[Trope Discussion help] First Girl After All

[sakabatou]

I have been debating to people on this particular trope, and could use some perspective.

From the TV Trope page description:

First Girl After All is a narrative technique of concealing a character's first Love Interest for as long as possible until the moment when it's most dramatically shocking to the audience, usually at or near the climax of the plot. This is accomplished either by never making it clear who the First Girl is, or by misleading the audience into believing that another character is the First Girl.

After much of the story, we approach The Reveal, the Final Battle, the Grand Finale, or some other tense moment, and it seems like the "Second Girl" in the Love Triangle (or Last Girl in the Love Dodecahedron) is going to win. But something suddenly "clicks", and the story reveals that they first met when they were children! But wait! This could only have possibly happened BEFORE he met the First Girl. This can only mean that the girl everyone thought was the Second Girl is the First Girl After All.

With a long running show, how can this be implemented well? Make it so the girl is introduced, discussed or implied early into the series? Or could said girl be introduced any time into the series, and the trope would STILL work well?

[Permanut]

1. I might run this with a Chekhov's Gun..

Not so much when the first girl is introduced as how. Does she keep fidgeting with a locket? Is the high school yearbook still on the coffee table after 20 years?

Anyway, my two cents. What a great question.

[sakabatou]

4. As far as I know, there's no Chekov's Gun

Only a shown memory from the girl's past.

[Tetrachloride]

2. To what degree is truth presented in the story that you have in mind ?

To me, this comes before the trope

[sakabatou]

3. The story has been presented already, so I'm going to use a generic example

We have a long running animated show, with well known characters with rotating cast that changes every so often. We have the main character (let's call him Aaron), and two rotating characters. In a VERY late season, one of the new cast is Amy. Amy turns out to be Aaron's childhood friend, who has a crush on Aaron.

Aaron doesn't remember Amy whatsoever. Amy has also never been mentioned in passing in previous seasons, nor has ever been referenced to, nor even been implied to be a childhood friend of Aaron. Not even as a possibility.

In dialogue, Aaron could have said, “I’ve had lots of friends when I was younger, but many have moved away.”

This would give Amy the possibility of being Aaron’s childhood friend. We don't get any kind of line like that in the show.

[Tetrachloride]

5. that happened to me. totally blanked out on a person

as for the trope, feels out of left field

[sakabatou]

6. That's how it felt to me

I kept asking, "Who is this girl? If she's from the MC's past, how come now character in the past seasons including the MC's family, has never mentioned said girl before?"

[Permanut]

7. Still pushing Chekhov's Gun..

If,say, long ago Aaron made a little sketch of something, Amy acquired it - out of the trash, some trivial way, kept it and framed it, and still has it. If we contrive a way for Aaron to see it, maybe an aha moment could be written in.

Okay, that's another two cents, I'm up to four cents now.

[sakabatou]

8. There's no Chekhov's Gun to my knowledge in the actual show.

But, you're right, a Chekhov's Gun would work, or at least help.

[LuvLoogie]

9. MC is floundering. loses sense of self

Show his increasing disillusionment.
Girl crosses his path (at work related seminar. They are in different fields) She realizes she knows who he is from grade school but it's been years, and they never hung out. But they're contemporaries a couple grades apart and share much of the same experiences, teachers, events...

It turns out she's more genuine than him. There's some attraction, but she's more advanced emotionally. He tries but fails with her, but in the process finds himself again.

[sakabatou]

10. That sounds like something that'd happen in the first season as character establishment

Not as something that'd happen VERY late into the series.

[LuvLoogie]

12. Well you'd essentially be deconstructing MC

Tearing them down with his own slow moral decline based on choices he thinks will improve his life.

You'd have to write the new character so that she becomes the favorite. She's smarter, more mature, more at peace, kinder, and fiercer. When she leaves never to return, the audience wants her back.

But she doesn't. They're stuck with the MC. He has to rebuild himself anew in order to get them to stick around. But it will be hard because the audience agrees with the girl.

[sakabatou]

13. That isn't what happens within the story.

Maybe I should've added more detail.

This comes from a TV show. In the 17th season, the new girl becomes part of his new group for said season.

"She's smarter, more mature, more at peace, kinder, and fiercer. When she leaves never to return, the audience wants her back."

Kind of. Within the show, she's kind of new to the scene, trying to figure out what exactly she wants to do. She knows all the basics, of course, but she's unsure which niche she wants to enter.

The MC has changed over the course of the show, getting smarter, wiser, but with each season or two, there's a new challenge he needs to learn.

[sakabatou]

11. My own personal fix

In a season before this new girl is introduced (or any season before), have the MC and his friends discuss the MC's past/hometown.

Person 1: Did you have any friends when you were younger?

MC: Yeah, of course I did, but my hometown's small. A lot of people have moved away for "better pastures". Thing is, it's been so long since I've seen them that I don't think I'd recognize them at all.

Person 2: Well, I hope you meet one of them some day.

MC: Me too.

That's how I'd set it up.