History Main / ThreePlusTwo

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': The series started with the 'Original Team Arrow' of [[{{TheHero}} Oliver]], [[{{TheLancer}} Diggle]] and [[{{TheSmartGuy}} Feliciy]]. From the second half of Season 2 several others characters join the team, starting with [[{{TheBigGuy}} Roy]] and [[{{TheChick}} Sa]][[{{ActionGirl}} ra]] joining the team and by the end of Season 3 they've left and been replaced by [[{{TookALevelInBadass}} Thea]] and [[{{TeamWannabe}} Laurel]], respectively. However the central trio are still much closer.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': The series started with the 'Original Team Arrow' of [[{{TheHero}} Oliver]], [[{{TheLancer}} Diggle]] and [[{{TheSmartGuy}} Feliciy]]. From the second half of Season 2 several others characters join the team, starting with [[{{TheBigGuy}} Roy]] and [[{{TheChick}} Sa]][[{{ActionGirl}} ra]] joining the team and by the end of Season 3 they've left and been replaced by [[{{TookALevelInBadass}} Thea]] and [[{{CantCatchUp}} Laurel]], respectively. However the central trio are still much closer.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': The series started with the 'Original Team Arrow' of [[{{TheHero}} Oliver]], [[{{TheLancer}} Diggle]] and [[{{TheSmartGuy}} Feliciy]]. In the second half of Season 2, [[{{TheBigGuy}} Roy]] and [[{{TheChick}} Sa]][[{{ActionGirl}} ra]] both joined the team, although the central trio are still much closer.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' Optimus, Rattrap and Rhinox are the core trio, the leader and his two lieutenants (acting as the Kirk, The [=McCoy=] and the Spock, respectively). The three of them are in on all the secrets and will be trusted with things the others aren't. When Optimus is gone, leadership will generally be handled jointly by the two of them. Cheetor and Dinobot are the other two, Cheetor is trusted but because of his youth and inexperience he's still on the outside and is not involved in any decisions. Dinobot can't always be trusted because of his Predacon heritage and tendency to do some decidedly un-Maximal things and is thus also kept at a distance. There's a revolving door of "outsider" Maximals, but the three "insiders" remain Optimus, Rattrap and Rhinox for the whole run.

* There's a Soviet film with ''this exact title'' (but ''not'' the TropeNamer), which is a romantic comedy (inevitably) built around this trope. Basically: ThreeAmigos meet girl HairContrastDuo, HilarityEnsues.

* There's a Soviet film with ''this exact title'' (but ''not' the TropeNamer), which is a romantic comedy (inevitably) built around this trope. Basically: ThreeAmigos meet girl HairContrastDuo, HilarityEnsues.

* The Fellowship from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' comes across as a seven plus two, with Merry and Pippin more or less along for the ride.
** You could even subdivide it further into three plus two plus two plus one: Aragorn-Legolas-Gimli, Frodo-Sam, and Merry-Pippin, with Gandalf on his own.
*** They actually split up this way as the series progresses.
** and then there's Boromir...
** In ''The Two Towers'', it's essentially a three plus one plus three (Aragorn-Legolas-Gimli plus Gandalf plus Théoden-Éowyn-Éomer) and then two two plus ones (Frodo-Sam plus Gollum and Merry-Pippin plus Treebeard)

* ''Phineas and Ferb'' has two brothers, Phineas and Ferb, plus three friends: Isabella, Buford, and Baljeet.

* {{Bunheads}} has a pairing off within the group of four students of Sasha with and Melanie with Ginny, with the first pair gettimg far more attention. Then of course the foursome is seperate from the adult grouping of Michelle, Fanny and sometimes Truly.

* The first season of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' spent an inordinate amount of time with just Sailor Moon, Mars and Mercury. Jupiter and Venus came later. Of course, as the season progressed, the five became a true FiveManBand. (Note that this is not the case in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] or in ''Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon''; both had a trio for only a handful of episodes, added Jupiter quickly, and spent most of the arc with four before Venus showed up.)
* ''Anime/TheLittlBits'' has two examples within one gang: Willabit, Lillibit and Snagglebit plus Chip and Browniebit, or Snagglebit, Browniebit and Chip plus Willabit and Lillibit.

* In the first season of ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'', Doremi, Aiko and Hazuki were the main trio, while Pop later came as a TagAlongKid and Onpu as a DarkMagicalGirl. Next season, Onpu became part of the main roster as the series went on. Pop, however, stayed in her position.
* ''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'' was previously a Three Plus One show, and for a while, fan theories have spread like wildfire as to whether there would be a fifth. [[spoiler: It now becomes Four Plus Two, because of Westar and Soular's HeelFaceTurn.]]
** Both ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'' and ''Anime/SuitePrettyCure'' wound up becoming Two Plus Two shows.
* ''Manga/OutlawStar'', where Gene, Jim, and Melfina were the main crew of the Outlaw Star, and Suzuka and Aisha tended to act more like people who just happened to be traveling on the same ship.
* The three in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' tends to be Asuna, Konoka and Setsuna. The plus two is usually Nodoka and Yue. That being said, this trope can shift about the cast, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters given its size]].
* ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' had something more like three plus three - ThoseTwoGuys and the love interest join the team, but the PowerTrio never really loses the spotlight. Toss in one more traditional SixthRanger (or arguably two more) and another "plus one", and the final result is a cast of Four (or Five) plus Four.
** ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'', however, plays it a little more like [[InvertedTrope Two Plus Three]] [[SixthRanger (Plus One)]]. Takuya and Kouji are the first to get their Human Spirits and Beast Spirits, and the ''only'' ones to get a Double Spirit Evolution and a Hyper Spirit Evolution, boosting them up to the Ultimate level. It's glaringly obvious in that, while they're in their Hyper forms, the other members of the FiveManBand can only just stand around doing nothing.
** ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'', however, both played it straight ''and'' subverted it at the same time. Taiki, Akari and Zenjirou appear to be the three, with Nene and Kiriha as the Two. However, by the time that Kiriha and Nene have joined Xros Heart, Akari and Zenjirou are stuck in the real world[[spoiler:, only being reunited when they return for the GrandFinale]]. So, in the end, Taiki, Kiriha and Nene serve as the Three, with Akari and Zenjirou as the Two.

