History Main / TheDulcineaEffect

* Invoked in ''Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess''. As Link was literally born to be TheChampion of Hyrule's AbstractApotheosis, Princess Zelda, he has what's implied to be a [[EmotionControl divinely imposed]] compulsion to serve and protect her long before they even meet, and he carries an IntrinsicVow to never cause her harm--a fact Ganondorf gleefully exploits by [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight possessing Zelda's body to beat the crap out of him, knowing he can't fight back]]. Ironically, Link's not romantically attracted to her in the slightest, and instead falls head-over-heels for Midna.

* ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'': Sorata Arisugawa decides to protect Arashi Kishuu with his life, immediately when he meets her for the first time. This is justified because Sora ''knows'' that he is fated to die for a woman. And the reason why he chooses Arashi is that he wants to die for a beautiful girl. Though he actually ''does'' fall for Arashi's actual person when he gets to know her, [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan and she falls in love with him as well. It happens both in the anime movie and in the anime series while the manga is never finished but implied to be going the same way.]]

* Edo Phoenix in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' himself is slightly confused [[spoiler:when he decides to have a duel to the death with Amon Garam over a woman he doesn't much care about and only talked to once before this]] because [[WrongGenreSavvy he doesn't realize]] he's the AntiHero in a DeconstructorFleet that's made a point of demonstrating the absurdity and danger of myriad shonen and SuperHero tropes.

* Subverted in the ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 Sandman]]'' tale "The Hunt", in which the protagonist travels long and far in order to find a beautiful noblewoman whose picture he's seen on a necklace, only to [[spoiler:end up returning the necklace to her and walking away to marry someone else. The tale ends with [[WantingIsBetterThanHaving the wisdom that some goals are better not attained]]]].

** Marv goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge for a woman he spent only one night with in the original graphic novel. He overlaps with BecauseYouWereNiceToMe.

* ''Manga/TimeStopBrave'': Kuzuno Sekai has a real weakness for pretty girls and will always try to help them. His party comments on how this is pretty much the only way to motivate him.

-->'''Mayuri''': Are you that big a fool? You feel pity for a woman, even though she's your enemy? Is this the honor you Quincies take such pride in?!

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', if the resident CowardlyLion Zenitsu can’t muster the inner courage he has to surpass all of his cowardice on the surface, a good way to make him focus and be brave, or at least try to, is find himself in a situation where there’s a woman in peril, Zenitsu will stop his complaining right away and go for the rescue.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'': This is parodied when Lord Farquaad (who is looking for a royal bride purely because he needs the marriage in order to upgrade his noble title) chooses [[DamselInDistress Princess]] Fiona when she's clearly a ''[[PeerlessLoveInterest princesse lointaine]]'' he has never met, only been given a picture and description by the magic mirror. However, Farquaad can't be bothered to go on the quest ''himself'', and holds a tournament to select a knight to do the job for him. When Shrek beats up all the knights, Shrek ends up going on the quest (but only to get his swamp back).

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':

** In ''Breaking Dawn'', [[spoiler:Renesmee]]. The plot of the latter half of the book was [[spoiler:to rally up vampires to protect this one child that none of them even know. All of them agree to put their lives in danger for Renesmee the second they see her, without any logical reason as to why they even should endanger themselves to protect someone they only just met]]. WordOfGod says that vampires are extremely apathetic and, especially those that drink human blood, feel no affection for other vampires other than the one or two that travel with them.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'': Despite Flynn being strongarmed into escorting Rapunzel to the lantern festival, and doing everything he can to weasel out of it, including trying to scare her by taking her to [[BadGuyBar a bar full of scary thugs]], he does try to protect her the moment he thinks she might actually be in danger and seems genuinely concerned when the head thug is bearing down on her.

* ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'' is a rather extreme example. When Abe first meets DamselInDistress Nuala, she presumes him to be an Enemy. He uses his TouchTelepathy to prove he isn't, but during this split-second mind contact, they both fall completely in love. After this moment, they have barely any interaction before the BigBad kidnaps Nuala and [[HostageForMacGuffin demands the last key to control the titular Golden Army for her return]]. And altough Abe knows the BigBad plans to KillAllHumans with this army, and that he is Nuala's [[TwinsAreSpecial twin brother]] and [[{{Synchronization}} will magically suffer any injury he might inflict on her]], Abe goes behind his friend's back and gives up the MacGuffin, with no plan to stop the BigBad afterwards.

** Matt Parkman risks his life -- several times -- to save a supervillainess he just met yesterday, all because he had a psychic vision of them being married in the future.

* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Jack barely knows Kate for a couple of days before he's growing protective about her safety and looking out for her. This includes trying to convince her she shouldn't come with him (or anyone else) on treks into the jungle because it could be dangerous, despite her seeming no less capable than the others (and moreso than some). This continues in the third episode, even when he sees her mug shot in the possession of a police officer - who keeps ranting about how dangerous she is!

* ''The Glass Sentence'', first book of ''The Mapmakers Trilogy'', presents a gender-flipped example: Sophia first sees Theo as the caged "wild boy" in a sideshow, and she's immediately enchanted and imagining how to help him escape his prison. When they meet again (and Theo proves to be civilized), she wants him to be her ally on her journey to save her uncle simply because she likes him.

** Baby 5 is a gender-inverted example that takes the trope to the point of an AmbiguousDisorder in-universe and a parodically exaggerated deconstruction out-of-universe. [[IJustWantToBeLoved She wants so badly to be wanted]] that she compulsively throws herself into any situation where she feels she might be useful- a problem compounded by her devil fruit powers making her a ShapeshifterWeapon capable of becoming anything from a {{BFS}} to a high-yield bomb.

** Finn from ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' suffers from this. He had ''no idea who Rey was'' before he decided to put himself at risk for her.

* Played for laughs in the ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'' stories, where Bertie's insistence on gallantry gets him into a lot of trouble. Luckily, he has [[TheJeeves Jeeves]] there to extricate him from the soup.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'': Phoenix is a sucker for {{Distressed Damsel}}s in general, male or female, whether or not they have any way of paying for his services.

* In ''LightNovel/AriaTheScarletAmmo'', Kinji inherited this ''genetically''. It's a side effect of his SuperMode. He can't ''not'' help a girl in trouble.
* In ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'':

* Koyomi Araragi of ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' suffers from this, even going so far as to risk his life to save a girl he barely knows when the sole reason she is in trouble in the first place is that she subconsciously wants to ''kill him.''

* Touma in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' succumbs to The Dulcinea Effect throughout the series. This is even [[LampshadeHanging discussed]] at one point by his [[HaremGenre Harem]], who is mostly made up of girls he's rescued earlier.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'':

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'':

* In episode 4 of ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'', Bell is going about his business when he sees an unknown woman (Liliruca) being attacked by a sword-wielding stranger. He immediately rushes in to protect her, and when the attacker asks why he got involved in someone else's dispute, he replies "because she's a girl". Even Liliruca is taken aback by this, and asks him "Will you save any woman just because she's a woman?"

* In ''LightNovel/ReZero'', Subaru practically invokes this after getting TrappedInAnotherWorld; being WrongGenreSavvy, he figures he must be there to protect some cute girl, and after seeing Emilia searching for her insignia, he figures it must be her and decides to help her. The trope doesn't truly kick in until the two of them are murdered by [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Elsa the Bowel Hunter]], triggering Subaru's [[TimeTravel Return by Death]] for the first time, at which point Subaru becomes determined to (and eventually unhealthily obsessed with) helping and protecting her. Ram and Rem come to feel that Subaru is acting like this towards them but in their case, they have only known him for a day, but Subaru (and the audience) has actually known them for quite a bit longer. This being a {{Deconstruction}}, he's called out on this trope at every turn, even by Emilia herself, and ends up going through absolute ''hell''.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', as with so many others, lampshades this. When Gourry first meets Lina, he proclaims it is his duty as a knight to escort and protect Lina, despite knowing nothing about her (largely in part to his own lack of awareness).

