfully, subtly, invoked, and called 'trust' by Detective Gumshoe. In the first game (especially the DS-exclusive 5th case) Phoenix unintentionally shows this to Edgeworth. When Edgeworth returns in the 4th case of the second, he either reminds Phoenix of this or shows it to him directly. Through the combined efforts of Wright, Edgeworth and Von Karma, {{spoiler|Engarde}} is found guilty, which is called a 'miracle' in the end.
** Mia also mentions in the 2nd game that friendship is "the strongest weapon in the world and you have it in abundance". Mostly to cheer Wright up though.
* Friendship equals literal psychic power in ''[[Psychonauts]]''
* ''[[Tales of Hearts]]'' uses this ''constantly'' in its themes. Then it starts [[Relationship Values|measuring it]] about a third into the game. Then, your characters start sharing abilities when their Soma Link gets high enough. And then you [[Guide Dang It|find out]] that one of the [[Limit Break
* In ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'', during the final battle. Subverted, in that while idealistic hero Almaz calls it this, Mao categorically denies that it has anything to do with friendship, claiming it's some sort of cosmic energy he was hiding in his body.
** Playing the trope straight, Valvatorez of ''[[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten]]'' strongly believes in the power of friendship, and utters the following line in the last battle:
Line 340:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Used several times in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. It's the only thing that can [[Cooldown Hug|cool down]] Aang's [[Unstoppable Rage]]. Azula's [[Villainous Breakdown]] is largely due to her inability to inspire loyalty through trust and friendship instead of fear. It was also implied that friendship can withstand
** [[Subverted Trope|On the other hand]], Avatar Roku tried to use the Power of Friendship to restrain Fire Lord Sozin. That didn't work so well.
* The whole point of ''[[Barbie and the Diamond Castle]]''.
* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' makes a [[Spoof Aesop]] out of this, with Flonominal and Thugnificent stating that the only reason to ever have friends is so that you never have to deal with your own problems like a man, instead relying on other people to take care of your problems for you.
* In the fourth season of ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', Raven, after becoming her father's portal to Earth and being transformed into a powerless, younger version of herself, is able to [[Deus Ex Machina|regain all of her powers by drawing on The Power of Friendship]] and cause a complete [[Snap Back]] of the [[The End of the World as We Know It|global destruction]] Trigon caused.
** With the Robin/Slade dynamic,
** Usually [[An Aesop|the aesop]] of ''Teen Titans'' involves this trope.
* ''[[Rocket Power]]'': Part of Reggie Rocket's pep talk in the later part of "Race Across New Zealand": "We're not just another team out here. We're friends. And that's what makes us better."
Line 351:
* Disney seems to like this trope a lot:
** The theme of friendship and teamwork as key to the heroes' success underlies many of the plots in ''[[Kim Possible]]''. In fact, in the first movie "A Sitch in Time," {{spoiler|Shego mentions not understanding this phenomenon between Kim and Ron, but acknowledges it, and specifically made efforts to separate the two of them in order to counter it!}}
** The whole message of the trope is brutally subverted in ''[[Recess]]''; When playing kickball against a team of weirdly similar kids from a neighboring school, T.J. tells his friends they can beat their [[
** Rhino the Hamster from Disney's ''[[Bolt]]'' completely believes in this trope.
* The [[Care Bears]] do this a lot, often by using the [[Care Bear Stare]], or actually telling people about true friendship.
** ''[[The Care Bears Movie]]'' actually has the former fail at the end, while the latter works.
* ''[[Wonder Pets]]'': What's gonna work?
* The major theme in ''[[Once Upon a Forest]]''.
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', the power of friendship, backed by an [[Amplifier Artifact]], can fire a rainbow-colored [[Wave Motion Gun]]. Even without an amplifier it's capable of incinerating Windigos.
| |||