History Main / HeroicSeductress

* Also from Marvel, the ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers'' had a member called Enchantress who named and modeled herself off of Thor's nemesis, Amora the Enchantress. Similarly, she could also use her looks to her advantage, although she was much more benevolent.

* The [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Escort]] from ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem'' has the ability to Roleblock targets, preventing them from using their night abilities. She is on the side of the town though and thus is supposed to help stop TheMafia by... Distracting their members.

** Yael, according to some translations of the word "covered." The {{Bowdlerise}}d assumption is that she tucked Sisera in all nice and snug before assassinating him, but [[UnusualEuphemism "covered" may have more adult-themed connotations]].

* Nancy Lee from ''LightNovel/NinjaSlayer'' is an IntrepidReporter who happens to be a [[MsFanservice sexy]], [[EveryoneLovesBlondes blonde bombshell]] who's not afraid to ShowSomeLeg from time to time to distract bad guys and help the main protagonist. In one instance, she dresses up as a prostitute in order to gain access inside a Syndicate facility. On the downside, [[SoBeautifulItsACurse her gorgeous looks tend to work against her favor]], making her a LustObject of some vile, sleazy scumbags who all have some... [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty unwholesome thoughts]] in mind for her.

* Mademoiselle Rimbaud in ''{{Film/History of the World Part I}}''.
* The MadeForTVMovie ''Mermaids'' gives one sister Venus the powers of an EnthrallingSiren - who is able to use seduction to hypnotise anyone. This includes getting her sister out of jail and making the guards forget anything ever happened.
* Lisa Fremont in ''Film/RearWindow'' acts like a classic FemmeFatale seductress (she is Creator/GraceKelly in a nightgown after all). At first, the movie seems to be setting her up as MsFanservice or someone who will cause the male lead (Creator/JamesStewart) to be DistractedByTheSexy. But as the film progresses, she is fleshed out as a seemingly good-hearted, intelligent, and helpful character who assists the wheelchair-bound male character in his investigation about the suspicious behavior of his neighbor.

[[quoteright:350:[[Literature/DominoLady https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsex_as_a_weapon.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsex_as_a_weapon.jpg]]

* If the game you're playing has a seduction skill, chance are someone, somewhere, made a character with points in that skill and used it that way.

* Sha'ira, the asari Consort in ''Videogame/MassEffect1''. She's introduced as a very powerful woman who is part confidant, part therapist, part soothsayer, and part prostitute. We're never given a clear indication of what she does...only that she "helps" people and that it sometimes involves sex. The only quest involves calling [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]] to her room, and asking him/her to deal with a problem (one of her clients has become a [[ClingyJealousGirl Clingy Jealous Guy]] and she needs him to be talked down). She makes it clear that the man is a dear friend and that she wants him to get his act together. If you're disappointed with the platonic reward she gives, she'll also sleep with you.
** By extension, the other Consorts in her employ are also this trope -- but nowhere near her level of skill.

* You can also play this type of character in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. Aside from the normal dialogue trees, there are specific perks that affect men or women (both are available to either men or women) that will have some sort of desirable outcome gained through flirtation or outright sex. For example, you can resolve the situation with the StarterVillain by using this perk to follow him to his hotel room, whereupon you can either kill him, sleep with him, or sleep with him and ''then'' kill him. There are other examples as well, with one of the most direct ones being finding the military contact for a smuggling ring with the Great Khans gang, and convincing him to make his scheduled delivery by... well, you know.
%%* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', Judith

* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'' has Primrose the dancer as one of its eight protagonists. Her unique skill, Allure, lets her seduce most [=NPCs=] ([[EvenTheGirlsWantHer of either gender]]) into following her around and participating in battles as an {{assist character}}. In her backstory, she insinuated herself into the employ of a loathsome tavern owner who is heavily implied to take advantage of his position over her and the other dancers, all as part of her plan to hunt down [[YouKilledMyFather the men who murdered her father]] when she was a girl.
* Ann in ''VideoGame/Persona5'' plays the seductress role to distract Yusuke to get into Madarame's house in order to unlock a door. At another Palace, she and the other girls have to talk up a Shadow for information. Though all the girls are wearing swimsuits, it is Ann that ends up doing much of the work by using her looks.
* Ayla in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' has the Charm (get an item from an enemy) and Kiss (heal an ally) abilities, in addition to wearing only a FurBikini. She's also the single strongest character in the game, able to rip robots and monsters apart with her bare hands.
* Miss Fortune in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is implied to be this. In her biography, it's stated she uses her great number of lovers to help her get rid of the ''Main/PirateKing'' Gangplank. Shown directly in the comic ''Fortune Smiles'' when she invites to dinner a rival local crimelord and seduces him to gain him to her side. It's debatable how heroic she is, however, given some of the downright immoral stuff she does in her line of work (such as in her color story).

