Terrible Trio

"As I said, it was minor. There were just three assailants. Complete amateurs. It would have been comical, if they hadn't been threatening people."

—Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: The Living Force

A Power Trio made up of a domineering character and two henchmen or Co-Dragons. The two henchmen usually look physically different (one short and fat, the other tall and skinny/buff) in addition to having different skills, often Brains and Brawn or an unreasonable facsimile; the position of boss may be gained simply by assertiveness. Their boss is usually convinced they're master criminals, even though the two subordinate characters usually fit the bill for Stupid Crooks. Terrible Trios are very rarely the real Big Bads, and the whole group tends to be played for comedy in the long run. They may have no dark motivations other than fortune or fame, and it's easy to sympathize with them through their repeated defeats. They usually have a certain degree of Karmic Protection.

Sometimes, there's a higher-up that the team's boss is accountable to. That higher-up is usually closer to True Evil, and considers the team, boss and all, to be ineffective at best. In a more serious story (or if Cerebus Syndrome is about to kick in), expect the goldfish poop to get flushed on most occasions.

In many anime, the boss is usually more attractive and the opposite gender of the lackeys. The Terrible Trio are often gangsters, who are strangely less competent than the psycho villain.

See also Evil Duo, Bumbling Henchmen Duo, Quirky Miniboss Squad, Big, Thin, Short Trio, Freudian Trio, Comic Trio, Goldfish Poop Gang, Elite Four, and, when two or more Big Bads work together, Big Bad Duumvirate.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Aqua Knight, mad scientist Alcantara and his servants Zykey and Zycrow are introduced like this. However, it is later inverted when Alcantara turns to be actually a good guy, and his whole purpose all the time was to save Zykey who suffers from a disease that consumes her body gradually.
• Caerula Adamas, aka Kinshirou, Arima and Akoya, in Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!
• In Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, the title character is often facing off against a terrible trio working for the current arc's Big Bad.
• Akumanto, Dokudandy and Gestra in Bomberman B-Daman Bakugaiden V.
• Digimon:
  • Digimon Data Squad has Kouki, Nanami and Ivan.
  • Digimon Fusion in the second arc, Lilithmon, Blastmon, and the Vilemons were demoted to this by the Death Generals.
  • Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time has the three rival hunters. Ryouma is the leader, while Airu and Ren are the henchmen type. Unknown to Ryouma, Astamon/Quartzmon is the higher up.
  • In the Digimon Tamers movie, Battle of Adventurers, there is Ponchomon, Pipismon, and Sepikmon, who work for Mephistomon.
    • Also there are three Flybeemon who attack Renamon in Episode 12.
• Usarapa (Ursula), Noratty (Zander), and Edo (Ed) in Dinosaur King. It's also more pronounced in the dub of the anime adaptation, as Ursula is voiced by Rachel Lillis, the voice of Jessie of Pokémon's Team Rocket in the 4Kids dub, while Sean Schemmel voices Zander with an obvious impression of the voice Eric Stuart used for James.
• Buaku and the Puma Sisters in Dominion Tank Police.
• Doraemon films:
  • Ledina from Doraemon: Nobita's the Legend of the Sun King have three main henchmen serving her; Yahoo the Animal Master (who sics his animals on Nobita, Tio and the heroes besides ordering his giant crocodile to devour everyone), Quetzalcoatl the Master of Illusion whose illusory gas causes hallucinations on the gang, and Coatl the spear-wielding brute who serves as Ledina's Praetorian Guard.
  • Doraemon: Nobita and the Island of Miracles ~Animal Adventure~ have Sherman's three main enforcers, Sky, Lock and Snake who pilots their giant mechas to attack the titular island.
  • Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes have Hyde the Evil Genius as the main dragon to the villain, Ikaros, as well as two lesser dragons - Meba the shapeshifting Dark Action Girl and Ogon The Brute directly under Hyde.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Emperor Pilaf, Shu and Mai. Though still comedic, Emperor Pilaf was Dragon Ball's first Big Bad.
  • The Dragon Ball Z movies have plenty of these: Ginger, Nikki and Sansho from Dead Zone, Kishime, Ebifurya and Misokatsun from The World's Strongest, Salza, Neizu, and Doore from Cooler's Revenge and Androids 13, 14, and 15 from Super Android 13!.
  • In the actual Dragon Ball Z anime, there is also Androids 17, 18, and 16. Although all three do their Heel–Face Turn and separate in the end.
  • Dragon Ball Super had the relatively short-lived Trio De Dangers.
• Excel♡Saga:
  • Excel, Hyatt, and Elgala. Excel is the leader because she is the most bossy, but is the least competent of the three. Their boss, Il Palazzo, is the man higher up.
  • In the anime, It is only Excel and Hyatt, with Il Palazzo being the third person since the organization they belong to is so small, until it is revealed that Il Palazzo does have a boss: "That Man".
• Doraemon: Nobita and The Space Heroes have the Space Partners, three ruthless aliens trying to take over Planet Pockle, led by their Evil Genius boss Hyde, the Dark Action Girl henchwoman Meba, and their Dumb Muscle brute Ogon.
• Eyeshield 21:
  • Although not bad guys from the audience's perspective, most of Deimon High School see Hiruma, Musashi, and Kurita as a terrible trio (with Hiruma as the leader obviously).
  • Local thugs (later linemen) the Ha-Ha Brothers are a more typical example, with Juumonji as the central, more intimidating figure, and the other two as the comic relief.
• Petra Fina, Dino, and Mite from Flint the Time Detective.
• Though they are part of a larger group, Lust, Envy and Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) often function as a Terrible Trio group when it's just the three of them, especially in earlier episodes. The big difference is that they are actually effective in their work.
• GEAR Fighter Dendoh has three Gulfer "chips" in human disguise that are always causing minor trouble. They usually get their robots destroyed embarrassingly quickly before Dendoh moves on to a bigger threat.
• Otome's Crew from Hamtaro consist of the female leader Otome, the perky Lion, and the big, laid-back Bear. Downplayed however in that they're more of an anti-hero trio, as Lion and Bear show their appreciation for the Ham-Hams on occassion (much to Otome's dismay).
• In Hetalia: Axis Powers: The titular Axis, Germany, Italy, and Japan, play these roles much more often than they'd like, and act as a rare example of a (villain) protagonist Terrible Trio. Germany might know what he's doing, but Italy is ineffective at best and a downright liability at worst; Japan is something of a wild card. Regardless, they're nowhere near as ineffective as the Allies.
• Jewelpet:
  • Jewelpet (2009): The Phantom Herb Thieves consist of Mint (the leader, utterly convinced that they are great thiefs), Sage (a tall, thin, cowardly guy), and Aojisho (fat and perky).
  • The French sisters in Jewelpet Twinkle☆, Marianne being the assertive leader, Catherine the tall and graceful one and Angelina the short and perky one.
  • Jewelpet Sunshine has Shouko, Waniyama, and Charotte, who are the delinquents of their class. Shouko is the human leader, Waniyama is a short crocodile who's the muscle in the group and Charotte is a bee who doesn't do anything special but is Shouko's best friend. These three are different from the norm in that they're actually good guys and can be useful in a fight.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Battle Tendency: The Pillar Men, consisting of Kars, Esidisi, and Wamuu.
  • Stone Ocean: The Sons of DIO are the final opponents Jolyne and her allies fight before confronting Pucci.
• Zorori, Noishi, and Ishishi from Kaiketsu Zorori. In this case, they're the Villain Protagonists.
• K.O. Beast: V-darn, V-sion and Akumako.
• The Westside Gang from the anime version of Little Lulu.
• Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! and his sidekicks are stuck in this role for the first eight episodes of the Makai Senki Disgaea anime (because they appear much earlier than in the game).
• Tubee, Usop, and Yumyum from Midnight Horror School. Each is individually The Bully of his own classroom, but Yumyum acts as the leader when they're together.
• Miki Saotome, Ukon Tanaka and Sakon Suzuki from Moeyo Ken.
• The Collector Count (a.k.a. Prince Eccentro) and his two female minions (Batch and Gluko) in Mon Colle Knights.
• The Grandis Gang in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water; subverted in that they undergo a Heel–Face Turn relatively early in the series, and continue acting as a collective Sixth Ranger until the end. They also subvert the mold set by Doronjo and her cronies just a little — the tall, lanky guy is strong and the short, squat guy is smart.
• Naruto:
  • Only Tobi, Kisame, and Zetsu are left after Pain is defeated and Konan defects from Akatsuki. Kisame and Zetsu, having known Tobi longer and better than any other Akatsuki member ever did, begin to work as henchmen directly under his command. After Kisame's death, Kabuto takes his place. He's not as obedient as Kisame was though and in all likelihood is more of a Dragon with an Agenda.
  • A better example of this trope in Naruto would be Jugo, Karin, and Suigetsu, with Sasuke Uchiha as their boss.
• The slime sisters from Negima! Magister Negi Magi, with Ameko as the polite one, Pudding as The Quiet One and Suramui as the rude and bossy one.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey brings back Lock, Shock, and Barrel as the deuteragonists in the B-plot.
• In Ojarumaru, the main antagonists are a trio of oni children consisting of the leader Aobee and his siblings Kisuke and Akane. These three characters are always on the lookout for Ojarumaru, who had stolen the scepter that is used by their father, Great King Enma, to judge the dead; Ojarumaru is completely uninterested in returning it to them - not that it stops them from trying (and inevitably failing) to make him give it back.
• One Piece:
  • Moriah's underlings Dr. Hogback, Absalom, and Perona.
  • The Kuja pirates Boa Hancock and her sisters Sandersonia and Marigold.
  • Subsequently, Captain Foxy The Silver Fox and his two main sidekicks Hamburg and Porche in the anime keep reappearing from time to time to stir up trouble and get rather easily beaten. And for Porche to chase after her "Choppy". To better drive the point home, Foxy, Hamburg and Porche are somewhat similar to the Doronojo Gang, with Foxy actually using a mecha and Porche's looks being the same as Doronojo with blue hair and different clothes.
