http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FirstGirlWins



And love is unkind

Because she came first, darling

Will she hang on your mind?" — Gladys Knight & The Pips, "If I Were Your Woman" "Life is so crazyAnd love is unkindBecause she came first, darlingWill she hang on your mind?"

In romantic works, the first girl introduced — either overall or as a potential Love Interest — has a very good chance of ending up with the protagonist (especially if the protagonist is male).

There are all sorts of explanations as to why this is. Things ending up the same place they started is a very old narrative technique. The First Girl "winning" has a Because Destiny Says So kind of appeal — she metaphorically "called dibs" on The Protagonist and tied a string to his heart. This might actually strike a chord with readers because of its Truth in Television overtones; psychological studies suggest that the first people someone meets in a new or unfamiliar social situation have a greater chance at becoming their close friends later on.

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From a Doylist point of view, the Law of Conservation of Detail suggests introducing the Love Interest early. An early introduction allows you to get the audience interested in her and rooting for her, gives you space for Character Development, and give her relationship with her (eventual) partner the most time to develop organically. And conversely, the later in the story the Love Interest gets introduced, the harder it'll be to convince the audience to accept them in the role. Characters introduced earlier (be they a Romantic False Lead or even a character that was never intended as a romantic contender at all) will often pick up fan followings who root for them to "win", and it's not easy to convince those fans to abandon their initial preference in favor of the Official Couple.

And with all that said, it's such a common device that in all likelihood, it sometimes gets played for its own sake. It telegraphs, "Lookie here, serious contender for Love Interest." From this perspective, it's not so much that the First Girl wins because she comes first; rather, she comes first because she's going to win.

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As weird as it may sound, sometimes it isn't that obvious which girl is the First. Is it the first girl the protagonist meets according to In-Universe chronology, even if we first see her halfway through the show's run? The first one to show romantic feelings? The first new girl the protagonist meets? If we have different adaptations, by which of them are we going? If you're suspecting some girl is supposed to be the First Girl, a good idea would be to take a look at how the writer has played her up. Is she a major character? Is her "first" interaction led up to, emphasized, treated as a big deal? All other things being equal, is she a strong contender for being the protagonist's Love Interest? These things may be the difference between the First Girl and a girl who happened to be first. Most writers will take care to put some effort into building a would-be triumphant First Girl as a romantic option in her own right, so as to avoid Strangled by the Red String.

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The First Girl will rarely be the first one to confess her feelings, admit them, or sometimes even develop them. In fact, she's much likelier to be the one who does it last — maybe near the end of the series when she and the main character become the Official Couple. The logic behind this is that she's the one who the main character loves (even if he doesn't want to admit it or doesn't realize it himself); if she showed him romantic affection, then he would immediately choose her. That's tantamount to throwing the Romance Arc (or in some genres, the whole plot) out the window, and we can't have that.

Of course, a writer can't outright admit that's what they're doing, which is why you can expect an in-universe justification for how these two people met so early and took so long to figure out they belong together. Their first impression of each other may be immense dislike or possibly indifference. Complications will abound, Romantic False Leads will show up, misunderstandings will arise between them, pride and denial will keep them apart. In extreme cases, it may turn out her apparent lack of interest in him was a major turn-on. Paradoxically enough, nothing screams "major romance incoming" like this sort of thing. A more subtle tactic is to get the First Girl "off the radar" somehow — Demoted to Extra, Put on a Bus and similar tactics—but this adds the additional challenge of bringing her out of exile in a believable way.

Inevitably, most shippers will already have their own idea of who the "right" girl is, so if she might conceivably have any sort of claim to being the First Girl they will gleefully reach out to put this feather in their Ship's cap. Given the above ambiguity of what exactly it means for a girl to be the "First", it's not a surprise that the question of which girl was first tends to become yet another front of Ship-to-Ship Combat.

Be warned before you proceed. "Winning", in this sense, tends to be very spoileriffic.

See also Victorious Childhood Friend and First Girl After All. Contrast Second Love and Last Girl Wins.

Be wary of adding Beta Couple examples. Their lack of screen-time means the "introduce the relationship early to get space for development" consideration becomes crucial, and as a result meeting "first" is all but a staple of the Beta Couple. They will sometimes have obvious C-List Fodder Romantic False Leads in orbit that we're not supposed to take seriously, but that's pretty much it. For those, list aversions, or instances where more than one possible relationship involving a cast regular gets seriously played up but the "first" one ends up winning anyway.

Examples

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Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Fan Works

Film

Literature

Live Action TV

Theatre

Taken to an extreme in The Tempest: Ferdinand is the first male (not counting the monster Caliban or her father) Miranda has ever seen. She instantly falls madly in love with him.

In Two Gentlemen of Verona, Proteus ends up returning to his first love Julia, after having spent most of the play pursuing Sylvia.

Painfully averted for Eponine in Les Misérables. She has a visible crush on Marius from the moment they are first onstage together, and constantly flirts with and teases him. Nonetheless, Marius becomes enamored with Cosette the first time he sees her, and vice versa, and the show ends with their wedding while Eponine dies early into Act 2

Toys

Barbie: According to Barbie Sings!, Barbie and Ken were each other's first loves. The two have been dating near consistently since the 1960s. The only time they broke up was during a publicity stunt in the 2000s where Barbie began dating a man named Blaine while Barbie and Ken became Amicable Exes. After a few years, Barbie and Ken were given another Relationship Upgrade and they've stated that way since.

Video Games

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Western Animation