Rescue Romance: Difference between revisions

 

"Anime's Favorite Contrived Meeting" is a possible sub-trope, or specific example of this:

 

Oddly enough some medieval romancers, despite being the reason [[Damsel in Distress]] is called that ("damsel" being the diminutive of medieval French for "lady"), actually sometimes ''didn't like'' this trope. Basically some of them thought that, since the girl now owed the guy, the resulting romance [[Doing It for the Art|wasn't pure enough, aesthetically speaking]]. The various aristocrats who paid their bills mostly told 'em [[Unpleasable Fanbase|to shut up]]; part of the ideal of knighthood was being a protector, and who doesn't want to hear about a good deed they could actually do being rewarded with some sweet lovin'?

** This is later played straight when Shayla Shayla falls for Makoto after he [[Taking the Bullet|takes a shot from a power staff]] for her. And again, in the [[Sequel Series]] when Makoto saves Kauru from drowning.

* Subverted in ''[[The Slayers]]'' - in the first episode, Gourry steps in to save Lina from Bandits, but [[Black Magician Girl|she really didn't need the help]]. Also, while she ''does'' admit he's handsome and lets him continue traveling with her, the development of their relationship has more to do with their adventures together than their initial meeting (despite him having a [[Bodyguard Crush]] on her for quite a while).

** Arguably played a bit more straight with An and Momoshiro: he saved her and Sakuno from bullies first, later he teamed up with Kamio to have Atobe give up on [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|forcing her on a date]]. ''Arguably'', because neither Momo nor An make moves towards a [[Relationship Upgrade]] when given the chance (despite the relationship chart hinting at her having a crush on him), whereas Kamio is firmly put in the role of the [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]].

** Played straighter with Ryoma's parents. His [[Tsundere]] mother Rinko [[Love At First Punch|didn't have a good impression]] of her soon-to-be husband Nanjiroh after he told her [[Pettanko|she was flat-chested]] and kept teasing her when [[She Cleans Up Nicely|she wore a girlier tennis outfit]] - he had to wipe the floor with her [[Jerkass]] coach that [[Kick the Dog|hit her and a little child with tennis balls]] to gain her appreciation.

** And for a straighter example in both senses of the phrase, we have Tohma and Lily, the main pairing for ''Force'' who first meet when Tohma finds Lily bound in an abandoned lab, releases her, and takes her with him.

** And, of course, more or less the basis for Fate/Nanoha. Nanoha ''is'' the one who helps her through her ordeals, after all.

* [[Gender Inverted Trope|Gender inverted]] in the ''[[Ikki Tousen]]'' anime. Sonsaku Hakufu used to protect her cousin Shuuyu Koukin from bullies when they were small, and Koukin [[Kissing Cousins|fell in love with Hakufu]] when they grew up.

** Lampshaded [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v07/c055/6.html early on] when the girls think Negi is going to confess to Ku Fei as a result of her saving him that morning.

** Negi's first major interaction with Nodoka involved catching her after she fell off of a staircase, and he saved her from Evangeline not long after. When he saves her in Chapter 219 {{spoiler|from a group of bounty hunters, he goes [[Berserk Button|half-nuts on them]] when he sees [[Black Comedy Rape|what they're doing to her]]}}. They have [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v25/c228/8.html a pretty serious moment] {{spoiler|after ''she'' rescues ''him''}} in Chapter 228, at least until [[Moment Killer|Kotarou]] jumps in.

** {{spoiler|Negi's father Nagi}} and {{spoiler|Negi's [[Tsundere]] mother Arika finally kiss}} right after he rescues her in Ch 269. Both [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|HELL YEAH!]] and [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Awww..]]

* Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye spend the entirety of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' saving ''each other''. In chronological order, she gunned down an Ishvalan who was about to stab him during the war, and saved him from Scar by ''tripping him'' ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]), then he risked blowing their cover to {{spoiler|save her from Gluttony, and later rescued both her and Al from Lust when she was in the middle of a [[Heroic BSOD|suicidal breakdown]], believing him dead}}. In later chapters, he went {{spoiler|completely [[Ax Crazy]] againt Envy, when he/she/it admitted to killing Hughes. He only snapped out of it when she assured him she would keep her promise of shooting him if he ever became corrupted, but she would kill herself afterwards}}. And just when they got all that cleared up, they found themselves in a situation where {{spoiler|she was dying from a jugular wound...and he ''couldn't save her.'' Luckily, someone who could showed up; the emotional scene which followed is easily one of the single most romantic things in the entire series.}}

* In the first episode, ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' saves Mytho after he jumps out a window to save a baby bird from a raven attack. She then starts to save him about [[Once an Episode]] until he starts to fall for her.

