The Lady's Favour: Difference between revisions

* Played with, courtesy of [[Ship Tease]]: The ending of the third ([[Un Cancelled|and final, at the time]]) season of the ''[[Slayers]]'' anime ends with a [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]. During Zelgadis' montage, it's shown that he keeps one of Amelia's bracelets around a canteen he owns. Earlier in the episode, Amelia asks him to return to her kingdom with her, and he probably refused, so [[Will They or Won't They?|there's a lot of speculation about what happened in between.]]

* Inverted in ''[[Blood Plus]]'', where Okamura leaves his camera with Mao while he, David, Kai, and Lewis go out on a dangerous mission to stop the ''[[Big Bad]]'''s evil plans. She, in return, asks if she can sell it if he dies (then remarks that she probably couldn't, since it's a useless piece of junk).

* In the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga, Winry gives Ed some earrings to look after. It's actually for a logical reason, but it's clearly intended to hint at this trope.

* ''[[Berserk]]'s'' Princess Charlotte gives Griffith a token with explicitly romantic symbolism. He articulates his acceptance with the kind of courtly romance that makes a gentle princess's heart flutter.

* Invoked ''twice'' by Sheryl Nome in ''[[Macross Frontier]]''. The first time in episode 6 where she lends him one of her earrings for good luck (unfortunately, [[What the Hell, Hero?|he loses it during the ensuing battle]]). {{spoiler|The second time happens before the desperate [[Final Battle]] against the ultimate [[Big Bad]], where she gives him her remaining earring, going so far as to [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|puts it in his ear herself]].}}

* The original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' novel by [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]] has a very...messed up version of this. Kai tells Amuro that it's an old military tradition for a soldier to get a "talisman", a good-luck charm from the woman he loves, to ensure his survival. The talisman contains {{spoiler|[[Squick|some of her pubic hair]]}}. When Amuro asks Sayla, she initially refuses, but relents just before he launches for the final battle. {{spoiler|It doesn't work.}}

** Of course, despite Kai saying it's a military tradition, the novel provides subtle hints that he's being an [[Jerkass|asshole]] and making the whole thing up so he can trick Amuro into saying "{{spoiler|Hey Sayla, can I have some of your pubes as a good luck charm?}}" then laugh at the inevitable response.

 

 

== Fanfiction ==

* Inverted in ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4139285/1/The_Seer The Seer]'' when Doumeki requests a token before he duels on Watanuki's, his employer's, behalf (which is a tradition in his own country, and not considered a romantic gesture). Watanuki gives him his hair tie to his great embarrassment (since where he's from the gesture ''would'' be considered romantic). That the story is [[Yaoi]] only reinforces the trope.

 

 

== Film ==

** In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', Daniel gets the trinket back when Catherine dies at the end of season 8.

* At one point in ''[[A Knight's Tale]]'', William's beloved gives him her handkerchief... along with a message that if he truly loves her, he'll lose the tournament. He dutifully lets his opponents beat the hell out of him until finally she sends another message which may be paraphrased as, "Point proven, now ''beat the hell out of them''". He does so.

** Actually, those are two separate occasions. William is given the message as you say, but the handkerchief bit comes at a different point in the story. {{spoiler|He loses that particular round to the [[Big Bad]], who picks up the favour and returns it to Jocelyn.}}

* Anakin gives Padme a necklace he carved in ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' as a kind of inversion.

* In ''[[Grease]]'', before the Thunder Road race, Cha-Cha gives Leo a trinket extracted from her cleavage.

 

 

== Literature ==

** In one of the earlier books, a girl gives her new hair ribbon to a boy who's about to fight another boy for insulting her.

* In the fantasy novel ''[[Deverry|The Spirit Stone]]'' by Katharine Kerr, Lord Gerran refuses to propose marriage to Lady Solla despite their being in love because if they're formally betrothed and he then dies in the war he's about to ride out to, by the customs of their homeland she'd for all intents and purposes be considered a widow, which means she'd be stuck living with her family (as Gerran has none) for the rest of her life. Accepting this, she asks him if he'd carry 'just a token' into war for her, and he accepts... and they both know without saying that this is their ''real'' marriage promise, and they're simply delaying the public announcement of it until the war is over.

* Gender-switched in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', toward the end of book 3. {{spoiler|Jaime gives Brienne his new sword when he sends her out on a mission}}.

** In the [[Backstory]], Ser Jorah Mormont once won a tournament while wearing a lady's favour. And then he went broke supporting his new wife's extravagant tastes and losing armour and horses in every tourney he entered afterwards, which leads to his exile.

