Same-Sex Triplets

They also tend to dress alike.

With twins, you might get a boy and a girl. But triplets are almost always the same sex. That's what the media seems to think. Usually, they will be all identical, but sometimes, they are all fraternal for easy recognition. In Real Life, identical twins are always both boys or both girls (for obvious reasons), but most triplets are two identical and one fraternal and only have a fifty-fifty chance of all being the same sex. All-fraternal triplets only have a one-in-four chance.

So why are Same Sex Triplets so common in fiction? Because of Cast Calculus. Having one of each sex gives you balance, but three people don't divide evenly that way. So triplets are portrayed as three of a kind to give a sense of wholeness to the group. The same appeal makes Real Life Same Sex Triplets more marketable, so they are more likely to achieve fame as a group than mixed triplets. And if they happen to be children, Same-Sex Triplets are just plain cute.

Compare Power Trio and Rule of Three. Many Twin Tropes also apply to triplets. If this trope is averted, they may be Two Guys and a Girl.

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Examples:

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• Not unlike Donald Duck, Toucan Sam has a trio of identical nephews who go on adventures with him. Even their names — Puey, Susey, and Louis — sound an awful lot like Huey, Dewey, and Louie from the Disney Ducks Comic Universe.

Anime & Manga

• The triplets Thompson, Timber, and Canturbury from the second season of Black Butler (2008).
• A set of same-sex triplets (Taichi, Tatsuji, and Yuzo Tomizawa) become murder suspects in Case Closed, and it's up to Conan to figure out which of the three killed their father. It was Taichi. In a subversion, however, The three men have pretty different looks (Taichi has a Porn Stache, Tatsuji slicks his hair back, Yuzo looks quite younger than the other two), and the only actual shared physical trait they have are their eyes, their brows and their noses. Which coincidentally are the only part of the culprit's face that the witnesses could see. Therefore in practice they don't look that alike, but there's still no easy way to see which triplet was to blame.
• In A Centaur's Life, Class Representative Manami Mitami has four younger sisters, three of them being Cat Girl triplets. They are called Chigusa, Chinami and Chiho. Collectively, they are called "Chi-chan".
• October, November and December from Coyote Ragtime Show.
• The Hambini Brothers from Episode 143 of Hamtaro. 
• Ichigo, Ringo and Sango from Hanaukyō Maid Team. These three maids appear to be identical in all ways.
• Mitsuba, Futaba and Hitoha Marui from Mitsudomoe. Unlike most examples, they aren't identical, having different hair colors.
• One Piece: The Charlotte family includes a lot of identical/fraternal siblings, with varying numbers (one set of decuplets, one set of quintuplets, two sets of quadruplets and six sets of triplets). While six of these sets are all one gender each, only the quintuplets - Opera, Counter, Cadenza, Cabaletta and Gala - bear a close enough resemblance to one another to have a hard time telling them apart. The main difference is the number of hair tufts on their dotted heads, plus Opera's creamy appearance (the result of his Devil Fruit) and Counter's mustache. The male decuplets are also virtually identical (except for one being much bigger), and the same goes for the five female decuplets.
• Osomatsu-kun and its sequel Osomatsu-san star identical sextuplets Osomatsu, Karamatsu, Choromatsu, Ichimatsu, Jyushimatsu, and Todomatsu.
• The Hanamura Triplets from Sally the Witch.
• The Eco Triplets from Tamagotchi are all female.
• The Butterfly Triplets from Tōka Gettan.
• Axel, Lutz and Loop Nishigori from Yuri!!! on Ice, a trio of mischievous six-year-old girls who are obsessed with the figure skating world (and are named after figure skating jumps).

Comic Books

• The DC Comics villain Kushti, who consists of conjoined triplets.
• The Kleinstocks (Sven, Harlan, and Eric), Marvel Comics supervillains.
• Also from Marvel Comics, the Stepford Cuckoos, for a time when three of them were still alive, and before they discovered their innumerable clone siblings.
• April, May and June Bleak from My Dead Girlfriend.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Lillie, Tillie, and Millie Heyday are identical triplet sisters and are all Holliday Girls.
  • Volume 1: Joey, Jackie and Johnny Star, are villainous identical triplet brothers who go by the group name the "Triple Stars", with Joey as Red Star, Jackie as White Star and Johnny as Blue Star.

Comic Strips

• Gooey, Screwy and Ratatouille from Life in Hell.

Fan Works

• Cheating Death: Those That Lived: Snag's oldest three daughters are triplets.
• Nell, Nall, and Nalel are triplets in A New World, A New Way sidestory Swarm. It is implied to be a common occurrence for Changelings.
• The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: The Changeling trio of Memorizing Gaze (the Royal Protector) and his younger triplet brothers Sound Record and High Finish, who serve as the Sage's Protector and Hivemind Protector (respectively).
• Queens of Mewni: Sideria the Fortunate had identical triplets, Umbra, Penumbra, and Antumbra. Unfortunately, their jealousy of their older sister Celena led them to try to kill her.

