Lovable Alpha Bitch

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
(Redirected from Lovable Libby)

So, there's this girl. She's beautiful, popular, manipulative, exclusive and... not so bad once you get to know her. She still hangs out with the popular crowd, regularly attends Wild Teen Parties, and has been known to be vicious and catty to the unfortunates at the bottom of the Popularity Food Chain with some rare occasions of Pet the Dog in between. She may even act this way toward the heroine at first. But a few bonding activities and a little Character Development later, she's the one who has the heroine's back, with whom she often forms a Tomboy and Girly Girl pair.

Note that the Lovable Alpha Bitch doesn't have to be pally with or even nice to the heroine's True Companions, although she usually tolerates most of them. It also doesn't mean that she won't continue her Alpha Bitchy ways toward other unfortunate victims... just not toward the heroine.

Compare Spoiled Sweet, where the character has all the trappings of the Alpha Bitch (contrast that trope) but never really is one, and Fallen Princess, where the Alpha Bitch has to lose her status to become sympathetic. May overlap with Defrosting Ice Queen or Sugar and Ice Personality.

Examples of Lovable Alpha Bitch include:

Anime and Manga

  • Ami Kawashima from Toradora!. She started as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, but eventually learned to be a somehow more balanced snarky Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Justified in that, at first, most everyone thinks Ami is a bitch (except Kitamura, a close friend of hers). It is later revealed she has to deal with creepy stalkers and legions of fans almost every day, due to being a famous teen model.
  • Kirche from The Familiar of Zero.
  • Eri Sawachika from School Rumble could be seen this way.
  • Emily Sevensheep from Mahou Sensei Negima. Which makes her death in Yue's arms as heartbreaking as possible, and her subsequent resurrection (along with countless others) courtesy of Negi and Asuna's restoration of Mundus Magicus' denizens all the more heartwarming.
  • Rena Ichinose from Dengeki Daisy!
  • Amane from Tenchi GXP.
  • Ino Yamanaka from Naruto is a milder version. Though her base Alpha Bitchiness is debatable: she diets, shops, etc, but also fights villains and learns killer techniques on regular basis, which most Alpha Bitches don't do, as a young girl, she was the one to reach out to bullied Shrinking Violet Sakura by teaching her how to accentuate her apparently large forehead, introduce her to her friends, and stick up for her when an actual Alpha Bitch Ami and her Girl Posse were trying to pick a fight.
  • Ginny Golding from Marmalade Boy.
  • Fatina from The Tower of Druaga definitely feels like one of these. She's materialistic, vain (her whole reason for adventuring is to become rich so that she can buy her favorite fashion accessories), has a tendency to be judgmental and slap labels on and look down on people, enjoys mild bullying... is highly concerned about her companions, and has a strong sense of duty. When Jil is depressed after the events of season 1, Fatina is the one who takes care of him and works hard supporting him financially for several months.
  • If One Piece had taken place in a high school then Boa Hancock would be one of these. She takes care of her people and is brave and caring when it comes to her sisters and those her earn her favor, and has a genuinely good Freudian Excuse. But to everyone else well... To take a direct quote from her:

"Whether I kick a kitten... Tear off your ears... Even slaughter innocent people... The world will never cease to forgive my actions! Why, you ask? Why, it is because I am beautiful!"

