The Casanova: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The sexual predator -- a character who relentlessly pursues, lands, loves and then abandons members of the opposite sex. Sometimes comic, sometimes a monster, always successful this character leaves behind a string of broken hearts and (occasional) [[Woman Scorned|vows of]] [[Revenge]]. Casanova's only motivation is indulging his [[Lust]] and desire, sating them with the bodies of his conquests.

 

 

The trope is named for Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725-1798), a soldier, spy, diplomat and adventurer whose extensive but [[Unreliable Narrator|unreliable autobiography]] established his eternal fame as a lover. It should be noted that the historical Casanova was closer to a [[Chivalrous Pervert]] who really was looking for love... just with women who [[Your Cheating Heart|were locked in loveless political marriages]] - and also gained his successes [[Kavorka Man|famously]] [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife|ugly]]. ([http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/gutenb/autoren/bilder/casanova.jpg Definitely] he was [http://www.ladepeche.fr/content/photo/biz/2010/11/07/201011070937_w350.jpg no Heath Ledger].) Interesting and prone [[Useful Notes|to be noted]] for [[Casanova Wannabe|his modern wannabes]], he was [[The Dung Ages|one of the few 18th century men who bathed almost daily]] and asked the same thing from his partners.

 

 

For the juvenile version -- all of the above without the sex -- see [[Kidanova]]. Contrast the [[Serial Romeo]]. If the guy is actually only ''rumored'' to be a Casanova and has no evidence onscreen, it's the [[Urban Legend Love Life]]. If he develops feelings for one of his conquests ([[I Love You Because I Can't Control You|or someone who refuses him]]), he's a [[Ladykiller in Love]]. See [[More Friends More Benefits]] for when the mechanics of a game encourage the player character to act this way.

== Anime & Manga ==

* George from ''[[Paradise Kiss]]''.

* Akio and Touga from ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' use, manipulate and abuse women and men alike using in great part their sex appeal for [[More Than Mind Control]] effect. Then {{spoiler|Akio does it to Touga, establishing him as a sort of Alpha Casanova.}}

** Saionji gets in on the fun too, though he's the least successful of the three. Though, since Touga seduces/manipulates Saionji, and {{spoiler|he himself is seduced/manipulated by Akio}}, it becomes a sort of a Casanova Conga.

** Really, the anime version acts a [[Deconstruction]] of the more malicious version of this trope: Makoto is skilled at bedding women almost to the point of straining credibility enough to push him into [[Kavorka Man]] territory considering his (not outstanding) looks and [[Jerkass]] attitude, but this shouldn't obscure the fact that when it comes to anything deeper and more lasting than this, Makoto is an absolute ''[[Too Dumb to Live|idiot]]'' who doesn't understand the female heart at all, and indeed only turns to his life of serial affairs because he was too impatient and thick-headed to win the heart of the girl he had a crush on in the first place.

* Paptimus Scirrocco from ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'' is a very evil version of this. He's basically what happens when you combine a Casanova with a [[Magnificent Bastard]] and give him the psychic powers of a Newtype. Generally the kind that uses his charms more to use woman as tools than just as sexual objects, though.

** Scirocco's more like [[Rasputin the Mad Monk|Rasputin]]

* Ryou from ''[[Strawberry Shake Sweet]]'', in a [[Girls Love]] example, has bedded about a thousand girls and that's only the known ''minimum.''

* Explored to an extent in ''[[Golgo 13]]''. The title character tends to have sex before a job, and does have good luck at getting women to join him in bed. However, he just as often hires prostitutes, and due to his [[Dull Surprise|notorious blank expression]] not changing, a number of readers have theorized he doesn't actually ''enjoy'' it.

* Ryoji Kaji from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is implied to be this. The only people he doesn't hit on are the underage ones (much to Asuka's chagrin), leading to the derogatory [[Fan Nickname]] "man-whore". That doesn't stop him from teasing Shinji about him living at Misato's.

* Agon of [[Eyeshield 21]] has this trait tacked on to his already unpleasant personality. It's not especially relevant to the story, it's just another extension of his [[Jerk Jock]] personality and serves as yet another reason for the heroes to dislike him ("Down with guys who have girlfriends!").

* The titular character in ''[[Space Adventure Cobra]]''.

** It's been firmly established what his powers are and how much control he has over them. ''[[She Hulk]]'' just pointed out [[Unfortunate Implications]] that already existed.

* For your consideration ladies and gentlemen, the [[Incredible Hercules]]. Pulls about as much tail as James Bond.

