Always Save the Girl: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}

{{quote|'''Majesty:''' Burn the whole city... that's pretty extreme for the life of one woman.

 

 

 

Another ridiculous aspect is that ''only'' the hero can rescue his [[Love Interest]]. The hero is [[Strong as They Need to Be|able to rescue her]] while allies who should be more efficient are helpless.

 

See also [[Hostage for Macguffin]]. Contrast [[Duty First, Love Second]].

 

* The ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga features a subversion. Ed's [[Love Interest]] is used as a hostage by one of the more [[Ax Crazy]] villains in the story, who tells him to obey some murderous orders from the military higher ups. Ed seems to comply pretty quickly, but in reality he is already planning to [[Take a Third Option]].

** Also averted when {{spoiler|a villain attempts to force [[Colonel Badass|Roy Mustang]] to attempt human transmutation by having a mook [[Kick the Dog|cut]] [[Action Girl|Riza]] [[Bodyguard Crush|Hawkeye's]] throat; recognizing an eye signal from the wounded Hawkeye, Mustang realizes that if he saves her, not only will he lose limbs or organs and become the last tool the [[Big Bad]] needs to bring about the end of the world, Hawkeye will kill him. He refuses. Unfortunately, even after a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment, the villain's bosses manage to somehow force him to do human transmutation against his will.}}

** {{spoiler|The town and its people were fake, things ended up okay (sort of), and he really didn't have a choice in the matter anyway.}}

* The end of ''[[Slayers|Slayers NEXT]]'', when Lina chooses to cast a spell that's probably going to wipe out the entire universe just to save Gourry. On the other hand, considering what type of morally questionable person she already is, this is a lot less unusual for her. It didn't help that Lina would have been killed if she didn't cast it, and that she had been severely psychologically abused by this point. Lina did not cast the spell the first time Gourrys life had been threatened. She only broke after the villain revealed that he could still be saved.

** Then again, Takumi was already ''Akira's'' Most Important Person.

** While Mai is gradually becoming closer to Yuuichi, Takumi is trying to become independent from Mai, which upsets her and slightly downgrades his importance. Natsuki suggests that Takumi was Mai's Most Important person at first, but Yuuichi replaced him {{spoiler|before Takumi died}}.

** This is deconstructed, like so many other tropes in the series' manga spinoff. {{spoiler|At the end of the manga, Homura, Mami, and Kyoko are all alive, and neither Madoka or Sayaka had to sign Kyubey's contract. Then a witch kills Madoka and Homura decides to press the [[Reset Button]] again, despite the fact that she's pretty much achieved the [[Golden Ending]]. In the main series, this is eventually [[Reconstructed]] when Homura's perseverance finally pays off and Madoka uses her wish to rewrite reality.}}

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', Sango's inability to live without Miroku shows how damaged she really is after losing everything she loved, and she'll do anything, ''[[What the Hell, Hero?|anything]]'', to save him. {{spoiler|When she fails, she finally gives up and asks to die with him.}}

* Deconstructed in the [[Rescue Arc|Conviction Arc]] of ''[[Berserk]]''. Guts saves Casca from being {{spoiler|[[Burn the Witch|burned at the stake as a witch]] by [[Light Is Not Good|Bishop Mozgus]] [[Torture Technician|and his henchmen]], who are being backed by all of the citizens [[Gullible Lemmings|who blindly follow whatever he says just to save themselves from damnation]]. They want to burn her because they think she is responsible for the influx of monsters and evil spirits around St. Albion and, well, technically they're correct, since the Brand of the Sacrifice on Casca's breast attracts evil spirits that are nearby.}} But Guts, being her [[Love Interest]] and thus [[I Will Protect Her|vowing to protect her]], doesn't give two shits about what will happen so long he and Casca survive at the end of it all. He pretty much tells Mozgus and the refugees to go fuck themselves.

* [[This Ugly Yet Beautiful World]]: Hikari is {{spoiler|the anthropomorphic personification of extinction}}. Takeru is {{spoiler|a mutation born to stop her}}. And he still does everything in his power to protect her, consequences be damned. Granted he doesn't know either of those facts for most of the series, but even after he learns the truth it doesn't change anything.