• The most common villain in Overman King Gainer are the idiot trio of Kajenin, Enge, and Japoli. They are far more obsessed with promotions and salaries than actually stopping the Yapan Exodus, and are generally always yelling at each other.
• The Pokémon Adventures manga gives us the Three Beasts of Team Rocket: Their leader Sird, the hulking brute Orm, and the diminutive genius Carr. Despite physically fitting into the mold of your classic Terrible Trio, the three of them are shockingly competent at their jobs. Especially Sird, who temporarily succeeded in turning several main characters into stone.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • The Team Rocket trio. Jessie often takes the Leadership role, while James and Meowth are the henchmen (though, unlike most of these groups, they introduce themselves as equals). Their boss is Giovanni, who started out giving them orders, then as they kept messing up he essentially gave up on them. He lets them follow Ash around to get them away from him. By now he doesn't even recognize them. In the first few episodes, Meowth was the leader type while Jessie and James were the henchmen. As of Best Wishes, the trio has gone into serious mode for an undercover mission and they mostly stayed away from this trope. After the Meloetta arc, however, the status quo is reestablished. An episode of Pokémon Chronicles (spinoff of the main Pokémon anime) showing one of the trio's early missions shows them to be quite competent as well.
  • The end of season 5 gives us the poacher trio.
  • In the Sun/Moon anime, we have the Team Skull Trio: Tupp, Rapp, and Zipp. Although Guzma is the overall leader of the organization, Tupp acts as the leader of the trio.
• Pretty Cure has a villain trio for almost every continuity (the first and third continuity has even two). Those said trios are seen more often then other villains at that time. It's either that a member of the trio is the leader or they're led by a superior fourth person who is more working in the background.
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure, the Seeds of Darkness, with Belzei as the leader, replacing the Dark Five and its the closest trio in the entire franchise. Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart has the Four Guardians, with Circulas, Uraganos and Viblis as the core members of the Terrible Trio since Baldez, the leader and fourth member, doesn't appear as often as the other three.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 has Bunbee's three employees Girinma, Gamao and Arachnea. Even though, Gamao quits early in the series, he appears as often as the other three members. The second division has Bloody, Hadenya and Bunbee, who, however, is the inferior to the two former ones, but he appears as often as the other two. The second division is led by Kawarino.
  • In Fresh Pretty Cure!, Eas, Westar and Soular are Labyrinth's agent trio. After Eas' Heel–Face Turn, Westar and Soular spend a long time as a duo until Northa replaces Eas and becomes their leader.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has the three Desert Apostle Generals, with Professor Sabaaku as their direct superior.
  • In Suite Pretty Cure ♪, Trio the Minor is led by Seiren until her Heel–Face Turn, since then, every member of the trio becomes the leader: first Bassdrum, then Baritone, Bassdrum again, and finally Falsetto.
  • Smile PreCure! has the three Bad End Generals, with Joker as their superior.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure has the Jikochuu Trio. Even when the two Jikochuu Deputies are later introduced, the Jikochuu Trio remains the same.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! has the Phantom Generals, Namakelder, Hosshiiwa, and Oreski, who serve Queen Mirage.
• Ranma ½:
  • The three warriors of the Musk Dynasty, Herb, Lime and Mint. Herb is the leader and initially of the opposite sex of her cronies, though through no choice of his. Lime and Mint are the dim-witted minions, one big and strong, the other short and fast. For all their comedic moments, they are still extremely dangerous in a fight.
  • In the last story arc of the manga you also have Kiima, Koruma and Masara of the Phoenix People (with Prince Saffron as their higher-up). Kiima is the leader of the opposite sex, and a running gag is for her two minions to call her an "old" or "mature" woman, to which Kiima responds by bopping them. They are more competent than your average Terrible Trio though, and, like the Musk Warriors, very dangerous.
• Ragnarok the Animation had Rogue and her two minions Blacksmith and the Thief.
• The Jiggle Butt Gang (Exactly What It Says on the Tin, unfortunately) in Rave Master are just such a group of bumbling thieves. In the American dub, they're given the even funnier name the Big Butt Bandits.
• Although they aren't total losers (as their arrival signaled the Genre Shift of the series) and are the main villains of the Kokoyochu story arc, Mukuro, Chikusa and Ken from Reborn! (2004) definitely count.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena has got Nanami Kiryuu's Girl Posse, Keiko, Aiko, and Yuuko. While not really a serious threat, the three are Nanami's devoted lackeys and often do her dirty work, which mostly consists of slapping Anthy and calling her a whore. However, Keiko became somewhat dangerous when she was brainwashed and turned into a Black Rose duelist in her spotlight episode. The three are actually better examples of The Nondescript, as Utena wasn't even aware of their names until Keiko's episode, which was well near the end of the second season.
• Sailor Moon:
  • There are the three monsters of the week sent by Zoycite (Zoisite) to kill Neflite (Nephrite). They succeed before they are killed by Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars.
  • And there's a more prominent trio in Super S, the Amazon Trio, Tiger's Eye, Hawk's Eye, and Fish Eye, of the Dark Moon Circus. They do a Heel–Face Turn.
• Sherlock Hound has Professor Moriarty, Todd and Smiley.
• Shugo Chara! has the Easter scientist trio.
• Dr Eggman and his two meek droids, Decoe and Bocoe from Sonic X, with "Messenger Robo" Bokkun occasionally getting in on the action.
• Tsujido, Makabe and Niihari from Speed Grapher fit the personality and physical requirements for a Terrible Trio. However, they're competent, and a genuine threat to Saiga and Kagura for most of the series.
• Sukeban Deka has the Mizuchi Sisters, Remi, Ayumi, and Emi, daughters of a corrupt politician but devious in their own respective rights. On the surface they appear to be a group of glamorous and popular high school students who attend Takanoha High and run their respective cliques, but in reality they are as follows:
  • Emi, the youngest, is a megalomaniac artist with subpar talent who often has her father bribe judges or steals paintings from other artists to pass off as her own. When she discovers a poor student named Junko is planning on submitting a stunning painting to a art exhibition, Emi steals the painting then has her dad's henchmen kidnap, drug, torture, rape, and then kill Junko over the course of a week. Although it's implied her sister Remi was responsible for that.
  • Ayumi, the middle daughter, runs a drug and racketeering scheme through the school with the help of her personal bodyguards, the Four Kings.
  • Remi, the oldest, holds the shimmering veneer of being the White Sheep and the Madonna of Takanoha High, when she is by far the worst of her entire family. She masterminds a scheme that kills 74 of her classmates in a bus crash so they can fill Takanoha with the children of rich parents who might endorse her father's political career, brainwashes her followers into a private army, and has her sisters and father killed off when she deems they've outlived their usefulness in the grander scheme of things.
• Tamagotchi has the Spacey Brothers, a trio of villainous aliens consisting of Spaceytchi and his brothers Pipospetchi and Akaspetchi.
• The Skull Trio from Time Bokan, along with their Expies in the other Time Bokan series, most notably Yatterman. Each Time Bokan show centered around mostly unrelated heroes who travel the world, and occasionally time and space. They are always antagonized by a trio of incompetent villains, who are technically different characters in each series, but look and act so similar that sometimes it's hard to tell the gangs from different series apart. Every anime example on this list, from the Team Rocket trio to the Grandis Gang, was inspired by them. Sometimes they're also implied to be Animated Actors, that is, the same characters playing different parts. It helps that they were voiced by the same seiyuu for more than 20 years.
  • By far the most popular of these groups was the Doronbo Gang from Yatterman, who grace the page image. They're so well-loved in Japan that when the series was remade in 2008, advertising for the remake focused primarily on them, ignoring the show's actual protagonists. In fact, the sequel series is about their descendants, with the original heroes leaving a legacy that turned evil that the descendants of the Doronbo must fight against.
  • Kiramekiman inverts this — while the trio is still comedic, as detectives they technically qualify as the good guys, while the heroes of the show are thieves (they have a good reason for their thefts, but they're still breaking the law).
• Pie, Quiche and Tart from Tokyo Mew Mew, in that order of position and with Deep Blue as higher-up. They are presented as a real threat, though, although Taruto loses this when he reluctantly falls for Bu-ling.
• Transformers: Armada starts Megatron off with three henchmen: Loyal but dense Demolishor, the Ax-Crazy Cyclonus, and angsty Starscream.
• From Urusei Yatsura, the "Spice Girls" — three alien girls, Sugar, Ginger and Pepper — are an especially inept example. Sugar tends to be the leader, but they're all equally dumb. They consider Lum, Benten and Oyuki their rivals, but are ignored by them.
• Zoids: Chaotic Century has Stinger and his two henchmen, recurring minor antagonists who try to make up for underwhelming Mecha skills with cunning and trickery. Their plans tend to fall through because the heroes are better at Xanatos Speed Chess.

Animation

• In Guardian Fairy Michel, Boogy, Woogy, and Meggi are this, with Lady Salome as their boss.
• The primary antagonists of Motu Patlu are John the Don, who loves to steal money, jewelry, and similar items, and his dim-witted henchmen, Number 1 and Number 2.
• One chunk of the Rogues Gallery in Noonbory and the Super 7 is the evil pirate Wangury and his goofy henchmen, Mungury and Taegury.
• The Akdongcars in Tomoncar ("Akdong" being the Korean word for Enfante Terrible). Their Establishing Character Moment has Minimon try to befriend the trio only for them to make an insulting satire of him when they notice how large his wheels are. Though they are just as likely to join the cast in festivities and games as they are to antagonize them, with Spring (the smallest) usually being the least dickish of the three.

