Coincidentally(or not), this third installment of my ongoing series on lists of small ensembles in fiction is about teams with three members – the “trios.”
The “trio” is aneasily observable dynamic in fiction.Its structure can come in a variety of ways, but each member conforms toa particular characterization, role, and motif.This sometimes results to making the characters one-dimensional asindividuals, but wonderfully likable and interesting as a group.
A commonstructure of the trio is that one serves as the “leader” figure – almost alwaysthe main character of the story – and the other two serve as “sidekicks”,offering opposite but balancing presences that support the “leader.” Another one is that two of them havepersonalities that are polar opposites of each other, with the third’spersonality fit of that of a “moderator” to the group – a sort of embodiment ofthe “ego, superego, and id” relationship.
Here are myfavorite presentations of the trio dynamic…
HonorableMention: THE THREE MUSKETEERS
I previouslydiscussed that I prefer Athos, Porthos, and Aramis to be packaged withD’Artagnan andbe considered as a foursome.Thus, they are in that listinstead of this list. However, as ageneral concept for many, the Three Musketeers are a very notable fictional trio– even the most definitive one. So letme give them an “honorable mention” spot in this list before proceeding to theofficial rankings.
20.) BIKER MICEFROM MARS
“Biker Mice fromMars” is an incredibly silly concept that is obviously contrived to replicatethe success of something as similarly bizarre as “Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles.” Allattempts to be like the Turtles failed to come close to being as big anddelightful. But one of the betterefforts was, for me, Biker Mice from Mars. Everything you need to know about the show isin its title.
Throttle, Modo,and Vinnie, the show’s titular trio, are bike-riding vigilantes protecting theEarth from becoming like their home planet, Mars, at the hands of the Plutarkians,alien invaders that siphon a planet dry of its resources.
19.) TEAM ROCKET
“Prepare fortrouble!”
“Make itdouble!”
“To protect theworld from devastation!”
“To unite allpeople within our nation!”
“To denounce theevil of truth and love!”
“To extend ourreach to the stars above!”
“JESSIE!”
“JAMES!”
“Team Rocketblasts off at the speed of light!”
“Surrender now,or prepare to fight!”
“MEOWTH, that'sright!”
Everyone whogrew up with Pokemon knows thisiconic introduction.
This Team Rocketunit – made up of Jessie, James, and Meowth – is the regular antagonists of AshKetchum in the Pokemon animeseries. But though they are usuallygreedy thieves, they have also shown a good and heroic side, helping Ash andhis friends in several occasions, but rationalizing their actions in order tohide the fact that they aren’t completely bad guys.
18.) THESTEPFORD CUCKOOS
The StepfordCuckoos are clones of Emma Frost sent to infiltrate the Xavier Institute bySublime, though they eventually shifted their allegiance to the X-Men. There were originally five of them but twohad long been dead. Thus, the Stepford Cuckoos are more known by their Three-in-One(i.e. their chosen X-Men nicknames) moniker rather than the original Five-in-One.
What I like mostabout them is how weird they are. Their coldcollectiveness and innate creepiness make them outcasts of the X-Men, a team ofmutants, who are ironically society’s own outcasts. And an interesting aspect of theircharacterization is when each Cuckoo began to struggle for individuality,after having their intellects and personalities linked by their hive mind for along time.
17.) ICKIS,OBLINA, and KRUMM
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters isno animated classic. But it was one ofthe cartoons around when I first encountered Nickelodeon (and I extremely loved Nickelodeon as a kid). Its maincharacters are three young monsters studying how to scare humans in a monsterschool.
What I found most endearingabout this trio is their creatively weird character designs – especiallyKrumm’s. When I encountered Harry Potter years later, the dynamicand character blueprints of Harry, Hermione, and Ron reminded me ofIckis, Oblina, and Krumm.
16.) ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS
Who aren’tfamiliar of their iconic, high-pitched voices, which are adorable at first butget somewhat annoying in the long run?The recent live-action CGI movies aren’t that great, but I rememberenjoying the old animated movies.
15.) ED, EDD,and EDDY
These unlikelyfriends are brought together by their common love for jawbreakers. The dimwitted Ed and the smart Edd or “DoubleD” are constantly dragged by the greedy, scamming Eddy to con their peers outof their money so that they can buy as much of their beloved jawbreakers asthey want.