* ''[[Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest]]'' has Inugami the hero who's biggest [[Berserk Button]] is if someone messes with Aoshika. Haguro did in a huge way and now he's gonna pay.

 

* Extremely subverted in ''[[Sin City]]: The Big Fat Kill'', Dwight McCarthy offers Jackie Boy's head to Manute (which will allow Manute to tie Jackie Boy's death to Old Town) in exchange for Gail. Dwight's stuffed the head with explosives and as soon as it's in Manute's hands, blows it up as dozens of Old Town girls show up on the rooftops, raining bullets into the alley, killing Manute and all his men.

* Also extremely subverted in ''[[Ultimate Fantastic Four]]'' during the ''Ultimatum'' storyline. {{spoiler|Reed Richards chooses to confront Doctor Doom and save the world at large, abandoning his dying girlfriend, Sue. Eventually, she calls him out for it and breaks up with him. He explains that he made the "logical" choice, as saving the world would ultimately mean saving her as well. Sue remarks that she always felt that their love ''defied'' logic, and leaves him.}}

* Absolutely subverted at the end of the Argentine comic book [[El Eternauta]] (the second volume). After blowing up the [[Supervillain Lair|enemy headquarters]], the hero flies to help [[La Résistance]]. When he arrives to the war scene, he must choose to help either his wife and daughter at one side of the battlefield, or the bulk of the women and children of the small population of [[Dying Race|last remaining humans]]. He goes for the later and saves them, but by the time he can go to help his wife and daughter, they [[Downer Ending|have died]].

 

* The Joker is ''counting'' on this in ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', as he {{spoiler|tells Batman the two hostages' locations backwards to ensure that he saves Dent even though he wanted to save the girl}}.

* Also ''[[Batman Forever]]'', but subverted as Batman knows he wouldn't be able to save either the girl or Robin, then he goes and saves both anyway because he's [[Charles Atlas Superpower|just that good]].

** ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'' play with the trope. Anakin finally accept to continue the more important mission while Padmé seems to be hurt. But when a clone trooper rescue her, she can rise without even taking his hand.

** Deconstructed in ''[[Star Wars|Revenge of the Sith]]''. Anakin Skywalker turns to the Dark Side, kills off all the Jedi, and turns a Republic into an Empire to save the life of his wife Padme Amidala. She dies anyways, and he likely caused her death through a self-fulfilling prophecy, as he Force Chokes her when, after confronting him over his actions, Obi-Wan arrives, having snuck onto the ship.

* ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]''

** In ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me]]'', 007 chooses to defy his superiors to save Anya Amasova from the villain's lair, which is about to be torpedoed by the navy. Considering that she said she would kill him as soon as the mission was over, this proves that he really did love her.

* A gender flip of this occurs in the 2010 version of ''[[The Wolf Man]]''. Gwen protects Lawrence from the police in the hopes of finding a cure... even though this almost certainly means someone innocent is going to get killed or savaged by a werewolf.

* Subverted in ''[[Plunkett and Macleane]]'' when despite {{spoiler|Plunkett's warnings he'll be captured, Macleane attempts to to go back and save Lady Rebbecca despite the risks. It is a trap and General Chance is waiting to arrest him}}.

* ''[[A Boy and His Dog]]'' {{spoiler|averts this pretty darned hard in the last ten minutes.}} It makes for one of the best movie endings ever put on film.

* In ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]'', Detective Del Spooner's ([[Will Smith]]) hatred of robots stems from a traffic accident where his car and the car of a little girl and her father was thrown into a river. A passing robot leapt into the river to help. The girl's father was killed on impact and both cars were rapidly filling with water. The robot choose to save Spooner as he had a higher chance of survival (34% to 11%) than the girl had. Saving Spooner was the "logical" choice, something that Spooner, to put it mildly, didn't agree with. In a [[Flash Back]], Spooner can be seen begging the robot to save the girl instead of him.

* In the [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|MST3Ked]] film ''[[The Magic Sword]]'', a young prince leads a band of knights on a quest to rescue his lady love. All the knights are killed along the way. At no point does anyone even mention that fact that several good men have died to save a single life and several more are likely to before the thing is done.

