The Dulcinea Effect: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"No matter what she's accused of doing or how mysterious her origins are, the hero will always be ready to fight to the death for any girl he met three seconds ago."''|'''Thinking With The Wrong Head ([[Lunar: Eternal Blue|Hiro]] Rule)''', ''[[The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches]]''}}

[['''The Dulcinea Effect]]''' is the strange compulsion many male heroes have to champion, quest for, or even die for, girls they met five minutes ago. Dulcinea is the name [[Don Quixote]] gives to the (blissfully unaware) woman he has made himself [[The Champion]] of, for whom he is willing to risk his life. So much reading of chivalry books left him ''that'' crazy. In the Spanish of the time, Dulcinea means something akin to an overly elegant "sweetness". To this day, to refer to one's "Dulcinea" is to refer to the object of one's hopeless devotion and idealized love.

[['''The Dulcinea Effect]]''' is often used to either hook a hero into the story or in a particular plot direction. Championing the [[Damsel in Distress]] is often an excuse for the hero to become involved in righting an injustice (or confronting the [[Big Bad]]) when he otherwise might have simply passed by. Sometimes it is a transparent excuse for a protagonist who's prone to [[In Harm's Way]]. Or alternatively, by application of the effect, the [[Damsel in Distress]] becomes the protagonist's [[Love Interest]].

Additionally, heroes under [['''The Dulcinea Effect]]''' in more cynical settings (particularly [[Film Noir]]) tend to fall prey to a [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit]] set up by a ruthless [[Femme Fatale]] or [[The Vamp]], who generally know about this effect and [[Decoy Damsel|take advantage of it in the most evil way possible]].

[['''The Dulcinea Effect]]''' is also the main reason that [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|women are put into a fridge]] in order to cause the male character [[Break the Cutie|angst]] and push him to [[It's Personal|drive the plot forward]]. Contrast [[Magnetic Hero]], for a hero's ability to ([[Just for Pun|ahem]]) pull this on followers. [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]] is when the hero does this for any random stranger. If this leads to a highly implausible romance, it's a case of [[Strangled by the Red String]]. See also [[Living MacGuffin]]. Quite possibly related to [[Love Makes You Dumb]].

* In ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]'', Ganta quickly becomes this way with apparent [[Shrinking Violet]] Minatsuki, feeling the need to protect her with his life and break out of Deadman Wonderland together with her. However, it turns out that {{spoiler|Minatsuki is an [[Ax Crazy]] [[Yandere (disambiguation)]] that actually planned and ''counted on'' [[The Dulcinea Effect]] kicking in, and tried to use his protectiveness to injure him and make it easier for her to kill him. To put it in her words: "I'm sorry, but the whole virgin knight thing is fucking disgusting."}}

* Yukiteru "Yukki" Amano from ''[[Mirai Nikki]]'' is shown to act this way towards Tsubaki Kasugano, a [[Princess Classic|beautiful and gentle]] [[Damsel in Distress]] from the Omekata cult, quickly jumping in to save her and escape with her despite having just met her. When given a choice to trust her or his partner Yuno Gasai, he chooses Tsubaki (though you can't blame him, because Yuno ''is'' a psycho [[Yandere (disambiguation)]]). It's not until {{spoiler|she makes it obvious that she's actually a [[Manipulative Bitch]] (mixed with [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]) that wants to kill him that he decides to go back to teaming up with Yuno}}.

* In ''[[xxxHolic×××HOLiC]]'', Watanuki is this all the way - as long as it's a pretty girl in trouble, he's willing to risk his life to help her, even if they just met. In one case, he was shown to even be willing to continue meeting a lady, despite knowing that doing so was slowly killing him, because "she's lonely." (Granted, the lady reminded him of a mother figure he lacked, but ''still'', they had just met and only talked a little.)

* Touma in ''[[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index]]'' succumbs to [[The Dulcinea Effect]] throughout the series. This is even [[Lampshade Hanging|discussed]] at one point by his [[Harem]], who is mostly made up of girls he's rescued earlier.

* In ''[[King of Thorn]]'', it's revealed that all the survivors (except Kasumi) were {{spoiler|implanted with "keys" in their minds - and one of the "keys" was to "protect a weak Japanese woman with your life." Meaning that ''all'' the survivors were under [[The Dulcinea Effect]], having the idea ingrained in them that they must irrationally protect Kasumi with their lives, even if they had never met her before}}.

