History Main / RichSuitorPoorSuitor

** During Stanley Yelnats's great-great-grandfather's story, Elya (the grandpa) is the poor one and he's up against a fat slob rich guy [[OldManMarryingAChild who's significantly older]]. The contest is decided by the size of the bride price, a pig, but they turn out to be the same size. The father lets the bride choose which one but she doesn't care. At that point Elya realizes she doesn't care about him and leaves in disgust.
** Even Elya faces this choice, sort of. In the old country, the girl he pursued was richer than he was but dumb as a brick. The one he ended up marrying in America, was a smart and capable farm girl.

* ''Series/{{Galavant}}'' has AffablyEvil King Richard and the titular knight both vying for Madalena’s hand. [[spoiler:She chooses Richard for his fame and fortune, with her BitchInSheepsClothing nature becoming increasingly apparent as the series progresses.]]

* ''Film/MissPettigrewLivesForADay'' calls this trope boring, and gives Delissia LeFosse a choice between ''three'' suitors: charming club owner Nick, eager young Phil, or poor but passionate Michael.

** It's probably more accurate to call this a subversion, since Catelyn isn't interested in Petyr romantically and [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend doesn't take his advances seriously]]. As a DutifulDaughter she doesn't protest against her engagement to Brandon (it helps that he is rather handsome and charming, which isn't a given in ArrangedMarriage), but doesn't know him that well and when she has to marry his brother, she's not torn about it either. Her sister Lysa is in love with Petyr, but he doesn't reciprocate; she [[BedTrick tricks him into sleeping with her]] and becomes pregnant, thinking she could then marry him... But ends up forced into aborting the child and marrying older Jon Arryn, who as lord of the Vale is technically the rich suitor in this scenario. Lysa never stops loving Petyr, [[spoiler: which allows him to use her for his plans - but he never reciprocates, ultimately murdering her for threatening Sansa.]]

* The main plot of [[{{Ojou}} Mai Sakuragi]]'s route in ''VisualNovel/{{Doukyusei}}'', with KenjiAihara being the Rich Suitor and the PlayerCharacter being the Poor Suitor. True to form of the trope, Kenji is quite an arrogant jerk who is also an unfaithful womanizer to boot, but because Mai's family prefer him due to his own family's high status they are effectively in an ArrangedMarriage in all but name, meanwhile, the Player Character, a working class guy with aspirations of being a writer, is the one who Mai ends up falling in real love with, due to the fact that he accepts and treats her as a person.

[[Visual Novel]]

* ''{{Film/IQ|1994}}'': A downplayed example. In the film it's clear that Catherine's [[DisposableFiance fiance,]] [[StuffyBrit James,]] enjoys a more affluent lifestyle than his [[LoveTriangle romantic rival,]] [[GreaseMonkey Ed.]] However, it's never remarked upon and it ultimately factor into Catherine's decision on which man to be with.

* ''Film/IQ|1994'': A downplayed example. In the film it's clear that Catherine's [[DisposableFiance fiance,]] [[StuffyBrit James,]] enjoys a more affluent lifestyle than his [[LoveTriangle romantic rival,]] [[GreaseMonkey Ed.]] However, it's never remarked upon and it ultimately factor into Catherine's decision on which man to be with.

* The poor country vet James Harriot vs. rich Richard Edmundson for the hand of Helen Alderson in ''Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall''.

* ''Literature/QueenOfBabble'' plays with this. Both Luke and [[spoiler:Chaz]] are rich trust fund kids but Luke is a European prince and wealthy banker while [[spoiler:Chaz is a Phd student wanting to be a Philosophy professor]].

If the suitors are also a BettyAndVeronica pair, the dynamic will typically be either "[[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan poor but nice]] suitor vs. [[RichBitch rich but haughty]] suitor" or "[[AllGirlsWantBadBoys poor but exciting]] suitor vs. [[RomanticRunnerUp rich but boring]] suitor", being obviously slanted toward the poor suitor in both cases. In fact, having the rich suitor win or even be a decent, likeable person is a rare variation of this trope.[[note]]Administrivia/NotASubversion[[/note]] Perhaps the trope name should have been "Poor Suitor Wins" instead? The odd exception can happen though, with the rich suitor being a nice, decent person and the poor suitor being a male GoldDigger.

