Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
alt title(s): Ginger Or Mary Ann 
She wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
— Taylor Swift, You Belong With Me
One of the most common types of Love Triangle, wherein the male hero is caught between his affections for two girls with drastically different personalities. "Betty" is the sweet, everyday Girl Next Door (which usually means 'kinda dull'), whilst "Veronica" is more alluring, exotic and edgy, but has a more 'troublesome' or 'dangerous' personality (which usually means 'kinda slutty'). This translates to their physical appearances; "Betty" will be usually be something of a 'Plain Jane' (or at least as close as Hollywood gets to 'Plain Jane'), whilst "Veronica" will be Ms Fanservice in all her glory. Look out for color-coding; Betty's usually blonde, Veronica dark or red-haired.
The usual dynamic is that "Betty", often the hero's best friend, is herself deeply in love with him (although the hero might see them as Just Friends or being Like Brother And Sister, hence his obliviousness to her feelings), whilst "Veronica" is the sultry Ms. Unattainable who, despite attracting the hero's attention, barely notices his existence. "Betty" will want the hero to be happy and thus suppress her own desire to help the hero in his quest to win over "Veronica". As gender roles and attitudes have evolved, however, it's not uncommon for this dynamic to be inverted, with a 'tomboyish' "Veronica" falling for the hero whilst his attention is taken by the more traditionally feminine and 'wholesome' "Betty". It's also common for males to be placed into the "Betty" and "Veronica" roles, often characterised as the Dogged Nice Guy and the hunky 'Bad Boy' in the process.
Whom the hero will end up with varies according to media, story and when and where the story was made. Traditionally, "Betty" stood a better chance because she conformed to more 'acceptable' moral norms, whilst choosing "Veronica" would only lead the poor sap into ruin. Usually, the hero would spend the story chasing "Veronica" only to realise that "Betty" was his true soulmate, complete with a convenient 'appreciate what you've got' Aesop) — often, ironically, after "Veronica" had finally noticed and become interested in him. However, as attitudes to what is 'appropriate' conduct for a woman have liberalized it's more accepted for "Veronica" to have a chance at winning a happy ending with the guy. Movies have traditionally favoured "Betty", but video games, comics and TV shows (especially long runners) have played this trope for all it's worth.
The exact details of how these characters are presented frequently depends on the genre of the story. Whilst the "Betty" template — everyday and normal — rarely changes that much, this doesn't necessarily equal 'boring': Nerds Are Sexy and the Hot Librarian / Hot Scientist tropes exist for a reason. The "Veronica" template is open to a bit more variety, but she is nevertheless frequently the type of character who falls into the Femme Fatale, Troubled But Cute or Dark Action Girl roles in the story — or, alternatively, what ever allows for more Fan Service.
Modern shows tend to exaggerate and parody this trope, to the point of caricaturizing the character types. Common parodies frequently involve neither being that appealling; "Betty" might emotionally fragile, a Control Freak, or cardboard come to life, whereas "Veronica" may be an escaped criminal or just plain insane. It's also possible for Betty And Veronica to be shaken up by the presence of Cheryl Blossom, a third option for the hero. This may see "Betty" and "Veronica" teaming up to get "Cheryl" out of the picture.
If a series involves the Call To Adventure, the Veronica may be among those giving the Call to the Hero, encouraging him along the way. The Betty, on the other hand, is more likely to appear to be a Muggle, at least at first, and may metaphorically try to offer the "blue pill" to the Hero.
Named for the two female leads of Archie Comics, which made this plot famous ( although it's far older than that).
Examples
Anime
- Macross in all its incarnations is a king of this trope, because it is actually built around it:
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross had Lynn Minmay as the Veronica and Misa Hayase as the Betty. Minmay herself had a similar case, with Hikaru as the Betty and Lynn Kaifunn as the Veronica.
- Macross 7 had a gender-reversed version of the trope, with Gamlin as the Betty and Basara as the Veronica.
- As does Macross Plus, where brash and rebellious Isamu is the Veronica, and serious and caring Guld seems to be a Betty. And then it puts everything on its head in The Reveal, because Guld, a psychotic would-be rapist, is The Atoner who got Redemption Equals Death moment in the end; while Isamu wanted Myung to be happy, and thus removed himself from the picture, becoming something of a Death Seeker.
- Macross Frontier has Ranka as the Betty and Sheryl as the Veronica. It's hinted through Word Of God that they settled for a Tenchi Solution in the end, even though the series itself seemed to by the end be rather less than ambiguous about Alto preferring Sheryl.
- Subverted hard in Double Arts. When "Betty" (Ellie) tentatively inquires about Kiri's feelings for the obvious "Veronica" candidate (Sui), he practically goes into a Heroic BSOD. Turns out they already tried dating. And she dumped him. Three times. So much for that Love Triangle...
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Although the hero Shinji never quite gets into a Love Triangle with an obvious Betty and Veronica, respectively Rei and Asuka.
- In School Days, shy and reclusive Kotonoha is the Betty and sociable Sekai the Veronica. Kotonoha has some surprising sides to her character though.
- In Shakugan No Shana, Kazumi Yoshida is the Betty and Shana the Veronica.
- Full Metal Panic! inverts this: Chidori is the Veronica despite being the Ordinary High School Student, while Tessa, who is a captain in a covert paramilitary organization and has command of a submarine and several hundred troops, Sousuke included, is the Betty personality-wise.
- Zero No Tsukaima does this, with noblewoman Louise facing off against peasant girl Siesta
- In Nana, rock star Takumi would probably count as a male version of Veronica for Hachiko while Nobu serves as a male Betty.
- In Naruto, the main character seems like he will end up choosing between Sakura the Veronica, or Hinata the Betty.
- Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto seems to like this trope now. Besides the aforementioned Naruto/Sakura/Hinata situation, we also potentially have Sasuke deciding between Karin the Veronica and Sakura, who would move over to being the Betty in this scenario. Also Shikamaru choosing between Temari the Veronica and Shiho the Betty, though most fans have assumed that him ending up with Temari was a foregone conclusion long before Shiho was even introduced.
- Now things have gotten real interesting, since now Naruto knows about Hinata's feelings!
- It's gotten more interesting now that Sai has told Sakura how much Naruto loves her (though how Sai of all people would know this is an open question).
- And even more so with the fact that Sakura is also aware of Hinata's feelings for Naruto.
- Love Hina has a pretty basic version of this: Cloudcuckoolander Mutsumi versus Tsundere Naru.
- In Hana Yori Dango, the heroine Makino is the object of both Rui's (the calm, supportive Betty) and Domyoji's (the violent, passionate Veronica) affections. Subverted in that Makino initially has unrequited feelings for Rui, while it is Domyoji who has (initially) one-sided feelings for her, and in that the Veronica triumphs.
- Kimagure Orange Road. Kyosuke is torn between Hikaru (the ever-doting Betty) and Madoka (the wild child Veronica).
- In Psychic Academy, this is played quite obviously through the Betty-esque Orina (AKA Sara), Ai's childhood friend, and the Veronica-esque Mew.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh (particularly the manga), Anzu Mazaki is shown being torn over her feelings between shy and innocent Yugi Mutoh (Betty) and his darker alter ego Yami (Veronica).
- Melfina from Outlaw Star gets an inverted version of this with Gene and Harry. Of course, when the "safe" choice is a foul-mouthed Badass Longcoat, you just know the "bad boy" is going to have some serious issues
- Possibly lampshaded in Cowboy Bebop. To Spike there isn't much choice between Julia, (his long lost Love Interest), and Faye, (Ms Fanservice) as he's madly in love with Julia and things with Faye never go beyond a proto-UST stage. However it's somewhat telling that when Jet asks Broken Bird Faye what Julia was like, Faye responds with "Ordinary. A beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you can't leave alone", which perhaps defines the roles of the two.
- The Kuno/Akane/Pig-Tailed Girl triangle of Ranma One Half is an interesting case. You could say Akane is the Veronica trying to be the Betty and Ranma is the other way around, but we're talking about the warped mind of Tatewaki Kuno here.
- Akane (Betty; despite her Tsundere tendencies, her appeal is very Girl Next Door) and Shampoo (Veronica: the voluptuous Hot Amazon) fit the trope more closely. Although this being an Unwanted Harem situation, it's not so much about Ranma being torn about which one to choose, but torn because he's engaged against his will to both women.
- In D Gray Man, Allen has two main love interests in the story thusfar: Lenalee Lee (Betty) and Road Kamelot (Veronica). Given that Lenalee is one of his closest friends and Road is a sadistic killer, not really much choice there. Allen also doesn't seem all that romantically interested in them, either.
- In the 3rd OVA of Boku No Pico, Pico finds himself in a B&V situation when he catches (the Veronica) CoCo fapping (then has sex with him). Later, he catches his boyfriend(?) Chico HAVING SEXWITH the Veronica. Think, Pico. Think REALLY hard.
- In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Tsuna's main two canon love interests are Kyoko (Betty) and Haru (Veronica). But since he hardly interacts with them compared to all the manly (ahem) bonding he does with all his male guardians, most people don't support him with either of them.
- In Angel Densetsu we have Ikuno as the Veronica and Ryoko as the
sligtly less scary and Ax Crazy Veronica Betty.
- Inverted in School Rumble. Brunette Yakumo is the Betty and Blonde Eri is the Veronica.
- In Skip Beat, it's inverted with Kyoko's two competing love interests, Ren (male Betty) and Shou (male Veronica).
- Kallen and C.C. of Code Geass fill these roles towards Lelouch, although which one takes what role is subject to change over the course of the story.
- In Gokinjo Monogatari one of the main characters, Yuusuke is involved in a Love Triangle with wild and sexy Ms Fanservice Mariko and his 'girl next door'-ish Extreme Doormat classmate, Ayumi. Since this is Yazawa Ai manga, things don't quite look as stereotypical as they can be described...
- Urusei Yatsura has Shinobu as Betty and Lum as Veronica (LSD version).
Comic Books
- Archie Comics' Betty and Veronica, obviously.
- Although they've finally decided to end that
 with a storyline set after college with Archie proposing to Veronica.
- They'd better be prepared for a lot of annoyed fans (who are, as I hear it, already swarming out of the woodwork).
- Who wants to bet on how long that will last? This troper gives it a year before the retcon, tops.
- Despite the hype, the story is set up as a "Possible Future". The framing device has Archie walking along "Memory Lane", and deciding to go up the street (into the future) instead of down (into the past). When he reaches a fork in the road, he decides to take one branch, musing that he may come back and explore the other later. We then segue into several years "down the road", where the gang has just graduated from college, neatly setting the story well out of what passes for "Continuity" in this series. Next, he looks at a future with Betty.
- John Romita, one of the artists on the Spider-Man comic book, deliberately made Gwen and Mary Jane into an Homage to the Archie Comics Betty and Veronica respectively. Gwen seemed to have won... until she died. Later, the comic briefly had Mary Jane as the Betty and the Black Cat as the Veronica. Then
Spidey hitched up with MJ and spent the next twenty years of real time in marital bliss with an understanding supermodel nothing happened.
- Spider-Man writers seem to be fond of this trope. Originally it was a choice betwen Liz Allen (Veronica) and Betty Brant (appropriately, the Betty). Then it was M.J and Gwen. Then M.J swapped roles and became the Betty, while Black Cat was the Veronica and now we have Lily (Betty) and Carlie (Veronica).
- The Gwen = Betty and MJ = Veronica thing becomes especially obvious in the newest cartoon.
