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{{trope}}
[[File:
'''Larry:''' ''"Because the story follows more than one group of people. We're like the 'B' Party."''
'''Detestai:''' ''No, I think that's the soldier and the elf girl. We're more like the 'C' Party."''
'''Larry:''' ''See? No respect!"'
Can't be bothered to remember everyone in a show with [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]? Neither can some writers. The best solution is to [[Cast Calculus|split the cast into distinct groups.]]
▲{{quote|'''Earl:''' ''"How come we haven't been seen in so long?"'' <br />
▲'''Larry:''' ''"Because the story follows more than one group of people. We're like the 'B' Party."'' <br />
▲'''Detestai:''' ''No, I think that's the soldier and the elf girl. We're more like the 'C' Party."'' <br />
▲'''Larry:''' ''See? No respect!"''|''[http://rpgworldcomic.com/d/20020405.html RPG World]''}}
▲Can't be bothered to remember everyone in a show with [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]? Neither can some writers. The best solution is to [[Cast Calculus|split the cast into distinct groups.]]
This allows for enough characterization, because we always see them together and that's enough ''net'' personality for characters whose physical descriptions are probably longer than those of their personalities.
This can be really obvious when you notice that with the exception of perhaps the main
Shows which allow for the format of a literal team will always use this trope. See also [[Geodesic Cast]] which repeats the structure of the main character's group and [[Planet of Hats]] when this is done with entire worlds/species.
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[
** '''Axis:''' Italy, Germany and Japan
** '''Allies:''' Russia, France, China, England and America <ref>Oh, and Canada too!</ref>
Line 30:
** '''Far East:''' Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Macau.
** '''Oceania:''' Australia and New Zealand, but also includes Tonga, Wy, and Hutt River.
* ''[[Baccano
** ''[[Durarara
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[
* With more than thirty girls in the class taught by the protagonist, ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima
** In addition, the series takes the concept to the max with the soundtracks for the anime adaptations. [[Image Song
** There is also a truly staggering number of herds outside the class, as well. There's the staff of Mahora, there's Chamo and Chachazero, there's the inhabitants of Mundus Magicus (who are themselves divided into innumerable herds, such as Fate's group, the Government, the Gladiators, the Royal Knights, the Bounty Hunters, Mama Bear, and a random group of adventurers), there's the Welsh mages, there's the non-3A students of Mahora, there's the Kyoto villains, there's Ala Rubra... the list goes on and on and on [[Overly Long Gag|and on and on and on and on and on....]]
** Don't forget the Baka Rangers! More of a plot point than a herd really, but still.
* ''[[
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Saki (
* ''[[
** Some individuals, usually never in the same squad, belong to certain '''clans''', sharing skills and talents inherited through blood or tradition.
** A whole community of ninjas, including several entire clans, live in '''villages'''. Each has its own unique set of clans, institutions, culture, history and style of governance.
** Then there are '''formally and purposefully gathered groups''' that are bigger than squads, have a mix of talents like squads, but because the members all tend to be of elite calibre, do not necessarily operate like squads. Examples: "The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist", "The Twelve Guardians of Fire Country", "Akatsuki".
* The various ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Enemies are almost always classified in season-specific herds, as well.
* Although interaction between the herds is common, ''[[
** Even the 'bad guys' segmented themselves into a herd, though there's little interaction between them anymore, and one of them hasn't even appeared in the manga yet.
* The opening theme of ''[[Angel Beats
* ''[[
* By the end of ''[[
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes are close friends, but their subordinates operate largely separate from each other, which is [[Truth in Television]] for many military units.
* The characters in ''[[Girls und Panzer]]'' naturally divide into groups by tank crew, with the main characters crewing the same tank... but some of the crews interact with other crews on occasion.