* While Aphrodite of ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'' herself is more an ethically sketchy FemmeFatale, she can also bestow her supernatural allure on others. Thus, Zagreus becomes a RareMaleExample when he accepts any of her boons during an escape attempt, making foes fall in LoveAtFirstPunch and charming them into pulling their punches, exposing themselves to more damage, or pulling temporary {{Sex Face Turn}}s.

* In ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'', when Allen Schezar is locked up by his king, Princess Millerna comes down to the dungeons, seemingly trips and [[ShowSomeLeg Shows Some Leg]] to the guard, asking him to check her foot. The blushing guard bends down to investigate and gets a TapOnTheHead from Allen's lieutenant Gaddess.

* Shiki Aizawa of ''Manga/AizawaSanMultiplies'' is [[LiteralSplitPersonality the manifestation of the title character's sex drive]]. She constantly pushes her original forward to be more aggressive in her relationship with their crush. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by another one of the duplicates - as the duplicates get all of the experiences of the original when they merge, Shiki gets all the joy of the relationship when she links back up with the original.

* Dorothy in ''Anime/PrincessPrincipal'' is a spy and a BadassDriver, but whenever she needs to get a man to drop his guard, distracting him with her voluptuous figure and seductive manner is her go-to move.

* Marvel Comics also has Venus, who is a [[GorgeousGreek Greek nymph]] that started out as an evil temptress, but was [[CursedWithAwesome cursed]] by a wizard to have a soul as "beautiful" as her appearance. Now, she uses her beauty and {{Glamour}} powers to help people.

* Also from Marvel, the ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers'' had a member called Enchantress who named and modeled herself off of Thor's nemesis, Amora the Enchantress. Similarly, she could also use her looks to her advantage, although she was much more benevolent.

* Lisa Fremont in ''Film/RearWindow'' acts like a classic FemmeFatale seductress (she is Creator/GraceKelly in a nightgown after all). At first, the movie seems to be setting her up as MsFanservice or someone who will cause the male lead (Creator/JamesStewart) to be DistractedByTheSexy. But as the film progresses, she is fleshed out as a seemingly good-hearted, intelligent, and helpful character who assists the wheelchair-bound male character in his investigation about the suspicious behavior of his neighbor.

* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': Steve's scheme to get information from Dr. Maru involves at least an element of this since he starts a conversation implying that he's turned on by her homicidal genius. We never find out how far he was willing to go with it since Diana interrupts.
* ''Film/WitchfinderGeneral'' has a downplayed example. Sara is desperate to save her uncle from being tortured over a witchcraft accusation - so she offers to sleep with Hopkins if he'll spare him. Notable because this is her idea and she is not judged by other characters for doing this.

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheStand'', Dayna Jurgens of the Boulder Free Zone goes to Las Vegas to infiltrate and spy on Flagg's organization. She sleeps with Flagg's [[TheDragon right-hand man Lloyd Henreid]] as part of this mission.

* A lot of problems in the first trilogy of the ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'' series are solved by having the HighClassCallGirl protagonist, Phedre no Delaunay, find the right person to sleep with. This ranges from seducing an on-the-fence admiral to infiltrating the harem of a horrific dictator.
* In Creator/MercedesLackey's ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Owlflight]]'', Lilly keeps the Barbarians from raping any of the village girls by keeping their attention on her.
* "Mary" from Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/ThePuppetMasters'' is walking death with hands/feet, with knives, and with guns. [[GunNut Lots of guns. Everyone of the guns.]] But her principal weapon is her sex appeal, which "Sam" is happy for her to use on him, but which is more useful for detecting aliens, [[spoiler:due to their not understanding human emotions like physical attraction]].
* It may take some stretching of the term "[[AntiHero heroic]]," but in ''No Good Deed'', Literature/ElsabethSoesten is not the least bit hesitant to sleep with Lord Cuncz as an easy means of gaining access to some documents she's come to steal. It's also made clear when she describes the plan to Hieronymus that she's used this particular trick [[ReallyGetsAround many times in the past]]. [[spoiler: The plan nearly falls off the rails and she has to resort to drugging him, because rather than getting an opportunity to slip away later after he falls asleep, Cuncz was ready and able ''to go all night''. It also turns out to be subverted in that Cuncz ''wants'' her to have the documents and knew why she was there all along. He just went with it for the opportunity to bed her.]]