- Lili and Carlie example works only if we switch roles, makind Lili Veronica, and Carlie Betty, and put Harry in Peter's place. Hoever, there's also example with Lily choosing between Harry (Betty) and Norman (Veronica), even though she choses older and crazier Osborn.
- Ben Reily had the blonde spoiled and sometimes selfish fashion student and the twisted down to earth gothic girl. She was also the daughter of uncle Ben's murderer. Which of the two is Betty and which is Veronica depends on your point of view.
- The Ultimate Universe swaps them, making Mary Jane the Betty and Gwen the Veronica. Then Peter chooses Mary Jane and his relation with Gwen is like brother and sister...until a recent issue where, post time skip, it's shown that he is dating Gwen (this troper can't figure which role would Kitty Pryde fit).
- Ultimate Kitty Pryde is the second Veronica of the post-Gwen Stacy I era (Black Cat was the first). The current Gwen (II) is a clone and rather Betty-esque.
- X-Men had a long-running Love Triangle with Jean Grey, Cyclops (Betty) and Wolverine (Veronica)...which was turned on its head during Grant Morrison's early 2000s run, which introduced a Betty And Veronica love triangle with Cyclops as the center figure, Jean as the Betty, and Emma Frost as the Veronica. Then Jean dies, with the writers claiming she won't be back, but absolutely no readers believe that since coming Back From The Dead is literally part of Jean's power set.
- In the earlier days, the Jean Grey love triangle had Angel in place of Wolverine, as Wolverine hadn't been introduced yet.
- Flash Gordon does this several times: Flash must choose between Dale (the Betty) and Princess Aura (the Veronica); Princess Aura must choose between Flash (the Betty) and Prince Barrin (the Veronica). The 2007 series confuses things by throwing Baylin (the Veronica) into the mix. And gets canceled before a resolution can happen.
- In Silver Age Superman, Lois Lane was somewhat Veronica-ish, compared to Clark's childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. In early modern continuity, Lois was the Betty and the Planet gossip columnist Cat Grant was the Veronica.
- Superman's clone Superboy had to choose between journalist Tana Moon (the Betty) and his agent's daughter Roxy Leech (the Veronica). Then his cellular matrix started to decay, and he was recreated with Roxy's genes, making them Like Brother And Sister. Then he fell in with Knockout (another Veronica) before realising she was evil. Then Tana went on sabbatical, and came back just to get killed.
- Comic strip Luann deals with this frequently, with main character Luann (the reasonably nice Betty) competing with vain cheerleader Tiffany (Veronica) for Aaron Hill (Archie).
- The comic adaptation of Captain N The Game Master had Princess Lana as the Betty, while the Veronica was none other than Samus Aran.
- Sleeper has a version of this with the main character Holden Carver, his former government coworker Veronica (Betty), and supervillain Gretchen/Miss Misery (Veronica). The end result is a truly spectacular and accidental Murder The Hypotenuse, with Veronica shooting Gretchen, thinking she was about to kill Holden, and Holden reflexively shooting Veronica dead. He then had an experimental surgery to cure his condition that left him in a vegetative state, with his superior creating a little mental world for him where he lives on a beach with both Veronica and Gretchen, making this a rare canononical quasi-OT 3 solution.
- Lanfeust is a textbook example with the hero's fiancee Ci'an (the Betty) and her troublesome yet alluring twin sister Cixi (the Veronica). He ends up with Cixi after she becomes totally awesome. Well, even more totally awesome.
Film
- The Cincinnati Kid has a textbook Betty and Veronica love triangle, so much so that the 2nd paragraph of this page sounds like its describing this movie. Steve Mc Queen is the hero, a poker player dating Tuesday Weld (Betty) who is pretty, sweet, and kind of dull, but he's drawn to the wild and sexy Ann-Margret (Veronica), who is married to a friend of his but constantly flirts with him. True to form Weld is a blonde and Margret is a red head.
- A "color-coded" triangle exists in film noirs The Postman Always Rings Twice, Tension, and Out Of The Past (where the evil Veronica, Jane Greer, dresses all in white, as Lana Turner had in "Postman"). In the black and white film Dark Passage, both the Veronica and Betty characters (Agnes Moorhead and Lauren Bacall respectively) are brunettes, but Moorhead's character loves and is coded by the color orange.
- John Hughes has used this binary triangle with some success. In Pretty In Pink, the traditional "Betty/Veronica" triangle exists between two boys and a girl ("Blaine", "Ducky", red-headed "Andi")... Yet the unpleasant "Reggie" archetype is played by the blonde, wealthy James Spader, who seeks to sabotage his friend "Blaine", an "Archie" type nice boy. The character of "Duckie" is comic relief, like "Jughead," but unique in that he's also a love interest. Hughes turned the cliche over with Some Kind of Wonderful - a red-haired "Archie" (Eric Stoltz) loves a popular girl (Lea Thompson) with brown hair, but can't see that his blonde best friend (Mary Stuart Masterson) loves him.
- Of course Pretty in Pink was originally shot to have her end up with the Betty (Ducky) as well, but thanks to Executive Meddling...
- Partially subverted in The Mask, where the Betty, a news reporter, sells Stanley out to the Big Bad, while the Veronica, the Big Bad's Moll, is the one who stays true and ends up with him. There may be messages in the career woman (who sold him down the river for the betterment of said career) vs. the arm candy (who stayed loyal to him even in the face of death), but it's a pre-Truman Show Jim Carrey movie, so who cares.
- The two fiancées in Corpse Bride fit this trope—shy, proper, living Victoria is the Betty and the lively-but-dead Emily is the Veronica.
- Except that Victor specifically wants to marry Victoria; Emily was in the picture thanks to a rather weird Accidental Engagement.
- A lot of eighties teen movies use the Betty-as-Hero's-crushing-best-friend and the Veronica as Unattainable-Queen-Of-School dynamic.
