It's Not You, It's My Enemies/Playing With
Basic Trope: The hero breaks up with his/her Love Interest in order to protect them from the hero's enemies.
- Straight: Amazing Girl breaks up with Bob, her boyfriend, in order to ensure that he is no longer under threat from her numerous enemies.
- Exaggerated: Amazing Girl fakes her own death in order to ensure that she and Bob are apart and thus protect him.
- Justified: Amazing Girl's enemies are psychotics who are willing to kill Bob in a terrible and painful fashion in order to take their revenge on her.
- Inverted: Bob breaks up with Amazing Girl in order to protect himself from her enemies.
- Or Amazing Girl decides to move in with Bob because if they're together more often, it will be more difficult for her enemies to attack him.
- Or, Amazing Girl dumps Bob because she's sick of dealing with his enemies. Especially his Psycho Ex-Girlfriend, Bouncing Betty.
- Or Amazing Girl kills Bob herself to "protect him" because he will be in danger from her many ruthless enemies as long as he's alive.
- Subverted: Amazing Girl considers breaking up with Bob, but decides to stay with him come what may.
- She breaks up with him until she knows for sure he's safe.
- Doubly Subverted: She just said that; she ends up breaking up with him after all.
- Parodied: Amazing Girl breaks up with Bob despite the fact that he is also a superhero who is more than capable of defending himself against any attacks.
- Amazing Girl breaks up with Bob to protect her enemies from him.
- Deconstructed: Amazing Girl hasn't actually solved the problem; those enemies who suspect that Bob is special to her are not going to leave him alone simply because she has made a token gesture in separating from him, thus still leaving Bob in danger. All she has done is cause her and Bob heartache and loneliness.
- Reconstructed: After rescuing him one too many times from the clutches of one of her archenemies, Amazing Girl finally snaps and tells Bob he's an incompetent and useless piece of garbage that couldn't do anything to save himself. After watching such negative image of her former lover, Bob decides to end his relationship with Amazing Girl on that instant and walks off with bitter feelings towards her. The enemy spies, having seen that Bob no longer has any connection with Amazing Girl, decide he's not useful as a hostage and finally leave him alone. Meanwhile, Amazing Girl cries in solitude because of the harsh act she had to pull back there; she'll always love Bob no matter what.
- Zig Zagged: Amazing Girl keeps changing her mind about whether she and Bob are together or not.
- Averted: Amazing Girl and Bob are in a steady relationship, but this issue is never brought up.
- Enforced: "It sure would be a grand romantic gesture if Amazing Girl gave up the man she loved in order to protect him from her enemies; plus, it'd make her angsty, and everyone knows that True Art Is Angsty."
- Lampshaded: "If we stay together, they'll find you and kill you. And if that happened, I'd never forgive myself."
- Invoked: From the outset of the relationship Amazing Girl warns Bob that she may break up with him due to this trope.
- Alternatively, Amazing Girl wants to break up with Bob anyhow, and uses her enemies as a convenient excuse.
- Defied: Amazing Girl actively cultivates superficial relationships, one-night-stands and relationships without romantic involvement precisely so that she never finds herself in this position.
- Alternatively, Amazing Girl is a Celibate Heroine. Even when she might want to love like a normal person, she's conscious that heroes must make sacrifices to ensure world's well-being.
- Or Bob just points out that if Amazing Girl dumps him, he'll still be a likely target for villains, and now he won't have an awesome superhero girlfriend around to save his sorry ass.
- Discussed: "Bob has been devastated since Amazing Girl dumped him, but he'll recover when he realizes it has been a blessing in disguise. Living as a super-villain's recurrent hostage is no life for anyone."
- Conversed: "Amazing Girl might think that by breaking up with Bob she'll be able to keep him out of trouble; but this series has shown us that this guy is just too dense for it work! He'll be falling into another intricate super-villain trap in a couple of episodes."
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