Opposites Attract: Difference between revisions

A [[Motor Mouth]] just isn’t as funny if he doesn’t have the [[Straight Man]] to torment. Similarly, only when a sweet, shy person is paired up with an equally jerkish one is their kindness and timidness [[Moe Moe|made all the more noticeable]].

 

 

The [[Odd Friendship]] also has elements of this, but tends to focus on how the differences make them see each other, and maybe the world, through new eyes. Perhaps the serious one is [[Not So Above It All]], or the [[Shrinking Violet]] has an inner strength she never knew she had. A [[Moe Couplet]] also does something similar to this, focusing on how each half of the couplet brings out the other's endearing or nurturing traits.

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Popular [[Opposites Attract]] dynamics:

* [[Troubled but Cute]] boy + [[The Ingenue|sweet, innocent]] girl

* [[Odd Couple]]

* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]

* [[Ordinary High School Student]] + [[Extraordinarily Empowered Girl]]

* [[Plucky Comic Relief]] + [[The Quiet One]]

* [[Magical Girlfriend]] + [[Ridiculously Average Guy]]

* [[Savvy Guy Energetic Girl]]

* [[Brooding Boy Gentle Girl]]

* [[Uptight Loves Wild]]

* [[Uptown Girl]]

 

'''IMPORTANT''': Please, no [[Shipping|ships]], just [[Canon]] portrayal of attraction. If you see an example that hasn't been portrayed in canon as this type of attraction (or hasn't been portrayed in canon ''at all''), please delete it. This also means examples will tend to be spoilery, so read on at your own risk.

* The [[Official Couple]] of ''[[Monkey High]]'' - Haruna is [[The Ojou]] and used to dealing with high-class folks (her father is a now-disgraced politician), while Macharu is [[The Fool]] and very much from working-class roots (his parents run a grocery store).

* In ''[[Kanamemo]]'', no chance is spared to show the loving bond between sparkly Yume and quiet Yuuki.

* [[Ship Tease]] aside, it may as well be Zelgadis the cynical, weary, brooding chimera paired with Amelia the optomistic, innocent, and plucky princess from ''[[Slayers]]'', with hints of [[Brooding Boy Gentle Girl]] peppered in there. In the novels, there is also the hot-headed, driven Luke with the snarky, calm Millina (in this case, this is [[All Love Is Unrequited]]).

* Parodied in ''[[Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]]''. The first episode plays romantic music when Nozomu first meets Kafuka, and text scrawls across the screen, "[[The Eeyore|A man who is negative about everything]]; [[The Pollyanna|a girl who is positive about everything]]; a meeting that never should have happened." This gets further parody in a later episode showing Nami's first meeting with Kiri, playing the same music and displaying the message "[[Delinquents|A girl who refuses to come to school]]; [[Hikikomori|a girl who refuses to leave school]]; a meeting that never should have happened."

* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has [[The Stoic]] officer Chrono and his [[Victorious Childhood Friend]], the [[Genki Girl|bubbly]] [[Bridge Bunny]] Amy.

* Considering they form a [[Manzai]] duo this is inherent to the eventual romantic relationship between Koganei and Amasawa of ''[[The Weatherman Is My Lover]]''.

* While not officially a couple as of yet, Soul and Maka from ''[[Soul Eater]]'' are considered this. Maka is a [[Badass Bookworm]] who always follows the rules and feels the need to do everything right in order to get by. Soul, on the other hand, is a [[Deadpan Snarker]] who would rather do things his own way and tends to go against orders that anyone bothers to give him.

** Of course, this could be said about almost every Meister/Weapon team in the series.

== Film ==

* [[Odd Couple]] Steed and Mrs. Peel in ''[[The Avengers 1998 (Film)|The Avengers 1998]]'': he follows the rules, she doesn't. He admits that she's "just my type".

* [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit|Roger and Jessica Rabbit]]. "He makes me laugh."

* Captain von Trapp and Maria in ''[[The Sound of Music]]''.

* [[Star Wars|Luke Skywalker]] and [[Expanded Universe|Mara Jade]]. Mara even ''says'' it, for crying out loud!

