Shallow Love Interest: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"Remember: [[Dumb Blonde|Blonde]], [[Brainy Brunette|brunette]], and [[Fiery Redhead|redhead]] are not [[Blonde Brunette Redhead|personality types]]."''|''[[How Not to Write A Novel]]''}}

{{quote|''"Remember: [[Dumb Blonde|Blonde]], [[Brainy Brunette|brunette]], and [[Fiery Redhead|redhead]] are not [[Blonde, Brunette, Redhead|personality types]]."''|''[[How Not to Write A Novel]]''}}

A love interest for the main character whose personality is rather vague and shallow. It doesn't matter what their life was like beforehand; their [[Satellite Character|entire personality revolves]] around the sole fact that they dig said main character, and the main character digs them. A staple of [[Harem Series]]. When part of a movie, it's usually because the plot revolves around a second love interest that is used to show how much better the [[Shallow Love Interest]] is for the protagonist.

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* Brutally subverted in ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]''. Main character Ganta is trapped in a prison whose inhabitants are, by and large, not very nice people, when he meets a painfully shy and sensitive girl who clings to him from the word "hello." {{spoiler|Minatsuki is actually a [[Ax Crazy|psychopathic killer]] who puts on the nice-girl persona and then gets sexual pleasure from the look of betrayal on her victims' faces right before she kills them. She ''is'' starting to get a little better, though.}}

* Miharu from ''[[Girls Bravo (Manga)|Girls Bravo]]''.

* A lesser-known example [[Adaptation Displacement|outside of Japan]] is Millina the treasure hunter from the second half of the ''[[Slayers]]'' novel series. While it's [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in that she does not romantically like her pursuer, the [[Hot Blooded]] Luke, she pretty much serves as his [[Morality Chain]], {{spoiler|a given, considering that Luke has a fragment of the verse's [[Big Bad]] inside of him.}} The finale of the novel series is triggered by {{spoiler|Luke going [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|crazy]] over her being assassinated}}. Like [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold|Zelgadiss]] before her, she's a [[Deadpan Snarker]] and a [[Magic Knight]]...with no given reason. Of course, Luke himself isn't much better.

* A lesser-known example [[Adaptation Displacement|outside of Japan]] is Millina the treasure hunter from the second half of the ''[[Slayers]]'' novel series. While it's [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in that she does not romantically like her pursuer, the [[Hot-Blooded]] Luke, she pretty much serves as his [[Morality Chain]], {{spoiler|a given, considering that Luke has a fragment of the verse's [[Big Bad]] inside of him.}} The finale of the novel series is triggered by {{spoiler|Luke going [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|crazy]] over her being assassinated}}. Like [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold|Zelgadiss]] before her, she's a [[Deadpan Snarker]] and a [[Magic Knight]]...with no given reason. Of course, Luke himself isn't much better.

* Mayu from ''[[Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun]]''.

* ''[[School Days (Visual Novel)|School Days]]'': In the anime the two main female love interests get reduced to only being known for their obsession with Makoto. [[Deconstructed Trope|And that is the point, actually]]: the series shows the psychological strain ''and'' the extremes that being completely centered on a single person can bring... specially when said person is a [[Jerkass]] who uses both of them ''and'' others for his own pleasure.

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* Something similar happens in ''[[Kamichu]]'', where Yurie is much closer to Matsuri than her supposed love interest Kenji.

* [[Mirai Nikki|Yuno]] basically has no personality outside of her devotion to Yukiteru. This is played [[Deconstruction|as straight as possible]] to make [[Yandere|her]] '''[[Ax Crazy|scary]]'''. {{spoiler|It's clear that she has other issues.}}

** Yuno is supposed to be a [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstruction]] of the trope. Her entire world revolves around Yukiteru, and if anyone threatens to take him away from her, she [[Freak Out|flips her shit]] and equates it to her entire future being taken away. {{spoiler|This is with good reason. Before meeting Yukiteru, Yuno had just killed her parents, who were sitting dead in her house for three weeks. She had absolutely no hope for her own future, and was moved when Yukiteru's hope for the future was for his family to get along.}} So when Yukiteru jokingly accepted her offer to become his bride, she was thrilled {{spoiler|since she finally had a reason to keep living her life.}} So her life very literally depends on having Yukiteru there for emotional support. He ''is'' her future.