* The eponymous [[Literature/BookOfEsther Esther]] wins a [[CastingCouch "beauty contest"]] to find a new queen and saves her people from destruction by using her charms and sex appeal. She did this by being the sexiest girl and the best lay out of an entire harem of women chosen specifically for their beauty and sexuality. It would be like if US presidents chose consorts by selecting their favorite lay from a harem of pornstars, models, and beauty queens, and then one of those chosen consorts then used her position to get slavery abolished / civil rights enacted / favorable conditions for Native Americans.
* In ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'', a wild man named Enkidu (who later becomes TheLancer to the eponymous Gilgamesh), spends a week with a temple prostitute named Shamhat, who teaches him how to be civilized. He curses her for that because if he had just stayed in the forest and lived as a wild man, he wouldn't have experienced so much loss during his and Gilgamesh's adventures. The Sun God sets him straight, by pointing out that even though it doesn't ''always'' seem that way, becoming civilized has made Enkidu's life better, and he ''owes'' Shamhat for that. Enkidu takes back the {{Curse}} he put on Shamhat.
* In Maupassant's short story, Bed 29, Irma fell in love with a Captain who later went to fight in the Prussian War. When he came back, he realized that Irma had [[spoiler: caught syphilis after she was raped by the Prussians]]. [[spoiler: On her deathbed,]] Irma asked Captain Epivent to visit her once more, only to realize that he despised her for [[spoiler: ruining his reputation, especially since she was now known as "the wife of the Prussians."]] Hurt by his accusations, Irma explains that the reason for her actions was to [[spoiler: poison the Prussians. She then proceeded to laugh, exclaiming that she had killed more men than the Captain and his troops combined. She died the following day.]]
** Maupassant also uses the trope in "Boule de Suif," in which the title character,[[note]]It's a nickname that means something like "Dumpling" or "Butterball"[[/note]] a HookerWithAHeartOfGold, is pressured by her traveling companions to sleep with one of the German officers occupying the city of Rouen (it's set during the Franco-Prussian War) so that they can leave the city. After she does so and they escape successfully, [[UngratefulBastard they all snub her]]. Elelar seduces many powerful men in order to get useful information which helps the [[LaResistance Alliance]].
* ''Literature/TheSilerianTrilogy'': Elelar seduces many powerful men in order to get useful information which helps the [[LaResistance Alliance]].
* ''Literature/SpecialOperations'': Both Finn's sister Anna and Louise Laval are heroic, yet complicated, versions, doing this to get information from German pilots, but possibly developing real feelings for them in the process. [[spoiler: Anna's boyfriend -who she doesn't appear to have ever had sex with- is aware of what she's doing and is actually using her, while Louise's got her pregnant, getting her shunned by her family, although this causes him to provide aid to the resistance]].

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
** The episode "Mirror, Mirror" shows Lieutenant Uhura getting minxy with Mirror-Sulu so that he doesn't notice a warning light that signals transporter tampering by Chief Engineer Scott. Once the danger is past, Uhura switches off the sexy.
** Many episodes in TOS feature Kirk having to seduce some lovely woman in order to save his ship and crew.

