Single Woman Seeks Good Man in Fan Works.
The following have their own pages:
- Advice and Trust, Asuka fell in love with Shinji because he was nice, good-natured, and he occasionally might be brave, determined and selfless:"She could admit it now, in a slightly more self-conscious part of her mind. He was kind of cute. He was polite and self-effacing to the point it could drive her nuts, but he was also kind, gentle, and could be stupidly brave to almost ridiculous lengths when protecting others. 'He dove into a volcano without a second's thought to save me. No one's ever done anything even close to that for me.' He was an elite Eva Pilot, like her, a 'prime catch' as some of the other girls at school had quietly mentioned. He sometimes showed a spark of energy and anger when she'd pushed at him that secretly thrilled her, the way he would react to her, pushing to match her, making her push just as hard to stay ahead of him. He made her feel alive. He was... a good guy. He'd renewed his promise this morning when he must have thought she was asleep. He wasn't just saying things for her to hear. He meant it. And now he wanted to be with her."
- In the Pokémon: The Series fic Ash's Adventure: Girls' Hunter Edition
, while Misty and May technically aren't 'single' as they had a "friends with benefits" dynamic, when Ash ends up capturing them to save Misty's life, the girls swiftly accept him as their 'master' because they recognise that his intentions were genuinely good and see that he has no intention of abusing his 'control'. - Arguably applies in Apex Predator, albeit more from a biological angle rather than a purely personal one; as a Veela, Fleur can taste her partner's release to determine if he is a good man or a bad one, with those she rejected due to their bad taste belittling her as a slut and those she accepts treating her warmly.
- The Child of Love: Asuka liked Shinji because he was kind, sensitive and honest, even when she was harsh or rude.Asuka: Baka...you're so sensitive sometimes...
Shinji: Y-yeah...I know...
(Shinji wipes his tears with the handkerchief. She kisses his cheek. He blushes.)
Asuka (smiling): I like you because of that. You're always honest with me, even when I'm mean to you... - Cross Ange The Knight Of Hilda has two notable examples, besides the canon one with Ange with Tusk.
- Hilda, despite often being exasperated by Rio's Chronic Hero Syndrome and his quirky sense of humor, slowly falls for him as he does his best to protect her and everyone else, sometimes even to his own detriment.
- Ersha is shown to feel an attraction to Rio, and later to his friend Rhino, as both are good with kids.
- A Crown of Stars: Rather falling in love with any of the dictators or thugs ravaging the post-Third Impact world Asuka fell for Shinji, who for all his faults was selfless, kind, thoughtful and sincerely cared for her.
- This is revealed to be a major factor in Harry and Carol's burgeoning romance in Child of the Storm. Carol, being Younger than She Looks and highly attractive, has a lot of boys chasing her, but Harry, in addition to being The Hero, is a truly Nice Guy (not a Dogged Nice Guy, or a 'nice guy') who always treats her with respect and despite his own feelings, makes it clear that as far as he's concerned, their friendship will always come first. Oh, and he keeps his eyes on her face. It's also why they ultimately get together - though, interestingly, that hesitancy to push once they're actually dating is a brief cause of exasperation on Carol's part, when she points out that she trusts him, so he should trust himself.
- Mention is also made of Steve and Peggy (see the "Film" section), and it's made clear that Pepper and Tony didn't get together until the latter went through quite a bit of Character Development.
- Hermione notes in Book 2 that Harry's status as a metaphorical (as well as literal) Knight in Shining Armor is one of the reasons he's so attractive to the population of Hogwarts that's attracted to guys, even though his PTSD has made him a lot grouchier than in canon. This being said, the inverse is also true: his PTSD induced Hair-Trigger Temper and generally grimmer and more brooding nature during the recovery process is also noted to have attracted a few girls, with it being pointed out that some people find danger attractive.
- Cupid's Wrath: In this Danny Phantom fanfiction, Ember McLain is hit with a love spell that makes her fall for Danny. However, when the spell wears off, Ember has developed real feelings for Danny since, unlike her ex-boyfriends, he's a Nice Guy.
- Different Tales, Different Lessons: A major factor behind Jia's attraction to Po is that, not only is he an All-Loving Hero, but he also doesn't see her as a sex object unlike other men she's hooked up with in the past.Jia: (to Tai Lung and the Furious Five) Okay fine, I understand. But something you've all got to see is that there's more to Po than you think. You already learned to look past the surface when he proved he was the Dragon Warrior. This is no different. For your information, my baby bear is a really good, attentive lover, and he treats me like no sweaty, grubby, panting man could ever raise himself out of the slime to do—caring about my pleasure as much as his, seeing me as more than just someone to use and leave.
