“For in fact the body is not one member but many. … If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were hearing where would be the smelling?”
-- St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 12:14, 17
“Form feet and legs! Form arms and body! And I’ll form the head!”
— “Voltron: Defender of the Universe”
Okay, everybody raise your hands who remembers Battle of the Planets. It was an American dub of a Japanese cartoon originally called Science Ninja Team Gatchaman that aired in the late 1970s, about a group of heroic teens who united to fight cosmic entities in space. At that time there was little anime available on American TV outside of Speed Racer, and, at least to my memory, it seemed that what little we got was based heavily on Battle of the Planets: a team of five, with each member having a team role and personality fitting the Gatchaman template. (Okay, this was partially because one of the series I remember, G-Force, was actually a re-dub of the original, but that doesn’t let Voltron off the hook.)
I noticed the similarity between these teams, but only later learned that there was a name for this template: it’s called the Five-Man Band, and it comes up in other places too. I suppose it’s a common cliché, but I prefer to call it a “Trope” because that sounds more impressive and less judgemental. After all, the whole reason why clichés are so familiar is because they often get used and they often get used because they work.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at what the Five-Man Band is and why it works.
To begin with, let’s start with the obvious. A five-man band has five people in it. There is no single protagonist. The team leader may be the main character, but in a real sense the group is the protagonist. This might be because having your heroes fly spacecraft that all combine into a giant robot is symbolic of the emphasis in Japanese culture of individuals working together for the benefit of the group. Or it might be because all those spacecraft mean more licensed toys to sell. But from a writing point of view, having multiple co-protagonists increases the possibilities for character interaction, conflicts and relationships within the unifying dynamics of the group.
But why five? Well, the number has certain symbolic associations; not as many as, say three or seven, but some good ones. The Pythagoreans regarded Five as the Perfect Number, being the sum of the first masculine number, Three, and the first feminine number, Two. Chinese philosophy recognized Five Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water plus Wood. There are Five Senses, Five Fingers, Five Knightly Virtues, Five Joys of the Blessed Virgin, and Five Golden Rings. Not to mention the Jackson Five.
Perhaps more importantly, Five lies in the sweet spot for a group. The more people you have in a group, the more interactions you have and the more possibilities for conflict; or alliances. Once you get more than three people in a group, things as simple as choosing what pizza to order becomes more complicated, and for a writer, that is a good thing. Once you get past six, though, the group can become unwieldy and it becomes more challenging to keep all the characters and their interactions straight without complex relationship diagrams, and it becomes more likely that some characters will get overlooked.
It’s important that each member of the team have a distinct role and represent a diversity of talent, expertise, outlook and temperament. This isn’t about having a Woke Agenda, or being Politically Correct or having a Cathode Ray Tube or whatever people are calling it these days; it’s about what Role-Playing Games call “Niche Protection”. Every player in an RPG group tends to have an area of expertise. In Old School Dungeons & Dragons, the base classes were Fighter, Rogue, Magic User and Cleric, with some classes subdivided into specialties.
Most groups try to fill each of these slots so that they have someone to cover any situation. The brawny Fighter will go toe-to-toe hacking at the wave of attacking orcs while the squishy Magic User keeps to the back and gives him cover with fireball spells and the Rogue takes advantage of the battle to unlock the portcullis and the Cleric stands ready to heal the injured and deal with any unholy abominations the Rogue might accidentally unleash. Yes, they could have Rogue who knows a few handy spells, or a Cleric who can kick butt with a battleaxe, but in generally the Game Master will want each member of the team to be the best in the group at their particular specialty.
The classical roles for the Five Man Band, as compiled from 7-Zark-7’s database, are:
The Leader: Pretty obviously is the one in charge; the one who makes the decisions and to whom the rest of the group usually defers. He is often the best fighter in the group, usually the most charismatic, and definitely the one with Main Character vibes.
The Lancer: This one’s a foil for the Leader. Sometimes he’s the Leader’s right-hand man, but sometimes he’s a rival, who think that he can do a better job as Team Leader. Even when the Leader and the Lancer aren’t opposed to each other, the Lancer will provide another point of view, constructive criticism and maybe ideas the Leader hadn’t considered. He might be a better fighter than the Leader; but even if he isn’t, he’ll probably think he is.
The Big Guy: There’s always a Big Guy. He’s the strongest one on the team. He’s the Meat Shield. If he’s not the best fighter, he’s the one who can best soak up damage. If the Lancer is hot-headed, the Big Guy will be the cheerful, gregarious one. He may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he’s a good fellow to have at your back when the Zwilniks attack.
The Smart Guy: Or sometimes just the Little Guy, but he usually makes up for his lack of combat skills with his high smarts and technical/magical skill. In a fantasy setting he’s the spell-caster, and in a space opera he’ll be the gadgeteer. He may be the Idea Man coming up with new devices and strategies. Often he is a kid, in which case his book smarts may be downgraded and replaced by spunkiness and enthusiasm. In any setting, he contrasts with the Big Guy and the two are either constantly bickering, or inseparable buddies. Or both.
And The Chick: Ah yes, the Chick. Back in the Battle of the Planet days, one of the key distinctions of the Five-Man Band was that there were four guys on the team, plus one token female. (Which is why I’ve so far been mostly referring to these characters as males.) The Team’s Girl sometimes served as a romantic interest for the Leader, and sometimes the guys would compete for her attention. This “Four Hits and a Miss” format, although more common in the ‘70s, did not age well. The Super Sentai Series, the original Japanese series on which the American Mighty Morphing Power Rangers franchise was based, had a team like this, with the “Chick” role being filled by the Pink Ranger. The American reworking cast a female actor as the Yellow Ranger to give the team a little more balance. Sometimes in the ‘80s you would find mostly-female team, such as the OAV series Bubblegum Crisis which featured a team of four girls in powered battle armor called the Knight Sabers who had a fifth male character who was the younger brother of the team’s leader and who usually got stuck driving the lingerie truck. (This is anime).
More recent formulations of the Band have redefined the fifth member as The Heart. In groups that follow the Classical Four Elements, sometime they have Heart be Number 5, as in Captain Planet, or Love as in the film The Fifth Element, or Friendship or something. The Heart is the caretaker of the group, the one who is empathic and sensitive to the emotional balance of the team. The Heart also sometimes serves as the team’s conscience. This is often a female role, but not exclusively so. Breaking up the “4 guys/1 gal” assumptions of the old school Five-Man Band does make it more flexible and a little less cliché-ish. The Heart is also placed up with the Leader and the Lancer in listings of the band members emphasizing the Heart’s importance to the group, as opposed to being tacked on at the end like an afterthought as The Chick was in older formulations.
But when it comes down to it, the template is less of a formula to be followed as much as it’s a set of suggestions. The goal of it is to help create a group of varied individuals whose differences can complement each other and generate character dynamics which will interest the reader and serve the needs of the story.
This Week’s Challenge: Take a character, either one of your own, or one of our Bespoke Pre-gen Stock characters and think of a team they could belong in. It doesn’t have to be a team of Sentai fighters or giant robot pilots or even adventurers; but they should all have a common goal which makes them all joint-protagonist of a protagonist group. Select a role from the Five-Man Team template, (Leader, Foil, Heart, Big Guy, Smart Guy), and describe how your character fits in that role. And if you feel ambitious, come up with a few more one-line character descriptions for the other members of the team.
For more about the Five-Man Band, let me recommend this breathless dissection from the Good Folks at Overly Sarcastic Productions, who have some very good videos about history, literature and writing.