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alt title(s): The Lois Lane "It's ironic, you know. She likes Bruce Wayne, and she likes Superman; it's the other two guys she's not crazy about."
—Batman, "World's Finest" (The Batman/Superman Animated Movie)
Often, Clark Kenting leads to a Two Person Love Triangle.
The main love interest of the Part Time Hero. The problem: she won't give him a second glance because she's in love with someone else. The complication: that someone else just happens to be the hero's Secret Identity. He wouldn't dare tell her and burden her with all the risks that come with being a Secret Keeper, which, quite frankly, is moot since she automatically seems to be a magnet for Monster Of The Week attacks anyway when she isn't running towards them.
This trope may overlap with Secret Identity Identity: the love interest reacts differently to the "super" and "normal" personas of the hero. Eventually, she may even begin showing affection to the persona that she'd been disinterested in originally (wonderful wish-fulfillment fantasy fodder, this).
In the best-case scenario, she'll discover the truth by pure accident, which somehow makes it more okay than if the hero had told her (or not, expect fireworks at being Locked Out Of The Loop). In the worst-case scenario, after the masquerade-maintaining Its Not You Its Me, she'll eventually hook up with some other civilian besides the hero, who just wants his beloved to be happy.
How come love can't always be as simple as Dating Catwoman?
See also You Cannot Please Everyone.
Examples
Anime
- Anzu/Téa in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga and anime is frequently confused about whether she's in love with Yugi or "the other [Yami] Yugi."
- Kaito in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch is confused between Lucia and the pink mermaid.
- Yuuki in Mugen Densetsu Takamagahara: Dream Saga is actually the main character, and all over both Takaomi and "that other guy named Takaomi with the same mark on his head but a totally different personality".
- Tokyo Mew Mew complicates things. Ichigo loves Masaya, who loves Ichigo but also Mew Ichigo, and then in comes Ao no Kishi, and he loves Mew Ichigo, and she's stuck between not only this guy but also her Unwanted Harem. Then comes the traditional trial of every Magical Girl's Mysterious Protector, and we know that can't be good.
- The manga / anime Cat's Eye: The main characters are barmaids and part-time Spy Catsuit thieves. One of them has a boyfriend, who happens to be a police officer, and who cannot make up his mind if he likes his girlfriend or her Secret Identity more. (This, obviously, is the cause of much frustration on the main character's part.)
- In one episode of Futari Wa Pretty Cure, a boy asked Nagisa out, only to eventually dump her because he'd decided he preferred Cure Black. An unusual case in that Nagisa never actually liked him back, but the same idea.
- In Kaitou Saint Tail, detective-in-training Asuka Jr. is obsessed with Saint Tail, while Saint Tail's Secret Identity Meimi has a thing for Asuka.
- Tadase in Shugo Chara likes Amulet Heart, Amu's heroic form. His feelings toward the normal Amu are "just friends". This doesn't make things any easier for Amu.
- Code Geass has a variation. Action Girl Kallen has a Bodyguard Crush on Lelouch's masked identity, Zero, but has a very low opinion of Lelouch, mostly because he cultivates a reputation for being an apathetic jerk. When Kallen dramatically learns Zero's true identity, she has a Heroic BSOD, but after she's had some time to get used to the idea, she comes to love both of them.
- DN Angel has a love triangle revolving around this trope. Daisuke has a crush on Risa, but she rejects him because she wants to date someone "cool". Enter Dark—who is actually Daisuke's alter-ego. Just to make things more complicated, Dark actually has a separate personality and is a big flirt to boot, so Daisuke and Dark sometimes end up in a fight over Risa.
- Later on in the manga, this trope is inverted when Daisuke realizes that the one he really loves is actually Risa's twin sister, Riku. Riku cares for him in return, but in a twist, she hates Dark and thinks he's a pervert. This causes all sorts of complications, since Daisuke's family curse won't leave him until he's completely loved for who he is—which includes the part of him that's like Dark.
- In Princess Tutu, Mytho is enamored with the titular Magical Girl, but only considers Ahiru a good friend. (One that he can "tell everything to", but a friend nonetheless.)
- A rather perculiar take on this appears in Ai To Yuuki No Pig Girl Tonde Buurin, the main character Karin has a crush on her Junior High School soccer captain Kouichi Mizuno. He is in love with her secret identity Buurin. But she is a pig in that form! Add in the issue of Karin being stuck as Buurin if anyone finds out about her secret identity then you have yourself a very peculiar conundrum.
- A very obscure example; In a 1992 Japanese Manga Publication, Amy was the girlfriend of Nikki, but not of his superhero alter ego. The alter ego? Well, let's just say Amy managed to turn up elsewhere, along with another friend called Charmy.