* [[Iron Man|Tony Stark.]]

** Lampshaded in Extremis:

 

== Film ==

** The great seducer has been portrayed many times on film:

*** [[Richard Chamberlain]] in a made-for-TV film in 1987

*** [[Donald Sutherland]] in [[Federico Fellini]]'s 1977 version

** In fact, this trope is often part of the [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]]'s cover.

* Dorian Gray, not only in ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' but even moreso in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie.

{{quote| Ask a Gentern who they prefer--ten out of nine will say the Pavi!}}

* Duke of Rochester from ''The Libertine''.

* Timothy, the slinky, knife-throwing terrorist from 1996's ''[[The Long Kiss Goodnight]]''.

* Subverted in the movie and book [[Kiss the Girls]] where the kidnapping/rapist/murderer bad guy takes the alias "Casanova". After he {{spoiler|drugs and attempts to murder one of his victims}} a character remarks "Yeah, he's cunning, but he doesn't know his history: The real Casanova would never have approved."

* ''What's New, Pussycat?'' stars Peter O'Toole as a man who just can't say no to women. He sees a psychiatrist to help him swear them off and be faithful to his fiancee, but the doctor is a deranged lech himself.

 

* [[My Uncle Oswald]] shames Casanova!

** Oswald Cornelius makes Casanova seem positively undersexed.

* Casanunda the dwarf from ''[[Discworld]]'' is a parody of this trope.

** But we can't really be sure, since he is also a self-proclaimed Outrageous Liar.

* Anatole Kuragin from ''[[War and Peace]]''. He's a well-known womanizer whose first interaction with a semi-main character is mademoiselle Bourienne, a maid at Prince Bolkonsky's house, while Anatole was there to court the prince's daughter [[The Caretaker|Marya]]. He later marries the daughter of a Polish farmer in exchange for room and board during one military campaign, and then, just for fun, sets out to [[Break the Cutie|marry-and-kidnap Natasha Rostov]].

* Lude from ''[[House of Leaves]]'', who actually keeps a list of his conquests, their prominent features, and how he had sex with them.

* Fictional comedian Monti Tree from My Screwups fit this trope to a T, losing his virginity at 13, to bedding supermodels well into adulthood. {{spoiler|However that all comes to a complete stop when he finds out he had a son he didn't know about.}}

* [[James Bond]] again. This is brought out most clearly in the last paragraph of the series, effectively describing how he can never settle down with one woman.

** In the books it's a little more [[Byronic Hero|Byronic]]. For example, in Moonraker he expects to automatically be rewarded for his efforts by sex with Gala Brand, only for Brand to reveal that she wasn't kidding about being engaged.

* Larry Douglas in ''The Other Side of Midnight''. The first "book" of the novel tells the life stories of two of his ''many'' conquests, Catherine Alexander and Noelle Page, via alternating chapters. The former marries him, unaware of his true nature; the latter, whom he abandoned years before he met Catherine, devotes her life to destroying him. The remainder of the story is about what happens when Noelle manipulates events to bring Larry back into her life.

** Wickham of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' (tried to seduce [[The Hero]]'s younger sister and succeeds in seducing the heroine's younger sister)

** Mr. Knightley fears Frank Churchill may be this in ''[[Emma]]'', given the mixed signals he keeps sending both to Emma and Jane Fairfax. It turns out {{spoiler|he's just an innocent if sometimes foolish [[Chick Magnet]] in a committed, [[Secret Relationship]] with Jane Fairfax}}.

* Spyros Stavaronas, the attractive young shrimp fisherman in ''[[Alexandra]]'' by Scott O'Dell. At first, he uses his charms to distract Alexandra so his henchmen can smuggle cocaine on her boat. When Alexandra finds out, he further tries to seduce her into keeping his secret and not turning them into the cops.

* Finnick in the sequel of ''[[The Hunger Games]]''

** Although, as revealed in Mockingjay, this may actually be a subversion. He does love one single woman, Annie, and was forced into becoming a sex slave by the Capitol to protect her.

* Murillio of the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' specializes in seducing and bedding married women. He notes that all the students of the man who trained him in dueling ended up pursuing some vice; his was just a bit less dangerous. Ended up quitting after {{spoiler|a younger woman seduced him and he nearly died when her suitor defended her "honor"}}.

* Crowfeather from ''[[Warrior Cats]]''. ''Three'' mates and {{spoiler|Four kits}}.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** Frank Finlay as the title character in yet another TV miniseries in 1971.