** Yuno is supposed to be a [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstruction]] of the trope. Her entire world revolves around Yukiteru, and if anyone threatens to take him away from her, she [[Freak-Out|flips her shit]] and equates it to her entire future being taken away. {{spoiler|This is with good reason. Before meeting Yukiteru, Yuno had just killed her parents, who were sitting dead in her house for three weeks. She had absolutely no hope for her own future, and was moved when Yukiteru's hope for the future was for his family to get along.}} So when Yukiteru jokingly accepted her offer to become his bride, she was thrilled {{spoiler|since she finally had a reason to keep living her life.}} So her life very literally depends on having Yukiteru there for emotional support. He ''is'' her future.

** It gets even more interesting in that Yuno ''recognizes'' this fact and basically gives a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|The Reason We Suck Speech]] about how it was "pretend love" and she would have been fine with ''anyone'' as long as she could emotionally depend on him. Fortunately, it turns out that maybe their love isn't that meaningless after all.

* Yuuno Scrya from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]''. Yes, yes. Before anyone starts [[Die for Our Ship|anything,]] let me point out that his character had ''potential'' for development. He was a strong [[Barrier Warrior]], his departure on his own from his family, that he had some kind of dealings with the Space-Time Bureau that allowed special privileges, he originally had [[Magic Wand|Raising Heart.]] But...it was never explored. Who he was to anyone other than Nanoha, why he was so intent of solving the Lost Logia case, his career in the Infinite Library; all of these things could have had plot, but did not. If he wasn't a [[Ship Tease|romantic possibility]] for Nanoha, then the writers simply were not interested in depicting it. And when it became clear he wouldn't be a romantic possibility, he [[Brother Chuck|disappeared from the plot.]]

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* Marianne from ''[[The Boat That Rocked]]'' has no consistent personality in her ten minutes total screen time except to be an object of adoration for the teenage protagonist. {{spoiler|She almost immediately breaks his heart by sleeping with another guy on their 'date', but they get back together in the last 15 minutes with practically no apology and no explanation from her.}}

* [[Justin Timberlake]]'s girlfriend in ''[[Edison (Film)|Edison]]'' exists only to remind everyone that he's a hip, sexy twenty-something {{spoiler|and get beaten to a bloody pulp by the corrupt cops he's investigating}}.

* Jocelyn in ''[[~~A Knights Tale|~~A Knight's Tale]]''. She's beautiful, rich, likes clothes, loves William...and that's it. All the poor girl gets to do is stand on the sidelines and then have either a love scene or a fighting scene with Will.

* Jocelyn in ''[[A Knight's Tale]]''. She's beautiful, rich, likes clothes, loves William...and that's it. All the poor girl gets to do is stand on the sidelines and then have either a love scene or a fighting scene with Will.

* Link Larkin in the original 1988 film version of ''[[Hairspray]]'' had no personality whatsoever outside of being a love interest to Tracey. The musical adaptation gave him a lot more character.

* Tina Carlyle in ''[[The Mask (Film)|The Mask]]''. To the point that they had to {{spoiler|reveal that the other half of the [[Betty and Veronica]] was [[The Mole]] for the [[Big Bad]]}} in order to find a good, non-sexual reason why Stanley should prefer her in the end.

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* Austin from ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' has no last name and is more of a plot device to get Justin to realize his sexuality than an actual character.

* [[Once an Episode]] on ''[[Seinfeld]]''.

* ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'': West, Caitlin, Yaeko, Simone. Most of these examples are so egregious as to be almost [[James Bond|Bond]] girls (boys?) with how little we see of them if at all after the season they're introduced in. One of these lucky ladies is introduced and then [[Ret Gone|retconned]] out of existence in show.

* ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'': West, Caitlin, Yaeko, Simone. Most of these examples are so egregious as to be almost [[James Bond|Bond]] girls (boys?) with how little we see of them if at all after the season they're introduced in. One of these lucky ladies is introduced and then [[Ret-Gone|retconned]] out of existence in show.

* ''[[The Secret World of Alex Mack]]'' has Scott, Alex's first crush. He doesn't really have any personality beyond sending [[Master of the Mixed Message|mixed signals]] to Alex, dating the [[Alpha Bitch]], and being a [[Big Man On Campus]]. {{spoiler|In fact, when Alex gets closer to him, she realizes that his actual personality isn't a very nice one, and she gets over her crush.}}

* Kennedy from season 7 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' appears to be interested in Willow for two reasons: she's cute, and she's willing to have sex with girls. At one point Willow asks her flat out what Kennedy knows about her, and Kennedy is barely able to come up with anything. But by the next episode, they're in a relationship.

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[[Category:Love Interests]]

[[Category:Shallow Love Interest]]

[[Category:Trope]]