Comic Books

• A Silver Age Aquaman (1962) story has a villain trio literally called the Terrible Trio, consisting of the bossy, fire-haired Karla, who ordered her teammates around, the Fisherman, a returning rogue, and the Un-Thing, who was invisible while in water. While effective as a group when working together, they argued a lot and were eventually defeated.
• Asterix: The three main pirates are comprised of the red bearded captain, the black mate in the crows' nest and an older crippled pirate who speaks Gratuitous Latin.
• There's a group of fairly obscure Batman villains called the Terrible Trio (who, as far as can be told, weren't in mind when naming this trope). Made up of the Shark, the Fox, and the Vulture, the Terrible Trio is of extremely variable threat, and they don't show up very often because they're pretty mundane as Batman rogues go. What exactly they are can vary greatly especially in their animated appearances. Sometimes they’re just a group of spoiled rich kids looking for kicks, another time they’re mutated college students, and yet another time they’re disgraced former students of Batman’s martial arts teacher who joined up with a clan of ghost ninjas. Yes, really.
• The DCAU-tie in comic The Batman Adventures and its successor series had another group, the Threatening Trio; Mastermind (the groups egotistical leader), Mr. Nice (a One-Man Army whose weakness is he can't help but be nice and helpful to people he's stealing from), and the Perfessor (who has an encyclopedic knowledge of most things).
• The Beezer used to have a set of crooks called The Bad Lads, Boss (short, bossy), Knuck (big, dozy) and Fingers (tall, gangly).
• The Incredible Hulk: Gamma Corps: Black, a team made of three Distaff Counterparts of Hulk villains Abomination, Zzazz and Glob; Aberration, Axon and Morras respectively.
• The Madballs comic book published by Star Comics (a defunct subsidiary of Marvel Comics) had two examples of a villainous trio.
  • The third issue introduced the Badballs (Smasher, Crasher, and Trasher), who were three bowling balls the comic's main villain Dr. Frankenbeans accidentally brought to life while trying to deliberately create his own Madballs to defeat the originals.
  • The fifth issue introduced the Super Madballs (Touchdown Terror, Goal Eater, and Foul Shot), who were also created by Frankenbeans to battle the original Madballs, but ended up siding with the original Madballs instead.
• In the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe, Mickey Mouse sometimes faces Professors Ecks, Doublex, and Triplex, three simian mad scientists who tried to use a Hypno Ray on Mickey and his friend Horace Horsecollar in their first appearance. All three of them are rather sadistic, though Triplex tends to be the one who's in charge.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) has Team Hooligan, a mercenary/thief group consisting of Nack the Weasel as the boss, Bean the Duck and Bark the Polar Bear as contrasting big guy and little guy (amongst other things) respectively.
• Marvel has the Spider-Man/Daredevil villains The Enforcers — Montana, Ox and Fancy Dan. Later joined by Hammer Harrison and Snake Marston.
  • Marvel also gave us the merc group B.A.D. Girls Inc. Three female villains that used to be part of the Serpent Society.
• Wonder Woman (1942): Wonder Woman dealt with a terrible trio during her days as a non-powered boutique owner in the 1960s, the Creepy Crossdresser (or maybe, by implication, Psycho Lesbian) group known as THEM! Led by Top Hat along with Pinto and Moose Mama, they started harassing Diana when she began sheltering a young woman they had been keeping as a slave. THEM were stopped by the combining efforts of Tony Petrucci, a young man living in the same neighborhood, and Diana who had taken on Top Hat by herself after the other two and their brutish henchmen were taken care of. They were about as bizarre as Wonder Woman's villains could get, but only made one appearance.
• Urbanus: Stef, Staf and Stylo, three criminals who differ in height.

Fan Works

• In Aquaman: Monster, the Terrible Trio from the comics, Fisherman, Karla, and Un-Thing, appear under Black Manta's employ and spend as much time bickering as they do attacking the heroes.
• Dungeon Keeper Ami sports Mercury and her "henchmen" youma, Tiger and Jadeite as the three most powerful players in Mercury's empire. Jadeite himself is the boss of a subset, With Umbra and Mareki often filling a role similar to henchmen. These groups, however, are not only quite successful in battle, but heroic in nature — making this an inversion.
• Titan's three henchponies Mysterious, Dementia, and Rep-Stallion from My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers's fanbase has a bit of a meme of calling France, Prussia and Spain the "Bad Touch Trio". Though it's subverted as despite the name, they're not depicted as that terrible, more like a trio of comical Harmless Villains at worst and a standard Comic Trio at best.
• In The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World; the three throwaway baddies outside the White Tower are nicknamed the Terrible Trio by the four, but they don't otherwise resemble the trope.
• In Hexane, the Drow Pimp, Asterion and Laravieve from three, although they're far more competent.
• The last quarter of Old West has Irvin Worst and his allies Johan Quall and Kepper. Rather prestigious members of the Gunslinger Court, they're enlisted by Dufayel to get rid of the Court's leader, Rattlesnake Jake, once and for all.

Films — Animated

• Cruella De Vil and her henchman Jasper and Horace in the movie 101 Dalmatians are textbook cases.
• Nikki, Kaltag and Star in the first Balto film, who are part of Steele's sled team. The sequel has Nuk, Yak and Sumac, three wolves who are minions to Niju. Both trios reform later.
• Boggis, Bunce and Bean (the ultimate Big, Thin, Short Trio) are played like this in the film Fantastic Mr. Fox, with Bean being the Big Bad, and Boggis and Bunce his sidekicks.
• The Toad and his henchrats Spike and Whitey from Flushed Away.
• Hades and his minions Pain and Panic from Disney's Hercules.
• King Malbert and his royal guards from Igor.
• Hyp, Nod, and Mutt, the three bullies in The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving.
  • And then a more sinister trio in the form of Pterano, Rinkus, and Sierra in The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire. Subverted when Pterano turns out to be less of a villain, and Rinkus and Sierra take a more direct position of antagonist later on.
• In The Lion King, we have Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, a trio of spotted hyenas who are minions to Scar. Shenzi, the female, is the leader and the smart one (although that's not saying much), Banzai is the most aggressive member of the trio and appears to think entirely with his muscles, and Ed is stupid, insane, mentally challenged or faking it.
• In The Nightmare Before Christmas, we have Lock, Shock and Barrel, the three Enfante Terrible Evil Minions to the Big Bad, Oogie Boogie. Shock is the female one who bullies her two cohorts and call them stupid (although Lock is supposedly the leader).
• Ripslinger, Ned, and Zed in Planes.
• The antagonists of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Tiger Prowess are a trio consisting of the leader, Lord Japper the tiger, and his assistants Leopold and Counsoler, a leopard and a gecko respectively. The two assistants avert the usual "leader's henchman are much ditzier" characterization.
• Sykes, Ernie and Bernie from Shark Tale. Sykes is Gonkish-looking, fat pufferfish who does some shady dealings with the shark mafia, Ernie and Bernie are his two skinny but brutish jellyfish henchmen.
• The main henchman (or hench-dog) group in Up, comprised of Alpha the Doberman, Beta the Rottweiler, and Gamma the bulldog.

