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Elliot: Don't go too quickly, or like I said, you'll just end up with another beautiful girl! JD: "Dating my laptop." Elliot: Dating your laptop. Thank you.
Like the Temporary Love Interest, this is a way to give the hero some romance for the episode while still allowing the focus of the show to be on the plot or the arc, but the Girl of the Week does not have to die at the end. The girl will be gone by the next episode, possibly because of a wacky misunderstanding a la the Three Is Company plotline, or a very minor flaw, but sometimes just not showing up again, with no explanation offered. This relationship will generally be rockier or less passionate than that with the Temporary Love Interest, allowing its end to be less dramatic. If someone is noted for getting extremely passionate about every Girl of the Week, sincerely believing each one in turn to be the love of their life but then forgetting all about them a week later, they're a Serial Romeo. Sometimes, particularly in a Walking the Earth series, there's no relationship, but the girl is shown having an obvious interest in the hero (which may be mutual) before he inevitably moves on.
If she survives longer than her initial appearance, Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome is likely.
Related to Disposable Love Interest.
If you were looking for Monster of the Week, Well This Is Not That Trope.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Galaxy Angel parodies this; in each of Ranpha's episodes, she falls over a new hot guy, but they all look and sound the same.
- Pokémon, subverted (Brock never has even a slim chance of actually getting the girl).
- Well, almost never. There have been some very rare instances of girls actually being interested in Brock, but they always go their separate ways by the end of the episode anyway.
- Also subverted in that half the girls are either Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny, who all look/sound/act the same.
- Girls of the Season of this series range from Misty, May, Dawn, etc. and some are never shown again.
- The anime series King of Bandit Jing offered this as a feature, with a different pretty girl in each of the Adventure Towns the titular hero journeyed to.
- The manga Eat-Man also featured many of these, most of them kinda underaged.
- In Princess Tutu's second season, this trope is combined with Victim of the Week to give Mytho a new conquest in many episodes.
- Amelia in the Trigun movie Badlands Rumble.
- Makoto of Sailor Moon usually fell for each minor male character shortly after their introduction.
- And they all remind her of an ex-senpai, even Haruka.
- Not so much Girl of the Week as Girl of the Movie but the Naruto movies seem to love this trope. Naruto's had at least one older woman giving him a kiss, a Distressed Damsel literally offering to have his babies (which, due to the way she phrased it, Naruto unwittingly accepts), and in the second Shipuuden movie he ends up with the current Girl of the Week clutching him to her chest (it would be Marshmallow Hell if she had bigger... tracts of land) while tearfully claiming that she'd never leave him... Being non-canonical of course, not one of them ever shows up again.
- Some of the more cohesive filler arcs during the gap between the end of Part 1 and beginning of Shippuden also brought this into play. This adds two female daimyos, a handful of kunoichi, and one girl with a bad skin condition to Naruto's roster. Of these, exactly one has appeared as a background character since then and she was rooting for Gaara.
- This theme is basically the premise of Golden Boy.
- The plot of The World God Only Knows, where the main character's job is to make the Girl of the Week fall in love with him, so he may extract the spirit possessing them from their soul. With his gaming skills.
- Increasingly subverted as the story progresses, as he finds himself involved with some of the girls again.
- In City Hunter, Ryo Saeba accepts assignments almost exclusively from beautiful young women, most of whom are never seen again in further episodes. During the rare instances when Ryo accepts a job from a man, it would usually involve protecting a young woman.
- More of a Girl Of The Year than a Girl of the Week: In any of the Lupin III TV specials, at least one of the newly-introduced characters (whether good, evil or neutral) is female, starts building a relationship with one of the main characters and won't be mentioned in another special ever again.
- Cobra from Space Adventure Cobra often gets a new female sidekick/Love Interest in each of the one-shot stories.
