History Main / RichSuitorPoorSuitor

** Gender-inverted in ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog,'' where Prince Naveen, cut off by his parents, chooses to marry the rich Charlotte [=LeBouffe=]] for her money... before falling for her poorer friend, [[Franchise/DisneyPrincess Tiana]]. It seems like he might have to marry Charlotte even after choosing Tiana, but [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy Charlotte does away with that issue herself]].

* ''Anime/HikaruNoDensetsu'' To Takaaki, Shiina is the rich suitor, being a SpoiledSweet girl from a wealthy family, while Hikari is the poor student, and ordinary girl blessed with great athletic skill. [[spoiler: Takaaki marries Shiina in the manga, but the anime changes this to him getting with Hikari]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Titanic1997}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rich_poor_suitor2.jpg]]]]

** GenderFlipped in ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog,'' where Prince Naveen, cut off by his parents, chooses to marry the rich Charlotte [=LeBouffe=]] for her money... before falling for her poorer friend, [[Franchise/DisneyPrincess Tiana]]. It seems like he might have to marry Charlotte even after choosing Tiana, but [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy Charlotte does away with that issue herself]].

* ''Film/MoulinRouge'': Satine must choose between the rich Duke ([[OnlyOneName that's his only name]]) and the young bohemian playwright Christian -- or, more poetically, between her diamonds-are-a-girl's-best-friend materialism and her desire to be free to love. And of course the a show-within-a-show they're planning has the exact same love triangle -- inspired by said conflict, but this time featuring a courtesan torn between a poor sitar player and a villainous maharajah. However, while he ''is'' very definitely the villain of the main story, the Duke does still get a chance to comment on the situation and complain about ''why'' he's the villain:

* ''Film/MoulinRouge'': Satine must choose between the rich Duke ([[OnlyOneName that's his only name]]) and the young bohemian playwright Christian -- or, more poetically, between her diamonds-are-a-girl's-best-friend materialism and her desire to be free to love. And of course the a show-within-a-show they're planning has the exact same love triangle -- inspired by said conflict, but this time featuring a courtesan torn between a poor sitar player and an villainous maharajah.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E141SpurOfTheMoment Spur of the Moment]]" is about a woman who has to choose between a rich man she doesn't love and a poor man she does love, and her future self pursues her on a horse to warn her not to choose the wrong man. The woman ultimately chooses to run off with the poor man. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, ''he'' turns out to be the wrong choice her future self had tried to warn her against. The [[DeconstructedTrope poor guy is predictably lousy at handling money and runs the farm they depend on into the ground]].]]

* ''[[Creator/ChoiceOfGames Choice of Romance]]'' plays this extremely straight with your main two suitors (not including the King/Queen) being wealthy but unattractive nobleman Torres and romantic but impoverished artist Mendosa. Picking Mendosa gives you a considerably happier ending where the two of you live a wild, love-filled life and eventually come into money too; while Torres is genuinely sweet and devoted to you, you never truly love him and wonder what could have been if you had followed your heart more.

* ''Literature/{{Holes}}'',
** During Stanley Yelnats's great-great-grandfather's story, Elya (the grandpa) is the poor one and he's up against a fat slob rich guy [[OldManMarryingAChild who's significantly older]]. The contest is decided by the size of the bride price, a pig, but they turn out to be the same size. The father lets the bride choose which one but she can't make up her mind. At that point Elya realizes she doesn't care about him and leaves in disgust.

* With a little bit of ShippingGoggles applied, ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' can be seen as having this in the form of aristocratic and reliable [[SugarAndIcePersonality Austria]] and rough-and-tumble [[HotBlooded Prussia]] both being interested in [[ActionGirl Hungary.]] (Though Prussia is not shown to be ''that'' poor either.) Atypically, Rich Suitor Austria is [[OfficialCouple canonly]] the [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend victorious one]], but the fanworks that emphasize this trope the most are the ones that believe Hungary would be better off with the "more fun and passionate" [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Prussia.]] And they often apply DieForOurShip to Austria to "justify" why Hungary would dump him.
** For some fics, you can switch Prussia with Hungary's teenage-hood friend [[WholesomeCrossdresser Poland]] and it's similar. Including the DFOS, sadly.
** The Greece/Japan/Turkey LoveTriangle can also be viewed as this, considering Greece's PerpetualPoverty and Turkey's BlingOfWar and Greece/Japan being heavily favored in both canon and fandom.