Films — Live-Action

• 101 Dalmatians has Cruella, followed around by Horace and Jasper.
• In Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, there's Dale, Mark, and Nick, the three bullies who pick on Ricky. Although Mark and Nick are killed much sooner than Dale.
• Peter, Crusty, and Maggot in August Undergrounds Mordum.
• In The Avengers, there's Loki, The Other, and Thanos. With Thanos as the leader, The Other as his servant, and Loki as a reluctant ally. The Other serves as communication between the other two, who are each considered antagonists of the film in their own way.
• In Babes in Toyland, there's Barnaby, Gonzorgo, and Rodrigo. Barnaby hired Gonzorgo and Rodrigo to help him kill Tom, but the two mercenaries do a Heel–Face Turn, before Barnaby is presumably killed in a swordfight with Tom.
• Batman & Robin has Mr. Freeze (brains), Poison Ivy (beauty), and Bane (muscle).
• The Three Storms from Big Trouble in Little China, Rain, Thunder, and Lightning. If anything, Thunder's definitely the leader.
• Rich, Gene, and Joe from Cannibal Campout. They come off as an evil version of The Three Stooges.
• Death Wish V: The Face of Death has Big Bad Tommy O'Shea and his top henchmen, brothers Sal and Chicki Paconi, and they are often seen together, though Chicki is killed midway through the film while Tommy and Sal are killed at the end. Likewise, Tommy sends three of his thugs, Frankie, Mickey, and Angel, after Paul during the final confrontation.
• Deep Blue Sea: The genetically enhanced sharks are three in total and are angry, brutal and murderous.
• Dogma's Stygian Triplets; three damned souls who work for Azrael, killing people by beating them to death with hockey sticks.
• Don't Lose Your Head: Chief Of Secret Police Citizen Camembert (Kenneth Williams), Citizen Bidet (Peter Butterworth) and Desiree (Joan Sims) in this Carry On film, at least until Desiree's High-Heel–Face Turn at the end.
• In Ghost Rider, there's the demon trio who serve Blackheart: Gressil, Abigor, and Wallow.
• Ghidorah in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) is a rare case of a single character who can form this trope due to having three heads, each with its own personality.
  • The middle head (Ichi) is clearly the leader, as it is the one calling the shots when it comes to coordinating attacks between the heads during battle, and it disciplines the left head more than once to stay on target. It also appears to be the brains, being the first to notice Godzilla's appearance in Antarctica, the one to find and utilize a nearby power station to give itself a power boost that allowed Ghidorah to gain the upper head over Godzilla, and generally the quickest-reacting head when circumstances change such as the ORCA changing direction or Burning Godzilla arriving.
  • The left head (San, a.k.a. Kevin) is the Butt-Monkey, suffering the most abuse, whether from Godzilla, human forces or from the other heads. It acts as a Psychopathic Manchild, being dimwitted, curious and submissive, and often does things out of focus.
  • The right head (Ni) appears to be the most combat-oriented and Hot-Blooded head. It can be distinguished from the other two heads by its perpetual frown and the broken tip on one of its horns. During the Antarctica scene, this head responds to Godzilla's arrival by tilting its head as if it's keenly examining Godzilla before they battle. During the final battle in Boston, this head responds to the realization that the rest of Ghidorah is immobilized and Godzilla is advancing behind it by screaming at Godzilla and feebly trying to bite him as he charges into Ghidorah. The director has described this head as a Blood Knight and he considers it the most unstable of the trio.
• GoodFellas has Henry Hill, Tommy DeVito and Jimmy "the Gent" Conway who are unrepentant mobsters for the Lucchese crime family in 1950-1970s New York with the former being only slightly less terrible than the latter two.
• Hannie Caulder has the trio of the Clemens brothers; Frank, Rufus and Emmett. They are very ineffective as bandits and most of their scenes derive humor from that fact.
• Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle in Harry Potter (based off the books). Although in the final film, Crabbe is replaced by Zabini.
• Heathers: Heather Chandler is the Alpha Bitch with Token Good Teammate Heather McNamara and Rich Bitch Heather Duke as her sidekicks.
• Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson sisters, a trio of witches.
• In It (1990), there's Henry Bowers, Patrick Hocksetter, and Belch, the secondary antagonists of the film, although by the present day, only the leader, Henry, remains to cause trouble for the Losers.
• The villains of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, with the skeleton as the boss and Dr Fleming and Animala as the mismatched henchpeople.
• The Matrix: The Agents typically operate in teams of three, with one occupying a command position.
  • In the first film, we have Agent Smith (obviously), Agent Brown and Agent Jones.
  • The Matrix Reloaded has Agents Johnson, Thompson, and Jackson.
• Regina George is the Alpha Bitch of the Plastics, followed by Rich Bitch Gretchen Weiners and Dumb Blonde Karen Smith in Mean Girls.
• Red, Jacques, and Spivey in The Mummy Returns.
• In Napoléon (1927), the leaders of The French Revolution are introduced as "the three gods" (Danton, Marat, and Robespierre), and they are all portrayed as bad guys.
• In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the main antagonists are Rene Belloq, Major Toht, and Colonel Dietrich. They get a pretty elaborate and iconic death scene when the open the Ark, each having a Cruel and Unusual Death in a different way.
• In Spaceballs, you've got President Skroob, Dark Helmet, and Colonel Sandurz, who are similar to the above mentioned Terrible Trio in the Empire.
• The three witches from Stardust: Lamia, Mormo, and Empusa.
• Star Wars:
  • In the Prequel Trilogy, there's the three most prominent figures in the Trade Federation, Nute Gunray (leader), Rune Haako, and Daultay Dofine. Subverted in that Nute and Rune go to Naboo while Dofine stays aboard the Control Ship and is killed two movies before Nute and Rune).
  • In the Original Trilogy, you've got the three most prominent figures in the Empire itself, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader, and Governor Tarkin. Again, Tarkin is killed two movies before Palpatine and Darth Vader (and the latter's Heel–Face Turn), except it's Palpatine who is separated from the others in A New Hope and doesn't appear at all). They do appear together at the end of Revenge of the Sith, however.
  • In the Sequel Trilogy, there's General Hux (strategist), Kylo Ren (enforcer), and Captain Phasma (soldier).
• Superman: The Movie has Lex (brains), Eve (beauty) and Otis (ummm...)
  • Superman II has General Zod (brains), Ursa (beauty), and Non (muscle).
• In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, there's Leatherface, Chop Top, and Drayton (and Grandpa, but he doesn't do much). Like the boys from Cannibal Campout, they give off a definite Three Stooges vibe.
• The Three Stooges, in all their incarnations. Though most notably in "You Natzy spy" in which they played antagonists.
• Tremors 3: Back to Perfection has three Obstructive Bureaucrats: Agent Frank Statler, Agent Charlie Rusk, and Dr. Andrew Merliss, who forbid the inhabitants of Perfection from hunting graboids by claiming they are an endangered species and threatening to seize their properties to set up a reserve, completely disregarding how dangerous graboids are to human life.
• Universal Horror: Universal made a Terrible Trio of Monsters, considered by some the first crossovers in cinematic history, in their movies House of Dracula, House of Frankenstein and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein with Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man. The monsters mostly act independently though and even in some movies they are enemies. Nevertheless the basic trio for the Monster Mash become this; a Vampire, a Werewolf and a Frankenstein's Monster-like creature in homage media after that. Whether as villains or as heroes, depends on the writer.
• In Up the Front, Colonel von Gutz and his henchmen, Donner and Blitzen, form one to try and retrieve the German master plan.
• The inbred cannibal brothers One Eye, Saw Tooth, and Three Finger in Wrong Turn, Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings and Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines.
• Magneto's minions in X-Men: Mystique, Toad, and Sabretooth.
  • The same could be said in X-Men: First Class for Sebastian Shaw's minions: Emma Frost, Riptide, and Azazel. Midway through the film Emma is captured and Angel takes her place for the final battle. Between these events, Shaw himself is part of this with Riptide and Azazel during the attack in which Angel joins forces with Shaw.
• Likewise, their counterparts from the other side of the Iron Curtain. The Soviet comedic trio Nikulin, Vitsin & Morgunov play the Terrible Trio everywhere they appear. Notable in that the leader, Morgunov, has brains, brawn and assertiveness; one other guy is a brash hot-headed idiot and the other is smart but cowardly.

Literature

• Patrick, Eddie, and Brent from A Nightmare on Elm Street: Protege.
• Virtually lampshaded by Terry Pratchett in 'The Art of Discworld':
  "It's a Law of Narrative that if your gang consists of two people (a gangette) one will be the brains of the outfit and one will provide the muscle and speak like dat. They must both, of course, wear black suits. If there are three of them, that still applies but the new guy will be called Fingers."
• Street Magic, the second in the Circle Opens quartet by Tamora Pierce:Lady Zenadia the sponsor of the gang, is always accompanied by an obese eunuch and whip-thin swordsman.
• The Big Coffin Hunters, (Eldred Jonas, Roy Depape, and Clay Reynolds), from The Dark Tower series.
• The "devils trinity" of Caine Soren, Drake Merwin and Diana Ladris in the GONE series, although it isn't played for laughs seeing as they are collectively responsible for the deaths of dozens of children. Drake is later replaced by Penny in LIES, and Turk replaces Diana in FEAR. Ultimately, by the end of FEAR, the devils trinity is officially disbanded.
• Go to Sleep (A Jeff the Killer Rewrite): Randy is the domineering bully with two sidekicks, the overweight Troy and the slim Keith. The two hold Liu back when Jeff fights Randy, then they hold Jeff down for Randy to pour harmful chemicals on him in their next encounter.
• Draco Malfoy and his henchthugs Crabbe and Goyle in the Harry Potter series. Their higher-up is Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy, and later, Voldemort himself, although he gives Draco an important mission to make his parents squirm as much as anything else. Lucius is a legitimately nasty piece of work, giving Ginny the diary that caused the events of the second book, but prefers a life of luxury with the occasional Muggle-hunting-party to being a full-time villain.
• The Vendilion Clique faeries in the Magic: The Gathering novels for the Lorwyn/Morningtide megablock. Iliona is the leader, while Veesa and Endry are the henchmen, though Endry becomes more and more independent beginning in Morningtide. The faerie queen Oona is their boss.
• Casper Gutman, Joel Cairo, and Wilmer Cook from The Maltese Falcon seem to be a more-competent-than-usual version of this team.
• Måns, Bill and Bull from the Swedish Pelle Svanslös children's/satirical novels by Gösta Knutsson. They're cats, as are most of the characters. Måns is the leader, who dedicates his energy to trying to bully and humiliate his one-sided arch-rival Pelle (the protagonist), whom he hates for being different from other cats — "svanslös" means "tailless". Bill and Bull are his humorously dim-witted, identical henchmen. They don't have a higher-up, as Måns is sometimes the Big Bad himself.
• Film/literary example: Vizzini, Fezzik, and Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride (with Prince Humperdinck as higher-up). Inigo and Fezzik both join the Man in Black soon after fighting him, but Vizzini stays a bad guy to the end. Vizzini doesn't exactly have the opportunity to do a Heel–Face Turn, since he's dead after the Man in Black "fights" him.
• The Saga of the Faroe Islanders: In the latter half of the saga, Thrand's nephews and foster-sons Sigurd Thorlaksson, his younger brother Thord, and their cousin Gaut the Red act as Thrand's top enforcers and are implied to frequently execute his devious schemes, even when they (as they often do) pretend to act independently from Thrand. Sigurd is the leader, on account of being the smartest, the oldest of the three, and generally the most accomplished and handsome, and Thord and Gaut mostly follow his leadership. All three are "big men and strong", but Thord is the biggest and strongest; Gaut does not display any unique traits.
• Tigerclaw, Darkstripe, and Longtail in Warrior Cats. Tigerclaw is rarely seen without his loyal followers. They remain loyal until the end, at least until Tigerclaw is exposed as a traitor. Longtail chooses his Clan over his friend, but Darkstripe later joins Tigerclaw in exile.
• Worm:
  • The trio of bullies that harass Taylor at school, Emma, Sophia, and the more childish Madison.
  • Later chapters have Bambina's crew of child supervillains, including August Prince and Starlet, all of whom are astonishingly sociopathic.

