History Main / DisposableFiance

* In ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Huntsmen The Twelve Huntsmen]],'' the prince feels obliged to follow his father's LastRequest and marry a different lady than the one he loves. At the end of the story, he basically decides "screw that" and sends the father's candidate home.

Enter this guy. He might have been there all along, or he might be the result of a rapid RelationshipUpgrade. Wherever he came from, rest assured he's not staying. The details of how he met, courted, and proposed to the heroine are not important and might not even be shown. What matters is that he's an obstacle to True Love, so the writers have to get rid of him. Their only concern is how to keep him unsympathetic, so that when the heroine dumps him (often [[RunawayBride right at the altar]]) and runs off with the ''real'' love of her life, the audience doesn't care about him. Here are some common tactics:

* '''Bland Perfection:''' He's PrinceCharming come to life: handsome, thoughtful, romantic, [[RichSuitorPoorSuitor usually rich]]... but [[RomanticRunnerUp just not interesting]]. He's a FlatCharacter who will get nary a shred of CharacterDevelopment. But he's still basically the ideal man, so we can watch him walk off into the sunset without any regrets; I mean, you know he'll have another fiancee before the year is out. He tends to pull an IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy at the end.
* '''[[MinorFlawMajorBreakup Minor Flaws]]:''' This guy wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have such annoying habits. Maybe he chews loudly. He has obnoxious friends. He's embarrassingly crass or a total mama's boy. Whatever his flaw is, it's clearly a sign that the heroine has given up on her romantic dreams and decided to settle for the first semi-decent guy who looked at her twice. This guy doesn't usually kick up a fuss at the break-up, although he can't carry it off with the dignity of Bland Perfection.

* ''Film/SpiderMan2'' is not a romantic comedy, per se, but still follows the trope to a T. John Jameson is Bland Perfection, which is probably lucky as if he had any personality at all, Mary Jane's jilting him at the altar (with just a note left behind) would come across amazingly crass and insensitive... Well, actually, [[ItsAllAboutMe it still does]].

* DeconstructedTrope that's PlayedForDrama in ''LightNovel/TheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs''. In the original RomanceGame that became Leon's new reality, noblewomen Angelica and Clarice were this. Leon [[DiscussedTrope points out]], how they are DesignatedVillain and how the game had ProtagonistCenteredMorality that gave them the short end of the stick despite not truly being bad people:

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' has a rather tragic variant of this trope. Sharla had a fiancé named Gadolt. Unlike most examples here, Gadolt wasn't a bad person. However, he was captured by mechon during the attack on Colony 6 and was assumed dead. [[spoiler: He wasn't killed, but he was placed in a Faced Mechon to control, and unfortunately for him, Mumkhar's actions made it to where he and other faced mechon got their memories wiped. His memory came back just long enough to save the party, but he didn't live long enough afterwards.]]

** Inverted when the ''main character'' Ted ends up as a Disposable Fiancé to Stella. He even {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this, claiming it was "their" love story. From Stella's point of view, Ted probably fell into the "Bland Perfection" category, as in Robin's words, he was "disappearing into someone else's life". Stella later apologizes for her actions, telling him she was always in love with Tony, but she loved and cared for Ted because he made her believe in romance again (ironically priming her to be swept off her feet by Tony when he realizes he's about to lose her forever to Ted). This whole scenario becomes an ExaggeratedTrope when the guy she dumped to go back to writes a hit romantic comedy movie about the whole thing, with himself as a MarySue and Ted as pathetic, evil, goofy, jealous monster (to the point where the fact that Stella would even date him is described as the movie's only flaw). The Ted-expy even drops his PaperThinDisguise altered name ("Jed Mosley") and shouts "I'm TED MOSBY!" at one point during the movie.

* Film/TheBlackSwan1942 has Roger Ingram, the StuffyBrit fiancé of Margaret Denby. An example of EvilAllAlong, and at the end he is ([[WhatHappenedToTheMouse presumably) brought to justice for his crimes.

* Lady Jasmine in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "The Prince And The Hopper", whom Prince Theodore believes is his true love that he's going to marry, who turns out to be a GoldDigger who's only marrying him for his wealth. The wedding eventually gets called off when, at the ceremony, she ends up kissing a frog who's been turned into a copy of the prince who gets turned back into a frog when Smurfette kisses the real prince who was turned into a frog and turns him back into a prince.

* ''Film/SixDaysSevenNights'': Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

* '''Let's Call the Whole Thing Off:''' Sometimes, while the leads have been agonizing over their feelings for each other, the fiancé has been doing some thinking on his own. Something just isn't right in the relationship. Maybe he realizes that they are BetterAsFriends, or he has to [[LastRequest make a promise to his dying mother]]. Or maybe he's noticed that she's spent three-quarters of the movie fawning over another guy. Whatever his reasons, he doesn't want this marriage either. Maybe he [[PairTheSpares realizes that the bridesmaid he's ignored throughout has lovely eyes.]] Or, heck, maybe he realizes [[ComingOutStory women aren't for him]] in [[LastHetRomance the first place]].