** Also, it's revealed in the second season that {{spoiler|Rue met Mytho when he saved her from a crow attack, and she in turn saved his life by [[Intimate Healing|giving him water through a kiss.]]}} [[Ho Yay|Fakir]] might count for Mytho, as well. Also Ahiru and Fakir's most romantic scenes come when they are rescuing each other.

* In ''[[Black Cat (manga)|Black Cat]]'', Train happened to be visiting the same part of town as Kyoko. She gets attacked by thugs, and he decides to intervene, easily disarming all of them. Although she actually didn't need saving, this caused her to [[Love At First Sight|fall in love at first sight]]. She proceeds to become another [[Stalker with a Crush]] of his, though all of it is rather hopeless for her, [[Asexuality|considering his personality]].

* ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'' has something of a mutual [[Rescue Romance]]: Van starts falling in love with Hitomi after she pulls a [[Diving Save]] on him in episode 6, saving him from being impaled by Dilandau. Meanwhile, Hitomi begins seeing Van as something beyond "that guy I'm tagging along with until [[Trapped in Another World|I can get back home]]" after he saves her from a kidnapping attempt (rather than the expected [[Knight in Shining Armor]], Allen) in the subsequent episode.

** Johan's own [[Mind Game Ship]] fixation on Tenma could also be seen as a very warped one-sided version of this, for all Johan's questionable reassurance that he sees Tenma as a father figure since Tenma saved his life when he was a very young boy.

** Surprisingly averted when Nina is {{spoiler|rescued and nursed back to health by Lipsky. He develops feelings for her, but she doesn't seem to view him as anything more than a close friend}}

* Doubly-inverted in ''[[Naruto]]'' when {{spoiler|Hinata jumps in to try to save Naruto from Pain. She tells Naruto that she can't stay back while he's in danger [[Anguished Declaration of Love|because she loves him]], then attacks Pain - who simply smacks her down, stabs her, and insinuates to Naruto that she's dead. Naruto promptly [[Berserk Button|loses it]] worse than he ever has before.}} The anime turns it into an [[Ironic Echo]] with both characters in the opposite positions when they were younger, against bullies.

** Played straight with {{spoiler|Karin}}, who's implied to have fallen for {{spoiler|Sasuke}} after {{spoiler|he}} saved {{spoiler|her}} from a bear in a Chuunin exam {{spoiler|she}} was taking.

* Subverted in ''[[School Rumble]]'' - the entire reason Harima grew facial hair, wears sunglasses, and became a delinquent was so that he could be close to Tenma {{spoiler|without her recognizing him. ''He'' fell in love with ''her'' after saving her from hoodlums, and took her back to his place because she was unconscious. When he leaned in for the [[Dude, She's Like, in a Coma|traditional kiss]], she woke up and thought he was about to molest her (or already had).}}

* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', Yellow both gains admiration for and falls in love with Red after he saves her life from a rampaging Dratini, prompting her to be determined to [[Rescue Arc|save ''him'' when she learns that he's gone missing]]. Of course, Red, [[Idiot Hero|being as oblivious as he is]], doesn't recognize her as the girl he once saved and probably never bothered wondering why she through so much trouble for him.

* [[Played for Laughs]] in the ''[[Bleach]]'' anime, where once Yoruichi rescues Soifon and the toughest [[Tsundere]] in the series [[Even Heroes Have Heroes|goes all goggly-eyed and gushy]]. To be fair, Soifon has been [[Bodyguard Crush|crushing]] ''[[Bodyguard Crush|hard]]'' on her beloved Yoruichi-sama for a while...

** This is the reason why Momo Hinamori is in love with Sousuke Aizen, as he had saved her life and those of her friends when she was younger. Unfortunately, Aizen is the [[Big Bad]] and a [[Complete Monster]] who sees her as nothing more than a pawn.

** Also Haru fell for Tsuna after he saved her from drowning.

** Might as well tack {{spoiler|Enma}} on.

** Played slightly-more-straight in the anime {{spoiler|when Recca pushes her out of the way of a bunch of falling girders.}}

* Invoked twice in ''[[Canaan]]''. Maria Oosawa wants to replay her first meeting with the titual [[Action Girl]], so she intentionally gets in trouble. Also, {{spoiler|Liang Qi had set up a trap for Alphard to get captured in the beginning so that Liang Qi would get to rescue her. Alphard was very aware of this; and went along merely because she was curious where Liang Qi was going with it.}}

* In ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'', Kotetsu Kaburagi and Tomoe Amamiya's relationship was kick-started when Kotetsu rescued her from a factory explosion. Of course, the fact that he was an aspiring superhero and she was a raging superhero fangirl [[Geeky Turn On|might have had something to do with it]].

