Urban Legend Love Life

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Elvis Stojko: I have a girlfriend! In Vancouver!

Moe: Made up girlfriend, made up city.
—The Simpsons

Hide your daughters, here comes the show's resident Romeo. Every attentive father in the room loads his shotgun, older brothers form a protective circle around their baby sister like wildebeest facing down lions, and boyfriends stop making out with their significant others in the car and drive away at top speed instead, because everyone knows that when this guy's around, even the most wholesome and naive of girls is likely to forget herself.

Even though he's never had a girlfriend, and as far as the viewer can see has been celibate the entire time he's been on the show.

You see, just like an Urban Legend, everyone is absolutely positive that this guy (and it is usually a guy) is a stud/Player/Casanova, because he's a flirt and they heard from a friend of a friend of a friend that their cousin's sister's best pal had their heart broken by the guy, and they said he'd had more partners than a maverick cop.

But—again, just like an urban legend—there's no actual proof.

Yes, he's always talking to girls. Yes, he flirts. Maybe he even makes entirely heterosexual males wonder if it might be worth making an exception, just this once. His friends scold him for "playing around" and "toying with people," maybe he's even got a few (un)flattering nicknames...

But then, why the hell is he permanently single?

The reader (or viewer) has never seen him with a partner, not even a Girl of the Week sneaking out of his room at dawn after a one night stand. He's never encountered a previous partner on the street. Females might drop at his feet, but he never bothers to pick them up, dust them down and escort them to his bedroom. In fact, he's quite the gentleman, in a lot of ways.

The character with an Urban Legend Love Life tends to come in two distinct types. The first is where even the reader isn't quite sure what to make of him; the other characters claim he's promiscuous, he's charming and chatty with the ladies, and innuendoes are made left, right and centre. Yet it seems as though his romantic success is a bit of an Informed Ability—with the possible exception of his canon love interest, he doesn't seem to be making serious advances on anyone. He's not likely to steal anyone's girlfriend or wife, although he may well flirt with them, and may in fact be much better behaved than more "sensible" male cast members. We're not sure whether to assume that he has other lovers on the go off-screen or off-page, and the writer hasn't deemed his sex life important enough to be in the plot (which would make him the inverse of a Hollywood Dateless guy), or whether a higher purpose has made him put romance on hold, or whether he is genuinely pretty chaste, if not actually a virgin.

The second type is the Chaste Flirt. This guy just likes girls, and knows how to make them smile without any intention of marking notches on his bedpost. He lacks the desperation of A Man Is Not a Virgin. He's very socially skilled, but may not have much experience beyond the "chat-up" stage. Perhaps he flirts deliberately because he's virginal/celibate, and has found that flirting means that people assume you have a love life, and stop asking embarrassing questions. Expect The Reveal to be made to his official girlfriend, when she starts worrying about the number of partners he's had before her. Sometimes, the audience is in on the secret, making the other character's accusations and remarks humourous or bittersweet in effect.

In the case of a girl with an Urban Legend Love Life, she'll nearly always be the Chaste Flirt (or Chaste Vamp in some cases), because heroines are always "good girls" at heart. Milder/younger versions of the trope omit the sexual overtones and this is the guy who "could date any girl he wants"...but oddly enough, never seems to have a girlfriend.

The out-of-universe example, where fandom itself declares that a character (even if they're generally chaste) has one of these, is a Memetic Sex God.

Examples of Urban Legend Love Life include:

