Fatal Attractor: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}

{{quote|'''Harry Kim:''' ''[after telling Tom he's in love again] I know what you are gonna say...''<br />

'''Tom Paris:''' ''No, no. Actually, I was gonna congratulate you. I mean, she's not [[Cyborg|a Borg]], she's not [[Kiss Me, I'm Virtual|a hologram]], and she's [[Boy Meets Ghoul|not dead]]. Looks like you might have finally found yourself the perfect woman.''|''[[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|Star Trek: Voyager]]''}}

Some people are just unlucky in love. Others seem to have done something to personally piss Cupid off and are spending the rest of their lives paying for it. The [['''Fatal Attractor]]''' is a character whose [[Love Interests]] always end up having some sort of critically serious flaw, be it personality, physicality or just a [[Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum|maniacal urge to destroy the universe]], which ultimately precludes any kind of long-term relationship.

Interestingly, this usually only happens to secondary characters -- leadscharacters—leads tend to have more functionally sane love interests. In any case, all of them suffer from the [[Cartwright Curse]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

* Oh god, this is almost a joke in ''[[Code Geass]]''! Poor Lelouch Lamperouge just can't catch a break with his love life!

** The [[Naive Everygirl]]? {{spoiler|Shirley is [[Mind Rape|Mind Raped]]d by [[Axe Crazy]] Mao, forcing Lelouch to order her to forget about him so she could life a normal life, and then he realizes he loved her just after. She later regains her memories thanks to Jeremiah, and promptly panics when she realizes she's had her memories modified twice and that essentially everyone is lying to her. Then, the maddened [[Gay Option]] Rolo kills her. As she lays dying she admits knowing everything to Lelouch and swears her undying love for him. [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|Lelouch was... most upset]].}}

** The [[Action Girl]]? {{spoiler|He pushed Kallen away from him so she could live a [[ItsIt's Not You, ItsIt's My Enemies|normal life rather then die by his side]], leading her to believe he had used and betrayed her. She only realized his true feelings and intentions when he was dead.}}

** The [[Mysterious Waif]]? {{spoiler|C.C. [[Laser -Guided Amnesia|lost her memories]] and became a [[Moe Moe|slave girl]] again for a few episodes before regaining her memory and her place as his co-conspirator. She's mostly alright by the end though.}}

** [[Brother -Sister Incest|His little sister]]? {{spoiler|Nunally was made to believe her brother was a heartless monster, and only realized what he was up to and essentially declared her love for him before he died.}}

** His [[Gay Option|Gay Options]]s, either the [[Tyke Bomb]] or the [[Forgotten Childhood Friend]]? {{spoiler|[[Memetic Mutation|Ohgi lied]], Rolo died, right after he ''finally'' could show genuine (as in, not obsessive [[Yandere]]-like) love for Lelouch. And after a season and a half of madness and pain, right after Lelouch and Suzaku managed to make amends... he forced Suzaku to kill him publically, also giving him a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] for world peace.}}

** Himself? [[Squick|Not]] [[Screw Yourself|that way!]] {{spoiler|He died too.}}

* Train from ''[[Black Cat (Mangamanga)|Black Cat]]'' doesn't seem to be able to attract very normal love interests. It would be rather interesting to know if he would still choose to be a [[Celibate Hero]] and appear to be [[Asexuality|asexual]] if a halfway decent and semi-normal woman would come into his life. His (possibly) blooming feelings for Saya (the most normal of his love interests) is cut very short by... a certain very jealous person. Rinslet is a very manipulative thief who constantly takes advantage of him and tricks him into doing things for her. Kyoko is too much of a borderline [[Yandere]] who is overly aggressive and a [[Stalker Withwith a Crush]]. And that's not even mentioning Creed, who is the most [[Stalker Withwith a Crush|insane and obsessive pervert]] when it comes to Train...

** In [[The Movie]], Terry meets [[Plucky Girl]] Suila Gaudemus {{spoiler|who as luck would have it, is the [[Mad ScientistsScientist's Beautiful Daughter|Crazed madman Laocorn Gaudemus' little sister]]. Terry spends the movie trying to keep himself from getting too close to Sulia because of what happened to [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die|Lily]], but just as he's coming to terms with his feelings, Laocorn becomes [[A God Am I|a godlike being]], and Sulia makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] that allows Terry to beat him.}}

** [[Batman (Comic Book)|Batman]]'s track record is not quite as disastrous as [[Daredevil]]'s, but does include those who dumped him because they thought he was a [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job|worthless playboy]] (Julie Madison, Linda Page), those obsessed with proving Bruce Wayne was Batman (Vicki Vale), those who left him because they couldn't cope with his double life (Silver St Cloud), those marked for death because of his double identity (Sascha Bordeaux) or actually murdered because of it (Vesper Fairchild), those driven insane (Sondra Kinsolving), and the outright criminal ([[Catwoman (Comic Bookcomics)|Catwoman]], Talia, Jezebel Jett).

* This was lampshaded in ''[[CharliesCharlie's Angels]]: Full Throttle'', where the Angels confirm a character is an assassin by asking Drew Barrymore's character whether she found him attractive.

* Bingo Little of ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (Literaturenovel)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' is always in love with girls of low social station. Bingo's main problem is that he is [[In Love Withwith Love|in love with]] ''[[Serial Romeo|falling in love]]''. Even if it gets to the point of starting a relationship, Bingo's fickle heart (or whatever organ is involved) will lock onto another target. And every time it is "The One".