* Brainy ambitious women regularly find [[PG Wodehouse (Creator)|PG Wodehouse]]'s [[Upperclass Twit]] [[Jeeves and Wooster (Literature)|Bertie Wooster]] romantically irresistible.

* This seems to be the driving force behind Zavahl's and Ailie's relationship in the [[Shadowleague]] books- he has the personality of a bad rainstorm, whereas she is never seen to frown.

* From the [[Wheel of Time]], Mat is a Farmboy turned [[Four Star Badass]] raised in a [[Arcadia]], Tuon is a [[The Empire|Empress]] and Chessmaster who was raised in a [[Deadly Decadent Court]]. They're married.

** Also, [[The Big Guy|Hamilton]] and [[Teen Genius|Sinead]] was hinted a bit in Book 10.

* Captains Carrot Ironfounderson and Angua von Uberwald in ''[[Discworld]]'' are on opposite ends of the [[Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism]]. He inspires her to fight injustice, she reminds him not to set his expectations too high.

* ''[[I Carly]]'': [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] or [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] with the [[Abuse Is Okay When Its Female On Male|Sam/Fredde]] arc depending on what aspect you look at. The subversion is they are complete and total opposites that become physically attracted to each other but eventually break up when the actual relationship fails. They are unable to find any common ground in their interests and actually end up sabotaging them for each other when they try being involved in each other's activities. It ends up being one of the main causes of their break up. The inversion is Sam wants someone abnormal like her, and Freddie wants someone more normal like him, so that while they did have an [[Opposites Attract]] vibe, it's not what they need in a partner, making it clear that in their case they are attracted by similarity not opposition.

* ''[[Bones]]'' has the coldly intelligent, scientific, atheist, hyper-rational titular character and her partner the FBI agent- religious, more emotional, more of a people person. Clearly they complement each other, but each also finds the other fascinating and attractive.

* [[CSI: NY]] City boy Danny Messer and country girl wife Lindsay "Montana" Messer. (she's still tough in her own right, though.)

* [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]] Arthur and [[Shrinking Violet]] ([[Beware the Nice Ones|except when she's sufficiently ticked-off]]) Guinevere from ''[[Merlin (TV)|Merlin]]''. Also noteworthy was their difference in class status, with him being a prince and she being a servant.

* ''[[Parks and Recreation (TV)|Parks and Recreation]]'': Who'd have thought a liberal feminist vegetarian community college professor {{spoiler|would be hot for the carnivorous libertarian man's-man Ron Swanson}}?

 

== Music ==

* [http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=busting-the-myth-that-opposites-att-10-08-31 Actual science] tends to show that the best predictor of compatibility is in fact similar background, interests, and attitudes. A likely reason is that we tend to only ''notice'' the ways a couple are different (since it's not that surprising when two partners are alike), at which point we feel the need to form a theory to explain why all the couples we see are so different (when they are, in fact, [[Not So Different]]). The grain of truth in it is that a partner who's exactly like you ''in every way'' would probably cause all sorts of problems, so we do seek our opposites, after a fashion--just not our ''total'' opposites.

* SPC Kate Norley, an activist representing Vets For Freedom, a group whose "mission is to educate the American public about the importance of achieving success in [Iraq and Afghanistan]," and ''still'' an occasional guest commentator on [[Fox News]], while attending the 2008 RNC convention to ''show her support for John McCain'', as part of a campaign that earned her praise from right-wing bloggers up to and including [[Michelle Malkin]], apparently fell in love with one of the correspondents there. They're now engaged, and they expect to marry sometime 2011. His name? ''[[The Daily Show|John Oliver]]''.

** The biggest case of this is perhaps their disparate views on ''[[Blue Velvet]]''. Ebert notoriously hated it and found the scene with Isabella Rosselini standing naked on [[Kyle Mac Lachlan]]'s lawn to be misogynstic, while Gene Siskel loved it and compared it to ''[[Psycho]]''.

 

[[Category:Romance Novel Plots]]

[[Category:Opposites Attract]]