- Featured but skewed in Strange Days, where the Betty is an ass-kicking tough-as-nails limo driver who is devoted to the (slightly skeevy) main character, and the Veronica is a flaky, self-centred punk rock singer who broke the main character's heart and who he's been obsessed with ever since. The Betty wins out, partly because the Veronica slept with the main characters best friend and conspired with him to frame the main character for two murders.
- While it's not a love-triangle set-up, it's worth noting that in Heathers, Winona Ryder's exotic and popular character is named Veronica, while her quieter, slightly dowdy childhood best friend she has dumped to join the popular crowd is named Betty, in obvious reference to Archie comics.
- Terrence Malick's The New World applies this trope to the story of Pocahontas, who has to choose between John Smith (Veronica) and John Rolfe (Betty).
- Gender Flipped in Emma (therefore Clueless) the lead character is chasing Frank Churchill (the gay one in Clueless) before figuring out that George Knightley (Her ex-stepbrother in Clueless) is her Betty.
- Also gender-flipped in Pirates Of The Caribbean with Jack as the Veronica and Will as the Betty.
- In Death Becomes Her, Helen, a shy, timid Betty in the beginning of the movie, is desperately afraid her fiance Ernest will fall for Madeline, her childhood friend, who is a flashy actress and definite Veronica. Depending on how you define the roles, though, they become less distinct after the first fifteen minutes of the movie.
- Mulholland Drive: Betty is, well, "Betty", and Rita is "Veronica". Initially subverted in that, instead of being two sides of a love triangle, they initially develop a lesbian relationship. It gets more complicated later on.
- In Shark Tale, with Angie as the Betty and Lola as the Veronica.
- In Caveman, Atouk lusts after the sexy but shallow Lana. When she becomes interested in him, he rejects her for his friend Tala.
- The plot of Two Lovers, although the brunette is the stable one while the blonde is wild. Another exception, the brunette and blonde appear to be of equal attractiveness.
- We got this far without mentioning Star Wars how? Good-hearted, loyal, and friendly farmboy/Jedi Luke is the Betty. Rougish, rough, and experienced Han is the Veronica. Of course, Leia didn't really get to choose when she found out she and Luke were siblings.
- Though Leia had already pretty clearly made her choice before she learned about that.
- Inverted in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where the protagonist chases after the wholesome, apple-pie blonde all-american girl and ends up with the wild, exotic boob flashing brunette from Hawaii.
Literature
- Harry Potter ships with this approach:
- Hermione choosing between the famous, popular, mysterious and intense Viktor Krum (Veronica) and her good friend Ron (Betty)?
- This trope is played with canonically with the Lily/Snape/James triangle. Snape's Pensieved memories show that Snape (who was in love with Lily all along) was originally Lily's best friend, while she wanted nothing to do with arrogant bully James. Of course, this changes and Lily eventually marries James, but interestingly it seems that this only happens once Snape switches to the Veronica (by insulting Lily and calling her "mudblood") and James to the Betty (by acting less arrogant and more mature once he left school). It's like a Betty and Veronica love triangle where Archie has no interest in the Veronica... whoever it may be at a given time.
- In Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, the titular character initially marries the charmingly ditzy Dora Spenlow (Veronica), and only later discovers and returns the love of the gentle, supportive Agnes Wickfield (Betty).
- Piers Anthony's Isle of View (say it out loud) in the Xanth series resolves the Betty and Veronica love triangle between Prince Dolph and his two fiancees: Electra (sweet, willing, but unexciting) and Nada Naga (exotic, beautiful, but uninterested). By the time it's resolved a few books later, all three characters have been sufficiently Flanderized that there's no reason to care anymore.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov has oldest brother Dmitri caught in a Love Triangle between the aristocratic Betty, Katerina Ivanovna, and the less-than-reputable Veronica, Grushenka.
- In R. Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse the blonde, brainless, surprisingly-innocent Serwe is Betty and the dark-haired, intelligent prostitute Esmenet is Veronica.
- Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and all of its kajillion adaptations do this. The rebellious student Marius (Archie), the cultured and mysterious orphan Cosette (Betty), and the spunky, determined, and quite possibly not-right-in-the-head street urchin Eponine (Veronica), the winner being Cosette by Values Dissonance. Eponine was intended as a living critique of 19th century France's rigid class system: she never could get in a relationship with the (broke, but still) aristocratic Marius, because they just weren't considered equals.
- The Man Who Laughs, where Gwynplaine is torn between the extremely sweet Dea and the rather perverted Duchess Josiane.
- Stardust: Tristran has to make a Red Pill Blue Pill choice between the magical shooting star Yvaine (Betty) and his former crush Victoria (Veronica). Yvaine wins.
- In Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga, gender roles are switched—the protagonist, Bella Swan, has to choose between Edward the Veronica and Jacob the Betty... Edward wins.
- Honorverse gives an interesting example in which not the hero, but a supporting character, Hamish Alexander, gets torn between his beautiful, loving and brilliant, but invalid wife, Emily (the Betty), and lively, athletic and no less beautiful protege and subordinate, titular Honor Harrington. Being an Officer And A Gentleman, Hamish decided to simply suffer nobly in silence, which brought a truly monumental amount of problems for at least three books until he was whacked on the head by no other than his very wife. He then went on implementing the Tenchi Solution, marrying both.
- Bridget Jones's Diary plays this fairly straight between Mark Darcy (Betty) and Daniel (Veronica). 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.
- Kushiel's Legacy has Imriel torn between his dutiful love for gentle brunette wife Dorelei, and his socially inappropriate and fairly kinky attachment to glamorous, feisty blonde heiress Sidonie, a Defrosting Ice Queen. Arguably Phedre, Hyacinthe and Joscelin fall into this as well, if only because of the complicated nature of Phedre's relationship with Joscelin.
- In the Russian version of The Tale "The Shadow", written by E. Shwartz, the scientist Christian Theodore, after defeating his shadow, chooses to marry the faithful Annunciata, rather than the shallow (as it turns out) princess, his previous love interest.
