I Will Protect Her/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A (usually) male’s primary motivation is to protect a female close to him.

  • Straight: Budou is being persecuted by the Big Bad. Hiro swears to do whatever it takes to protect her.
  • Exaggerated: Budou is a total Damsel in Distress that everyone in the world wants to kill except for her Shallow Love Interest, Hiro, who refuses to ever leave her side by the off-chance that something bad would happen.
  • Justified: Hiro is Budou’s bodyguard.
  • Inverted: Ichigo is a completely self-sufficient woman. Ashi is a mentally ill man whose prime motivation is to commit a lust murder on her.
  • Subverted: Hiro claims that he will protect Budou no matter what, but when she gets kidnapped by Emperor Evulz, he does nothing.
  • Double Subverted: ...Resulting in a Rescue Arc.
  • Parodied: Hiro is a Dogged Nice Guy who tries to impress Ichigo from any perceived danger. However, his tactics get ridiculous (such as putting bubble wrap on everything in her house), annoying her greatly.
  • Deconstructed: Just about everyone in the world hates Budou and wants to kill her for whatever reason. Because his prime motivation is to protect her at any cost, Hiro kills all of these people, even those who are otherwise decent people. Budou is repulsed by Hiro’s actions, and may even have a Heroic BSOD.
  • Reconstructed: Just about everyone in the world hates Budou and wants to kill her for whatever reason. Even though things get extremely complicated as a result, Hiro still manages to protect Budou without hurting innocent people. He even manages to debunk her stigma, causing a happy ending for everyone.
  • Zigzagged: Hiro is Budou’s bodyguard; however, he slacks off, allowing Emperor Evulz to kidnap her. So he goes to rescue her, but then he gets distracted for a while. Later, Hiro sees the error in his ways and continues his quest to save Budou. But when he does save her, he stops protecting her, because he’s killed Emperor Evulz, so there’s no one to protect her from anymore.
  • Averted: All of the girls in the show can take care of themselves.
  • Enforced:
  • Lampshaded: “I will always protect Budou, no matter what.”
  • Invoked: Emperor Evulz is really just kidnapping Budou to bring out a protective instinct in Hiro, hoping it will get the two to fall in love.
  • Defied: “I can protect myself, Hiro.”
    • Alternatively: “What do I look like, your bodyguard?”
    • "Am I my girlfreind's keeper?"
  • Discussed: “Man, I wouldn’t want to even be caught looking at Budou the wrong way, not since Hiro practically stuck himself to her.”
  • Conversed: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a hot guy promised to protect me from all harm?”

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