Anime and Manga

  • Dorian, in From Eroica with Love has a rather obscure love life, as one Canon versus Fanon article notes. He has a legendary status as a homosexual Casanova. However, despite a few off-hand remarks about "trysts" and accusations of being a "pervert," Dorian doesn't seem particularly bothered about partners who aren't Klaus, his polar opposite and target of most of Dorian's outright sexual interest. When we see him in bed, he's always alone, despite the "harem" that makes up his gang of thieves. The only two people he pursues with any real intent are the pretty and quickly forgotten Caesar Gabriel, and the aforementioned Foe Yay love interest, Klaus. We know he was the victim of statutory rape when he was thirteen, so he's not a virgin, but we don't really know anything else. If anything, Dorian views most attractive men the same way he views the artwork he adores; pretty to look at, but ultimately for viewing purposes only.
    • There's conflicting information about his accountant, James. Some stories hint that Dorian occasionally sleeps with him, but in "Dramatic Spring," Dorian remarks that kissing James is stooping to ridiculously low levels.
  • Roy Mustang in Fullmetal Alchemist use this persona to fool almost everyone around him, so they won't take him for more than a womanizer and ruthless careerist. But his comrades know him better than that; his visits to a house of ill repute are actually to get information from the girls and say hi to his foster mother, who runs the place.
  • Leon, in Pet Shop of Horrors, supposedly has a bad track record with dating... but to be honest, the only evidence that he has any track record at all is occasional drooling over women and a few anecdotes. Oh, and three instances of actual interaction—one where he's chatting quite innocently to some girls at the beach, one where he's rather harshly turned down, and finally one instance where he's chatting up a flower (long story).
  • Shigure from Fruits Basket. He definitely slept with two characters at least, but Akito's and Mayuko's accusations of being extremely promiscuous seem slightly suspect in the light of the Sohma curse. Either Shigure's pretty inventive (presumably with his own personal hug-free Kama Sutra), or Hatori's been really busy with memory wipes...
  • The difference between "flirting" and "forming relationships" is highlighted throughout the Ouran High School Host Club series, thanks to the nature of the club, which is basically behind-the-scenes with a collection of Chaste Flirts.
  • Maka's father in Soul Eater is supposedly such a womanizer that it causes great grief on Maka's part, and has just recently been divorced from her mother... yet we never see him doing anything. Ever. He goes to Cabaret Clubs, but apparently all he ever does there is talk about Maka; something they're used to.
    • The fact all he seems to do is mope and drink backfires spectacularly when it turns out the two women he talks to are witches working for Arachnaphobia.
  • Kazuma in Kaze no Stigma is more than just a flirt, he's actually a straight guy that's The Tease. He flirts or makes innuendo with girls and is perfectly happy to lick wine off Ayano's cheek... but he never makes a move towards anyone throughout the show. It's strongly implied that he acts like this to actually keep girls away because of how poorly his first love turned out. Or if not keep them away, manipulate them and their families. He does seem to warm up to Ayano though, but the show ends before anything is resolved.
  • Hidamari Sketch: Sae, who writes romance stories, frequently claims to have extensive experience in love, but whenever she is questioned about it, she becomes very flustered and awkwardly (and badly) makes something up. Miyako and Yuno seem to buy it, with Hiro innocently prompting her just to tease her. At one point Sae claims to have had eight boyfriends in junior high, needing to switch everyday. The others are nice enough to not call Sae out on that one.
  • Hayate of Hayate the Combat Butler plays the 'could date any girl he wants' part very well, even dedicating chapter 273 to showing it, but he's got a Failure Knight complex preventing him from seeing it, and instead, all of the girls officially in his Harem can see that he's got them all wrapped around his finger.
  • Lelouch Lamperouge is quite popular at his high school, and has quite the fangirl-following. However, he is pretty much a Celibate Hero throughout the whole series. This doesn't stop Sayoko from assuming that he's a womanizer, and setting up 108 dates for him. This ends up giving him this reputation, much to Shirley's annoyance.
    • In the series' only actual case in which Lelouch might just get all the girls: Kaguya-hime offers herself to him in the late first season, he declares that he's already sold his soul to a devil. Kaguya, of course, interprets "sold his soul" as "I already have a girlfriend", rather than the intended "I'm a horrific monster who can only find solace in the one person immune to my misfortune". Then he, his bodyguard, and the aforementioned devil go missing for a year... she assumes that he's had his way them both, and comes to the decision that this is fine, so long as she's involved, too.
    • Note that C.C. and him are Undercover As Lovers. Anyway, it's clear that Lelouch is celibate only because he's not interested (except for the infamous "comfort me" scene).
  • Miroku from Inuyasha falls into this category. He's in love with Sango, but he flirts with every girl he meets, with the stated goal of producing children. Despite his reputation, he never seems to get anyone in bed, usually because the girls that accept are either possessed by or are demons in disguise. It's implied though, that he has been with enough women that he can't remember if he spent the night with one in particular, but apparently his success with the ladies went downhill once he joined the team.
  • Raphael from Tenshi ni Narumon is an interesting case, because he is an angel and is generally invisible/untouchable to humans, but because of his flirtatious behaviour toward Mikael, most fans assume that he must be a lecherous pervert, thinking only about one thing, when in fact, there is nothing in the series to prove that assumption. The fact that Mikael himself kinda treats him like a perverted nuisance doesn't help the matters.
  • Ryoji Kaji of Neon Genesis Evangelion is depicted as a suave and seductive Casanova, flirting with nearly every (adult) female character he comes across; however, it becomes increasingly clear as the series progresses that he only really cares about the affections of Misato Katsuragi, and is otherwise uninterested in romance. Misato herself is perceived as flirty and promiscuous, yet in reality is crushingly lonely, terrified of commitment, and (though it takes her the bulk of the series to come to terms with it) in love with Kaji.


