History Main / AlwaysSaveTheGirl

* Played very straight by Shinji in ''{{Rebuild of Evangelion}}'': "What happens to me doesn't matter. What happens to the world doesn't matter. But Ayanami... At least Ayanami... I'll definitely save her!"

The hero makes it uncomfortably plain that they value the life of their love interest over those of everyone else: friends, [[ThickerThanWater family]], {{Nakama}}, or even all other life in the universe. Can come about as the result of a SadisticChoice, only having enough time to rescue one person out of several, or whatever other requirements the plot puts in their way and well, plainly making a decision.

Another ridiculous aspect is that ''only'' the hero can rescue his love interest. The hero is [[StrongAsTheyNeedToBe able to rescue her]] while allies who should be more efficient are helpless.

* The ''FullmetalAlchemist'' manga features a subversion. Ed's love interest is used as a hostage by one of the more AxCrazy villains in the story, who tells him to obey some murderous orders from the military higher ups. Ed seems to comply pretty quickly, but in reality he is already planning to {{Take a Third Option}}.

* From ''TheDresdenFiles'', when a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Red Court Vampiress]] is referring to Harry Dresden's love interest, Susan, who was already half-turned into a vampire herself:

** Also from ''Changes'', not a love interest, but instead [[spoiler: a daughter]] Harry makes it very clear he'd let the world AND HIMSELF burn if it means he can keep [[spoiler: Maggie]] safe.

* ''{{Supernatural}}'' is a rare subversion where the heroes are more concerned with their [[HeterosexualLifePartners Heterosexual Life Partner]] than with any love interests. Especially the moment in "All Hell Breaks Loose" where the hellgate opens: Sam, Ellen and Bobby try and shut it; Dean gets pinned to a grave by the Yellow-Eyed Demon, and Sam immediately goes to save his brother, leaving Ellen (who is a woman, but not a love interest) to try and shut one door by herself.

* ''{{Buffy}}'', meanwhile, is willing to let the entire world die in torment to save Dawn. It doesn't fit on the surface, but {{WordOfGod}} says that Dawn was intended to fill the dramatic role of love interest from Season 5 on out.

* Deconstructed in ''MassEffect''. After making the SadisticChoice on Virmire, if the person you saved was your love interest, they will [[WhatTheHellHero call you out on this]], blaming their relationship with you for the other's death. This becomes a FunnyAneurysmMoment with [[spoiler: Ashley]], as one of her letters to her sister explicitly warns her not to get into that situation.

* Parodied in ''BoyMeetsBoy.'' Cy, while having a TuxedoAndMartini-flavored dream, is given the choice to either save his "obligatory love interest" from a DeathTrap or stop the villain's doomsday device. Since he knows that it's AllJustADream, he decides to go with the love interest, figuring that he can at least [[EroticDream get some action]] before the world ends. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for him, he soon learns that his dream [[HomoEroticDream has cast Skids as the love interest.]]]]

* ''{{inFamous}}'' outright averts this when offered a sadistic choice by the villain to save Trish or a building full of doctors saving the girl is the evil choice to make and sacrificing her for the good of the many is the good one.

* ''Infamous'' outright averts this when offered a sadistic choice by the villain to save Trish or a building full of doctors saving the girl is the evil choice to make and sacrificing her for the good of the many is the good one.

* In ''KingdomHearts'', Sora commites a HeroicSacrifice in order to save Kairi. However, "saving her" is equal to "recreating the {{Big Bad}}s oportunities to end the world, which he just foiled a few minutes ago". Exspecially stupid, because Sora's also the only one who could stop this EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, since he's the one with the Keyblade. In the manga adaption, he at least throws [[DonaldDuck Donald]] the Keyblade before comitting suicide, so his friends can take over the task. Turns out to be pointless, because it disappears as soon as he's gone anyway.

** What makes this especially poignant is [[spoiler:that this is pretty much the same thing the KnightTemplar villain has been trying to do for the past 4000 years, except he thinks he's doing the right thing]].

* Subverted in an episode of ''BuckRogers'': the Evil Alien Computer put Buck through having to choose between Wilma Derring and Hawk (an alien from a Proud Warrior Race of birdmen). He chose Hawk because he guessed that Wilma was really a double put in by the Evil Alien Computer because the ''real'' Wilma Derring wouldn't have been such a wuss.

*** Harry is GenreSavvy enough to see that a policy of appeasement to the [[AlwaysChaoticEvil][Red Court]] would only postpone the inevitable and result in the deaths of even more innocents.

* [[spoiler: Akemi Homura]] of PuellaMagiMadokaMagica is revealed to have this mindset. Happily, saving the girl in question also [[SubvertedTrope coincides with saving the world]] [[spoiler: by ensuring she'll never turn into a [[CosmicHorrorStory super-powerful, world-destroying Witch]]]]. [[TearJerker Sadly, however]], [[spoiler: it's not as easy as it sounds, even with [[GroundhogDayLoop multiple attempts]]. She's even had to ''[[ShootTheDog Shoot]]''/''MercyKill'' [[ShootTheDog The Girl]] once.]]

* [[spoiler: Akemi Homura]] of PuellaMagiMadokaMagica is revealed to have this mindset. Happily, saving the girl in question also coincides with saving the world [[spoiler: by ensuring she'll never turn into a [[CosmicHorrorStory super-powerful, world-destroying Witch]]]]. [[TearJerker Sadly, however]], [[spoiler: it's not as easy as it sounds, even with [[GroundhogDayLoop multiple attempts]]. She's even had to ''[[ShootTheDog Shoot]]'' [[ShootTheDog The Girl]] once.]]