* ''Series/{{Lexx}}'': Xev was not above using her libido to get what the crew needed. That she finally got the chance to satisfy said libido was of course an added bonus.
* Chiana in ''Series/{{Farscape}}''.
** At one point, the crew is short on food. When someone offers them what they need in exchange for a night with her, she is more than willing to go through with it for the sake of her crew.
** On many other occasions, she's used her inherent sex appeal to extract information or to keep attention on her and be a distraction while her teammates are working.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Margaery Tyrell. She's sexy and she knows it. And what does she do with her sexiness? Keeps [[TheCaligula Joffrey]] from being ''too'' cruel. Given the GrayAndGreyMorality of the show, this may be a case of PragmaticVillainy; she seems to see befriending the people as a path to power, rather than getting power in order to help the people.
* Sloan Sabbith of ''Series/TheNewsroom'' is a [[DownplayedTrope minor]] example, in that she isn't so much a "hero" in the classical sense. She is however a morally upright, utterly brilliant, and stunningly attractive woman who Mac hires to report on economic news specifically because she is both A: eminently qualified, and B: so attractive that keeping the audience's attention won't be an issue. Aside from that, she once also charmed a teenage lech into giving her his phone (during a breaking news story that required a phone, while Don was using hers), and on another occasion, told a former student of hers that she was single (she wasn't, but her lover was in the room and indicated that saying so would be ok) in order to get information that could save their jobs.
* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': A minor example, and possibly a subversion. During the third season, the survivors are being terrorized by a man known as The Governor, whom Andrea just happens to be involved with. Knowing this, Carol suggests she take a page out of Jael's book; sex him to exhaustion, then impale his skull in his sleep. But after he's finally out, she can't bring herself to do it.
* The heroine of the TV show ''Series/LostGirl'' is a succubus who uses her magical seduction powers to flirt information out of bad guys regularly, and occasionally knocks them unconscious with a kiss. In particular, physical contact with her causes intense sexual pleasure, which is very useful for getting information out of people.

* Emma, the protagonist of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', did this for a living as a Bail Bond Investigator, prior to taking over as TheSheriff of Storybrooke. Admittedly, the only time she's ever seen on the job is during the pilot, but [[LadyInRed holy crap did that dress not work like a charm]].
* In ''Series/HoratioHornblower'', Miss Cobham used her sexiness and sex to preserve her alias as Duchess of Wharfedale when she was staying as a civilian in Spanish fort (and prison), and consequently she saved her and Hornblower's life. It also saved Horatio's super important dispatches for the Admiralty she was hiding for him. While the inquisitive French soldier she had to sleep with was sleazy and she was not happy about it, she saw it as the only way to keeps their plans safe.

* ''{{Series/Charmed 1998}}'':
** At one point when the sisters have powers from the Greek Gods, Phoebe is a LoveGoddess and envisions using her powers of seduction to turn their enemies against each other. It doesn't happen but it was worth a try.
** When infiltrating a demon market, Paige pretends to be a demonic seductress to get through the front door.
* The MadeForTVMovie ''Mermaids'' gives one sister Venus the powers of an EnthrallingSiren - who is able to use seduction to hypnotise anyone. This includes getting her sister out of jail and making the guards forget anything ever happened.
* ''{{Series/Shadowhunters}}'' depicts Isabelle as a GoodBadGirl who does a sexy dance to distract demons, and also sleeps with a Seelie to gain information.

* ComicBook/SteveTrevor regularly plays at being interested in foes, often Nazi spies, in order to carry out his job as an intelligence officer and has done so since his earliest appearances. In ''ComicBook/SensationComics'' he pretends to be enthralled by the beauty of a woman claiming to be the descendant of Helen of Troy who has taken multiple US military men prisoner to distract her while ComicBook/WonderWoman rescues the prisoners. While his ploy works at first and "Helen" is taken in by his flirting he gives up the game when he panics thinking Wonder Woman has been injured.

** Rahab is a prostitute, or a brothel madam, who gives the heroic Israelite spies a place to hide. She's one of the ancestors of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}.

** Then comes [[Literature/BookOfRuth Ruth]]. With [[ShipperOnDeck some prodding]] by her mother-in-law, she spends a harvest season flirting with Boaz, who responds by giving her more than enough food to feed herself and Naomi. Then while he's passed out drunk from a party she goes and lies at his feet until he wakes up, at which point she proposes to him by invoking the law of Levirate marriage. [[RunningGag She's one of the ancestors of Jesus]].

** Austin is a distaff example. He sleeps with Alotta Fagina to get info in Dr. Evil's plan and later uses his "mojo" to defeat the fem-bots.

** You can play this type of character in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. For example, one of the bargaining chips you can use to convince a pirate queen to mentor you, to convince a demon to stop possessing a child or to solve a SuccessionCrisis is to sleep with (or, in the last case, marry) the person involved.