- Very early example: the eponymous hero of Daniel Deronda has to choose between sweet, emotionally fragile Jewish musician Mirah and shallow, socialite fallen on hard times Gwendolen. In a very unpopular move for the times, he chooses Mirah.
- So unpopular that an American novelist actually wrote a "sequel," Gwendolen, in which Deronda reconverts to Christianity and marries Gwendolen!
- Tipping The Velvet: In a rare lesbian example, Nan has to decide between her beautiful, faithless, music hall artiste ex Kitty and her feisty socialist girlfriend Florence. She chooses Flo. Partly ruined by the TV adaptation, which insists on turning the savvy Flo into an innocent wet week. It might be this change in focus which leads many fans to complain she should have picked Kitty.
- In Lian Hearn's Tales Of The Otori series, protagonist Takeo must choose between Ninja Maid Dark Action Girl Yuki and the relatively normal Kaede.
- In Gottfried Keller's Green Henry (1854/55) the protagonist is torn between the sweet Anna and the passionate Judith.
- In the novel as well as the film Starter for 10, Brian Jackson is faced with a similar dilemma - he is heavily attracted to his sexy University Challenge teammate Alice (the somewhat 'slutty' Veronica) but somewhat attracted to inuitive activist Rebecca (a more forceful Betty who isn't the 'girl-next-door'), whom he doesn't realize he's better off with. Of course, he does realize he's better off with Rebecca and 'breaks-up' with Alice (after she slept with his best friend).
- Little Women: Laurie was initially attracted to Jo (Veronica) but later switched his affections to her sister Amy (Betty). Readers disapproved.
Live Action TV
- Every third episode of Ally Mc Beal had this plot, either for Ally or one of her clients.
- Degrassi The Next Generation has a gay (male) Betty And Veronica played straight — one boyfriend is a timid neat freak, and the other one is clueless and selfish.
- South Of Nowhere is unique in that it features a "Betty" and "Veronica" lesbian romance - a blonde "girl next door" who falls for her troubled, petulant, dark-haired friend - with no "Archie" in the middle, after the first few episodes.
- Of course, Gilligans Island has the perennial question of "Ginger or Mary Ann?", where Ginger is the Veronica and Mary Ann is the Betty.
- When it gets a church sermon, you know it's well known.
- The Original 90210 had Dylan (blend of Johnny Depp and James Dean) choose between Brenda(Betty) and Kelly(Veronica).He dated both for some time,until he finally choosed Kelly. Some seasons later Kelly had to choose between Dylan and Brandon(Mr.Nice Guy).
- Willow from Buffy The Vampire Slayer was the Betty to Xander's Archie. She was a genuine love interest for Xander, but he was far more drawn, in different ways, towards two different Veronicas: Buffy and Cordelia. (This being Joss Whedon, when Xander finally started to return Willow's interest, it trashed his relationship with Cordelia, nearly trashed Willow's relationship with Oz, and did not lead to Xander and Willow living together happily ever after.)
- Early seasons also has the gender-flipped version with Buffy as Archie, Xander as Betty and Angel as Veronica.
- Buffy and Faith had a strong Betty And Veronica vibe going, although the guy playing Archie changed regularly. Xander, Angel, Riley, and Spike all took turns - usually fairly brief - in the Archie seat.
- For those keeping score, Buffy was simultaneously Veronica to Willow's Betty and Betty to Faith's Veronica. There's probably a lesson here.
- Everything in moderation.
- In the relationships between Buffy, Angel, and Cordelia, Cordelia initially was the Veronica, while Angel was interested in the Betty. Later, on the spin-off, she takes the role of best friend, playing Betty to Darla's Veronica. Which ones she and Buffy were to each other at this point is debatable.
- A gender-flipped Angel example: Fred (Archie) had to choose between the tough, street-smart former gang leader Gunn (Veronica) and the bookish, nerdy smart guy Wes (Betty). Eventually, she chose her Veronica, then broke up with him, turned to her Betty, died, became an ancient goddess, nearly killed both of them (one inadvertantly), then Wes died. Long story.
- In Dawson'sCreek, Joey was at first the Betty to Dawson's Archie, while Jen was the Veronica. Later on the gender roles switched, and Dawson became the Betty to Joey's Archie, with Pacey as the Veronica.
- In Veronica Mars, there's several instances of this throughout the entire series. Duncan (Betty)-Veronica-Logan (Veronica). Veronica (Veronica)-Duncan-Meg (Betty). Piz (Betty)-Veronica-Logan (Veronica). Even Wallace gets his brief moment of Love Triangulus. Not to mention, Weevil and a certain dead girl and their involvement in a past-tense love triangle, an example which is especially adequate for this trope.
- Try not to be confused by the fact that the female lead's name is actually Veronica. The writers lampshaded the fact by having Veronica assume a different identity, using the name "Betty" as an alias when she needed to infiltrate a rival school (and claims to have come from a Riverdale High).
- In Dark Shadows, the original supernatural soap opera, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Barnabas Collins is torn between the memory of his fiancee, Josette du Pre, a Betty type, and the Veronica type (to the max) Angelique, the witch who gave him the vampire curse. At the end he gets over his torch for Josette, and avows to Angelique that he loves her. She is then killed, and Barnabas ends up with neither.
- Unusually The OC had Seth, the Cool Loser end up with popular, beautiful, initially uninterested Summer (Veronica) while the seemingly kindred spirit Anna (Betty) was quickly dropped.
- Chuck: For one or two episodes, Chuck has to choose between CIA Action Girl Sarah (Veronica) and sweet deli owner Lou (Betty). Later, there's a Gender Flip example when Sarah has to choose between Chuck (Betty) and her spy ex-boyfriend Bryce (Veronica).
