History Main / FirstGirlWins

From a [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] point of view, the LawOfConservationOfDetail suggests introducing the Love Interest early. An early introduction allows you to get the audience interested in her and rooting for her, gives you space for CharacterDevelopment, and give her relationship with her (eventual) partner the most time to develop organically. And conversely, the later in the story the Love Interest gets introduced, the harder it'll be to convince the audience to accept them in the role. Characters introduced earlier will often pick up fan followings who root for them to "win", and it's not easy to convince those fans to abandon their initial preference in favor of the OfficialCouple.

From a [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] point of view, the LawOfConservationOfDetail suggests introducing the Love Interest early. An early introduction allows you to get the audience interested in her and rooting for her, gives you space for CharacterDevelopment, and give her relationship with her (eventual) partner the most time to develop organically.

* In ''Literature/SuperPowereds'', Camille gave Vince his first kiss long before the start of the story. She later ends up winning his love despite Sasha and Eliza both having spent time as his actual girlfriend.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** While the first girl Harry [[LovingAShadow crushed on]] was Cho Chang, Ginny was the first girl of his generation he ever crossed paths with, both in the wizarding world and in the series (and the first one to show any interest in ''him''). They get together in the sixth book [[spoiler:and are married in the epilogue]].
** The first girl Ron meets outside his family is Hermione, and by the end, in spite of Ron's [[ImaginaryLoveTriangle misconceptions]] about [[LikeBrotherAndSister her and Harry's relationship]], [[spoiler: they're married, too]].
** For a different type of "first", Hannah Abbott is the first girl on the register, and she also becomes HappilyMarried to [[spoiler:Neville]].
* In a gender-flipped example illustrating the 'initial disinterest' principle, in ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' Mr. Darcy is the first man with whom Elizabeth is shown to really interact, but it's not until she's rejected a proposal from one man and toyed with the idea of marrying two others that she falls for him. Played with regarding the BetaCouple Jane and Bingley: he is the "first guy" who is even mentioned in the novel and marries the first girl he meets (or who is pushed at him) when he arrives at Netherfield. However, from his perspective, his first girl is Georgiana Darcy, and his sister Caroline ships him with her.
* In Creator/RobinHobb's ''[[Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings Assassin]]'' cycle, [[spoiler:Fitz and Molly]], though only after the Fools trilogy, not after the initial three books.

* ''Literature/TortallUniverse''
** Gender-flipped in ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'', George is the first boy Alanna meets when she reaches Corus.
** In ''Literature/DaughterOfTheLioness'', Nawat is the first boy Aly meets who's her own age while she's in the Copper Isles. And when we say boy, we mean crow who can turn into a boy.

* In ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'',[[spoiler: Annabeth is the first demigod female that Percy comes into contact with]] and they eventually get together [[spoiler: at the end of the fifth book]], after a long Just Friends relationship.
* ''Literature/RangersApprentice'': Will and Alyss grew up alongside each other in the ward, and were, in fact, the first two children in there in their age group, and they end up [[spoiler:married]] in the end.
* Pretty much the expected in ''Literature/TheEdgeChronicles''. Granted, Maris and Quint were a LateArrivalSpoiler thanks to the first trilogy, but there's also Sinew Tatum (slaughterer girl Twig meets early in ''Beyond the Deepwoods''), Madga Burlix (Chosen with Rook and Stob in ''The Last of the Sky Pirates''), and Eudoxia Prade (the daughter of the man who owns the phraxmine Nate worked in in ''The Immortals'')
* Played with in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice''. The first woman Jerin meets to whom he's not related is the Princess Odelia. The woman he falls in love with is her sister Princess Ren. However, because in this world a man [[MarryThemAll marries every sister in a family]], he marries Ren ''and'' Odelia (and three other sisters of age, and several younger ones [[WifeHusbandry he's expected to care for until they're older]]), and he finds himself falling in love with Odelia, too. It's also mentioned that he was once [[HotForTeacher in love with his teacher]], since she was the first and for a long time only non-related woman with whom he had close contact, but that crush has passed.