- In Dragon Ball, there are quite a few Girls of the Week during the Walking the Earth segments. Even more are added during the filler episodes. Strangely enough, Goku's wife Chi-Chi is originally introduced as a Girl of the Week and when she makes her second appearance in the manga over a hundred chapters later, there's a Lampshade Hanging where no-one can remember her (except Oolong).
Fan Fic
Film
- The James Bond film franchise is famous for its Bond Girls, the disposable companions that Bond acquires in each of his various adventures. Bond Girls have a very high mortality rate, and, with some exceptions, never appear in more than one movie. The only exception is "Trench, Sylvia Trench" from the first two movies, who perhaps was spared for giving Bond his catchphrase (though she never "made it" with Bond, either). Unless of course we count Ms. Moneypenny (and Judi Dench's M, since the actress considers herself a "bond Girl"). Despite the mortality rate, almost every film will feature at least one Bond girl surviving, and given how many girls Bond tends to get- even in a single film- versus the amount who actually die, maybe the ratio isn't so bad after all.
- Vesper Lynd, in the 2006 version of Casino Royale, is the only character to have a direct effect on the plot of a second film (Quantum Of Solace, in which she casts a long shadow but appears onscreen for all of two seconds).
- Bond's murdered wife Teresa di Vicenzo also gets brought up every now and then, but always indirectly (possibly to hide the Continuity Snarl of Pierce Brosnan being called upon to mourn a woman George Lazenby married almost thirty years earlier), though this was the unspoken reason Bond was so pissed at Blofeld in the immediate sequel, Diamonds Are Forever.
- Teresa would have appeared in the film after On Her Majesty's Secret Service and be killed early in the film. Before filming of Lazenby's first film ended he had already decided not to do another, so she was killed at the end of the film.
- Maud Adams, meanwhile, has appeared as two different Bond girls: Andrea Anders in The Man With The Golden Gun, and the title character in Octopussy. The former doesn't make it.
- So far, just about every girl that Daniel Craig's Bond has had sex with has died before the closing credits. I believe the only girl to survive so far is the random woman he is seen with at the beginning of Skyfall.
- Austin Powers. As a Bond spoof, it, too, has its own Bond Girls.
- The Pink Panther had several:
- Original: Mme. Clouseau — she divorced her inspector husband for Sir Charles Litton;
- Shot: Maria Gambrelli
- Inspector Clouseau: Lisa Morrell
- Strikes Again: Olga
- Revenge: Simone
- Subverted in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, where the original love interest returns as a major character.
- It's even revealed that her son is also his son and they get married at the end of the film.
- There's also a line that justifies why it was played straight in the first three films. Indiana tells the love interest that it didn't last with any of the other girls because they all had the same problem: "They weren't you."
- Not to mention the fact that when they meet in the first movie, they've already had a past relationship, making "Kingdom" the third and final(?) time they hook up!"
- The original Batman films. Batman had Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), Batman Returns had Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Batman Forever had Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman).
- Batman & Robin had Julie Madison (Elle Macpherson). And that just proves how pivotal she is to the plot.
- Although, both Vicki and Catwoman are given an explanation as to where they went. Bruce told Selina that Vicki couldn't handle his double life, and as far as Batman knows Catwoman is dead.
- A earlier draft of the script for Batman and Robin had Poison Ivy killing Julie Madison
- The Karate Kid: Daniel had a different Love Interest in each one of the three movies where he appeared.
Literature
- Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd And The Gray Mouser series employed this trope. At least one of the women left her people to join Fafhrd, but where is she in the next book?...
- She's there just long enough to suffer Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome.
- Then, there is a story where they set out, full of vim, certain that they would bump into someone from their old adventures — and owing to the wrath of certain gods, meet up with girl of the week after girl of the week, and everyone of them had made her own life and rejects them both. (Until the very end, where abject humiliation succeeds in winning the two they least wanted to meet.)
- Though The Twain both end up more or less as faithful (more or less) married husbands in the last stories, set on Rime Isle.