** Mikado also saves Mika from Celty, no questions asked--untilasked—until later.

* Most of the [[Anti-Hero|antiheroes]] of ''[[Sin City]]'' are afflicted with this trope to some degree. Marv goes on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] for a woman he spent only one night with in the original graphic novel. Wallace from "Hell and Back" goes through hell and high water to rescue a woman whom he saved from suicide at the start of the story, and Hartigan from "That Yellow Bastard" goes through even worse hell for the sake of a little girl who grows up to be one of Sin City's best known strippers. Dwight McCarthy would also qualify -- thequalify—the woman in question is someone who burned him in the past, but when it turns out she's in danger, Dwight rushes in to save her. {{spoiler|But true to the series' [[Film Noir]] roots, it all turns out to be a lie, a ruthless [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit]] on the part of Ava to get Dwight to murder her husband so that she can get his hands on all his money}}. It's worth noting that several characters compare themselves to knights, with Dwight being Lancelot, and Hartigan "charging in like Galahad."

* This trope is played straight and subverted in ''[[The Mask (film)|The Mask]]'' -- although—although given the relevant mask is acting to amplify the impulses of the protagonist, it's probably not idealism driving him.

* ''[[Excalibur (film)|Excalibur]]'': Queen Guinevere stands accused by Sir Gawain of treason by adultery, and was to have Sir Lancelot champion her in trial by combat. Sir Lancelot is late to the field and [[King Arthur]] is dismayed when no other individual is willing to champion Guinevere -- exceptGuinevere—except for the newly-arrived, unarmored, untrained apprentice Perceval, who asks to champion Guinevere and is knighted by King Arthur for that purpose. He then readies himself to charge a fully-armored, battle-hardened Sir Gawain when (fortunately) Lancelot shows up to prevent it from happening.

* Parodied (as one might expect) in ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'': [[John Cleese]]'s Sir Lancelot receives a desperate message from someone he believes to be a wrongfully imprisoned girl, and he immediately sets out to free the prisoner. Sprinting (several times) across open fields, he singlehandedly assaults and slaughters half the inhabitants of a local castle in the rescue effort, operating under the influence of [[The Dulcinea Effect]]. However, the Effect is instantly overcome by the revelation that [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|the girl is, in fact, a guy]]. A pathetically effeminate guy, but a guy nonetheless.

* In William King's ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' [[Space Wolf]] novel ''Wolfblade'', Torin warns Ragnar that the conversation he overheard may have been to induce him to assassinate a lord to protect a young woman -- andwoman—and that the woman may have been part to such a plot.

* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s heroes have this, bad. In ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Gods of Mars]]'', John Carter starts a [[Gladiator Revolt]] at the sight of women being thrown to monsters -- andmonsters—and most of the gladiators follow him. In ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'', hearing a woman scream draws Carthoris from his sabotaged air ship.

* Played straight in ''[[The Faerie Queene]]''. Repeatedly. Redcrosse utterly fails at it, at first, but it's his first mission -- onemission—one doesn't become a [[Knight in Shining Armor]] over night. The [[Sweet Polly Oliver]] Britomart demonstrates this for her fiancé, too.

** And Matt Parkman risks his lifelife—several -- several times -- totimes—to save a supervillainess he just met yesterday, all because he had a psychic vision of them being married in the future. Not to mention that he later gets [[Strangled by the Red String]].

* While [[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories|Adell]]'s initial promise to protect and return Rozalin to her father probably doesn't raise any eyebrows at first (he's borderline [[Lawful Stupid]], and clearly feels a bit responsible for her [[Fallen Princess]] predicament), [[The Dulcinea Effect]] becomes apparent when he [[Honor Before Reason|insists on keeping it in even the most suicidal circumstances]]. And he doesn't even ''like'' [[Does Not Like Men|girls]].

** In ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'', Almaz decides that the best way to impress a girl he likes is to descend into hell on a nigh-suicidal mission to defeat the Overlord -- forOverlord—for a girl that {{spoiler|at least as far as he knows}} ''isn't even aware of his existence''. Mao finds this all rather very silly.

** Considering the vixen's [[A Fighter Not a StripperStripperiffic|outfit (or lack thereof)]] AND the lack of female characters in the Starfox team, he probably wasn't [[If You Know What I Mean|thinking with his brain]] during that scene.

* Played straight but with an added [[Gender Flip]] in ''[[The Force Unleashed]] II''. Starkiller and Juno did spend quite a bit of time together in the first game but their mild flirtations never seemed all that serious and were closer to crush status than actual love. Then in the next game, without having spent any more additional time with each other, both characters are pretty much throwing themselves in front of buses to try and save the other --Starkillerother—Starkiller more than Juno but she does some crazy shit too ({{spoiler|like trying to stab Darth Vader with a lightsaber!}}.

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