Loving a Shadow: Difference between revisions

 

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.

* 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.

* 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.

* In the [[New 52]], Mr. Freeze's origin is given this unsettling twist. When Victor Fries was a child he became fascinated with freezing things when his mother almost died after falling through thin ice. As an adult, he became fascinated with Nora Fields, a woman who was cryogenically frozen at age 23 in 1943 when she was diagnosed with a fatal heart condition. At the time she was in the care of Wayne Industries, so Fries applied for a job there just so he could have a chance to study her. He eventually became delusionally obsessed with her and started thinking she was his wife—a nasty subversion of his more sympathetic DCAU origin. Batman calls out Freeze on his delusional "love" of a woman he doesn't even know who is old enough to be his grandmother.

 

== [[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]] ==

* 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.]]

* 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]] ==

* 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]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Love Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]