History Main / NoClearLeader

Most of the time in fiction, those who lead TheTeam are established from the get-go or are even promoted to leadership without debate, usually for the sake of moving the plot along. But in cases like these, the lack of consistent leadership can highlight how dysfunctional and unorganized a group can be. Can be PlayedForDrama in regards to the rocky relations between members, but can on the other hand be PlayedForLaughs to show the ridiculousness of the brazenly loose position, especially if the leadership in question is as high as royalty.

* ''Literature/SmallGods'': Near the end, an alliance of several [[EnemyMine normally mutually hostile]] nations gathers their fleets for a combined attack on Omnia, but nobody seems to know who's in charge for the situation. The Ephebian admiral thinks he is since he's avenging the attack on Ephebe; the Tsortean admiral thinks he is because he has the most ships; the Djelibeybian admiral thinks he is because he always assumes he's in charge of everything. In fact, there's only one captain who doesn't think he is, and that's because he's captain of a one-man fishing boat from a tribe that had never had any contact with the outside world until he ran into the fleet and got swept up with them.

* ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'': The Yellowjackets have this problem from the minute they crash-land in the Canadian wilderness.
** Season 1: There's the lone adult, Coach Ben, who tries his best but he's missing a leg and whatever authority he had is stripped away by having to rely on [[StalkerWithACrush Misty]] and falls into SanitySlippage after [[spoiler:Laura Lee overrules his authority in her escape mission and gets blown up.]] Jackie is used to being TheLeader as the head of the cheerleading squad but instantly crumbles under the trauma of the plane crash and being stranded. Upon finding out that Shauna is pregnant by Jackie's boyfriend Jeff, Jackie attempts to pull her authority on Shauna but Shauna, who has gained authority, fights back. [[spoiler:All of the Yellowjackets either turn on Jackie or abandon her, leaving her to be frozen to death in the first snowfall.]] Lottie becomes the de facto leader of a section of the team who comes to believe that she has mystical abilities, which puts her at odds with natural leader Taissa, especially since Taissa's girlfriend Van becomes one of Lottie's true believers.
** Season 2: Lottie is revealed to be deeply uncertain about her "powers" and pushed into them by the increasingly desperate group, unwilling to take on any more serious role as TheLeader. Natalie, meanwhile, has turned against Lottie, annoyed that her role as TheHunter is not appreciated or grants her any authority, which alienates her more from the rest of the group. Due to starvation, Taissa is unable to take on any meaningful leadership role. Shauna craves more leadership and is deeply traumatized from her stillbirth. These factors coincide in [[spoiler:Shauna nearly killing Lottie, taking her out of commission. Lottie resigns herself to her death, seeming almost relieved...only for the rest of the group to decide that Lottie can't die. Instead, they decide to use a hunt to find a HumanSacrifice to take Lottie's place.]]
** After this, the Antler Queen is revealed to work like this. Lottie is the first and has a leadership role because of it. After having her life narrowly saved by the hunt, she resigns her position and chooses [[spoiler:Nat]] instead on the basis that [[spoiler:she survived the card draw and the hunt.]] Although this happens in the Season 2 finale, there are already strong hints that not all of the group appreciates Lottie stepping down from leadership. Shauna, for example, is shown ranting in her diary about how ''she'' should be queen.

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Most of the time in fiction, those who lead TheTeam are establish from the get-go, or are even promoted to leadership without debate, usually for the sake of moving the plot along. But in cases like these, the lack of consistent leadership can highlight how dysfunctional and unorganized a group can be. Can be PlayedForDrama in regards to the rocky relations between members, but can on the other hand be PlayedForLaughs to show the ridiculousness of the brazenly loose position, especially if the leadership in question is as high as royalty.

* It's a RunningGag throughout ''Film/YoungGunsII'' that UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid and "Arkansas" Dave are both trying to claim leadership over the gang and each tells anyone they meet that they're the leader. That is, until the group is caught in a lethal ambush by Sheriff Pat Garrett and his posse, and each tries to pass leadership off to the other. Eventually when they're under fire during the ambush, their attempts to ditch being the leader escalates to the point that when Dave claims that Billy is and always has been the leader, Billy draws a gun and points it at Dave, saying "Don't cross me, Dave." The more experienced members of the gang are either apathetic to the whole thing or grudgingly (at best) accept Billy's leadership because they wrongly believe Billy knows a secret path that will let them escape the law in their RunForTheBorder, while less than experienced wannabe outlaws default to Billy because he's the most famous. (Also, Dave being a {{Jerkass}} doesn't make anyone want to follow him if they can help it.)

* ''Literature/SmallGods'': Near the end, an alliance of several [[EnemyMine normally mutually hostile]] nations gather their fleets for a combined attack on Omnia, but nobody seems to know who's in charge for the situation. The Ephebian admiral thinks he is, since he's avenging the attack on Ephebe; the Tsortean admiral thinks he is because he has the most ships; the Djelibeybian admiral thinks he is because he always assumes he's in charge of everything. In fact there's only one captain who doesn't think he is, and that's because he's captain of a one-man fishing boat from a tribe that had never had any contact with the outside world until he ran into the fleet and got swept up with them.