* In ''Myth/ClassicalMythology,'' Perseus agress to save Andromeda from the sea monster [[RescueRomance if he can marry her]]. At the wedding feast, Andromeda's former betrothed ([[IncestIsRelative and uncle]]) Phineus attacks him. Andromeda's dad sides with Perseus on the grounds that hey, ''Phineus'' didn't try to save Andromeda. Phineus and his allies won't relent, and Perseus [[TakenForGranite uses Medusa's head on them]] in the ensuing battle.

** Almost played straight in that the original ending had Danny and Miranda get back together, which was opposed by Chris Columbus, Robin Williams, and Sally Fields (all divorcees).

* In [[https://storygirl000.tumblr.com/post/636339164354428928/dilfosaur-i-realized-this-was-also-lost-in-the this]] parody of the rom-coms that tend to pop up around the holidays, protagonist Carol's business-minded boyfriend Burt (a parody of the Minor Flaws type) ends up being forgotten by her the moment she meets the handsome, rural JerkWithAHeartOfGold Nick. When Burt shows up to pick her up later, he's incensed to discover her affair, at which point Carol affirms her love for Nick and dumps him. [[JerkassHasAPoint Both Burt and Nick agree that this doesn't really absolve the whole cheating thing,]] but she claims it doesn't count because "it's Christmas magic".

* Eric in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossibleMovieSoTheDrama'' is of the [[spoiler:EvilAllAlong]] category. [[spoiler:He's actually a synthodrone created by Drakken to distract Kim while he unleashes his diablo toy scheme to terrorize the planet and take over what's left of civilization]].

* Princess Mithian in ''Series/{{Merlin 2008}}'', who Arthur becomes engaged to after Guinevere is MistakenForCheating. Yet somehow Mithian averts ''every single one'' of the types common to this trope, coming across as an interesting, charming, kind-hearted woman who genuinely falls for Arthur over the course of the episode. The only type she could arguably fit into is [[MinorFlawMajorBreakup Minor Flaw]] (with her flaw being that she's simply not the woman he's in love with), as were it not for Arthur's latent feelings for Guinevere, she would have been the perfect match for him. She even takes her ''rejection'' amazingly well, and on returning in the next season, has no hard feelings toward the HappilyMarried pair.

* Subverted in ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'' which seems to feature a Bland Perfection type, but he gets to stay with the woman in the end. Instead, he just vanishes from the movie after Daniel's ruse is exposed.

A subtrope of the RomanticFalseLead that is extremely popular in romantic comedies. In order for these movies to last a full two hours, there needs to be some kind of obstacle substantial enough to encourage the leads to continue fighting their feelings for most of the movie. At the same time, the obstacle shouldn't be something that will continue to be a problem after they find their HappilyEverAfter.

Enter this guy. He might have been there all along, or he might be the result of a rapid RelationshipUpgrade. Wherever he comes from, he's designed to slip away again just as quietly in the end. It's never stated how long he's been in a relationship with the heroine, how they met, or why she's with him in the first place. The main issue with this character is that the writers can't allow the audience to sympathize with him when the heroine inevitably dumps him (often, [[RunawayBride right at the altar]]) and runs off with his romantic rival. Considering that this is actually a pretty horrible thing to do to someone, the writers employ several different tactics to ensure we're smiling at the nice couple and not cringing along with the loser holding the ring. As follows:

* '''Bland Perfection:''' He's like PrinceCharming come to life. Handsome, thoughtful, romantic, [[RichSuitorPoorSuitor usually rich]], in short, the ideal man. Only...he's kind of [[RomanticRunnerUp boring]]. Not even close to a three-dimensional character. He stays this way throughout, without one shred of CharacterDevelopment. Nobody can be interested in a character like that and we can watch him walk off into the sunset without any regrets. He tends to pull an IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy at the end.
* '''[[MinorFlawMajorBreakup Minor Flaws]]:''' This guy wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have such annoying habits. Maybe he chews loudly and has obnoxious friends. He might be embarrassingly crass or a total mama's boy. Whatever it is, it's clearly a sign that the heroine has given up on her romantic dreams and decided to settle for the first semi-decent guy who looked at her twice. This guy doesn't usually kick up a fuss at the break-up, although he can't carry it off with the dignity of Bland Perfection.
** '''[[GreenEyedMonster Latent Jealousy]]:''' The more extreme version of the above. Starts out sensible and modest, but turns wildly jealous at the first sign of a LoveTriangle, to the point where this overrides his nice qualities and makes his Minor Flaws stand out more. He'll be a sore loser about the heroine rejecting him.
* '''[[DerailingLoveInterests Evil All Along:]]''' This guy is such a sleazebag, it's a miracle the heroine ever agreed to go out with him. He tends to cheat on her, often bad-mouths her behind her back and occasionally to her face. Sometimes he [[BitchInSheepsClothing puts on a facade of Bland Perfection]] but expect him to KickTheDog the minute the leading lady turns her back. This creep deserves to get dumped faster than a piece of rotting meat. Whilst a Disposable Fiancé of this type is the most straightforward in terms of getting the audience to root for the romantic lead, it can backfire if he's so utterly repellent that the heroine looks like a moron for being with him in the first place. But in real life, many an abusive relationship involves a partner who starts off ideal, before gradually slipping into old habits and violent tendencies.
* '''Let's Call the Whole Thing Off:''' Sometimes, while the leads have been agonizing over their feelings for each other, the fiancé has been doing some thinking on his own. Something just isn't right in the relationship. Maybe he realizes that they are BetterAsFriends, or he has to [[LastRequest make a promise to a dying mother]]. Or maybe he's noticed that she's spent three-quarters of the movie fawning over that other guy. Well, he'll just have to try to break it to her gently. Maybe he [[PairTheSpares realizes that the bridesmaid he's ignored throughout has lovely eyes.]] Or, heck, maybe he realizes [[ComingOutStory women aren't for him]] in [[LastHetRomance the first place]].

