Basic Trope: A Quirky Miniboss Squad that follows the heroes around, but are no threat at all.
- Straight: The Goldfish Gang attacks the heroes in their hometown and nearly win. They follow on for revenge, but are quickly outclassed by the heroes' rising abilities.
- Exaggerated: The Goldfish Gang follow the heroes around for a dozen seasons, despite never, ever winning.
- Downplayed: The Goldfish Gang was relatively known to be somewhat violent in a neighbourhood in, say, New Jersey, but no where near as notable when compared to OG from DC.
- Justified:
- The Goldfish Gang wants to lose, trying to ruin the heroes' reputation.
- The Gang is a bunch of Punch Clock Villains and/or are plain terrible at being evil, so it is only logical for them to not being that effective against a group of motivated and highly effective heroes.
- See Deconstructed or Reconstructed
- Inverted: The Goldfish Gang start off as a minor annoyance, but quickly outpace the heroes in power.
- Subverted:
- After losing, the Goldfish Gang swear to follow the heroes to the ends of the earth... but are too lazy to actually make good on it.
- After losing, the Goldfish Gang swear to follow the heroes to the ends of the earth... and they finally manage to defeat the heroes through their experience.
- Double Subverted:
- ...until they get word that the police are about to raid their hideout, and hit the road after all.
- ...but then a new hero shows up and defeats the Goldfish Gang, and they swear to follow the new hero to the ends of the earth.
- Parodied:
- Practically every enemy the heroes beat tags along after them, despite losing every time.
- Despite the fact that he's a legitimate threat, Hiro dismisses his Rival Sasuke as one of these, to the latter's eternal chagrin
- Zig Zagged: The Goldfish Gang are sometimes a credible fighting force, but sometimes a complete joke.
- Averted: The Goldfish Gang, after losing, never appear again.
- Enforced: "The viewers loved the Goldfish Gang, even though they're villains and they lost! You need to bring them back again!"
- Lampshaded: "Good grief, you're still following us? How many times do we have to beat you to make you go away?"
- Invoked: The heroes, needing something to pass the time while they trek across the world, goad the Goldfish Gang to follow them.
- Exploited:
- A hero "loses" an important item to the Goldfish Gang, knowing that he will soon be searched for it by the enemy, but the GG will show up later, still carrying the item.
- The gang were Obfuscating Stupidity to give the heroes a false sense of security, only letting out their true potential when an opportunity arrives.
- Defied: The heroes are especially rough on the Goldfish Gang, to convince them not to follow.
- Discussed: "I told you we should have just ignored them. Now they're going to follow us around forever."
- Conversed: "Why would this gang keep following the good guys this long? They've lost every time!"
- Deconstructed: The Goldfish Gang are actually following the heroes because they took something valuable to the Big Bad from the GG's lair, and he sends them off to get it back under pain of death. The trip and constant defeats are taking a heavy toll on the gang, but they keep following because they can't go home.
- Reconstructed:
- The Goldfish Gang actually see the heroes as fitting rivals, and constantly fight them to try and improve their own skills to one day win.
- The gang realises that as long as they remain a non-threat, the hero won't kill them, and as long as they keep antagonising the Five Manband the Big Bad won't kill them either. As such they deliberately set out to minorly impede the hero's progress while secretly aiding him so that he can kill the Big Bad and free them.
- Played For Drama: They hated the status of their gang and they want to prove themselves and their peers that they are more than that by constantly harassing the gang, even if they going to be smashed by them.
Go back for the Goldfish Poop Gang. You know they'll just keep following you anyway.
