History Main / TheDulcineaEffect

* Touma succumbs to The Dulcinea Effect throughout ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex''. This is even [[LampshadeHanging discussed]] at one point by his [[HaremGenre Harem]], which is mostly made up of girls he's rescued earlier.

* GenderInverted in ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou''. Kishika first meets Rentarou when she rescues him from a group of delinquents who were harassing him for a set of keychains.
* ''Manga/AkumaNoRiddle'': Tokaku is a high-school assassin who's pretty quick to risk death and openly declare her intentions to a room full of fellow killers to protect a girl she's only recently met.
** [[spoiler:Said "girl she's only recently met" actually has the ability to induce this in nearby people, whether she wants to or not. This revelation causes Tokaku to seriously question why she wants to protect Haru.]]
* In ''Literature/AriaTheScarletAmmo'', Kinji inherited this ''genetically''. It's a side effect of his SuperMode. He can't ''not'' help a girl in trouble.
* ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'':
** Jacuzzi gets a ransom note for a woman he met earlier that day. His response is to turn in himself for the money the mob put on his head. However, he's shown to be like this towards ''[[MartyrWithoutACause everyone]].'' He was, at one point, more concerned about the safety of some Russo mafia mooks than he was over the fact that said mooks were about to ''kill him''.
** Claire Stanfield, a man who insists on devoting himself completely and utterly to the first cute girl he finds that doesn't say no. Considering he's the series' resident AxCrazy SociopathicHero, [[spoiler:Chane]] now has either the most awesome or the most terrifying boyfriend in existence.
* Koyomi Araragi of ''Literature/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' suffers from this, even going so far as to risk his life to save a girl he barely knows when the sole reason she is in trouble in the first place is that she subconsciously wants to ''kill him.''
** Specifically referenced in ''Nekomonogatari (Black)'', where Araragi tries to make sense of his feelings for Hanekawa. He realizes that, rather than wanting to date her, he likes her so much that he might want to die for her instead. This is followed shortly by [[spoiler:getting himself PUNCHED IN HALF as part of a gambit to save her]].

* Touma in ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' succumbs to The Dulcinea Effect throughout the series. This is even [[LampshadeHanging discussed]] at one point by his [[HaremGenre Harem]], who is mostly made up of girls he's rescued earlier.
* ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'': In the first episode, Kazuya, while piloting the titular mecha robot, discovers a mysterious girl on the cliffs and falls in love with her. The mysterious woman, though amnesiac, turns out to be the Princess of the Baam-seijin, the very aliens that are warring with Planet Earth at the moment. She feels ashamed that Kazuya fell in love with her because of the fact that not only are their races warring, but her own brother, [[AlienPrince Prince]] [[LongHairedPrettyBoy Richter]], is the one heading the AlienInvasion and [[KillAllHumans genocide]] against humans. However, Kazuya tells her he loves anyway, making her very happy.

* ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'':
** Mikado is compelled to save Anri from the delinquents harassing her.
** [[ChivalrousPervert Chikage]] takes this trope to its logical extreme by being willing to risk his life for any girl ever.
** Mikado also saves Mika from Celty, no questions asked--until later.

