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Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Difference between revisions
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Most of the time, it's going to be "go with the poor one," and the story will carry an [[Aesop]] that true love is worth more than material wealth. This makes sense if the rich suitor is a bad person or the woman is just not in love with him as she is with the poor person. When done poorly, however, the rich one often ends up as the [[Designated Villain]]. This trope overlaps considerably with [[Wrong Guy First]] and [[Disposable Fiance]], but keep in mind that the rich suitor is not ''necessarily'' wrong, first or particularly disposable.
If the suitors are also a [[Betty and Veronica]] pair, the dynamic will typically be either "[[Single Woman Seeks Good Man|poor but nice]] suitor vs. [[Rich Bitch|rich but haughty]] suitor" or "[[All Girls Want Bad Boys|poor but exciting]] suitor vs. [[Romantic Runner
Compare [[Gold Digger]], [[Meal Ticket]].
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* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'': Miaka Yuuki is the Suzaku no Miko and main girl of the series. The rich suitor is Hotohori, the ''Emperor'' of Konan. The poor suitor is [[Country Mouse]] Tamahome. [[Foregone Conclusion|Miaka chooses]] [[First Girl Wins|Tamahome]].
** Subverted in {{spoiler|Hotohori's character novel and OAV, ''Suzaku Hi Den''. His future wife and empress Houki is in the middle of the [[Love Triangle]]; Hotohori is the rich suitor, while his long-lost brother Tendou Shu is the poor suitor. This time, Hotohori wins. And Shu actually ''dies''... in Houki and Hoto's arms.}}
* With a little bit of [[Shipping Goggles]] applied, ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' can be seen as having this in the form of aristocratic [[Kuudere|Austria]] and rough-and-tumble [[Hot
** For some fics, you can switch Prussia with Hungary's teenage-hood friend [[Wholesome Crossdresser|Poland]] and it's similar. Including the DFOS, sadly.
** The Greece/Japan/Turkey [[Love Triangle]] can also be viewed as this, considering Greece's [[Perpetual Poverty]] and Turkey's [[Bling of War]] and Greece/Japan being heavily favored in both canon and fandom.
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== Film ==
* Johnny and Neil in ''[[Dirty Dancing]].'' Provided, it doesn't hurt that Johnny is incredibly attractive and an extremely good dancer, whereas Neil is more or less a [[Jerkass]] loser.
* ''[[A
* ''[[Moulin Rouge]]'': Satine must choose between the rich Duke ([[Only One Name|that's his only name]]) and the young bohemian playwright Christian -- or, more poetically, between her diamonds-are-a-girl's-best-friend materialism and her desire to be free to love. And of course the a show-within-a-show they're planning has the exact same love triangle.
* ''[[Pretty in Pink (Film)|Pretty in Pink]]'': Impoverished young Andie must choose between rich boy Blane and poor boy Duckie.
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* Played with in ''[[Just Friends (Film)|Just Friends]]'' in which Jamie must choose between her former high school best friend who is now a [[Jerkass]], successful [[Casanova]] with a glamorous job in the music intustry and another former friend who has grown up into a nice, down to earth small town paramedic. {{spoiler|Except in turns out the [[Jerkass]] Rich Suitor is really a [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]] while the supposedly nice Poor Suitor is a [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]] deliberately looking to break her heart for not noticing his crush on her in high school}}.
* [[Gender Flipped]] in ''[[The Princess and The Frog (Disney)|The Princess and The Frog]],'' where Prince Naveen, cut off by his parents, chooses to marry the rich [[Spoiled Sweet|Charlotte LeBouffe]] for her money... before falling for her poorer friend, [[Disney Princess|Tiana]]. It seems like he might have to marry Charlotte even after choosing Tiana, but [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|Charlotte does away with that issue herself]].
* Given a bit of a twist in ''[[Aladdin (Disney)|Aladdin]]'', where Jasmine falls in love with "street rat" Aladdin and doesn't much care for this Prince Ali who comes parading down the streets with an ostentatious display of wealth and possessions. The twist being, of course, that [[Two
* [[The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas]]: Casino owner Chip Rockfeller and quarry employee Fred Flintstone are rivals for Wilma's affections. The movie twists the trope by having Chip ''needing'' to marry Wilma, who's from a rather affluent family as well, to be able to pay his debts and stay wealthy.
* A rare male version in [[Tyler Perry]]'s ''Good Deeds''. Wesley Deeds has to choose between his fiancee Natalie (rich) or a down-on-her-luck single mother who is a janitor in his office building.
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** He actually doesn't lose. When he and the other guy both manage to bring an identical [[Bride Price]], the girl's father decides to just let her choose which man she wants to marry. However, when she can't decide, it suddenly hits Elya that she doesn't care about him ''at all'' and he surrenders in depression.
** Even Elya faces this choice, sort of. In the old country, the girl he pursued was richer than he was but dumb as a brick. The one he ended up marrying in America, however, was a smart and capable farm girl.