* Tony Dinozzo on ''NCIS''.

* Brian in ''Seacht''.

* Patrick of ''[[Coupling]]'' behaves like a cold hearted seducer, unable to see women as anything but potential conquests, dumping his girlfriends almost immediately, and compiling a vast collection of sex tapes of his conquests. Interestingly, he avoids being loathsome, as he's portrayed as stupid rather than deliberately malicious.

** The problem is that we almost never actually see Barney strike out. In one episode he successfully nails seven different girls in seven days, most of whom leave the bar with him within seconds of being hit on.

* Hank Moody on ''[[Californication]]''.

** Stuart in the UK version and in the ending montage Nathan becomes the new Stuart {{spoiler|after Stuart gets into a long-term relationship with Vince and they travel together}}.

* Joey on ''[[Friends]]''.

* Occasionally, Jerry and George from ''[[Seinfeld]]''.

* Charley on ''[[Empty Nest]]''

* Chuck Bass in ''[[Gossip Girl]]''.

* Charlie Harper ([[The Danza|Charlie Sheen]]) in ''[[Two and A Half Men]]''.

* Connor from ''[[Trust Me]]'' seems to be edging into this trope.

* Kenny Beckett on ''[[Daves Worlds]]''

{{quote| '''Bulldog:''' [on the phone] Come on now. No tears. I'll never forget you either, Sandy. Linda? Really? I thought I was talking to your sister. Oh well, tell her same goes.}}

** Roz Doyle was always played as a female version of ''this'' trope in particular, rather than just [[Really Gets Around]]. While the characters often cracked jokes about her promiscuity, they nearly always implied a predatory and perpetually lustful person who loved the chase and would jump through ridiculous hoops (including construct elaborate lies and hook her friends into facilitating hook-ups) in order to get laid, rather than misogynistic jokes indicative of a cheap slut, as would be expected in a comedy featuring a promiscuous woman. Also, Roz was always portrayed in a far better light than Bulldog because while Roz would sleep with loads of guys, she also had very clear standards that she rarely compromised (which is perhaps the reason her dates were so often men who required her to come up with hilarious schemes in order to get them to put out).

* Al Mundy of ''[[It Takes a Thief]]'' seems to pick up a new woman every episode, and even the ones who are initially frosty are charmed by him in the end. He doesn't seem to get much actual sex, though, because Noah always puts a stop to things just when the woman is softening up.

* An episode of ''[[The Equalizer]]'' had a handsome chronic womaniser get kidnapped by industrial spies who keep insisting that "she said she gave it to you" and [[Mistaken for Spies|refuse to believe his claims of innocence]]. Realising he's going to be tortured he quickly "confesses" and promises to get "it" to them in 24 hours -- he then has to hire the Equalizer to help him sort though the multitude of women he's dated to find the right one. "It" turns out to be {{spoiler|a microdot on a matchbook handed to him with a girl's phone number written on the inside.}}

* Al from ''[[Quantum Leap]]''.

* Gaius Frakking Baltar on the reimagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]''.

** A [[YouTube]] user's summary of Kirk's philosophy of life:

{{quote| ''When in doubt, seduce the woman.''}}

* Dan Fielding of ''[[Night Court]]''.

* Dr Guy Secretan from ''[[Green Wing]]''.

* Dr. Doug Ross starts out this way in ''[[ER]]''

* Don Draper in ''[[Mad Men]]'' is probably the most prominent illustration of this trope nowadays on TV

'''Hanschen''': And so you should. }}

* Even older than the original Casanova was the character [[Don Juan]], whose first recorded appearance was in the 17th century Spanish play ''The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest''.

** In psychology, a person who displays a need to dominate and have multiple sexual relationships with woman is said to have Don Juanism.

* ''[[Into the Woods]]'' has an amazing parody of this in the songs 'Agony' and the reprise by the two princes.

 

== Videogames ==

* Gannayev of ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]: Mask of the Betrayer'' regularly abuses his Spirit Shaman powers for the sake of jumping into the fantasies of innocent young farmgirls and having hot dream-sex. One sidequest deals with a girl with latent powers that wasn't satisfied with just a one-night stand and ended up creating her ''own'' Gannayev in her head. Real Gann wasn't amused.

