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The hero makes it uncomfortably plain that they value the life of their [[Love Interest]] over those of everyone else: friends, [[Thicker Than Water|family]], [[True Companions]], or even all other life in the universe. Can come about as the result of a [[Sadistic Choice]], only having enough time to rescue one person out of several, or whatever other requirements the plot puts in their way and well, plainly making a decision.
 
As long as the hero [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]] or at least [[Dirty Business|shows a decent amount of angst]] over the decision, the audience ''may'' sympathize. But the hero will seem to suffer from [[Moral Dissonance]] if he makes the choice a little too easily, or if the exchange of life is ridiculously high. It can go full-on [[Wall Banger (Darth Wiki)|Wall Banger]] if the couple in question were [[Strangled by the Red String]] or [[The Dulcinea Effect|if they've only known each other for a short time]]. Then again, it could also be done in such a way that makes the audience feel [[Kick the Son of a Bitch|the hometown/nation/world deserved it]] [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|for relentlessly abusing the hero.]]
 
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.
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** {{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.
* ''[[MaiMy-HiME]]'', when Mai's Most Important Person is revealed to be Yuuichi. Instead of, say, her little brother, who up until now seemed to be her top priority.
** 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}}.
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== Films -- Animation ==
* In ''[[The Castle of Cagliostro|The Castleof Cagliostro]]'', Lupin's original intention is a simple snatch and grab of the high-quality plates used to make near perfect counterfeit bills, then a pretty girl is chased past him by bad men with guns and the movie happens.
* Disney's ''[[Hercules (Disney1997 film)||Hercules]]'' pulls this {{spoiler|with Hercules giving of his powers to make Megara safe. It leads to [[Fridge Horror]] when you consider what would have happened if an unlucky accident hadn't killed Megara and returned his powers.}}
 
 
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* ''[[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.
** In ''[[GoldeneyeGoldenEye (film)|GoldenEye]]'' he subverts this trope by telling Janus to [[What the Hell, Hero?|go ahead and kill]] [[Heroes Want Redheads|Natalya]], but this is actually a [[Batman Gambit]]. Of course, he ends up saving 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}}.
* In ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice|The Sorcerers Apprentice]]'', despite knowing the consequences of doing so, [[The Apprentice (trope)||Dave]] {{spoiler|gives up the Grimhold and Merlin's ring}} to save Becky. Despite the consequences, Balthazar admits that he would have done the same.
* ''[[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.
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** 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.
* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Buck Rogers in Thethe 25th Century]]'': the Evil Alien Computer put Buck through having to choose between Wilma Deering and Hawk (an alien from a Proud Warrior Race of birdmen). He chose Hawk because he guessed that Wilma was really a double put in by the Evil Alien Computer because the ''real'' Wilma Derring wouldn't have been such a wuss.
* ''[[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.
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* ''[[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.}}
* It's very easy to see this in ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]] 2'', as Jim Raynor's interal conflict about what to do about the controlled/infested Kerrigan is obvious, and thus even though the Queen of Blades "murdered 8 billion people" as Raynor says himself, he is still haunted by the propect of getting her old self back. {{spoiler|That is, until Raynor's Raiders and the Moebius Foundation manage to use a Xel'nagan artifact to cure Kerrigan, and infestation is normally 100% incurable because it "mutates too fast"}}.
* ''[[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]].}}
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[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]
[[Category:Always Save the Girl{{PAGENAME}}]]
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