- In My So Called Life, Brian Krakow is the love-struck, blonde boy next door (Betty). The protagonist Angela Chase (Archie) just can't see him because she's too busy lusting after bad boy Jordan Catalano (Veronica). Luckily, Brian and Jordan are Color Coded For Your Convenience.
- Given MSCL's unusual complexity (for a teen show), there was another, even more subtle one with Brian himself, with Sharon as Betty and Rayanne as Veronica. This essentialy went nowhere as Sharon already has a love interest and Rayanne is a little too complicated for Brian to handle.
- Gilmore Girls. Especially in the early seasons, when Rory has to choose between sweet, strait-laced Dean (Betty) and badboy intellectual Jess (Veronica).
- Lost: Jack (Betty), Sawyer (Veronica), and Kate (Archie).
- But in season five it's: Juliet (Betty), Kate (Veronica) and Sawyer (Archie).
- Gossip Girl has used this several times, most effectively with Blair having to choose between Nate (Betty) and Chuck (Veronica).
- A totally gay example, in an episode of Ugly Betty "A League of Their Own", Marc St James meets Cliff who he clicks with but Marc asks a nameless (very hunky) model out instead, before being confronted by Cliff who was trying to ask him out.
- Dexter has sensible, kind (and blonde) Rita as Betty to dark-haired, dangerous, manipulative former addict Lila as Veronica.
- Dobie Gillis had a revolving cast of pretty, money-hungry Veronicas, most notably Thalea Menninger. His constant and loving Betty was the somewhat tomboyish Zelda Gilroy.
- Private Practice has also used this often, most obviously with Violet as the Betty, Charlotte as the Veronica, and Cooper as the Archie.
- Done Aborted Arc style in The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr where the pilot introduces both the scholarly Amanda Wickwire (Betty) and saloon girl Dixie Cousins (Veronica) in what would seem to be an obvious set-up for a series love triangle. However, the chemistry between Brisco and Dixie was so immediate and obvious that the production team dropped Amanda for the rest of the series, even though her inventor father would appear throughout the series.
- The BBC series of Robin Hood had (in its third season) the aristocratic Isabella as the Veronica, and peasant girl Kate as the Betty. The twist? Robin ends up with the Cheryl Blossom; Marian, who was killed at the close of season 2 and who he is reunited with after his own death in the series finale.
- On the same show, in earlier seasons, Marian had the choice between Robin and Guy, who could fit into either trope. Guy was conservative and law-abiding (Betty) but also dangerous and tortured (Veronica), whereas Robin was an outlaw and a thief (Veronica) but also Marian's childhood sweetheart (Betty).
- A final example: Djaq had her choice between amoral, thieving Allan-a-Dale (Veronica) and straightlaced, sensitive Will Scarlett (Betty).
- In all examples, the Betty wins.
- On the West Wing, Josh Lyman's assistant Donna (Betty) falls for him, while he falls for political loose cannon Amy Gardner(Veronica).
- In the early seasons of Smallville, Clark was Archie to Chloe's Betty and Lana's Veronica. This Troper stopped watching after season 2, so someone else must fill in the blanks.
- Come to think of it, in a gender-switched version, Lana is Archie with Clark as Betty and Whitney as Veronica. Then he died.
- Go-onger seems to fit this trope, as it features Sousuke as Archie to the sweet, unspoiled Saki (Betty) and the wealthy, shallow drama queen, Miu (Veronica)
Music
- This dynamic is perfectly captured with the lyric "your debutante just knows what you need, but I know what you want"
- In an odd contrast to this lyric, Veronica was actually a big-city debutante in her initial introduction in the 1940s, in order to contrast with small-town Betty.
- Dolly Parton's famous song Jolene paints the picture of this variety of love triangle. Jolene (with her "beauty beyond compare") is the Veronica, and the singer (who "cannot compete with you, Jolene") is the Betty. The song consists of "Betty" begging Jolene not to steal her man.
- Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" features a love triangle between blonde Girl Next Door Taylor Swift and a dark-haired cheerleader rival.
Theatre
- In Wicked, Fiyero and Glinda initially bond over their self absorption and love of living it large. They start going steady. Elphaba realises she loves Fiyero the day they rescue the lion cub, he starts to realise he has feelings for her ... It sorts itself out for the best eventually.
- In Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen, Micaela and Carmen are, respectively, a Betty and Veronica for Don Jose.
- In Lady In The Dark, Liza Elliott, editor of Allure magazine, is unable to Make Up Her Mind between Kendall Nesbitt, publisher of the magazine, and Hollywood hunk Randy Curtis. She finally decides to Take A Third Option.
- Josephine's second-act monologue H.M.S. Pinafore has her apparently unable to decide between Ralph and Sir Joseph. It's somewhat out of character, given that before and after she prefers the former.
- The Rainmaker has File (a Betty-type) and Starbuck (a Veronica-type) as rival love interests for Lizzie.
Video Games
- Dragon Quest V did this when the player has to choose between three women to marry. The Betty and Veronica in this situation is Nera/Flora and her sister Deborah respectively.
- Played with and in doing so arguably averted in Skies Of Arcadia, where Vyse is between the Mysterious Waif Fina and his best friend Aika, who happens to be a pirate (to be fair, Vyse himself is also a pirate). The aversion comes from the fact that aside from a few Ship Tease moments (which seem to lean towards a Tenchi Solution if anything) the plot is wholly unconcerned with the main characters' love life, unlike the vast majority of RPGs to come out around the same time.
- An interesting example occurs in Grandia II, since Betty and Veronica are the same person. Not to mention that the Betty, Elena, is pretty much a priestess, while the Veronica, Millenia, is a part of the evil god Valmar (his Wings to be exact), that's possessing Elena. The main character seems to be leaning towards Elena, though they don't really hook up. Also, Millenia separates from Elena near the end. Somehow. And keeps waiting for Ryudo, convinced that he will choose her over Elena.