* One episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' was about a woman who had to choose between a rich man she didn't love and a poor man she did love, and her future self pursued her on a horse to warn her not to choose the wrong man. The woman ultimately chooses to run off with the poor man. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, ''he'' turned out to be the wrong choice her future self had tried to warn her against. The [[DeconstructedTrope poor guy was predictably lousy at handling money and ran the farm they depended on into the ground]].]]

* ''Series/{{Galavant}}'' has AffablyEvil King Richard and the titular knight both vying for Madalena’s hand. [[She chooses Richard for his fame and fortune, with her BitchInSheepsClothing nature becoming increasingly apparent as the series progresses.]]

* The LoveTriangle among police officers in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' had local NonIdleRich Ninzaburo Shiratori against "poor suitor" and middle-class NiceGuy Wataru Takagi, both pining for the local ActionGirl Satou. [[spoiler: Satou ultimately chooses Takagi, after quite a while of CantSpitItOut. Shiratori eventually finds his FirstLove, local HotTeacher Sumiko Kobayashi, and they invoke ChildhoodFriendRomance.]]

* ''Film/SweetHomeAlabama'': Kind of.

* ''Film/{{Arthur}}'' has a gender-flipped variant -- the title character is IdleRich but he won't ''stay'' that way unless he goes through with an ArrangedMarriage with a rich, boring woman. Too bad he falls in love with a poor, feisty waitress. When he [[spoiler: chooses the poor waitress]], each version comes to the same ending via different routes -- in the 1981 original, [[spoiler: his grandmother decides not to cut him off because she doesn't want anyone in the family to be working-class]], while in the 2011 remake [[spoiler: she finds him too immature to love, so he first becomes a responsible working adult in the family business (fixing the inheritance issue), and ''then'' reconciles with her]].

* The 93rd Case of ''VideoGame/CriminalCase'' (i.e. the 37th Case in Pacific Bay) is essentially a ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' reference, where the murder victim is a poor artist who had been involved in an affair with an actress named Lizzie Dion, who is engaged to a wealthy but very possessive and controlling movie producer. [[spoiler:In an interesting twist, the rich suitor actually wins (sort of). The poor artist wanted to get Lizzie elope with him to Italy after impregnating her, but Lizzie realized that she loves her luxurious lifestyle that her fiancé could provide her more than having to live with a penniless dude for the rest of her life, so she killed the latter to cut off her ties with him]].

* ''Film/WaynesWorld2'': Creator/TiaCarrere must choose between slightly-higher-classs Wayne and record executive Creator/ChristopherWalken.

* ''LightNovel/NogizakaHarukaNoHimitsu'' has [[TheOjou Nogizaka]] [[UptownGirl Haruka]], the [[SchoolIdol wealthy and popular High School student]], who is the love interest of OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Ayase Yuuto, the "Poor Suitor" (middle-class but, if you compare him to Haruka and the "Rich Suitor"), and [[AlphaBitch Shute]] [[{{Jerkass}} Sutherland]], who demeans Ayase in any given opportunity. Ayase Yuuto's self-steem issues are more of an obstacle than Sutherland, who isn't even a regular character.

* In the early years of ''Comicbook/XMen'', ComicBook/JeanGrey had to choose between Warren Worthington, who was incredibly rich, handsome, charming and athletic, and had [[FreakinessShame wings]], and Scott Summers, who was a penniless orphan, skinny, massively introverted, and always wore giant nerd glasses lest he [[BlessedWithSuck blast someone's head off]].