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk1962:'' In issue #5, the Hulk, generally an AntiHero at best up to this point, allows himself to be enslaved by Tyrannus holding Betty Ross captive. Compare that to Bruce Banner, who barely acknowledges Betty even exists.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* In ''Film/TheAmbulance'', the main character sees an attractive woman walking down the street and attempts to hit on her, she rebuffs him, he follows her and continues hitting on her, she collapses and the titular ambulance picks her up. He then spends the rest of the movie risking life and limb, fighting a sociopathic doctor constantly trying to run him down with an ambulance, and he never even got her name. After he rescues her from certain excruciating death and declares he did it for true love which he recognized at first, she asks him to call her boyfriend and let him know she's ok.
* ''Film/AnacondasTheHuntForTheBloodOrchid'': When Gail gets attacked by a crocodile, rather than grabbing a rifle, Bill simply jumps into the water and starts wrestling the crocodile with a knife. Lampshaded:
-->'''Sam:''' That is either the bravest or the stupidest thing I've ever seen.
-->'''Bill:''' It's a fine line.
* In Creator/BruceWillis', ''Film/LastManStanding'', he plays a retired [[VillainProtagonist gunman for hire]] who is possibly on the run from something. But he decides to stop in a mostly abandoned town near the Mexican border taken over by two Mafia gangs, the Irish and the Italians. He plays both sides against each other to make money, but things get personal for him when he discovers a Mexican woman being forced to be the Irish mob leader's girlfriend. He decides to risk everything to free her in secret but is found out and nearly beaten to death before escaping to recover and get revenge.
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/{{Constantine}}'':
--> '''Midnite''': Tell me this is not about the girl.
--> '''John Constantine''': Definitely... ''mostly'' not about the girl.

* ''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 Myth/KingArthur is dismayed when no other individual is willing to champion Guinevere -- except for the newly-arrived, unarmored, untrained, (and so far unnamed) apprentice, who asks to champion Guinevere and is knighted by King Arthur for that purpose.
--> '''King Arthur''': Arise, Sir...um...\\
'''Apprentice''': Perceval\\
'''King Arthur''': Perceval
** He then readies himself to charge a fully-armored, battle-hardened Sir Gawain when (fortunately) Lancelot shows up to prevent it from happening.
* In ''Film/ExMachina'', Caleb falls in love with Ava and is willing to risk everything to rescue her within days of meeting her. [[spoiler:Nathan and Ava are separately manipulating him to evoke this exact response]].
* Discussed in the movie ''Film/GIJane''. Master Chief John James, who was tasked with training Lt. Jordan O'Neill to be the first female Navy [=SEAL=], tells her that he has his doubts that the experiment will result in success, stating that the Israeli army tried a similar program years ago, and scrapped it when they tried it in combat situations. The Master Chief states the program was abandoned because the male soldiers' couldn't stand the sight of dead women on the battlefield and would actively endanger missions to protect them. [[spoiler:Ironically, he ends up falling victim to it himself during the mission in Libya, when he attempts a HeroicSacrifice to save O'Neill's life.]]
* Averted and then played straight in ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'': [[LovableRogue Peter Quill]] decides to rescue Gamora from Drax not because he has any feelings for her, but because she knew where to pawn off [[MacGuffin the Orb]]. Later however [[spoiler: when Gamora is dying in the vacuum of space, Peter calls on his vindictive mentor to pick them up and jumps into the vacuum after her, even giving up his helmet so she would have enough air before they were picked up]] after knowing her for at most several days.

* Film/JamesBond acts under the influence of this trope all the time, but somehow always manages to fulfill his organization's objectives in the course of doing so. That's not the ''only'' thing he [[DoubleEntendre fulfills]] in the course of doing so... Or the only thing he acts under...
** This is a stronger trait in Creator/PierceBrosnan's Bond because it's made explicit in ''Film/{{GoldenEye}}'' that he's constantly trying to atone for the women whose lives he wasn't able to save. He is protective towards all of the good (and two who pretend to be good) Bond Girls.

* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' parodies this (as one might expect): Creator/JohnCleese'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 single-handedly 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 [[DudeLooksLikeALady the girl is, in fact, a guy]]. A pathetically effeminate guy, but a guy nonetheless. In the stage adaptation, ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'', the same thing happens... only it winds up that Herbert becomes Lancelot's love interest anyway.
* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides'' gives us a straight and justifiable male example, but an inversion as well, with the {{Love Interest|s}} herself. Philip shows the most kindness for Syrena [[spoiler:after she's taken captive by Blackbeard as a means to harvest a tear for the Fountain of Youth]], but [[GoodShepherd as a clergyman, you can understand that his acts of kindness are mostly motivated]] by his view on the value of all life, and he's wary about Syrena possibly [[spoiler:killing him since their first meeting was just after the mermaids attacked the entire crew]]. Once Syrena reveals that Philip has no reason to fear her, she gives a more straight example of this trope by revealing [[spoiler:that her "attack" on Philip was an act to save his life, stating that her reason was that he was different from the other men. She didn't show up prior to her introduction when the mermaids came about]]. It's after that moment that Philip is willing to risk his life for her.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Subverted in the ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]]'' tale "The Hunt", in which the protagonist travels long and far in order to find a beautiful noblewoman whose picture he's seen on a necklace, only to [[spoiler:end up returning the necklace to her and walking away to marry someone else. The tale ends with [[WantingIsBetterThanHaving the wisdom that some goals are better not attained]]]].

* Averted and then played straight in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': [[LovableRogue Peter Quill]] decides to rescue Gamora from Drax not because he has any feelings for her, but because she knew where to pawn off [[MacGuffin the Orb]]. Later however [[spoiler: when Gamora is dying in the vacuum of space, Peter calls on his vindictive mentor to pick them up and jumps into the vacuum after her, even giving up his helmet so she would have enough air before they were picked up]] after knowing her for at most several days.

** Luke Skywalker after he sees the hologram of Princess Leia in ''Film/ANewHope''. While trapped in the Death Star, he takes an enormous risk to rescue her. Later materials imply that [[SeparatedAtBirth he subconsiously recognized his sister]].

--> '''King Arthur''': Arise, Sir...um...
--> '''Apprentice''': Perceval
--> '''King Arthur''': Perceval

* In some versions of the Myth/KingArthur legend, Sir Gawain takes a knightly vow to be a protector of ladies to atone for having accidentally killed a woman in his youth. Thus the fact that they are strangers to him is irrelevant.

* In episode 4 of ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'', Bell is going about his business when he sees an unknown woman (Liliruca) being attacked by a sword-wielding stranger. He immediately rushes in to protect her, and when the attacker asks why he got involved in someone else's dispute, he replies "because she's a girl". Even Liliruca is taken aback by this, and asks him "Will you save any woman just because she's a woman?"
* Gets a rare GenderFlip in the film ''Anime/MillenniumActress'' with Chiyoko's lifelong quest through [[MentalTimeTravel history]] and a [[ShowWithinAShow film career]] to be reunited with the mysterious man of her dreams, although she loves the chase more than anything. Played somewhat straight with the documentarian Genya who follows her through her journey, who repeatedly sacrifices himself for her, although we find out [[spoiler:he had saved her life once before, on a film set, and idolized her since]].
* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'':
** In the first season, Sousuke goes AWOL and abandons his post under a hostage situation to recover Kaname from the villains. Granted, she ''was'' the VIP he was specifically assigned to protect while the rest of the plane's occupants were not (and he had known her for a bit longer than most examples of this trope), but he was still ordered to stay with the other hostages by his superior officer. As to remove any doubt that he was planning to disobey that order, said officer also states that [[TemptingFate Sousuke's professionalism]] meant he'd definitely '' not'' do emotional things like charging off after the DamselInDistress.
** An interesting ''female'' version of this is shown with Grace Weissman (AKA Gray). She hardly knows much about Sousuke (who temporarily joined her team in a mission), yet immediately defends him and, in a way, "champions" for him against her skeptical teammates' suspicions about him (who dislike him due to him only being 16, yet being an equal in their mission). Her passionately defending him eventually made one of her teammates ask her if she's going that far because she has the hots for him. Even till the end when she's killed by Gauron, her last thoughts are for Sousuke not to worry about her, and that she hopes he will be able to return safely. Considering Sousuke's [[EvenTheGuysWantHim track record]], it isn't far off in saying Gray might've had at least ''some'' attraction to him.
* ''Franchise/LupinIII'':
** In ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'', Lupin's original intention is a simple snatch and grab of the high-quality plates used to make near-perfect counterfeit bills, then a pretty girl is chased past him by bad men with guns and the movie happens.
--->'''Jigen:''' (seeing a girl in a little economy car chased by some men in a big black sedan) Who we gonna help?\\
'''Lupin:''' The girl!\\
'''Jigen:''' [[LampshadeHanging Typical]].
** Fujiko is also responsible for causing the Dulcinea effect on Lupin; the story with Pycal began this way, and she used it on both Lupin and Goemon to get them to kill each other in Anime/LupinIIIPart1.
** ''Anime/LupinIIIEpisode0FirstContact'' is another example of Fujiko tricking Lupin into letting her get her way, making him believe she's escaped from Galvez.

