The Chick/Playing With
Basic Trope: The peacekeeping and "spiritual" aspect of the Five-Man Band. By tradition this role is usually female, the token girl, though this isn't always the case.
- Straight: Amy is the peacekeeper and balances out the other members' aggressive behavior.
- Exaggerated: Amy lives a world full of (probably pretty)men and is basically Jesus to them.
- Justified: Hiro, Lance, Biggs, and Smarty needed their fifth to be female so they would look straight.
- Inverted: Dark Chick.
- Subverted: In episode 1 Amy, a girl who wears extremely girly clothes and really cute pigtails, is introduced, but in episode 2 we find out that she's one badass Tomboy who refuses to love the hero and argues with the rest of the group.
- Double Subverted: ... until she learns An Aesop about the importance of teamwork and dedicates herself to not only be useful on the field, but also calm arguments among the band members.
- Parodied: Amy is known as the chick of the group, but she's very brave compared to the guys, who will run from real danger and leave the Tagalong Kid behind.
- Alice and Bob meet a Five-Man Band with the Legendary Hero, complete with his Love Interest The Messianic, Ditzy Cute Witch Amy, who Bob assumes to be The Chick. Amy is then revealed to be the Genius Lightning Bruiser of the group. Hero serves as much purpose as the Tagalong Kid.
- Deconstructed: Amy becomes sick and tired of being with four disgusting boys and leaves the group.
- The boys treat Amy differently because of her gender, thinking of her only as "the Girl" and dismissing her opinion. Naturally, this creates a rift in the team that just further reinforces the gender barrier, until Amy finally snaps and calls them out.
- The Boys replace her with an Affirmative Action Girl.
- Amy becomes tired of being "that girl" and trains to become an Action Girl.
- The boys treat Amy differently because of her gender, thinking of her only as "the Girl" and dismissing her opinion. Naturally, this creates a rift in the team that just further reinforces the gender barrier, until Amy finally snaps and calls them out.
- Reconstructed: Amy joins a five female band where her feminine attributes plays a big role. So big that she makes the Big Bad go through a Heel Face Turn.
- Bonus points when she beats her replacement.
- Zig Zagged: Amy looks cute, but turns out to be a Little Miss Badass who just happens to have feminine interests. Fan Dumb still depicts her as a useless girly-girl who gets in the way of their Ho Yay, and she doesn't get any action figures, only dolls with a pimped-out wardrobe. Around the series's third season, however, she takes another few levels in badass and gets recognized as an Action Girl, complete with Adrenaline Makeover (despite how she didn't need one in the first place).
- Averted: Every teammate has a chick trait in them, so there's no definite "chick".
- The chick is replaced by the Token Evil Teammate.
- The chick is the Token Evil Teammate.
- The chick is replaced by the Token Evil Teammate.
- Enforced: The executives want at least one Token Girl thrown into the mix.
- In this Yaoi Action series, a quarter in to the series, the producers decide to put in Amy as a Self Insert Ascended Fangirl.
- Lampshaded: "Why do I have to be the one who spends more time resolving disputes in the group than actually battling?" "Because that's what your role is."
- Invoked: The Hero thinks their team needs a woman's touch, so he brings The Cutie Amy into the fold.
- Hero needs a medic so he decides to turn Lancer female.
- Defied: Amy doesn't want to seem like being The Load, so she tries to bulk up to fit in with the boys.
- Conversed: "You know how on TV there's always this one girly girl that's totally useless?"
- Discussed: "It's a good thing Amy's not like that."
- Played For Laughs: The cast is filled with muscle-bound tough guys... save for Amy, who provides an amusing contrast with the hulking heroes.
- The guys literally act like babies and Amy always has to change their diapers.
- Played For Drama: Amy's always discriminated for being female in a man's battle and becomes the deconstructed Damsel in Distress.
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