- Because [A] there's an actual anime of it and [B] there's no Video Games section, this troper feels obliged to point out that Luna Platz has a major crush on Mega Man, but nothing of the sort for either of his halves - she tends to boss around Geo a lot and only puts up with Omega-Xis when she has to (which, to her chagrin, is often). For the latter, the feeling's mutual.
- And in the first game, after finding out that Geo is Megaman, she insists that she's only into Megaman and not Geo, outright refusing to consider them the same person.
- In Kampfer, Natsuru loves Sakura and Sakura loves Natsuru. The catch? Sakura loves THE FEMALE NATSURU!
- How is Sailor Moon not here yet? in the anime, Usagi/ Sailor Moon loves Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask, while he has a mysterious need to protect Moon. Usagi can't stand Mamoru, who also seems to dislike Usagi. At the same time, he's in love with the mysterious princess of his dreams who is actually Usagi's past self. In the second season, there's also the Tsukikage no Knight, whom Usagi loves while she also loves Mamoru/Mask, though he turns out to be the astral-projected manifestation of Mamoru's love for Usagi when his memories are sealed. The manga is even worse, because Usagi and Mamoru actually like each other there before learning each other's identities.
- And Usagi/Serena's little brother Shingo/Sammy idolizes Sailor Moon but can't stand his sister.
Comic Books
- Lois Lane in the earliest incarnations of Superman — who no longer qualifies for the title, as they are now (at last) Happily Married. We'll have to wait and see if they last longer than Peter Parker and Mary Jane.
- Mary Jane, at least for awhile, in some incarnations of Spider-Man. A later Ret Con has it that she always knew, but didn't say anything.
- Spidey also had the Black Cat/Felicia Hardy. In the comics, this was an inversion: Felicia loved Spidey, and was uninterested in the man beneath the mask. In the cartoon Felicia was in love with Peter, but Black Cat was in love with Spidey. Eventually, Felicia decided not to pursue a relationship with Peter Parker so that her Black Cat persona would be free to be with Spider-Man. In the end, she left with a vampire, and he went with Mary Jane anyway, but it was all very dramatic at the time.
- In the comics, the Black Cat was repulsed and disgusted when Spider-Man revealed his identity to her, begging him to put his mask back on. Damn. Worse still, in the Ultimate version of that occurrence, she was so grossed out she vomited on him. (She'd been expecting someone a little older...)
- The Alternate Continuity title Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane explores this from Mary Jane's perspective.
- Also, in just about every continuity, Jerk Jock Eugene "Flash" Thompson is a huge fan of Spider-Man and thinks he's the coolest guy on the planet while usually doing whatever he can to make Peter Parker's life miserable.
- In Silver Age Green Lantern, one of the obstacles to Hal Jordan's relationship to Carol Ferris was that she couldn't decide whether she was interested in him or in his alter ego. Eventually she found out that they were the same person, and they moved on to problems like her alter ego.
- Wonder Woman's Steve Trevor is a classic example; for decades he ignored bespectacled coworker Diana Prince in favor of her Amazonian alter ego. (After the book's Crisis reboot, this dynamic was disposed of; Diana no longer had a secret identity and her relationship with Steve was non-romantic.)
- This is repeatedly inverted with the comic book character Daredevil. Almost all of his female love interests have been looking to date Matt Murdock, not his alter ego. This applies even when the interested party is also a superhero.
- Vicki Vale was Batman's Lois Lane (in fact she was a pretty blatant ripoff, being a nosy reporter with an alliterative name and all) throughout the '40s and '50s, but eventually the writers got tired of her and she quietly slipped away into comic-book limbo. She's still turns up in The DCU from time to time as a TV reporter, but after the Tim Burton film, she didn't properly turn up again until The Batman versus Dracula (See Rule Of Cool).
- She's now back at the Gotham Gazette and knows Batman's secret. Which means she also knows he's dead. What she's going to do about this remains to be seen.
- Daisy Duck frequently plays this role in Disney comics stories involving Paperinik. However, in the stories where she has her own superhero identity (Paperinika, making her Paperinik's Distaff Counterpart) and has to work with the latter, they outright hate each other...
- In Flare backup series Sparkplug, this situation is inverted; the superheroine Sparkplug is adored by a local male reporter in both her superhero identity and her civilian identity... because he can tell that they're the same person; He sees Olga and Sparkplug practically every day, a wig isn't going to fool him.
- Inverted in Alpha Flight; Aurora is dating teammate Sasquatch, but her alter ego, Jeanne Marie, is horrified by the relationship. (She's a split personality, obviously.)