  • Amachi Hitsugi of Hayate × Blade is something of an odd duck. She's obscenely wealthy, beautiful, the head of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council, and the rules of the school are often secondary to whatever she thinks would be interesting. But aside from her treatment of Tatewaki, she's encouraging to others and tends to be charmingly Crazy Awesome.
  • Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier. Sure, she can steal Alto's free day just for fun and bend everybody to her schedule, but she is generally sweet and, friendly, and actually helps people around her.
  • Izumo Kamiki from Blue Exorcist is an Ice Queen, but not only is she slowly defrosting, she is the first to accept the fact that Rin is the son of Satan. In her own way.
  • Yano from Kimi ni Todoke is not someone you want to get on the bad side of, but you have to really deserve it to get there. Otherwise, she's actually very friendly, even for this trope.
    • Recently, Kurumi is heading this way, too.
  • Saki Tenjouin in To LOVE-Ru. She comes off as a queen bee (even proudly declaring herself the queen of the school at every opportunity), but when someone needs help she is not hesitant to do what she can.
  • Alice from Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth can't help but showing her exuberant young-girl side, despite her desire to be seen as a classy rich lady.
  • Sumire Shouda from Gakuen Alice is this type. Throughout the series she is the bossiest and snobbiest girl in the class, holds Alices well above non-Alices and bullies Mikan when she first arrives at the Academy. However, she becomes helpful and resourceful and even kind when there is trouble and helps organise the students to fight. In later chapters she always takes Mikan's side when she is in trouble.
  • Sena Kashiwazaki of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is a ridiculously hot Rich Bitch who lords herself over her schoolmates at the academy her father runs. Then she signs up for the Neighbors Club and reveals that she wanted true friends. Thus she does make some within the club in the form of Kodaka Hasegawa, a British-Japanese boy whose blonde hair and oriental face make his classmates mistake him for a "delinquent" and, secretly, Club President Yozora Mikazuki (whose Jerkass tendencies hide her social-relationship problems as grave, if not even worse, than Sena's).
  • Touka Ryuumonbuchi from Saki. She's a total bitch to everyone who isn't from Ryuumonbuchi High School (yes, the school belongs to her family), but is seriously nurturing toward everyone whom she takes under her wings, especially the Killer Rabbit Koromo.
  • Kourogi Mikage from Nononono who is a gold medalist and having both looks and brains is thought of (and thinks of herself) as a national celebrity. At first glance she is a grade A Alpha Bitch that treats others as inferior to her and is ready to make their life miserable if they dare to deny her anything, once you get to know her though it turns out that despite all her arrogance she is a decent and caring person whose bithiness comes as much from her "upper class" status as form her inability to honestly express her feelings.
  • One-time character Sonoko Iijyuin from Sailor Moon Stars. Grade A Alpha Bitch to Usagi, demanding her to leave Saiya alone since she's his number 1 fan and challenging her to beat her at her sport... which is a totally inequal position, as Usa is a Cute Clumsy Girl while Sonoko is a Passionate Sports Girl and really good at softball. But when she sees that Usagi is still determined to try it, she softens up and sees Usagi as a Worthy Opponent. And then, she's attacked by Lead Crow and forcibly turned into a monster - but Usagi, as Sailor Moon, manages to save her.


Comic Books

Film

  • Jen from Ice Princess starts out a full-fledged Alpha Bitch, but eventually becomes Casey's advocate and guide in the ice-skating world.
  • Jessica Spencer of The Hot Chick is a Jerkass to certain people she doesn't like, but takes good care of her baby brother. The Pet the Dog moment with her brother is important because it makes it easy for us to feel sorry for her later on when she is magically transformed into a man (don't ask).
  • Sharpay Evans either becomes this in her own movie (Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure) or always was this for some audiences.
  • Regina George is implied to be one by the end of Mean Girls.
    • Ditto Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray (the musical and its film adaptation.)
  • Claire from The Breakfast Club.
  • Deconstructed in The Hole with Keira Knightley's character Frankie. When Liz tells her story to the police we see in flashbacks that Frankie is popular but isn't bitchy to Liz and helps her out (it's implied that Liz does her homework for her). Then we learn that Liz's story is a lie and we see real flashbacks and Frankie fits the Alpha Bitch stereotype down to a T. Though Liz is actually worse than her.
  • Tess Tyler from Camp Rock becomes one by the end of the first movie. And again by the end of the second one.
  • Dylan Schoenfield of Geek Charming (both the film and the book it's based on) could be a codifier for this trope.
  • Amanda Jones of Some Kind of Wonderful is set up to be this, but really isn't. In fact both her nastiness and her social status stem from her Manipulative Bastard boyfriend, Hardy Jenns, and once they breakup she improves very quickly.
  • Mikaela Banes from Transformers looks like she's developing into this, before the plot kicks into high gear and her troubled history comes out.
  • Ashley and Ashlyn from Final Destination 3, despite behaving like typical ditzy popular girls, are actually friendly towards the protagonist Wendy. In their funeral, Ian mentions how they had never done anything bad to anybody.