[[folder:Fairy Tales and Folklore]]

* In the [[Myth/NartSagas Circassian tale]] about the abduction of Psatina, the latter is abducted at ''her wedding feast''... yet there is no further mention of the groom after the fact, and she is freely able to marry the hero Warzameg after he rescues her.
* In ''Myth/ClassicalMythology,'' Perseus agress to save Andromeda from the sea monster [[RescueRomance if he can marry her]]. At the wedding feast, Andromeda's former betrothed ([[IncestIsRelative and uncle]]) Phineus attacks him. Andromeda's dad sides with Perseus on the grounds that hey, ''Phineus'' didn't try to save Andromeda. Phineus and his allies won't relent, and Perseus [[TakenForGranite uses Medusa's head on them]] in the ensuing battle.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* ''Film/LeapYear'' has a combination of Bland Perfection and Minor Flaws (though said flaw is hardly trivial).

* DeconstructedTrope that's PlayedForDrama in LightNovel/TheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs. In the original RomanceGame that became Leon's new reality, noblewomen Angelica and Clarice were this. Leon [[DiscussedTrope points out]], how they are DesignatedVillain and how the game had ProtagonistCenteredMorality that gave them the short end of the stick despite not truly being bad people:

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' had Therese as [[CreatorsPet Anthony's]] Disposable ''Wife''. She was meant to come off as EvilAllAlong due to her refusal to StayInTheKitchen. In practice, she came across to most of the Hatedom as insanely sympathetic...with ANTHONY as being Bland Perfection!

* Hilarious subversion in a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Adventure, from Free Adventure day. A Lawful Good type is forced into an ArrangedMarriage with a succubus, due to a treaty with the local LawfulEvil nation. However, the probable plot is subverted. The marriage is too important to break up. Instead, the goal is to get him a ring that protects against life drain! Furthermore, she is not portrayed as EvilAllAlong and can be genuinely...well, if not GOOD, at least you can see it won't lead to slaying.

* Deconstructed in ''VideoGame/NancyDrew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy''. Kit believes that Matt disappeared because he doesn't want to commit to Kyler, and constantly pushes this idea at both Kyler and the player. Kyler - outraged that Kit is trying to manipulate her love life - makes it clear that she is not interested in him. In the end, [[spoiler:Matt is saved from his kidnapper]] and marries Kyler as planned, Kit admitting that he may have let jealousy colour his interpretation of events.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Erstwhile}},'' which adapts lesser-known fairy tales by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm, has a few examples where the fiancée's only flaw is "ArrangedMarriage when the male lead is already in love with somebody else." The creators at least try to treat them sympathetically---the girl from "The Twelve Huntsman" is strongly implied to not want to marry Prince Aster anyway, while the one from "Sweetheart Roland" gets a MaybeEverAfter [[PairTheSpares with the shepherd]] at the main couple's wedding.

* In ''Bollywood/{{Lajja}}'', Maithili is about to marry her college sweetheart, who comes from a wealthy family. Maithili, meanwhile, comes from an upper-middle-class family. Her fiance's parents have set an ''extremely'' large dowry price, which they will not budge on, and which her father is struggling to scrape together. He's a few thousand rupees short, and if he can't get the money together, the wedding will be called off, and his daughter will be publicly humiliated. When Maithili finds out, she tells her fiance, but he's afraid to stand up to his parents. At the actual wedding ceremony, Maithili [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calls her would-be in-laws out for their greed, and her fiance for his cowardice.]] She ends up breaking off the engagement at the cost of FamilyHonor, which would normally mean that no one would want to marry her (and that she'd be pressured to commit suicide in order to save her family's honor), but [[spoiler: Raju steps in and marries her offscreen.]]