http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThePowerOfFriendship

Ventus, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep "My friends are my power, and I'm theirs!"

A major theme in all media. The villain or Ineffectual Loner mocks the idea of relying on others, insisting that friends make you weak and only fear brings servitude. Then he discovers to his extreme shock and dismay that the hero's friends really do stand up for him, and this really does enable the hero to kick the crap out of the bad guy. The Aesop: Having friends makes you strong, being alone makes you weak. Even What You Are in the Dark can depend on your memory of your friends.

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The moment The Power of Friendship becomes clear is A Friend in Need, but beware the Apple of Discord. When the loner has been brought into the group, Remember That You Trust Me may be needed to keep him attached.

More often than not a hero who makes good use of this power is going to attract villains who try to prove that it doesn't work. (The biggest reason is such villains rarely have any friends, as heroes occasionally point out.) After slugging it out with the hero one or more times the villain in question may become a Friendly Enemy, a Worthy Opponent, or do a full on HeelFace Turn.

A Combined Energy Attack is another perk of believing in said power. Taken more literally, the Power of Friendship may be used as a required element of some magical effect, such as a Care-Bear Stare or a Circle of Friendship. Heroes, especially the Magnetic Hero, usually spend the first few episodes building this group of loyal followers. Sometimes it can go too far; Heroes fall prey to becoming a Martyr Without a Cause and allies could be Poisonous Friends. Contrast In the End, You Are on Your Own, in which case Friendship becomes less helpful. This trope is a key element of buddy pictures.

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The Power of Friendship can be just as strong for the bad guys as for the good guys, but they seldom have enough common sense to play it straight. When they do, expect a pretty wild ride, and a clash with The Remnant once the main conflict's over.

See also Team Spirit, True Companions, The Power of Love, The Power of Family, Power of Trust, Defeat Means Friendship, Fire-Forged Friends, Dying Alone, You Are Not Alone. The risk of Tastes Like Diabetes or even Narm is present if done poorly. The Good King should be wary of this trope, it can turn into Nepotism (well, technically cronyism). If your protagonists are entirely reliant on their friends for any characterization or motivation, they will rapidly become Flat Characters.

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Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Fan Works

Films  Animation

Films  Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

"Lean on Me " by Bill Withers, one of the best-known classics of the Soul genre, is centered upon this trope. You just call on me brother, when you need a hand

We all need somebody to lean on

Mythology and Religion

The Arabian god Wadd was the deity of friendship, besides being also a moon and snake god.

was the deity of friendship, besides being also a moon and snake god. The tyrant of Syracuse was so impressed by the friendship between Damon, who volunteered to be a hostage for Pythias's return and be executed if he did not, and Pythias, who not only returned to his execution to spare Damon but did so in spite of being captured by bandits and Breaking the Bonds to escape, that he pardoned Pythias for conspiring against him. Thus this is Older Than Feudalism.

Some interpretations of The Epic of Gilgamesh hold that the friendship between King Gilgamesh and the wild-man Enkidu had the effect of taming both of them, as Gilgamesh's tyrannical rule was mellowed at the same time he was civilizing Enkidu. Furthermore, during their epic battle with the monster Humbaba, each took turns encouraging the other to continue. If this really was the intended reading of these two parts of the story, then it makes this Older Than Dirt.

Pro Wrestling

Kane and Daniel Bryan (Hell No) do this, albeit partially zigzagged (I AM THE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS, etc.)

Interestingly, having a large group of friends means something entirely different in professional wrestling. Factions comprised of more than 2-3 wrestlers are typically called "stables", and their primary function in story telling is usually to have members of the stable assist other members in their matches and post-match beatdowns... which is dirty play and against the rules. As a result, the aesops associated with this trope are usually averted: the heroes are loners who fight alone against the odds, the villains are cowards who come down to the ring with all of their friends in tow.

Tabletop Games

A common theme in many roleplaying groups, especially long-standing groups of close friends. Many adventuring parties are often made of a combination of various different personalities, who must learn to work together to beat their adversaries. In fact, many a GM will use a villain late in a story to test the strength of the group, with varying success, depending on the players in question.

Byron Falls from John Wick's Big Book Of Little Games utilizes it in mechanics — players divide points between their friends, and the more points assigned to a person, the stronger your relationship with them. When you help one of those friends, you use number of dices equal to how many points you spend on them. However, it also deconstructs the trope - you cannot asign the same number of points to two different friends, and if any of them betrays you, they use number of dice equal points you spend on them for all actions against you.

utilizes it in mechanics — players divide points between their friends, and the more points assigned to a person, the stronger your relationship with them. When you help one of those friends, you use number of dices equal to how many points you spend on them. However, it also deconstructs the trope - you cannot asign the same number of points to two different friends, and if any of them betrays you, they use number of dice equal points you spend on them for all actions against you. Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine runs on this and Coming-of-Age Story, with one character achieving something impossible - since Actuals can't have souls one rpgnet poster put it: "Yes, she definitely has the I Have No Friends thing, it's even on her character sheet. But, well... it wouldn't be there if she didn't care about having friends. She doesn't have I Don't Own A Walrus as a source of power, after all." However Leonardo/Dulcinea's unique stew of megalomania and emotional damage means that they're really bad at acting on or expressing it, and as such draw power from loneliness instead.

one rpgnet poster put it: "Yes, she definitely has the I Have No Friends thing, it's even on her character sheet. But, well... it wouldn't be there if she didn't care about having friends. She doesn't have I Don't Own A Walrus as a source of power, after all." However Leonardo/Dulcinea's unique stew of megalomania and emotional damage means that they're really bad at acting on or expressing it, and as such draw power from loneliness instead. The indie RPG Misspent Youth by Robert Bohl is all about this. Characters are required to be one another's friends by design, you ask questions about your friendship at the start of every session, all conflicts are between The Authority and the friends, the stakes of all conflicts are agreed-upon by all of the players at the table, and usually when a conflict is won it's with a friend's character's abilities.

by Robert Bohl is all about this. Characters are required to be one another's friends by design, you ask questions about your friendship at the start of every session, all conflicts are between The Authority and the friends, the stakes of all conflicts are agreed-upon by all of the players at the table, and usually when a conflict is won it's with a friend's character's abilities. Night's Black Agents has Trust, which can be spent to help out the trusted ally. Of course, since NBA is a dark game of burned spies hunting vampires, it can be flipped to Betrayal if you want to elaborately backstab said ally. Betrayal can only be spent once, however, and even if you patch up your relationship you will never be able to get Trust off the betrayed character again; even helping them find their mother's killer will, at most, mean they're willing to give you real bullets for your gun, and you're still on point for the rest of your life.

Absolutely included in Ponies & Parasprites due to the source material. In this game, the positive emotions that one feels when one is self-confident and/or surrounded by their friends is quantified by their Love score, which starts at 1 at character creation and goes up and down as play progresses. When a party is formed, their individual Love scores are summed up and used by every character in the group. Love is added to the total score of any die roll the character makes, meaning a character with quite a bit of Love associated with them can achieve feats they wouldn't be able to alone. Likewise an actual mechanic in My Little Pony: The Storytelling Game, the pen-and-paper role-playing game based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. There's a pool of "friendship tokens" that can be used for important circumstances. It spills over into the real side of things: the more players at each session (that is, the more friends who came to play), the larger the pool is.



Video Games

Visual Novels

Played straight in Silver Crisis. The story goes out of its way time and time again to show how important it is to place your trust in others and not isolate yourself. By the end of the story, the bond and trust Lucario and Lucas made with each other gives them the opportunity to make Silver lower his guard and defeat said Godlike being in the end.

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