== Comic Books ==
* Most comic book super hero universes have GIGANTIC casts with thousands of characters. These get split along various lines, including what team they tend to belong to ([[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] vs [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]], for example) what sort of crime they fight (a street-level hero like [[
* When [[Brian Bendis]] left ''[[Ultimate X-Men]]'', incoming writer [[Brian K. Vaughan]] was left with a team of thirteen people, and spent much of his time Cast Herding. Throughout his run, various characters would pair off and leave, but continue to make appearances in their own storylines. The remaining characters were constantly split up based on plot demands.
* [[
* [[Legion of Super-Heroes (
== Literature ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
** [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] being the exception - he's in almost every book. (He doesn't personally appear in ''The Wee Free Men''.)
*** Death has his own Cast Herd (Mort, Ysabell, Susan, Albert and a couple of others), and he occasionally stars in his own story (or rather, in stories where events revolve around something he is doing or has done). Though he's in almost every book, most of them are still cameos lasting a single scene (usually, he's only in it because someone has just died- in that sense, he's the one ''least'' likely to interact with another herd, since recurring characters in these stories ''never'' die), which isn't much different from the cameos by other characters. He's just more memorable than most.
** The Librarian also manages to get around, even traveling through time in one instance to {{spoiler|rescue scrolls from an infamous library fire}}. However, he's formally part of the Wizard herd, given he's the Librarian for the Wizarding Academy.
* Happens in the second and third volumes of ''[[
* After a couple of books, ''[[
* ''[[Malevil]]'' features a few, while the cast merges together at the titular castle, they tend to stick with their original members while in the background. You have the original Malevil survivors, the "troglodytes" of L'Étang, the oppressed La Roque citizens, and the oppressing La Roque parish.
* ''[[Unda Vosari]]'' actually started with a small cast of characters, then grew to over several dozen characters (both main and secondary). Some were [[Put
* ''[[House of Leaves]]'' has three separate areas of story. The part about the movie concerning Navidson and his family. Then there is the book itself, which is written by Zampano and commented on by various one-shot academics. Lastly there is Johnny's part, which contains the adventures of the author's author (Or however the hell you describe anything in the book), as he goes absolutely insane. The only interaction comes in the beginning before and just after Zampano dies, and that barely constitutes interaction.
* In ''[[Dragons in Our Midst]]'', we start with the main [[True Companions]], Billy, Bonnie, and Walter, and the professor. From there, we have each of their families, the other anthrozils, the dragons in Sheol, the dragons in Dragon's Rest, the slayers, Morgana and her henchmen, the Watchers, all of those who were at Doctor Conner's lab, and several different factions within Sheol.
** Then we have the sequel series, Oracles of Fire. Cast members added include all of the Nephlim, the characters from the Arc time period, which somewhat overlaps with the characters from the Tower of Babel time period, more anthrozils, the ten men from Sheol, characters in Heaven... [[Loads and Loads of Characters|the list goes on and on and on.]]
* ''[[
* ''[[Gone (
== Live
* This was becoming a problem on ''[[
** If that was the case, then it didn't work - {{spoiler|only one of the Crichtons died, and of the other characters only Stark left the show. Zhaan died at the start of the season, and Crais and Talyn died at the end of it - long (respectively) before and after the split-up)}}
* In the second season of ''[[
* ''[[
** Averted by season 1: A big deal is made initially about who is on the beach and who is in the caves, but this distinction quickly became meaningless as characters go from camp to camp so often that it's hard to remember who chose to go where. This split is ultimately forgotten and the survivors all move back to the beach in early season 2.
** Also early on there was a core group of characters who did everything. If something was going on, it included some combination of Jack, Kate, Locke, Sawyer and Sayid. [[Fan Nickname]] for them was the 'A-Team'. This was because at the beginning Lost's [[Myth Arc]] was just forming. We were treated to a lot of 'life on the beach' subplots with characters like Boone, Shannon, Charlie, Claire, Hugo, Jin, Sun, etc. The writers made several [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshades Hung]] to this. Characters would drift in an out of the two groups, but it was removed completely later on. Arguably by the fourth or fifth season all the characters were directly involved in the mythology of the island.