* The central plot of ''Anime/FreedomProject'' involves the main character traveling from the Moon to the Earth - and then across the entire United States - just to meet a girl in a photograph.
* ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'':
** In the first season, Sousuke goes AWOL and abandons his post under a hostage situation to recover Kaname from the villains. Granted, she ''was'' the VIP he was specifically assigned to protect while the rest of the plane's occupants were not (and he had known her for a bit longer than most examples of this trope), but he was still ordered to stay with the other hostages by his superior officer. As to remove any doubt that he was planning to disobey that order, said officer also states that [[TemptingFate Sousuke's professionalism]] meant he'd definitely '' not'' do emotional things like charging off after the DamselInDistress.
** An interesting ''female'' version of this is shown with Grace Weissman (AKA Gray). She hardly knows much about Sousuke (who temporarily joined her team in a mission), yet immediately defends him and, in a way, "champions" for him against her skeptical teammates' suspicions about him (who dislike him due to him only being 16, yet being an equal in their mission). Her passionately defending him eventually made one of her teammates ask her if she's going that far because she has the hots for him. Even till the end when she's killed by Gauron, her last thoughts are for Sousuke not to worry about her, and that she hopes he will be able to return safely. Considering Sousuke's [[EvenTheGuysWantHim track record]], it isn't far off in saying Gray might've had at least ''some'' attraction to him.
* Yukiteru "Yukki" Amano from ''Manga/FutureDiary'' is shown to act this way towards Tsubaki Kasugano, a [[PrincessClassic beautiful and gentle]] DamselInDistress from the Omekata cult, quickly jumping in to save her and escape with her despite having just met her. When given a choice to trust her or his partner Yuno Gasai, he chooses Tsubaki (though you can't blame him because Yuno is a {{Yandere}}). It's not until [[spoiler:she makes it obvious that she's actually a {{Manipulative B|astard}}itch (mixed with WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds) that wants to kill him that he decides to go back to teaming up with Yuno. Tsubaki ends up disarmed by Yuno and killed by Yukki]].

* In ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'''s Universal Century, one of the PsychicPowers associated with [[TelepathicSpacemen Newtypes]] is the ability to rapidly establish deep emotional connections with others of their kind. Whilst most Newtypes are pretty sane about this (due to their powers manifesting once they had the emotional maturity to handle that sort of thing), Banagher Links of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' first manifested his powers when he was a young child, meaning that they're a far more integral part of his personality. Then the Industrial 7 incident happens whilst he's marinating in teenage hormones, and he suddenly finds himself up to his ears in pretty young Newtype girls with intriguingly tragic backstories. [[PowerIncontinence The results are entirely predictable.]]

* In episode 4 of ''Literature/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'', Bell is going about his business when he sees an unknown woman (Liliruca) being attacked by a sword-wielding stranger. He immediately rushes in to protect her, and when the attacker asks why he got involved in someone else's dispute, he replies "because she's a girl". Even Liliruca is taken aback by this, and asks him "Will you save any woman just because she's a woman?"
* In ''Manga/KingOfThorn'', it's revealed that all the survivors (except Kasumi) were [[spoiler: implanted with "keys" in their minds - and one of the "keys" was to "protect a weak Japanese woman with your life." Meaning that ''all'' the survivors were under The Dulcinea Effect, having the idea ingrained in them that they must irrationally protect Kasumi with their lives, even if they had never met her before]].

** Fujiko is also responsible for causing the Dulcinea effect on Lupin; the story with Pycal began this way, and she used it on both Lupin and Goemon to get them to kill each other in Anime/LupinIIIPart1.

* Gets a rare GenderFlip in the film ''Anime/MillenniumActress'' with Chiyoko's lifelong quest through [[MentalTimeTravel history]] and a [[ShowWithinAShow film career]] to be reunited with the mysterious man of her dreams, although she loves the chase more than anything. Played somewhat straight with the documentarian Genya who follows her through her journey, who repeatedly sacrifices himself for her, although we find out [[spoiler:he had saved her life once before, on a film set, and idolized her since]].
* In ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'', Shinn risks his military career and possible execution to save Stellar, an enemy SuperSoldier and TykeBomb who he met ''once'' before he found this out. Slightly justified in that she reminds him of his late little sister, and it's hinted that he loves her more as a ReplacementGoldfish than anything else.

* In the first episode of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Shinji initially refuses to pilot the Eva until Rei is brought in and he realizes that if ''he'' doesn't do it, ''she's'' going to have to. In a twist, this seems to be more from empathy than from chivalry, since Rei is already seriously injured from an earlier attack.