* Invoked intentionally in ''[[Mawaru Penguindrum]]'', when Ringo tries to stage an incident where she's drowning so her crush Tabuki will rescue her. {{spoiler|Subverted since it fails, so Shoma has to save her. OTOH, if you ship Ringo/Shoma instead of Ringo/Tabuki, this trope can be seen as played straight... ''[[Ship Tease|maybe]]''.}}

* Prince Charming from ''[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (novel)|Snow White]]'', who never even has a conversation with Snow White before [[Dude, She's Like, in a Coma|kissing her apparently dead body]], then carrying her off into the sunset. Likewise the Prince in ''[[Sleeping Beauty]]''.

* A male example of a rescuee is the prince in ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'': In the original [[Hans Christian Andersen]] version, the prince never knew that the mermaid had saved him and wasn't in love with her -- he was in love with the girl from the temple who found him on the beach (who he ''thought'' rescued him), whom he believed he could never marry because of her vocation. It turned out that she was not a nun but had simply been sent there to be educated by the sisters, and [[Two-Person Love Triangle|was in fact the princess]] [[Perfectly Arranged Marriage|his father was pressuring him to marry]].

 

 

** We meet Serwe for the first time when she is rescued by {{spoiler|Cnaiür, who then proceeds to rape her. Cnaiür then proceeds to develop a strictly one-sided, insane obsession with her while not treating her any better because of it.}}

** {{spoiler|Esmenet}} is rescued by a seeming [[Knight in Shining Armor]] and they engage in a romance, but the man turns out to be {{spoiler|a sadistic, inhuman monster disguised as a man who is keeping track of Esmenet for his evil masters' benefit. No hearts are broken, though, as she was staying with him only for the free food and protection.}}

* Lampshaded and played with, along with most other fairy tale tropes, in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''The Fairy Godmother'', in which the titular heroine is obliged to rescue an imprisoned princess herself because if a man did it, the Tradition would force the princess to fall in love with him... and she's already married.

** And her husband is someone who she ''intentionally let herself be rescued by'' precisely to invoke this trope. (And no, she didn't know who would be the rescuer. Her father and her worked up the plan, and sent out a message to all nearby eligible princes, knowing she would fall in love with whomever succeeded.)

* ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'':

** Subverted in Book 1: The Red Cross Knight <s>kind of</s> fails at the whole "rescue" thing, leaving his charge at the mercy of church robbers, rapists, and [[Loony Fan]] forest critters. Those [[Master of Illusion|Masters of Illusion]] are just so ''great'' at the whole "illusions" thing...

* Both [[Gender Inverted Trope|Gender inverted]] and [[Lampshaded]] in the ''[[Smoke and Shadows]]'' trilogy. Tony saves Lee's life multiple times, and when Lee finally comes out of the closet, Tony remarks, "I never thought of you as a damsel."

* Examined with some care in the ''[[Lord Peter Wimsey]]'' series; Lord Peter falls in [[Love At First Sight]] with Harriet Vane, rescues her from wrongful imprisonment and hanging...and she bluntly declines his proposal. It takes four years before she's ready to have a relationship with him.

* In ''[[Dresden Files]]'', {{spoiler|Charity}}'s [[Backstory]] is that {{spoiler|her future husband Michael}} rescued her from a dragon.

** Also, Harry assumes that {{spoiler|their daughter Molly's}} crush on him is due to a combination of this and [[Like Parent, Like Spouse]].

* In ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Right Ho, Jeeves]]'', Jeeves suggests this as a plan, if Bertie sets off the fire alarm then the disentangled couples will rush to each others' aid and reentangle, dis-entangling Bertie and saving Aunt Dahlia's magazine. {{spoiler|His actual plan is somewhat more complex however, involving making an ass of Bertie as a key step.}}

* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'': Silverstream rescues Graystripe from drowning, and he's barely out of the water before he's flirting with her. Bonus points for being [[Star-Crossed Lovers]].

** An Firestar stopped Sandstorm from falling off a gorge, and Crowfeather managed to save Leafpool from falling off a cliff, and... Never mind. If one character saves another, they're probably going to end up in a relationship at some point.

{{quote|'''Juliet:''' He saved my life!