- Several variations of this occur with She Hulk - originally in Savage She-Hulk, she was dating two guys... one as Jennifer Walters and one as She-Hulk, although that was mutual. Later the trope was inverted when she was married John Jameson who repeatedly expressed a dislike of Jennifer's powered She-Hulk form - much to her chagrin.
- Ironiclly averted in The Phantom the frist superhero in comics
- Proving that Lee Falk was a genius.
- Word Of God says this is the case for Thundermind of The DCU's Great Ten; in his secret identity (him being the only member of the team to really have one) as the nebbish, bespectacled schoolteacher Zou Kang, his affections for coworker Ms. Wu are ignored because she only has eyes for Thundermind.
Fairy Tales
- In some versions of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty is haunted by dreams of a handsome prince who begs her to find him, and this is why she rejects the beast's advances. It isn't until she leaves the castle and stops having the dreams that she realizes that she loves the beast, who of course turns into the prince from her dreams when she agrees to marry him.
- In The Enchanted Snake
 , the king promises the heroine she can marry the prince if only she saves him. Recovered, the prince nevertheless refuses because he has promised himself elsewhere; the heroine, delighted, reveals that she is that woman.
Leterature
- Even though she knows who he really is, Lancer Ellie Quinn from Lois Mc Master Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is deeply in love with her commander, Admiral Miles Naismith—but not so enamored of his real identity Lt. Miles Vorkosigan. ("I've heard you do his accent, love." is as close as she can come to acknowleging it.) Her refusal to come to terms with this exasperates Miles ("But I don't do his accent; he does mine.") and eventually scuttles the relationship.
Theater
- This is Older Than Radio: in the play Cyrano de Bergerac, both Warrior Poet Cyrano and Book Dumb but so very handsome Christian are in love with Roxanne. Since Cyrano thinks he doesn't stand a chance with her anyway because of that big nose issue, he uses his gift for poetry to help Christian woo her so at least he can know they'll both be happy together, which backfires because it tears them both up for years to know Roxanne's really in love with Cyrano but thinks she's in love with Christian. There's also the fact that Christian is killed later and Cyrano still Can Not Spit It Out to not break Roxanne's heart... and keeps denying that the letters are his' until his death, even when Roxanne realizes the truth and attempts to face him.
- Margot Bonvalet in the operetta The Desert Song.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Paulina on the comic book-esque Danny Phantom
- Daisy on Static Shock; Static lampshaded this once.
- In My Life As A Teenage Robot, Jenny falls for the Silver Shell, a robot suit piloted by her crush Sheldon who originally designed it to disuade her attraction towards robot boys.
- In Freakazoid, Dexter Douglas can't catch a break from the ladies, but they're all over his alter ego Freakazoid. Hell, Freakazoid's girlfriend, Steff, won't even talk to Dex.
- Technically, Freakazoid is more of a separate personality than an alter ego, which occasionally caused him to actively mock Dexter over this trope. It also meant that when Steff found out the truth, she was at first incredulous, then thought it was funny more than anything else, and never brought it up thereafter.
- Rio from Jem is torn between Jerrica and her secret identity Jem—and he has a bad temper concerning those who deceive him.
- Sweet Polly Purebred (practically a Lois Lane Expy anyway) from Underdog.
- Similarly, Rosemary the police dispatcher is smitten with Hong Kong Phooey, but couldn't care less about Penrod Pooch.
- Playfully inverted in an episode of House Of Mouse: Clarabelle accepts a date from Goofy, but in his cluelessness, Goofy believes she turned him down. He later becomes Super Goof and does various heroic acts around the House of Mouse. After he saves Clarabelle from a meteor, he asks her out, but Clarabelle refuses — because she has a date with Goofy.
- Parodied in a special chibi style short of Avatar The Last Airbender. Aang, Jet, Haru and Prince Zuko all battle it out for Katara's affection... only to find out she's already chosen The Blue Spirit, Zuko's alter-ego. Zuko faints saying "I did not see that one coming."
- As the page quote indicates, the DCAU's version of Lois Lane gets a twofer in the original "World's Finest" crossover between Superman The Animated Series and Batman The Animated Series.
- Similarly, Catwoman loves Batman, but only considers Bruce a friend. He knows both her identities and seems to love her somewhat.
- Word Girl: TJ, Becky's younger brother, has a crush on Word Girl...but Word Girl is Becky's alter ego.
- Cybersix: Subverted, Cybersix's civilain alter ego is her crossdressing as Lucas' best friend Adrian. Lucas is in love with Cybersix and vice versa... but then Lucas sees Cybersix go into Adrian's apartment and assumes they're lovers.
Video Games
- In Mega Man Star Force, Luna loves Geo's super hero form, Mega Man, but not Geo himself; after learning that they're the same person, she still claims she only likes Megaman and couldn't care less about Geo. However, she warms up to Geo over time.
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