* Recca from ''Manga/FlameOfRecca'' is the equivalent of an Anime Literature/DonQuixote. He plays at being a {{Ninja}} (though later he ''does'' become one) and determines at first sight of [[DamselInDistress Yanagi]] that he will protect her and follow her every order from now on. He even calls her "Princess," and lets her know that she is now his master.
* In ''Manga/DeadmanWonderland'', Ganta quickly becomes this way with apparent ShrinkingViolet 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 AxCrazy and ''counted on'' The Dulcinea Effect kicking in. She 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 ''Manga/FutureDiary'' is shown to act this way towards Tsubaki Kasugano, a [[PrincessClassic beautiful and gentle]] DamselInDistress 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 {{Yandere}}). It's not until [[spoiler:she makes it obvious that she's actually a {{Manipulative B|astard}}itch (mixed with WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds) that wants to kill him that he decides to go back to teaming up with Yuno. Tsubaki ends up disarmed by Yuno and killed by Yukki]].
** In the AlternateUniverse spin-off, ''Mirai Nikki: Paradox'', Akise Aru is shown acting this way towards ''[[HoYay Yukki]]'' himself. Apparently, Akise [[LoveAtFirstSight falls in love with Yukiteru at first sight]], and decides to take Yukiteru's place as the Diary Holder so he can fight off all the enemies and allow Yukiteru to become God. All this being decided after ''just'' having met Yukiteru.
* In ''Manga/XxxHolic'', 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.) It's [[DeconstructedTrope a deconstruction]] because it shows he places no worth on his own existence or how he himself affects the lives of others, which brings him great damage ''and'' upsets the persons whom he wants to help. Example: he sacrifices an eye to help Doumeki when he's going blind before investigating his other options, Doumeki (who didn't want Watanuki to do such a thing in the first place), understandably gets ''pissed off'' at him, and a spirit that Watanuki had befriended ''almost dies'' trying to fix the mess.
** Watanuki is a [[spoiler:replacement clone and deep down knows he is not supposed to exist, thus his ChronicHeroSyndrome; he's subconsciously suicidal. A large purpose of him being at the shop was to gain self-worth so when the time came, he wouldn't vanish and the TimeyWimeyBall would remain intact]].

* In ''Manga/Reborn2004'', Tsuna is shown to be willing to die for Kyoko. He hardly ever really talks with her or knows her, and apparently the whole reason he has a crush on her in the first place was that she was the only girl that bothered talking to him in twelve months.
** His relationship with Uni too. The series seems to fully be implying a sort of Tsuna = Knight in shining armor who protects and "champions" for Uni (the DamselInDistress). Tsuna seems to like the idea - he's certainly [[LuminescentBlush blushing]] a ''lot'' every time she says anything. His decision to take her under his wing seemed to mainly be influenced by the tragic, self-sacrificing expression in her eyes.
*** Directly {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Byakuran, who mocks Tsuna by asking him if he's trying to be Uni's "KnightInShiningArmor".

* In ''LightNovel/ReZero'', Subaru practically invokes this after getting TrappedInAnotherWorld; being WrongGenreSavvy, he figures he must be there to protect some cute girl, and after seeing Emilia searching for her insignia, he figures it must be her and decides to help her. The trope doesn't truly kick in until the two of them are murdered by [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Elsa the Bowel Hunter]], triggering Subaru's [[TimeTravel Return by Death]] for the first time, at which point Subaru becomes determined to (and eventually unhealthily obsessed with) helping and protecting her. Ram and Rem come to feel that Subaru is acting like this towards them but in their case, they have only known him for a day, but Subaru (and the audience) has actually known them for quite a bit longer. This being a {{Deconstruction}}, he's called out on this trope at every turn, even by Emilia herself, and ends up going through absolute ''hell''.
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', immediately after Rock Lee meets Sakura, he asks her to be his girlfriend and promises to protect her with his life, an offer she just as promptly rejects. Less than 48 hours later, he ends up defending her against three Sound Ninja in the Forest of Death, despite her being on an opposing team, and Sakura recognizes that he meant what he said.
* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
** After her quest for the Jewel Seeds leads her to get blasted into unconsciousness by Fate Testarossa, Nanoha Takamachi makes it her sole priority to help get rid of the sadness she saw in the other girl's eyes, with the Jewel Seeds becoming secondary.
** Thoma goes through quite a bit of trouble to help out Lily in ''[[Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce Force]]'', breaking into a lab and almost getting incinerated, becoming a fugitive from the TSAB, getting sought after by the Hückebein, and slowly losing control of himself, and gets involved merely as a result of hearing her calling for help.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'':
** Jacuzzi gets a ransom note for a woman he met earlier that day. His response is to turn in himself for the money the mob put on his head. However, he's shown to be like this towards ''[[MartyrWithoutACause everyone]].'' He was, at one point, more concerned about the safety of some Russo mafia mooks than he was over the fact that said mooks were about to ''kill him''.
** Claire Stanfield, a man who insists on devoting himself completely and utterly to the first cute girl he finds that doesn't say no. Considering he's the series' resident AxCrazy SociopathicHero, [[spoiler:Chane]] now has either the most awesome or the most terrifying boyfriend in existence.
* Kiri of ''Manga/TheSeveringCrimeEdge'' knew Iwai for approximately 48 hours at the point he decides to defend her from the serial killers out to murder her. No, not kidnap and sacrifice her, but kill her on the spot. Whoever does manage to gets the power to break the laws of nature, and presumably have one of their wishes granted. Admittedly, it doesn't take much to want to prevent a young girl from being brutally murdered.
* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', as with so many others, lampshades this. When Gourry first meets Lina, he proclaims it is his duty as a knight to escort and protect Lina, despite knowing nothing about her (largely in part to his own lack of awareness).
* Touma in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' succumbs to The Dulcinea Effect throughout the series. This is even [[LampshadeHanging discussed]] at one point by his [[HaremGenre Harem]], who is mostly made up of girls he's rescued earlier.
* Edo Phoenix in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' himself is slightly confused [[spoiler:when he decides to have a duel to the death with Amon Garam over a woman he doesn't much care about and only talked to once before this]] because [[WrongGenreSavvy he doesn't realize]] he's the AntiHero in a DeconstructorFleet that's made a point of demonstrating the absurdity and danger of myriad shonen and SuperHero tropes.

* Koyomi Araragi of ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' suffers from this, even going so far as to risk his life to save a girl he barely knows when the sole reason she is in trouble in the first place is that she subconsciously wants to ''kill him.''
** Specifically referenced in ''Nekomonogatari (Black)'', where Araragi tries to make sense of his feelings for Hanekawa. He realizes that, rather than wanting to date her, he likes her so much that he might want to die for her instead. This is followed shortly by [[spoiler:getting himself PUNCHED IN HALF as part of a gambit to save her]].
* Gender inverted in ''Anime/PrincessTutu'', where Ahiru is talked into becoming Princess Tutu (and thus roping herself into a fairytale charging straight for a DownerEnding) to restore Mytho's heart after little more than a single encounter. She thinks it's LoveAtFirstSight, but later starts having her doubts and goes on to confess to Mytho's companion Fakir that she doesn't really know ''why'' she loves Mytho, other than because he's [[{{Bishonen}} pretty]]. [[spoiler:The answer is that she ''[[ShipSinking doesn't]]''. The girl who ''does'' love him that way is ''Ahiru's opponent'', [[DarkMagicalGirl Rue/Princess Kraehe]], who pulls a HeroicSacrifice for him and ends up becoming his Princess. Something that Ahiru comes to acknowledge, saying that she would have ''not'' been strong and selfless enough to do the same since it would also involve giving up on her chance to stay as a human.]]

* ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'': Hayate Ayasaki's big brother, Ikusa, is a guy who'd always help anybody in need... unless it's [[AbusiveParents his parents]]. He'll help out his little brother on those occasions he's around). He's kind of a powered-up version of Hayate -- [[StrongerSibling he just can]].
* ''Anime/RuneSoldierLouie'': The IdiotHero is very susceptible to this, which [[OurElvesAreDifferent Celecia]] [[TheTease shamelessly exploits]] all the time; much to the annoyance of his female teammates.
* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'':
** Mikado is compelled to save Anri from the delinquents harassing her.
** [[ChivalrousPervert Chikage]] takes this trope to its logical extreme by being willing to risk his life for any girl ever.
** Mikado also saves Mika from Celty, no questions asked--until later.
* In ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'''s Universal Century, one of the PsychicPowers associated with [[TelepathicSpacemen Newtypes]] is the ability to rapidly establish deep emotional connections with others of their kind. Whilst most Newtypes are pretty sane about this (due to their powers manifesting once they had the emotional maturity to handle that sort of thing), Banagher Links of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' first manifested his powers when he was a young child, meaning that they're a far more integral part of his personality. Then the Industrial 7 incident happens whilst he's marinating in teenage hormones, and he suddenly finds himself up to his ears in pretty young Newtype girls with intriguingly tragic backstories. [[PowerIncontinence The results are entirely predictable.]]
* Gender flipped, inverted, and otherwise played with in ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''. Screwing with this trope might be the point of the story, as [[spoiler: Prince Dios became the BigBad Akio when he was abandoned by the crowds after he wasn't able to save ''all'' the girls who needed it]], then [[spoiler: ropes Utena into coming to Ohtori by first saving her under the guise of the Prince he used to be, and then setting [[DecoyDamsel his much-abused sister Anthy aka the Rose Bride]] in situations that would make [[BullyHunter Utena]] invoke this trope on her]].
* In ''LightNovel/AriaTheScarletAmmo'', Kinji inherited this ''genetically''. It's a side effect of his SuperMode. He can't ''not'' help a girl in trouble.
* In the pilot of ''Anime/GunXSword'', Van saves the town of Evergreen on Wendy's behalf, even though he's known her less than a day. Up to that point (and, to some extent, afterward), most of their interactions consisted of argument.
* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' [[PlayingWith/TheDulcineaEffect zigzags]] the trope throughout the series:
** In the first episode, Mugen offers, unprompted, to help Fuu with her teahouse's thug problem... [[SubvertedTrope in exchange for food]]. When said thugs threaten to cut off her fingers, Mugen lounges on his table until Fuu promises him an absurd amount of dumplings to save her.
** As early as the second episode, Mugen [[DoubleSubversion nearly verges]] into AlwaysSaveTheGirl status, barely reacting to the woman who poisoned him until she mentions that Fuu is in danger and killing anyone who gets in between himself and Fuu (including Oniwakamaru, who would have surrendered).
** Played perfectly straight in episode eleven with Shino, whom Jin immediately [[LoveAtFirstSight falls in love]] with.
* ''Anime/DaphneInTheBrilliantBlue'': Gender flipped. Shizuka finds a guy injured near trash cans and quickly becomes attached to and protective of him. [[spoiler: The guy's a con artist and calls this his "lonely enigmatic spy" routine.]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub''. While the whole Host Club is protective of Haruhi, Tamaki is the most zealous about it, constantly trying to protect her from people and situations that present no danger to her.

* GenderFlip example: This is how Yukari from ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}'' meets Shiina. Shiina is being chased by two sekirei who are looking to capture him and bring him back to their ashikabi to be indoctrinated into his team. Yukari interferes because she believes that pretty boys should be protected.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** Seems to be part of the Quincy honour code that Ishida lives by. He fights a shinigami vice-captain to protect Rukia, despite having professed to hate her only a few days beforehand and gets outraged at Mayuri's treatment of his daughter Nemu despite the fact that Nemu attacked him. It's lampshaded by Mayuri himself.
-->'''Mayuri''': Are you that big a fool? You feel pity for a woman, even though she's your enemy? Is this the honor you Quincies take such pride in?!
** Ichigo gets it too. While he had a month to get to know Rukia, and even longer for Orihime, he was willing to risk his life for Nel after knowing her for a few hours, despite her status as an Arrancar and thus technically being his enemy. It's even more JustForFun/{{egregious}} in the first movie with Senna. After knowing her for about two days, he is more than willing to go on a rescue mission in an unstable region within enemy territory, despite warnings that this equates to a SuicideMission. This is justified, as he lost his mother when he was 9, he believed it was his fault for years, and he decided to become someone who can protect people. In the case of Nel, she has the appearance of a child, is harmless [[spoiler:when she's not in her original form]] and she helps Ichigo.
* ''Manga/LiarGame'': Despite initial reluctance and starting to play for money, Akiyama quickly ends up stuck in the game by protecting Nao.
* In the ''Manga/MyHime'' manga, Yuuichi almost immediately becomes the Key, or most important person, of Mai and Natsuki. By contrast, in the anime, it takes over half the series to get close to that status for Mai, and it is also implied that Yuuichi became most important to Mai partly because a rift formed between Mai and Takumi over his decision to go to America for surgery alone [[spoiler:shortly before his death]].

* ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'': Shu starts the series by talking to a blue-haired girl he barely even knows, then spends the rest of the series paying for it.
* ''Anime/EurekaSeven'': Renton Thurston joined on an outlaw ship with a crew that constantly abuses him for the sake of a girl he had just met. Then, she has jealousy issues not over him but the fact that he pilots her mech. Then on top of that, she shows little romantic interest in him at all [[spoiler: for about the first twenty episodes]] and admits to using him for the mecha. What does Renton do about this? Sulk about how he wants to continue to protect this girl and continue to take abuse.
* ''Manga/AkumaNoRiddle'': Tokaku is a high-school assassin who's pretty quick to risk death and openly declare her intentions to a room full of fellow killers to protect a girl she's only recently met.
** [[spoiler:Said "girl she's only recently met" actually has the ability to induce this in nearby people, whether she wants to or not. This revelation causes Tokaku to seriously question why she wants to protect Haru.]]
* ''Manga/LaughingUnderTheClouds'': Subverted. In the backstory told in ''Utakata ni Warau'' this is what it looks like when Hirari meets Botan at random in the street, follows her and supposedly saves her from a bunch of thugs (which she was about to get rid of anyway) and promptly declares he loves her and will marry her and protect her. Botan's initially having none of it, but it is later revealed that when Hirari was a child, Botan was the only one who did not treat him like a pariah, and ''that'' is the true reason he falls for her when they meet again.
* In ''Manga/Brave10'', the first time [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Saizo]] saved Isanami was just [[IWasJustPassingThrough self-defense]]. And the second time, too. And the third...
* ''Manga/TimeStopBrave'': Kuzuno Sekai has a real weakness for pretty girls and will always try to help them. His party comments on how this is pretty much the only way to motivate him.

* Subverted in the ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]]'' tale "The Hunt", in which the protagonist travels long and far in order to find a beautiful noblewoman whose picture he's seen on a necklace, only to [[spoiler:end up returning the necklace to her and walking away to marry someone else. The tale ends with [[WantingIsBetterThanHaving the wisdom that some goals are better not attained]]]].

* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** Luke Skywalker after he sees the hologram of Princess Leia in ''Film/ANewHope''. While trapped in the Death Star, he takes an enormous risk to rescue her. Later materials imply that [[SeparatedAtBirth he subconsiously recognized his sister]].
** Han Solo averts this by refusing to rescue Leia until he's told that the princess is very rich. Luke's willingness to rescue the princess [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism contrasts his heroic idealism with Han's cynicism]]. It's made even more explicit in the Alan Dean Foster novelization of the film:
--->'''Luke:''' She's beautiful.\\
'''Han:''' So's life.
** Finn from ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' suffers from this. He had ''no idea who Rey was'' before he decided to put himself at risk for her.
* Inspector Clouseau in ''Film/AShotInTheDark'' is unshakably convinced that the beautiful Maria Gambrelli is innocent of murder despite the overwhelming mass of evidence that she is the killer. [[spoiler: She actually ''is'' innocent, but Clouseau was certainly acting under the influence of this trope.]]
* Film/JamesBond acts under the influence of this trope all the time, but somehow always manages to fulfill his organization's objectives in the course of doing so. That's not the ''only'' thing he [[DoubleEntendre fulfills]] in the course of doing so... Or the only thing he acts under...
** This is a stronger trait in Creator/PierceBrosnan's Bond because it's made explicit in ''Film/{{GoldenEye}}'' that he's constantly trying to atone for the women whose lives he wasn't able to save. He is protective towards all of the good (and two who pretend to be good) Bond Girls.
%%* ''Film/TheMask'':
* ''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 Myth/KingArthur is dismayed when no other individual is willing to champion Guinevere -- except for the newly-arrived, unarmored, untrained, (and so far unnamed) apprentice, who asks to champion Guinevere and is knighted by King Arthur for that purpose.
--> '''King Arthur''': Arise, Sir...um...
--> '''Apprentice''': Perceval
--> '''King Arthur''': Perceval
** He then readies himself to charge a fully-armored, battle-hardened Sir Gawain when (fortunately) Lancelot shows up to prevent it from happening.

* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' parodies this (as one might expect): Creator/JohnCleese'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 single-handedly 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 [[DudeLooksLikeALady the girl is, in fact, a guy]]. A pathetically effeminate guy, but a guy nonetheless. In the stage adaptation, ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'', the same thing happens... only it winds up that Herbert becomes Lancelot's love interest anyway.
* Daniel Jackson in ''Film/{{Stargate}}''. He had just ended up in an AccidentalMarriage with her.
%%* ''Film/TaxiDriver''.
* ''Film/TheTerminator''. Kyle Reese volunteers to go back in time to protect Sarah Connor, who he fell in love with only from stories and a picture he was given by John Connor, knowing there is absolutely no way back and that going up against a Terminator programmed to kill Sarah will most likely result in a violent death. The line in question: "John gave me a picture of you once. I memorised every line. Every curve. I came across time for ''you'', Sarah." Though considering the [[CrapsackWorld alternative]] in the future... and John Connor gave the picture of Sarah to Kyle specifically to elicit this effect... [[spoiler:Kyle being his father thanks to time Travel, and all.]]
* ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire'': Jamal scrapes by as an orphan from the slums and gets into some very nasty situations, but [[{{Determinator}} never gives up]] looking for the girl he was friends with for a short time during his childhood.

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides'' gives us a straight and justifiable male example, but an inversion as well, with the {{Love Interest|s}} herself. Philip shows the most kindness for Syrena [[spoiler:after she's taken captive by Blackbeard as a means to harvest a tear for the Fountain of Youth]], but [[GoodShepherd as a clergyman, you can understand that his acts of kindness are mostly motivated]] by his view on the value of all life, and he's wary about Syrena possibly [[spoiler:killing him since their first meeting was just after the mermaids attacked the entire crew]]. Once Syrena reveals that Philip has no reason to fear her, she gives a more straight example of this trope by revealing [[spoiler:that her "attack" on Philip was an act to save his life, stating that her reason was that he was different from the other men. She didn't show up prior to her introduction when the mermaids came about]]. It's after that moment that Philip is willing to risk his life for her.
* In ''Film/AKnightsTale'', Jocelyn makes William feel like a poet even though he doesn't know her name. Later, Jocelyn demands that William prove his love by losing an important joust for her. After watching him get knocked around for a while, she changes her mind and sends word that he must prove his love by ''winning'' the joust. William is very obviously pissed and, when Chaucer tries to motivate him by pointing out Jocelyn in the stands, William growls "And how I hate her!" He meets her that night and has apparently forgiven her, but when she sees his injuries and says that it's all her fault, he gives a very unromantic "Yes, it is."
* ''Film/AnacondasTheHuntForTheBloodOrchid'': When Gail gets attacked by a crocodile, rather than grabbing a rifle, Bill simply jumps into the water and starts wrestling the crocodile with a knife. Lampshaded:
-->'''Sam:''' That is either the bravest or the stupidest thing I've ever seen.
-->'''Bill:''' It's a fine line.
* In ''Film/TheAmbulance'', the main character sees an attractive woman walking down the street and attempts to hit on her, she rebuffs him, he follows her and continues hitting on her, she collapses and the titular ambulance picks her up. He then spends the rest of the movie risking life and limb, fighting a sociopathic doctor constantly trying to run him down with an ambulance, and he never even got her name. After he rescues her from certain excruciating death and declares he did it for true love which he recognized at first, she asks him to call her boyfriend and let him know she's ok.
* ''Film/{{Runaway}}'': After noting how attractive she is, Sgt. Ramsey charges in to save [[SexySecretary Jackie]] from being zapped by a malfunctioning security robot, instead of returning to his car to suit up in protective gear. He gets zapped repeatedly, snarked at by both Jackie and his partner Thompson, and ends up smashing the expensive robot with a chair.
* Averted and then played straight in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': [[LovableRogue Peter Quill]] decides to rescue Gamora from Drax not because he has any feelings for her, but because she knew where to pawn off [[MacGuffin the Orb]]. Later however [[spoiler: when Gamora is dying in the vacuum of space, Peter calls on his vindictive mentor to pick them up and jumps into the vacuum after her, even giving up his helmet so she would have enough air before they were picked up]] after knowing her for at most several days.

* ''Film/TheHungerGames'': Peeta may have known Katniss since the age of five but he only actually interacted with her once before being reaped with her and never speaks to her until they've become tributes. All the same, he's so determined to die for her survival's sake that Haymitch notes it's not even worth trying to save Peeta in the arena.
* In Creator/BruceWillis', ''Film/LastManStanding'', he plays a retired [[VillainProtagonist gunman for hire]] who is possibly on the run from something. But he decides to stop in a mostly abandoned town near the Mexican border taken over by two Mafia gangs, the Irish and the Italians. He plays both sides against each other to make money, but things get personal for him when he discovers a Mexican woman being forced to be the Irish mob leader's girlfriend. He decides to risk everything to free her in secret but is found out and nearly beaten to death before escaping to recover and get revenge.
* In ''Film/HoboWithAShotgun'', the Hobo steadfastly refuses to get involved in any of the crime that is going on on the streets of the WretchedHive of Scum Town, until he sees Slick attempting to abduct Abby, when he steps up and makes a stand.

* ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'' is a rather extreme example. When Abe first meets DamselInDistress Nuala, she presumes him to be an Enemy. He uses his TouchTelepathy to prove he isn't, but during this split-second mind contact, they both fall completely in love. After this moment, they have barely any interaction before the BigBad kidnaps Nuala and [[HostageForMacGuffin demands the last key to control the titular Golden Army for her return]]. And altough Abe knows the BigBad plans to KillAllHumans with this army, and that he is Nuala's [[TwinsAreSpecial twin brother]] and [[{{Synchronization}} will magically suffer any injury he might inflict on her]], Abe goes behind his friend's back and gives up the MacGuffin, with no plan to stop the BigBad afterwards.

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's heroes have this bad:
** In ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars The Gods of Mars]]'', John Carter starts a GladiatorRevolt at the sight of women being thrown to monsters -- and most of the gladiators follow him. Largely justified, as it's made clear from the first novel that John's [[SouthernGentleman culture and values]] compel him to rescue ''any'' [[DamselInDistress woman from danger]]. Who they are is largely irrelevant.
** In ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'', hearing a woman scream draws Carthoris from his sabotaged airship.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's stories "Literature/ShadowsInZamboula", "Literature/ShadowsInTheMoonlight", and "Literature/ThePoolOfTheBlackOne", Literature/ConanTheBarbarian fights for unknown women on little provocation. Then again, he's [[InHarmsWay prone to fight on little provocation anyway]].

* ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'': The aptly named Dulcinea Septimus in ''Literature/GideonTheNinth'', thanks to her terminal illness. Gideon feels compelled to protect her from the moment they meet. [[spoiler:It also turns out that Palamedes has devoted his life to trying to rescue her from her illness ever since he began trading letters with her twelve years ago. He never even needed to meet her in person to fall in love with her.]]
* In Creator/LloydAlexander's ''Literature/TheGoldenDreamOfCarloChuchio'', the title character first meets his love interest Shira briefly as a boy, and upon finding out she is a girl, is instantly smitten. When she is being threatened an hour later, he shoves her out of the way and angrily tries to defend her honor, despite the fact that she was defending herself quite well.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/IfThisGoesOn'': John Lyle gets involved in the revolution against the Theocracy for the sake of a girl he barely knows.

* ''The Glass Sentence'', first book of ''The Mapmakers Trilogy'', presents a gender-flipped example: Sophia first sees Theo as the caged "wild boy" in a sideshow, and she's immediately enchanted and imagining how to help him escape his prison. When they meet again (and Theo proves to be civilized), she wants him to be her ally on her journey to save her uncle simply because she likes him.

* Played with in ''[[Creator/LouisaMayAlcott Rose in Bloom]]'', the sequel to ''Literature/EightCousins''. Mac finds a girl and tries very hard to help her, even though he's only known her for a few minutes at the time he agrees. [[spoiler:Then again, she's about two years old, an orphan, and has no other close relatives.]] Lampshaded when he and Rose call her [[note]]Name her, actually; her mother was too sick to tell Mac her name, and nobody else knew either the mother or the baby.[[/note]] Dulcinea.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'': The titular character is very vulnerable to this. Especially in the books where he has it going with several women simultaneously.

* Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'' is an AffectionateParody of chivalry. Tristran Thorn goes on a quest to find the fallen star and prove his love to the village beauty, Victoria Forrester, who seems extremely uninterested in him. He ends up realizing that he's not interested in her, either.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E19RequiemForMethuselah Requiem for Methuselah]]", Kirk goes down to a planet where he only has four hours to obtain some material for a vaccine. He promptly falls so in love with the girl he meets down there that Spock is forced to erase her from his memory when he's left too heartbroken to go on after being forced to leave her. Even for the notoriously womanizing Kirk, this is a severe example.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E20Qpid Qpid]]", Q insists that Picard is still in love with Vash, a woman he knew for one day a year earlier, and proves it by trapping them in a storyline where he has to rescue her. Picard brushes off his claims, pointing out that he'd try to rescue anyone in danger.

* In ''Tenspeed and Brown Shoe'', private detective Lionel Whitney (Creator/JeffGoldblum) is prone to this with the GirlOfTheWeek. It's worth noting that a key reason he gave up his job as a stockbroker to became a detective was to live out his longstanding fantasies of being "Mark Savage", the 1940s-style private eye protagonist of the pulpy novels he devours. This trope gets him into particular trouble in "Savage Says: There's No Free Lunch" because [[spoiler: that week's Dulcinea is actually The Vamp. Even better? The novel he's working his way through at the time sees Savage similarly deceived, but it isn't until Lionel's recovering in the hospital that he finishes it and realizes how strong the Plot Parallel was]].

* As one might garner from the page quote, this trope tends to show up a ''lot'' in video games. However, Hiro from ''VideoGame/LunarEternalBlue'' is the smack-bang-in-the-centre example of the videogame version of this trope. It's even the {{Trope Namer|s}} in Website/TheGrandListOfConsoleRolePlayingGameCliches, as seen at the top of this page.
** One might think that he only did this for Lucia because she's a mysterious beauty who he's clearly smitten with at first sight, but the manga "Lunar: Younenki no owari" shows that he will literally do this for ANY girl he met 5 minutes ago, making his more of a case of ChronicHeroSyndrome.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2'': Mixed with JumpedAtTheCall. As soon as Reala emerges from a giant Lens, Kyle is determined to become her hero and pursues her across the continent to do so. This is often lampshaded by his adopted brother, Loni, who is also roped into the adventure as a result.
* A rare female example crops up in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'' -- Marta is infatuated with Emil from the moment he "saves" her -- so infatuated, in fact, that she sets an ancient guardian monster to stalk him for several months, and when she does reunite with him, offers to hand herself in to be executed in order to spare his village (and his guilt). All for a guy whose name she had learned only an hour or two ago.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' gets away with this by turning it into a part of a larger plot point: the hero not only leaps unreasonably to the heroine's defense, but he also shouts her name in the process before he's told it. Dun dun DUUUUN! [[spoiler:They'd been lovers over several incarnations, the latest being the one we see in-game.]]
* Several games in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series fall under this trope, as they show Link going off on a quest for Princess Zelda after knowing her for only a few minutes or, such as in the original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' game, never having met her at all. Although, given that she's his sovereign ruler, it's probably illegal for him ''not'' to quest or something, and if he ever ''did'' say no, [[ButThouMust she'd probably just keep asking him]].
** ''VideoGame/{{The Legend of Zelda Oracle|Games}} of Ages'': Link goes and saves Impa from some attacking monsters (while he ''does'' know Impa, he doesn't seem to know her when he saves her). He then accompanies her to find the girl Impa was looking for. [[spoiler:Once they find said girl, it turns out that Impa was actually possessed by an evil sorceress, the girl was the Oracle of Ages, and the sorceress has now possessed her.]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Well done, Link.]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' mostly avert it. In ''Wind Waker'', Link starts his quest because [[BigBrotherInstinct his little sister was taken by a giant bird]], and finishes BecauseDestinySaysSo. ''Twilight Princess'' has Link trying to save the kids from the village; at first, he's helping Midna because she's helping him. Those first 3 dungeons are by no means short ([[DownTheDrain especially the third one]]), so by the second half of the game, he and Midna have had time to bond. Ganondorf just happens to know how to push Link's BerserkButton at the end.
*** If you look at the gender-flipped version for ''Twilight Princess'', Midna rescues [[DistressedDude Link]] from Zant's dungeon, after seeing him for five minutes. [[spoiler:It turns out that she only did so because it was foretold that he'd help her overthrow Zant, and she later apologizes for this.]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' averts this completely, as Zelda and Link are best friends who have actually known each other for ''years'' in that game.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' subverts this. Assuming you select the more proactive dialogue options in the opening Great Plateau section, it can seem like [[AmnesiacHero Link]] is perfectly willing to follow the lead of the unfamiliar woman's telepathic voice that greets him when he wakes up in the Shrine of Resurrection. But it turns out that he had become good friends with Zelda before losing his memories, and he's so willing to fight for her without them due to AmnesiacResonance.
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', Snake devotes himself to saving Meryl when she's only around for one boss battle before she gets shot.
** Lampshaded in one parody, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV_wCMsLTD8 as seen here]].
** It wasn't one-sided, either -- when the two finally meet up, Meryl tells Snake that she had been given psychotherapy to destroy her interest in men, and then not ten minutes later the boss from that one battle before she gets shot is telling Snake with his dying breath that he has "a large part" in her heart.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'': Played straight with Sigurd and Deirdre (or Diadora, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS depending on who your translator is]]). Gender-swapped in the same game... with Deirdre and Sigurd. Yes, they ''both'' immediately fall madly for each other.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'':
** Justified by having the girl the player has never met being his commanding officer and possibly the key to winning the war with the Sith.
** Gender-flipped in the sequel with Visas and the Handmaiden if the player is male, and played straight with Atton and the Disciple if the player is female. Though certain later events put it in a new context.
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'': The 'good' responses during most of Aribeth's dialogue in the first chapter suggest a male hero is falling victim to this trope. A male hero of Hordes of the Underdark can fall victim to this as well, with either Nathyrra or Aribeth.
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'':
** Most of the 'good' dialogue with Elanee or Neeshka suggests a male character is acting under the Dulcinea Effect. Especially the decision to help Neeshka in her feud with her former partner, leading to the question: Why, if Neeshka didn't tell the player that if he came to Neverwinter with her he would likely be the target of assassination attempts, does he still trust her?
** The player can use this trope with regards to Safiya in the sequel as well, despite the fact that she is of a sect of wizards noted for their brutality, political scheming (read: assassinations and shadow wars), and immorality. Yet the player can completely trust her from the outset (not like you have any choice).
** A male player in the ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' community module Dark Avenger can behave like this towards Contessa Mignet. Her being madly in love with a Casanova character who is trying to get rid of her for being too clingy doesn't help.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'': Most of these women save Adol Christin's life in the first place because he is almost always shipwrecked at the start of games. Then he spends the rest of them protecting them.
* ''VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories'': while Adell's initial promise to protect and return Rozalin to her father probably doesn't raise any eyebrows at first (he's borderline LawfulStupid, and clearly feels responsible for her FallenPrincess predicament), the Dulcinea Effect becomes apparent when he [[HonorBeforeReason insists on keeping it in even the most suicidal circumstances]], and he doesn't even ''like'' [[DoesNotLikeMen girls]].
* In ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'', 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 -- 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.