* ''Literature/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' has Krulcifer faced with the choice of Lux (prince of a now-destroyed empire, with a massive debt) and Balzeride (heir to one of the most powerful noble families in the New Kingdom). Unusually for this trope, Lux is only in the equation because Krulcifer asks him to [[FakRelationship pretend to be her lover]] to stop her family from forcing her into marriage. Krulcifer proposes that they settle things with a duel, which Balzeride loses and hence attempts to cheat. He's disgraced and imprisoned as a result, while Lux ends up being accepted by Krulcifer's family as an acceptable suitor.

** Happened in the book as well, and therefore, presumably, [[TruthInTelevision in real life]].

* ''Literature/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' has Krulcifer faced with the choice of Lux (prince of a now-destroyed empire, with a massive debt) and Balzeride (heir to one of the most powerful noble families in the New Kingdom). Unusually for this trope, Lux is only in the equation because Krulcifer asks him to [[TheBeard pretend to be her lover]] to stop her family from forcing her into marriage. Krulcifer proposes that they settle things with a duel, which Balzeride loses and hence attempts to cheat. He's disgraced and imprisoned as a result, while Lux ends up being accepted by Krulcifer's family as an acceptable suitor.

If the suitors are also a BettyAndVeronica pair, the dynamic will typically be either "[[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan poor but nice]] vs. [[RichBitch rich but haughty]]" or "[[AllGirlsWantBadBoys poor but exciting]] vs. [[RomanticRunnerUp rich but boring]] suitor," being obviously slanted toward the poor suitor in both cases. In fact, having the rich suitor win or even be a decent, likeable person is a rare with this trope (but Administrivia/NotASubversion since this trope isn't explicitly about their personalities). If the poor suitor is portrayed as the bad guy, it's usually a GoldDigger situation where he's deceiving and exploiting her.

Most of the time, it's going to be "go with the poor one," and the story will carry an {{Aesop}} that true love is worth more than material wealth. This makes sense if the rich one is a total bore or outright jackass, or the woman is just not in love with him as she is with the broke one. When done poorly, the rich one often ends up as the DesignatedVillain. This trope overlaps considerably with WrongGuyFirst and DisposableFiance, but keep in mind that the rich suitor is not ''necessarily'' wrong, first or particularly disposable.

If the suitors are also a BettyAndVeronica pair, the dynamic will typically be either "[[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan poor but nice]] suitor vs. [[RichBitch rich but haughty]] suitor" or "[[AllGirlsWantBadBoys poor but exciting]] suitor vs. [[RomanticRunnerUp rich but boring]] suitor", being obviously slanted toward the poor suitor in both cases. In fact, having the rich suitor win or even be a decent, likeable person is a rare variation of this trope (and Administrivia/NotASubversion). Perhaps the trope name should have been "Poor Suitor Wins" instead? The odd exception can happen though, with the rich suitor being a nice, decent person and the poor suitor being a male GoldDigger.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Snape, who grew up poor, was in a failed one-sided ChildhoodFriendRomance with Harry's mother, Lily. Lily herself grew up in a middle-class home in the same town Snape. Harry's father, James, came from a wealthy pureblooded family whose wealth was greatly compounded by a hair potion his father, [[UnfortunateNames Fleamont]] invented. Given Harry's existence, it's pretty easy to see whom she fell in love with (hint: it's the rich one).

* ''Literature/SongAtDawn'' DiscussedTrope and one of the many conundrums resolved by the Court of Love: if both are equal in all aspects except wealth then the fulcrum is the lady's own wealth. If she is wealthy she should chose the poor suitor because she could provide for him and 'love's greatest joy is providing for a lover's needs'. On the other hand, if she is poor then she should choose the rich suitor so he can take care of her. [[spoiler: After Arnaud proposes to her, Estela turns him down and tells him to wait for 'the heiress of his dreams'.]]

