This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Bones:Removed the One Piece example; Luffy would go to such lengths to help pretty much anyone; it has nothing to do with gender or whatnot. Why? Because he's awesome that way.
Thinking With the Wrong Head launched as The Dulcinea Effect: From YKTTW
Clerval: I don't think either of the Heroes examples work. It's perfectly clear that Charlie wasn't a girl Hiro'd just met - we saw him go back into the past and spend a considerable time with her, falling in love. It's not merely implied, it's how he learned English, for heaven's sake. Furthermore, it's nowhere near his sole motivation - he takes ages to work up the nerve to even try to kill Sylar, and has, among other things, to actually go into the future and see what will happen if Sylar isn't stopped. And as for Peter and Caitlin, well again, she was his actual proper girlfriend and it was his fault she was in that situation - and she the only person with whom he had any sort of relationship, seeing as he couldn't remember his family or past. And then both he and the show seemed to forget all about her anyway.
The Hiro-Yaeko relationship might be a better example, seeing as he decides to risk derailing the entire future just to kiss her when he barely knows her at all. Although there's no rescue involved, so maybe not.
Is Hiro, Lunar not heroes, actully a good example? He's told before hand that some Big Bad is coming to destroy the world. Shortly after meeting Lucia an evil god shows up and pretty much confirms her story. So he Jumped at the Call, which happened to have a pretty face.
Masami Phoenix: Removed the Final Fantasy VI example (see below) because it's not really a case of this, it just looks like it.
- Locke in Final Fantasy VI does it twice; once with Terra, to whom he becomes more of a surrogate father-figure than anything else, and again with Celes, his eventual love interest. Edgar also decides to champion Terra's cause just after meeting her, but being a Ted Baxter, his intentions are less chivalrous.
All three of these cases are actually motivated by practicality. Locke only agrees to help Terra after he is ordered to by a superior. In fact, his first response is "This better not have anything to do with that Imperial Witch!" Similarly, while Edgar is attracted to Terra, his true motivations for hiding her - at the risk of his people - is because he knows the Empire is evil and that they need Terra's help to defeat them. The closest one to a true case is Locke rescuing Celes, but again, this falls to practicality. Soldiers beating up their former superior means there's a good chance that you can get an ally out of this, which Locke needs both in the long run and the short run to escape.
Rebochan: I pulled the Evangelion example:
- Shinji at the beginning of Neon Genesis Evangelion is obstinant about not getting in that Giant Robot. Until his dad makes clear that if he won't, he'll pry that girl with the bandages (Rei) out of her hospital bed and send her instead.
- Is that fair? Most people would be half decent enough to feel sorry for her and already irresponsible when the world is at stake. And sex appeal doesn't hurt, men are wired to want to protect women.
- Shinji ain't "most people".
- Is that fair? Most people would be half decent enough to feel sorry for her and already irresponsible when the world is at stake. And sex appeal doesn't hurt, men are wired to want to protect women.
I know people hate Shinji a lot, but seriously. Pretty much anyone should have the conscience to take up a task when the alternative is to rip a half-dead person out of a hospital bed and make them do it. A little different than championing the romantic cause of a girl you've never met simply by having contact with her.