* In a science fiction example from ''Literature/TheLostFleet'', one of the first women "Black Jack" sees when is woken from cryosleep is [[spoiler:Captain Tanya Desanji, his future wife (and flag captain)]]. While it is not noted if she is the ONLY woman there, she is the only one specifically mentioned.
* Yet another male example is in the Literature/EarthsChildren series by Jean Auel. The female protagonist, Ayla, is told by her adoptive mother in the first book to leave the Clan of the Cave Bear and find her own kind (referred to by the Clan as the "Others"); more specifically, her dying mother tells her she must find a mate from among her own kind. In the second book, she meets Jondalar, who is not only a man of the Others, but the first "Other" she has met since she lost her family and got amnesia twelve years earlier. They fall in love by the end of the second book, and even though several more men fall in love with Ayla over the rest of the series, Ayla and Jondalar stay together, convinced [[RedStringOfFate they were destined to be together]].
* In ''Literature/VampireAcademy'', Dimitri's relationship with Rose stands strong as the OfficialCouple in the end. He is the first guy Rose meets in ''Vampire Academy''. Mason Ashford is introduced someone later and Adrian Ivashkov in ''Frostbite''. They are the other two strong contenders for Rose's heart but are outclassed.
* In ''Literature/CoilingDragon'', Linley doesn't even notice when Delia smiles at him in their first class, but they end up together years later. At an auction, Delia spends a fortune to purchase a item proclaiming how Alice, the rival-in-love, gained and lost Linley's affection.

* Marshall and Lily in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. They are each other's first and only sexual partner (may be a technicality for Lily), a point of pride for the couple. However, it was [[spoiler:seemingly]] averted with Robin and Ted [[spoiler:until the final episode]].
** Also averted in the case of [[spoiler: Barney and Robin]] who dated several people before it was revealed in a flash forward that they will be married.
** [[spoiler: In the series finale, it is implied that Ted and his first love interest on the show, Robin, do end up together following Barney and Robin's divorce and the tragic death of the mother of Ted's children.]]

* ''Manga/SteelAngelKurumi'': both Kurumi and Karinka like Kagura Nakaito, but Kurumi is introduced first (and has the extra advantage of being the title character).

** [[{{Tsundere}} Sakura Haruno]] is introduced to readers as a potential LoveInterest of the titular character in Chapter 3. The other potential love interest, [[NiceGirl Hinata Hyuga]], wasn't introduced to the series until the manga's second arc. [[spoiler:In the DistantFinale it's Hinata who gets HappilyMarried to Naruto]], but in the [[LuckySeven seventh Shippuden movie]] (and the first {{canon}} movie of the franchise), ''Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie'', the audience learns that Hinata met Naruto on [[SnowMeansLove a snowy day]] not too long ''before'' they enrolled in the Academy, ''before'' he met Sakura, [[spoiler:making Hinata both this trope and the FirstGirlAfterAll]]. Also, [[AllThereInTheManual according to the first databook]], [[WordOfGod Kishimoto]] created Hinata ''before'' he created Sakura, and the only reason he added Sakura into the story is because [[ExecutiveMeddling his editor told him to]].
** Sakura plays it straight, however, with [[spoiler:Sasuke Uchiha, [[SingleTargetSexuality the guy she always loved since the beginning]]]].

** Played straight with Harry and Ginny. While the first girl Harry crushed on was Cho Chang, Ginny was the first girl of his generation he ever crossed paths with, both in the wizarding world and in the series (and the first one to show any interest in ''him'').
** Similarly, the first girl we see Ron meet outside his family is Hermione, and by the end, in spite of Ron's [[ImaginaryLoveTriangle misconceptions]] about [[LikeBrotherAndSister her and Harry's relationship]], [[spoiler: they're married, too.]]
** For a different type of "first", Hannah Abbott is the first girl on the register and she ends up also HappilyMarried to [[spoiler: Neville.]]

