# Did Seven Samurai Invent the "Getting the Gang Together” genre?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-seven-samurai-invent-the-getting-the-gang-together-genre/695079>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 8, 2014, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-seven-samurai-invent-the-getting-the-gang-together-genre/695079 "2014-08-08T02:05:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![theR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-seven-samurai-invent-the-getting-the-gang-together-genre/695079/41 "2014-08-09T00:33:20Z")

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> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#):
>
> TVtropes has an entry [Avengers Assemble](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AvengersAssemble). They reference the Three Musketeers: " Losing his companions en route of a dangerous mission, D’Artagnan must spend three chapters collecting them back up and extricating them from the situations their particular personality quirks have gotten them into."
> 
> Also see poetry in the link.

Wow, was the A-Team actually the Three Musketeers? Mind blown.

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-seven-samurai-invent-the-getting-the-gang-together-genre/695079/42 "2014-08-09T19:34:04Z")

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An old Tsarist-era folk tale also has a team of folks with amazing abilities being assembled - here’s my favorite retelling of it, _The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship_: [http://www.amazon.com/The-Fool-World-Flying-Ship/dp/0374324425/ref=sr\_1\_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407612703&sr=8-1&keywords=fool+world+flying+ship](http://www.amazon.com/The-Fool-World-Flying-Ship/dp/0374324425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407612703&sr=8-1&keywords=fool+world+flying+ship)

Here’s Robin Williams’s telling of a slightly different version, with some great klezmer music, too: [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XPSXdz2Aik)

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**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-seven-samurai-invent-the-getting-the-gang-together-genre/695079/43 "2014-08-09T20:03:30Z")

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> [@Colibri](#):
>
> How so? Little John and Friar Tuck perhaps have specific talents, but which of the others would have been recruited to the band for a particular task?

Will Scarlet, originally Will Scathlock, was a lockpick.

> [@Simplicio](#):
>
> Isn’t there fairytale where the hero picks up a bunch of companions on his way to the castle to court the princess, each of which has a weird skill. Then he’s given a bunch of seemingly impossible tasks, which happen to be exactly suited for his companions skills?
> 
> Sorry for the vague description, but maybe someone remembers what I’m talking about.

Sounds somewhat like Culhwch ac Olwyn, about a man cursed to never marry unless to the daughter of Ysbaddaden, Chief Giant. Luckily his cousin was King Arthur, so he goes to Arthur and then they go to Ysbaddaden, who gives them a set of tasks he believes to be impossible. He doesn’t get the gang together, though, it’s Arthur’s gang.

Maybe Hrolf Kraki’s saga meets the OP.

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