Live-Action TV

• The three Trolls Burly, Blabberwort, and Bluebell from The 10th Kingdom.
• The Drazens in 24: Victor, Andre, and Alexis. Although Alexis is killed much sooner than his brother and father.
  • And also three of the evil minions in a later season, Forbes, Adam, and Jason, with Forbes as leader of the three.
• The Enemy B-Robots in B-Robo Kabutack. Ganirun and Spydon are a Bumbling Henchmen Duo, while their leader Cobrander is considerably more competent, but has about the same success rate as his two minions.
• Most of the Bassie & Adriaan series feature three crooks as the villains.
• The Magnavore trio from Beetleborgs, consisting of Noxic, Jara and Typhus, are this in the first season of the show. Jara usually acts as the leader, Noxic, despite not being very smart, has shades of being an Evil Genius, while Typhus is pretty much The Brute. They serve Vexor as their higher up. Their successors of the second season, the Crustaceans, subvert this trope. While there are three of them, they don't necessarily operate as a trio.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Warren, Andrew, and Jonathan were amusing, ineffectual, wannabe-bad-guys... for a time. Andrew and Jonathan were in it more out of a craving for acceptance and the desire to fulfill their comic-book fantasies, and each of them eventually did a Heel–Face Turn (Andrew under duress, Jonathan of his own accord). Warren, however, was genuinely evil and had the makings of a real supervillain... but his budding career was cut short when Willow flayed him alive for killing Tara.
  • "Lessons", the premier of Season Seven, had a trio of malevolent ghosts (simply credited as Dead Girl, Dead Nerd, and Dead Janitor) haunting the rebuilt Sunnydale High.
  • And in Angel, there's Lindsey McDonald, Lee Mercer, and Lilah Morgan, the most prominent members of Wolfram & Hart to be seen in Season 1 (aside from their supervisor Holland).
    • Speaking of Wolfram & Hart, there are three demonic Senior Partners (Old Ones known as the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart) leading the law firm, although they never appear onscreen in the series. One does however appear manifested in the form of a Kleynach demon in Reprise, and in its true form in one issue of the Spike comics.
• The Stillman Sisters from the Charmed episode "The Power of Three Blondes"; they also qualify as a collective Evil Counterpart to the Power Trio of protagonists. All three of them are trying to steal the Halliwell sisters' powers and prove that they're more than just a trio of blonde bimbos, and they come oh-so-close to succeeding at both. Mabel, the oldest sister, is clearly the leader and the most serious about the whole thing.
• The Three Shogun from Chousei Kantai Sazer-X are this during the first arc of the show. Fire Shogun Blaird is the brawny one, Wind Shogun Cyclead the brainy one and the bossy one is Water Shogun Aqual. These three villains spend almost as much time bickering with each other as they are fighting the heroes. After their boss, Captain Barder, is revealed to be a robot, the trio falls apart, as Blaird leaves to contemplate the purpose of their mission, starting his Heel–Face Turn. When the trio does reunite, all of them performed a Heel–Face Turn, forming another Power Trio to fight alongside the heroes.
• On Glee, the "Unholy Trinity" of Quinn, Santana, and Brittany, with Quinn as the Alpha Bitch, Santana the Spicy Latina, and Brittany the Brainless Beauty and Token Good Teammate. However, all three grow and develop beyond simple archetypes over the course of the series.
• iCarly: In some of their more Jerkass moments Carly, Freddie and Sam apply to this.
• Morgana, Helios and Agravaine from Merlin.
• Kamen Rider:
  • This trope is played for laughs in one of the Kamen Rider Den-O movies. The villain of this movie is three headed monster based on the tale of the The Three Little Pigs. The heads pretty much act as this trope.
  • Kamen Rider Drive: The initial lineup for the antagonists was Heart, Brain and Masshin Chaser. Heart was the leader, Brain the...well, brainy one and Masshin Chaser was the enforcer. This dynamic ceases when Medic joins during the tenth episode.
  • Kamen Rider Revice has the Deadmans executives, comprised of Aguilera (the leader), Orteca (the brains) and Julio (the muscle). This lineup becomes subverted after the true roles of both Aguilera and Orteca come to light, at which point it becomes Orteca (the leader), Aguilera (the cute figurehead) and Julio (still the muscle, though more half-hearted than before).
  • Kamen Rider Gotchard has the Three Dark Sisters, consisting of Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Clotho is the brawn, Lachesis seems to prefer her wits and Atropos is the leader of the trio.
• Midsomer Murders: Samual Quested and his henchmen, Smudgepot and Wilberforce in "[Midsomer Murders S 14 E 6[ The Night of the Stag]]".
• Monty Python's Flying Circus: While you should not have expected the Spanish Inquisition on this list, they are portrayed as a trio with one domineering member, played by Michael Palin and two minions.
• Pearl, Brain Guy, and Bobo from the later Mystery Science Theater 3000 seasons.
• Resurrection: Ertuğrul: Kurdoglu, Baybora, and Alpargu in season 1, who cooperate in order to allow the former to knock his older brother Suleyman Shah out of power and take the Kayi Tribe for himself.
  • The close of season 4 gives us Almila/Alangoya, Mergen, and Eynece, a coalition of Mongols claiming to be hide sellers.
• The Tudors. Has Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer.
• The three main Chanels in Scream Queens (2015), Chanel #1/ Chanel Oberlin, Chanel #3/Sadie Swenson, and Chanel #5/Libby Putney.
• Ultra Series:
  • Ultraman Dyna: Has the comedic Alien Mijir, who in spite of their utterly comedic behavior and antics are a threat when they really try to be as well as the rather serious Zenekindarl people who command initially 3 kaiju but eventually switch to simply controlling one Dexador.
  • Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey has one in the form of the Dark Giants, known as Camearra, Darramb and Hudra. Unlike most examples, they are a collective Knight of Cerebus.
  • Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga: Similar to Final Odyssey there is a trio of Dark Giants who are Alternate Selves to the ones of Tiga: Carmeara, Darrgon and Hudram. While not as serious threats from the start as the prior Dark Giants, they manage to alternate between dead-serious threats and comedic relief depending on the episode though usually their threat never goes away even when being comedic.

Music

• Avril Lavigne (as an Alpha Bitch) and her two-girl Posse qualify as this in the music video for "Girlfriend". Meant to a parody on the alpha bitch trope, apparently.
• Stolen City's "Faces" has a trio of bullies who beat up a transgender girl in the street after discovering her secret.

Pro Wrestling

• Somewhat disturbingly, TNA gave this treatment to Christian Cage, Tyson Tomko and AJ Styles, despite them being staples of the main event.
• 3MB: Jinder Mahal, Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre.
• For a brief period of time Dolph Ziggler, A.J. Lee, and Big E. Langston made up one of these. Ziggler, the domineering one, decided he didn't need the other two.
• "The Cutie Pie Club" of SHINE. Strangely, it's Candy Cartwright, not "Cutie Pie" Kiera Hogan, who is leader, something Aria Blake questioned under the mistaken impression Cartwright wanted her opinion.
• In ECW, all incarnations of The Triple Threat stable.
• Back when they were making their debut, The Shield qualified. They were also dangerous because they repeatly interfered in matches against wrestlers who they weren't even feuding with.
• Toxic Attraction. Consisting of leader Mandy Rose, Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne. They've taken WWE NXT by hook and crook as Mandy is the NXT women's champion and Gigi and Jacy are the NXT women's tag team champions.
• Imperium with Walter/Gunther as the leader, flanked by Marcel Barthel/Ludwig Kaiser and Fabian Aichner/Giovanni Vinci.