* Elf princess Alhana Starbreeze gives [[Knight in Shining Armor|Sturm Brightblade]] a jeweled token in ''[[Dragonlance|Dragons of Winter Night]]''. The book later reveals that the token is a Starjewel, pairs of which are traditionally exchanged by elven lovers upon parting, creating something of a psychic bond between them. Sturm, however, remains ignorant of its significance.

* Done with Leigh and Dennis in [[Stephen King]]'s novel, ''[[Christine]]''.

* Subverted in ''[[Myth Adventures|Mything Persons]]'', where Skeeve asks Luanna for a scarf to remember her by. It's a subversion, not only because it's his idea rather than hers, but also because {{spoiler|he uses the scarf to pass her scent on to a werewolf/tracker, so they can follow her later and apprehend her con-artist accomplices.}}

{{quote| ''Each knight wore a lady's token, a glove, scarf or rose, bound to his helmet or fastened to his sword-belt. ''}}

* In the second book of the [[Chronicles of Prydain]], Adaon, son of the chief bard Taliesin, wears a magic brooch that was given to him by his betrothed, Arianllyn, before he set out to accompany the companions on their quest. {{spoiler|He bequeaths it to Taran when he dies about halfway through the book.}}

** In the third book, Princess Eilonwy finds a slightly battered horn on the beach, which had once belonged to her family (of which she is the last surviving member). As she is about to spend a lengthy period of time being fostered in a foreign court, she gives the horn to Taran as a symbol of their mutual promise not to forget each other.

* [[Older Than Print]]: This goes back to medieval [[Chivalric Romance]] stories, in which a lady would give a favored [[Knight in Shining Armor|knight]] a token (such as a scarf) to tie around his lance as a [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pennon+?s=t pennon] when he jousted.

{{quote| ''He had gone to the tree ahead of the gang to remove the blue ribbon. Carefully folded, it now lay over his heart. He was promising himself much comfort with that ribbon, when he would leave for the city next month to begin his studies and dream the summer over again. It would help to make things tangible. When he was dressed as other men, and at his work, he knew where he meant to home that precious bit of blue. It should be his good-luck token, and he would wear it always to keep bright in memory the day on which the Angel had called him her knight. ''}}

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* In ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]]'', this happens when Nick leaves to go {{spoiler|introduce his biological parents to his adopted ones}}. It's Nick who gives his baby blanket to Madison, asking her to keep it safe until he returns. She's less worried that he won't be coming back in one piece than she is that his season-starting "go where the wind takes me" tendencies means he won't come back at all. Some portions of the fandom prefer to believe this [[Die for Our Ship|never happened]].

* [[Gender Flip|Gender-flipped]] in an episode of ''[[Thirtysomething]]'' where a man going away on a business trip leaves his wristwatch with his wife, who wears it the whole time he's gone.

** [[Gender Flip|Gender-flipped]] when Xander proposes to Anya to convince her that they are not going to die.

** Also appeared earlier in the first series episode "Excalibur", when one of the knights, Owain, is about to face the Black Knight in a fight to the death. Morgana gives him a token for luck. Subverted in that Owain ends up losing the fight.

*** Arthur also wore a sash around his arm in the melee in "The Shadow of the Sorcerer". A deleted scene revealed it was not from Gwen, as you'd assume, but Morgana.

* In ''[[The Tudors]]'', Charles Brandon seeks the favor of the Duke of Buckingham's beautiful daughter before taking part in a joust.

 

* Cassima's ribbon in ''[[King's Quest VI]]''. The game explicitly says as much if you try to give it back to her later.

* In ''[[Dragon Age II]],'' if Fenris or Isabela is [[Player Character|Hawke]]'s love interest, s/he begins wearing a red band on his/her wrist which [[Word of God]] has explained is Hawke's favor.

* Zelda's sailcloth, which she presents to Link as part of the traditional ceremony to honor the goddess, is both a helpful item and also this trope in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: [[Skyward Sword]]''. Upon receiving it, the game comments on its functional uses and then adds, in smaller text, "...it smells nice too."

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* In the finale of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' "Phantom Planet", Sam gives Danny a ring that was used in an earlier episode "Flirting With Disaster".

* In one episode of ''Fox's [[Peter Pan and The Pirates]]'', Peter, Wendy, and the boys have been reading the Arthurian legends and are pretending to be Arthur, Guinivere, and the Knights of the Round Table. Wendy, studying the book, ties a strip of cloth around Peter's arm and explains that since she's his queen, the fabric is her favor, and he must wear it in her honor when going into battle.