Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Difference between revisions

 

* In [[DC Comics]], Stephanie 'Spoiler' Brown has just discovered an unpleasant consequence of [[Faking the Dead|faking your death]] for a year -- her boyfriend, Robin, has since started dating again. She was gone long enough that Robin's relationship with Wonder Girl had both come and gone, but at the time of her return Tim was dating Zoanne, a normal girl at his high school, and she took it quite well, acknowledging that it was her fault for disappearing. She and Tim managed to remain friends and crimefighting partners as he stayed with Zoanne. Of course, then <ref>a new creative team came on board, Steph was ordered by Batman to betray Tim to a villain to help 'make him a better Robin', in the process entirely ruining her friendship with him. Very shortly after Tim then finally hit the end of the [[Trauma Conga Line]] that his life had turned into ever since [[Identity Crisis]] and Steph's faked death, had what can only be described as a complete nervous breakdown, and in the process of cutting himself off from any and all beneficial human contact Tim broke up disastrously with Zoanne.</ref> And so the whole point was rendered spectacularly moot.

* A pretty big issue in Shade's and Kathy's relationship in ''[[Shade the Changing Man]]''. While being separated from Shade, Kathy starts up a lesbian affair with their mutual friend Lenny. Shade himself feels guilty about falling out of love with girlfriend on his homeworld.

* The [[Distant Finale]] of the first volume of ''Zero Girl''. ''Ouch.''

* ''My Favorite Wife'' was a 1940 comedy about a woman returning home after being shipwrecked (with a very handsome man) for seven years; and the 1963 remake ''Move Over, Darling''. See also another 1940 movie, ''Too Many Husbands''

* ''[[Jarhead]]''. It's particularly unnerving to {{spoiler|watch Anthony survive attack after attack and keep his hopes up only to have Kristina leave him for the guy she said "was just a friend" after the war was over.}} Not to mention the {{spoiler|porn video scene}}. This trope is a major theme and comes in endless waves.

* In ''[[Swing Shift]]'', Kay Walsh's husband enlists in the Navy after the bombing of [[Pearl Harbor]], and she eventually winds up more or less seduced by her factory boss. After a one-night stand they wind up properly dating, which gets broken up when Kay's husband comes home. Fun is not had by anyone, but it turns out all right in the end.

* Variant in ''[[Casablanca]]'' - Ilsa hooked up with Rick, believing her husband Victor to be dead. Turns out he wasn't. Oops!