Theatre

• The Heathers Heather Chandler, Heather McNamara, and Heather Duke in Heathers, based off of the film of the same name.
• The Plastics Regina, Gretchen, and Karen from Mean Girls, based off of the film of the same name.
• Don John, Borachio, and Conrade in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: In the Mysterious Console DLC, the three dungeon guardians are the main impediments Noni faces off against to reach the exit.
• Brave Fencer Musashi gives us Ben, Ed, and Topo of the Leader's Force who serve Colonel Capricciola. A running gag with them is that they each believe they are the leader of the group and, at every available opportunity, remind the other two of it.
• Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse had the Terrible Trio, which were the Stage 7 bosses (the first two you may or may not have fought yet). You had to fight Twin mummies, a Cyclops and the Leviathan all in one sitting. If you died, you'd have to start over from the first of the Terrible Trio.
• Chrono Cross: Karsh, Zoah, and Marcy would be a more competent Terrible Trio, while Solt, Peppor, and Ketchop would be the bumbling trio. Granted, Ketchop is only seen if you recruit Pierre, but he's the closest thing they've got.
• Ozzie, Slash and Flea in Chrono Trigger, with Magus as the boss.
• Dr Neo Cortex is occasionally placed with henchmen N. Gin and Tiny in some Crash Bandicoot titles (particularly evident in Crash Nitro Kart's story). In some of the later titles, Nina takes Tiny's place.
  • Nitros Oxide also gets his own two henchmen in Nitro Kart in the form of Zem and Zam.
  • Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled has Nina, Komodo Moe and N. Brio coincidentally come in this format, when they were added as DLC characters.
• Cuphead has The Root Pack: Moe Tato, Weepy and Psycarrot.
• Princess Devilotte and her two servants, Dave and Xavier, from Capcom fighting game Cyberbots.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Gestahl and his two generals, Kefka and General Leo, from Final Fantasy VI. Subverted when it turns out Kefka is the Dragon-in-Chief who is much, much worse than either Gestahl or Leo, and ends up killing both of them.
  • Seifer, Raijin, and Fuujin in Final Fantasy VIII.
  • LeBlanc (the leader), Logos (the brains), and Ormi (the muscle) from Final Fantasy X-2.
  • The Striped Brigands in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Their leader, Bal Dat, is pretty cruel to his counterparts Artemecion (a moogle) and Meh Gat (an old man who eventually dies), but they're completely harmless.
  • The Terrible Trio of the Archadian Empire in Final Fantasy XII, although technically one of them isn't from the Empire.
  • The Chebukki siblings in Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia. However, the sole female, Cherukiki, is notably not the leader. Rather, the elder brother, Makki-Chebukki, acts as one.
• The BB (no, we don't know what it stands for either) Trio in Fossil Fighters. They're the Goldfish Poop Gang / a collective Dragon for the first half of the game. Then their boss betrays them, and they do a Heel–Face Turn.
• Conchita, Felix, and Bruce from God Hand. Naturally, they're Expies of the Skull Trio. Eventually, they're taken out not by Gene, but by The Rival Azel.
• The Trump from Gunbird and the Queen Pirates from Gunbird 2. The latter are Skull Trio Expies.
• Pink, Kain, and Kotaro in Gunstar Heroes and the remake/sequel Gunstar Super Heroes. Interestingly, they seem to be based on Grandis' gang from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, which in turn are a homage to the Time Bokan franchise's villainous trios.
• Kessen III has The Miyoshi Trio: The leader Nagayuki, the Yes-Man Masayasu and the Professional Butt-Kisser Tomomichi.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories: Marluxia, Larxene and Axel could count, although they are actually extremely competant and dangerous, and one of them isn't quite what he appears... They are also directly rivaled by another such trio: Zexion, Lexaeus and Vexen.
  • The Tremaine family became The Family That Slays Together in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, using the Unversed to murder people when they don't get their own way. All three of them have no light in their hearts, and are three of the four Disney Villains in the series (the other being Hans) whose criminal actions cause their deaths.
• The Heavenly Kings of Orochi in The King of Fighters consist of Chris, Yashiro, and Shermie, with their "boss" being Orochi himself (and to a lesser extent, Goenitz).
• The Legendary Starfy's group of Ronk, Papes and Snips is called "The Terrible Trio". The characters are quite visibly done by an artist other than the series's main one, given how much their character designs clash with the other characters, most obviously Snips, the leader.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has Groose, Cawlin, and Stritch antagonizing Link at the start of its boarding school setting.
  • In a more minor example, in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the miniboss of the Wind Temple is a Red Wizzrobe who at the beginning of the battle summons a Darknut and a Wizzrobe, so the miniboss battle starts off with a Terrible Trio. The two Wizzrobes will summon more enemies if given the chance, however.
  • In Hyrule Warriors, Cia forms one with Wizzro and Volga. Later, Ganondorf forms one with Zant and Ghirahim.
• Lord Palethorn, Mander and Dogman in MediEvil 2, although they are the main villains.
• The Bonne family from Mega Man Legends. They even got their own spinoff!
• Violen (short and fat), Agile (tall and skinny) and Serges (leader) from Mega Man X2.
• Mitsumete Knight has the Burston brothers. The youngest, Billy, is the domineering one of sorts due to being the most agressive of the three and the most antagonizing with the Asian (the player avatar); Sam is the brainy one and Jack the big brawly dumb one.
• Monster Maulers has the "Happy Droppers", a trio of bad guys who summon various monsters all around the world. They are obvious Captain Ersatzes of the Skull Trio from Time Bokan. Here◊ they are.◊
• Kabal, Kobra and Kira in Mortal Kombat, well Mortal Kombat Deception (onwards) anyway. Kabal the leader of the newely reformed Black Dragon clan, Kobra and Kira as the two henchmen (one male and one female, to keep up with the opposite henchmen ideal), terrible in the sense that they're Chaotic Evil. Kabal himself is nowhere 'near' being the Big Bad. In fact, the entire goal of the clan he now commands is to rebel against the ideals that the current Big Bad has.
• Mr. Driller Has the Ankoku drillers, Keel as the leader, Eguri is the Stalker with a Crush and Kowards, which is a Bad guy with an F in Evil.
• Kindle, Koal and Jugger, in Advance Wars: Dual Strike, with Von Bolt as the Big Bad.
• Nippon Safes Inc. has them as Villain Protagonist. Despite not being an actual trio at the beginning, they have the same goal, work together at times and neatly fall into the trope's description. They are the horny greedy starlet Donna Fatale, geeky computer expert Doug Nuts and moronic former boxer Dino Fagioli. Donna manipulates the others with her feminine charms. The sequel The Big Red Adventure has the three of them again meeting by chance and then Doug and Dino teaming up to rescue Donna from a Mad Scientist.
• Strega of Persona 3 are a trio of antagonistic Persona users who the team fights on occasion consisting of Takaya, Jin and Chidori. They're just an annoyance to the heroes in the grand scheme of things, (though Takaya is responsible for killing Shinjiro) nor do they usually put up a particularly impressive fight (though in your case you always outnumber them in a fight especially since they never fight you together). Later on however, Chidori performs a High-Heel–Face Turn for the sake of Junpei, though she's eventually killed by Takaya.
• Pokémon:
  • Team "Meanies" in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team, formed by Gengar, Ekans and Medicham, Team "Skull" (predating the one in the main series, which is not this trope) formed by Skuntank, Zubat and Koffing in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, and the unnamed trio consisting of Munna, Toxicroak, and Purugly in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity.
  • The Pokémon Pinchers admins (Blue Eyes, Red Eyes and Purple Eyes) too. Although, it turns out Blue Eyes and Red Eyes are not so evil. Purple Eyes, on the other hand...
  • Pokémon Legends: Arceus has the Miss Fortune Sisters, a trio of bandit siblings made up of the ancestors of Bertha, Candice, and Saturn from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Teal Mask features a trio of Legendary Pokémon: Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezendipiti that were revered in Kitakami as heroes who saved the village but in reality are a group of greedy thug Pokémon.
• Marjoly, Gao, Crowdia and Myao from Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure are a Team Rocket with four members.
• Kaiser Greedy, Uranim, and Inonis are implied to be this in the final world of Ristar.
• Rocket Knight Adventures games:
  • Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis): Emperor Devligus Devotindos, Captain Fleagle, Axel Gear
  • Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (Genesis): King Gedol, Paeli, Axel Gear
  • Sparkster (SNES): Generalissimo Lioness, Colonel Wolfheim, Axel Gear
• The Fairy Godfather, Slim Louise and Fat Rocco in RuneScape.
• The Soda Poppers from Sam & Max: Freelance Police.
• The Scorpion Army from Secret of Mana.
• From Shadow Hearts: Covenant we have Nicolas, Veronica and Lenny.
• The heroes of Sly Cooper are like this — Sly, Bentley and Murray.
• Solatorobo seems to have one as an enemy team compete with a pushy female boss. Its predecessor, Tail Concerto also featured the Black Cat Gang in a much more prominent role.
• Sonic Heroes has its entire gameplay point set in the Terrible Trio trope. But the best example is Team Chaotix, with the oversized and extremely loud leader Vector, the slim and calm Espio, and the hyperactive Charmy Bee.
  • Granted, Team Chaotix are more self-serving protagonists than villains.
  • Team Dark themselves fit this trope somewhat better, especially in Heroes where Rouge led the team.
  • Dr "Eggman" Robotnik and his two henchbots, Orbot and Cubot play this more straight in Sonic Colors (this setup is actually much akin to that used in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic X).
  • Team Sonic Racing has the newly-established Team Eggman, comprised of Eggman, Metal Sonic and Zavok (in terms of gameplay, at least). A bit absurd here since the former and latter were sworn enemies.
• Odie and his henchmen in Soul Nomad & the World Eaters borders this and the Goldfish Poop Gang. Storywise they are an incompetent gang of bandits (Odie the leader, with the farmer and the two beasts as the henchies), but they do show they're not so bad, Odie can join the party and show he's not such an incompetent magician after all...
• Splatoon 3 has Deep Cut, which consists of Big Man, Shiver and Frye, who all act as bosses.
• Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! introduces Ripto himself, with Crush and Gulp. Their misdeeds are limited entirely to the home worlds, but are still threatening enough for Avalar's inhabitants to summon Spyro.
• Super Magnetic Neo has the Pinki Gang, which comprises of Pinki (the female leader), Yasu (the nerdy, smart guy) and Gasu (the big, dumb brute). Although, in this case, the said female leader is a baby.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • The Shadow Sirens in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Subverted when the bullied younger sister Vivian tires of her unfair treatment and joins up with Mario. At the time, she was unaware she was joining up with Mario, but she sticks around because of Mario's kindness. Double-subverted when Doopliss joins up with the Shadow Sirens to replace Vivian.
  • Speaking about Mario, in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, the boss of Mario Zone is actually 3 bosses: three pigs. Subverted slightly, in that they are actually kinda dangerous...
  • Duke, Rockman and Lulu, the Dino Riders, in Super Mario World.
  • Also there's Count Bleck's minions, O'Chunks, Mimi, and Dimentio, in Super Paper Mario. Subverted when they are temporarily joined by a fourth, Mr. L. Further subverted when Dimentio takes the position of Big Bad (which doesn't end well for him), and O'Chunks and Mimi do a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has The Lava Queen, Bwario, and Bwaluigi, collectively known as the "Bwaaah Trio".
• Tales Series:
  • The Dark Wings. They were self-proclaimed heroes in Tales of Destiny and Tales of Eternia. Tales of Rebirth introduced new characters as the Dark Wings, but kept the dynamic of two males and one female, and they were a recurring boss battle. Tales of the Abyss gave the leader position to the female, and they were actually a somewhat competent group of anti-hero rogues.
  • Tales of Vesperia has The Schwann Brigade made up of Leblanc, Adecor and Boccos. They definitely are played for laughs through the entire game.
• The Three Mischievous Fairies in Touhou Project, with Sunny Milk as the leader, Luna Child as the dutiful subordinate, and Star Sapphire as the only one intelligent enough to flee whenever they annoy one of the more powerful denizens of Gensoukyou (i.e. anyone).
• Stinky Pete, Gunslinger, and Blacksmith in the final level of the Toy Story 2 video game, all three of whom where fought individually as mini-bosses in previous levels.
• Since the campaign mode of Transformers: War for Cybertron features a team of three playable characters for each mission, the three available characters for each mission in the Decepticon campaign could qualify as this. In the first mission, you have Megatron (the leader), Barricade (the brains), and Brawl (the muscle). In the second mission, you have the three Seekers, Starscream (the leader), Thundercracker (the brains), and Skywarp (the muscle). For the remaining missions, you have Megatron (the leader), Soundwave (the brains), and Breakdown (the muscle).
• The F-Con trio of Corrupt Corporate Executives — Crown, Popoff, and Baza — in TRON 2.0. We don't see their boss, but Word of God says it's the crooked bastard from the first film, Dillinger Sr.
• The Prophets; Leehalt, Melody and Malik from Wild ARMs 3. Leehalt is the leader of the group, and the most serious. Melody is a Vain Sorceress obsessed with her own beauty. Malik is the most childish of the group, and wants to revive his mother for... purposes. They revive the metal demon Siegfried in the hope of transforming Filgaia into a demon planet, preventing their own deaths in the process.
  • Janus and his underlings Darius and Romero from the same game. The Prophets are the ones pulling their strings, although the latter two are taken out pretty early on.
• The Wildcat Gang from Wonder Project J.
• Bordeoux, Negimaru and Grein from the .hack//G.U. Games trilogy were a trio of fairly skilled and ruthless PKs under the command of Master Gabi, until Bordeoux's unhealthy obssession with Haseo caused the team to fall apart.

