The Dulcinea Effect/Playing With

Basic Trope: The Hero becomes the champion of a girl he just met.

Straight: Mark meets Natalie and immediately falls hard for her, deciding that he'll do anything to please her.
Exaggerated: Mark does this with pretty much every pretty girl he meets.
Justified: Natalie is some sort of celebrity, and Mark is one of Even Heroes Have Heroes.
- Mark only act as Natalie's knight because he's hoping he'll get laid for it.
- Natalie is the daughter of a very powerful king, so Mark decides to get on her good side in order to gain the sovereign's favor.
Inverted: Mark is antagonistic to Natalie even though they just met.
- Marcine decides that she'll do anything to get Nate to love her, even though they've only just met.
- Alternatively, when Mark attempts to help Natalie, he fails miserably but his efforts steal Natalie's heart, and she swears to protect him.
Subverted: It seems Mark is about to defend Natalie, but she makes a bad first impression on him, snapping at him and driving him off.
Double Subverted: ...However, he decides she must be a Tsundere and decides to help her out anyway in hopes of winning her favor.
Parodied: Falling at least once for a complete stranger is a requirement to be known as a knight.
Deconstructed: Mark makes a snap judgment that Natalie must be as nice as she looks, only to either be disappointed by her human flaws or ignore them entirely in favor of some idealized image. Natalie's irritated at having some stranger declare himself her protector, but decides to take advantage of his kindness anyway. Ultimately, one or the other gets killed.
- Mark only act as Natalie's knight because he's hoping he'll get laid for it.
Reconstructed: Mark immediately falls for Natalie, and is willing to accept all of her flaws. Over time, he helps her overcome them and she becomes worthy of his devotion.
Zig Zagged: Mark meets Natalie, who makes a bad first impression by being snappy and surly. Mark gets snappish back, but ends up helping her out, because she's in serious trouble with The Empire and helping her coincides neatly with his interests. His friends suspect there's something more to it, but he denies it all. After they help her out, Natalie joins up, and it's eventually revealed that they've fallen for each other after all... but it's left ambiguous whether or not it was Love At First Sight.
Averted: Mark doesn't help Natalie because they have just met.
Enforced: The executives thought Mark needed a love interest, so they ~~asspulled~~ introduced Natalie.
Lampshaded: Mark notes that while he doesn't really know anything much about Natalie, as a hero he'll make sure to take on any challenge in order to charm her.
Invoked: Aware of Mark's tendencies, Natalie plays Decoy Damsel in order to get him to play right into her hands.
Defied: In an effort to keep Mark to herself, Natalie tells Mark about all of Olivia's personality flaws before she introduces them.
Discussed: "Let me see if I get this straight: You've just sworn to protect a girl that you have met a few seconds ago? How many chivalry books have you read?"
Conversed: "Hello, my name is Mark, nice to meet you! From now on, it'll be my knightly duty to protect you in exchange for your eternal love."
Played For Laughs: Mark's a bumbling Nice Guy who keeps falling all over himself trying to impress Natalie, with little obvious success (at least, to him; it's made clear to the audience that Natalie is falling just as hard for him, but is also in serious denial).
Played For Drama: Natalie is horrified by Mark's decision to fight for her, as she's already having difficulty dealing with The Empire and doesn't want to draw any further attention to herself. Plus, the empire has powerful soldiers, and Mark's just one man; he could wind up getting killed...! Or getting them both killed...!

Back to The Dulcinea Effect.