Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Difference between revisions

* The [[Love Triangle]] among police officers in ''[[Detective Conan]]'' had "rich suitor" and local [[White Prince]] Ninzaburo Shiratori against "poor suitor" and middle-class [[Nice Guy]] Wataru Takagi, both pining for the local [[Action Girl]] Satou. {{spoiler|Satou ultimately chooses Takagi, after quite a while of [[Can't Spit It Out]]. Shiratori eventually finds his first love, local [[Hot Teacher]] Sumiko Kobayashi, and she becomes his [[Victorious Childhood Friend]].}}

* Rare female example in ''Kasei Yakyoku'': the noblewoman Akiko Shouda and her maid Sara Uchida are this to Taka Itou, the male lead.

* ''[[Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu]]'' has [[The Ojou|Nogizaka]] [[Uptown Girl|Haruka]], the [[School Idol|wealthy and popular High School student]], who is the love interest of [[Ordinary High School Student]] Ayase Yuuto, the "Poor Suitor" (actually middle-class but, if you compare him to Haruka and the "Rich Suitor"), and [[Alpha Bitch|Shute]] [[Jerkass|Sutherland]], who demeans Ayase in any given opportunity. Ayase Yuuto's self-steem issues are more of an obstacle than Sutherland, who isn't even a regular character.

* [[Played for Laughs]] in [[Dokonjo Gaeru]]. Local [[Hot Teacher]] Yoshiko Yamanaka is pursued by her co-worker Yoshio Minami (hinted to be from a rich family) and Sakakubei (Hiroshi's Big Brother Mentor who works as a sushi chef), but she ''completely'' [[Oblivious to Love|fails to notice their interest in her.]]

== Comic Books ==

* In ''[[The Building]]'' by [[Will Eisner]], Helen had a college sweetheart poet who loves her, but instead chose to marry the more stable, richer dentist - but ends up having an affair with the Poet because the marriage was ultimately loveless.

** An issue of ''[[What If]]'' showed what would have happened if she did choose Warren over Scott. Basically, Scott's edges would have been even harder had she not been there to soften them, and he was an even bigger antisocial [[Jerkass]] than he is in the normal continuity. So much, that Professor X named Beast as the leader of the X-Men since he had compassion and actually cared to endear himself to his teammates. This caused Cyclops to storm off and [[Face Heel Turn|join the Brotherhood]].

 

* ''[[A Knight's Tale]]'': Jocelyn must choose between Count Ademar, the nobleman, and William, the squire disguised as a knight (and only a country knight of minor nobility at that, although his money situation improves as he keeps winning tournaments). Not a straight example because she thought they were both noble, but she was still willing to love William after she found out his true heritage.

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Reality Bites]]'': Lelaina must choose between successful businessman Michael and slacker/philosopher/asshole Troy.

** Michael is a particular case of Designated Villain. He treats her well and uses his influence to try to start her career, but because that career may involve making compromises rather than just letting her Dad pay for things the movie tells us that [[Values Dissonance|the guy who treats her badly but never asks her to grow up is the one to go with.]]

* ''[[Spartacus]]'': Slave girl Varinia (and, in a way, slave boy Antoninus) must choose between high-ranking Roman general Crassus and rebel slave leader Spartacus.

* ''[[Titanic]]'': Rose must choose between the wealthy businessman Cal and impoverished artist Jack. Leonardo Dicaprio won.

* ''Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day'' calls this trope boring, and gives Delissia [[Le Fosse]] a choice between ''three'' suitors: charming club owner Nick, eager young Phil, or poor but passionate Michael.

* ''[[Sweet Home Alabama]]'': Kind of.

* Played with in ''[[Coming to America]],'' where Prince Akeem portrays himself as poor so that his future queen will love him for who he is, rather than how much money he has. In his fight for Lisa, he is up against Daryl, the money-rich but personality-poor heir to the Soul Glo fortune. Of course, it comes out that Akeem is really a prince. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* Subverted in ''[[The Notebook]]'' as the rich guy is decent and very lovely.

* [[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.

** 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 "[http://www.nexuslearning.net/books/Holt_ElementsofLit-3/Collection%203/princess%20and%20the%20tin%20box.htm The Princess and the Tin Box]", where a princess raised in luxury comes of age and is given a choice between many suitors. All but one are the "rich suitor", who present her with jewels in the hopes that she'll marry them only for them, the other having all the trappings of the "poor suitor", giving her only a tin box full of pebbles out of lack of anything else, which intrigues her because she's never seen anything like it before. The princess, after carefully considering everything...chooses one of the rich suitors. (The reader is admonished in the end that "All those who thought that the Princess was going to select the tin box filled with worthless stones instead of one of the other gifts will kindly stay after class and write one hundred times on the blackboard, ''I would rather have a hunk of aluminum silicate than a diamond necklace''.")

* 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}}.

* In ''The Premature Burial'' by [[Edgar Allan Poe]], there is a mention of a wealthy young woman named Victorine LaFourcade, who was involved with a poor journalist named Julien Bossuet. She caved under pressure from her family, though, and married a prominent banker, who [[Domestic Abuse|abused her]] until she fell ill and (apparently) died. Julien comes to her grave with the intention of taking a piece of her hair as a memento of her...only to find that she had been [[Buried Alive]]! [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|He took her home and nursed her back to health, and they left France for America together.]] Later, when they return to France and he's challenged by the banker, Julien legally gets to keep her as his wife, because of the unusual circumstances and the decades that had passed.

** ''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.}}

** 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.

 

 

** 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.}}

** Happened in the book as well, and therefore, presumably, [[Truth in Television|in real life]].

* Early episodes of ''[[The OC]]'' had this in the form of Ryan (poor) vs Luke (rich) competing for Marissa's love.

* In ''[[Rent]]'', Mimi is in a triangle with broke musician Roger and rich entrepreneur Benny (it didn't seem to matter that he was already married).

* In ''[[Songs for A New World]]'' the singer of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vA2wgirBJc "Stars and the Moon"] has a choice between three suitors, two who were poor, one wealthy.

* ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'': Almost all of Portia's suitors are rich (princes, dukes, barons, etc), and Bassanio, a "poor...gentlemen" is the exception. Needless to say, he's the only one she's really interested in. A lot of the plot revolves around the fact that he's borrowed money from a friend in order to woo her.

* In "Fulgens and Lucres": the noblewoman Lucres must choose between two suitors: the thrifty but honorable Gayus or the filthy rich but depraved Cornelius. She decides to marry whoever is nobler, and has them both make speeches listing why they fit that description. Needless to say, the one who kept his speech short won.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}