Loving a Shadow: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

In the character's mind, one type of relationship was simply confused with another. This has some basis in reality, where some potentially romantic relationships are actually people seeking "figures". (Hell, [[Truth in Television|who]] ''[[Truth in Television|hasn't]]'' [[Truth in Television|done this at some point]]?) They spend time with a person because he or she [[Replacement Goldfish|reminds]] them of someone ''else''. For example, some characters attracted to older characters often have an absent parent or older sibling or their [[Dead Little Sister]]. This situation is often the inherent role of an Unwanted Harem's [[Unlucky Everydude]].

If a character is [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]], this can keep the writers from having to deal with a [[Mayfly-December Romance]].

 

 

Most definitely can be [[Truth in Television]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', the girl [[Shotacon|most overtly fond of Negi]], Class Representative Ayaka, had a younger brother who died at birth the same year Negi was born. It's a bit of an inversion, however, because in many ways, Negi really ''is'' the "shadow" Ayaka wanted her [[Dead Little Sister|baby brother]] to be.

** There's also a slightly more literal version involving a student falling in love with Negi's "cousin", who's actually Negi magically aged up. The results are rather disastrous (and [[Averted Trope|not]] in the [[Hilarity Ensues|good way]]).

* On ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'', [[Wholesome Crossdresser]] Nuriko's habits were handwaved by the explanation that he was taking the place of his [[Dead Little Sister]] Kourin.

* In ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', Sakura realizes that her feelings for Yukito are (mostly) familial in nature, while Syaoran's crush on Yukito is explained as "attraction of similar magic", which clears the way for both of them to fall in love with each other.

* In ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'', everyone assumes Allan Schezar is attracted to slender young ingenues (borderline-legal in Japan, crimes almost elsewhere). In fact, hints that are revealed later indicate that they are all [[Replacement Goldfish]] - specifically, replacements for his little sister [[Failure Knight|whom he was unable to rescue in his youth]].

** And let's not forget that Hitomi's attraction to Allen Schezar was partly caused by his ''extreme'' similarity (both physical and personality-wise) to her beloved Amano-sempai, her long-time crush in school.

* Oldschool [[Shoujo]] manga ''[[Haikara-san ga Tooru]]'' has [[Broken Bird|Countess]] [[Ill Girl|Larissa]], who falls for {{spoiler|the amnesiac Shinobu}} because he's ''exactly'' like {{spoiler|her husband Sasha, who died in the Russian Revolution.}} Even more so: {{spoiler|Shinobu was ''Sasha's older half-brother'' by their mother's side, which explains the expreme physical similarity.}}

* Since the plot of [[The World God Only Knows]] revolves around having Keima make girls fall in love with him for their own good, there's going to be a lot of this. In fact, he seems to do it intentionally. He projects whatever personality they want to see in him so that they become attracted while he helps them solve whatever problems created a gap for them in the first place. Only two targets and the supernatural characters avert this.

** How the little girl whom Shiratori loved was a big fangirl of the Japanese police force didn't really help. Neither did the fact that, back then, Kobayashi lacked [[Meganekko|her glasses]], which is the main physical difference between her and Satou.

{{quote|"If you keep chasing after [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|my ghost]], the real me is going to pass you by!"}}

* Tadase from [[Shugo Chara]]. 'Nuff said.

* A positive subversion of this trope occurs in ''Presents''. An artist falls in love with the daughter of a gallery owner at first sight. The daughter is a [[Rich Bitch]] who says she'll only go out with him if he can paint a fabulous portrait of her and then give it to her as a present. The artist tries and fails repeatedly, until Kurumi tells him that he needs to put into the portrait what he felt when he saw her for the first time. The last portrait is hailed as a masterpiece and put on display in another gallery. When the rich girl reads about this, she greedily decides to remind the artist that he owes his success to her and his promise about the painting. The artist, surprisingly, turns her down, because he realizes she's not who he fell in love with. The girl he fell in love with is the girl he saw that day, the girl who is immortalized in that portrait, and for all his hard work and everything he put into it, he gets his dream girl. {{spoiler|The girl in the portrait steps out from the frame and becomes real. The artist receives a happy ending with his love, the rich girl, on the other hand...}}

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** Of course, Nightwing gets this ''all the time.'' At one point he had upwards of six love interests, all of whom were infatuated with different shadows.

* This is one of the reasons that [[Batman|Nightwing and Oracle]] fell apart. She was in love with Robin and he was in love with Batgirl — Nightwing and Oracle's ''former'' secret identities.

* In an old ''[[She Hulk]]'' comic, She-Hulk meets an old boyfriend who introduced her to his new girlfriend who looked just like She-Hulk only not so green. The two women glared at each other.