* Played straight in the ''Anime/TenchiUniverse'' continuity: [[spoiler:Ryoko does "win" this time around. She's strongly hinted to be the one to end up with him near the series' climax, and does concretely end up with him by the end of ''Tenchi Forever''.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': Subverted with Korra and Mako. Mako met Korra before Asami and at the end of the first season, Mako ends up with Korra. However, in the second season they realize they don't work as a couple and break up.

** In ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanIntegrityAndFaithlessness Integrity and Faithlessness]], Fidel and Miki have been friends their whole lives, Fidel's father having taken Miki in after her parents died, and Miki is the easiest party member for Fidel to gain affection with.

* ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' uses this trope in all four games.

** In ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime Till The End of Time]]'', Fayt starts the game being close friends with Sofia, who later becomes a party member and is the easiest of Fayt's potential love interests to woo.

* The Patterson children in ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' all seem destined to end up with the first person of the opposite sex they met in pre-school, which is a more extreme example of this trope. All but April. She gets a line or two in the finale strip that says she ends up with some nameless guy she meets when she moves far, far away from the rest of the family.

* While the true situation is ''[[{{Understatement}} slightly]]'' complicated in ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', in the eyes of Nozomu, the titular sensei, the First Girl (Fuura Kafuka, the first student of his he met) did Win. [[spoiler: The truth is Kafuka was DeadAllAlong, and her organs were transplanted into twelve of Nozomu's students, causing the students and Nozomu to see Kafuka in the place of any one student at a time. In Nozomu's eyes, he married Kafuka and Kafuka alone, making it this trope. On paper it's an endless cycle of marriage and divorce between Nozomu and the twelve students. To outsiders, though, it looks like MarryThemAll. For what it's worth, all the girls have children by him...that look eerily like Kafuka.]]

* ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'': Tim met [[ComicBook/Batgirl2009 Stephanie]] months before meeting his first girlfriend Ariana. He later breaks up with Ariana to date Steph, and Convergence shows that even after all the trials their relationship faced he and Steph are happily together in the end.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': You see Aerith first, but Cloud knew [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend Tifa]] long before this. Tifa also joins your team first. WordOfGod has confirmed in the meantime that Tifa is the official love interest.
** Aerith is herself officially paired with ''her first boy'', Zack. He just happens to already be dead when the game starts. In fact, [[spoiler: she confesses at on the Gondola Ride that the attraction between her and Cloud initially [[LovingAShadow was largely based]] on his (unintentional and unaware) mimicry of Zack's personality and demeanor]].

** Somewhat subverted with ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons'', in which the first potential LoveInterest for a female character is their neighbor Fritz. He can be very tricky to romance, since the food gift that will help to win him over is extremely difficult to acquire.

* Iginio Straffi appears to have moved Heaven and Earth in order to assure people that [[WesternAnimation/WinxClub Bloom isn't just some]] temperamental jerk barging into an established relationship and randomly hating the other victim of her dishonest love interest's spinelessness. He accomplished this by revealing that Diaspro was simply a Plan B put in place because it was generally believed that the original future Queen of Eraklyon had been murdered by the Ancestral Witches when in fact she was hidden on the obscure T-shirt producing planet called Earth.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'':
** Subverted with Korra and Mako. Mako met Korra before Asami and at the end of the first season, Mako ends up with Korra. However, in the second season they realize they don't work as a couple and break up.
** Played straight in the GrandFinale: [[spoiler:Asami, the first girl her age that Korra met in Republic City, is the one who gets together with Korra in the end. So, technically, both "First Girls" won.]]

* Subverted in ''Anime/CodeGeass'' when Shirley [[spoiler:reveals that she has feelings for Lelouch (to Rolo), and is promptly killed.]]

* ''Franchise/StarOcean'' uses this trope in all four games.

* 'VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'':

* Slightly subverted male example in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11886910/1/Gankona-Unnachgiebig-Unità Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità]]'': Between [[ChildhoodLoveInterest Germany]] and [[YamatoNadeshiko Japan]], Italy chose Germany [[spoiler:''and'' [[LastGirlWins Japan]], therefore entering into a [[{{Polyamory}} polyamorous]]] relationship with them both. In other words, both won.]]