Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

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When a couple is separated against their wishes, and their love is particularly strong, it is fully expected that they will try to find each other, and refrain from getting involved with anyone else. However, sometimes this is actually quite hard to accomplish, especially in the case of someone believing their lover will never come back, or that they are dead. But unexpectedly, their lover comes back to them, and they are happily reunited.

 

{{examples}}

* In the animated movie ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]: Do You Remember Love?'', protagonist Hikaru Ichijyo, after being separated from his beautiful pop idol girlfriend Lynn Minmay, quickly forms a romantic relationship with his female superior officer Misa Hayase. Minmay's feelings for him, on the other hand, never diminished during his absence.

* Something similar (although in this case it's coma related) is what kicks off the plot of ''[[Kimi ga Nozomu Eien]]''.

 

== Comic Books ==

* 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.

* Bucky in ''[[Ultimate Marvel]]'' plays it more seriously—he married [[Captain America (comics)]]'s fiancee while Cap was [[Human Popsicle|frozen in ice]].

* This is what Marian fears in ''[[Robin Hood (Disney film)|Robin Hood]]'', that Robin had simply forgotten about her during their time apart. However, the very next scene subverts it, as Robin is clearly shown thinking about her.

* According to Chuckles the Clown from [[Toy Story (franchise)|''Toy Story 3'']], this is actually the main reason why {{spoiler|Lotso}} was evil in the first place: {{spoiler|Both Lotso and Chuckles were once owned by the same little girl, but one day, the girl accidentally left the two toys behind while camping with her family. Both Lotso and Chuckles eventually make it all the way back to the girl's home, only for Lotso to discover that his owner had threw him out and replaced him with another Lotso Bear. As a result, Lotso became crazy and vowed that one day, all other toys will suffer from his wrath. The two eventually got onto a Pizza Planet truck in search of a new home, both of which will ultimately fulfill the now-opposing toys' destinies: Chuckles was eventually rescued and is now happily living in Bonnie's house, while Lotso ended up in Sunnyside Daycare, where he then planned to terrorize all of the toys living in the daycare center.}}

 

== Film - Live Action ==

* This happens to Tom Hanks's character in ''[[Cast Away]]''; he comes back after five years to find that his loved one started a family with someone else two or three years after he vanished. In a subversion, she's instantly ready to completely abandon her family and run away with him, but he rebukes her.

** This, in turn, was referenced in ''[[Family Guy]]'', after Peter was stranded with Quagmire, Cleveland and Joe on a desert island, only to finally return home and find that Brian had taken over his former role in the home. (They explicitly only married for stability, and, to Brian's chagrin, never did the deed. This is to keep their [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|UST]], well, U.)

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

* Slight variation in ''[[The Dead Zone]]'' in that Johnny wasn't presumed dead while his fiancee didn't wait for him, he was in a coma from which no one was sure he would wake.