14.) THE THREESTOOGES
Though theensemble had undergone lineup changes through about forty decades of films andTV shows – there had been six actors all in all – only three stooges had beenactive at a time.
Three Stooges(or the actors behind the characters) were masters of physical comedy –executing their hilarious antics with impeccable sense of timing andwell-conceptualized sketches. Slapstick may seem simple, but the best kind, as what the Stooges had consistently shown, requires a special kind of creativity.
13.) JOSIE & THE puss*CATS
I like alldepictions of Josie and the puss*cats – in the original comics, the classicanimated cartoon, and the slightly underrated live-action movie. Though there isn’t much depth in thecharacters, their songs are catchy (I’m, of course, particularly referring to thesoundtracks of the animated series and the movie, since, entertaining theircomics may be, their performances are audibly impossible to convey through thatmedium). My favorite among them is Melody, since I adore female drummers and her simplemindedness is justadorable.
12.) CHARLIE’SANGELS
The Charlie’sAngels TV show had undergone different lineups, but only had three Angelsat a time. But, for this list, I willlet the concept of “Charlie’s Angels” be represented by the film version’slineup – Natalie, Dylan, and Alex. Iwatched reruns of the original show, and found them okay, but I had more funwith the movies. I think the big screen Angels have more colorful backgrounds, more versatile skill sets, and morebadass fighting skills.
11.) THECENTURIONS
The old animatedseries Centurions: Power Xtreme is oneof the cartoons I loved watching as a kid in Cartoon Network. Its heroes, the titular Centurions, are madeup of Max Ray, Jake Rockwell, and Ace McCloud.They are clad in special exo-frames that allow them to be armored withweapons and equipment unique to each individual, making them sort of humancombat vehicles. Max, a Sea OperationsCommander, is armed by sea-themed weapon systems; Jake, a Land OperationsSpecialist, is armed with land-themed weapon systems; and Ace, an Air OperationsExpert, is armed with air-themed weapon systems. So basically, the three are superheropersonifications of the Navy, Army, and the Air Force.
10.) THE THREE SANDSIBLINGS
Naruto and hisfriends can be grouped into trios, depending on their Team affiliations. However, if you take into consideration that eachof those Teams are led by a senior – a teacher or Jōnin – then they’re technically in foursomes, notjust trios. (Hence, Naruto’s own Team 7is in my list for foursomes.)
The only realtrio among Naruto’s generation is the Three Sand Siblings, the children ofSunagakure’s Fourth Kazekage: Temari, Kankurō and Gaara. At a young age, they were put into gruelingtraining, making them elite ninjas as a result.
Sure, their shinobiTeam technically has Baki as their Jōnin leader, but he has never beenportrayed of being with them much. Infact, after the events of the Konoha Crush, Baki was no longer shownaccompanying the three of them, as they conduct missions all on their own,without supervision. My most favoritemission of theirs was the time they were sent to aid the Sasuke Recovery Team.
9.) HARRYPOTTER, HERMIONE GRANGER, and RON WEASLEY
Personally, Ithink of Harry Potter as simply another typical “chosen one” protagonist. He’s a good character, with some interestingfacets, but I don’t consider him a greatcharacter overall. That said, he, Hermione,and Ron make a delightful trio. Harrywould have long failed – or died – if he didn’t have his best friends helpinghim tackle the many perils, puzzles, and challenges that came with being TheBoy Who Lived.
8.) THE WARNER SIBLINGS
Yakko, Wakko,and Dot a.k.a. “The Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister” are the centralcharacters of the classic Animaniacsanimated series. Supposedly, they arecartoon stars of the 1930’s that were locked away in the Warner Bros. watertower until they escaped in the 1990’s.Their hysterical adventures/sketches often have them interact with famous personsof the past and the present as well as fictional characters from TV and film.
7.) HUEY, DEWEY,and LOUIE
Disney has manynotable trios. Severalof them serve as supporting characters, like Victor, Laverne, and Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame); Flora,Fauna, and Mayweather (Sleeping Beauty);and Yao, Ling, and Chien Po (Mulan).Others serve as minions to the main villain, like Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed(The Lion King); and the Fates (Hercules). Some are reinventions of classic fable andfairy tale characters, like The Three Little Pigs and The Three BlindMouseketeers. While those that were ableto headline a feature length film like Donald Duck, José Carioca, and PanchitoPistoles (The Three Caballeros) haddescended into some degree of obscurity.