* ''Series/OddSquadMobileUnit'': The episode "Odd Squad in the Shadows" revolves around the Mobile Unit unable to determine who the leader of the group is after North Carolina Ms. O asks who the leader is. What follows is each member taking turns being the leader and attempting to fix things in time for the North Carolina precinct's golf tournament. Eventually, Mr. Sides tells the group that no one is the leader and they're all equal in rank. This is all despite the fact that Opal is, in fact, the de facto leader of the Mobile Unit, as she was the one to round the main cast up and is shown taking charge more often than anyone else.
* ''Series/OhsamaSentaiKingOhger'': After the Five-Kingdom Alliance (later Six-Kingdom Alliance) formally forms the Ohsama Sentai, they propose on at least two occasions to select a leader from between themselves. However, between the significant egos each of the monarchs possess as well as their respective domains being very distinct from each other, they can never quite achieve a consensus on who leads the team. Near the end of the series, they ultimately decide on working together as an alliance of equals rather than having a clear, individual leader. (Franchise/SuperSentai tradition would indicate Gira, the Red Ranger of the team, would be best suited for the job, however given how the other monarchs [[NoRespectGuy feel free to push him around]] it would be a moot point.)

** Season 1: There's the lone adult, Coach Ben, who tries his best but he's missing a leg and whatever authority he had is stripped away by having to rely on [[StalkerWithACrush Misty]] and falls into SanitySlippage after [[spoiler:Laura Lee overrules his authority in her escape mission and gets blown up.]] Jackie is used to being TheLeader as the head of the cheerleading squad, but instantly crumbles under the trauma of the plane crash and being stranded. Upon finding out that Shauna is pregnant by Jackie's boyfriend, Jeff, Jackie attempts to pull her authority on Shauna but Shauna, who has gained authority, fights back. [[spoiler:All of the Yellowjackets either turn on Jackie or abandon her, leaving her to be frozen to death in the first snowfall.]] Lottie becomes the de facto leader of a section of the team who comes to believe that she has mystical abilities, which puts her at odds with natural leader Taissa, especially since Taissa's girlfriend Van becomes one of Lottie's true believers.

** After this, the Antler Queen is revealed to work like this. Lottie is the first, and has a leadership role because of it. After having her life narrowly saved by the hunt, she resigns her position and chooses [[spoiler:Nat]] instead on the basis that [[spoiler:she survived the card draw and the hunt.]] Although this happens in the Season 2 finale, there are already strong hints that not all of the group appreciates Lottie stepping down from leadership. Shauna, for example, is shown ranting in her diary about how ''she'' should be queen.

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': In the original toyline, each [[CombiningMecha combiner team]] has a clear leader with a higher rank than their subordinates, typically having a rank of 7 while their subordinates have ranks of 5 or 6. The most well-known examples are Onslaught of the Combaticons, Silverbolt of the Aerialbots and Motormaster of the Stunticons. However, the first ever combining team the Constructicons are unusual in that all the members have the same rank of 5 and none of their bios or functions explicitly identify any of them being the team leader (unlike how Onslaught's function is "Combaticon leader"). This has led to different members being team leader in different fiction (e.g. in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' Scrapper was leader, in the future stories of ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'' MadScientist Mixmaster led the team, in the Fun Publications comics Hook was the team leader).

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'': When the title organization is reformed at the start of the game, the leadership question is left open for the entirety of Act I, because its agents have failed to locate both individuals ([[VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins the Warden]] and [[VideoGame/DragonAgeII Hawke]]) originally earmarked by the late [[HighPriest Divine Justinia]] to lead them. The responsibility thus falls back to an impromptu council of about half a dozen of old [[TheChurch Chantry]] guard who delegate field command to the new PlayerCharacter. This changes only in Act II, when the aforementioned old guard unanimously promotes the PC to the [[MoreSeniorSubordinate supreme leader position]] in recognition of their earlier successes.

** Has this on a state level in the Asari Republics. Whereas most other species have some kind of centralized government or representative (not counting Citadel Councilors), the asari have an e-democracy where laws are determined through public forum without elected representatives. The closest they have to such individuals are the matriarchs, who generally gather followings who heed their counsel, but even they are more honored advisors who (in theory) have no more say in lawmaking than any other Asari citizen. ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' deconstructs this when the Reapers invade and the Asari find themselves unable to mount a successful defense due to not having a clear command structure. On contrast, the Turians, who have a top-down authoritarian government with clear lines of succession, manage to hold the Reapers back for weeks, while the Asari homeworld is lost in a matter of hours.

!Examples

* ''VideoGame/FlowerKnightGirl'' features the group known as "Berīzu", formed from multiple berry-type Flower Knights, who aspire to help the PlayerCharacter in any way possible. Aside from the group's ideals being incredibly broad yet specific by the standards of other groups that preceded them[[note]]Acacia Corp and Orange Squad transferring supplies/produce from nation to nation[[/note]], just about every member of Berīzu has claimed the title of leader at least once for their own reasons -- even Gumi, the founder and thus the de-facto candidate for the role, questions if the others think differently -- all to establish their informal group structure.

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* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Downplayed. The Gaang has no formal leadership, which is acknowledged early on in "Jet" when Sokka [[LeaderWannabe fails to assert himself as the leader]], and later in "The Western Air Temple" when Aang clarifies that he doesn't get to speak for the group. Regardless, the team makes all their decisions through consensus and unanimous vote when necessary, generally serving themselves well without leadership.