* ''VisualNovel/Ever17'': The Kid fell in love with Coco at first sight. [[spoiler:He then spent the next 17 years of his life learning to imitate his role model Takeshi as exactly as possible. He does this based on a story that You tells him involving the personification of the perception of time. He doesn't even get the girl because by this point he looks 20 and is actually 32 while she's 14, acts about 8 and considers herself to be the girlfriend of said personification. The Drama [=CDs=] show that after the incident, he got over Coco, got a job, and [[PairTheSpares ended up with Sora]], so it seems he's all right.]]
* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'': Invoked during the "Death of Chivalry" quest as you come across a woman named Dawn, who is held captive by the Black Knight faction under the control of Captain Dulcin. It is later revealed that Dawn has [[spoiler:secretly killed Dulcin long ago in a plan that ultimately has the Player Character and/or his companion Sir Owen complete a series of tests of chivalry so that she may obtain an artifact of power]].
* In ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'', Claude winds up on an alien planet where he's absolutely not allowed to use his superior technology. The first thing he does is use that technology to save the cute blue-haired chick from a monster. [[note]]The player can TRY to kill the monster with Claude's bare hands, and in fact, Claude DOES start with GoodOldFisticuffs in the manga adaptation. Unfortunately, it does next to no good in either version, so he'll be using his awesome laser gun anyway.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'': Fox gets a few psychic message things from Krystal and sees her suspended in the Krazoa Palace and he's more than willing to do everything he can and risk his life to save her.
* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'': Obviously, given that you're the omnibenevolent sun god and all. Issun tends to be more cynical than Ammy but is also a huge sucker for a pretty face.
** Same in ''VideoGame/{{Okamiden}}''. Your first partner, Kuni, actually believes that it is his duty as a swordsman and son of Susano to help out any damsel in distress he sees, [[MilesGloriosus despite initially being too afraid of demons to face up to them]]. Kurow also seems to display this, despite his EstablishingCharacterMoment showing him to be a bit of a jerk and possibly a criminal.
* ''VideoGame/WhiteKnightChronicles'': Leonard had only met the princess, Cisna, once before, when they were kids (and she wasn't even interested in him, but in [[DistractedByTheShiny the butterfly on his head]]), but [[LoveAtFirstSight he falls in love with her the moment he sees her again (and she with him)]] and is willing to rush off and confront a hostile nation searching for destructive lost technology after they kidnap her (dragging his [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Unlucky Childhood Friend]] and the HeroicMime with him).

* ''VideoGame/AgarestSenki'': Leonhardt plays this so straight, the first time he does this, ''he gets killed'' (curiously, the first time he did this, the girl in question is not a {{Love Interest|s}} seeing as she's just twelve years old). He recovered, though, and does this trope again to two women.

* ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoMelodyOfElemia'': Lyner has no hesitation in helping any {{Squishy Wi|zard}}tch of the Reyvateil race, which only consist of girls. Lyner's keeping up with this trope so much that he will have no hesitation in "saving" a BigBad in the final battle, who appears to be an [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds over-abused Reyvateil.]]
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2AssassinsOfKings'', where you meet an elf girl accused of luring town guards to their death. When you do the investigation, [[spoiler:it turns out that she was completely responsible. If you defend her, as "thanks", she'll lead you to an ambush]].
* An instance of this is optional in ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland''. If Guybrush completes the "Trial of Thievery" last (stealing the Idol of Many Hands from Elaine's mansion), he gets up from attempted drowning by Fester Shinetop [[spoiler:([=LeChuck=] in disguise)]] to see [=LeChuck=]'s ship disappearing and being informed by the Lookout that Elaine has been kidnapped by [=LeChuck=]. Guybrush then proclaims his love for her, even though he mumbled incoherently towards her just prior. If Guybrush doesn't complete the "Trial of Thievery" last, Guybrush and Elaine profess their love for one another and Guybrush still vows to rescue her when she's eventually kidnapped, [[AvertedTrope averting this]].
* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean'' has a DoubleSubversion. When the player character sneaks into Rodolfo's mansion, it can suggest saving [[MysteriousWaif Xelha]], but [[{{Jerkass}} Kalas]] just gets annoyed with you if you do. After exploring a bit, he finds a gate he can't figure out how to open, but Xelha can.
* In the first mission of ''VideoGame/ArmyOfTwo: The Devil's Cartel'', after fighting through a cartel compound only to find the girl they were hired to rescue dead, Rios opts to save another girl they find, while Salem just wants to leave.
* In ''VideoGame/GeminiRue'', [[spoiler:Azriel Odin/Delta-Six]] has this for [[spoiler:Saiyuri/Epsilon-Five]]. Even ''[[spoiler:multiple mindwipes]]'' don't stop him from instinctively trying to protect her, nor do they stop her from trying to do the same for him. It's implied that she was someone important to him in the past.

* In the online tie-in game for the movie ''Film{{Salt}}'', the player is led to believe that Salt is being set up by the bad guys and she needs your help to clear her name. In reality, [[spoiler:she is a Soviet mole and is using you to eliminate some loose ends. She later betrays the player to his (it's always shown as a male player) bosses in the CIA]].
* The ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' quest "In My Time of Need" involves a group of Alik'r warriors looking for a Redguard woman they claim betrayed her family and a Redguard city to the Aldmeri Dominion. The woman herself claims she spoke out against the Dominion who hired the Alik'r to hunt her down an assassinate her. The player can either play the trope straight by killing the Alik'r or defy it by luring Saadia outside Whiterun where the Alik'r will capture her.
* Invoked in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': Makoto Naegi has this in regards to Sayaka Maizono, who he has been pining for her since childhood, and he is willing to do anything to protect her during Monokuma's game of High School Life of Mutual Killing. [[spoiler:It turns out that she's using the DE as a way to frame him for murder when she tries to kill Leon so she can escape from the school, but Leon kills her before she can do so.]]
* ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'':
** Tiz agrees instantly to help Agnès in her journey despite a military coming after her because she's a Vestal and she made the vow to seal the Great Chasm (restoring Tiz's hometown Norende to normality).
** It's played straight with Ringabel, who joins the party because he feels an intense and inexplicable urge to protect Edea. [[spoiler:It is hinted during the game that Ringabel subconsciously helps Tiz, Agnès, and Edea [[FailureKnight because he wants to avoid them dying at the hands of Airy like the previous cycle]]. Then again, Alternis has a huge crush on Edea anyway...]]
* The main plot of ''VideoGame/SandsOfDestruction'' kicks off this way: Kyrie is ecstatic when Morte decides to drag him around the world in order to convince him it's an awful place mere moments after breaking him out of the Sky Gaol and soon promises to help her in whatever she needs, including ending the world. [[LoveMakesYouDumb He's obviously not thinking clearly at that moment]].

