Basic Trope: A trio consists of an emotional and instinctual character, an impassionately logical character, and a third, balanced character who keeps the two conflicting ideals in check.
- Straight: The emotional and instinctual Liam, the coldly logical Sam, and the balanced Jake work together as a team.
- Exaggerated:
- Liam is emotional to the point of lunacy, Sam is virtually a robot, and Jake is a very stereotypical everyman.
- Liam and Sam are personifications of Jake's actual id and superego.
- Downplayed: Liam has a slight tendency to follow his heart and Sam his head.
- Justified: Liam and Sam are too rigid in their mentalities to be effective; they need Jake's ability to see both sides of an issue.
- Inverted: ???
- Subverted: Liam, Sam and Jake appear to constitute a Freudian Trio, but Liam has some rational Hidden Depths, and Sam some emotional ones, destroying the model...
- Jake turns out to be just as emotional/logical as Liam/Sam, wrecking the dynamic.
- Double Subverted: ...although it turns out that the Freudian Trio model does apply anyway, just played less straight that usual.
- Parodied: Literally every trio acts according to this model.
- Zig Zagged: Everybody tends to take up other tendencies.
- Averted: Liam, Sam and Jake have no Freudian Trio tendencies.
- Enforced: Middle road aesop.note
- Lampshaded: "Hey, has anyone noticed that Liam acts emotional, Sam logical, and Jake is the middle ground between them?"
- Invoked: The emotional Liam, logical Sam, and balanced Jake decide to make a trio including themselves.
- Exploited: The Big Bad lures Liam into a trap to lure Sam in as well. Jake is the only one who doesn't fall for it.
- Defied: The trio decides to stop acting according to this model.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Freudian Trio