'''Glenda:''' That's no basis for a relationship! A polite thank you would have sufficed!" }}

* ''The House Of Night'': Rephaim and Stevie Rae's relationship is entirely built on this. {{spoiler|First Stevie Rae finds Rephaim almost dying from being shot out of the sky, hides him in a garden shed, patches him up, then lets him go. A [[I Owe You My Life]] moment is exchanged between them, which comes in handy when Stevie Rae is then later trapped on the roof a building. Rephaim rescues her and an Imprint is formed between them. Then when Stevie Rae summons Darkness, it's none other then Rephaim who rescues her from Darkness. When Stevie Rae sees Darkness hurting Rephaim, she summons Light to help rescue Rephaim. When Dallas finds out that Stevie Rae's been lying about knowing Rephaim, and plans to "knock some sense" into Stevie Rae, Rephaim's the one that steps up and protects Stevie Rae. Then Stevie Rae protects them both when Dallas embraces Darkness and tries to kill them both.}}

* In ''[[The Squire's Tales|The Ballad of Dinadan]]'' everyone who knows Dinadan and Brangienne and how they met thinks that they should be this. Instead they are each others [[The Not Love Interest|Not Love Interests]], fully admitting that they would probably make each other miserable.

* ''[[The Laundry Series]]''. The protagonist saves Mo from a blood sacrifice in "The Atrocity Archives". She's seeing someone else at the time so he doesn't follow it up, but he saves her life two more times during the course of the novel, so at the end she decides to move in with him of her own accord.

** In the second book {{spoiler|she ends up saving from a horrific death trap. This leads to him proposing to her.}}

'''Sally:''' Forget I'm a girl.

'''Percy:''' *snarls* }}

** The trope is subverted a second time in the same story: despite the fact that he's rescued her from having a misguided crush on a lying jerk, Encyclopedia and Sally never seem to be anything other than close friends.

* In ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (novel)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'', Phoebus rescues Esmeralda, causing the latter to fall hopelessly in love with the former.

* Played with in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' with Tyrion's first wife, Tysha. It's first played straight with a slight twist: she falls in love, not with the dashing knight who most directly and physically rescued her from a group of bandits and implied would-be rapists (older brother Jaime), but the malformed midget who comforted her afterward (younger brother Tyrion). Then it's subverted when it turns out that Tysha was a prostitute and the whole thing was staged for Tyrion's benefit by Jaime, who thought it was about time his little brother had a woman. {{spoiler|THEN it's reinsubverted, or something, when it turns out that their father Twyin, incensed at his son's marriage to a commoner, forced Jaime to tell Tyrion she was a prostitute when she actually wasn't. (Or at least, she wasn't hired by Jaime; [[From a Certain Point of View|Twyin considered her a whore because he believed that her only motivation for marrying Tyrion was his family's money.]] How pure her motives actually were is unknown.)}} Then [[It Got Worse]].

* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]. ''All the time.'' Some of the more notable ones:

** In ''[[John Carter of Mars|A Princess of Mars]]'', Dejah Thoris doesn't admit to her attraction until John Carter rescues her.

* In an episode of ''[[CSI: Miami]]'', the team encounter an agency that does mock kidnappings with this sort of thing (although the participants are further down the path) in mind. Girl gets "kidnapped", boyfriend "pays ransom" and/or "rescues her", they have sex (because "rescue sex is the best kind of sex"). This being the [[CSI Verse]], it doesn't quite work out like that...

** An episode of ''[[CSI New York]]'' also takes a spin on the trope with a woman who, it initially appears, gets back together with her ex after he saves her from being kidnapped and assaulted. It turns out that the "abduction" was a fetish game she and her current partner had knowingly staged, and her ex killed her lover in a fit of jealousy - she just found it hot that he would go that far for her.

* Subverted in ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]].'' Wolf makes his way to the Troll Palace to rescue Virginia, cleverly tricking the [[Goldfish Poop Gang|idiot Troll children]] into knocking each other out, then swings in on a vine to free her. Her response when he notes she doesn't seem to trust him? "Of course I don't trust you, you tried to ''eat'' my ''grandmother''!" ([[I'm a Humanitarian|Yes, they went there.]] And it was actually rather well done and hilarious.) This was not an auspicious start to the relationship.

* In the ''[[Beauty and the Beast (TV series)|Beauty and The Beast]]'' TV show, Vincent and Catherine first met when he brought her home after she was attacked and left to die in Central Park; given the constraints that Vincent's nonhuman appearance puts on him, it's fair to say they would never otherwise have met.

