Accidental Pornomancer

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Wolverine: I've seen it. In bar after bar. Whatever women want, that guy's got it.
Storm: Ugh! And he can keep it!

Gambit: What the hell are they--AAGH!
The X-Men discuss this trope in Herc #8. And keep in mind, this is Gambit and Wolverine talking. Just... think about that a bit.


An Accidental Pornomancer is a character who seems unable to avoid sex, particularly in situations where most people (themselves included) would find it awkward, Squickish, immoral or impractical.

This trope is usually what you get if you try to blend a Nice Guy with The Pornomancer. Most of the time, (or at least, for the convenience of the plot), sex is something that just happens to the Accidental Pornomancer, and their desire is completely inconsequential. Most often, the implications are completely glossed over, but assuming the character reacts to this unlikely situation at all, it is usually with dismay ("I don't think we're supposed to be doing this..."), confusion ("I don't get it, what's the big deal about me?"), apathy ("Sure, whatever."), deflection ("It's not my fault! I had to do it!"), resignation (*sigh* "Alright, you win. Your place or mine?"), or complete obliviousness ("Uh, yeah, sure, I slept with a different girl everyday this month. Doesn't everybody?"). Perhaps s/he really enjoys the sex when it happens, but promises that last time was the last time. Except for the next time.

In theory, it's the perfect escapist fantasy: the hero isn't "perverted" because sex isn't something they were particularly after and/or this scenario isn't something most people would even want. They aren't womanizing or slutting, because they just couldn't say no for any number of reasons and, optionally, the sex was portrayed awkwardly. If they weren't a seducer or pervert, you get to write plenty of Power Fantasy, but your hero can still be an Audience Surrogate. Further, if all the sex they have is awkward, you have an excuse for why Everybody Has Lots of Sex but the characters still feel insecure about it. Because of this, the Accidental Pornomancer is nearly Always Male. If you swap genders, this is may be Played for Drama or portrayed negatively due to Unfortunate Implications and Double Standards. While the guy will be admired or seen as "lucky", the rare female version of this trope is usually an innocent being victimized or a ditzy, "easy" Slut.

Also, while the setup for this trope is the same as an Unwanted Harem, where it differs is that in the Harem Genre, the hero is usually chaste until the end. This hero sees action at some point during the story, and usually doesn't have to put in any work.

As such, this trope is prevalent in a lot of Pornography, Hentai, Ecchi, and H-Games.

For more information on the subject, check out the Analysis page.

Subtrope to Chick Magnet and Really Gets Around. Sometimes overlaps with sister trope, So Beautiful It's a Curse. In-universe, this is often confused for Playing Hard to Get, but the difference is that the Accidental Pornomancer actually doesn't seek any attention.

Contrast Celibate Hero and Chaste Hero, which this subverts.

No real life examples, please; All The Tropes is not a gossip site.

Examples of Accidental Pornomancer include:


Advertising

  • A recurring trope in advertising. Some unremarkable (perhaps even otherwise unattractive) Joe tries out the product being promoted, and the next thing he knows, he can't beat the women off with a stick.
    • The 60s commercials for Hai Karate spring to mind.
    • Also this was treated humorously in a Sir Walter Raliegh pipe tobacco commercial of the same era. When the hero switched to that tobacco, he proclaimed "The chicks are back; ... the chicks are BACK!" When the camera pulled back, he was being followed by a cheeping herd of fluffy yellow baby chicks.

Anime and Manga

  • Aki Sora. Full stop. Sora is extremely shy, effeminate, delicate, and socially awkward. And yet, he gets to have sex with some gorgeous woman almost every issue. Granted, he does have one regular lover, but every other woman he's with either rapes him, tricks him into sex, coerces him, or motivates him into pity sex.
  • Deconstructed in Okane ga Nai. Ayase is So Beautiful It's a Curse, which leads to him becoming a Sex Slave. He struggles with his feelings about it throughout the series.
  • Itou Makoto of School Days. He suddenly gets the attention of all the female main characters, and while he does want the attention and gives in, he never really does anything to actually get their attention. Eventually deconstructed and subverted when his refusal to support Sekai's supposed pregnancy ends in the girls rejecting him just as easily and ultimately his death.

