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Some people are relaxed in their appetites, and are happy to have sex with anyone that's happy to have sex with them; blond, brunette, redhead... Some people will chase Anything That Moves. This character, knowingly or not, is a bit more refined.
Has A Type can be a physical archetype or an emotional one. Some characters prefer a certain look, while others prefer the relationship any physical body can bring. The important thing is that, from one relationship to the next, the character is consistent in his or her desires.
When it's pointed out that this type is exactly like one of the character's parents, expect a great deal of Squick to ensue.
This trope is more or less Truth in Television, as many people do have a preference. Taken to an extreme, it can even be classified as a fetish (peruse the extremely specific classifications of pornography for all the proof you can handle on that score).
As a dramatic trope, this can occasionally take the form of First Girl Wins, when the character keeps finding unacceptable substitutes for The One That Got Away. Sometimes the character has a type that just doesn't work, and the Last Girl Wins breaks the pattern and lets him be happy. Sometimes it's comedy. Sometimes it's that the writer is the one with a type and it's Author Appeal.
Despite the use of pronouns in the above, this trope can go both ways, as when a Girl Wants Bad Boys.
If a protagonist has a red-headed girlfriend, that's Heroes Want Redheads. If a girl dates a punk from a broken home, then All Girls Want Bad Boys. If the protagonist only dates redheads or if she only goes after the boys that need fixing, then they Have Types. If the Type in question is already a trope, go ahead and put it under the relevant subtrope.
List a character here if he's stated to have a type, or if the majority of the character's relationships fit a certain profile (please be more specific than "human"). If it's just "You're Not My Type", then don't put it here; unless it goes on to say what the type is, then that's just a rejection trope.
Compare: Where Da White Women At, Matzo Fever, Heroes Want Redheads, where the lover matches a type, but isn't necessarily his only type.
Contrast: Anything That Moves, If It's You, It's Okay, Single-Target Sexuality, "You're Not My Type"
Super Trope to: Chubby Chaser, Likes Older Women, Amazon Chaser
Examples:
Anime & Manga
- Saint Seiya: At least in the anime, every girl/woman Cygnus Hyoga takes an interest in is blonde and blue-eyed, like his late mother to whom he is very attached.
- Queen Iono from Iono the Fanatics has a well-known preference for women with long, flowing black hair, just like her late mother.
Comics
Film
- In Shallow Hal, Hal describes his ideal woman to Tony Robbins.
Hal: The problem is I'm kinda picky.
Tony: What do you mean, picky?
Hal: Well, for instance, I like 'em real young. Like, did you ever see Paulina [Porizkova] in her first Sports Illustrated layout?
Tony: You're looking for a young Paulina type?
Hal: That face, but with better headlights. You know how hers have kind of dimmed lately? Heidi Klum's beams would do. And her teeth. Or that Britney Spears girl. She's got great knockers. But she's a tad muscular. Actually, you know what? Her ass would do, too, if she had a better grille. Like Michelle Pfeiffer back when she did Grease. But she'd have to be a little smilier than Michelle. Like Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, before she got Stamosed. But not as skinny. Someone meatier, like Heidi, but without the accent. You know those accents: yah-yah-yah-yah. They really get old fast.
You know what I'm saying. Someone like that.
Tony: Don't you think you're being a little bit shallow in the way you look at women?
Hal: Well, no. l mean, you know, I'd like her to be into culture and shit, too.
- Tremors: Val explains his preference in women and Earl later criticizes him for it. Val even has a number of pictures taped to his roof of his truck. Subverted in that the woman he ends up with is a petite brunette.
Val: Long, blond hair, big green eyes, world-class breasts, ass that won't quit and legs that go all the way up!
[snip]
Earl: Damn it, Valentine. You don't go for any gal unless she fits your list, top to bottom.
- Upon hearing of Kate's profession of market research, Duke Leopold of Kate and Leopold says that research is perfect for the feminine mind and he himself once courted a librarian in Sussex.
- Emily tells Oliver in A Lot Like Love that he's not even close to being her type because he didn't make the first move, doesn't play guitar, and was born under the wrong star sign.
- The Yellow Bastard from Sin City has a type: little girls. He says that Nancy isn't his type now that She's All Grown Up... but he's willing to make an exception. Partly to hurt Hartigan, partly because she's The One That Got Away.
- James Bond states that he has a type in Casino Royale: married. Married women are less complicated.
- In the movie based on Jack Weyland's book Charly, the woman of Sam's dreams is practical and pure. He then falls in love with the fun and flirty Charly and realizes that he had the wrong dreams.
- At the end of Tangled, Flynn invokes this, telling Rapunzel he has a thing for brunettes. In context it is a reassurance that he loves her for herself alone and not for her yellow hair — since it's no longer blond or magical.
- In The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, a Jewish matchmaker asks the disguised Mohammed what kind of woman he prefers, and he reluctantly mentions a thing for redheads. At the end of the film Pivert's daughter runs away from her Arranged Marriage and her veil flies off, revealing very bright red hair. Naturally it's Love at First Sight for the both of them.
Literature
- Gor: The author loves submissive sluts. As for characters...
- In Vagabonds of Gor, Marcus has a type he's "almost insanely" attracted to: slim, exquisite, very lightly complexioned, dark-haired, dark-eyed.
- In Kur of Gor, Tarl is imprisoned with a woman whom the Priet-Kings have selected as being a perfect match to his desires, and he to her; but he can't do anything about it because she is a free woman and his Codes forbid acting upon those desires. This, Tarl presumes, is intended as torture. Of course once she becomes a slave he is no longer forbidden from acting.
- In the Ciaphas Cain novels, Cain prefers blondes (as he explains to the redheaded cultist he shoots after Jurgen prevents her from mind controlling and sacrificing him).
- In Little Women, Amy says while she being courted by a wealthy man that she's always known that she's going to marry a man who's rich.
- In Wen Spencer's Elfhome, Tinker sees the elf Windwolf had asked to marry him before her, and realizes that his type is short and brown.
- Much like other serial killers Christian Grey has a type: shortish, dark-haired young women with light eyes. Apparently they remind him of his late mother. His latest victim Ana fits this profile perfectly.
Live-Action TV
Newspaper Comics
- Tom and Sara DuBois from The Boondocks. He's a black man who's only dated white women and she's a white women who's only dated black men.
Tabletop Games
- In the Eclipse Phase sourcebook "Panopticon" includes a dialogue between two Firewall agents discussing the profile they've pulled together on a Cartel supplier including what kind of strangers he picks up at nightclubs. Though the only trait they mention is the fact that he's completely gay, even though some of his dates were sleeved in female bodies.
Web Original
- The Nostalgia Critic gets it bad for curvy, slightly psychotic brunettes who'll dominate him.
- Discussed in The Nostalgia Chick's list of Hottest Animated Guys, where she suggests that women tend to be more type-oriented than men. However the dominant type (for the Chick and her viewers) seems to be "bad boys." Elisa, meanwhile, loves stoic guys (like Goliath and Batman) while Nella prefers cute Woobies (like Thomas and Dmitri).
- The Chick also loves Nightcrawler and Megamind, giving rise to the joke that she's into blue guys. She also admits to loving characters who start as "lovable curmudgeons" and become nicer over time.
- From Red vs. Blue: Church and The Director have a kink for hotheaded women.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- On American Dad Bullock has "the trifecta"—fat Asian skanks.
- The title character of Daria seems to like guys as intelligent and sarcastic as she is—"Daria Dance Party" shows her notably perk up when a flirtatious guy begins snarking. Also, while probably a coincidence, she seems to like "T" names (Trent, Ted, Tom...)
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