Flirting Under Fire: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Most stories build up the romance between love interests in between the bits of action, when the characters in question can set their troubles aside long enough to focus on one another. Some stories, however, either don't care enough to separate the romance from the action, or simply don't want to. Typically played for comedic effect, though occasionally done in a dramatic manner, this is when the lovebirds in question will continue to flirt and romance one another even while the bullets whiz past them. More specifically, this trope is characterized by both the presence of a danger to the protagonists/love interests, and the protagonists' ambivalence to the danger's presence while focusing on their romantic relationship.

 

{{noreallife|this is All The Tropes, not Tropes After Dark.}}

{{examples}}

 

* In [[Gotlib]]'s comics, action heroes do this all the time, passionately kissing the [[Bond Girl]] while shooting a bad guy (without looking) and delivering an [[Offhand Backhand]] to another.

* Robin (Tim Drake) and Spoiler (Stephanie Brown) from the [[Batman]] comics. In one issue, Stephanie kisses Tim and then pins him to the floor ("Isn't this romantic?" "...Not really"), while armed kidnappers stands outside the door, waiting to crash the door down.

 

* During a battle in Disney's ''[[Robin Hood (Disney film)|Robin Hood]]'', Robin Hood proposes to Marion, and they start making plans for the honeymoon and starting a family.

* During the battle aboard the ''Flying Dutchman'' in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'', Elizabeth and Will ask Barbossa to marry them in the middle of all the fighting, and even share a kiss.

* ''[[Lucky Number Slevin]]''. Slevin and Lindsey build up most of their romance in this manner. Despite the fact that Slevin is on the hit list of two warring gangs, he and Lindsey find time to flirt, go to dinner (where Slevin is able to shadow a man he has been told to kill), and spend a night together.

* In the first ''[[Speed]]'' film, the protagonists Jack Traven and Annie Porter constantly flirt, with Annie often saying, "Relationships based on traumatic events always end up failing." At the end of the film, Jack repeats the line and Annie replies, "We'll have to base ours on sex, then." He obligingly responds, "Whatever you say, ma'am."

 

 

* In a late episode of ''[[Get Smart]]'', Max and 99 are caught in death-trap with no apparent means of escape. Thinking they are about to die, Max realizes that he's in love with 99 and declares that if they could get out he'd marry her. She immediately thinks of a way to escape and they get married a few episodes later.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E02 Day of the Moon|Day of the Moon]]", the Doctor and River trade flirtatious quips while Amy Pond is held prisoner feet away, and the Silence trying to manipulate the 69 Apollo moon shot. Amy ends up snapping them out of it with a barbed remark.

* ''[[Chuck]]'' has this with Chuck and Sarah, to a lesser extent when their relationship is still just a cover and more frequently once they finally get together. Notably, Chuck and Sarah's first major quarrel as a couple is aired out ''while foiling a bank robbery'', ({{spoiler|actually part of a gambit by Alexei Volkoff to gain access to Chuck's father's files on him}}). Later, while ''performing'' a bank robbery as part of a mission, the two lightheartedly discuss their impending wedding plans, made even funnier with occasional asides to threaten the bank patrons and guards. Being ''Chuck'', these moments are usually played both for laughs and seriously at the same time.

* ''[[Farscape]]'' frequently makes use of this trope with Crichton and Aeryn. Even before becoming a couple the two, particularly John, would make flirtatious comments during fights. Taken [[Up to Eleven]] in the Peacekeeper Wars, where not only are the two married by Stark during the apocalyptic Scarran attack on the planet they're defending, but {{spoiler|Aeryn is in the process of ''giving birth''}}.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* [[Kim Possible]] and Ron get flirty under attack, especially once they are an [[Official Couple]].