** It's probably more accurate to call this a subversion, since Catelyn isn't interested in Petyr romantically and [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend doesn't take his advances seriously]]. As TheDutifulDaughter, she doesn't protest against her engagement to Brandon (it helps that he is rather handsome and charming, which isn't a given in ArrangedMarriage), but doesn't know him that well and when she has to marry his brother, she's not torn about it either. Her sister Lysa is in love with Petyr, but he doesn't reciprocate; she [[BedTrick tricks him into sleeping with her]] and becomes pregnant, thinking she could then marry him... But ends up forced into aborting the child and marrying older Jon Arryn, who as lord of the Vale is technically the rich suitor in this scenario. Lysa never stops loving Petyr, [[spoiler: which allows him to use her for his plans - but he never reciprocates, ultimately murdering her for threatening Sansa.]]

This trope is most often "two men and one woman" because of a sense that woman needs someone to 'provide for her'. This sort of logic ties into UnableToSupportAWife and generates part of this trope's conflict.

* In ''Theatre/SongsForANewWorld'' the singer of [[https://youtu.be/1vA2wgirBJc "Stars and the Moon"]] has a choice between three suitors, two who were poor, one wealthy.

* ''Series/{{Belgravia}}'': Lady Maria Grey is engaged to John Bellasis, nephew and second-in-line to the wealthy Earl of Brockenhurst, but forms a mutual attraction with the middle-class businessman Charles Pope, who happens to be the Earl's illegitimate grandson through his deceased son; John, being a cad, is apathetic to the whole business and couldn't care less about the match (it's Maria's ImpoverishedPatrician mother who's really pushing it). The situation gets turned on its head when [[spoiler:Charles is discovered to be legitimate when papers legalizing the marriage are found, leaving John with nothing.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'', though Fiona was intended to marry the wealthy lord of Duloc Farquaad, she falls in love with the common ogre Shrek. At first, she accepts Farquaad's proposal after a falling out with Shrek, but is seen to be extremely miserable and loathing of Farquaad. [[spoiler: However, after Farquaad is eaten by Dragon at the wedding, she marries Shrek.]]

* ''Film/MoulinRouge'': Satine must choose between the rich Duke ([[OnlyOneName that's his only name]]) and the young bohemian playwright Christian -- or, more poetically, between her diamonds-are-a-girl's-best-friend materialism and her desire to be free to love. And of course the a show-within-a-show they're planning has the exact same love triangle.

* ''LightNovel/HarukaNogizakasSecret'' has [[TheOjou Nogizaka]] [[UptownGirl Haruka]], the [[SchoolIdol wealthy and popular High School student]], who is the love interest of OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Ayase Yuuto, the "Poor Suitor" (middle-class but, if you compare him to Haruka and the "Rich Suitor"), and [[AlphaBitch Shute]] [[{{Jerkass}} Sutherland]], who demeans Ayase in any given opportunity. Ayase Yuuto's self-steem issues are more of an obstacle than Sutherland, who isn't even a regular character.

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' has Krulcifer faced with the choice of Lux (prince of a now-destroyed empire, with a massive debt) and Balzeride (heir to one of the most powerful noble families in the New Kingdom). Unusually for this trope, Lux is only in the equation because Krulcifer asks him to [[TheBeard pretend to be her lover]] to stop her family from forcing her into marriage. Krulcifer proposes that they settle things with a duel, which Balzeride loses and hence attempts to cheat. He's disgraced and imprisoned as a result, while Lux ends up being accepted by Krulcifer's family as an acceptable suitor.

* ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'': Rose must choose between the wealthy businessman Cal and impoverished artist Jack. Leonardo Dicaprio won.

* One episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' was about a woman who had to choose between a rich man she didn't love and a poor man she did love, and her future self pursued her on a horse to warn her not to choose the wrong man. The woman ultimately chooses to run off with the poor man. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, ''he'' turned out to be the wrong choice her future self had tried to warn her against. The [[DeconstructedTrope poor guy was predictably lousy at handling money and ran the farm they depended on into the ground]].]]

* The second and third books in the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series run on this trope, with Bella having to choose between [[VampireWerewolfLoveTriangle Edward and Jacob]]. [[spoiler:Edward]] wins.