Comic Books

  • The DCU features Nightwing, who is supposed to be a slut of epic proportions, although this is mostly Fanon. In Canon, there are perhaps four women that he's been shown in bed with, two of which were part of long-running committed relationships.No other official writer has agreed with her. The general consensus is that he's more of a Chick Magnet to the highest level and often doesn't seem to realize when he's flirting. Which seems to be his major mode of interaction. He's more of a Chaste Flirt than anything, really.
  • Bruce Wayne has a reputation as a playboy, but most of it is just due to his cultivating it by being seen with beautiful women. On one occasion he was being watched by the police, he asked Selina to come over for the night so he'd have an alibi; thirty minutes later, Batman and Catwoman were in the streets of Gotham with an agreement to meet again at dawn, so Selina could be seen leaving Wayne Manor.
  • Ollie Queen, the Green Arrow, has a reputation as a ladies' man, despite the fact that he's been in an off and on committed relationship with Black Canary for something in the realm of ten years. It has been established that he has cheated on Black Canary more than once).


Fan Works


Film

  • After three movies of playing the slut, Wendy of the Porky's movies claims to have only slept with three guys in her life. This is intended to show that she's not as easy as her reputation would have it. (This doesn't come off quite as innocent as the movie tries to make it—she's still a teenager and the movies are set in the 50s.)
  • Similarly, American Beauty includes the character of Angela Hayes, a teenage girl who the 42-year-old main character Lester becomes obsessed with after watching her cheerleading routine. She routinely brags (to Lester's daughter) about her sexual conquests. Lester tries to seduce her and he would've succeeded, but changes his mind when she admits she's actually a virgin.
  • Fierce Creatures demonstrates from the inside how this can happen unintentionally. It turns out the process is similar to that which makes an Accidental Pervert, but with more of a tendency towards Accidental Innuendo.
  • In Rustlers' Rhapsody, Rex O'Herlahan backs down from a gunfight because he isn't "a confident heterosexual." He later reveals that, since it's 1884, he's never gotten past First Base.
  • In Singin in The Rain, Don is becoming obsessed with Kathy. Don's friend and sidekick Cosmo tells him, "She's the first dame who hasn't fallen for your line since you were four." We never actually see Don in action with the other ladies, or any other hint of womanizing.
  • This is the entire premise of Easy A.
  • Happens to the main character in Bad Reputation, after she is gang raped by jocks, and made out to be a whore by their girlfriends.


Newspaper Comics

  • Surprisingly, Sidney Fernwelter in Ernie. "I must have gone out with every eligible chick in Bayonne . . . once."


