Always Save the Girl: Difference between revisions

 

See also [[Hostage for Macguffin]]. Contrast [[Loved I Not Honor More]].

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* Played very straight by Shinji in ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'': "I don't care what happens to me... I don't even care what happens to the world... but I'm bringing Rei back! I'll promise I'll save you Rei, '''EVEN IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!!!'''" In classic Evangelion form, saving her means ''killing everyone in the world''. Oops. {{spoiler|Thankfully, the world is saved at the last moment by none other than Kaworu.}}

** In the [[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Original Series]], this is the motivation of [[Generation Xerox|Gendo]].

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', just like everything else, takes this trope and cranks it past absurdity all the way into heartbreaking. While there is the excuse of having to fight off the evil swarm, the last few episodes boil down to Simon's perfect willingness to march into Hell to come for Nia. Even when it costs {{spoiler|him enough energy to create detritus galaxies and fill the cockpit with blood, the lives of the Gurren Brigade, and comes close to destroying the universe.}} That's some Goddamned love.

** Of course, this only happens in ''Lagann-hen''. In the anime, there's a lot less blood.

* {{spoiler|Akemi Homura}} of ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' is revealed to have this mindset. Happily, saving the girl in question also coincides with saving the world {{spoiler|by ensuring she'll never turn into a [[Cosmic Horror Story|super-powerful, world-destroying Witch]]}}. [[Tear Jerker|Sadly, however]], {{spoiler|it's not as easy as it sounds, even with [[Groundhog Day Loop|multiple attempts]]. She's even had to ''[[Shoot the Dog|Shoot]]''/''[[Mercy Kill]]'' [[Shoot the Dog|The Girl]] once.}}

** 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.}}

* [[To Aru Majutsu no Index (Anime)|Accelerator]] doesn't care if you're an angel, an esper, or the entire world's militaries combined; he won't let ''anything'' happen to Last Order.

* 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.

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

** In ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me (Film)|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 (Film)|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 fact, the entire plot of ''Changes'' (as well as most of the preceding books' Red Court-related events) only happens because of people taking advantage of this trait of Harry's. His being the handiest [[Unwitting Pawn]] around is a major reason people he cares about get in danger.

** In ''Ghost Story'' {{spoiler|Uriel calls attention to the consequences his actions in ''Changes'' have had for just one other person he cares about to point out that, basically, this trope is a really stupid approach, while Harry considers some of the [[Evil Power Vacuum|global effects]] of his actions that he might have avoided if he'd been less reckless.}}

* In the ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' series, this trope basically sums up how {{spoiler|Snape responded to Lily being in danger. He was happy being a Death Eater until Voldemort targeted Lily (and her husband and child, but he wasn't concerned about them). In this case, the trope worked for good, motivating Snape's [[Heel Face Turn]] as Voldemort could not have been expected to spare Lily since [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]].}}

** Subverted in ''Deathly Hallows''. Harry worries about Ginny's safety while she's at a Hogwarts run by Death Eaters, but resists the urge to go find her because finding the last horcruxes were more important. Played with later, when Harry pauses in chasing Voldemort to save Ginny from Bellatrix after the latter nearly hits the former with a killing curse. {{spoiler|Before he can do anything, ''[[Mama Bear|Molly Weasley]]'' takes down Bellatrix.}}

** River Song takes this trope to extremes, disintegrating ''Time itself'' to keep from killing {{spoiler|the Doctor}}.

** Amy gets in on it too. To hell with time and space, Amy Pond wants to be with her husband.

** {{spoiler|makes it doubly ironic then that Jack later gives up his grandson's life for the sake of humanity's children. Ianto had at least signed up for the danger. Jack's grandson hadn't.}}

* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' makes this brutally clear at around the middle of the fourth and final season. Scorpius is on the ship and John is convinced he's only there because he craves the wormhole knowledge in John's head. So far over past seasons, Scorpius threatening John, his family, even the entirety of Earth hasn't made John give in. Meanwhile Aeryn, angry that she has done everything she can think of to tell him that she wants a relationship with him, confronts him on his emotional deadness... and John performs a neat trick that shuts down the comms long enough for him to explain that, yes, he'd let anything else be destroyed, but Aeryn {{spoiler|and her child}}? Not in this universe. But if Scorpius knew that, he'd come after her ''immediately'' and he won't let that happen.

