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Girl of the Week: Difference between revisions
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== Film ==
* The [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] film franchise is famous for its Bond Girls, the [[Disposable Woman|disposable]] companions that Bond acquires in each of his various adventures. Bond Girls have a very high mortality rate, and, with some exceptions, never appear in more than one movie. The only exception is "Trench, Sylvia Trench" from the first two movies, who perhaps was spared for giving Bond his catchphrase (though she never "made it" with Bond, either). Unless of course we count Ms. Moneypenny (and Judi Dench's M, since the actress considers herself a "bond Girl"). Despite the mortality rate, almost every film will feature at least one Bond girl surviving, and given how many girls Bond tends to get- even in a single film- versus the amount who actually die, maybe the ratio isn't so bad after all.
** Vesper Lynd, in the 2006 version of ''[[Casino Royale]]'', is the only character to have a direct effect on the plot of a second film (''[[Quantum of Solace]]'', in which she casts a long shadow but appears onscreen for all of two seconds).
** Bond's murdered wife [[The Gwen Stacy|Teresa di Vicenzo]] also gets brought up every now and then, but always indirectly (possibly to hide the [[Continuity Snarl]] of Pierce Brosnan being called upon to mourn a woman George Lazenby married almost thirty years earlier), though this was the unspoken reason Bond was so pissed at Blofeld in the immediate sequel, ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]''.
*** Teresa would have appeared in the film after ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'' and be killed early in the film. Before filming of Lazenby's first film ended he had already decided not to do another, so she was killed at the end of the film.
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** There's also a line that justifies why it was played straight in the first three films. Indiana tells the love interest that it didn't last with any of the other girls because they all had the same problem: "They weren't you."
*** Not to mention the fact that when they meet [[Raiders of the Lost Ark|in the first movie]], they've already had a past relationship, {{spoiler|making "Kingdom" the third and final(?) time they hook up!"}}
* The original ''Batman'' films. ''[[Batman (film)|Batman]]'' had Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), ''[[Batman Returns]]'' had Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and ''[[Batman Forever]]'' had Chase Meridian ([[Nicole Kidman]]).
** ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' had Julie Madison (Elle Macpherson). And that just proves how pivotal she is to the plot.
*** Although, both Vicki and Catwoman are given an explanation as to where they went. Bruce told Selina that Vicki couldn't handle his double life, and {{spoiler|as far as Batman knows Catwoman is dead}}.
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** Then, there is a story where they set out, full of vim, certain that they would bump into someone from their old adventures -- and owing to the wrath of certain gods, meet up with girl of the week after girl of the week, and everyone of them had made her own life and rejects them both. (Until the very end, where abject humiliation succeeds in winning the two they least wanted to meet.)
** Though The Twain both end up more or less as faithful (''more or less'') married husbands in the last stories, set on Rime Isle.
* The [[Gor]] novels (when Tarl isn't pining for Talena or Vella) tend to have a Slave Girl Of The Book, who Tarl teaches to love her slavery. By the next book she's either in his slave harem and (almost) never mentioned again or sold off to someone who is her "ideal master."
* [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] does not always get a girl. But when he does, she vanishes without a trace before the next story.
** Justified in that there are huge gaps in time between many stories, and that they weren't written in chronological order. Conan had several lengthy relationships, and eventually married. Also before his marriage Conan is specified to run out of money a lot.
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* ''[[The Laundry Series|The Jennifer Morgue]]'' discusses, lampshades, and generally plays hell with this trope: the opposition is using a Hero-trap geas, meaning that all efforts to oppose him will be funneled into the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]]; since he cast himself as the villain, he can only be successfully resisted by a [[James Bond]] archetype, which is played by [[The Hero|Bob]]. He is quickly paired up with a female [[Eagle Land|Black Chamber]] agent, making her a Bond girl. {{spoiler|And then the trope is turned completely upside down: it turns out that [[The Chessmaster|Angleton]] was able to successfully end-run the geas by making Bob's girlfriend, Mo, the true Bond-figure in the geas, meaning that ''Bob'' is the [[Damsel in Distress|actual Bond girl]], allowing Mo to save the day in a Bond-worthy [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment. The narrative also notes that there's almost always two Bond girls, one "[[The Chick|light]]", one "[[Dark Action Girl|dark]]", thus making room for the Black Chamber agent in the geas.}}
* Bernie Rhodenbarr, Lawrence Block's [[Gentleman Thief]] protagonist, sleeps with at least one female love interest per novel, and none of them reappear or are mentioned again after that. The closest person in Bernie's life is Carolyn Kaiser, a lesbian pet-groomer who describes herself as his "minion", and is [[Platonic Life Partners]] with him.
* [[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Bertie Wooster]] runs through love interests quickly and frequently ends up engaged (often against his will), but never actually gets married because [[Status Quo Is God]].
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** Lies! Chekov once got a girl. She didn't even die.
** Scotty once got a girl too. Really, the only regular male character on TOS who ''never'' got a [[Girl of the Week]] was Sulu.
*** [[Ascended Meme|Oh]] [[
** This was such a common event that characters who keep getting the [[Girl of the Week]] in a TV series are sometimes referred to as 'Kirk' or 'a Kirk', either as criticism or compliment, often by [[Hollywood Nerd|geeky]] characters. See various episodes of Stargate Atlantis as an example, with Rodney McKay calling John Shepherd 'Kirk' after he has met and conquered the [[Girl of the Week]] - but then he's jealous! The epitome of this was when Shephard tried to hit on Rodney's married sister in the episode 'McKay and Mrs Miller' (S3 E08).
