History Main / BetterPartnerAssertion

** "All I Have to Give:" Asking all sorts of ArmorPiercingQuestions about your relationship with your current boyfriend, like "Does he leave/When you need him the most?" or "Does his friends get all your time?" or "When you talk (When you talk)/Does it seem like he's not/Even listening to a word you say?" and insisting that he'd never do any of those things.

* Music/BackstreetBoys' "All I Have to Give," which asks [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Armor Piercing Questions]] about all the things your current boyfriend isn't doing that they'd definitely be willing to do if you'd give them a chance.
-->''When you talk (when you talk)\\
Does it seem like he's not\\
Even listening to a word you say?\\
That's okay baby, just tell me your problems\\
I'll try my best to kiss them all away\\
Does he leave (does he leave)\\
When you need him the most?\\
Does his friends get all your time?\\
Baby, please, I'm on my knees\\
Praying for the day that you'll be mine''

* The Music/{{Sugarland}} song, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPG1n1B0Ydw "Stay"]] is about a mistress begging her married lover to stay with her instead of his wife. She says that his wife "can't love [him] like me" and that "we don't have to live this way" as he assures the mistress that he'll leave his wife for her in due time. But the song is ultimately a subversion, as the mistress becomes tired of being used and declares that "you can't give me what I need" before leaving him.

Compare CockFight, which is the physical escalation of this trope, and WhatsHeGotThatIAintGot, which may be used as part of the assertion. Compare SteppingStoneSpouse where one member of the relationship decides they ''deserve'' a better partner despite already being married. Sister trope to AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter, where the two characters argue directly with each other over their abilities. Overlaps with AttemptedHomewrecker if a character is trying to convince a loyal person to leave their partner. Contrast with the InsecureLoveInterest, who believes the object of their affection would be better off without them. Not to be confused with AlwaysSomeoneBetter, when a character is truly better at an activity than another character.

Compare CockFight, which is the physical escalation of this trope, and WhatsHeGotThatIAintGot, which may be used as part of the assertion. Sister trope to AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter, where the two characters argue directly with each other over their abilities. Overlaps with AttemptedHomewrecker if a character is trying to convince a loyal person to leave their partner. Contrast with the InsecureLoveInterest, who believes the object of their affection would be better off without them. Not to be confused with AlwaysSomeoneBetter, when a character is truly better at an activity than another character.

Compare CockFight, which is the physical escalation of this trope, and WhatsHeGotThatIAintGot, which may be used as part of the assertion. Sister trope to AnythingYouCanDoICanDoBetter, where the two characters argue directly with each other over their abilities. Contrast with the InsecureLoveInterest, who believes the object of their affection would be better off without them. Not to be confused with AlwaysSomeoneBetter, when a character is truly better at an activity than another character.

* ''LetsPlay/EmpiresSMP'': Before the Festival of the Rift, Pirate Joe visits Shelby in the Evermoore, threatening her not to go to the Festival because Katherine would be there. This devolves into Joe arguing that Katherine prefers him to Shelby since she sought out his help in obtaining several mob heads with his Channeling trident. When Shelby refuses to be deterred by his threats and shows up, cue Pirate Joe declaring a DuelToTheDeath for Katherine's hand in the arena.

* In the Mormon backstory of the Literature/SherlockHolmes debut novel ''A Study in Scarlet'', the two young men who wish to add Lucy to their respective harems both call to try to convince her and her father to select one of them. They get into a sparring match of this sort, each pointing out why he would be the better choice. Lucy is not impressed with either of them and intends to TakeAThirdOption. [[spoiler:It ends tragically]].

Sometimes this assertion will come as a [[LongSpeechTeaTime long-winded speech]] of examples, other times it'll be one short statement such as a simple "I'm better than him". Another version is when a character insists on things they ''wouldn't'' do to their partner that their rival does do. Expect to see these statements in BettyAndVeronica and other opposite personality situations.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': In ''Eclipse'', Jacob repeatedly tells both Bella and Edward that he thinks he would be a [[VampireWerewolfLoveTriangle better romantic option]] for Bella. He cites the following reasons: Bella wouldn't have to give up her human life and become a 'monster' to be with him, they could be intimate without having to constantly worry about Jacob accidentally killing her due to bloodlust, Edward is the first and only boyfriend she's ever had so she can't know for definite he's 'the one', that her love for Edward is more like a drug addiction than anything, and that he made Bella happy again after Edward broke her heart in ''New Moon''.