- A large part of Klavier's attraction to Apollo in Dirty Sympathy that's not wrapped in The Dulcinea Effect and his initial Serial Romeo affection is that Apollo is a very caring and attentive lover.
- Doing It Right This Time: Asuka, in the middle of sexuality crisis."She liked Shinji. A lot. However hard she'd tried to tell herself otherwise after that kiss, which with the benefit of bitter hindsight she knew she'd botched just as badly as he had. He was patient and loyal and brave and selfless and all the things she should have said, but couldn't because she was scared of rejection, a rejection that had never happened. Not even at the very end."
- Evangelion 303:
- As much as she wanted to hate him in the beginning for being her new rival, Asuka could not help to fell for nice, considerate, patient, thoughtful Shinji that would always love her not matter what, rather a manly, confident hunk like she claimed that she wanted. During their proposal scene she even tells that she does not understand why he would want to get attached for life to a basket-case like her.
- And Rei fell for Kaworu, the nicest person in the entire base, that always cares for everyone and is nearly incapable to hold grudges.
- This trope is why Makoto Naegi is able to get pretty much all his female classmates (and even his senior's teacher) to fall in love with him in Everyday Life with Ultimate Girls, as he is a very Nice Guy and All-Loving Hero that will always be there to help his friends no matter what. That being said, it is usually a major event that prompts the girls to fall in love with him. Some examples include:
- Repairing the relationship between Kyoko Kirigiri and her father, Hope's Peak headmaster.
- Assuring Aoi Asahina that she is beautiful in her own way, and speaks for her when her date insults her for her lack of femininity.
- Saving Hiyoko Saonoji from Attempted Rape after she insults two obviously drunk delinquents.
- Assuring Mikan Tsumiki that he is grateful to her being alive and that she is one of his dearest friends.
- In the Goosebumps fanfiction Evened Steven, Carly Beth confesses that she likes Steve. It's implied that the main reason why she likes him is because he saved her from the Haunted Mask. Kinda ironic, considering their personalities.
- In this Hussar Ballad fanfic, Shura grows tired of her canon fiancé's bad boy attitude (and he, in turn, realises he is not ready for commitment after all), and they break up. She eventually falls in love with gentle, caring and deeply honourable Vincento. Notably, she feels the first romantic sparks when she has trouble sparring after recovering from a wound and he comforts her, and her Love Epiphany arrives when she sees him at prayer before a battle.
- Greenfire: Rarity is attracted to Greenfire by how polite, compassionate, and erudite Spike seems. He even proves to be more chivalrous than an actual knight when it shows up. That's not counting his amazing masuline attributes as well.
- The Ghost Boy and the Combatants: During the second story involving the Darkstalkers, two of them fall hard for Danny Phantom.
- Lilith at first kissed him to drain him and tire him out, thinking he was a threat. However, she could tell from his energy he's a good person and became regretful. After that, his continued being nice to her causes her to become fond of him.
- At first, Hsien-ko wasn't interested in Danny because he's younger. However, he calls her cool and thinks it's amazing she uses her abilities as a jiangshi to fight evil, causing a sudden change of opinion. Soon, she becomes genuinely infatuated with him.
- Shows up in the short My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic Gimme Shelter where Fancypants gets himself a date with Fleur de Lis by acting like a perfect gentlecolt towards her by and offering her a bed for the night unmolested after she got caught out in a pouring storm without a coat and miles from her home.
- Grow Young With Me: Abby wasn't actually seeking, but seeing Harry's gentleness and kindness with his four-year-old — in sharp contrast to his aloofness when he comes to the café alone — makes a big impression on her.Abby: You do dad things and you have a dad voice and it's all so completely strange and fascinating and... and... wonderful.
- HERZ: Asuka got married to Shinji, who despite his flaws and mistakes tries to be fundamentally a good person.
- In "How to Light Up the Night", Astrid makes it clear to Hiccup that, regardless of his self-confidence issues, she's attracted to him because he's a good person who wouldn't force himself on her if she didn't want the attention, as well as recognising his potential.
- Last Child of Krypton: In chapter 9 of the rewrite, Asuka explains why she likes Shinji. Simply put, she likes Shinji because he is strong and kind rather merely handsome in a rugged way:"Holding the skimpy gown, she tried to imagine Kaji opening the door to her cabin and falling silently into bed with her, but every time, she forgot herself, and she discovered someone else in his place, someone shorter and slighter without the shaggy two day growth of beard and sloppy grin, someone quiet and unassuming but strong and kind, and in her mind's eye, she'd reach up and slip his glasses off as she..."