Films — Animation

• Barbie's Direct to Video films often do this with little girl characters corresponding to Kelly/Chelsea in the toyline. Very often, they're also a Blonde, Brunette, Redhead trio.
  • Barbie as Rapunzel: Katrina, Lorena, and Melody, Prince's Stefan's three younger sisters.
  • Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus: Blush, Rose, and Lilac, the Cloud Queen's three daughters who paint the sky at sunrise and sunset. They're also the only exception to the Blonde, Brunette, Redhead pattern: Blush and Lilac are both blonde and Rose has auburn hair.
  • Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses: Janessa, Kathleen, and Lacey, the youngest of the twelve sisters.
  • Barbie as the Island Princess: Sofia, Rita, and Gina, Prince Antonio's three younger sisters.
• A trio of identical blonde sisters known as "the Bimbettes" appear in Beauty and the Beast. Word of God says that their names are Claudette (in the red dress), Laurette (in the orange dress) and Paulette (in the green dress).
• In the Pixar film Brave, the main protagonist has three younger brothers who're identical triplets named Harris, Hubert and Hamish—according to the creators, Merida's the only who can tell the triplets apart with no problem.
• The Triplets of Belleville are three ancient ex-cabaret performers who spend their days playing jazz on improvised instruments and dynamiting frogs for their dinner. They're drawn very differently even when young, and as old women they're easy to tell apart.

Films — Live-Action

• Down with Love: Ladies' man Catcher Block is introduced bidding farewell to a set of brunette triplets who provide the page image.
• When Bowen comes to Kara's village in Dragonheart and suggests that they sacrifice a virgin to get the dragon to leave them alone, the father of identical dark-haired triplet girls freaks out because Bowen is looking at his daughters.
• In Pacific Rim, the Chinese Crimson Typhoon is piloted by the Wei Tang Triplets◊.
• The Miracle of Morgan's Creek turn out to be same sex sextuplets.
• Lisa, Jessie and Megan Wyatt from The Parent Trap III, one of the sequels to The Parent Trap. Interestingly, while the twins were played by the same actress (Hayley Mills), the triplets were played by real-life triplets Leanna, Monica and Joy Creel.
• A Simple Favor: When Stephanie confronts Emily about her secrets, including her twin sister, Emily reveals that they were actually triplets. The third sister was stillborn.
• The 2018 documentary Three Identical Strangers tells the story of three identical brothers who were separated at birth and found each other at age 19. The story also counts as a real life example.

Literature

• Livy's Ab urbe condita: The story of the Horatii and Curiatii from the era of The Roman Kingdom. The Horatii and Curiatii were triplet brothers born at about the same time to prominent families from Rome and its Latin rival Alba Longa, respectively. The story goes that the Roman King Tullus Hostilius and his Alban counterpart, the dictator Mettius Fufenius, realized that if their cities had to resort to a full war to resolve their differences (chiefly over leadership of the Latin League), the Etruscans would just take the opportunity to conquer both cities and the rest of Latium in the bargain. So instead they wagered the dispute on the outcome of a fight to the death between these two sets of triplets. (The Horiatii win, in case you were wondering.)
• The Sisters of Orion in the Alterien series. They are Vasja'ri, T'aryn and Re'nara.
• Mallory from The Babysitters Club has identical triplet brothers: Adam, Byron and Jordan.
• The Princesses of Ruwenda in Black Trillium, who are not only all fraternal but play into multiple triplicate tropes. (Then again, the entire book—as one might have guessed from a title referencing a flower with trilateral symmetry—runs on the Rule of Three.)
• Tsubaki, Azusa and Natsume Asahina from Brothers Conflict.
• In Chalet School, Joey's triplets Len, Conny, Margot. They are not identical, and have very different personalities.
• The three Ravers in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, who were "three brothers of one birth". Of course, by the time the books take place they've transformed into bodiless, possessing demon spirits and as such don't really have a sex per se at all, they're still referred to with male pronouns when any gender is applied.
• The sons of Agape from The Faerie Queene are all stout and strong men who grow up to become knights all vying for the same woman.
• The Roze brothers from Garrett, P.I. might qualify, if puny Dojango and colossal Doris and Marsha really are triplets. But then, there's that whole "different mothers" issue that Garrett refrained from asking about...
• Paperquake. Played With as only two of the three sisters look identical, with the third sister Violet often feeling left out of the triplet bond.
• Elk-Frodi, Thorir Dogfoot and Bodvar Bjarki from the Saga of Hrolf Kraki. Thorir and Bodvar would be identical if Thorir didn't have dog paws for feet because of a curse.
• Lily, Rose and Violet from The Secret of Platform 13. They're also identical, which was part of the reason the King and Queen hired them: it would give the young prince the security of one constant helper but could provide three times the work.
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: There are identical same-sex triplets revealed in the penultimate book, Frank, Ernest, and Dewey.
• The Snipp, Snapp and Snurr children's books by Maj Lindman. Or Flicka, Ricka and Dicka.
• The Ran triplets from The Story of Saiunkoku, all of whom are named Setsuna. They also have personal names, but almost nobody uses them: multiple births are considered unlucky in Saiunkoku, so the triplets were raised to be as identical as possible and only the wife of one of the triplets and, eventually, Shuuei can tell them apart.
• Zigzagged in one book of the Sweet Valley Twins series. Jessica and Elizabeth convince a new acquaintance they don't like that they're actually triplets; they take turns playing the third sister, Jennifer.
• The eponymous girls from the Spanish children's book series The Triplets.
• Trips, Traps and Trull in Trips Traps Ja Trull. A rare case where two of the triplets are identical.
• Though there are quite a few sets of triplets in Warrior Cats, this trope is almost always averted. Possibly the only example of it being played straight is with Crookedstar and Willowbreeze's kits: Willowkit, Minnowkit, and Silverkit (though only Silverkit survives the illness that kills her sisters and mother just after their birth).
• Melody, Harmony and Rhythm from Xanth.
• The Chiga triplets from Zaregoto.