* Gender flipped, inverted, and otherwise played with in ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''. Screwing with this trope might be the point of the story, as [[spoiler: Prince Dios became the BigBad Akio when he was abandoned by the crowds after he wasn't able to save ''all'' the girls who needed it]], then [[spoiler: ropes Utena into coming to Ohtori by first saving her under the guise of the Prince he used to be, and then setting [[DecoyDamsel his much-abused sister Anthy aka the Rose Bride]] in situations that would make [[BullyHunter Utena]] invoke this trope on her]].
* In ''Literature/ReZero'', Subaru practically invokes this after getting TrappedInAnotherWorld; being WrongGenreSavvy, he figures he must be there to protect some cute girl, and after seeing Emilia searching for her insignia, he figures it must be her and decides to help her. The trope doesn't truly kick in until the two of them are murdered by [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Elsa the Bowel Hunter]], triggering Subaru's [[TimeTravel Return by Death]] for the first time, at which point Subaru becomes determined to (and eventually unhealthily obsessed with) helping and protecting her. Ram and Rem come to feel that Subaru is acting like this towards them but in their case, they have only known him for a day, but Subaru (and the audience) has actually known them for quite a bit longer. This being a {{Deconstruction}}, he's called out on this trope at every turn, even by Emilia herself, and ends up going through absolute ''hell''.

* ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'', as with so many others, lampshades this. When Gourry first meets Lina, he proclaims it is his duty as a knight to escort and protect Lina, despite knowing nothing about her (largely in part to his own lack of awareness).

* In ''Manga/XxxHolic'', Watanuki is this all the way - as long as it's a pretty girl in trouble, he's willing to risk his life to help her, even if they just met. In one case, he was shown to even be willing to continue meeting a lady, despite knowing that doing so was slowly killing him, because "she's lonely." (Granted, the lady reminded him of a mother figure he lacked, but ''still'', they had just met and only talked a little.) It's [[DeconstructedTrope a deconstruction]] because it shows he places no worth on his own existence or how he himself affects the lives of others, which brings him great damage ''and'' upsets the persons whom he wants to help. Example: he sacrifices an eye to help Doumeki when he's going blind before investigating his other options, Doumeki (who didn't want Watanuki to do such a thing in the first place), understandably gets ''pissed off'' at him, and a spirit that Watanuki had befriended ''almost dies'' trying to fix the mess.
** Watanuki is a [[spoiler:replacement clone and deep down knows he is not supposed to exist, thus his ChronicHeroSyndrome; he's subconsciously suicidal. A large purpose of him being at the shop was to gain self-worth so when the time came, he wouldn't vanish and the TimeyWimeyBall would remain intact]].

* Subverted in the ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 Sandman]]'' tale "The Hunt", in which the protagonist travels long and far to find a beautiful noblewoman whose picture he's seen on a necklace, only to [[spoiler:end up returning the necklace to her and walking away to marry someone else. The tale ends with [[WantingIsBetterThanHaving the wisdom that some goals are better not attained]]]].

* Male-on-male example: In ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' fanfic ''Fanfic/DirtySympathy'', Klavier only knew Apollo for a night before deciding he will try to save him from his brother. Justified in that Klavier ''[[BigScrewedUpFamily knows]]'' what kind of [[ManipulativeBastard man]] his brother is and he would have been in Apollo's place if he hadn't run away the first chance he got. There is also an implication that Klavier is projecting his feelings on his [[DomesticAbuse bad situation]] onto Apollo.

* ''Film/{{Babylon|2022}}'': Manny falls in love with Nellie the moment he meets her and they befriend each over the course of the night. However, they only see each other again when Manny happens to run into Nellie in New York months later, and it's implied that they have similar sporadic encounters until Manny becomes a studio executive and is able to work much more closely with her. Nonetheless, he still remains both hopelessly in love and unquestionably devoted to her, risking both his career and his life for the sake of helping her. [[spoiler:Eventually, Nellie ends up leaving him because she knows she's a bad influence on him and that his sheer devotion towards her is unhealthy and only brings them more pain.]]
* "John Smith" from ''Film/LastManStanding1996'' is a retired [[VillainProtagonist gunman for hire]] who is possibly on the run from something, but he decides to stop in a mostly abandoned town near the Mexican border taken over by two Mafia gangs, the Irish and the Italians. He plays both sides against each other to make money, but things get personal for him when he discovers a Mexican woman being forced to be the Irish mob leader's girlfriend. He decides to risk everything to free her in secret but is found out and nearly beaten to death before escaping to recover and get revenge.