- The Gor novels (when Tarl isn't pining for Talena or Vella) tend to have a Slave Girl Of The Book, who Tarl teaches to love her slavery. By the next book she's either in his slave harem and (almost) never mentioned again or sold off to someone who is her "ideal master."
- Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian does not always get a girl. But when he does, she vanishes without a trace before the next story.
- Justified in that there are huge gaps in time between many stories, and that they weren't written in chronological order. Conan had several lengthy relationships, and eventually married. Also before his marriage Conan is specified to run out of money a lot.
- Thomas Lewellyn, of Will Thomas's Barker and Lewellyn Victorian-era mysteries, will fall in love at least once a book, but it never works out. (Then again, it never gets far- twice he's warned off by the young lady's father or guardian and immediately gives up on the matte and twice it turns out she's seeing someone else and lied about it. The one time he manages to entertain serious thoughts of a relationship until the end of the book? Turns out she's the Big Bad. Oops.)
- The Jennifer Morgue discusses, lampshades, and generally plays hell with this trope: the opposition is using a Hero-trap geas, meaning that all efforts to oppose him will be funneled into the Theory of Narrative Causality; since he cast himself as the villain, he can only be successfully resisted by a James Bond archetype, which is played by Bob. He is quickly paired up with a female Black Chamber agent, making her a Bond girl. And then the trope is turned completely upside down: it turns out that Angleton was able to successfully end-run the geas by making Bob's girlfriend, Mo, the true Bond-figure in the geas, meaning that Bob is the actual Bond girl, allowing Mo to save the day in a Bond-worthy Big Damn Heroes moment. The narrative also notes that there's almost always two Bond girls, one "light", one "dark", thus making room for the Black Chamber agent in the geas.
- Bernie Rhodenbarr, Lawrence Block's Gentleman Thief protagonist, sleeps with at least one female love interest per novel, and none of them reappear or are mentioned again after that. The closest person in Bernie's life is Carolyn Kaiser, a lesbian pet-groomer who describes herself as his "minion", and is Platonic Life Partners with him.
- Bertie Wooster runs through love interests quickly and frequently ends up engaged (often against his will), but never actually gets married because Status Quo Is God.
Live Action TV
Radio
- At least the radio show of Have Gun — Will Travel has the main character Paladin returning from his adventures to a new Girl of the Week. Subverted in that he wasn't always successful in the attempt.
- Harry Lime almost always had one of these (generally some girl he was attempting to scam) in The Lives Of Harry Lime.
Video Games
- Dante from the Devil May Cry series had one for almost each game. The first had Trish, the second had Lucia and the third (a prequel) had Lady. The fourth game brings back Trish and Lady at the same time. However, Dante has not shown explicit romantic interest in any of them, and how exactly they feel about him is up in the air as well.
- Solid Snake had a different potential love interest in the earlier Metal Gear games which culminated with Meryl in MGS1 (the previous ones being Diane in MG1 and Holly in MG2). This was subverted in subsequent installments , with Snake having no real love interest in MGS2 (going as far as to dismiss Olga as a potential love interest by claiming that he's "tired of tomboys") and in MGS4 he loses Meryl to Akiba of all people (which upset quite a few Snake/Meryl fans). He still got quite a few ladies after him in the non-canon games, if you count Chris Jenner, Teliko Friedman, and Venus. Out of all these girls, the only ones whose affections are truly reciprocated are Meryl, Chris and (depending on how you interpret their relationship) Teliko - Diane won't admit she admires Snake, Venus flirts with Snake but Snake turns her down, and while Snake agrees to go out with Holly he loses interest in her pretty much immediately afterwards and dumps her.
- Ratchet from the Ratchet & Clank series, seems to be quite the ladies man for a short furry dude. It started mainly in the second game, first with Angela Cross, Sasha Phyronix in the third game (she made a cameo in the fourth), a character named Hydrogirl offered Ratchet to 'come hook her up' if he was ever near her home planet at the end of the fourth game, the most recent games seem to have Talwyn Apogee in this role.