Literature

  • Francesco in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. The women even confirm it.. Doesn't mean there was anything between them - doesn't even mean it was Francesco himself who was seen talking to the "lover".
  • From The Dresden Files, Warden Carlos Ramirez is a type one, with an extensive reputation and who talks a great game. Naturally, we find out in White Night that he is actually a virgin.
    • Notable, in that Harry, a detective who can read people like a book, has no clue about this, until Lara Raith blurts it out after one look at Ramirez.
  • Shintaro Karish in the Hero Series by Moira J. Moore is the personification of this trope. He's nicknamed "The Stallion of the Triple S" and is well known for his charm, wit, and looks. But do you EVER see him dating someone other than Lee in book 3? And yet his partner Lee remains convinced of his superstud ways.
  • Phoebe in It Had To Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips has created a reputation of being a slut through a combination of having great boobs, dressing hot and flirting, posing naked for artistic purposes, and running around with a lot of closeted gay men.
  • In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Luke hears rumors about Lando having a relationship with Mara Jade. Not that he's jealous (eyeroll).
    • Of course, it turns out he just misunderstood!
      • It wasn't a misunderstanding; Mara was undercover at the time, and the person she was investigating saw women as objects. To further that assumption, she went along with the target's belief that she was Lando's woman. When she answered the comm wearing Lando's shirt, it was because she didn't know who was calling, and if she might need to further the masquerade. (Of course, she did let Luke believe that for years, because she was feeling a little vindictive that he believed she'd sleep with Lando in the first place.)
    • And to silence the giggles of whoever read a bit too much into The Corellian Trilogy, let us precise: Luke is jealous of Lando.
  • In the Wheel of Time series, Rand is in love with three women (who all love him) and has a batshit crazy Forsaken named Lanfear/Cyndane pining for him, Perrin is married and is nevertheless relentlessly pursued by Berelain sur Paendrag, and Mat is a flirt and playboy and continues his flirting ways despite being married to Seanchan Empress Fortuona... and each one frequently muses that the other two understand women much better than they do. Of the three, only Perrin is right.
  • Inverted in the Left Behind series, where the authors attempt to portray Rayford as being sexually faithful to his wife right up until the Rapture and only considering an affair with a stewardess—but he comes off looking like a massive lech who probably doesn't sleep around only because the women won't have him.
    • He also considers making out with another woman at an office Christmas party (while his wife stayed home due to being heavily pregnant) to not count as cheating.
  • Played straight and inverted in The Legend of Sun Knight: The Storm Knight is supposed to be a footloose charmer/ladykiller, but the current one is supposedly still a virgin and there's never been a pregnant woman telling him to take responsibility. The Earth Knight is supposed to be honest, loyal, sincere and not used to speaking with girls, but the current one is always luring women into his bed.
  • One minor character in the Tim Dorsey novels is a trust fund kid living the life of a playboy who, despite his great skill in being able to get dates, has never once actually gotten laid.