%%* ''Film/TheMask'':

* Inspector Clouseau in ''Film/AShotInTheDark'' is unshakably convinced that the beautiful Maria Gambrelli is innocent of murder despite the overwhelming mass of evidence that she is the killer. [[spoiler: She actually ''is'' innocent, but Clouseau was certainly acting under the influence of this trope.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** Luke Skywalker after he sees the hologram of Princess Leia in ''Film/ANewHope''. While trapped in the Death Star, he takes an enormous risk to rescue her. Later materials imply that [[SeparatedAtBirth he subconsciously recognized his sister]].
** Han Solo averts this by refusing to rescue Leia until he's told that the princess is very rich. Luke's willingness to rescue the princess [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism contrasts his heroic idealism with Han's cynicism]]. It's made even more explicit in the Alan Dean Foster novelization of the film:
--->'''Luke:''' She's beautiful.\\
'''Han:''' So's life.
* ''Film/TheTerminator''. Kyle Reese volunteers to go back in time to protect Sarah Connor, who he fell in love with only from stories and a picture he was given by John Connor, knowing there is absolutely no way back and that going up against a Terminator programmed to kill Sarah will most likely result in a violent death. The line in question: "John gave me a picture of you once. I memorised every line. Every curve. I came across time for ''you'', Sarah." Though considering the [[CrapsackWorld alternative]] in the future... and John Connor gave the picture of Sarah to Kyle specifically to elicit this effect... [[spoiler:Kyle being his father thanks to time Travel, and all.]]

* ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'':
** In ''The Gods of Mars'', John Carter starts a GladiatorRevolt at the sight of women being thrown to monsters -- and most of the gladiators follow him. Largely justified, as it's made clear from the first novel that John's [[SouthernGentleman culture and values]] compel him to rescue ''any'' [[DamselInDistress woman from danger]]. Who they are is largely irrelevant.
** In ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'', hearing a woman scream draws Carthoris from his sabotaged airship.
* In the ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' stories "Literature/ShadowsInZamboula", "Literature/IronShadowsInTheMoon", and "Literature/ThePoolOfTheBlackOne", Conan fights for unknown women on little provocation. Then again, he's [[InHarmsWay prone to fight on little provocation anyway]].

* ''Literature/HerculePoirot'': Captain Hastings suffers from this a great deal. He will always leap to the assistance of a young lady (especially a redhead), and will generally ignore any evidence pointing to her as the murderer. One such woman is even named Dulcie.

* ''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}'' from the Creator/WalterScott novel has one of these. Ivanhoe champions for Rebecca, a girl who is not his {{Love Interest|s}}. It was a fair exchange since she healed his injuries and was accused of witchcraft for that and for being Jewish. Ivanhoe and Rebecca may not be the OfficialCouple, but they are very much the FanPreferredCouple... even by the ''author.''

* In Creator/LloydAlexander's ''Literature/TheGoldenDreamOfCarloChuchio'', the title character first meets his love interest Shira briefly as a boy, and upon finding out she is a girl, is instantly smitten. When she is being threatened an hour later, he shoves her out of the way and angrily tries to defend her honor, despite the fact that she was defending herself quite well.
* ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'': The aptly named Dulcinea Septimus in ''Literature/GideonTheNinth'', thanks to her terminal illness. Gideon feels compelled to protect her from the moment they meet. [[spoiler:It also turns out that Palamedes has devoted his life to trying to rescue her from her illness ever since he began trading letters with her twelve years ago. He never even needed to meet her in person to fall in love with her.]]
* Played with in ''[[Creator/LouisaMayAlcott Rose in Bloom]]'', the sequel to ''Literature/EightCousins''. Mac finds a girl and tries very hard to help her, even though he's only known her for a few minutes at the time he agrees. [[spoiler:Then again, she's about two years old, an orphan, and has no other close relatives.]] Lampshaded when he and Rose call her [[note]]Name her, actually; her mother was too sick to tell Mac her name, and nobody else knew either the mother or the baby.[[/note]] Dulcinea.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'': The titular character is very vulnerable to this. Especially in the books where he has it going with several women simultaneously.

* Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'' is an AffectionateParody of chivalry. Tristran Thorn goes on a quest to find the fallen star and prove his love to the village beauty, Victoria Forrester, who seems extremely uninterested in him. He ends up realizing that he's not interested in her, either.
* ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'': Richard goes out of his way to help a girl he sees for the first time in his life, leading his fiancée to break up with him.
** Although Richard doesn't help the girl because he's in love with her, he helps her because she's lying in the street alone and bleeding. His fiancée breaks up with him because she's upset that Richard doesn't care about the fact that helping the girl would make them late for dinner.

* ''Literature/PlanetOfAdventure''. Anacho calls out the protagonist Adam Reith on this in the first novel, pointing out that he's oblivious to all the other suffering that's going on in the world, yet he's risking all to save a single pretty girl, who is just one prisoner in a caravan of slaves. Reith can only give a shamefaced grin and say that one man can't do everything, so he may as well start with the DamselInDistress.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/IfThisGoesOn'': John Lyle gets involved in the revolution against the Theocracy for the sake of a girl he barely knows.
* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': This was clearly a reasonable thing to expect, ''if'' the woman was English like himself. Thus it's proof that nationalism was a lot stronger in the 1890s: if a character in 21st-century fiction [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl drops everything to help out]] a random stranger who happens to be from his home country, nobody would buy it.

* In ''Literature/SorcererToTheCrown'' by Zen Cho, Prunella mentions how Zacharias is exactly the kind of gentleman who could be easily manipulated into helping a woman who plays the role of a damsel in distress. Prunella actually needs help but exaggerates for effect as she doesn't know Zacharias (who would help her anyway).
* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/StormOverWarlock'', Shann, seeing a Wyvern lose control of a forktail, leaps to fight the monsters. This is not from a romantic interest, as established in the text.

* In William King's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Literature/SpaceWolf novel ''Wolfblade'', Torin warns Ragnar that the conversation he overheard may have been to induce him to assassinate a lord to protect a young woman -- and that the woman may have been part to such a plot.
* In Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'': Played straight with Sigurd and Deirdre (or Diadora, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS depending on who your translator is]]). Gender-swapped in the same game... with Deirdre and Sigurd. Yes, they ''both'' immediately fall madly for each other.

* Deconstructed in one of ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'''s Radio [=CDs=]; [[ChurchMilitant Ky Kiske]] charges into a group of Gears in an attempt to save a woman. [[spoiler:He dies horribly and it leads to a BadFuture. ''And'' [[ManipulativeBitch the woman]] was counting on it]].

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's heroes have this bad:
** In ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars The Gods of Mars]]'', John Carter starts a GladiatorRevolt at the sight of women being thrown to monsters -- and most of the gladiators follow him. Largely justified, as it's made clear from the first novel that John's [[SouthernGentleman culture and values]] compel him to rescue ''any'' [[DamselInDistress woman from danger]]. Who they are is largely irrelevant.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's stories "Literature/ShadowsInZamboula", "Literature/ShadowsInTheMoonlight", and "Literature/ThePoolOfTheBlackOne", Literature/ConanTheBarbarian fights for unknown women on little provocation. Then again, he's [[InHarmsWay prone to fight on little provocation anyway]].

* ''VideoGame/WhiteKnightChronicles'': Leonard had only met the princess, Cisna, once before, when they were kids (and she wasn't even interested in him, but in [[DistractedByTheShiny the butterfly on his head]]), but [[LoveAtFirstSight he falls in love with her the moment he sees her again (and she with him)]] and is willing to rush off and confront a hostile nation searching for destructive lost technology after they kidnap her (dragging his [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Unlucky Childhood Friend]] and the HeroicMime with him).

The Dulcinea Effect is also the main reason that [[StuffedIntoTheFridge women are put into a fridge]] in order to cause the male character [[BreakTheCutie angst]] and push him to [[ItsPersonal drive the plot forward]]. Compare LovingAShadow, which is being in love with the ''idea'' of someone rather than the actual person. Contrast MagneticHero, for a hero's ability to [[JustForPun pull this]] on followers. ChronicHeroSyndrome is when the hero does this for any random stranger. If this leads to a highly implausible romance, it's a case of StrangledByTheRedString. See also LivingMacGuffin. It's quite possibly related to LoveMakesYouDumb.