But among Disneytrios, Donald Duck’s nephews – Huey, Dewey, and Louie – stand out the most. Through the extremely delightful Walt Disneycomics (published by Gladstone and Universal Records) and shows like Ducktales and Quack Pack, this duck trio won me over due to theiramusing juvenile waywardness, enthusiasm for adventure, and impressiveresourcefulness and quick-thinking.
6.) THE MAGICKNIGHTS
Magic Knight Rayearth wasthe first anime that introduced me to the “magical girls” subgenre. I even liked it better than the more popular Sailor Moon.
Its protagonists are the Magic Knights, threeeight-grade girls from three different schools.They were summoned to the magical world of Cephiro by the PrincessEmeraude to save it from Zagato – or so they thought.
5.) MUGEN, JIN,and FUU
Samurai Champloo is easilyone of the most overlooked anime gems in recent years. It centers on the wandering trio of Mugen,Jin, and Fuu. Mugen and Jin are actuallyrivals that are polar opposites of each other.Mugen is a foolhardy, boorish, hot-tempered vagabond, while Jin is a composed,stoic, reserved ronin. However, both arefierce fighters and are keen of fighting each other to the death to see whichis better. But before they can carry onwith their duel, they find themselves in a situation wherein they owe theirlives to Fuu. In exchange for savingthem, she obliges them to help her to search for “the samurai who smells ofsunflowers.” And thus, this unlikely triogoes on a delightfully wacky adventure.
4.) THE THREE INVESTIGATORS
Thismystery-solving teenage trio is among my most favorite fictional detectivesever. They are basically the Hardy Boys,if the Hardy Boys are made up of three members instead of two, have morediverse personalities, and are acquainted with legendary director AlfredHitchco*ck.
3.) THEPOWERPUFF GIRLS
As what Ipreviously wrote about them when they made the cut for my favorite female characters list:
The PowerpuffGirls are awesome. You have to watchtheir well-written show to really appreciate them. In a nutshell, they are supposed to be theperfect girls made from “sugar, spice, and everything nice” that gainedsuperpowers (and maybe life?) due to “Chemical X” (yah, it’s an insaneorigin. But there’s a lot of insanityand quirkiness in this show. Again, youhave to watch it to really appreciate it).The Powerpuff Girls have to balance kindergarten and superheroing –fighting crime and monsters, or saving Townsville from any crisis – beforetheir bedtime.
Plus, they have a very catchy theme.
2.) SPIDER-FRIENDS
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends is a classic superhero animated series that sees Peter Parker (a.k.a.Spider-Man), Bobby Drake (a.k.a. Iceman), and Angelica Jones (a.k.a. Firestar)as college students in Empire State University.They live together in Aunt May’s home, and team up as the “Spider-Friends”to fight various Marvel supervillains.
In the Marvel Comicsuniverse, these three characters rarely band together. In fact, Firestar was an original charactercreated for the show, though she would shortly debut in the comics as well. Nevertheless, seeing these three characters teamingup in their show is pure glee, making me wish their friendship and history of collaboration had been canon in the comics. Web, ice, and fire are a strange mix, but they made it work terrifically.
1.) THE THREEHUNTERS
At that moment duringthe Council of Elrond when Aragorn pledged his sword, Legolas his bow, andGimli his axe to Frodo in his quest to destroy the One Ring, I just knew thatthose three were going to be the Lord ofthe Rings characters that would interest me most. Others would alsosign up for the journey afterAragorn, Legolas, and Gimli did – forming the Fellowship of the Ring – but,barely halfway, the Fellowship would disband, and when they went their separate ways, the fragmentof the Fellowship that I became most fascinated most was the trio of Aragorn,Legolas, and Gimli – “The Three Hunters,” as what Aragorn called themselves. They would set out to rescue Pippin andMerry, rally the Rohirrim, recruit the Army of the Dead to save Gondor, and lead an army to distract Sauron so that Frodo and Sam couldfulfill their mission: reach Mt. Doom, destroy the ring, and save Middle Earth.
