Trope Talk: Lancers

You remember the hero, right? Well, this is the person standing right next to them in all the photos! The second-in-command, the rival, the bestie, the life-partner - no matter the flavor, they're always The Lancer!

Who's your favorite lancer? Least favorite? Argue in the comments!

EXAMPLES IN ROUGH ORDER: Star Wars, Star Trek, Samurai Jack, Dragon Ball Super, Ben Ten: Alien Force, Teen Titans, Thundercats (2011), Dragon Ball Z, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Transformers: Prime, Captain America, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Clone Wars, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Castlevania (Netflix), She-Ra (2018), Avengers, The Emperor's New Groove, Avatar: The Last Airbender,

Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.

[ryujisama]

Lancers: literary manifestations of "Always the bridesmaid, and never the bride".

[andrewholmes]

*points at hero: "I like this one"

*points to lancer: "But I like this one better"

[Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache]

*Hero:* "Um, hi...Can I help you?"
*Lancer:* "Yeah, the author hired me to stand next to you all day so you look better by comparison."
*Hero:* "That's ridiculous! I don't need a-"
*Audience:* "Hey, Hero. Did you get more interesting?"
*Hero (pulling Lancer in closer):* "YEAH!"

[makamaeperry]

“Hey, remember when you killed like half of our friends”
“Yeah, that was a rough Tuesday”
That part killed me

[RolandTheJabberwocky]

Its kind of amazing how Vegeta manages to be all of the Lancer types and none at the same time.

[Stynkrat]

“Castlevania gave us a trio that became Oops! All Lancers.” I love that quote, really describes them all.

[Darilon]

Normal narrative:
Die as a hero or live long enough to become a villain.

Dragon Ball:
Die as a villain or live long enough to become a Lancer.

[vigilantsycamore]

I had no idea "lancer" came from "people who fight with a lance, " I just sort of assumed it was a reference to *Lancelot*

[danielled.]

Main character: red
Lancer: blue

Me: are you trying to tell us somthing? 🤔🤨

[somewhereelse]

"Hey remember when you killed like half our friends?"
"That was a rough Tuesday"
As much as I'm interested in learning how to write these characters, the little illustrations are distracting in the best ways

[Kryptnyt]

The Lancer has a triangle advantage over the Sword-Wielding Protagonist but needs help against the Bandits With Axes

[feltrix]

Watching this, it occurred to me that in She-Ra, Catra starts off as Adora's Lancer before becoming Shadow Weaver's Dragon and Glimmer became Adora's new Lancer. This makes Glimmer and Catra's parallel arcs even more interesting in season 4 once they begin to gain more power, but still can't step out of Adora and Hordak's shadows. That show is so good.

[airacummins]

Hero and villian: *epic fighting*
Lancer and dragon: *falling in love*

[moxiehokutika]

About the Sherlock thing...I found this on TV tropes I think for the stoic cracks or something:


"You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!" It was worth a wound - it was worth many wounds - to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain."
— Sherlock Holmes, "The Three Garridebs"


I'm not much of a Holmes fan, but I subscribe to the idea that Watson exists to highlight Sherlock's humanity.

[dvdcbb]

Lancer: Hero, your ideas are stupid and im going to leave you here
Villain, standing behind a bush with lasso: *oh yeah im about to ruin this mans whole career*

[TheTrueEcho]

My favorite type of Lancer has to be the "I have access to a technique that is super effective against the MC specifically, but I won't kill him because he's not evil" trope.

I don't remember any examples of this beyond Batman always keeping Kryptonite with him, but I want more of them because it helps solve the problems that power creep can introduce, since the lancer will always be capable of defeating the hero no matter how OP they get.

[TyphoonJig]

Lancer/dragon rivalry ?
"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
With the added bonus of being one of the most trope heavy lines of all times.

[reddragonminecraftmodsandm]

Lancer trope: Stabbing self with own spear.

[tofu_golem]

One of the more interesting lancer characters is James Rhodes from Iron Man.

While Rhodes has flaws of his own (as every Marvel hero should), everywhere Stark has a flaw, Rhodes has a virtue. Stark is unreliable, Rhodes is reliable. Stark has bad people skills, Rhodes has good people skills.

Thus, Rhodes makes the flaws of the main character seem worse just by being in the same scene with him.

[flipflopzthreeonethree]

WAIT A MINUTE! Does anyone else notice that when Red draws heroes, she usually makes them... well, red? And now talking about Lancers, they're blue? Maybe it's a coincidence, but its sweet to imply Blue is Red's lancer :')