Literature

  • Lana in The Princess Diaries. By the end of the series, she's become close friends with Mia and is shown to be genuinely sympathetic.
  • Kara in Avalon: Web of Magic.
  • The protagonist of Daughter Of The Drow. Liriel was a minor member of the ruling clan popular among young party-loving nobles, and wasn't more malevolent than being good at the Drow brand of humour required. Later in the Academy she habitually pranked her peers, mainly the plump girl she referred to as "a peasant" (in fact, noble, but from an agriculture-focused House) -- a senior student known as humourless and too vicious with younger students. Which only made the perpetrator more popular as a wizard sneaky enough to repeatedly humiliate the hated jerk without leaving any proof.
  • Constanza Grayfoot in the Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld may not be particularly nice to any of the other Midnighters - though she will admit that Dess 'knows her trig' - but she's a genuine and supportive friend to Jess, though a somewhat superficial one.
  • Clio Martin in the Balefire series by Cate Tiernan.
  • Ginevra Fanshawe in Charlotte Brontë's Villette. She is completely open about being a superficial Gold Digger, but she seems to genuinely value Lucy's friendship.
  • Fleur Delacour in the Harry Potter books gets a lot of flack for dating Bill Weasley, due to his family believing her to be a pure Alpha Bitch who's only superficially interested in him. She proves them wrong by standing by her man, even after his face becomes mauled. Though part of her reasoning is in pure Alpha Bitch fashion - that she's beautiful enough for the both of them, and that the scars Bill received from Greyback prove that her husband is brave. She then promptly starts cleaning his wounds.
    • There's also Cho Chang of Ravenclaw, who's pretty, popular, a star Quidditch player, has her own Girl Posse, but is actually a Nice Girl who just has some severe emotional and psychological problems. Her first boyfriend being casually murdered by the Big Bad didn't help.
  • The Twilight series has Rosalie Hale for the vampires and Leah Clearwater for the werewolves.
  • Waiting For June has the main character Sophie's only friend a popular black guy, but once his new girlfriend takes her shopping the popular kids want her to sit with them because their queen calls her over. Maybe girls control the social order.
  • Bethany Davis in Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Lampshaded:

Bethany: I'm shallow, not a sociopath.

  • Noelle Lange in the Private series by Kate Brian.


Live Action TV

Theater


Video Games

  • Nina from Suikoden II is Newleaf Academy's answer to this trope - she's quite mean to Nanami (thinking that she's also infatuated with Flik), is very self-assured and does tease the hero's party with her ghost stories, but she's a nice girl at heart who'll step up to defend her mayor from Highlanders with a bookbag. She also has really good stats and a killer unite attack with Flik.
  • Mira Kagami in Tokimeki Memorial 1 when you get to see her Hidden Depths (dead father, painful rejections, poverty). Accentuated in the various tie-in Radio Drama, OVA, and spin-off games, which flesh out her character further.
  • Etoile, in Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, is set up initially as the Alpha Bitch, but you mostly see her nicer side during your interactions with her in the game.
  • To a degree, Princess L'Arachel from Fire Emblem 8. She's shown to be selfish, kinda childish, and very bombastic, but she's also very brave and kindhearted when push comes to shove, like when she manages to pull Eirika out of an Heroic BSOD after losing the Stone of Renais to Lyon and gives her very valuable advice.
    • Clarine from Fire Emblem 6 fits in even better. Yeah, she keeps demanding vassalage from Rutger and Lance and can be pretty mean to those who get close to her brother Klein, but she also helps Dorothy with her self-esteem without any second intentions and secretly fears that, once the "adventure" is over, she won't be able to see the outside world again.
  • Yukari of Persona 3 qualifies. She's a popular jerkass with a strong sense of entitlement and a bit of a bully, but she's fairly close with the MC.
    • In a bit of irony, she specifically states that she hates bullies during the game.
  • Arguably also Ai Ebihara from Persona 4, once you get close enough to her and max her Social Link.
  • GLaDOS of Portal is one of the most loved video game characters, but she is horrible and verbally abusive toward the player character all the time. Despite this, as the sequel shows, she's not all bad at, er, "heart".
    • At least until she deletes Caroline. Considering her history, though, that might be another lie.
  • Mandy in Bully first appears to be the epitome of Alpha Bitchdom (beautiful, head cheerleader, dates the captain of the school football team, is viciously cruel to the nerd girl etc.) however the inevitable humiliation she receives is not actually Played for Laughs when we see her reaction to it, and she is also shown to be well aware of how horrible she is and that it stems from her own insecurities.


Web Comics

  • Diane from El Goonish Shive seems to be shaping up to be one of these, being manipulative and snarky but genuinely caring about her Girl Posse, and showing concern for the protagonists.
  • Penny of Penny and Aggie appears at the beginning of the comic to be a straight-up Alpha Bitch, and indeed Aggie and certain other characters see her that way for much of the series. However, while Penny is materialistic and often snobby, she's also genuinely ethical and compassionate. She even admits to Aggie, when they bury the hatchet and become friends, that "I don't really need the perfect shoes. It's just fun to pretend I do."
  • Chrys'tel Vel'Sharen of Drowtales starts the series as a straight Alpha Bitch, but she's quickly shown to defend her roommate Faen from being tormented by the other girls. Later on she begins to question what's going on in her own family and actually becomes The Mole to her aunt.
  • Zulenna in Girl Genius at first was a complete Spoiled Brat who looked down at Agatha (but wasn't that popular). When it was revealed that Agatha was an Heterodyne, Zulenna paid her as much respect as she despised her earlier. And even gave her life to slow the soldiers pursuing Agatha.