 

== Video Games ==

** One ''particular'' option (Rome) is to either save the day, or save the girl. If you save the day, everyone tells you that you did the right thing, but Mike is still racked with guilt about it. If you save the girl, everyone tells you that you did the ''wrong'' thing, ''including the girl that you saved''. And Mike is racked with guilt about it. And [[The Bad Guy Wins]] either way.

* ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' (2009). Depressingly so, especially since it's subverted after the end of the DLC.

** Not only that, {{spoiler|there's literally [[Failure Is the Only Option|NO WAY to save her]] -- you go to save her, she's a decoy and the real Trish is among the doctors. You save the doctors, she's the real Trish.}}

* Partially subverted in ''[[The Dig]]''. When {{spoiler|Maggie Robbins dies}} towards the end of the game, Boston Low can {{spoiler|resurrect her using the crystals}} against good sense, and breaking your promise to her. If you choose to do this, she will {{spoiler|commit suicide, die again and hate your guts forever}}. At the end of the game, the {{spoiler|Cocytans will resurrect her and Brink}}, and her attitude towards you will depend on your choice.

** And if you start a new game in ''[[Mass Effect]] 2'' without [[Old Save Bonus|importing a save]], the default is always the crewmember of the opposite sex being saved.

** And Paragon!Shepard is a lot nicer about it than most examples of this trope, possibly giving Ashley a bit of a speech on how {{spoiler|she shouldn't blame herself for Kaidan's death, but should blame Saren instead for forcing you to choose}}.

{{quote| '''Juno:''' I've been branded a traitor to [[The Empire]]. I can't go anywhere, do anything.<br />

'''Starkiller:''' I don't care about any of that. I'm leaving [[The Empire]] behind. }}

* ''[[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 ''[[Starcraft]] 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 (Video Game)|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.

* In [[Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors]], {{spoiler|the ''entire plot'' is centered around Junpei saving Akane from dying as a child, to the point where ''she'' set it up that way. Though to be fair, if Junpei succeeds in this, it leads to the ending where every single person who possibly can be saved is saved.}}

* At the [[Road Cone]] in ''[[Radiata Stories (Video Game)|Radiata Stories]]'', Jack can choose to play this straight or avert it. Deciding to help Ridley {{spoiler|brings about the destined end of humanity but leaves Jack with Ridley}}, while deciding to stay behind to aid the kingdom {{spoiler|saves the human race at the cost of Ridley's life and Jack deciding to wander the earth a bit.}}

* In the animated movie ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'': Secret of the Omnitrix, Ben willfully activates the omnitrix to save Gwen, When he is warned that doing so will speed up the destruction of the universe he answers "I don't care!"

* In the recently released ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' DVD, {{spoiler|Steve Trevor saves Diana (a.k.a. Wonder Woman!) from certain death at the hands of Ares, the God of War. She then slaps him, tells him she would rather have died and he saved the world, and sulks}}.

** A villainous example in "Deep Freeze"; Mr. Freeze encounters a crazed mogul, Grant Walker, who wants to use his technology to freeze the entire planet, killing everyone except those on his island. In exchange for his cooperation, Walker offers to revive Freeze's wife. Freeze is willing to go along with the plan until Batman points out that Nora would be waking up to a cold, dead world, whereupon Freeze releases Batman and Robin and helps them defeat Walker.

{{quote| '''Harley:''' Good choice. ''Help.''}}

* In "[[Justice League]]," Morgaine le Fey attempts to manipulate the Martian Manhunter into betraying his new world and his allies for the promise of restoring his dead world - and with it, his wife and children. Subverted in that only when his psychic assault on Etregan causes him to see how Jason Blood had fallen for a similar offer, and been betrayed, did he realize that the offer was false and foil Morgaine's plan.

[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]

[[Category:Always Save The Girl]]