Comic Books

  • Dick Grayson, Depending on the Writer. Sometimes, Dick Grayson is shown to be a smooth Chivalrous Pervert who knows full well what he's doing. Other times, Dick just has a hard time saying no and keeping it in his pants. You could also make the argument that in the latter times, he's Obfuscating Stupidity. But, in any case, he's damn good at it.
    • Case in point, during a particular storyarc, Dick was lusted after by the Anti-Hero (or, perhaps more accurately, flat out villain) The Tarantula. During a particularly bad case of Heroic BSOD, Tarantula strips a traumatized and lost Grayson and immediately has sex with him, despite the fact that he's protesting the whole time. Not only is this glossed over in the story for quite some time, even the writer herself claimed that this was just "nonconsensual" sex and that he wasn't exactly raped.
  • The Hulk. Ho-LEE crap. The Hulk "just wants to be left alone", but to date, the guy has had three wives, three offspring, several casual flings (including being raped by an Extradimensional Queen/EldritchAbomination on two separate occasions), and many more women who value him for his strength.
  • The X-Men character Longshot is all about this, thanks to his bizarre mix of naivete and willingness to try anything twice. Everyone from Rogue to Dazzler has thrown themselves at him at least once, to his puzzled acceptance.
    • You could chalk it up to his powers, which amount to him being super-lucky. In everything.
  • Hercules fits under this trope as well, when he isn't being an actual Pornomancer. Take, for example, Herc #8, in which Hercules is enslaved by The Queen Of Spider-Island and receives the powers of Spider-Man as well as the ability to transform into a Spider-centaurid. As a Brainwashed and Crazy Herc battles the X-Men, the mythological Arachne (who is half-spider) comes to Herc's rescue . . . and then realizes that his new form is exactly what she needs . . .
  • Spider-Man. Sorta. During a particularly weird storyarc, he is pursed by The Queen, a sexy insectoid supervillainess. At one point, she captures and kisses Spidey, which somehow impregnates him. (To the story's credit, this is treated as horrific for our hero.) He later dies and is resurrected almost immediately after by giving birth to himself. Yeah. We warned you this story was weird.
  • Conan: Nearly every woman the barbarian meets wants to jump his bones, and some are less savory about it than others. Many a wicked empress or sorceress has tried to enslave Conan through coercion or Mind Control, and it hasn't worked out well for any of them.
  • This seemed to be the case with the title character from Young Captain Adventure in the short-lived Penthouse Comix line. The guy was an atypical "classic" hero trying to live up to the ideals his family set forth, but it seemed every time he tried to resulted in rather rough sex with rival-hero Hericane.

Fan Works

  • Beating the Heat: The Mane 6 are suddenly a lot more attractive to the stallions around Ponyville. Some are more pleased about it than others.

Film

  • Indiana Jones, at least in regards to his students, some of whom are minors. It's shown that Indy tends to try and ignore their advances, but at the same time, it's implied that he's given in more than once.

Literature

  • Anita Blake is a female example, and has all those Unfortunate Implications the description mentions. Though she gets to insist it's not her fault since it's because of her accidentally acquired succubus powers that make her have to or she'll die.

Live-Action TV

  • Brittany in Glee. It is implied that she had slept with nearly every guy in the school, yet you never see her trying, and she doesn't seem to realize how unusual this is.
  • Randy in My Name Is Earl borders on this trope; much to everyone's surprise, he turns out to be very good in bed during his green card marriage, but he doesn't seem to know this about himself. As a result, though, he doesn't Really Get Around much during the series.
  • This seems to be the default programming of Warren's sexbots on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • Deconstructed to horrific effect with the premise of Dollhouse, where the "dolls" are selected for physical attractriveness and repeatedly brainwashed and mindwiped, meaning that they become the dream lover of a variety of clients while never quite knowing or remembering afterwards. For the clients, this means a lover who will indulge their worst fantasies and never remember afterwards, as in their mindwiped "doll" state, they're all childlike amnesiacs. Or at least that's how it's supposed to work.
  • Dr. Chase on House...sorta. It's been shown on occasion that he can't turn off women even when he's trying.
  • Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Though Will himself is definitely a Casanova, there has been an occasional story about a woman who just wouldn't take no for an answer, or whom sleeping with was just an all-around bad idea. His girlfriend's mother, for example.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

  • In The Bible:
  • In Greek Mythology:
    • Hercules, even moreso than his comic book interpretation above. During his Twelve Labors, he slept with King Thespius's daughters (all fifty of them). Some accounts state this was one of his labors, other accounts say that this was the only way to secure the King's assistance (because the King wanted grandchildren) and some accounts say that the reward for his deeds was...doing the deed.
    • Odysseus, during his quest to return home from the Trojan War. He gets shipwrecked twice and is forced to become the love slave of both Circe and Calypso respectively. This is treated relatively seriously; though Odysseus could only admit that both of his lovers were more attractive than his wife Penelope, the only thing he really wanted was to return to his One True Love.

Video Games

  • Fable: You, if you have trouble keeping it in your pants. So long as you're amicable and nice (and sometimes, even if you're not), you're guaranteed to have at least one NPC eager to roll in the hay with you even if you weren't really trying.
  • Alistair of Dragon Age. Alistair starts as a virgin and is rather clueless in regards to women, but during the course of one playthrough, you can help him bed the pirate queen Isabela, Queen Anora, his hated rival Morrigan, and yourself, provided that you "harden" him (EMOTIONALLY) first.

Web Comics

  • Gary of Ménage à 3 looks to be heading this way after starting out as an Unlucky Everydude. Turns out he's got a hidden talent for cunnilingus. Who knew?