Web Animation

• Season 7 of Arby 'n' the Chief has Eugene and his two co-moderators in his trolling clan, Tyler and Colin. Cortana even at one point calls them a "terrible trio".
• Heavy Meadow from Fuwa Fuwa Foof, consisting of protagonist Foof as the leader, Giri Giri as the brains, and Kiri Kiri as the muscle. Although they're technically disbanded because of Foof's retirement from crime, Foof does still fight alongside Giri Giri and Kiri Kiri on occasion, as seen in the fan comics approved by creator Kyra Kupetsky.
• Homestar Runner
  • Strong Bad, Strong Mad, and The Cheat were all originally portrayed this way. Now, they're a Comic Trio.
  • Still played straight with their Old-Timey counterparts (Sir Strong Bad, The Strong Man, and The Sneak), however.
• Lenny, Bruce, and Melvin in Smosh Babies.
• The villains of Arby 'n' the Chief's 7th season: Eugene Black, Tyler King, and Colin Hunt.

Webcomics

• The Unholy Three from '32 Kick-Up are a team of mob enforcers that follow this trope.
• In Bronze Skin Inc. the Marvires family works as such, father Raymond leads both sons Otto and Bruno.
• Sisters Snadhya'rune, Sarv'swati and Zala'ess Vel'Sharen from Drowtales, with Snadhya'rune as the apparent ringleader. They not only betrayed their mother and covered up her death for several decades but also were The Man Behind the Man for the demonic group who wrecked a huge chunk of their city as a cover up.
• Melissa, Jacqui, and Cerise from Eerie Cuties and Magick Chicks.
• El Goonish Shive had Moperville South's Girl Posse of Diane, Lucy, and Rhoda. They're not so terrible anymore though.
• Lord Skärva, Derk, and Lorelei are beginning to look like one of these in The Fourth.
• The Necromancer and his co-dragons, Medria Darkwood and Thomas Drake from Harry Potter Comics.
• Emerald, Goristro, and Carval from Heartcore. Emerald and Goristro often but heads but tend to have shared leadership, since Carval is too dense and trigger happy to come up with a plan aside from "blow up all the things".
• Umbria's little team in Our Little Adventure is shaping up this way. There's Umbria, Jason and Trevoricus the wizard. Eventually subverted when Umbria's nasty treatment of Trevoricus and Jane's return eventually causes the Cowardly Lion to man-up, confront her over it and kick Umbria out of the group.
• Detestai, Earl and Larry from RPG World.
• In addition to being a Comic Trio, Guy, Wayne, and Frank of Two Guys and Guy map well to this. Typically, Guy is the leader, and Wayne and Frank are the henchmen.