* Gender flipped examples abound in the ''[[Franchise/MassEffect Mass Effect]]'' trilogy. In the first game, we have [[ActionGirl Ashley]] the enlisted soldier whose career is going nowhere fast, competing with [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Liara]] the scion ([[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant not]] [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 that]] [[OurZombiesAreDifferent kind]] [[BodyHorror of]] [[BossInMooksClothing Scion]]) of a wealthy and influential matriarch among. Race of SpaceElves who are already the richest species in the galaxy. In the second game, you have [[FemmeFatale Miranda]], the "[[DesignerBabies daughter]]" of the richest man in the galaxy, competing with [[AxCrazy Jack]], a convict who has just been sprung from prison. They all vie for the PlayerCharacter, with the first pair cornering you and asking you to choose, only if if you romance them both initially. The second pair is scripted to get into a fight no matter what, regardless of whether any romance has been initiated.
* Can be gender-flipped in ''VisualNovel/TrueLoveJunaiMonogatari'', if the PlayerCharacter has enough love points with both [[spoiler: [[LonelyRichKid Remi]] ]] (Rich) and [[spoiler: [[GirlNextDoor Mikae]] ]] (more Middle-Class than Poor, but yea). It's the closest to a LoveTriangle in the whole game, since [[spoiler: the MC can romance ''all'' the girls at the same time (before deciding on one at the end)... but that '''can't''' be done with these two. It's either one girl or the other.]]

* With a little bit of ShippingGoggles applied, ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' can be seen as having this in the form of aristocratic and reliable [[SugarAndIcePersonality Austria]] and rough-and-tumble [[HotBlooded Prussia]] both being interested in [[ActionGirl Hungary.]] (Though Prussia is not shown to be ''that'' poor either.) Atypically, Rich Suitor Austria is [[OfficialCouple canonly]] the [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend victorious one]], but the fanworks that emphasize this trope the most are the ones that believe Hungary would be better off with the "more fun and passionate" [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Prussia.]] And they often apply DieForOurShip to Austria to "justify" why Hungary would dump him.
** For some fics, you can switch Prussia with Hungary's teenage-hood friend [[WholesomeCrossdresser Poland]] and it's similar. Including the DFOS, sadly.
** The Greece/Japan/Turkey LoveTriangle can also be viewed as this, considering Greece's PerpetualPoverty and Turkey's BlingOfWar and Greece/Japan being heavily favored in both canon and fandom.

* Rare female example in ''Manga/KaseiYakyoku'': the noblewoman Akiko Hashou and her maid Sara Uchida are this to Taka Itou, the male lead. [[spoiler: ''Neither'' wins. Though Sara came damn close, love declaration and night of sex included before things got worse.]]
** Played straight with Taka (Poor) and Saionji (Rich) for Akiko. [[spoiler: Neither wins, again. Then the female Poor Suitor [[PairTheSpares gets together]] with the Rich RomanticFalseLead.]]

** At the end of the two-parter, Bruce notes the irony to Clark that [[[[LovesMyAlterEgo Lois is romantically into Bruce but not Batman and likes Superman but not Clark.]]

* ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'':
** Yusaku Godai is the poor college student, Shun Mitaka is the rich guy who only coaches tennis as a hobby. Kyoko Otonashi spent six years choosing between them, thanks to a rash of StatusQuoIsGod. [[spoiler: She chooses the Poor Suitor. The Rich one finds [[TheOjou a wife of his own]] and they're happy together.]]
** Grandma Godai had a pair of these when she was younger and chose the poor one. However, she tells Kyoko to go for the rich guy since the poor one will only give her a life of misery.

* With a little bit of ShippingGoggles applied, ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' can be seen as having this in the form of aristocratic and reliable [[SugarAndIcePersonality Austria]] and rough-and-tumble [[HotBlooded Prussia]] both being interested in [[ActionGirl Hungary.]] (Though Prussia is not shown to be ''that'' poor either.) Atypically, Rich Suitor Austria is [[OfficialCouple canonly]] the [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend victorious one]], but the fanworks that emphasize this trope the most are the ones that believe Hungary would be better off with the "more fun and passionate" [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Prussia.]] And they often apply DieForOurShip to Austria to "justify" why Hungary would dump him.
** For some fics, you can switch Prussia with Hungary's teenage-hood friend [[WholesomeCrossdresser Poland]] and it's similar. Including the DFOS, sadly.
** The Greece/Japan/Turkey LoveTriangle can also be viewed as this, considering Greece's PerpetualPoverty and Turkey's BlingOfWar and Greece/Japan being heavily favored in both canon and fandom.
* The LoveTriangle among police officers in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' had local NonIdleRich Ninzaburo Shiratori against "poor suitor" and middle-class NiceGuy Wataru Takagi, both pining for the local ActionGirl Satou. [[spoiler: Satou ultimately chooses Takagi, after quite a while of CantSpitItOut. Shiratori eventually finds his FirstLove, local HotTeacher Sumiko Kobayashi, and they invoke ChildhoodFriendRomance.]]

* ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'' has Asuka Sugo involved in a love triangle between the middle-class guy and her longtime friend Hayato Kazami (poor suitor) and the [[BlueBlood aristocratic]] rich guy Karl Lichter von Randoll (rich suitor). [[spoiler: She eventually chooses Hayato, although it's almost pretty obvious on who she will choose.]]
* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'': In one episode of Dokkan, Doremi had Akatsuki, the prince of the kingdom of the wizards (Rich Suitor) and Kotake her classmate of Misora (Poor Suitor) in which they fought in a game of sumo for her affection.
* ''LightNovel/NogizakaHarukaNoHimitsu'' has [[TheOjou Nogizaka]] [[UptownGirl Haruka]], the [[SchoolIdol wealthy and popular High School student]], who is the love interest of OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Ayase Yuuto, the "Poor Suitor" (middle-class but, if you compare him to Haruka and the "Rich Suitor"), and [[AlphaBitch Shute]] [[{{Jerkass}} Sutherland]], who demeans Ayase in any given opportunity. Ayase Yuuto's self-steem issues are more of an obstacle than Sutherland, who isn't even a regular character.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/DokonjoGaeru''. Local HotTeacher Yoshiko Yamanaka is pursued by her co-worker Yoshio Minami (hinted to be from a rich family) and Sakakubei (Hiroshi's BigBrotherMentor who works as a sushi chef), but she ''completely'' [[ObliviousToLove fails to notice their interest in her.]]

* Taichi and Arata, respectively, for Chihaya in ''Manga/ChihayaFuru'', though it only comes to play in the beginning, when Taichi actually [[JerkAss bullies]] Arata for the latter's poverty. Later on they technically remain RichSuitorPoorSuitor, but it doesn't have any impact on the situation, and Chihaya [[PassionateSportSGirl only cares about abilities in playing karuta anyway]].

* The legend of Flemeth in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. The commonly-known story is that Flemeth was married to a wealthy lord named Conobar, but fell in love with a traveling bard named Osen and ran off with him. Morrigan, however, relays a very different version of the tale, supposedly told to her by Flemeth herself: that Osen was her husband, and Conobar a jealous onlooker. According to this version, Flemeth offered to ''[[PleaseIWilldoanything trade herself]]'' to Conobar, in exchange for his giving Osen wealth and power, which they both accepted; as Morrigan puts it, "love fades in the wake of hunger." Conobar, however, [[MurderTheHypotenuse had Osen murdered]] so he wouldn't have to keep up his end of the bargain. Flemeth eventually found out, and [[StartOfDarkness summoned up spirits to kill Conobar...]]
* ''[[Creator/ChoiceOfGames Choice of Romance]]'' plays this extremely straight with your main two suitors (not including the King/Queen) being wealthy but unattractive nobleman Torres and romantic but impoverished artist Mendosa. Picking Mendosa gives you a considerably happier ending where the two of you live a wild, love-filled life and eventually come into money too; while Torres is genuinely sweet and devoted to you, you never truly love him and wonder what could have been if you had followed your heart more.

* Can be gender-flipped in ''VisualNovel/TrueLoveJunaiMonogatari'', if the PlayerCharacter has enough love points with both [[spoiler: [[LonelyRichKid Remi]] ]] (Rich) and [[spoiler: [[GirlNextDoor Mikae]] ]] (more Middle-Class than Poor, but yea). It's the closest to a LoveTriangle in the whole game, since [[spoiler: the MC can romance ''all'' the girls at the same time (before deciding on one at the end)... but that '''can't''' be done with these two. It's either one girl or the other.]]
** Additionally, [[spoiler: this ''may'' be played straight in Mikae's path too, only with the MC as the Poor Suitor and TheCasanova Toshio as the Rich Suitor (he's implied to be from an upper-class family, unlike middle-class MC who has a part-time work).]]