* On ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', Ace Rimmer introduces himself after saving a princess and states his intentions to her: ''"There'll be time for answers later - and hopefully, some sex."'' And because he's Ace, she doesn't disagree. What a guy!

* In ''[[Smallville]]'', in the episode "Relic", Lana's great-aunt falls in love with Jor-El when he saves her from Lex's grandfather.

* In ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' Gene saves Alex's life no less than seven times, not to mention her {{spoiler|soul}}

* On ''[[Saved by the Bell]]'' Denise Richards' characters stages this to meet Slater, but like most characters that don't appear in the opening credits [[Status Quo Is God|is never seen again]].

** Angel saving Buffy from three vampire assassins leads to him [[There Is Only One Bed|hiding out in her bedroom]] and their [[First Kiss]].

** Spike/Buffy share a [[Big Damn Kiss]] at the end of "[[Musical Episode|Once More With Feeling]]" after Spike stops Buffy from dancing herself to death with a few well-chosen lyrics. Buffy later tries to blame it on [[Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity]], but Spike knows otherwise and starts pursuing her in earnest.

** Played straight with Merlin and Freya, {{spoiler|with tragic consequences}}.

* In ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' between {{spoiler|Annie and Mitchell}}, where the former seems quite keen to romanticise the latter's rescuing of her, and a relationship that had previously been purely platonic is transformed into romance post-rescue.

* In an episode of ''[[Cold Case]]'', a woman is involved in a car accident and is rescued from the wreckage by a firefighter. She is rendered paraplegic but goes on to marry said firefighter. However {{spoiler|the woman's ex boyfriend (who was driving the car yet got away with minor injuries) noticed something amiss with the whole accident. After doing some research and recalling that the woman complained about her legs hurting ''before'' being taken out of the wreck, he comes to the conclusion that the firefighter used the jaws of life incorrectly and crippled her. He confronts him about this in hopes of getting back together with her only for the firefighter to murder him.}}

* Lampshaded in C-drama ''Holy Pearl''. "Ohh, I get it. Weak woman is saved by strong, handsome man and falls in love with him. There's only one problem--[[Action Girl|you don't look weak.]]" For added irony points, the speaker is later saved by the man in question...and falls in love with him.

* The player's introduction to Dawn Star in [[Jade Empire]] is the player sending Gao packing when he tries to hit on her. Though this might not count, as it is definitely not the first time the characters meet and Dawn Star was infatuated with a male character long before the incident.

* Subverted/deconstructed in Star Wars: [[Knights of the Old Republic]]. Bastila Shan initially resents the player for rescuing her.

* This is how Cornet's infatuation with Prince Ferdinand gets kick-started in ''[[Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure]]''. She dreams of him saving her from a scary, nondescript monster, and then it happens for real when she goes off to the forest to retrieve some red Inotium and gets attacked by Myao and her hench-cats.

* The E3 [http://www.mediamolecule.com/littlebigplanet/ trailer] for ''[[Little Big Planet]]'' inexplicably subverts this.

* ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]''. Zidane stole Garnet from the castle, and [[One Thing Led to Another]].

* Turned in weird directions in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]''; Rinoa's interest in Squall is visible well before any rescue scenarios, but it takes Squall saving her several times before he really starts to warm up to ''her''.

* When meeting two of the three possible female romantic interests in ''[[Baldur's Gate]] 2'', you end up rescuing them (twice, in the case of one of them...) the third? [[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|She was sent to help you.]]

** In the sequel, Tali will actually invoke this trope if you pursue her [[Romance Sidequest]].

{{quote|'''Tali:''' What could I possibly be suggesting? I mean, a young woman gets saved by a dashing commander who lets her join his crew and then goes off to save the galaxy? How could she possibly develop any kind of interest in him?}}

* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in an episode of ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', where a [[Fan Girl]] of Sonic's falls off a tall building. Sonic, being the hero that he is, zooms over and saves her. When Tails asks her about how she fell off the roof, she says, "Oh, that? I jumped. I wanted you to save me! How else was I going to meet you, silly?"

* In an episode of ''[[Kim Possible]]'', Ron dreams of saving Kim, and then actually does.

* Another male rescuee example comes from ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]''. In "Attack of the 5 1/2 Foot Geek", Sheldon meets (and falls hard for) Jenny after she saves him from some bullies in shop class.

* [[Alpha Bitch|Paulina]] in ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. The first time she's rescued, she acknowledges that Danny is a good ghost (in a town then on [[Untrusting Community]] level), but it was his second rescue that Paulina had fallen madly in love with Danny Phantom. (Although this turns into a cast of [[Loves My Alter Ego]], and they actually never get together.)