Live-Action TV

• The CSI: Miami episode "Triple Threat" features identical triplet women.
• Tracy, Niki and Barbara from Heroes, all of them played by Ali Carter. Not only are they Separated at Birth, they also have completely different powers (Barbara's are unknown). Niki has Super-Strength and Tracy is An Ice Person.
• Rudy, from Misfits, is introduced with the power to split off a physically identical duplicate of himself (who happens to embody his more sensitive, kinder, responsible side), but it's revealed sometime later that there's actually a second duplicate who is kind of a psycho but has been locked up in jail. He gets released, forcibly re-merges with the others, and takes control of the unified persona.
• On the first episode of Mork & Mindy, while Mork is in the 50s visiting The Fonz and wants to experience human dating, Fonzie tries to think of whom he could get. Fonzie mentions "the Hooper triplets" commenting, "Now there's a six-pack to go."
• Pair of Kings featured Brady, Boomer and Boz. Played for Laughs since the triplets are obviously fraternal (especially since one is black and the other two are white).
• Charlotte and Cooper's triplets on Private Practice are all girls, named Georgia, Caroline, and Rachel.
• The basic principle of this trope is averted in the short-lived sitcom, Quintuplets. Of the titular quints, there were three boys and two girls, all apparently fraternal.

Music

• The Del Rubio triplets (Edith, Elena and Milly). They also played the Wanker Triplets on Married... with Children.
• The Fernández Rousse triplets (María Laura, María Emilia and María Eugenia), three singers known collectively as Trix.
• The Villegas triplets (Diana, Sylvia and Vicky) of the pop group The Triplets.
• The Haden triplets (Petra, Tanya and Rachel).
• The Landeberg triplets (Izzy, Rock and Kelii) of The Wildflowers.

Myths & Religion

• Although there are many triplicate goddesses in various European mythologies, such as Hecate or the Norns, the differentiation into the Maiden, Mother and Crone wasn't invented before the 19th century.
• Greek Mythology has the 3 Fates, the 3 Furies, the 3 Graces, the 3 (elder) Cyclopes, the 3 Hekatonkhires, the 3 Horai/Seasons (usually), the 3 Harpies (usually), the 3 Graeae, and the 3 Gorgons (usually). The Hesperides sometimes number 3. The Romans also adopted the Fates (renamed Parcae) and Graces (renamed Gratiae) into their pantheon.
• Several ancient religions in Eurasia have the triple Fates. One famous example is Norse Mythology, with the 3 Norns: Urd, Skuld, and Verdandi. They sometimes correspond to past, present, and future.

