Basic Trope: A woman finds a man attractive for his virtue.
- Straight: After a fire where Bob bravely helped save people from the flames and then volunteered food and shelter for them, Alice concludes he is the right one for her.
- Exaggerated: Bob is an All-Loving Hero who spends his days helping ladies walk across the streets, working on charity causes, and building schools for homeless children. Alice has been in love with him since they were kids when he saved her from drowning in a river.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and Alice enjoys his company despite his rough edges.
- Bob and Alice are already a couple (perhaps even married), which rules out her being single, yet the former never stops showing his kindness throughout their relationship, making her stay attracted to him.
- Justified:
- She wants someone reliable.
- Alice has a good head on her shoulders and wants someone who will be good to her, not just good to her vagina.
- Alice is a Broken Bird who has been scorned and abused by her past lovers. When she meets Bob, he stands out in comparison to her old boyfriends in a good way because he treats her well.
- Alice was never into "bad boys". Like ever. She's not playing hard to get, she's just genuinely not interested.
- Inverted:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Alice has eyes for the much more thuggish, arrogant, yet charismatic and bombastic Charles.
- Gold Digger
- Alice is the Big Bad's consort and she likes her men just as evil as she is.
- Gender-Inverted: Bob finds Alice attractive for her moral standards.
- Subverted: Alice dates Bob but is secretly trying to make her ex-boyfriend, a bad boy, jealous so her ex will return to her.
- Double Subverted: Until Alice falls in love with Bob for real due to his incredible kindness.
- Parodied: Men recklessly paraded heroics and give everything away to charity because it's the only way to attract Alice.
- Zig Zagged: Sometimes Alice is attracted to sweet guys, other times to Jerkasses.
- Averted:
- Alice is single and happy.
- Alice is celibate or asexual.
- Enforced: The Moral Guardians will hit the roof if she ends up with the villain.
- Lampshaded: "Yes, bad boys are Hotter and Sexier, but good guys make much better husbands in the long run."
- Invoked: Alice puts Single Woman Seeks Good Man in a personals ad in the paper or on the Web.
- Exploited:
- "Invite Prince Virtue to meet Princess Hardtoget. We won't have trouble ensuring heirs for The Good Kingdom after that."
- Bob fakes virtue to attract Alice or otherwise does genuinely virtuous things for non-virtuous reasons.
- Defied: Alice deliberately seeks out bad boys.
- Discussed: "Aooww! All the good men are gay, taken, priests, too old, too young, fictional characters, or any combination thereof!"
- Conversed: "I think Alice will ultimately pick Bob over Shawn; he's a Knight in Shining Armor without the armor."
- Deconstructed:
- Alice does not consider what the hero is like in day to day life, and finds out the hard way.
- Alice looks only for good morality and does not consider whether she finds him attractive, has interests in common with him, or can stand the tension of his dangerous occupation.
- Bob is an Extreme Doormat who has been in many relationships where women take advantage of him because of his astonishing kindness.
- Alice pursues a relationship with Bob because she depends on his kindness for her own emotional stability.
- Bob has his own emotional issues to deal with, but his relationship with Alice is a one-sided game of give-and-take. His relationship with Alice falls apart because she doesn't really care about supporting him, yet she expects him to always support her unconditionally.
- Alice looks only for good and impressive behaviors, so Affably Evil Jerk Jock guys only act nice on purposes and are able to get into Alice's good graces, while the Jerk with a Heart of Gold guys don't make a good first impression, and are left out in the cold.
- Alice is attracted to Bob due to his virtue, and they get together. Unfortunately, people change, and so does Bob, who loses his virtue over time for whatever reason. Alice becomes more miserable over time, wondering if she made a mistake.
- Alice is attracted to Bob due to his virtue, best shown when he bravely helped save people from the flames and then volunteered food and shelter for them, so they get together. The thing is, Bob (and/or Alice) does not know how to maintain a relationship — he pushes her away due to a fear of intimacy, he doesn't spend a lot of time with her because of his hero job, and he hides a lot of things from her. Just because Bob is a "good man" doesn't mean he is flawless, and hence, their relationship falls apart.
- Alice has seen the women in her family fall for douchebags (her own father and numerous stepfathers included) time and time again and witnessed nothing but infidelity, heartbreak, criminality, and nearly every form of abuse known to man. She hopes to break that trend and may have even developed a complex against that kind of man.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice considers whether he reliably acts honorable on a day to day basis aside from the occasional heroics.
- Alice finds someone who is a good person that shares her interests and treats her with respect.
- Alice truly falls in love with Bob for being very kind and benevolent. When they start a relationship, Alice teaches Bob how to be a nice guy without a being a doormat.
- Bob's kindness extends to helping her be emotionally independent (or inter-dependent, as he would despair without her as well). This includes Lady and Knight roleplay.
- Bob also needs his own emotional support. Together, they work to overcome their problems, becoming more confident and secure.
Back to Single Woman Seeks Good Man. He is very reliable and sweet, you know.