* Miss Fortune in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is implied to be this. In her biography, it's stated she uses her great number of lovers to help her get rid of the ''Main/PirateKing'' Gangplank. Shown directly in the comic ''Fortune Smiles'' when she invites to dinner a rival local crimelord and seduce him to gain him to her side. It's debatable how heroic she is, however, given some of the downright immoral stuff she does in her line of work (such as in her color story).

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Sexual surrogacy. Taken from Wiki/TheOtherWiki:
-->''"A sexual surrogate is a member of a three-person therapeutic sex therapy team consisting of surrogate, client, and supervising therapist. The surrogate engages in education and sometimes intimate physical relations or sex with a patient [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold to achieve a therapeutic goal]]."''
* Recently unearthed stories about the Unseen Dutch Resistance of World War II include that of [[http://didyouknowfacts.com/unseen-dutch-resistance-90-year-old-woman-seduced-nazis-teenager-lead-deaths/?utm_source=Web&utm_medium=Partner&utm_campaign=AOLHP Freddy Oversteegan]], possibly the closest this Trope can get to a real-life Natasha Romanoff.
[[/folder]]

Subtrope of SexIsGood. Contrast SexIsEvil.

* Sex as espionage: [[HoneyTrap Getting into bed with people]] who have high clearance levels, or even the EvilOverlord himself, then using that position to get information or just [[BlackWidow remove the]] [[DeathBySex threat entirely]].

* [[ShowSomeLeg Sex as a distraction]]: Taking advantage of the MaleGaze, allowing the heroine's allies to complete a task without interruption.

But not every sexy girl in fiction is evil. Some of them are downright heroic; and not despite their sexiness, but ''because'' of it. These are the ladies who epitomize SexIsGood. They're the ones who use sex as a tool or means to achieve a goal, the same way the vamp or femme fatale might, the only difference being that their goals are... well, not evil.

[[SexIsEvil Sex often has a bad reputation in fiction]]. Often, the only characters allowed [[MadonnaWhoreCompley to have any sort of sex appeal are not the ones for whom we're meant to root]]. Character types like TheVamp and the FemmeFatale run amok, [[EvilIsSexy doing their evil work]], ruining lives, and [[LadyMacbeth corrupting men into doing nasty things]].

[[SexIsEvil Sex often has a bad reputation in fiction]]. Often, the only characters allowed [[EvilIsSexy to have any sort of sex appeal]] [[MadonnaWhoreComplex are not the ones for whom we're meant to]] [[{{Pun}} root]]. Character types like TheVamp and the FemmeFatale run amok, doing their evil work, ruining lives, and corrupting men into doing nasty things.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Sexual surrogacy. Taken from Wiki/TheOtherWiki:
-->''"A sexual surrogate is a member of a three-person therapeutic sex therapy team consisting of surrogate, client, and supervising therapist. The surrogate engages in education and sometimes intimate physical relations or sex with a patient [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold to achieve a therapeutic goal]]."''
* Recently unearthed stories about the Unseen Dutch Resistance of World War II include that of [[http://didyouknowfacts.com/unseen-dutch-resistance-90-year-old-woman-seduced-nazis-teenager-lead-deaths/?utm_source=Web&utm_medium=Partner&utm_campaign=AOLHP Freddy Oversteegan]], possibly the closest this Trope can get to a real-life Natasha Romanoff.
[[/folder]]

-->''"A sexual surrogate is a member of a three-person therapeutic sex therapy team consisting of surrogate, client, and supervising therapist. The surrogate engages in education and sometimes intimate physical relations or sex with a patient to achieve a therapeutic goal."''

[[SexIsEvil Sex often has a bad reputation in fiction]]. Often, the only characters allowed [[EvilIsSexy to have any sort of sex appeal]] [[MadonnaWhoreComplex are not the ones for whom we're meant to]] [[Pun root]]. Character types like TheVamp and the FemmeFatale run amok, doing their evil work, ruining lives, and corrupting men into doing nasty things.

[[SexIsEvil Sex often has a bad reputation in fiction]]. Often, the only characters allowed [[EvilIsSexy to have any sort of sex appeal]] [[MadonnaWhoreComplex are not the ones for whom we're meant to root]]. Character types like TheVamp and the FemmeFatale run amok, doing their evil work, ruining lives, and corrupting men into doing nasty things.

'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease'''