Video Games

• The Blues (Jay, Jake, and Jim) from Angry Birds are triplets, and they're all male.
• In CSI: Hard Evidence, one of the investigations involves triplet brothers.
• A codex entry in Dragon Age: Inquisition talks about the "three little empresses," also known as "the triplets who were not triplets." An Empress of Orlais in the Steel Age was believed to have given birth to only one daughter, but adopted two lookalikes as protection against assassination, and the princesses were presented to the public as triplets. According to the children's rhyme about the phenomenon, two of the girls were indeed murdered, with the survivor claiming the throne - and no one sure whether or not she was the true heir.
• In Helltaker, Cerberus is known as the Triple Demon and is portrayed as three identical dog-eared women, referencing how the original Cerberus from Classical Mythology is a dog with three heads. However, they're actually just one soul inhabiting three different bodies, as shown by how they're a Hive Mind.
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: Anemone is known to have three younger brothers. A random blurb that can appear while babysitting mentions that they are triplets.
• In Pokémon Black and White, Cilan, Chili and Cress are triplet brothers/Gym Leaders. Unlike most examples, they aren't identical since they all have different hair and eye colors.
• In the Team Fortress 2 supplemental comics, the Mann brothers consist of the identical twins Redmond and Blutarch, and their fraternal triplet Gray, who could speak at birth and was kidnapped and raised by an eagle.
• Yakuza 0 has Areshi and his two brothers, who look very similar other than the color of the tracksuit they wear (Areshi always wears red).

Visual Novels

• Bachelorette Party: Erik, Karl, and Stoli Magnusson are members of the Norwegian Mafia alongside their father Sven and younger brother Lukas. Each of them makes a separate appearance.

Webcomics

• Ménage à 3: The Archer Triplets, one of (or rather, three of) Zii's past conquests, as seen in one-panel brief flashback, were all male — and apparently were said to be identical, although Zii cast a doubt on that on the basis of their sexual performances.
• Robin and Leslie have these near the end of Shortpacked!, named Abigail, Tabitha and Gabriella (Abby, Tabby and Gabby respectively).
• Slice of Life has Same-Sex Heptuplets with the Bons — Bonnie, Bombe, Bonelle, Bon Suite, Bon Bond, Bonita, and Bon-Bon.
• The titular characters from Twice The Triplets are two sets of girl triplets, named Summer, Hannah, Dani (the older ones), Kiley, Skye and Sunshine (the younger). Averted with Dacey's babies, who are two boys and one girl.

Web Original

• From Killerbunnies, we have Fern, Tommie, and Flori Evans, who all have blue eyes, blond hair, color scheme and makeup.

Western Animation

• In 101 Dalmatian Street, the Triple D, consisting of Destiny, Dallas, and Déjà Vu, are a trio of triplet Dalmatian puppies that are all female and tend to talk at the same time.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks:
  • The titular trio of brothers. Although some sources give them different ages, they're actually triplets. In early promotional art they were identical, but were given individualized designs for their first cartoon. One episode of the cartoon cements the triplet status by having them search for their birth mother - among other things, they want to know when their birthday is.
  • Their Distaff Counterparts, the Chipettes, are a trio of sisters. There is a fourth Chipette who predates the girls; however, she is unrelated to them and hasn't appeared in canon for decades.
• From the Classic Disney Shorts, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They also have Distaff Counterparts in April, May, and June.
  • In Casey Bats Again, three of Casey's nine daughters are a set of triplets, who all look identical to each other.
• In Codename: Kids Next Door, the Annoyingly Cute Triplets Who Lived Upon the Hill (the Victorian era counterparts of the Delightful Children from Down the Lane) were all female.
• The Weird Sisters on Gargoyles, who are also identical except for their hair color (blonde, white and black) whatever the appearance they do take.
• Maggie's triplet cousins from Maggie and the Ferocious Beast.
• Popeye had 4 identical nephews—Pip-Eye, Pup-Eye, Poop-Eye, and Peep-Eye.
• The Powerpuff Girls:
  • The Powerpuff Girls were genetically engineered to be triplet girls. Unlike most examples, they are not identical.
  • Likewise, the Rowdyruff Boys or the Powerpunk Girls from the comics.
• The Simpsons:
  • The show once did a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo where Moe and Marge have a set of triplets. All looks like Moe-faced Maggies.
  • In one episode, a psychiatrist makes a brief mention to Bart about the fact that Sherri and Terri are in fact two-thirds of a set of (formerly) conjoined triplets. And the third sister is out for revenge...
• The third season of Superjail! had an episode featuring the Twins' older triplet brothers, who were also single-minded but brutal to their younger siblings.
• Sisters Anna, Teresa and Helena from The Triplets. Their outfits are color-coded to allow the viewers to tell them apart.

Real Life

• The Dahm triplets.
• Faith, Hope and Charity Cardwell, the longest-lived set of triplets (95 when the first of the three died).
• Triplets played baby Katie on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, enabling her to be frequently seen on-screen without ever violating SAG rules or child-labor laws about the amount of hours a child can work. Most shows with babies use twins for this reason, but for Katie, triplets were needed.
• In the Law & Order episode "Phobia," the baby boy was played by real life triplets Drew, Rob, and Kyle Lichtenwalner. Rob and Kyle actually played the child in scenes where he appeared; Drew appears in photographs of the infant character.
• When armadillos have litters, it's always identical quadruplets.

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