Live Action TV

  • Tony in NCIS is an intentional example. After the events of season four, he seems to revert back to his previous Handsome Lech behavior, rather to Ziva's irritation... but midway through the sixth season, he admits to a minor character that he's been completely celibate.
  • Has anyone actually ever seen any evidence of Joey having a one night stand? Because he only seemed to have girlfriends who he actually enjoyed spending time with, despite the show constantly professing him to be so ridiculously talented at seduction, with the implication of hundreds of little flings ala Charlie Harper.
    • The only real mention we get is from Chandler. Joey also asks Rachel to get rid of one of his girls, and implies that he had Chandler do the same. On the other hand, Joey did once brag about getting a threesome after he (on Rachel's advice) told a girl that he wanted to take things slowly.
    • He does have a massive panic attack when he learns condoms are less than 100% effective. . .
    • Joey slept with the stripper he hired for Ross's bachelor party. And when the others found out about it, he acted like that was not an unusual thing to do.
    • They showed the morning after of several of Joey's one-night stands, most notably a brunette played by Kristin Davis from Sex and the City. Rachel is living with him at the time and is annoyed when he asks her to make pancakes for the girl as he is leaving...but still does it, rather than explain that Joey has no real interest in her.
  • Captain Jack Harkness of Doctor Who and Torchwood is famed for having sex with all kinds of lifeforms. But we only see real evidence of a scant handful of relationships, and plenty of other characters get more action than he does.
  • The Todd from Scrubs. While he talks about sex all the time, there was one episode where it was revealed he hadn't gotten laid once that year and took frequent cold showers. Every now and then he is evidently sleeping with someone, but mostly there's no proof he's not nearly all talk.
  • Neal Caffrey in White Collar is a prime example. He's very handsome and flirts with everything that moves, but never even seems to try to hook up with anyone. Peter Burke, the FBI agent he works with, keeps assuming that Caffrey gets loads of tail, but we see no evidence on the show that this is true. This is probably due his missing partner-in-crime Kate being his One True Love.
    • Flirting is a very useful skill for a conman to have. The rest of the time, he's probably doing it out of habit.
    • It is implied that Neal is actually monogamous. As long as he believed that Kate did not leave him of her own free will, he was not going to cheat on her. After Kate's death he seems to have a casual relationship with Alex and when Alex leaves he starts a relationship with Sarah.
  • To some degree, Captain Kirk from Star Trek: The Original Series. While he flirts with and even kisses quite a few women over the course of the show, he only canonically has sex with two: Deela in "Wink of an Eye", and Miramanee (who he married and got pregnant) in "The Paradise Syndrome".
  • Arguably, House fits as well. Though everyone talks about how he's always screwing prostitutes, on only two occasions have we ever seen any of them on screen.
  • Tom Paris on Star Trek: Voyager was supposedly a ladies' man but Chakotay, Tuvok, Harry, and the Emergency Medical Hologram had more romantic relationships than he, and he settled into an Official Couple with B'Elanna.
  • Agent Derek Morgan on Criminal Minds enjoys sexual banter with Garcia (its entirely platonic) and he and the other agents comfortably talk about his sex life but his nerdy coworker, Reid, has kissed more half-naked women onscreen than him.
  • Richard Castle is reputedly something of a lothario with a long list of girls in his past, but we've only ever seen him hook-up with about three women. And two of them were his ex-wives.
    • Actually, he's had onscreen relationships with more than three women. Ellie Munroe, Gina, Alexis's mom, Scarlett, Amanda Livingston, Beckett, Kyra Blaine, and it's implied that he once had an affair with his agent, Paula. Beckett, however, is a tease and a flirt, but has only had onscreen relationships with 4 men, and an admission of love for another.
      • There's also the fact that he's over 40 with a teenage daughter and has had two marriages which suggests that he's looking for a more solid relationship. He's had at least 20 years to enjoy the fans.
  • Jay from The Inbetweeners. By his accounts, his love life is like a Penthouse forum letter. But in one episode, his dad lets slip to his friends that he has never had a girl ever.
  • Winky, sidekick of the title character of the 1950s series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. He has a little black book, and talks about women, but he's never seen with one. Of course, it was a family show of the 1950s....
  • Much of Dennis' spectacular pickup abilities on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are informed. He isn't lying about it (in fact he has video proof) but when it comes to him getting any on screen action his efforts are almost always foiled by the rest of the gang. "The Waitress" is one of his few on screen conquests.
  • The Office gives us Todd Packer. Michael goes on and on about "how many girls he banged", but we never see anything Todd do with women except getting shot down after calling Jim gay, calling Karen a "dude" and making horribly offensive jokes that would make 50's sitcom characters complain that he went too far.
  • Winky (yes, that's the character's name) in the 1950's scifi series, 'Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.' He has the little black book, does mention women friends several times, even laments that duty disrupts his love life, but we never actually see him with a woman. Then again, this was the 1950s, and the show was intended for general viewing.
  • Degrassi the Next Generation:
    • Justified Trope in the case of Riley, who had a reputation as a habitual womanizer yet we never hear about any girl he actually hooks up with. The reason being that while Riley does have an active love life, it's with members of his own gender and the stories of him being a womanizer are part of keeping up the facade that he's straight. His attempts at intimacy with his female classmates always fall flat and ultimately he comes out of the closet.
    • Blue, Holly J's Shallow Love Interest who supposedly deflowered lots of girls but was pretty much a Chaste Hero with Holly J.


