- “ Some heroes are made, some heroes are born and some heroes are chosen.”
- ― Unknown (Used by the fandom)
Overview[]
The Secret Trio is a fan-based crossover superhero team of three teenage heroes from three different cartoons, (and should not be confused with the real life, musical band of the same name, "The Secret Trio")
They are given the title 'Secret Trio', attributing to their secret alter egos and lives. The team consists of Jake Long from Disney's "American Dragon: Jake Long", Danny Phantom from Nickelodeon's "Danny Phantom", and Randy Cunningham from Disney's "Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja."
Creation of the Trio[]
The Trio was created after several fans, noted the numerous similarities between the three of them. The supernatural nature of their powers, their behavior, their spikey hairstyles..etc. Thus, fans created several crossovers in the form of either, Fanfictions or Fan art.
It is uncertain exactly when the trio first appeared in fanworks or who gave them their name. However, it is possible the trio was created some time around 2013, shown by fanarts posted on Deviant Art during that year. In any case, with there being several fan made work of the three of them, it has increased their popularity and solidified their standings in among the fandom.
Alternate Groups[]
The Secret Quartet: It is another crossover group with the same characters; Randy, Danny and Jake, but with the addition of Adrian Agreste from "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir." Another teenager superhero that shares similar qualities with the other three.
Some fans, in order to complete the trifecta of Disney, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network, and Dreamworks occasionally include Juniper Lee (of The Life & Times of Juniper Lee) as a fellow secret warrior of the supernatural. and of course now included as well Ruby Gillman (for Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken) as a fellow Underwater Defender Of all the Krakens and the sea life.
Main Members[]
Secondary Members[]
The secondary members can be sub-classified into three teams, corresponding to their canon placement.
Team Phantom[]
- Sam Manson: A head strong and courageous environmentalist with knowledge of the supernatural, a good friend, as well as girlfriend of Danny.
- Tucker Foley: A techno geek and childhood friend of Danny, who aids Danny with gadgets and technology.
- Jazz Fenton: Danny's older sister, who is quite skilled and knowledgeable in many aspects. She is a reserve member and doesn't appear often in the team.
Team Dragon[]
- Spud: He is Jake's best friend and comedian of the team but under his goofy personality is an exceptional genius, who's proven his worth on the team.
- Trixi: She's akin to a sibling to Jake. She's athletic and sassy and encourages Jake, whenever he needs it.
- Haley Long: Jake's younger sister, who is very intelligent for her age (similar to Jazz). She also has dragon powers but they manifested earlier than Jake's (which is common for female dragons).
Team Ninja[]
- Howard Weinerman: He is the only member of Randy's team. Despite his unpleasant and self-serving personality, he has proven himself to be both loyal and useful to Randy on several accounts.
Fanon[]
Formation of the Trio[]
(It may not always occur like this, and it does not imply that all future authors must follow this scheme. This is just to serve as a baseline.)
How the Trio is formed in-universe, usually depends on the author of the story.
In several fanfics, the Trio may exist in the same universe or in their own separate dimensions; and are thus, brought together. However, the latter trope is often times unused.
Sometimes, the author may have two of the members or have all of them be students of the same high school, with the school always being Norrisville High.
Other times, a school trip is used as a plot device for bringing the trio together. The destination of the trip, may be to one of respective schools attended by one of the trio, or to a landmark, in which case, it is a joint school trip.
The trio are usually called together to face off against a powerful original villain created by an author, or a pre-existing villain has become much too difficult for just one of the member, to handle on their own.
Another common case is when the existing respective villains from different groups have teamed up to achieve their goals. This is sometimes, also followed by the trio accidentally crossing paths in trying to figure out what their respective villains are planning, and later forming the team.
Some fanfics also do have the Trio already having been formed prior to the beginning of the story.
Roles[]
(It may not always occur like this, and it does not imply that all future authors must follow this scheme. This is just to serve as a baseline.)
These are the usual behavioral roles that each of the main members often assumes.
The Leader: A common occurrence in many fanfictions is that, Danny is usually written as the unspoken leader of the group, as he is the one, who usually the one to come up plans to move forward and battle strategies.
The Comedian: Given Randy's canon personality, he is usually written as the comic relief character; making bad jokes or puns, or just annoying the group. But he is, more often than not, the heart of the group, with his childish, positive and caring nature.
The Cool Kid: Jake is often written as the cool guy, someone who goes with the flow and is normally a chill person, but is loyal to a fault.
Tropes[]
Common tropes that often happens, involving the trio as a whole.
- The Trio would sometimes form a musical band with each other and often use the name, "The Secret Trio" as their band name.
- In the trio fanfictions, Howard's antics often annoy everyone else but they do their best to tolerate him and but will put their foot down, if he gets out of hand.
Comic[]
- Age-Accurate Secret Trio: Webtoon comic by Becca, link.
- Summary: Kids are turning green and acting really weird at Norrisville High. This isn't new. What is new, is that Randy, The Norrisville Ninja. Is unable to snap them out of them stank in the usual way. Luckily The Ninja Nomicon has a suggestion- to summon the American Dragon. With the help of the American Dragon and his ghost-busting friend, the famous ghost hero Phantom, Randy might just be able to handle this. If he can stop getting star-struck, that is.