** This specific example was hilariously lampshaded in the [[In Living Color]] skit ''The Wrath of Farrakhan''. The line that had me crying with laughter? '' 'You even take the ugly ones, Captain!' ''
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** Besides which, unless it was a two-parter Sam would be forcibly "leaped" out of the situation, therefore he ''couldn't'' have an ongoing relationship with any of them. {{spoiler|(He had a wife in his "present" but didn't remember her. She decided that was for the best: because if he knew, she knew he'd feel obliged not to pursue any GOTW no matter how right it would be for the person he leaped in to.)}}
* A common trope on ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]''.
* ''[[The Monkees (band)|The Monkees]]'' often had a token female love interest for one of the guys (but mostly for the cute heartthrob and [[Chick Magnet]], Davy Jones.)
** Sometimes, it was one of the Monkees themselves who acted as the [[Girl of the Week]], whenever they so hilariously [[Disguised in Drag]].
* Most of the episodes of ''[[Flight of the Conchords]]'', mainly because most of the duo's songs are love songs. Mel is the only regular female character, and she's a stalker that they cannot stand. The only recurring girlfriends are Sally (3 episodes) and Coco (2).
** Possibly [[Lampshaded]] with the song "Carol Brown", in which Jemaine imagines being sung at by a choir of his ex-girlfriends...all of whom we've never seen before.
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* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' has this played straight and averted, depending on the continuity.
** In the ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series, Sonic had a new love interest every other episode. Averted on the rare occasion when his job was to set the [[Girl of the Week]] up with her true love and to save her from Robotnik's advances. [[Foe Yay|He "married" Robotnik himself disguised as said love interest]].
** He also hooked up a former [[Girl of the Week]] with Robotnik's son, which worked because they were both robots.
** Completely averted in [[Sonic the Hedgehog|SEGA's Sonic]] for obvious reasons, where he has best-friend of the week instead.
* Solid Snake had a different potential love interest in the earlier ''[[Metal Gear]]'' games which culminated with Meryl in ''MGS1'' (the previous ones being Diane in ''MG1'' and Holly in ''MG2''). This was subverted in subsequent installments , with Snake having no real love interest in ''MGS2'' (going as far as to dismiss Olga as a potential love interest by claiming that he's "tired of tomboys") and in ''MGS4'' he loses Meryl to Akiba of all people ([[Die for Our Ship|which upset quite a few Snake/Meryl fans]]). He still got quite a few ladies after him in the non-canon games, if you count Chris Jenner, Teliko Friedman, and Venus. Out of all these girls, the only ones whose affections are truly reciprocated are Meryl, Chris and (depending on [[Implied Love Interest|how you interpret]] [[Sergeant Rock|their]] [[Action Girl|relationship]]) Teliko - Diane won't admit she admires Snake, Venus flirts with Snake but Snake turns her down, and while Snake agrees to go out with Holly he loses interest in her pretty much immediately afterwards and dumps her.
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== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', Zuko, or better yet Sokka, has multiple love interests. {{spoiler|However, Zuko ends up with Mai, and Sokka with Suki.}}
** The abridged series has Sokka proudly declare "I got hos in different area codes" when this is brought up.
** Interestingly enough, {{spoiler|Suki}} was originally intended to be this, but was brought back and made a permanent love interest [[Ensemble Darkhorse|due to fandom demand.]]
** Suki is an example of [[First Girl Wins]] while Mai is an example of [[Victorious Childhood Friend]].
* Tammy the squirrel and Foxglove the bat in ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]''. There were others too, including Sparky, a rare example of a "Boy of the week", for Gadget. It was a fairly regular trope in the show.
* Irene, for Terry in ''[[Batman Beyond]]''. [[Dating Catwoman|Melanie]] comes off as this in her initial appearance, but came back a few times.
* On ''[[Daria]],'' Quinn could basically have a new boyfriend every week, along with her usual harem, the Three J's. Daria herself had one Boy of the Week in [[Ditzy Genius|Ted Dewitt-Clinton]], though it was more of just an [[Odd Friendship]] with rather obvious [[Ship Tease]]. Jane had one in Nathan the retrophile.
* On ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', Bart and Lisa have occasional love interests, or at least someone romantically interested in them. In Lisa's case, for example, there's Nelson Muntz, Colin from ''[[The Simpsons Movie]]'', Thelonious from "Trilogy of Error" ("The esoteric appeal is worth the beatings"), and even [[The Ditz]].
** The same is true for Brian, Stewie, Chris, and even [[Hollywood Dateless|Meg]] of ''[[Family Guy]]'', and Fry and Leela of ''[[Futurama]]'', although Fry and Leela have been in an on-again/off-again relationship since the post-movie seasons started (the on-again/off-again part was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] at one point).
* The episode "That Sinking Feeling" from ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' features Baljeet and his childhood friend Mishti. The titular brothers attempt to create romance for the two during the episode ([[Toy Ship|even though Isabella mistakenly thinks it's for her]]), and it looks like it worked at the end (kinda). Too bad she's never seen again.
** Candace got one in "A Hard Day's Knight." Interestingly, he looked almost identical to her usual [[Love Interest]], Jeremy; since that episode takes place while the family is on vacation the writers presumably just realized they needed a replacement.
** [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] with Vanessa's boyfriend Johnny, who seemed like this at first but was revealed to be [[Official Couple|officially dating]] Vanessa a season and a half later. Stacy has also had Chad and Coltrane, though the latter is implied to be her on-and-off boyfriend.
* ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' gives us [[Robot Me|Schmeloise]] and [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|Areanna]], both to Jimmy. Justified in that Areanna ran off as soon as she escaped her tower while Schmeloise ended up exploding after [[Mad Scientist|Heloise]] reprogrammed her.
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