** Pretty much the same thing happens in ''[[Krull]]''. At least the prince manages to kill a horrible beast that would likely murder countless people if not stopped in the process (and a few of his allies survive), but it's clear that he's only in it to save the princess.

 

== Literature ==

* Subverted in [[Adam Hall]]'s [[Spy Fiction]] ''The Sinkiang Executive''. British spy [[Quiller]] murders an opposition agent that has him under routine surveillance, breaking the unwritten rule of the intelligence services and jeopardising the secrecy of the [[Government Agency of Fiction|Bureau]]. Apparently the agent had a peripheral involvement in the death of a local girl who helped Quiller on a previous mission; she was captured and an exchange offered—Quiller for the girl. Quiller agreed, the girl was released but Quiller didn't keep his side of the bargain, jumping on a plane to Austria instead. The girl was then tracked down and killed by the opposition in an act of revenge.

* ''[[Discworld]]''

* Subverted in Donald Hamilton's ''Matt Helm'' novels. The hero's professional standards don't allow him to jeopardize the mission for "irrelevant females."

* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]], Luke Skywalker is very protective of Mara Jade. [[Action Girl|Much to her annoyance.]] So much so to the point that {{spoiler|when she dies, Luke actually considers suicide and Ben has to (rather bluntly) talk him out of it.}}

* In ''[[Nightside|A Hard Day's Knight]]'', renegade knight Stark plans to hand Excaliber over to an evil incarnation of Merlin—one who's already decimated his own world, and will invade ours if he gets the sword—in exchange for the resurrection of his dead wife. {{spoiler|He eventually subverts this trope, but only because his wife's ghost calls him out on it, insisting that she'll kill herself again if he buys her life at such a price.}}

 

* [[The BBC]]'s ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'', when the outlaws and Marian are all taken hostage. Take a wild guess who Robin's the most afraid for. (Poor [[Bumbling Sidekick|Much]].)

** Happens again in Season Three in which all the outlaws abandon a house that has caught on fire in order to rush off and [[Damsel Scrappy|save Kate]]. One can only assume the villagers were not too impressed.

* Kira in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' found out about Odo's feelings about her when she encountered an alternate future where she had died when the ''Defiant'' crashed on a planet and the crew formed a town. The cast were subject to [[The Time Traveller's Dilemma]] as going back to change things would result in those being born in the town never existing. Odo pretty much committed chronocide, not just on himself but on the crew of the ''Defiant'' ''and their descendants'' without even thinking about it. Unlike many instances of this trope, however, Kira's knowledge of this would create a rift between them that would take months to heal.

** Worf in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' fails to save a Cardassian dissident because he goes back to save an injured Jadzia Dax (who dies anyway a few episodes later).

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor, particularly Ten, puts his companions (who are usually, if not always, young and female) before anyone else. Also the new Doctor Who series suggests that his companions represent his humanity in a universe full of mass death; as seen in "The Fires of Pompeii" when Donna convinces him to go back for one family among all those destroyed in Pompeii. It's mentioned some times that he feels responsible for them because it's his fault that they are in danger, since he brought them to wherever it is they are.

** As of Eleven, the Doctor has sacrificed three of his lives for a companion, two of them female.

** Next episode, she gets kidnapped by Scarrans with similar designs on wormhole knowledge, forcing Crichton into a deal with Scorpius—trading the wormhole knowledge for his help in rescuing her. Whoopsidaisy.

*** Incidentally, Crichton (and some fans) seem to believe that Scorpius wasn't fooled by the comm trick, and [[Magnificent Bastard|engineered the whole thing from beginning to end.]] Certainly he got all the information his big brain needed to puzzle out the truth during that same episode.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' is a rare subversion where the heroes are more concerned with their [[Heterosexual Life Partners|Heterosexual Life Partner]] than with any [[Love Interest]]s. Especially the moment in "All Hell Breaks Loose" where the hellgate opens: Sam, Ellen and Bobby try and shut it; Dean gets pinned to a grave by the Yellow-Eyed Demon, and Sam immediately goes to save his brother, leaving Ellen (who is a woman, but not a [[Love Interest]]) to try and shut one door by herself.