Video Games

  • Link of The Legend of Zelda game series. He's a Chick Magnet and then some, but when girls are fawning over him, he, being the player character, simply plays their minigame and moves on to the next temple. Link and Zelda are considered the Official Couple in Fanon only because Zelda is the main female character (this is especially true of the Ocarina of Time version (the first game in which Zelda played a direct role rather than just being seen when Link rescues her), though nothing like the relationship between Link and Zelda in the Animated Adaptation is seen in any game. Of course, that'd require speaking ability on Link's part.)
  • Edgar in Final Fantasy VI arguably fits this trope. Though his first reaction to meeting Terra is a spectacularly bad pickup line, and the girls around Figaro obviously think he's a ladies' man, his on-screen behavior for the rest of the game is more in line with old-fashioned chivalry than the Chivalrous Pervert. In fact, he becomes visibly flustered when accused of having amorous intentions towards anyone. It gives the impression that the accusations Locke makes against Edgar - which are the main reminder that he's supposed to be a Casanova - are more to disguise and excuse his own arguably unfaithful serial romances.
  • Zidane in Final Fantasy IX also seems to suit this trope. Although he admits freely to constantly having the ladies on his mind, and is an incorrigible flirt, his advances never seem to move past appreciative banter and the occasional suggestion of a date, usually rebuffed with a modicum of shyness/dismissiveness/pleased giggling. In fact, his overtures are so cheerfully obvious that they somehow manage to circle back around and become bizarrely charming. The fun for Zidane seems to be in the game of pursuit, not the 'catch'...and when he does find the girl of his dreams, it only takes a few weeks for his focus to narrow drastically.
  • Despite being surrounded by his fawning hangers-on when the party first meets him, Zelos of Tales of Symphonia shows little interesting in anything more than flirting with women. He has an alibi for doing so, but it hardly justifies his reputation as a predatory lech.
    • His reputation as a lech is mostly given to the player though Sheena warning the others about him. Sheena being the one girl that Zelos seems to have a genuine interest in.
  • Asmodeus of Lust from Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a virgin and wants people to think she's full of the Sin she represents but that's so her fellow demons respect her as an adult. (Note, while this sounds adorable, she'll still eviscerate you if you can't prove she doesn't exist.)
  • This is a large source of irritation for the Asari of Mass Effect. Their physiology allows them to mate with any species, of any gender, and they have a much more relaxed and open attitude on sex than some other species, but they are not an entire species of sex-crazy maniacs. Unfortunately, since so few people really take the time to understand how their physiology works, or the underlying social mores that govern their behavior, everybody views the Asari as the sluts of space. Liara T'Soni, a party member and potential love interest, finds this common misconception rather uncomfortable.


Web Comics

  • In the webcomic Sins, the embodiment of Lust has only had sex with 2 people total. Ever.
  • Sinfest. Self-proclaimed pimp Slick is more a case of Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?. However, everybody including the cast page assumes and repeatedly states that 'Nique is a total slut, and yet she's seen being intimate or close to a guy precisely never.


Western Animation

  • This is Fanon for Starscream of Transformers. Never had a date, never even hit on anyone besides his female clone, is regularly written as a slut.
    • Is also a ROBOT who should not be having urges or desires that are so BIOLOGICAL in nature, to raise another point.


Web Original


Other

  • A Lenny Bruce bit claims Frank Sinatra never got laid due to this trope.


Real Life

  • Julius Caesar, "A Man for All Women and a Woman for All Men." Had a reputation for being the biggest Casanova in Rome, an an insatiable sexual appetite. While he did have a number of lovers (many of them married women) there is no proof that he was ever involved with the majority of the women he was accused of sleeping with. A combination of slander by his political enemies (in ancient Rome, an insatiable sexual appetite was considered unmanly) and a rumor feeding itself would account for most of these tales. It usually took little more than Caesar exchanging a few words with a woman in public for rumor to spread that he was sleeping with her.
    • These rumors also extended to accusing him of having unmanly relationships with men. While just any relationship with a man wouldn't have been considered so bad, being the passive partner or having a male partner your own age or older wasn't macho.
    • Case in point: Caesar's own troops nicknamed him "whoremonger." Word travels fast.
  • The sex lives of fashion models. Jon Stewart told Playboy magazine in 1995 "Models talk to you for six minutes and they're very nice and they say thank you and then they go off to the larger European men they actually have sex with."
  • Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, or more specifically, his various characters. In almost every movie he was ever in, Mastroianni played a character who was a complete subversion of The Casanova, and yet his repuatation as one stuck for his entire career (much to Mastroianni's annoyance).
  • Benjamin Franklin has a reputation as a ladies man - he's even an example on the Casanova page - but at least one biographer is convinced there was more smoke than fire. Franklin himself indicated as much when Jefferson, replacing him as ambassador to France, hoped to inherit his effect on the French ladies and Franklin ruefully replied it would do him no good if he did. Undoubtedly our senior Founding Father was a shameless - and charming - flirt but it's likely that he rarely went beyond talk.
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