History Main / CompeteForTheMaidensHand

* The trailers for the 21th ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' movie, ''Crimson love letters'', all but state that one of these will take place. [[spoiler: Both of Heiji's potential girlfriends, Kazuha and Momiji, are proficient in a card game called ''hyakunin issha garuta'', and will compete gainst one another and many other students in a ''karuta'' tournament. This also coincides with Momiji being Heiji's SelfProclaimedLoveInterest and apparently confronting both Heiji and Kazuha on their potential love triangle...]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'', Rayek challenges Cutter to The Trial of Head, Hand and Heart with the winner of all three trials having the unchallenged right to "woo" Leetah.

%%[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
%%[[/folder]]

* ''{{Arcanum}}'s'' backstory has a duel between Garrick Stout and Adkin Chambers over who had the right to court Lady Druella. Stout won, but dishonorably [[EyeScream gouged out Chamber's eyes]] [[KickTheDog after the latter had admitted defeat]], causing Druella to hate him and refuse his advances.

Can lead to MurderTheHypotenuse if one of the suitors doesn't accept the contest or doesn't like the outcome.

* In {{ElfQuest}}, Rayek challenges Cutter to The Trial of Head, Hand and Heart with the winner of all three trials having the unchallenged right to "woo" Leetah.

* The MickeyMouse cartoon ''Mickey's Rival Returns'' has his rival [[AuthorAvatar Mortimer Mouse]] challenge him to one-on-one beach volleyball for the right to date Minnie. Surprisingly, Mortimer wins. He blows his chance, natch.

* In the DaffyDuck short ''Muscle Tussle'', Daffy's girlfriend is wooed by a beach strongman; Daffy tries to prove he is the other guy's better but fails.

* ''WesternAnimation/AllStarSuperman'' turns this into an almost three-way when Superman has to compete against the time-travelling duo of Atlas and Samson in a contest of feats for Lois' hand after she flirts with them. They eventually settle this with a double arm-wrestling contest.

* In ''Literature/{{Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet}}'', Romeo and Paris are both competing for Juliet's hand--but neither of them know it. Paris thinks he's got the goods because of his title (a Prince no less) but the moment Juliet makes eye contact with Romeo at her father's ball, she's pretty much made up her 13 year old mind. And Paris never finds out. When Romeo ends up killing Paris outside Juliet's family's mausoleum, only then does Romeo acknowledge any sort of rivalry.

* In ''Literature/{{Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet}}'', Romeo and Paris are both competing for Juliet's hand--but neither of them know it. Paris thinks he's got the good because of his title (a Prince no less) but the moment Juliet makes eye contact with Romeo at her father's ball, she's pretty much made up her 13 year old mind. And Paris never finds out. When Romeo ends up killing Paris outside Juliet's family's mausoleum, only then does Romeo acknowledge any sort of rivalry.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* More than one episode of TheGoodies spoofed the trope by having "an anonymous Queen" offer the hand in marriage of her eldest son to whoever accomplished some great task.
** One episode took the [[{{Squick}} "hand"]] part a [[PlayedForLaughs little too literally]]...

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/{{Declare}}'', Philby and Hale play a poker game for Elena. Their first game on Mount Ararat is interrupted, but their second one [[spoiler:in Moscow leaves Hale the winner. Philby wins the immortality elixir, but it doesn't bring him happiness the way being with Elena brought it to Hale]].
[[/folder]]

This trope is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Two or more people wish to either court/woo or outright marry another, but perhaps the target of their affections isn't sure who to choose, or perhaps the suitors discover their rivalry and decide to compete to see who will drop out of the running (whether with or without the knowledge or approval of the maiden).