* ''[[Pushing Daisies]]:'' Ned keeps Chuck alive fully knowing someone else will die instead.

* On [[House (TV series)|House]], Foreman secretly switched Hadley from the placebo to the real drug in the drug trial he was working on, something that could end his career if it became known. Hadley was a bit weirded out by this, as they had only been dating for a couple of weeks.

** {{spoiler|When the drug gave Hadley a brain tumor and turned her blind}} he was all set to openly tell his supervisors about it. They got better.

* ''[[Angel]]'' nearly makes this choice when he learns that the only way to save Fred is to let hundreds of thousands of people die in her place. He initially spits out an angry "to hell with the world" and storms off to perform the ritual as the scene cuts away. When it returns, though, he's still standing at the threshold, unable to actually go through with it, and he finally, sadly turns away.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]]'', meanwhile, is willing to let the entire world die in torment to save Dawn. It doesn't fit on the surface, but [[Word of God]] says that Dawn was intended to fill the dramatic role of [[Love Interest]] from Season 5 on out.

* From ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' we have Guinevere on the one hand, and Camelot on the other. For Arthur, Merlin and all the Knights of the Round Table, Guinevere always comes first.

* Given a few twists in ''[[Babylon 5]]'': {{spoiler|The Vorlons send the Inquisitor to see if Delenn has the right stuff to be one of the [[Chosen One]]s in the fight against the [[Big Bad|Shadows]]. At the end of the episode the Inquisitor puts the life of her love interest, John Sheridan, on the line, saying that she can only save him by giving up her fight against the Shadows. She chooses to save him... and it turns out this is ''exactly'' what the Vorlons were looking for: "How do you know the [[Chosen One]]s? No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions. Not for glory, not for fame... For one person."}}

 

== Video Games ==

* Taken to a literal extreme in the ending of 2008 version of ''[[Prince of Persia]]'', where {{spoiler|the Prince releases the very same god of darkness he just sealed in order to revive his female sidekick Elika -- who was ''the person he was helping to seal that god in the first place''.}}

** Not only that, but the whole reason they were doing anything to begin with is that {{spoiler|he was not the first person to do that}}.

* A moment in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'' which garnered a lot of fan hatred towards Otacon was when Snake has just forced his way past the {{spoiler|microwaves}} and is not only half-dead but ''[[Say My Name|screaming Otacon's name]]'', and Otacon doesn't react. The second {{spoiler|Naomi}} shows up in the video, Otacon [[Strangled by the Red String|starts crying hysterically and performs a symbolic hand-touch with her image]]. He'd [[The Dulcinea Effect|known her for a week at absolute maximum]] and most likely a day, they'd had a [[Sex Equals Love|one-night stand]], and she'd then screwed him over royally and was betraying her actual partner to do it - yet Snake had been unfailingly and fiercely loyal to him ever since the moment they'd met ''nine years ago''. It seemed powerfully unfair for sudden romantic love to be held in higher esteem than an incredibly deep and loving friendship that had been developed over the course of the series.

** It has been speculated that the writers did this in order to [[Ship Sinking|sink the Snake/Otacon ship]]. Still doesn't make it right.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' has a heartbreaking example, though it can be avoided by multiple ways, like [[Taking a Third Option|accepting the deal]] that Morrigan offers near the end of the game. Still, if {{spoiler|a female Warden romanced Alistair, he chooses to deliver the final blow to the Archdemon, killing himself in the process because he won't let the woman he loves die. [[Tear Jerker|And no, he can't be persuated out of his decision.]]}}

** The sequel lets your ''[[Player Character]]'' do this, if you romance {{spoiler|Anders. You can let him live after he blows up the Chantry...despite all the fallout that comes with the decision, such as Sebastian swearing vengeance.}}

* ''[[Golden Sun]]'' gives us Felix's big [[Establishing Character Moment]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|of Awesome]] at Venus Lighthouse: standing up to the endbosses over Sheba (''at Level 5!''), then ''jumping off the top of the Lighthouse'' to save her when she falls off, endangering himself {{spoiler|and the mission to restore Alchemy to the world}} twice for the sake of some girl he implicitly just met.

