"Whosoever loses, should He be graceful, shall possess the love of Jane Foster!"
"If you would prove your love, you should do your worst."
— Jocelyn to Ulrich, A Knight's Tale
Two men get in a fight, or at least a highly charged physical confrontation, over a woman they're both attracted to. One of them wins, so naturally she spurns him and goes for the loser.
Sometimes it's the winner's arrogant assumption that because he won the fight he's "won" the girl that dooms his chances. Other times, the severity of the injuries he inflicted revolts her.
Though the genderswapped version is of course possible, it appears to be rare-to-nonexistent in practice. Authors with traditional views about gender roles probably won't have women in this kind of confrontation, while more feminist writers are likely to shy away from Unfortunate Implications about female combatants somehow being unattractive. But see Wounded Gazelle Gambit.
Because this often leads to the After-Action Patch-Up or, more seriously, the After-Action Healing Drama, this often can be the result of the Florence Nightingale Effect. It can also be used as a subversion of Did Not Get the Girl: the Loser Protagonist thinks she's out of his league, but then she comes back to him. It may serve as the conclusion of an Everything but the Girl show. The loser is frequently The Woobie, especially when his love interest is intended as an audience identification character. See also Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Pokémon: The Original Series: Meowth manages to defeat a Persian that was keeping his old Love Interest Meowzie in his gang, but Meowzie decides to stay with the Persian as he helped her when her trainer abandoned her... and also because she still thinks Meowth is a freak for knowing how to talk.
- Rave Master: Julia chooses Let over Jegan despite the latter defeating Let in a battle Much to Jegan's resentment and jealousy.
Comic Books
- Monica's Gang: Back when Jimmy Five's parents were students, Mr. Five had a rival and the two fought for her affections. Mr. Five lost the fight and she pitied him.
Comic Strips
- Popeye:
- Popeye and Bluto try to get themselves hurt because Olive is the nurse at the local hospital. Popeye "wins" by force-feeding Bluto his spinach and getting the crap beaten out of him. As a result, he gets to have Olive lovingly tend him back to health. In one version of the story, Popeye's "victory" is pyrrhic because the hospital was for dogs and cats.
- Subverted. Olive Oyl, having just opened a Blacksmith shop, needs a Strong Man to help run it. Popeye and Bluto naturally spend the duration of the episode trying to best each other, ultimately leading to Bluto lying in a heap on the floor. Olive Oyl proudly declares that Bluto is her choice to operate the shop, much to Bluto's surprise and delight until he watches Olive and Popeye go off on a romantic vacation.
Fan Works
- One Misfired Spell Later
: Gender Flipped. Harry's girlfriend Hermione gets into a rivalry with Fleur over Harry, it culminates in a duel over who gets to date him. Fleur beats Hermione badly, only for Harry to make it clear that it's up to him whom he dates, he's not going to dump Hermione just because she got beaten up by a girl three years older than her. He also remarks that he wants nothing to do with Fleur.
Films — Live-Action
- Big Fish: Edward Bloom lets Don Price beat him savagely because he's sworn to Sandra not to hurt him, so it's justified.
- A Knight's Tale: Jocelyn invokes this as a means for Ulrich to prove his love for her. While winning for their lover is something any knight would do, only one truly in love would lose to prove their love.
- Next: Subverted. Cris Johnson is a man with the ability to see into the immediate future, and he knows none of his pickup lines will work on the woman he meets in a diner. Not even beating up her stalkerish ex-boyfriend gets him a good result, only allowing the boyfriend to sucker-punch him.
Literature
- The Canterbury Tales: Played With in "The Knight's Tale". Cousins and former friends Palamon and Arcite fall out and duel for the love of Emilia. Arcite wins but is struck dead in a literal Deus ex Machina, after which Emilia and Palamon are united.
- Stardust: Tommy Forester and Alum Bey get in a fight over Bridget Comfrey at the beginning of the book. After Alun beats up Tommy, who is comforted by Bridget, the narration says, "Neither of them was quite certain who had won, who had lost."
Live-Action TV
- Charmed: In "Happily Ever After", Phoebe's ex-husband Cole gets into an argument with her Boy of the Week Adam. It ends with Cole putting Adam in a painful-looking wrist lock and Adam and Phoebe walking off together.
- It's About Time: In "The Stowaway", Mlor runs away rather than be forced into marriage to Boss's vain son. Hector won't stand for this and ends up facing Boss's son in a fight to the death for Mlor. Hector wins with the help of some of his astronaut vitamins (although he doesn't kill Boss's son). Still, Mlor immediately runs to her unconscious would-be groom weeping. Fortunately for Hector, Mlor and her family would in the very next episode return to the future with the two astronauts.
- Jeeves and Wooster: Jeeves plans to get Bingo (one of Bertie's friends) together with the current object of his infatuation. The idea is to get another young lady to distract him at a crucial point during a foot race, on the basis that she's more likely to be attracted to the "gallant loser" than a man who won a race against a group of septuagenarians. (It Makes Sense in Context.) Of course, Bingo immediately falls for the other woman, Bingo's flightiness being greater than even Jeeves predicted.
Music
- Bobby Bare: "The Winner" plays with this, given that it's about a burly old brawler describing to a younger tough wannabe the various ways that his need to "win" has cost him so much:
Now this broken back was the dyin' act of a handsome Harry Clay
That sticky Cincinnati night I stole his wife away
But that woman she gets uglier and she gets meaner every day
But I got her boy that's what makes me a winner - Saliva: In the music video of "Click Click Boom", a young skinny guy is beaten and humiliated by the boyfriend of the girl he's been gazing at while in a concert. She slaps her boyfriend and walks away in disgust and joins the skinny guy.
Video Games
- Bully: After Jimmy beats Johnny, the defeated contender says "alright, you can have her", referring to his unfaithful girlfriend, Lola. Jimmy responds that he can "keep that slut" and Johnny confusedly asks him if the reason he fought him in the first place was just because he wanted to prove that he's tougher than him. Jimmy confirms.
- Neverwinter Nights 2: In the "Dark Waters" module, you can get shot attempting to defend Heather's honor. Unlike most examples, she sticks with the player regardless of whether you win or not.
- Xenosaga: Non-Action Guy Allen manages to look so pathetic while getting beaten that he not only gets the girl but reverses the girl's Face–Heel Turn and derailed the Big Bad's plans in the process.
Western Animation
- American Dad!: Parodied in "Camp Refoogee". Steve wins a critical race against the opposing camp to rescue his girlfriend... who promptly starts making out with the guy who lost the race. Her explanation: "I'm sorry Steve... but I'm kind of a crazy chick." It should be noted that the loser was a murderous militant leader who destroyed the girl's village; and that he's an adult, while the girl is Steve's age, i.e. about fourteen.
- Popeye: Olive is a sculptress wanting a beaten model, so Popeye and Brutus try their best to get the other to beat the crap out of them. Popeye's Guile Hero tendencies show when he gets some of his empowering spinach in Brutus' mouth. The resulting strength boost causes him to leave Popeye a bloody mess for Olive to use as reference and spend time with.
