Basic Trope: The character who's role in the team is to provide some sort of resource.
- Straight:
- Alice is a pampered yet sweet daughter of a noble, who uses her money to pay for the team supplies, bridge tolls, etc.
- Alice has a high-paying, highly-specialized job (lawyer, doctor, scientist, etc.) and therefore has a high, stable income she is able to drawn on whenever the rest of the team are in need of resources, and they often are, because the rest of the team are freelancers and/or part-timers who's primary employment comes in the form of odd, relatively low-paying jobs.
- Exaggerated: Alice pays for everything, owns the Cool Ship they travel on, provides their weapons and armour, had the Team Pet created by a Mad Scientist and has ready access to the Applied Phlebotinum.
- Downplayed:
- Being from a rich background, Alice tends to pay the bills, but her main role in the team is The Smart Guy.
- Alice isn't necessarily rich herself, but she's their main point man in managing the team's finances and she can use her connections and social skills to get the stuff the team needs to function, like a high-class version of The Scrounger.
- Justified:
- Alice was recruited partly because they needed funding for their journey.
- The team is part of a larger group like the government with a Vast Bureaucracy that the other characters are often overwhelmed and frustrated dealing with. Alice is the kind of Badass Bureaucrat they need to get the stuff they require without waiting too long and letting the bad guys get away.
- Inverted: Alice's family connections and diplomatic expertise make her extremely useful to the team, however she has expensive tastes which often leave them wanting for funds.
- Subverted: Alice's family refuse to give her an allowance while she's traveling, meaning the team need to find another source of funding.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice's status as nobility means the group rarely need to pay when she's with them anyway.
- They still let Alice use the Cool Ship to transport everyone.
- … as a test to see if she's rich in sense… her (honest) management of the team's budget gets her an A+.
- Parodied: Alice basically bribes her way onto the team and has them sign a contract to limit the expenses she has to cover.
- Zig Zagged: Sometimes Alice can throw money at anything, sometimes the group are broke.
- Averted: No character provides money or another resource.
- Enforced: Executives force the writers to add Alice, since the rest of the cast are outlaws and they want to avoid implying that they pay their money through crime.
- Lampshaded: "Thank you sir, that'll be-" "Just give Alice the bill, mate."
- Invoked: Bob and Claire choose Alice over other, similarly skilled, potential team members because she'll be able to provide money and phlebotinum.
- Exploited: Know they have a rich backer, corrupt guards and innkeepers try to charge the team extra.
- Defied: Alice refuses to pay for everything just because she has all the money. The team take it in turns to pay the bills.
- Discussed: "This is Alice, she pays the bills."
- Conversed: "Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?" "Alice pays for 'em."
- Deconstructed: Alice often slows down the rest of the team, since providing money is practically all she can do. Being nobility, she also has other concerns like protecting her family's name, which often comes into conflict with the team's main goals.
- Reconstructed: Travelling with the group toughens Alice up considerably. Her family are also proud that she's doing something worthwhile.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Alice being otherwise useless (but impossible to get rid of) is used to make her The Scrappy (and make the process of her befriending the rest of the team and Taking A Level In Badass later on all the more meaningful).
- Played For Laughs: Everyone looking expectantly at Alice when there's a bill to be paid becomes a Running Gag.
- Played For Drama: Being their sole source of income Alice has to budget carefully and not having any other useful skills (that she recognises). Eventually someone's nearly killed because she has to cut back on their equipment and she's racked with guilt and almost leaves the team, thinking she could easily be replaced with a lump sum of cash.
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