Basic Trope: Men are defined by their actions, women by their heritage, personality, and appearance.
- Straight: Bob faces Emperor Evulz to save Troperia. Princess Alice only exists to look pretty, get rescued by Bob from danger, just watch him fight, scream in fear, and fall in love with him.
- Exaggerated: Princess Alice just sits around literally doing nothing.
- Downplayed: Alice occasionally takes action, but is clearly a supporting Satellite Character for Bob.
- Justified: The show is set in the place or the time when women do nothing but Stay in the Kitchen, so having an Action Girl lead in this work is improbable.
- Inverted: Alice is the active protagonist, whereas Bob is the Distressed Dude Mr. Fanservice Satellite Love Interest who just gets rescued.
- Subverted: Alice Took a Level in Badass and shows it by leading the resistance group to get Troperia back from The Empire.
- Double Subverted: Alice goes through Chickification or loses all of her badass superpowers, so Bob can rescue her and be awesome.
- Parodied:
- Bob receives an honorary award for his hard-working and defeating the Big Bad, while Alice receives an honorary award just for being the first woman who received it.
- Alice is a Companion Cube which all of her traits are only mentioned in the source materials.
- Bob is an unstoppable force, Alice is an immovable object.
- Zig Zagged: Alice and Bob keep switching their definition, or the entire cast features men and women of various roles who are sometimes defined by their actions, sometimes by their identities.
- Averted:
- Alice is just as active as Bob.
- Bob is a Non-Action Guy.
- Enforced: The creators think Men Are Generic, Women Are Special and they let the Author Appeal bleed into work.
- Lampshaded: "Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty, everyone knows that!"
- Invoked: Alice stops doing everything and being more kindhearted, Hotter and Sexier to intentionally allows herself to be captured.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz uses Alice's uselessness to manipulate her.
- Defied: During the capture, Alice starts training and working hard to prove that she is much more than the pretty Damsel in Distress, and puts up a successful escape from Emperor Evulz without having to be rescued by anyone.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Do writers even get that they're basically saying that men are worthless and women are useless?"
- Deconstructed:
- Alice resents that her culture expects her to Stay in the Kitchen, even though she would rather be considered for what she can do than just look pretty, which she finds dehumanizing.
- Bob resents that his culture places value on things he does rather than his Hidden Depths. The extreme expectations placed on him makes Bob view himself not as a person, but as a tool.
- Alice had the misfortune of being born ugly and Bob is wheelchair-bound. They're both treated as absolute pariahs in their community.
- Reconstructed:
- Despite her strong desires, Alice is still pretty, doesn't fight, and uses her status to manipulate Emperor Evulz.
- Due to his fear of Heroic BSoD from his expendable status, Bob stops fighting and becomes The Medic or Mentor Archetype instead. He also treats his young male fighters with love in hopes that they will grow up to be kindhearted heroes and not see each other as expendable as he used to be seen.
- Due to their failures of gender expectations, Alice and Bob adopt the Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy role, so Alice can be the Brawn Hilda and Bob can be the Non-Action Guy.
- Or Bob is the Handicapped Badass who fight together with Alice.
Back to Men Act, Women Are.