* The Black Cat was in love with [[Spider-Man]]. And only Spider-Man; she had no interest in the man under the mask when Peter revealed his idtentity to her. She eventually grew to love Peter for himself, but by that time their relationship was long over and Peter was [[Happily Married]] to Mary Jane.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[There's Something About Mary]]'', Ted explains that none of the guys pursuing Mary love her, but are fixated on her 'because of the way you make them feel about themselves'.

* Actually subverted in ''[[Laura]]''. When it turns out she is alive, she is basically what the detective hoped she would be.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* One of more critical parts of F. Scott Fitzgerald's [[The Great Gatsby]] is when the title character, in an affair with his childhood sweetheart, our narrator's cousin, is revealed to love the ''idea'' of Daisy, an idea which she doesn't and can't live up to. When he tries to get her to renounce her love for her husband, Tom, she's unable to respond and the climactic chapter is where the affair falls apart in spectacular fashion.

** And whatever his actual age, when he smiled at their wedding he looked ''ten years younger'' than he had throughout the rest of the movie.

* Played straight in [[Mansfield Park]], where the male lead, who is exasperatingly oblivious to the female lead's feelings for him, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|loves a shadow]]. He realises it near the end of a book. A violent break-up ensues, and then has a [[Love Epiphany]] over said female lead.

* In ''[[Mercy Thompson|Iron Kissed]]'', {{spoiler|Samuel and Mercy simultaneously come to the epiphany that he's not jealous of her flirting with a stranger because he's fallen out of love with her. His jealousy in the previous two books is handwaved as "teasing", despite the fact that he nearly came to blows to Adam.}}

* In [[Tim Powers]]' ''[[The Stress of Her Regard]]'', Crawford's second wife Julia was murdered horribly on their wedding night. Years later, her [[Angsty Surviving Twin]] roleplays Julia very accurately for an extended period - and Crawford realizes that he never really knew Julia, and doesn't like what he sees of her now.

** [[Our Elves Are Better]]? Maybe the elves' trees aren't the only thing they have that are huge? Either way, Dalamar is much more similar to Kitiara personality-wise than Tanis ever was; it was only due to [[Spanner in the Works|Lord Soth]] convincing each that the other had betrayed them that their lusty plans of conquest didn't work out.

** Raistlin himself has this for {{spoiler|Laurana}} in ''Dragons of the Hourglass Mage'', and though he realizes that what he feels isn't anything more than a crush inspired by her beauty and non-negative reaction to him, he spends a chunk of the book trying to find ways to rescue her [[Badass in Distress|from Kitiara's clutches]] if the opportunity arises {{spoiler|(it doesn't, but he still has brief imagine-spots of rescuing her}}.)

** Phaethon realizes that most of his love for Daphne Prime was inspired by Daphne Tercius, even when she was a doll and not an emacipiated partial.

** Daphne Prime reveals that, in the [[Backstory]], she approached Phaethon to get to Helion because she was in love the idea of a man who preserved the life of the sun, and when she actually met Helion, did not like him at all.

* [[Lolita]] argubly. Consider for a second that the origins of Humbert Humbert's obsession with Lolita is explained by him in the very first pages. He says the it was his unconsummated relationship with Annabel that caused him to be attracted to "nymphets". So he essentially loves Lolita because she reminds him of Annabel.

* Quite a lot of fans who [[Derailing Love Interests|dislike the canon Harry/Ginny pairing]] consider Ginny Weasley to be in love with The Boy Who Lived, not [[Harry Potter]].

* It is quite probable that Desdemona's love for Othello is of this nature and he suspects it making him an easy target for Iago's manipulation.

 

* In ''[[Smallville]]'', this is heavily implied to be the basis of both Lana's love for Clark (dead parents) and Lex's love for Helen, his string of failed romances, and his eventual obsession with Lana (dead mother Lillian). In addition, Lana calls Clark out for loving the image he's built up of her over the years to the point where he was blaming himself for her very illegal, very felonious activity (kidnapping and torture, and eventually felony murder). Of course, this being [[Creator's Pet|Lana]] [[Mary Sue|Lang]], she wants him to accept her for her kidnapping, murdering self, but the framework is there.

** Chloe Sullivan has a similar situation with Davis Bloome in Season 8, where he's clearly a [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|Clark substitute.]]

* In the BBC's version of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'', after {{spoiler|Marian's death}} Robin begins a relationship with Isabella who bears a slight resemblance to Marian. Likewise, Kate's feelings for Robin seemed to be based more on hero-worship than any particular regard for him personally, and had the show not been cancelled, it's likely that she would have been paired up with newcomer Archer instead.

** There's also Much, who falls for Kate despite the fact she treats him rather poorly. Fan speculation is that she simply reminds him of Eve, his Season 1 love interest, who also had distinctive blonde hair.

* This is a theory in [[Charmed]] that Phoebe loved Coop because he's like the safer version of her ex Cole. Coop acted like Cole only he's good because he's a cupid and not a demon.