** Of course, then there is the Fate route, where Shirou saves nearly everyone. [[spoiler: [[TearJerker Except]] [[BittersweetEnding: Saber.]] The one person who means, and I quote: "more than anything else! There's not one thing that can replace you. I... I like you the most out of everything."]] BittersweetEnding [[TearJerker doesn't cover HALF of it.]]

** Of course, then there is the Fate route, where Shirou saves nearly everyone. [[spoiler: except Saber. The one person whom, and I quote: "I want you more than anything else! There's not one thing that can replace you. I... I like you the most out of everything."]] BittersweetEnding [[TearJerker doesn't cover HALF of it.]]

As long as the hero [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]] or at least [[DirtyBusiness shows a decent amount of angst]] over the decision, the audience ''may'' sympathize. But the hero will seem to suffer from MoralDissonance if he makes the choice a little too easily, or if the exchange of life is ridiculously high. It can go full-on WallBanger if the couple in question were {{Strangled by the Red String}} or [[TheDulcineaEffect if they've only known each other for a short time]]. Then again, it could also be done in such a way that makes the audience feel [[KickTheSonOfABitch the hometown/nation/world deserved it]] [[HumansAreBastards for relentlessly abusing the hero.]]

* ''TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. At the beginning, it was touching and powerful when Syaoran was willing to give up everything he knew, and even Sakura's love for him, at the expense of saving her life. In more recent chapters, when we find out that, for Sakura's sake, he has [[spoiler: purposely damned an entire town, watching them melt before his eyes, chosen staying with her over his own world and family at the age of ''seven,'' and then made a DealWithTheDevil to radically alter, and not for better, the life of her entire family, herself, and his own parents, along with, potentially, ''all of space and time'']] it's starting to become... [[WallBanger a tad aggravating]].

** It is interesting to note that while most would [[WallBanger bang their heads against the next wall]] if, let's say, {{Naruto}} had done such a thing, or [[RealWomenNeverWearDresses make a fuss]] about the fact that the person being saved was [[DamselInDistress female]], Anno managed to make this an exceptionally [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome impressive]], [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming heartwarming]], and [[TearJerker touching]] moment. This is most likely because he showed us that Shinji is [[ActionSurvivor not really a heroic person]] and had to overcome not only his enemy, but his own, terrible fears, not to mention his HeroicBSOD after having just been forced to maim his [[LoveTriangle other girlfriend]]. This makes it more of a ''Reconstruction.''

* A moment in ''MetalGearSolid 4'' which garnered a lot of fan hatred towards Otacon was when Snake has just forced his way past the [[spoiler: microwaves]] and is not only half-dead but ''[[SayMyName screaming Otacon's name]]'', and Otacon doesn't react. The second [[spoiler: Naomi]] shows up in the video, Otacon [[StrangledByTheRedString starts crying hysterically and performs a symbolic hand-touch with her image]]. He'd [[TheDulcineaEffect known her for a week at absolute maximum]] and most likely a day, they'd had a [[SexEqualsLove one-night stand]], and she'd then screwed him over royally and was betraying her actual partner to do it - yet Snake had been unfailingly and fiercely loyal to him ever since the moment they'd met ''nine years ago''. It seemed so powerfully unfair for sudden romantic love to be held in higher esteem than an incredibly deep and loving friendship that had been developed over the course of the series, that many fans consider it a WallBanger.

* In ''KingdomHearts'', Sora commites a HeroicSacrifice in order to save Kairi. However, "saving her" is equal to "recreating the {{Big Bad}}s oportunities to end the world, which he just foiled a few minutes ago". Exspecially [[WallBanger stupid]], because Sora's also the only one who could stop this EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, since he's the one with the Keyblade. In the manga adaption, he at least throws [[DonaldDuck Donald]] the Keyblade before comitting suicide, so his friends can take over the task. Turns out to be pointless, because it disappears as soon as he's gone anyway.

* In the first ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'' film, the villain Rasputin offers Hellboy the choice of bringing about the Apocalypse to gain enough power to save his desouled girl Liz, or to save the world and lose her forever. Hellboy initially sees this as no choice at all, and begins the procedure of summoning the Ogdru Jahad and end the world, before NaiveNewcomer Myers throws Hellboy his [[MementoMacguffin father's cross]]. The cross burns into his flesh, reminding him that this ''is his choice''. Save the world, or save Liz, and his father always did say that a man is made by his choices. He then chooses the world, tears off his newly regrown horns, and stabs Rasputin to death with one of them. There is then a DoubleSubversion when he manages to save the girl ''anyway'' by sheer ''{{Badass}}ery''. A newly awoken and somewhat confused Liz asks him how he saved her. His answer?
-->'''Hellboy:''' Hey, you on the other side. Let her go. Because for her [[BeyondTheImpossible I'll cross over, and]] '''[[LikeABadassOutOfHell then]]'''[[LikeABadassOutOfHell ... you'll be sorry.]]

-->'''Hellboy:''' Hey, you on the other side. Let her go. Because for her [[LikeABadassOutOfHell I'll cross over, and]] '''[[LikeABadassOutOfHell then]]'''[[LikeABadassOutOfHell ... you'll be sorry.]]

** Unlucky ? This Troper always saw it as [[spoiler:Hades trying to kill Hercules immediately, and Meg saving him.]] But I might remember it incorrectly.
** You're correct; Meg [[spoiler: pushes Hercules out of the way and gets hit instead.]]

* TheBBC's ''Series/RobinHood'', when the outlaws and Marian are all taken hostage. Take a wild guess who Robin's the most afraid for. (Poor [[TheBaldrick Much]].)