* This trope is {{deconstructed|Trope}} in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' with the character Emiya Shirou, who is a deeply damaged individual who is ''incapable'' of valuing his own life above those of others. No matter which route, he gets near-fatally injured trying to save Saber the very night he meets her.
* 2B from ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' forms a close bond with 9S in the middle of their first mission, to the point of not minding pulling a HeroicSacrifice with him (granted, DeathIsCheap for [=YoRHa=] androids, but even then she had no idea if she'd even remember 9S afterwards due to thinking her memories during the mission weren't backed up.) [[spoiler: This is justified later on with the revelation that this was ''far'' from her first mission with 9S. It's just the first one the player is privy to, and due to 2B being tasked with regularly rewriting 9S' memories, it's the first one that ''he'' remembers.]]
* Rean Schwarzer from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' does this to Alisa after both them and their future classmates fall through a TrapDoor on their first day in class. Rean goes out of his way to save her and ends up getting a chest in his face. It also a subtle way to introduce Rean as a MartyrWithoutACause.
* Sasuke from ''VisualNovel/IkemenSengoku'' briefly met the female main character just before they got flung back to Japan's Sengoku era by a wormhole and got separated for four years. Despite that long period of time after their first meeting and them being total strangers who barely said three sentences to one another during that meeting, he never forgot about her and vowed to find her and do anything needed to ensure that she'd stay safe and be able to return to their original time. The MC even notes on his route that while he's a NiceGuy, that alone doesn't explain his complete devotion to protecting someone he had only about ten seconds of interaction with four years ago. However, it turns out there's a better reason for his devotion to her than just ChronicHeroSyndrome or LoveAtFirstSight -- [[spoiler:during their first meeting, she pushed him out of the way of a lightning bolt strike and while it happened so quickly that she forgot about it, he never forgot that he would have been dead if not for her quick and brave action and he vowed to repay her for it.]]
* Deconstructed in one of ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'''s Radio [=CDs=]; [[ChurchMilitant Ky Kiske]] charges into a group of Gears in an attempt to save a woman. [[spoiler:He dies horribly and it leads to a BadFuture. ''And'' [[ManipulativeBitch the woman]] was counting on it]].

* In ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'', there is a PlayingWithATrope example. Cale is revived by a priestess (Benny) after being incinerated by Richard the warlock and almost immediately devotes his life to her. While this sounds like IOweYouMyLife, he was pretty inclined to risk his life for her ''before'' being revived (she was being ganged up upon by some thugs and Richard and Cale's ashes watched as she fought them off). This ultimately leads to the forming of the group [[spoiler:and their ultimate coupling]]. It had less to do with protecting the girl and more to do with his view of ultimate pure good and wanting to help everyone and everything and saving those who save him.
* ''Webcomic/DeptHeavenApocrypha'' features the gender-reversed version, albeit with a bit of time lag. Even though she's only known about his existence for a few weeks (if that), Meria is still ready to protect [[spoiler:Fia's demon]] from the rest of the school if need be. Her excuse is that he can't entertain her anymore if he's dead, but [[spoiler:the demon]] just acknowledges her for the KnightInSourArmor she is. (Cue [[{{Tsundere}} massive flailing and embarrassment]] on her part.)
* ''Webcomic/BrokenSaints'': When the male heroes find Shandala [[spoiler:sealed away in the back of Mars' strip club, naked and helpless]], the first feeling each of them has is one of profound shock and despair. None of them have met her before, but they recognize her from their visions, and they recognize [[IncorruptiblePurePureness her aura]] immediately. It doesn't matter that they have no idea who she is or where she's from, they take her home with them and (by way of [[spoiler:a mushroom-induced, BackStory-revealing DreamSequence), they awaken her from her HeroicBSOD]].
* When Lance from ''Webcomic/GoldCoinComics'' first meets Silvia, [[http://www.goldcoincomics.com/?id=44 they encounter a wolf-boss]]. He is willing to stand in front of Silvia to protect her, even though they met a few minutes earlier.
* In ''Webcomic/WakeTheSleepers'', she is trying to distract the assassin from him, and [[http://wakethesleepers.com/comics/66 Locke has to go and intervene.]]

* Gil from ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' is an interesting case. First time we met him, he jumped on Agatha to save her from an explosion. Later, he is revealed to have rescued Zola many times in Paris. But Gil has absolutely no romantic interest in Zola. His initial rescue of Agatha likely was because he was a nice guy who felt sorry for her (she was clearly upset by everything that just happened). His later decision to bring her along to the airship was because he suspected that she was a Spark, and from there, his desire to keep her around was because he liked having someone his intellectual equal to work with.
* Parodied in ''Webcomic/RPGWorld''. Hero meets the thief Cherry ''in the middle of a robbery'' and beats up Cherry's helpless, cowering victim after mistaking him for the robber, apparently solely on the grounds that a pretty girl couldn't possibly be a bad guy. Even Cherry can't believe it.

* In a strange variation on this trope, Isaac from ''Webcomic/CrystalHeroes'' decides to join the expedition into a dangerous dungeon immediately after Garrett volunteers to join, on the grounds that he's "so hot." So, rather than risking his life for the sake of aiding someone he just met and finds attractive, he risks his life just to spend time with one of the other party members who he just met and finds attractive.
* Commander Badass [[http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/imagine-him-doing-the-action-man-and-jonesey-voices explains this]] (combined with his nesting drive) as the reason he can't stay single in ''WebComic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings''.
* There is a same-gender, Platonic example in ''Webcomic/AnecdoteOfError''. [[spoiler:Luntsha]] decides to rescue [[spoiler:Zeya]] from prison, after meeting her just once [[spoiler:when Zeya tried to kill her and her friends]], because she doesn’t want to be responsible for [[spoiler:Zeya getting executed]]. She does this despite knowing that, if caught, at ''best'' she’ll be expelled and at ''worst'' she’ll be killed.

* In the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', Stalwart declares his undying love for Fey only seconds after seeing her. To make it extra-uncomfortable, he does it in the middle of the [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]] quad, while Fey's father is standing right there. Fey throws him across the quad, but he doesn't give up. His DoggedNiceGuy behavior eventually saves Fey's life, and he gets several dates with her.

** ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'' is a rather extreme example. When Abe first meets DamselInDistress Nuala, she presumes him to be an Enemy. He uses his TouchTelepathy to prove he isn't, but during this split-second mind contact, they both fall completely in love. After this moment, they have barely any interaction before the BigBad kidnaps Nuala and [[HostageForMacGuffin demands the last key to control the titular Golden Army for her return]]. And altough Abe knows the BigBad plans to KillAllHumans with this army, and that he is Nuala's [[TwinsAreSpecial twin brother]] and [[{{Synchronization}} will magically suffer any injury he might inflict on her]], Abe goes behind his friend's back and gives up the MacGuffin, with no plan to stop the BigBad afterwards.

** ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'' is a rather extreme example. When Abe first meets DamselInDistress Nuala, she presumes him to be an Enemy. He uses his TouchTelepathy to prove he isn't, but during this split-second mind contact, they both fall completely in love. After this moment, they have barely any interaction before the BigBad kidnaps Nuala and [[HostageForMacGuffin demands the last key to control the titular Golden Army for her return]]. And altough Abe knows the BigBad plans to KillAllHumans with this army, and that he is Nuala's [[TwinsAreSpecial twin brother]] and [[{{Synchronization}} will magically suffer any injury he might inflict on her]], Abe goes behind his friend's back and does he is told. With no plan to stop the BigBad afterwards.

* Discussed in the movie ''Film/GIJane''. Master Chief John James, who was tasked with training Lt. Jordan O'Neill to be the first female Navy [=SEAL=], tells her that he has his doubts that the expiriment will result in success, stating that the Israeli army tried a similar program years ago, and scrapped it when they tried it in combat situations. The Master Chief states the program was abandoned because the male soldiers' couldn't stand the sight of dead women on the battlefield and would actively endanger missions to protect them. [[spoiler:Ironically, he ends up falling victim to it himself during the mission in Libya, when he attempts a HeroicSacrifice to save O'Neill's life.]]

* In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E18RoguePlanet Rogue Planet]]", a race of shapeshifters is being hunted like animals. A member of this race transforms into a beautiful woman, meets with Captain Archer, and begs for help. Captain Archer immediately agrees to drop everything he was doing to help her and her people, acting like a man in love. T'Pol lampshades Archer's behavior by asking if he would be so eager to help if the shapeshifter came to him in the form of a man. When the day is saved, the "woman" thanks Archer and turns back to her true form, which looks like a giant slug. Archer is shocked, but they part on friendly terms.