* ''[[.hack|.hack//GU]]'' has this as a central theme in the story. [[Anti-Hero]] Haseo makes it clear right [[Establishing Character Moment|from the beginning]] that he intends to revive his comatose girlfriend Shino and doesn't care what he has to destroy in the process. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|This causes a LOT of problems]], though [[What the Hell, Hero?|Haseo mostly doesn't care]]... [[Character Development|at first]]. Haseo's own character arc is, briefly put, his learning that although [[Reconstructed Trope|saving Shino is still important]] his friends and the other players matter too. {{spoiler|[[All Love Is Unrequited|Ironically, not only did Shino]] [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|see him as]] [[Just Friends]], [[Multiple Endings|he probably doesn't even end up with her anyway]].}}

* In [[Fable III]], at the beginning of the story you can choose between saving your childhood friend and/or lover, or saving a group of protesters who are dissatisfied with your older brother's regime. To make things worse if you're considering choosing the former, your childhood friend will practically beg you to choose him/her, while the protesters will grovel for their lives as you make your decision.

 

* ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'', in spades. For Shirou, protecting the woman he loves (whether he's aware yet that he loves her or not) trumps everything else. We see it with Saber and Rin in the first two routes, but above all with {{spoiler|Sakura}} in the third route, Heaven's Feel. In this storyline, the girl in question presents an enormous danger to the world, and Shirou must choose between killing her (to save many others) and protecting her no matter what destruction she causes (in violation of his cherished ideals). Assuming you don't go for the [[Bad End]], Shirou chooses the girl.

** To make things worse, she knows and realises this, and is desperately torn between wanting Shirou and wanting Shirou to be happy. Inevitably she can only sit and watch as he throws away his ideals in order to save her. {{spoiler|He does end up both with her ''and'' happy, though, in the true ending}}.

*** {{spoiler|Saber}} seems to suffer of this in general. In Heaven's Feel, {{spoiler|while not perfectly accurate since she's not the girl in this path, she's still the only girl you can't save. Ilya survives in the Normal Ending and Rin and Sakura survive in both. Saber? Try to save her and you get a Bad End.}}

*** {{spoiler|The worst Bad End in the entire series, no less.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

** In the first case, the choice is not between Agatha and Europa, but between kidnapping Agatha so that Baron Wulfenbach can ensure that she isn't {{spoiler|the Other}}, probably killing any chance of a relationship, and taking the chance that she is (in which case both Europa and relationship are doomed) in order to preserve the chance to have a relationship with her if she isn't. Of course, he ends up [[Taking a Third Option]].

* In the beginning of ''[[The Dreamer]]'', Alan infiltrates Gen. Howe's ship and rescues Beatrice.

* Parodied in ''[[Boy Meets Boy]].'' Cy, while having a [[Tuxedo and Martini]]-flavored dream, is given the choice to either save his "obligatory [[Love Interest]]" from a [[Death Trap]] or stop the villain's doomsday device. Since he knows that it's [[All Just a Dream]], he decides to go with the [[Love Interest]], figuring that he can at least [[Erotic Dream|get some action]] before the world ends. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for him, he soon learns that his dream [[Homoerotic Dream|has cast Skids as the LoveInterest.]]}}

 

== Web Original ==

'''Selena''': What if the Lord of Dark had me prisoner, and threatened to kill me unless you -

'''Hirou''': Good. }}

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Code Lyoko]]'': [[Smart Guy|Jérémie]] rescues Aelita from drowning. Ulrich, the most athletic of the group, is there the entire time.

* While obviously not a [[Love Interest]], the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super Heroes]]'' animated series has Superman's [[Darker and Edgier]] clone from the future (further in the future than the setting of LOSH) protecting a boy who is being targeted by assassins. Turns out they're from the future, too. The boy will grow up to be largely responsible for the existence of [[Big Bad]] Imperiex. It was to show how ruthless "Superman X" ''isn't'' anymore, when he decides the ends don't justify the means and chooses saving the kid over preventing Imperiex's rise.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Love Tropes]]

[[Category:Drama Tropes]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]