** This was also lampshaded repeatedly after the on-screen introduction of the Others, with characters using the phrase(s) "my/your/their people."
* With more than 20 recurring characters, period drama [[Upstairs, Downstairs]] has its two distinct Cast Herds conveniently marked in the title. Upstairs is the well-off Bellamy family; Downstairs is their staff of servants, a sort of family of its own.
* Brazilian primetime soaps, which always have [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], tend to cluster the cast like this, even using an official term: nuclei. There may be the "protagonist nucleus", the "comedic nucleus", the "suburban nucleus", the "favela nucleus" etc.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** Then of course later on there were splits between Cylon-centric scenes and human-centric scenes. This started with the Cylon-centric second season episode "Downloaded," which was the first time we really got a look at how Cylon society functioned, but it became a lot more frequent after that. To complicate things further, there were plenty of Cast Herds in human society as well (Baltar's harem being one of the most obvious ones).
* Happens in ''[[Downton Abbey]]'' with the Earl's family and the Servants
* Happens a lot with ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', with the cast being split up almost constantly (the Petrellis; the Bennets; Nikki, DL and Micah; Hiro and Ando; etc)
== Video Games ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius
* The Subspace Emmissary of ''[[Super Smash Bros
* The ever-growing ''[[
** The cast is somewhat of a [[Geodesic Cast]], where all the final bosses tend to have similar sets of servants that form cast herds, as well. It's only the characters outside of those cast herds (like the low-level bosses that make up the (9) squad) that form cast herds elsewhere.
** The witches trio actually has a member, [[Hot Librarian]] Patchouli, that belongs to two separate cast herds - she's a live-in member of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and a partially-willing inductee of "Team [[Memetic Sex God|Marisa's Harem]]".
* ''[[
* ''[[
* The ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
** After the End of Act 5 in October 2011, many characters have died or been reshuffled into new groups, and new characters have appeared. The main groups now are: those on the golden battleship (John, Jade, Davesprite, Jaspersprite, and a whole lot of Chess people and consorts); those travelling through the Furthest Ring on the trolls' Meteor (Rose, Dave, Karkat, Terezi, Kanaya, Gamzee, and WV); those chasing the Meteor group (PM and Bec Noir); those in the dreambubbles (Tavros, Vriska, Feferi, Eridan, Meenah, Aranea, Hussie; presumably Nepeta, Equius, Sollux, Aradia, and the rest of the pre-scratch trolls as well); those beyond the Fifth Wall (Lord English, Ms. Paint, A2 Jack); and the new group of four kids who live on Earth and are now entering their session of the game ({{spoiler|although two of them live in the future}}). The former groups now only appear in the intermissions, with the main acts focusing on the new kids.
** It's interesting to note that while Homestuck certainly has long list of characters, the defining events of the story mean that about two-thirds of the cast account for the entire surviving population of two universes, the other half being dead themselves. Not many stories can claim to feature literally everyone in the world.
* ''[[
== Web Original ==
* At [[Super
* In ''[[
* [[Protectors of the Plot Continuum]] usually work in pairs or trios.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Justice League (
* ''[[
** This is also by design: almost the entire recurring supporting cast is voiced by either Doc Hammer or Jackson Publick, and they try to avoid [[Talking to Himself]].
* ''[[
** However, that didn't necessarily hold true in either the novels or the early seasons. Gordon and Sir Handel could often be found bitching about being underappreciated, Peter Sam and Henry did not much care for each other, and Skarloey and Edward were best friends.
* The original ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** The second season also added Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee into the mix, and occasionally showed glimpses into what Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors were doing, as well.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** Many of the background ponies aren't really characters, as much as they are scenery. Lyra, Bon-Bon and Doctor Whooves, for example, have no real personality (And don't even have consistent voice actors) in the context of the show. However, recently, they have begun to be more scripted (if still unimportant to the plot) as a fan-service.
** [[Incredibly Lame Pun|They are also a literal]]
* In ''[[
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Ensembles]]
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