** Bertie himself is perhaps a better example. While Bingo's romances tend to break off more because the girl dumps him/he falls for some other girl/the girl was never dating him to begin with than because there's a problem with the girl herself, Bertie legitimately attracts--andattracts—and is attracted by--girlsby—girls who turn out to be either complete weirdos or just terrible people.

* Harry Kim, from ''[[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|Star Trek: Voyager]]'', who is described in the quote at the top of the page, fairly accurately sums up this trope. And for those of you who were wondering, the person being discussed in that conversation turned out to be an alien saboteur who was trying to start an interstellar war. Poor Harry just can't catch a break in the romantic department.

* Neither can Xander from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', who in addition to his past relationship with Cordelia and his unrequited crush on the title character, always seems to end up with murderous non-humans. (Except for the murderous non-human who transformed into a law abiding human).

** Lampshaded in Season 1. At the end of an episode, Willow is depressed cause it turned out the "boy" she had a crush on and that seemed interested in her was in fact a robotic demon. Buffy and Xander tries to cheer her up by pointing out that Buffy's current boyfriend is a vampire and that Xander was recently attracted to a She-Mantis. It doesn't quite work, as they ALL end up depressed.

** On ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'', Cordelia ends up with a similar problem, combined with mystical pregnancies.

* Ah, the poor characters on ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]''. Somebody's new girl/boy friend turning out to be evil happens just about once a season, to the point that [[Genre Savvy]] fans instantly suspect anyone's new love interest. There was an undercover Mossad agent, identity thief, serial killers (yes, two!), daughter of an international arms dealer, and a ''freaking South Korean assassin.'' McGee ends up having the aforemention assassin try to kill him, and she ends up shot and dying in his arms, prompting him to mumble, "I swear I'm joining a monastary." Tony has sexual tension with (probably over) half the feamle killers on the show. Abby ex-boyfriend stalked her and intended to kill and a make it look like a suicide. Even ''Ducky'' got in on the action by dating a serial killer. It makes Gibbs look kinda normal, though he's gone out with a few (yes, literal) killers over the course of the show.

* Sam Winchester from ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. His girlfriend was killed, he had to kill Madison, Ruby was a demon and evil, he couldn't stay with Sarah because he wanted to find his dad and the demon who killed his girlfriend...

* Daniel Jackson of ''[[Stargate SG-1 (TV)|Stargate SG-1]]'' only ever seems to get a reprieve from this when his [[Cartwright Curse]] kicks in. The lecherous, amoral starship thief whom he only ever had a committed relationship with in an alternate universe was actually a step ''up'' for him.

** And, considering her husbands included [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|a religious zealot bent on utter domination of the galaxy and a cook who couldn't make pie]] he was kind of a step up for her too.

* Rare female example: Catherine Willows of ''[[CSI (TV)|CSI]]'' also has a tendency to run into this.

* ''[[Seinfeld (TV)|Seinfeld]]'' turned this into a running gag.

* Parodied by ''[[The Onion]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20100219134602/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/34124 here.]

* Non-romantic example: Latooni Subota from ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' seems to be attracting danger for whoever she is close with... First, when she is in The School, she gets to see her friends die one by one due to super crazy training method. When she gets out and found by Garnet and Giado, nothing happens much... until she gets acquainted with Princess Shine Hausen. Said Princess later gets caught by the enemy, [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] and starts attacking her (but recovers). While she thought it'll be over, her two surviving friends Arado Balanga and Seolla Schweitzer got sent to kill her, and while Arado is kind of lucky to avoid it quickly, Seolla got subjected with various brainwashing to the point that she thinks Latooni needs to die, thus putting herself in various dangers on her own, but she got saved eventually. Then when she wanted to save her [[Onee -Sama]] Ouka Nagisa, although they briefly succeeded, she immediately followed with a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. Does it stop there? No. When they are given a new friend in form of Lamia Loveless, the ODE Incident happened, and Lamia took the full brunt of damages, being put in the main core of the Bartolls, shot down near dead, then [[Brainwashed and Crazy]], though to be fair she managed to recover. All in all a lot of people Latooni got close with would be subjected with danger. We'll see if her love interest Ryusei Date will eventually get one misfortune specifically for him due to this thing...

* Montblanc gets a [[Prank Date]] in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' '''and''' ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2A2]]''.

* Webcomic example: All of [[Ctrl +Alt +Del|Lucas]]' ex-girlfriends are crazy or wanted to harm him in some way. It got to the point where he wore a bulletproof vest on his latest date. As for how that one turns out, {{spoiler|it's a loveless relationship where the other party allows him to essentially use her for sex and companionship in the hopes that he'll reciprocate her deeper feelings}}, ''and they are both fine with this''.

* In ''[[Something *Positive]]'', Davan's girlfriends usually turn out to have something very wrong with them. The sole exception left him (with his blessing) because her dream job required her to move. His current relationship with Vanessa seems to be working out okay, though she has her little quirks.

* Hadji from ''[[Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (Animation)|The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest]]''. His two main love interests over the run of the show were:

** The daughter of his adoptive father's terrorist arch-enemy. After this particular Reveal, Hadji's friend Jessie Lampshaded his [[Fatal Attractor]] status.

[[Category:Fatal Attractor{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:TropeLove Is a Crapshoot]]