- This is the case with much of the major female cast in The Lion of Ivalice. The best example would be Lionsguard Captain Agrias Oaks. It is strongly implied that she spends a significant portion of the first half of the story in a sexual relationship with Delita Hyral but she is not foolish enough to think it's anything more than physical, especially after he accomplishes one of his major goals and he has not much use for her. It is around this time that she decides that she had nothing in common with him to begin with and the relationship ends with little fanfare. Then she meets Zalbag Beoulve and — thanks to a long chain of events — ends up spending much of her time with him. She spends much time getting to know him personally as a stranger, then as a fellow knight, a friend, and finally a lover, providing a much stronger foundation for a healthy relationship, and she eventually marries him and assumes the title of Duchess of Gallione, and is pregnant with his child in the epilogue.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles:
- Tenten falls in love with Neji after the latter defends her against her abusive ex-boyfriend Yori. She then learns this isn't the first time Neji fought Yori, having done so after the latter broke up with her. Neji complimenting her about her face seems to have seal the deal for her.
- When Anko shows some concerns about her protégées, particularly Kei, Kakashi tries to reassure her by saying she looked after those girls just fine and suggesting to lower Kei's mission load. He adds that Anko would do what's best for Kei in the end. After hearing all those words, Anko pulls down his mask to kiss him and says "I knew there was a reason I liked you, Kakashi."
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide Asuka likes Shinji because he's someone who understands her, is patient with her and would never leave her.
- In The Power of Seven, Susan Bones in particular notes that she admires Harry for always trying to help others even before she realises that he’s explicitly looking at her as a potential romantic partner, and Fleur Delacour muses that Harry always treated her as a person rather than a sex object despite her allure. That said, all of the other five girls acknowledge that they are initially drawn to Harry because he's a good man, to greater or lesser degrees.
- In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, a major reason why Misty starts falling for Ash is because of how kind and caring he is. Considering how unused she is to human affection, even of a platonic nature, it's no surprise.
- The Second Try: Asuka fell in love with and got married to Shinji who was "the most caring and compassionate person she knew."
- In Shatterheart Kurogane likes that Syaoran is a better person than him and admits that it's one of his most attractive qualities."I love you because when you vow to protect someone, you don't screw it up every five minutes like I do. Because when the people you care about treat you like shit, you still love them. Because when you see a total stranger in trouble, you don't even have to think before you help them—you just do it. You could be ugly, or incompetent, or stupid, and I would still love you because you're a good person."
- This is the main reason why Lady Maria becomes attracted to Solaire in Slice of Souls!, apart from them having similar tastes and hobbies and them having similar backgrounds that both involved an unhappy life in an affluent but neglectful family.
- In Superman fanfic Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation, Katherine chooses Alan over his brother because Alan is sensitive and kind as opposed to Adam who is adventurous but sinister and over-domineering.
- Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Asuka states some of her reasons to like Shinji in chapter 19:"That person you call scum is worth a thousand of you...and a hundred of me! [...] He's fought to protect everyone, all without any kind of superpowers, even though he never wanted to! [...] And unlike some people, he doesn't hide behind anger, or a mask, or false bravado! [...] When he does come out of his shell talk to you, you know the person you're dealing with is really him!"
- In The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy, Rosa briefly crushes on the sweet and kind-hearted Luca Paguro. Even after his rejection because of their Incompatible Orientations being Luca gay and madly in love with Alberto, she can't help but admire his gentle and caring heart, while at the same time accepting his rejection with grace and maturity and being perfectly happy with just being his friends.
- As said above, Luca is a Single Man Seeks Good Man example being him head over heels for Alberto, who, moments of selfishness and stubbornness aside, is an optimistic, friendly and caring guy.
- This The Goblin Emperor fanfic exaggerates this. The female protagonist states, in the beginning, that she does not think Beshelar's appearance very impressive, and is a bit frightened by his stern demeanour. His willingness to Give the Baby a Father just because he gave his word in a ceremony where that was mostly for tradition's sake and his loyalty to her slowly win her over. Notably, all the things he does that might be perceived as romantic gestures are subverted somehow. He gives her flowers and tells her it is because the flower vendor had only one bunch left and he figured he could buy it and spare the vendor some work. When he writes a letter to her, it doesn't contain any declarations of love, but his permission for her to continue working, which she needs because of the very patriarchal society. The document extends the permission to her unborn child and threatens vengeance to anyone who doesn't return it to her after she ends her employment there. He gives her money, stating that he can't have people thinking that he doesn't provide for his wife. It doesn't fool her.