- Occurs in Final Fantasy VII: Cloud is given a choice between the Betty, Aeris, and the Veronica, Tifa, though it can be argued that Aeris, as the spunky up and at 'em last of a dying race, is the 'special' Veronica type, and the shy girl next door Tifa is a Betty type. In reality, both girls are a blend of the two archetypes.
- According to the author, the potential love interests for the player character in Planescape Torment, Annah-of-the-Shadows and Fall-From-Grace, were inspired by Betty and Veronica. Weirdly, they both have a blend of features—Grace, the wealthy, worldly, educated, glamorous one is by far the more personable of the two; the guttersnipe, relatable Annah is more brash and sharp-tongued, but also younger and more inexperienced.
- If one has two or more of the female love interests in the party in Baldurs Gate II, multiple Betty and Veronica scenarios can exist. Sweet, innocent Aerie is definitely the most Betty-ish, with no-nonsense old friend but world-wise warrior Jaheira being somewhere between the two, and darkly exotic rogue drow Viconia being firmly a Veronica. (Alternatively, with all three—and it is possible to start a romance with all three, though obviously not finish it that way—one might be said to have a Betty, Veronica, and Cheryl situation, except there are no three-way fights over you, just two-way.)
- Interesting variation happens in Lufia II, where the situation is set up as normal: Tia, the old friend with a crush on the hero being Betty and Selan, the exotic and (somewhat) mysterious fighter being Veronica. The variation being that not only Maxim ends up with Selan/Veronica, it also does it midway through the game
- Or before it, if you count the fact that the first game kinda gave it away in the prologue chapter (which is the second's final one).
- In Tales Of Symphonia, Lloyd's two most obvious love interests are Colette, his blond, quiet, gentle Victorious Childhood Friend (Betty) and Sheena, the raven-haired, tough, exotic Action Girl (Veronica). The game lets you decide who he ends up with (including neither), thanks to the multiple endings.
- In Tales Of Vesperia, the two main het pairings for main character Yuri are with Estelle (Betty) and Judith (Veronica).
- Otacon's love interests in the first two Metal Gear Solid games fit this trope: in MSG I, he has an unrequited crush on Dark Action Girl Sniper Wolf (Veronica), and in MSG II, it's revealed that his step-sister Emma (Betty) has been in love with him since childhood.
- Also, in MSG III, Naked Snake/Big Boss has Paramedic (Betty) and EVA (Veronica).
- In Jade Empire, the player gets to choose between childhood friend Dawn Star (Betty) and pampered princess Sun Lian/Silk Fox (Veronica). In an interesting twist, there is also a third option where you can have them both. Having said that, I'll be in my bunk.
- Also from Bioware, Mass Effect allows the player to choose from the empathetic and scholarly Liara T'Soni (Betty) and spunky action girl Ashley Williams (Veronica). These roles can justifiably be reversed when you consider that Ashley is a regular human and Liara belongs to an exotic race of psychic aliens who reproduce by banging very nearly everything that moves. The two will eventually confront one another, and you, if you don't turn one of them down.
- There's a bit of this in Disgaea, with Flonne being the Betty and Etna as the Veronica. That being said, you can argue that they're something of an interesting inversion: the game takes place in the Netherworld, which means Etna's sneaky, deliberately amoral demeanor makes her the "normal" choice, while Flonne is the new and different anomaly.
- In the original Disgaea, there was no choice - Laharl and Etna never showed that kind of interest in one another, regardless of any input from the player (and their history made it unlikely that they ever would). However, many fans thought they were a cute couple, so the anime and D2 have Etna shoehorned into the role of Veronica anyway.
- In the original Disgaea, it was sort of implied that Etna started feeling that Laharl was quite a bit like his father, and had conflicted, confused feelings toward him. And since she was in love with his father...
- It was more that she looked up to him and saw him as a surrogate father, since she never had a real family. Her conflicted feelings were more likely due to recovering her memory (including the King's dying wish for her to protect Laharl, who she'd just tried to kill), rather than falling in love.
- In Breath Of Fire 2, there's Ryu's two love interests, Nina (Betty) and Katt (Veronica). Interestingly enough, Ryu actually has more opportunities to have romantic moments with Katt than Nina (even though both like him).
- Given the trend of the Breath Of Fire series as a whole, though, it's almost certain that he ends up with Nina, just like every other Ryu ends up with a Nina.
- It looks like this is going to come up in the sequel to Uncharted Drakes Fortune: brand new Action Girl sidekick Chloe Frazier is Veronica, and Intrepid Reporter Elena Fisher returns to become the Betty.
- In Knights Of The Old Republic II, Brianna (Betty) and Visas Marr (Veronica) fight over the male PC.
Webcomics
- In Fans!, Rikk is the subject of a love triangle between Rumy, the quiet, shy but centered and focused Betty, and Alisin, the hedonistic, outgoing but self-loathing and unpredictable Veronica, both of whom are equally devoted to and passionately in love with him. Over most of the series, Alisin had the upper hand, which led Rumy to channel her feelings into ensuring that Rikk was happy with Alisin instead. Somewhat uniquely, everyone in the love triangle become so close that they eventually decide to form a three-way romantic relationship.
- Pibgorn: Pibgorn (Betty) and Drusilla (Veronica) both love Geoffrey, but when he chooses Pib, Drusilla goes along with it. Unusual in that Dru is a succubus.
- Rip And Teri: The 'Betty' is Teri, a meek and somewhat nerdy English teacher. The 'Veronica' is Tatyana, a glamourous and gorgeous ex-super spy and TV station CEO. However, whilst Tatyana thinks that the hero still has a thing for her, he's actually madly in love with Teri. It kind of helps that, in their brief romance, Tatyana manipulated and betrayed him, however.
- Cindy (Betty) and Dusk (Veronica) in Faux Pas. They're both vixens, but Dusk's fur is darker.