* Played poignantly in an episode of ''[[Jonathan Creek]].'' At first Robin Priest seems a bit of a lout for having an affair with an unpleasant blonde. However, it turns out that his so-called wife took advantage of a bump to his head and [[Brainwashed]] him into believing that they were married. When [[The Reveal]] comes, it's clear that his immediate attraction to the blonde was simply because she bore a startling resemblance to his ''real'' wife, who - though dead - is displayed prominantly in several portraits around his former house.

 

== [[Music]] ==

And then I woke up. }}

 

* Subverted with ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]''; at one point, Todd starts wondering what his daughter (whom he has not seen in 15 years since she was a baby) is actually like, and ultimately concludes that he can't really care about her. Played disturbingly straight with Anthony for Johanna ([[In Love with Love|he seems mostly enamoured of the idea of rescuing her from her evil guardian]]); possibly also [[Mad Love|Mrs. Lovett for Todd]].

* Played straight with ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]''. Romeo begins the story utterly heartbroken that his one true love has dumped him. The minute he sees Juliet, he is utterly infatuated with his new one true love. Some interpret this to mean he is too needy or in love with the idea of being in love. However, such an interpretation is not popular because it destroys the notion that the play [[Misaimed Fandom|depicts love at its most ideal]].

* The musical version of [[Les Misérables]] had Eponine sum up this trope best with "And I know, it's only in my mind. That I'm talking to myself and not to him... I love him, but only on my own."

* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]: One of the core points of the play is that Roxane doesn’t love Christian or Cyrano, she is in love with their [[Shadow Archetype]]: An entity who has all the positive traits of both suitors, but none of their defects, a true shadow.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* An interesting variation occurs in ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]''. Marta falls head-over-heels in love with what she falsely believes Emil to be, clearly ignoring Emil's actual personality. When he calls her out on this in a moment of frustration, she draws back and realizes that, no, Emil really isn't like her fantasy. Then she ends up falling for Emil ''for real''.

* A story which can be read in [[Elder Scrolls|Morrowind]], titled "Palla," tells the tale of a mage who falls in love with a long-dead woman depicted fighting a monster in a statue. Of course, it doesn't turn out like he thought it would. {{spoiler|Palla turns out to be the name of the monster. Guess who comes back to life?}}

** Laharl himself seems to be attracted to Flonne, and it's mentioned that she reminds him of his deceased mother.

* ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'' has [[Cool Big Sis|Prairie]] falling in love with [[The Obi-Wan|Girouette]]. She later admitted that it was because Giro reminded her of someone she knew in the past. Prairie is strongly believed to be Alouette of the ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' series, and Giro is a (rather blatant) [[Expy]] of the eponymous character that Alouette looks up to and idolizes. Do the math.

** She exhibits a similar fear if she's paired up with [[The Archer]] Jamuka, whom Adean helped to have a [[Heel Face Turn]]. Again, Jamuka will reply via saying that he loves only her now.

** It's implied in one of the mangas that {{spoiler|Alvis}}, a man with a BIG {{spoiler|[[Oedipus Complex]]}}, may have fallen for {{spoiler|Diadora}} because she reminded him of {{spoiler|his much adored mother}}. For massive irony, {{spoiler|Diadora was his half-sister... ''and they shared the same mom''. Whoops.}}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Namir Deiter]]'', Cedric convinces himself that he's still in love with Tipper (his high-school sweetheart, whom ''he'' broke up with). Tipper tells him point-blank that he's in love with the girl she used to be and she's changed drastically since then. Not to mention she's engaged to someone else. Cedric doesn't take no for an answer. From Tipper OR her fiancee, Charles. [http://www.namirdeiter.com/comics/index.php?date=20081019 It doesn't] [http://www.namirdeiter.com/comics/index.php?date=20081021 end well]. Then again, Cedric has always been portrayed as a flake who tends to react first and think when forced to.

* Haruna sees Onii-san as a replacement for her dead fiance Mamoru in ''[[Tsunami Channel|Experimental Comic Kotone]]''.

* This turns out to be the major source of conflict between Misho and Marena in ''[[Keychain of Creation]]''. Misho refuses to have casual sex with Marena. He wants more than that. Marena actually wants that too, but won't commit to anything more until she's sure that Misho {{spoiler|sees her as she is now, not [[Reincarnation Romance|as she was a millenium ago]], when she was Misho's First Age Lunar consort.}}

* One arc of ''[[Least I Could Do]]'' has Issa introducing the guys to her new boyfriend, who bears a very strong resemblance to Rayne. The other guys notice this and wonder among themselves if she realizes this, as Issa has adamantly resisted Rayne's advances for the last decade or so.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In [[Be the Sea Dweller Lowblood]], Karkat's large number of hate-based flings are because {{spoiler|he hates himself so much that anyone who can tell him how he's a failure and a fake can turn him on}}.

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Love Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]