- In Who in the world is Menma Uzumaki, Hinata from the Road-To-Ninja!Verse decides she wants to stay in the main universe after seeing how much of a loving boyfriend Naruto is compared to his Jerkass counterpart, Menma.
- X-Men: The Early Years: In "Boy Scouts, Sex, and Other Mysterious Things", a girl who the team meets admits she's looking for a nice guy who won't take advantage of her, unlike the creeps she used to date.
- The Bridge has a few.
- Luna is initially suspicious of (and hostile towards) Godzilla Junior due to his sudden unexplained appearance, immense power, rough demeanor, and inclination towards violence (not helped by a misunderstanding that ended in the two of them beating each other black and blue). However, when she learns what a good individual he is underneath all of that, she starts falling for him rather hard.
- Monster X's surprisingly gentle nature when not on the job as a Punch-Clock Villain, Noble Demon qualities with virtues like loyalty to comrades and family, lack of physical attraction to her meaning it's not based on her appearance, and immunity to her Compelling Voice meaning it's all genuine eventually get Aria Blaze's attention. Once their Enemy Mine is done, it became abundantly clear they'd fallen in love given neither could bear to go against the other. They later officially get together.
- Same sex variety occurs when it's Gloriosa Daisy's jovialness, care towards Sonata Dusk, and willingness to help the sirens that starts to attract Adagio Dazzle's attention.
- In the Danny Phantom fanfic Resurrected Memories, Ember slowly but surely falls in love with Danny not long after accepting that he sees her as his friend and saved her life from Skulker's missile. She grows to care for him as a person and becomes attracted to him for his kind nature, his sense of humor, his good looks and for the fact that he always encouraged her dream of being a musician.
- In Total Drama fanfic Lunch Date with a Goth, an Indie Chick, and a Wide-Eyed Bubble Boy Discussed. Gwen and Zoey tell Cameron that any girl dating him will be lucky, as he's a smart, nice and overall decent guy.
- A gender inverted example in The Flower Princess and the Alchemist. Over the course of the story, Edward slowly starts to grow feelings for Orihime due to her kind and gentle nature. Bonus points in that she's the only one, besides Al, who has enough patience to deal with his hotheaded and brash demeanor. Not even Winry has that kind of tolerance. Unsurprisingly, in a typical Ed fashion, he either remains oblivious or in denial of his newfound feelings toward her. But Edward does get a tad bit jealous when other guys try to get too close to Orihime. However, Orihime remains ignorant of Ed's growing affections towards her. Plus, she's a damn good chef as Ed repeatedly points out.
- Played straight with Orihime and she has a type — This is discussed by Winry is left wondering if Orihime has a type after she eagerly describes Ichigo's personality, which is uncannily similar to Ed's, except for a few minor flaws/differences here and there. Does she have a thing for hot tempered, impatient, reckless, and strong-willed jerks who hide their kind and caring nature behind a tough exterior, and both also happened to lose their mothers at a young age, which resulted in both of them feeling guilty over their moms' deaths and losing a bit of their optimism? Add to the fact they are both overprotective big brothers to their younger siblings.
- In Gsptlsnz and Superman, Gsptlsnz gets fed up with her husband, Mister Mxyzptlk, and leaves him, and eventually falls for the ultimate Nice Guy Superman.
- Danny Phantom: Stranded: In the sequel story Trapped, Star has begun developing feelings for Danny since he's saved her life a few times despite how rude she's been, as well as giving kind words to show she's more than just a member of the A-listers.
- A Possible Encounter for a Phantom: Kim Possible is flattered that Danny Fenton has a crush on her, though turned him down politely because she's 2 years older. However, working with him and the two bonding has caused her to start to genuinely return his affections, as he's a Nice Guy and a superhero who admires her own heroics and not just her good looks.
- In the Futurama fic "Walking a Fine Line", while Leela still has issues with Fry's immaturity and other factors, when she becomes pregnant with his child and a mutant doctor reveals that anti-mutant prejudice means that Fry is the only one with any legal rights to the baby, Leela denies the idea that Fry could order her to have an abortion or reject their child; whatever else she feels about Fry, Leela knows for a fact that he is a good man who doesn't care that she's a mutant and would never do something so terrible.
- White Sheep (RWBY):
- Despite the many jokes about how Salem captured Nicholas Arc and "sexed him into submission," it's repeatedly made clear that they have a close, loving relationship. They have no secrets from each other, raise their children as best they can, and Salem even changed her plans from destroying the world to conquering it and finding a way to remove her immortality and die peacefully with her husband. At one point when Jaune is giving Yang flowers, Ruby asks who gives flowers that much. Jaune, without a moment's hesitation, says his dad does it for his mom.