Trivia[]
- All three members of the Secret Trio:
- Use shortened nicknames for their first names: "Danny" for Daniel, "Randy" for Randall, and "Jake" for Jacob.
- Have entered or even been trapped in dream-like worlds: Danny by Nocturn, and Randy trapped in a perpetual dream world by a Sorcerer Ball, and Jake entering a shared dream world to stop the Chimera.
- Can use a portion of their powers without the need to fully transform into their alter egos.
- Have been hypnotized or mind-controlled: Danny by Freakshow and Ember Mclain, Randy briefly by Amanda Levy (The Sorceress) and Viceroy's truth tone, and Jake by Vicky Fickling.
- Have had red eyes at some point: Randy in Ninja Rage mode, Jake with the Eye of the Dragon, and Danny when controlled by Freakshow.
- Have heat- or fire-based powers as one of their primary abilities: Danny’s pyrokinesis is green due to his ghostly nature and often used in conjunction with his Ghost Rays, Jake can breathe fire as a dragon, and Randy can perform fire attacks and infuse objects and weapons with fire using his Ninja Rage technique.
- All of their best friends have also temporarily acquired powers: Howard as The Ninja for a day, Tucker in his ghost form, and Spud acquiring magical abilities from a magical frog.
- Have switched bodies with another person: Danny with Sidney Poindexter, Randy with his friend Howard, and Jake with his sister Haley.
- Have time traveled: Jake with the Uchrono Hourglass, Danny with a Time Medallion, and Randy with the Time McChine.
- Have faced off against an evil version of themselves: Danny Phantom against Dark Danny, Jake against Evil Jake and Randy against NomiRandy.
- Frequently mess up and cause problems thanks to teenage arrogance that commonly comes with their powers.
- Have a sixth sense or enhanced senses used in battle: Danny's Ghost Sense, which detects nearby ghosts; Jake's Eye and Ear of the Dragon techniques; and all five of Randy's Super Senses.
- Are close to pure good, fighting villains who are nearly pure evil: for Jake, the Dark Dragon; for Danny, Dark Danny; and for Randy, Evil Julian. These evil enemies all also have moral agency issues.
- Frequently come up against bullies inspired by Marvel Comics' iconic Flash Thompson: Dash Baxter for Danny, Brad Mort for Jake, and Bash Johnson for Randy.
- Randy is the only member of the trio:
- With no exploitable weakness to his powers; Jake's Dragon Powers are cancelled out by Sphinx Hair, Danny's Ghost Powers can be cancelled out by Anti-Ghost Tech, Blood Blossoms and Ecto-Ranium, while nothing is yet known to cancel out Randy's magic ninja suit.
- Who has broken the fourth-wall.
- Whose parents have never been seen on screen.
- Jake Long is the only one of the trio:
- To have a known canon middle name, "Luke"
- To have aged throughout his series, being 13 in season one 14 in season two.
- To reside in a non-fictional city.
- Both Jake and Danny:
- Have the ability to create clones of themselves.
- Are half-human and half-supernatural being.
- Have sisters, while Randy is an only child.
- Have a best friend who acts as the tech of the team and assist them in hacking.
- Both Danny and Randy:
- Have very powerful abilities, the Ghostly Wail and Ninja Rage Mode respectively.
- Have contrasting elemental abilities, Randy's Ninja Rage being fire-based and Danny's Cryokinesis ice-based.
- Have been to outer space.
- Have had blue, red, and green eyes at various points. Danny's are naturally blue, green in ghost form, and red under Freakshow’s control; Randy's are also naturally blue, red (and later yellow) in Ninja Rage mode and green under the evil Sorcerer ball's influence.
- Were forced to fight their best friends influenced by supernatural substances; Tucker once transformed into an evil halfa by Desiree and was once possessed by the Scarab Scepter; Sam once transformed into a dragon after being enraged while wearing Dorathea's amulet and turned evil when she fell under Undergrowth's control; whereas for Randy, Howard turned into a bird demon after being possessed by the Tengu, mutated into a soupsicle addicted monster after consuming way too many soupsicles, and turned into a mad genius after consuming a batch of McBubbleSlam contaminated with some of Viceroy's super genius juice.
- Use a deep heroic voice in their hero forms to address the public, though tend to forget them in the heat of battle.
- Temporarily gave up their hero status after being upstaged by false heroes. (Master Blasters and Lucius O'Thunderpunch, respectively)
- Danny and Randy's archenemies Vlad Plasmius and Hannibal McFist also share various similarities, having been inspired by the DC comics supervillain Lex Luthor; they both run successful businesses, are wealthy, and are beloved and highly respected by their respective communities.
- Are high schoolers, while Jake attended middle school (although by the end of his series he graduated middle school).
- Both Jake and Randy:
- Have their respective instrumental theme songs as their ringtones.
- Are physically athletic when compared to Danny, at least in his human form.
- Use their titles as their "hero names"; Danny is the only member with a true hero name.
Gallery[]