Web Original

  • Aki of Sailor Nothing has shades of this. Even before her Break the Haughty chapter, she is (secretly) friends with Himei, the class loser. She later considers her "breaking" to be the best thing that ever happened to her, as it freed her from the shallow pursuit of popularity.
  • Apple White of Ever After High is a genuinely caring and idealistic girl...but she also feels more than a little entitled to be in charge of everything and strongly feels that everyone should stick to their assigned roles even if it means a basically good girl has to become a punchclockvillain and then be punished for that.


Western Animation

  • Chelsea Cunningham from Batman Beyond. She sees no contradiction between being best friends with Spoiled Sweet Dana Tan, hanging out with her ex-con boyfriend and his Hollywood Geek friend, and dating Jerk Jock Nelson Nash.
  • Muffy from Arthur.
  • Jetta from the Clifford the Big Red Dog animated series. Her dog, Machiavelli, is a male example.
  • Male example: Gordon from Thomas the Tank Engine.
  • Beebe Bluff from Doug
  • Rhonda Wellington Lloyd from Hey Arnold!. Despite engaging in typical Alpha Bitch activities, she can be remarkably friendly. Her best friend is a down-to-Earth bug collector, she has a great capacity for sympathy to those less fortunate, plays sports with the gang all the time, and doesn't hold a grudge against the guy who stalked and blackmailed her into dating him for a week.
  • Lo from Stoked technically should be the Alpha Bitch, given her "pedigree". She's a spoiled, gorgeous, manipulative, rich girl with a spray-on tan...however, she's also friendly and loyal, downright sweet even, and loves her friends.
  • Sissi of Code Lyoko, especially in Seasons 2 and 4 when there were a lot more episodes with her written that way, though she had a few moments in the first season as well. Much of her setbacks to being a just plain Alpha Bitch were do to the literal Reset Button the show likes to use, and being a just plain Alpha Bitch to start with was because of a stupid misunderstanding between the heroes and her back in the prequel episodes. In the series finale, her status as Lovable Alpha Bitch finally sticks when the heroes make her a part of their group.
  • Courtney Gripling from As Told by Ginger. She may have a somewhat...anthropological approach to the world outside her sphere, but she really does have a kind heart. Her best friend Mirand Kilgallen is closer to the more typical Alpha Bitch but even she softens as the series goes on.
  • Kendall in Kick Buttowski.
  • Quinn Morgendorffer from Daria, in contrast to the nastier Alpha Bitch, Quinn's "friend" Sandi. They often come to odds because Sandi's consciously grasping at power whereas Quinn's more than content with all the attention she gets. In the show's Grand Finale, Sandi seems to change her ways (mostly) and become one of these too.
    • Brittany and the other cheerleaders have shades of this. Her boyfriend Kevin is also a male version, averting most of the expected Jerk Jock attributes. Kevin (And the cheerleaders to a lesser extent) still tend to be jerks to Daria and Jane, but that's more due to their complete inability to understand people different than them, rather than any kind of malice. They simply don't know when they're being rude.
  • The one Debbie in the The Oblongs after her face gets all temporarily mutilated.
  • Kimmy in Sym-Bionic Titan.
  • Liz from The Spectacular Spider-Man becomes this via Character Development, going from stuck-up in the second episode to eventually dating dorky Peter. Mary Jane also may count, as she interacts easily with both the popular and geeky kids, while Glory also has at least some hints of this, quickly bonding with Harry for a time.
  • Clover from Totally Spies!, in contrast to Mandy who was more of a classic Alpha Bitch.
  • Angelica Pickles from All Grown Up!, especially when compared to straight-up Alpha Bitch Savannah.
  • Ashley A from Recess could count. When she is kicked out of the clique she befriends Gretchen and during the Little Miss Blush beauty pageant she secretly congratulates Spinelli. She has also asked the gang for help on other occasions. Sometimes the other three Ashleys can also be convinced to be nice and do good, like in "The Great Can Drive" and "League of Randalls".
  • Rarity of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic is somewhat vain and materialistic, and occasionally looks her nose down on her more slovenly friends such as Applejack, however she is no less helpful than the other ponies and embodies the element of generosity (her Establishing Character Moment being when she sacrifices some of her beloved tail to act as a mustache for a heartbroken sea serpent).


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