* ''Manga/YuGiOh5Ds'' follows three plus two, then added a third to the main cast. In the beginning it was Yuusei, Jack and Aki, with the two being the twins Rua and Ruka. Later on, after Crow was introduced, it became Yuusei-Jack-Crow, with Rua-Ruka-Aki serving as their own trio.

* The first arc of ''Manga/DragonBall'' originally had Goku and Bulma adventuring together, with Oolong joining them shortly after. After this Yamcha and Puar were introduced, with the two pursuing the trio in hopes of stealing the dragonballs from them. Once Pilaf was introduced (or in the anime's case, became more of a threat), they officially joined into a FiveManBand for the rest of the arc.
* During the ''[[Anime/DragonBallZ Freeza Arc]]'', we have originally Gohan, Krillin and Bulma. When Vegeta joins them, we have Gohan-Krillin-Vegeta plus Bulma. Later Piccolo and Goku appear as extra ones, but when Goku joins the battle against Freeza and Vegeta ends up being killed, we have Goku as the SpotlightStealingSquad and Gohan-Krillin-Piccolo as the extra trio ''plus'' Bulma.
* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] and [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-Zagged]] in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' which starts off with Madoka, Sayaka, and Mami as the trio, and there is one DarkMagicalGirl named Homura around. They remained like that until [[spoiler: Mami dies]] and a new MagicalGirl named Kyoko shows up. Sayaka and Kyoko hate each other the minute they meet making any chances they have at teaming up slim and then nothing after [[spoiler: they both die.]] All hopes seems lost for this trope until we learned that [[spoiler: Homura has been resetting the timeline. The original trio has been different with each new timeline, though there is at least one timeline where this trope was played straight but was quickly ended after Mami had a FreakOut over the AwfulTruth and killed Kyoko before she herself was killed.]] By the end of the series the trope is ultimately [[spoiler: averted because Madoka would AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence and Sayaka is the only one who stayed dead making any chance for this trope to happen impossible.]]
* In ''LightNovel/KokoroConnect'' Taichi-Inaba-Iori triangle is clearly in the center of the plot, while Yui and Aoi serve as BetaCouple.

* Quite common in various configurations of the JusticeLeagueOfAmerica. {{Batman}}, {{Superman}}, and WonderWoman generally form a PowerTrio, often called The Trinity or The Big Three, while TheFlash and GreenLantern usually take on the role of ThoseTwoGuys.

**** Throughout Season 3, it becomes clear that the Nina-Fabian-Amber trio has been replaced by the Eddie-KT-Fabian trio, with Patricia and Alfie seeming like the added/background two.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic'' has the warriors Apollo-Starbuck-Boomer plus Sheba-Bojay in "The Living Legend".

* ''Series/{{Arrow}'': The series started with 'Original Team Arrow' - Oliver, Diggle and Feliciy. In the second half of Season 2, Roy and Sara both joined the team, although the central trio are still much closer.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' starts you out with [[BlackMagicianGirl Morrigan]] (TheSmartGuy and TheLancer, and the Superego), Alistair (TheLancer and TheChick, and the Id), and the [[PlayerCharacter Warden]] (TheHero and the Ego); then adds [[JeanneDArchetype Leliana]] (much more of TheChick) and Sten (TheBigGuy) in the first town. You get even more characters later, but Alistair, Morrigan and the Warden are always the most important party members to the story, [[spoiler:at least until you can recruit Loghain]].

* ''VideoGame/Pikmin'' 3 has new cast members [[TheSmartGuy Alph]], [[TheChick Brittany]], and [[TheBigGuy Charlie]] joined by returning characters [[spoiler:[[TheHero Olimar]] and [[TheLancer Louie]].]]

* Some seasons in the ''Franchise/SuperSentai''/''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise have started with three rangers instead of [[FiveManBand the usual team of five]], usually a trio composed of Red, Blue and Yellow, who are then joined mid-series by at least two [[SixthRanger extra rangers]]. They typically get just as much, if not more, exposure as the primary heroes, much like the sixth rangers.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''[[{{Webcomic/Morphe}} morphE]]'' was based on a World of Darkness roleplaying game. Three of the five main characters were Player Characters in the original campaign and two were [=NPCs.=] Accordingly the three player characters get more plot attention than the other 2 main characters.
[[/folder]]

* The first season of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' spent an inordinate amount of time with just Sailor Moon, Mars and Mercury. Jupiter and Venus came later. Of course, as the season progressed, the five became a true FiveManBand. (Note that this is not the case in the manga or in ''Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon''; both had a trio for only a handful of episodes, added Jupiter quickly, and spent most of the arc with four before Venus showed up.)

* IDW's ''BattleBeasts'' comic began with the trio of Vorin, Gruntos and Merk, then added Bliss Reynolds and her brother Tate.

* In the ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsPowerOfThree Power of Three]]'' arc of ''Literature/WarriorCats'', Jayfeather, Hollyleaf and Lionblaze form a PowerTrio because they think they are three cats all-powerful cats spoken of in a prophecy. At the end, Jayfeather realizes that Hollyleaf is not the true third. Then in the ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsOmenOfTheStars Omen of the Stars]]'' arc, the true third [[Dovewing]] and [[her sister Ivypool]] team up with the others.