Basic Trope: The Hero doesn't end up with the female lead, as she chooses somebody else.
- Straight: Hiro The Chosen One rescues Princess Alice, but she chooses his partner, Lance, over him.
- Exaggerated:
- Hiro keeps falling in love with different women, only to see each of them choose somebody else over him.
- The whole series highlights Hiro and Alice's romance, only for Alice to drop him completely at the very end of the series.
- Downplayed:
- While Hiro's rejection is upsetting, to say the least, the near destruction and wellbeing of the kingdom is prioritized rather than his love life.
- While Princess Alice does reject Hiro, it's not because she doesn't love him, but rather because she's simply not ready for a romantic relationship yet. So there's still a possibility they could get together in the future.
- Justified:
- Hiro is a presumptuous Jerkass who just assumes the princess will fall for him because "that's what damsels in distress do" whereas Lance is a down-to-Earth Nice Guy.
- Alice finds Hiro to be "too nice" and prefers Lance for being more aggressive and rougher.
- Hiro doesn't swing that way or otherwise doesn't look at Princess Alice as a love interest.
- Hiro is a Shipper on Deck for Lance/Alice for one of several reasons (I Want My Beloved to Be Happy knowing that Alice loves Lance, may prefer to Walk the Earth alone, etc.)
- Alice turns out to be Hiro's sister.
- Hiro is a Punch-Clock Hero who only wanted to get paid.
- Hiro is a Kid Hero and he is too young to marry anyone.
- Hiro took a sacred vow to never have sex, and he intends to keep his vows.
- Hiro has a Self-Sacrifice Scheme all along.
- Hiro has ascended to a higher place of existence.
- Hiro has a terminal disease, his days are numbered.
- Hiro was bitten by a zombie, he would inevitably become one, soon or later.
- Hiro has become a Barrier Maiden.
- Alice is just plain not into him, or vice versa.
- Hiro and Alice had a mutual case of Loving a Shadow, and being reunited breaks the illusion.
- Inverted: Princess Alice falls in love with Hiro, but Hiro refuses her love, instead going for her older sister Jade.
- Subverted: After being rescued by Hiro, Princess Alice looks to Lance, but kisses Hiro instead.
- Double Subverted: However, she then turns around and French kisses Lance in a much longer embrace, making her interests clear.
Hiro: Threesome?
- Parodied:
- Princess Alice chooses Lance over Hiro; unfortunately for Lance, she's not a Princess Classic... she's an overbearing Clingy Jealous Girl who won't take no for an answer. While Hiro had fallen for her, upon seeing how she treats Lance he quickly bounces back and cheerfully continues his adventuring.
- Princess Alice chooses Lance over Hiro; unfortunately for her, Lance chooses Hiro over her, and Hiro gladly accepts Lance. In the end, it's Alice who fails to get either of the guys.
- Zig Zagged: However, Hiro rescuing Alice's kingdom again, this time for purely selfless reasons, makes her realize how much she cares about him, and she leaves Lance for Hiro.
- Averted: After being rescued, Princess Alice says "My hero!" and embraces Hiro, rewarding him with a kiss.
- Enforced:
- The creators want to leave Hiro open for future love interests and partners, so they decide to have Lance marry Princess Alice and stay with her while Hiro continues his adventures.
- The creators want to analyze the Romantic False Lead, by showing things from their perspective.
- The creators want to have Hiro as the villain in the future, out of jealousy.
- The creators want to script a Heroic Sacrifice for Hiro.
- The creators want to have Hiro as Decoy Protagonist who will die out soon, while The Chosen One was actually Lance.
- Hiro is there to be the Nice Guy to Evulz' Yandere, to make a point about the two.
- The creators feel Standard Hero Reward is sexist, and want to avert it.
- Lampshaded: "Hello? Your hero? Over here? Yoo-hoo!"
- Invoked: "Hiro, I'll always think of you as my big brother!" (kisses Lance)
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz exploited the relation of Lance and Princess Alice to corrupt Hiro.
- Defied: "Arranged marriages are for the birds! This is the twelfth century! (kisses Hiro)
- Discussed: "I'm sure one of the hundreds of other royal ladies in the court will be able to console Hiro in the aftermath of his rejection. It might even take two or three of them. In shifts, perhaps".
- Conversed: Hiro and Lance discuss Hiro's Hiros of winning Alice's heart, and decide he doesn't have a hope. Lance points out that at least Hiro will still be a hero.
- Deconstructed:
- Hiro expected the Standard Hero Reward and does not cope well with the loss, to the point that it ruins his friendship with Lance and he refuses to assist them when trouble threatens Alice's kingdom once more.
- Hiro does not cope well with the loss to the point that he immediately betrays both Lance and the kingdom, and becomes the next Emperor Evulz.
- Hiro becomes either insane, depressed, angry or all of them upon the fact that he didn't get the girl.
- Hiro just got another lady from the royal court, and thus isn't interested in meddling with Alice and Lance.
- Reconstructed:
- Princess Alice didn't pick Hiro because she could tell he just thought of her as part of the Standard Hero Reward package. She tells him this; while upset at first, Hiro eventually recognizes her reasoning as valid and accepts the loss. When her kingdom is threatened again, he helps defend it, this time without expecting someone's hand just because of his heroics.
- When Lance finally confronted Emperor Hiro and defeated him, Lance apologized to Hiro and corrected him what love is, Hiro eventually recognized his own fault, forgave Lance and accepted the loss in his dying breath.
- Alice and Lance help Hiro deal with his issues and makes it clear they still love him, if only in a brotherly, platonic way. They help him get over the loss and reassure him they'll always love and support him.
- There's no real reconstruction for the 4th, though you can say that the three are getting along quite nicely.
- Played For Laughs: Hiro is an Idiot Hero completely oblivious to how Princess Alice and Lance are falling in love with each other. When he does hear the princess fawning over his friend, he mistakes it for her fawning over him. Ultimately, they wind up spelling it out for him; upon finally getting it, Hiro is upset... for about five seconds. Then he shrugs and asks if Alice's got a sister.
- Played For Drama:
- Hiro is oblivious to how Lance and Princess Alice are falling in love behind his back. Both feel guilty about it, but can't stop their feelings from developing, even as it's repeatedly implied to the audience that if Hiro found out they were "betraying" him, he wouldn't take it well...
- Hiro does take it well, and intends to seek love elsewhere. Alice, however, doesn't want Hiro to do so.
- Implied: The choice is never shown, but Alice is very stiff with Hiro and very much at ease around Lance.
Sigh... It's a table for one AGAIN back at Did Not Get the Girl.
