Abduction Is Love/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Kidnapping is a sign of affection.

  • Straight: Bob kidnaps Alice, they eventually fall in love.
  • Exaggerated: Bob put a chloroform-soaked rag in Alice's face, tied her up, unlawfully held her captive for months, and they eventually get married and live happily ever after.
  • Justified:
  • Inverted: Rescue Romance.
  • Subverted: Bob kidnaps Alice, and she never forgives him for it, going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Double Subverted: Bob kidnaps Alice, and Alice falls in kismesis.
  • Parodied: Alice and Bob met through an online kidnapping site that advertises its ability to successfully match captors and captives.
  • Deconstructed: Bob kidnaps Alice and they eventually fall in love, but it's a one-sided relationship as Bob lacks any real affection for Alice.
  • Reconstructed: Bob is a socially-inept Gentle Giant with a crush on Alice, and kidnaps her in an attempt to reveal his feelings for her.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob kidnaps Alice, Alice falls in love, but Bob dosn't have feelings for her, so she kidnaps him to make him love her, but he falls into kismesis instead
  • Averted: Bob kidnaps Alice. Later, Bob falls in love with Clara.
  • Enforced: The creator of Alice and Bob is hired by one of the Harlequin lines to write "The Greek Tycoon's Kidnapped Love"
  • Lampshaded: "Ah yes. Stockholm Syndrome is the ultimate matchmaker, isn't it boys and girls?"
  • Invoked: Bob kidnaps Alice in order to get in her pants.
  • Exploited: Alice allows herself to be kidnapped in order to seduce Bob.
  • Defied: "I'll never love you! Never!" "Good. I was worried this was going to get awkward."
  • Discussed: "You kidnapped me so I'd fall in love with you? Does that *ever* work outside of crappy romance novels?"
  • Conversed: "Ah, she's going to fall in love with the kidnapper. Why else would they cast a handsome actor to play a criminal?"
  • Played For Laughs: Ten seconds after the kidnapping, Alice is completely smitten and composing love ballads to her abductor Bob, who ranges wildly from comically over-the-top villain posturing and Tastes Like Diabetes levels of affection.
  • Played For Drama: Bob's levels of aggression and level of obsessive behavior are overpowering and rape undertones abound. Alice is afraid for her safety for VERY good reasons.

I'm only taking you back to Abduction Is Love because of my deep abiding affection for you. You'll understand in time.