History Main / TheGentlemanOrTheScoundrel

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'', Sara Ryder has a choice between ex-cop Liam Kosta, TheIdealist pining for normality or the more roguish smuggler and crime syndicate boss Reyes who is plotting to seize power in [[WretchedHive Kadara]].

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': Garrus and Jacob are both steady, reliable people (and Garrus is an old friend), while Thane is a dark, mysterious, broody assassin.

* ''Theatre/ByeByeBirdie'' has Kim MacAfee's steady boyfriend [[AllAmericanBoy Hugo]] as the Gentleman, and the rebellious rockstar [[TheCasanova Conrad Birdie]] as the Scoundrel. [[spoiler: Kim chooses to stay with Hugo]].

* BoyNextDoor Matt is the Gentleman to El Gallo's roguish Scoundrel for [[TheIngenue Luisa]] in ''Theatre/TheFantasticks''.

* ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'': Sisi struggles with a choice: life with the kind, noble Emperor Franz Joseph who loves her unconditionally but is too busy with state affairs and being a MamasBoy to defend her, or suicide/death with the roguish, darkly attractive but cruel Death? [[spoiler: She runs into Death's arms and embraces him at the end.]]

* ''Manga/AliceAcademy'': Mikan has Ruka (the Gentleman) and Natsume (the Scoundrel).

[[quoteright:325:[[Film/BridgetJonesDiary https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/600full-bridget-joness-diary-poster_4096.jpg]]]]

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SpearCounterpart to BettyAndVeronica; another similar trope about women is the MadonnaWhoreComplex. Compare NobleMaleRoguishMale, AllGirlsWantBadBoys and SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan. See RichSuitorPoorSuitor.

SpearCounterpart to BettyAndVeronica. Compare NobleMaleRoguishMale, AllGirlsWantBadBoys and SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan. See RichSuitorPoorSuitor.

* ''Literature/BridgetJones'': ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' plays this fairly straight between Mark Darcy (Gentleman) and Daniel Cleaver (Scoundrel). The film version even describes them as [[WrongGuyFirst "too good to be true"]] and [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys "so wrong he might just be right,"]] respectively. [[spoiler:By the end of the books, Mark has won, although when Helen Fielding continued the column, apparently Bridget was still torn between them and even ends up having Daniel's baby. Sigh.]]
* In the Literature/StephaniePlum series, the protagonist of the same name is caught in a love triangle between her childhood friend Joe Morelli and the more mysterious Ranger.

* Nurse Ida Lenze in ''Series/{{Charite}}'' is courted by student Georg Tischendorf, a sweet, gallant young Gentleman who can offer her emotional stability and a secured future, and Doctor Emil Behring, a fickle, difficult Scoundrel with a nasty temper, though he's an ambitious and brilliant scientist who challenges Ida and shares a passion for medicine with her. Ida's friend Hedwig advises her to choose Tischendorf, but Ida has doubts, seeing as Behring is the one who supports her plans to study and become a doctor in her own right instead of just a housewife.

* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', Leonard tries invoking this against his perceived rival in Kaname's affections, Sousuke, presenting himself as princely Gentleman and painting Sousuke as not merely the Scoundrel, but a dangerous, feral animal. He has absolutely no success with this strategy (being the BigBad sure doesn't help), to the point that Sousuke almost comes off as the wholesome BoyNextDoor in comparison.

** In ''Comicbook/UncannyXForce'', Comicbook/{{Psylocke}} had to choose between the gentleman Archangel (an honourable, decent, superhero and HonestCorporateExecutive) and the scoundrel Fantomex (a roguish, mysterious, master thief and mercenary). She started the series having reignited her long-term relationship with Archangel, but was aware that his SuperPoweredEvilSide might become a problem; eventually it took over and she was forced to kill him. She then dated Fantomex for a while, but eventually realised that he was manipulating her, and dumped him. After which he, too, turned evil until she gave him a psychic lobotomy.

** While both relatively dangerous, Angel is the original man who ultimately tries to do good and be a good choice for Buffy, and Spike is the dangerous and deadly killer who was fairly remorseless through most of the series due to being soulless. [[spoiler: Once he gets himself a soul, while decidedly more moral and self-aware, Spike retains his thuggish, rockstar-esque swagger and thus the dynamic becomes more akin to BettyAndVeronica.]]
*** Ironically, when it was Drusilla in the centre of this triangle rather than [[spoiler:Buffy]], this dynamic is swapped. While Spike ''is'' as amoral as any given vampire, he is also ''very'' genuinely [[UndyingLoyalty devoted]] to the object of his affections. Compared to Angelus, who is certified ChaoticEvil and completely without remorse or loyalty, even [[spoiler: pre-soul]] Spike comes across as downright gentlemanly.

** While both relatively dangerous, Angel is the original man who ultimately tries to do good and be a good choice for Buffy, and Spike is the dangerous and deadly killer who was fairly remorseless through most of the series.

* Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'' presents a lifestyle choice with the steady home-building Kocuom, choice of her father (the Gentleman), and the native-killing foreigner John Smith (the Scoundrel). She does not end up with either, as Kocoum dies and John Smith must go back to England, but her choice lies with John.

* From ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', the quiet medic and old acquaintance Mical is the Gentleman, and Atton Rand is the Han Solo-like Scoundrel smuggler.

* In ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Nancy Hicks-Gribble has been carrying on an affair with the Scoundrel, John Redcorn, while married to her CrazySurvivalist husband Dale (the Gentleman).

* ConversationalTroping in ''Discworld/{{Wintersmith}}'', when Tiffany reads a romance novel in which the heroine must choose if she wants to marry William, an honest man with two and a half cows, or Roger, who rides a black stallion and calls her "My proud beauty". Tiffany isn't sure why the character needs to marry ''either'' of them.

* In ''Film/HisGirlFriday'', Hildy is to choose between gentleman [[DisposableFiance Bruce]] and scoundrel Walter. Fits the trope to a t, seeing how she [[FirstGirlWins ends]] [[ComedyOfRemarriage up]] with the man she originally chose, Walter, after divorcing him and starting her relationship with Bruce.

* Played with in ''Literature/TheAliceNetwork''. The main character, Eve, sleeps with both Captain Cameron (the Gentleman), AnOfficerAndAGentleman, and M. Bordelon (the Scoundrel), a [[LesCollaborateurs profiteer]] and ManOfWealthAndTaste. However, it's never a choice between them -- Eve actively despises Bordelon and only sleeps with him because she needs the [[FemmeFataleSpy information]] -- and Eve doesn't end up with either one in the end.

* ''Franchise/StarFox'': [[TheChick Krystal's]] love interests are the [[TheLastDJ justice-driven]] military man Fox, and the womanizing SpacePirate Panther. There was not much off a love triangle in the English translations of ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' as [[AbhorrentAdmirer Krystal is revolted by Panther]] until the DowntimeDowngrade of ''VideoGame/StarFoxCommand'' put the boys on even footing.