* Deconstructed in James Thurber's fairy-tale parody short story "
* In ''[[Many Waters]]'', a sequel to ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]],'' by [[Madeleine L Engle]], Yalith is pursued both by one of the nephilim, a powerful angelic being who promises her splendor and protection from the oncoming flood, and Sandy and Dennys, the twins from another time, who can't exactly promise a way to save her. However, {{spoiler|she [[Take a Third Option|Takes a Third Option]] when she trusts in the seraphim, [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|who takes her away to be with God.]]}}
* In ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', the backstory had Daisy being torn between common soldier Jay who's away at war and wealthy [[Jerk Jock]] Tom. She chose Tom, but it's implied that she regretted not waiting for Jay and loved him more than she loved Tom. And then this trope is deconstructed every which way when Jay returns even richer than Tom and begins successfully courting Daisy, only for Daisy to be ultimately too weak-willed and shallow to choose him over Tom and {{spoiler|Jay to get shot for trying to cover up a death Daisy accidentally caused}}.
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* In [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]]'s ''[[Death On the Nile]]'', Linnet and Jacqueline are this to Simon Doyle. Linnet, the rich one, manages to steal Simon away from her poorer friend Jackie. Except that {{spoiler|it turns out Jackie was the victorious one all along; Simon always loved her and married Linnet, who he saw as just a [[Clingy Jealous Girl]], only so that he and Jackie could murder Linnet on a boat voyage over the Nile and inherit her money}}.
** ''Death on the Nile'' also has a [[Beta Couple|"beta" case of "rich suitor, poor suitor."]] Cornelia Robinson, the poor relation of a rich woman on the boat, is being courted by both the scraggly Communist agitator Mr. Ferguson and the successful, famous Dr. Bessner. She chooses the poor suitor {{spoiler|which turns out to be the doctor, who is comfortably well-off, but not spectacularly wealthy. Ferguson was actually a wealthy Lord, but Cornelia didn't care. She thought he was just as much of a [[Jerkass]] as an aristocrat as he was as a commoner.}}
* The second and third books in the ''[[Twilight (Literature)|Twilight]]'' series run on this trope, with Bella having to choose between [[Vampire
** Which is actually a subversion, since {{spoiler|Edward}} is the insanely rich, refined one, but he still wins. No opinions on which is the "nicer" one, please.
* The knight Palamon and the commoner Arcite for Emily in "The Knight's Tale" of ''[[The Canterbury Tales (Literature)|The Canterbury Tales]]''. {{spoiler|Arcite wins the physical duel for Emily's hand but suffers fatal injuries when his horse throws him off during his victory celebration, making Palamon the winner by default. It's also worth noting that Emily prayed to Diana to either remain unmarried or become married to the man who loved her the most which implies that Palamon's love for her was purer than Arcite's, something that is usually not done with the rich suitor.}}
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* ''[[Full House]]'': Donna Jo aka D.J. must choose between the abnormally rich Nelson and the flaky but sensitive guitarist Viper. She eventually chooses [[Take a Third Option|neither]].
* Happens all the damn time in soap operas, usually with a [[Salaryman|blue collar]] [[Leather Man|leather-jacket wearing]] [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|bad boy]] [[Hidden Heart of Gold|with a heart of gold]] vs. a [[Smug Snake|smug]], [[Jerkass|arrogant]], [[Magnificent Bastard|suit-wearing bastard]]. The Poor Suitor almost exclusively wins.
** Happens so much that [[The Seventies]] comic [[Mafalda]] [[Older Than They Think|was already parodying it in one of their strips]]. Susanita's mother is replying to a phone survey about telenovelas and she starts blubbering about how she finds so horrible that the lead female ([[The Ojou|"a girl from such a high-class family, you see"]]) is cheating on the rich suitor ([[Hello, Attorney!|"a lawyer]], [[Romantic Runner
** A notable exception in ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' was the creation of the quite unconventional [[Super Couple]] Jack and Jennifer. Jennifer (the classic girl-next-door type) had to choose between rich, arrogant, manipulative, snarky, corrupt, ex-rapist Jack Deveraux and sweet, caring, poor, leather jacket-wearing Emilio. Even though Jack was doing the typical Rich Suitor stuff like throwing his money around, demeaning the poor suitor and manipulating the situation to seem superior, he ''still'' got the girl and became one of the show's most popular characters for years to come while Emilio got cheated on and eventually fell off a roof and died.
* One episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' was about a woman who had to choose between a rich man she didn't love and a poor man she did love, and her future self pursued her on a horse to warn her not to choose the wrong man. The woman ultimately chooses to run off with the poor man. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, ''he'' turned out to be the wrong choice her future self had tried to warn her against. The brilliant deconstruction was that the poor guy was predictably lousy at handling money and ran the farm they depended on into the ground.}}
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[[Category:Romance Novel Plots]]
[[Category:Rich Suitor Poor Suitor]]
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