* Goto, from [[Mana Khemia]] 2, is seen going on dates with various students ''in groups'' (as well as some one on one time with the Chairman). When the main cast doubt his claims of natural desirability they take a school-wide poll, only to find out that 100% of the girls want him as well as [[Even the Guys Want Him|1/3 of the guys]], and the only reason the members of Ulrika's workshop aren't effected is he's purposefully toning down his charm around them. Then things get a bit complicated when the son of one of his old flings shows up looking for revenge...

* In the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC for [[Mass Effect 2]], The Illusive Man is revealed to have slept with six Playboy-caliber women in the past week. One of them came back for seconds.

** [[Crowning Moment of Funny|You mean]] [[Boldly Coming|the]] [[Blue Skinned Space Babe|Asari]] [[Hypocrite|matriarch]][[All Blue Entry|?]]

* At the beginning of [[The Sims|The Sims 2]], Don Lothario is engaged to Cassandra Goth, despite having a total of four lovers simultaneously.

** Any Romance Sim, for that matter.

** While he stands out, he is hardly the only Abductee who is highly successful in bed, either - which is rather ominous given that the Aliens {{spoiler|and Linda Walkerton}} apparently meant to ''breed'' the Abductees to make the next generation of their [[Super Soldier]] army.

* El Chupecabre ("Chuy") from ''[[Girly]]'' is irresistably attractive to women. He took this as his calling and left a string of naked, immensely-satisfied women in his wake until Winter and Otra helped him to mend his ways.

* Tip Wilkin from ''[[Skin Horse]]''. The other characters refer to it as his "superpower". Even more remarkable because he [[Wholesome Crossdresser|likes wearing women's clothing in public]]. Borders on a [[Kavorka Man]], in fact, despite being ''utterly'' charming- his success record is just too supernatural.

{{quote| "I'm also sure she's slept with Agent Wilkin, but that's true of anything with two X chromosomes that comes within 500 feet of Agent Wilkin."}}

* Thomas the bard from [[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]] is such a master at the game of love that he can have any woman he wants, even one who wants to clobber him. Take [http://yafgc.net/?id=549 this comic] for example, in which he demonstrates his prowess to Clover the halfling. He tips a waitress by flicking a coin into her cleavage, causing it to fall through the bottom of her dress and roll away. As she bends down to pick it up he smacks her on the rear. She understandably prepares to kick his ass, but he whispers ''[[Code Word Coitus|something]]'' in her ear that has her making out with him immediately afterward. All Clover can say after witnessing this is "Wow... you're good."

* Nolan from ''[[Regular Guy]]'': Women seem to find his beard irresistible, and he had his "thingy" declared a work of art. He's pretty modest about it, though.

 

 

* Shadow Hawk from [[Epic Tales]].

* Dustin Royal from ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' Version four. That is all.

 

 

** To a lesser (and less pariodied) extent, Dr. Rip Studwell, [[Author Avatar]] and [[Author Appeal]] of Butch Hartman.

* JFK from ''[[Clone High]]''.

 

 

** Stalin ''himself'' was that, at least in his younger years. Probably explains his attitude to the above.

* [[Clint Eastwood]]. Seriously, just look at his [[Other Wiki]] entry. To quote: ''Eastwood told biographer Richard Schickel that he lost his virginity at age 14. He has fathered at least seven children by five different women and been described as a "serial womanizer". According to biographers Marc Eliot and Patrick Mc Gilligan, Eastwood always had a strong sexual appetite and had many affairs with women through the years, including actresses Catherine Deneuve, Jean Seberg, Peggy Lipton, Kay Lenz, Jamie Rose, Inger Stevens, Jo Ann Harris, Jane Brolin, Jill Banner, script analyst Megan Rose, and swimming champion Anita Lhoest. Biographers claim he has also fathered at least four children that have been aborted, and another who was given up for adoption in 1953. Biographers and friend Paul Lippman have claimed that Eastwood was particularly sexually active and promiscuous in the 1970s and that he used his apartment close to the Hog's Breath Inn which he purchased in Carmel in the early 1970s to meet young ladies for "nooners" and "five in the afternooners". According to Lippman, "Eastwood seemed to get a bang out of this kinkier side to himself and rarely concealed it, often gloated about it".''

* Chico Marx was known by his friends (and fellow Marx brothers) for his uncanny ability to attract women. According to one anecdote, he could wink at a lady in the car next to him at a red light, and within ten minutes they'd be in a hotel room together. (In fact, his name is actually pronounced "Chick-o", due to the fact that he was a "chick-chaser").

* Cao Cao could count as this. 25 sons from different women, and unknown number for daughter. No less than 14 wives (or concubines).