- This is the basis for Jaune's relationship with Yang. He first shows up at his accidental date with Yang an hour late because he had to go find her flowers. She is instantly smitten, and this continues into all their later romantic interactions, with him showering her with honest compliments and her trying very hard not to act flustered.
- Yang's father Taiyang gets a lot of looks because of this. When he comes to visit the school, Yang notes a lot of female bystanders are clearly interested in an attractive single father who is openly affectionate with his daughters.
- Discussed in the Harry Potter fanfic Noticing. Ginny is dating Dean Thomas, and stays with him despite there being No Sparks because he's a Nice Guy and she thinks she's supposed to like someone like that. She ultimately breaks up with him after accepting that he'll never understand her trauma... and realizes shortly thereafter that he might have been able to understand her if she ever actually opened up to him. She starts dating Harry not long after, who is also a Nice Guy but has more than enough trauma in his life to understand her. She also notes that while he isn't quite as nice as Dean, it feels more genuine from Harry. Dean sometimes felt like he was going down a list of what an Understanding Boyfriend is supposed to be, while Harry just does what makes her happy.
- Son of the Sannin: While most of the couples in-story play this trope straight, it's specially notable in the case of Karin who, despite starting out with All Girls Want Bad Boys for Sasuke (and thus vying with Sakura for his attention), eventually moves on to Neji after he shows her gratitude for healing him after his match against Sasuke (something the aforementioned didn't show until he was ordered to). As for Sakura, she doesn't start dating Sasuke until he finally mellows into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold with the "Jerk" part heavily toned down compared to his canon counterpart.
- As Fate Would Have It: Part of the reason Yancy ends up falling in love with Nate is that he proves himself to be loyal, faithful, and protective, which he ultimately confirms when he risks his own life to save her from The Shadow Triad during the story's Rescue Arc.
- A Thing of Vikings:
- Hiccup and Fishlegs treat Astrid and other woman like people while other boys like Snotlout treat them as possessions, which is why Astrid is with Hiccup and why a lot of Berk girls wanted Fishlegs and resent Heather for being with the latter. Astrid makes this absolutely clear to Snotlout in Chapter 17 as part of her scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him, and even Ruffnut uses this argument as to why she had no interest in Snotlout. Snotlout's later Character Development involves him becoming much more respectful of women, and he ends up in a polyamorous relationship with two women, as well as another man.
- Later on, Princess Mór notes that part of the reason she likes Tuffnut is that he wouldn't look at her as a woman with titles he has to control but appreciates her as a person.
- The Wizard and the Huntress: One of the things about Jim that Claire finds attractive is that he's so humble in-spite of his awesome powers and that he cares about what she thinks and feels.
- Random Drama Series: While she wasn't single when the attraction started, it's implied that the reason Sky fell for Victor is because he is a gentleman towards her who treats her and her dreams with respect.
- Out of all of the "potential suitors" Mirabel is given in The Seer and His Butterfly, she ends up marrying Joseph, the only boy in the village who has been consistently nice to her while the others started out as bullies.
- Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Yolanda first finds herself attracted to Leon as a result of his quirkiness and knowledge. But as she gradually spends more and more time with him after he saves her from a group of hungry crassigyrinus, she finds herself falling in love with him once she sees him let down his walls enough to show her just how brave, loyal, caring, and funny he can be around people that he truly cares about, even going so far as to wish that a boy like him could have been around for her during her time in school.
- The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H.: The reason why Anastasia Burns has a crush on Simon Skinner-Chalmers is because he's so much more polite than other boys his age.
I assumed chivalry was nonexistent among modern striplings, but with one conversation, Simon Skinner-Chalmers had proven me wrong.
- The Pirate's Soldier: Almost all of the alien girls show at least a degree of fondness towards Heero Yuy, with the most prominent ones being Ryoko and Ayeka. Mihoshi is a somewhat ambiguous example, since she doesn't actively pursue him, but after she is engaged to him to seal the alliance between the Jurai Empire and the Seniwa Domain, she admits that she appreciates his good qualities and would like to marry someone like him. Later on, while Ayeka is shown to still harbor some feelings towards Heero, her interactions with Quatre also make it clear she's growing attracted to his kind and polite personality.
- Once Upon a Time fanfic A Comedy of Errors: Or rather Single Woman Seeks Good Woman. It becomes clear that Regina fell in love with Emma because of her good heart and deeds.
- Women of Eden: While Adam is a chauvinistic prick who treats both brides like servants, Lucifer treats them with kindness and respect, so it's no wonder that both Lilith and Eve preferred the angel over Adam.
