Noble Male, Roguish Male
This is the Spear Counterpart to Light Feminine and Dark Feminine, in which two male characters portray different aspects of masculinity. The Noble Male is generally world-wise, gentlemanly, and sophisticated—while the Roguish Male is generally reckless, wild, and prone towards fighting. The Roguish man is basically an egotistical, passionate, and aggressive man who either rarely treats women well or doesn't have a way with them—but they are drawn to him, anyway. Differs from Sensitive Guy and Manly Man in that the Noble Male is still very much considered "manly"—but is so in a more chivalrous fashion, rather than in an aggressive fashion.
The Noble Male can be the Betty in a male Betty and Veronica love triangle. Also related is Red Oni, Blue Oni, with the Noble Male being the Blue to the Roguish Male's Red. Female examples of this trope are likely to be Bifauxnen and Ladette.
As with any two character trope, the two characters have to have some sort of relationship with each other, be it friends, family, love interests, or rivals for a love interest, so the two characters can be playing the traits directly off each other.
It is interesting to note that, in today's culture, "feminine" usually implies Light Feminine—while "manly" tends to imply Roguish Male. See Female Angel, Male Demon for more.
Anime and Manga
- Axis Powers Hetalia: Germany and Prussia, with Germany as Noble and Prussia as Roguish. Prussia may have these dynamics with India (Noble) as well, judging by Hetaween 2011.
- Also, a popular Fanon rendition of Sweden (Noble) and Denmark (Roguish).
- The Vision of Escaflowne: Allen is the Light Masculine, while Van is the Roguish Male. They are even color-coded.
- Takehiko Henmi (Noble) and Takeshi Ichinomiya (Roguish) from Oniisama e....
Comic Books
- X-Men: Cyclops (Noble) and Wolverine (Roguish) in some depictions.
- Usagi Yojimbo has Usagi (noble) and Gen (roguish).
Film
- Han is the Roguish Male and Luke the Noble Male in the original Star Wars trilogy.
- There are old friends, the noble prince, Proteus, and the black-hearted thief, Sinbad, from Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.
- Victor and Rick in Casablanca.
Literature
- Gone with the Wind: Ashley is the Noble Male, while Rhett is the Roguish Male
- David Weber's War God series has Bahzell as the Noble Male and Brandark as the Roguish Male.
- A Tale of Two Cities has Charles Darnay (Noble) and Sidney Carton (Roguish). Interestingly, the two look quite similar.
- There's romantic rivals Edward (moody) and Jacob (loyal) from Twilight.
- Belisarius and his bodyguard Valentinian in the Belisarius Series.
- In the Tortall Universe, Alanna is torn between Jon, the Noble Male (literally, he's a prince), and George, the Roguish Male (again, literally, he's the king of thieves and often called The Rogue).
- Done on a racial level in The Death Gate Cycle with the Sartan playing the part of the Noble, and the Patryns playing the Rogue. Of course, various members skew differently and there are a few Not So Different moments.
Live-Action TV
- Hercules (noble) and Autolycus (roguish) from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
- Hal (noble) and Tom (roguish) from Being Human.
- Apollo (noble) and Starbuck (roguish) from the original Battlestar Galactica.
- In Firefly it is more complicated. Mal and Simon fit this and Simon is more a noble male then Mal; he is even from a gentlemanly family making it something of a pun. Simon is however more boyish then Mal. However both have a fierce loyalty to their ship(Mal) and sister (Simon), and in some ways are Not So Different. Wash while not so ostentatiously gentlemanly as Simon is always a decent man. Jayne is enough of a rouge to make Mal look like a saint.
- In Blue Bloods Danny is the Cowboy Cop and Jamie is the idealist.
Video Games
- Dragon Age Origins has Alistair (Noble Male) and Zevran (Roguish Male), the two male love interests in the party.
- Tales of Vesperia: Yuri is the Roguish Male, while Flynn is the Noble Male.