Western Animation

• Zix, Travoltron, and Tee, the Alien Bikers from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. Though they later pull a Heel–Face Turn.
• Scratch and Grounder in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog with Robotnik as the higher up. Sometimes Robotnik himself joined them, and led from the front. Semi recurrer Coconuts also joined the team on occasion.
• The pet store employees in the American Dad! episode "The Full Cognitive Redaction of Avery Bullock by the Coward Stan Smith".
• Animaniacs:
  • Walter Wolf, Sid the Squid, and Beanie the Brain-dead Bison, Slappy Squirrel's archenemies. Walter is the leader, Sid is the Evil Genius and Beanie is the Dumb Muscle.
  • Defied in "Pinky and the Brain... and Larry", where the Villain Protagonist mouse duo is joined by a third mouse, who contributes nothing to the plot and just sticks around being annoying.
  • In the 2020 reboot/revival, the world's three most powerful dictators, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and Nicolás Maduro form a trio like this, with Putin being their de facto leader and the other two his less competent sidekicks.
• While hardly ineffectual until the main characters get the hang of them Azula, Mai and Ty-Lee from Avatar: The Last Airbender count. Azula is almost the Big Bad herself (as the actual Big Bad, her father Ozai, rarely appears in person until the Grand Finale), and then she's accompanied by a pair of Badass Normals. Really, only the main characters are capable of beating them by the Power of Plot. And unlike most Heel Face Turns, Mai and Ty-Lee do not lose their badassery. This is only shown for about 5 minutes in one episode, after which they're locked up. But it nicely leads to Azula's Villainous Breakdown.
  • A less serious version can be found in "Tales of Ba Sing Se: The Tale of Toph and Katara" with Star and her two lackeys, a Rich Bitch trio in Ba Sing Se's Upper Ring.
• The (literal) "Terrible Trio" on Batman: The Animated Series, three wealthy young men who commit crimes for the thrill and excitement. They also appear in The Batman and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
• The Circus Freaks in Ben 10.
• Captain N: The Game Master has King Hippo, the Eggplant Wizard and Mother Brain.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers had one when Sly Sludge and Ooze were joined by Tank Flusher III, who stuck around for one other episode (Sly's final appearance, incidentally) after the two-parter that introduced him.
• The second season of Adventures in Care-a-Lot plays this up more by giving Grizzle two recurring hench-bots, UR-2 and Sergeant Rocketbottom.
• A classic example of this exists in Casper the Friendly Ghost with the Ghostly Trio, who consist of Stretch, the tall one and leader; Stinkie, the short one, and Fatso, the fat one.
• The Greaser Dogs, Cliff, Lube, and Shriek, from CatDog. Cliff is the leader while Shriek is the smartest of the three (relatively speaking).
• The Chumpy Chump Brothers from Catscratch.
• Dee, Don, and Dex from Chuck Chicken.
• Though not villains, Sissi, Hervé, and Nicolas from Code Lyoko qualify at their most antagonist (or when possessed by XANA). The rest of the time, they're either comic relief or unexpected sources of help.
• Buzz, Delete and The Hacker from Cyberchase.
• Danger Mouse has Baron Silas Greenback, his pet caterpillar Nero, and his henchman Stiletto Mafioso.
• Donkey Kong Country has Klump and Krusha, with King K. Rool as the higher-up. Also, Captain Skurvy, Kutlass and Green Kroc.
• The Urpneys (Sgt. Blob, Frizz and Nug) in The Dreamstone are very Team Rocket-ish; being rather sympathetic, doomed to failure from the start, and tending to get an unnecessarily hard time from the good guys after they've been clearly beaten already (bar a few occasions). In later episodes, Urpgor sometimes joins them, albeit in an often rivalistic manner.
• Disney's DuckTales (1987) has the Beagle Boys, often as not with archnemesis Flintheart Glomgold as The Man Behind the Man. Sometimes their mother, Ma Beagle, tends to be in charge.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • The Eds, in the eyes of the cul-de-sac kids, they definitely are.
  • The Kanker Sisters, especially when they destroy the cul-de-sac trying to find their heirloom, the Ship-Inna-Bottle.
• Ewoks
  • Morag the Tulgah witch, King Gorneesh and Umwak or
  • King Gorneesh, Umwak and Lady Urgah Gorneesh
• The Fair Bears in The Fairly OddParents!
• Futurama
  • Donbot and his two goons, Clamps and Joey Mousepad, are the entire Robot Mafia.
  • Mom's three sons, Walt, Larry and Igner, are another Terrible Trio. Though they're not completely incompetant, Mom treats them as if they are. Their original plan to get Fry's PIN number only worked because Fry was being... well, Fry.
• Garfield and Friends:
  • The U.S. Acres segments have Gort, Wart, and Mort, the older brothers of Orson Pig.
  • The Buddy Bears are seen as one to Garfield and Roy.
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero: Destro, Tomax and Xamot, and Zartan (when he's not working for himself as a Wild Card villain) are the chief members of Cobra's terrible trio.
  • As Dreadnoughts, Torch, Ripper, and Buzzer are Zartan's terrible trio. As a whole, the Dreadnoughts' and Zartan's allegiance to Cobra or themselves is usually based on whichever side benefits more.
• To Mr. Eustace P. Peevly, The Hair Bear Bunch, could be considered this.
• Vox, Valentino, and Velvette, three overlords of Hell out to sabotage the eponymous Hazbin Hotel.
• Hector, Wordsworth and Mungo in Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats.
• Edgar Allan Poe, Sappho and Basho in the Histeria! episode "The Legion of Super Writers".
• Jackie Chan Adventures has the Enforcers: Finn, Ratso and Chow.
• On Jem, Eric Raymond was the higher-up to the Misfits and has various henchpeople as well.
• Lucius, Samy and Molotov from Jimmy Two-Shoes.
• Voltar, Red Menace, and Doktor Frogg from League of Super Evil (Though calling them "terrible" would be a misnomer).
• Janja, Cheezi, and Chungu in The Lion Guard.
• The Weasel Trio from Mickey Mouse Funhouse, consisting of Wheezelene (the female leader), Cheezel (the short, skinny one) and Sneezel (the big, dumb one).
• Portia, Gwen and Penny from The Mighty B!
• Toralei, Purrsephone, and Meowledy on the Monster High webisodes form a Terrible Trio.
• My Adventures with Superman: Intergang is a classic example, two members with contrasting builds, powers and personalities, with a leader who holds the position more by force of personality than any real ability.
• Margret Rhino's group, the Pretties, from My Gym Partner's a Monkey.
• My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) features the Wicked Witch Hydia and her two daughters Reeka and Draggle. They would later appear in the ten-part premiere of the regular series.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has the Diamond Dogs from the episode "A Dog and Pony Show", which are led by such a trio. Word of God says their names are Fido (the hulking one), Rover (the tall, skinny one) and Spot (the short one).
  • "The Ending of the End" (both parts) involves Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow presenting the Mane Six with their true Final Battle. And it is brutal.
• The Thug Dolls from the The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh episode, "How Much is That Rabbit in the Window?".
• Joey, Marky, and Dee-Dee in Oggy and the Cockroaches. They eventually get Lady K as The Man Behind the Man, well Woman Behind, but she still counts, in later seasons.
• Darrell, Shannon, and Raymond from OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.
• Popy, Buck and Harchi from Oscar's Oasis.
• The Meanos from Paw Paw Bears.
• The Hooded Claw and the Bully Brothers on The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • The Amoeba Boys. Even if they aren't that terrible...
  • Also the Ministry of Pain, consisting of Mastermind, Counterpart and Cohort.
  • And the Rowdyruff Boys.
• The Gross Sisters from The Proud Family.
• Cyril Sneer, the Big Bad of The Raccoons, has the Pigs, three porcine henchmen. Although they look identical as they are triplets.
• In the Rainbow Magic movie, Leonardo, Newton, and Edison are this.
• The Capicola Gang from Regular Show and a possible Expy to the Greaser Dogs.
• Lars and his two friends Pi and Sputz from Rocket Power...at least until the second season, where another member named Animal was included.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle has Fearless Leader, Boris and Natasha (the higher-up was Mr. Big).
• Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist: The main antagonists of this cartoon are the Workhouse Master and his two bumbling feline minions Scratch and Sniff. Their goal is to return Oliver Twist to the workhouse.
• Catra, Scorpia, and Entrapta in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Scorpia even decides to give them a Squad Nickname when Entrapta joins ("Super Pal Trio"). Only the latter two are Affably Evil though, while the former holds a more ambitious role as The Dragon.
• Professor Pamplemoose, Vana Glama and Alan Amazing in Sidekick.
• The Simpsons has the bully trio of Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph. Sometimes Nelson joins them or substitutes for a member. In his earliest appearances, Nelson also was part of a trio with two younger bullies known as the Weasels.
• The Smoggies has the title characters: Emma, Clarence and Polluto.
• The Smurfs (1981) has Gargamel, Azrael and Scruples once Scruples is introduced.
• Dr. Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo in Sonic Underground.
• Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea: The three main pirates from the gang of Pirates of the Seas — Nasty Max (the leader), Mighty Matt and Sleazeappeal. They spend about all the episodes pursuing the heroes, to no avail, though at least they always get an opportunity to sing their Villain Song. (Massmedia is another important pirate, but she's usually too busy with her radio show to join their antics.)
• The Spectacular Spider-Man:
  • Chameleon, Beck, and Mason start out as one, with the somewhat unusual detail that all three are the Evil Genius type of villain.
  • The Enforcerers: Fancy Dan, Montana and The Ox, with Tombstone as their superior. (They later get Powered Armor, becoming Richochet, Shocker and... Still Ox.)
• Voyd, Blokk and Lamprey in Shadow Raiders, the leaders of the Beast Planet. Voyd outranks the other two and has the "final word" (metaphorically as he's also The Voiceless).
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V", Barnacle Boy (ahem... Barnacle Man) forms one with Man Ray and the Dirty Bubble when he temporarily becomes a villain.
• Steven Universe:
  • In the Season One finale, Jasper acts as the leader with Peridot and Lapis Lazuli as the backup for their mission to check the status of the Cluster and destroy the remaining Crystal Gems.
  • Later on in the series, this dynamic appears with the remaining Diamonds with White Diamond as the leader, then Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond.
• Stripperella: El Cheapo and his two hoods, who due to the stinginess of their boss have to share the same gun.
• Bowser, Mouser, Tryclyde, and an unnamed Koopa Troopa in The The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.
• Texas Pete's gang in Superted is perhaps the ultimate example of physically contrasting henchman: Bulk is a big fat guy, and Skeleton is... well, have a guess.
• TaleSpin:
  • Gibber, Mad Dog, and Dump Truck, with Don Karnage as the higher up. Occasionally, Don Karnage joins Mad Dog and Dump Truck and leads them from the front.
  • Trader Moe and his nameless Gorilla and Rhino henchmen are a more straight example.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) has Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady, with Krang as the higher-up.
• From Teen Titans (2003), the HIVE kids. Jinx is the leader, with Gizmo and Mammoth working with her. They're pretty dangerous on their own if they put their minds to it, but generally need a higher-up to scare them into that level of competence — Slade in their first appearance and Brother Blood later. Ultimately, they strike out on their own (and add a few more to their team), but without someone to direct them, they're basically just super-powered delinquents. Then Jinx finally gets fed up with that and does a Heel–Face Turn.
• Thomas & Friends:
  • Diesel sometimes forms one with 'Arry and Bert in later episodes of the show.
  • The Lorry brothers from the episode, "Horrid Lorry" are another example.
  • Diesel 10, Splatter, and Dodge are this as well in the Thomas and the Magic Railroad movie, although the latter two have a Heel–Face Turn towards the end.
  • James, Gordon, and Henry were a lighter example of this in the earlier seasons, being more just arrogant peers than actual villains.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • Silas Wonder and his two nameless henchmen in "Sawdust and Toonsil".
  • Montana Max, Dizzy Devil, and Calamity Coyote form one in "Hero Hamton" during the boxing match.
  • Arthur Jabba, George, and Leonard in "Take Elmyra Please".
  • Boss Tick, Flick, and Flit in "Flea For Your Life".
  • Nasty, Slim, and Lardo, Concord Condor's older brothers in the "Concord the Kindly Condor" segment of the episode, "Toons From the Crypt".
• Joy Peters' three sons from Tom Goes to the Mayor.
• Toxic Crusaders has Dr. Killemoff, Bonehead, and Psycho, with Czar Zosta as the higher-up.
• Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker in The Transformers. Later on, Thrust, Ramjet, and Dirge.
  • The Insecticons: Shrapnel, Kickback and Bombshell. They even forced Optimus Prime and Megatron to work together to stop them once.
• Megatron has Lugnut and Blitzwing for this in Transformers: Animated until he picked up the Constructicons later down the line.
• Los Trotamúsicos: In this Spanish adaptation of The Bremen Town Musicians the robbers are comprised of a maffiosi boss named Chef and his two stupid henchmen Bestia and Tapón.
• Verminious Snaptrap, The Chameleon, and Bird Brain, the three primary antagonists of T.U.F.F. Puppy have formed one in certain episodes of the show.
• Captain Minus, Zero and Splash from Turtle Island.
• The Scallions on VeggieTales.
• The Venture Bros. has several examples:
  • The Monarch, Henchman 21, and Henchman 24, all of whom are bumbling and ineffective. Higher Up is The Sovereign, also known as David Bowie. Except for more recently, when the Monarch is showing increasing levels of competence and 21 and 24 have some lucky moments. Well, in the last minutes of the season three finale, 24's luck ultimately runs out....
  • Doctor Girlfriend, with Tim-Tom and Kevin, the Murderous Moppets. She's coolly competent; the boys tend to get a little over the top and beyond mission scope... Higher Up is also The Sovereign.
  • A heroic version is The Order of the Triad, led by Doctor Orpheus, with Jefferson Twilight and The Alchemist. Higher Up is The Master.
• Icy, Darcy and Stormy from Winx Club become this after Season One.
• Dr. Two-Brains and his two henchmen on WordGirl.
• The Brotherhood in X-Men: Evolution is briefly reduced to three members: Avalanche, Toad, and Blob. They even do a Team Power Walk together in the finale.

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