- Clank himself is probably more successful. Hell, the dude literally was a robot James Bond in his big-screen movie role.
- Sonic the Hedgehog has this played straight and averted, depending on the continuity.
- The Uncharted series both fits and subverts this trope. In the first game Elena Fisher is the main love interest for Nathan Drake. The second has Elena absent at first and instead has an even older flame, Chloe Frazer supposedly rekindling her relationship with Drake. Halfway through the game, Drake runs into Elena which starts a love triangle of sorts. At the end after Elena has seemingly died (they even show Drake standing next to a Tibetan grave), the game reveals her to actually be alive and well (the grave was for another supporting character), Chloe and Drake go their respective ways and Drake and Elena officially become a couple a last. Awwwwww
- And they do it whilst bickering into the sunset.
- Lampshaded in Elena's first encounter with Drake and Chloe in Among Thieves. "Elena Fisher, last year's model."
- Ys's heroine changes each game. Some are seen again in the sequels, but none of them ever get the guy.
Web Original
Web Serial Novel
- Sapphire: Ivanka, Michiru, and Élodie.
- Averted in Episode II. Michiru would fit this trope, but Alec refuses to fall for her, still waiting to be with Ivanka again.
- Although, Alec and Michiru eventually try to make love, but are rudely interrupted by Daisuke.
Western Animation
- In Avatar The Last Airbender, Zuko, or better yet Sokka, has multiple love interests. However, Zuko ends up with Mai, and Sokka with Suki.
- The abridged series has Sokka proudly declare "I got hos in different area codes" when this is brought up.
- Interestingly enough, Suki was originally intended to be this, but was brought back and made a permanent love interest due to fandom demand.
- Suki is an example of First Girl Wins while Mai is an example of Victorious Childhood Friend.
- Tammy the squirrel and Foxglove the bat in Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers. There were others too, including Sparky, a rare example of a "Boy of the week", for Gadget. It was a fairly regular trope in the show.
- Irene, for Terry in Batman Beyond. Melanie comes off as this in her initial appearance, but came back a few times.
- On Daria, Quinn could basically have a new boyfriend every week, along with her usual harem, the Three J's. Daria herself had one Boy of the Week in Ted Dewitt-Clinton, though it was more of just an Odd Friendship with rather obvious Ship Tease. Jane had one in Nathan the retrophile.
- On The Simpsons, Bart and Lisa have occasional love interests, or at least someone romantically interested in them. In Lisa's case, for example, there's Nelson Muntz, Colin from The Simpsons Movie, Thelonious from "Trilogy of Error" ("The esoteric appeal is worth the beatings"), and even The Ditz.
- The same is true for Brian, Stewie, Chris, and even Meg of Family Guy, and Fry and Leela of Futurama, although Fry and Leela have been in an on-again/off-again relationship since the post-movie seasons started (the on-again/off-again part was lampshaded at one point).
- The episode "That Sinking Feeling" from Phineas And Ferb features Baljeet and his childhood friend Mishti. The titular brothers attempt to create romance for the two during the episode (even though Isabella mistakenly thinks it's for her), and it looks like it worked at the end (kinda). Too bad she's never seen again.
- Candace got one in "A Hard Day's Knight." Interestingly, he looked almost identical to her usual Love Interest, Jeremy; since that episode takes place while the family is on vacation the writers presumably just realized they needed a replacement.
- Subverted with Vanessa's boyfriend Johnny, who seemed like this at first but was revealed to be officially dating Vanessa a season and a half later. Stacy has also had Chad and Coltrane, though the latter is implied to be her on-and-off boyfriend.
- Jimmy Two-Shoes gives us Schmeloise and Areanna, both to Jimmy. Justified in that Areanna ran off as soon as she escaped her tower while Schmeloise ended up exploding after Heloise reprogrammed her.
- James Bond Jr. is said to have "learned the game from his uncle James".
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