- College Roomies From Hell: While Dave seems to have chosen Veronica (Rich girl with issues, Blue) over Betty (Survivalist Psycho Chick, Margaret), Dave remains close to (and admittedly emotionally attached to) Margaret.
- Oddly enough, Margaret, the so called Betty, was the one that barely knew Dave existed at the start of the comic, whereas Blue, the Veronica, was in love with him off the bat.
- Arthur King Of Time And Space: In the "space arc", Arthur has to choose between the outspoken but basically nice Action Girl Guenevere (Betty) and the ambitious and amoral enchantress Morgan La Fay (Veronica). The First Girl Wins, although only after Second Girl is disqualified.
- Megatokyo: Piro (Archie)'s current girlfriend, Kimiko, is an emotionally insecure struggling actress (Betty), whereas Miho, his ex, is a very dark and enigmatic Veronica.
- Inversely, Erika's former fiance was a close friend from high school (Betty), while her current beau, an insane American hacker genius / zombie slayer, is most certainly the male equivalent of the Veronica.
- In Scary Go Round, sensible Erin Winters (Betty) and Perky Goth Dark Esther (Veronica) competed for The Boy's affection. Esther won.
- A more recent love triangle involves Esther's friend Sarah, with Ryan Beckwith as the independent, older Veronica. Carrot would be a safer Betty here if his chances of success weren't those of the Isle of Wight trying to invade China.
- Jean Poule and Princess Voluptua in The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob.
- Girl Genius has Klaus as Veronica, Bill as Betty and Lucrezia Mongfish as Archie. Interestingly, the friendship between Klaus and Bill is stronger than either, and Klaus is determined to protect the naive Bill from the untrustworthy Lucrezia. He fails, bigtime.
- Then there's the current generation of Sparks, with Klaus's son as Betty, the son of Lucrezia's most fervent supporter (besides the spider-riding people who worship her as a goddess...) as Veronica, and Bill and Lucrezia's little girl as Archie.
- Played with/deconstructed/ripped apart/critically examined (it's the way of their tribe) in this strip of XKCD.
- In General Protection Fault, there is initially a love triangle between Ki the Betty and Trudy the Veronica over Nick, who is torn between his feelings for the two of them and his lack of experience in dating and romance. He eventually goes with Ki.
- In "Questionable Content" Dora being mentally healthy and straightforward would be the Betty to Marten's Archie. Distant, emotionally impaired and mysterious Faye would be the Veronica. Dora wins.
- Additionally, Angus has emerged as the Betty and Sven as the Veronica to Faye.
Western Animation
- Clone High pushes this one to its logical extremes: Abraham Lincoln is madly in love with demanding, selfish, spoiled, slutty, gorgeous, popular Cleopatra, while remaining completely clueless to the devotion of his best friend, spunky, intelligent, independent, creative, semi-goth Joan of Arc. Of course, in the end he realises that he really loves Joan, etc, etc.
- To a much lesser extent, Joan could be considered to be the Archie to Abe's Betty and JFK's Veronica.
- Applies to Danny Phantom, where Danny is infatuated with Paulina, the shallow, beautiful "Veronica" of the school, ignoring the pretty, intellegient "Betty" at his side, Samantha Manson. The love triangle isn't clear at the beginning of the show, when Samantha and Danny are Just Friends, but eventually their feelings do grow for each other. Later on, Danny's crush on Paulina fades, and one of his arch-enemies becomes the "Veronica" instead. A bit of a subversion, in that the biggest strike against Valerie is that she's trying to kill Danny. Definitely a case of Dating Catwoman.
- Parodied not subtly at all in South Park. In the two parter "Do the Handicapped Go To Hell?"/"Probably", Satan has to choose between his two gay lovers, and the Veronica happens to be Saddam Hussein. And the two rivals keep killing each other, but they're in Hell already, so they just keep coming back... Eventually, Satan just says "forget it" and dumps them both, deciding to forgo having relationships at all for a while.
- The Movie has a gender flip version with Wendy as the Archie, Stan as the Betty and Gregory as the Veronica.
- Disney's Pocahontas also genderswaps this with Kocoum as the Betty and John Smith as the Veronica, although the contest clearly ends when Kocoum dies.
- In The Fairly Oddparents, Tootie is the Betty and Trixie is the Veronica to Timmy Turner's Archie.
- Ironically, the character who is actually named Veronica (and who has a crush in Timmy) was sidelined pretty quickly.
- Ace Lightning has Heather and Sam - who both date Mark at one point or another and have seemingly conflicting persnalities - yet are best friends.
- The Spectacular Spider Man has Gwen as the Betty, similar to some of her comic book presentations, but it is Liz Allen who is given the status of the Veronica. Mary Jane, oddly, is not really a serious romantic interest for Peter for the first and second season and spends most of her time on the sidelines.
- Despite of being rich and a bit uppity, Lola from Robotboy still plays the part of Betty to Bambi's Veronica (Tommy is Archie, in case you were wondering).
Truth In Television
- Real life Betty/Veronica tensions = brunette, cute Judy Garland vs. fast, "sweater girl" Lana Turner, both in love with bandleader Artie Shaw. More famously, Debbie Reynolds (Betty) vs. Elizabeth Taylor (Veronica). After Taylor was widowed suddenly, Reynold's husband Eddie Fisher (father to Carrie) left his family to be with Liz. The nation sided against Eddie and Liz, until Liz came down with a near fatal case of pneumonia.
- Blonde Jennifer Aniston as the Betty, brunette Angelina Jolie as the Veronica, Brad Pitt as... Archie? The tabloids had many, many field days with this.
- Didn't want to say it, but... pretty much any woman/man in David Bowie's life during his first marriage can be cast as the Veronica, which makes the hardly tame Angie (y'know, his wife) the Betty. Yeah. He got around.
- WARNING! Do not put examples from your personal life here! I feel your pain, it's happened to me. But no-one cares! Besides, there's Troper Tales for that.
|
|
