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Grand Romantic Gesture (view source)

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{{quote|'''Beast:''' I want to do something for her... but what?<br />
'''Cogsworth:''' Well, there's the usual things: Flowers... chocolates... [[The Triple|promises you don't intend to keep...]]|''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and Thethe Beast]]''}}
 
You've got a lover. You love them so bad [[Love Hurts|it hurts]]. You want to do something to prove your love. But what?
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* [[Archie Comics]] often shows Archie pulling these off for Veronica, who is notably difficult to please. Some examples: Making a giant Valentine card for her, building a heart out of snow and spelling "Archie Loves Veronica" in coal, buying her jewelry he can't afford...
* An issue of ''Superman Confidential'' had Superman taking Lois for a picnic date on top of the Eiffel Tower.
* In ''[[All -Star Superman]]'', Jimmy Olsen makes a "short-term, cosmetic alteration" to the moon to get back in his girl's good graces.
* In ''[[Scott Pilgrim]] and the Infinite Sadness'', Todd Ingram proclaimed his love for Ramona by {{spoiler|blowing a hole in the moon with his vegan powers}}. This is eventually revealed to be trivial for him {{spoiler|since he later declares his love for Scott's ex, Envy, the same way. This ends up biting him in the ass when someone realizes he's responsible for both holes, and suddenly his [[Grand Romantic Gesture]] for Envy doesn't seem so grand or romantic}}.
 
== [[Film]] ==
* In Disney's ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and Thethe Beast]]'', Beast gives Belle {{spoiler|an entire library}} as a sign of affection.
** Although how grand this is is debatable as {{spoiler|the library was already in the house, all the Beast did was open a door and point}}
*** He knew that she would like it and was ''okay'' with her liking it. For someone wondering if she's odd that meant everything.
* ''[[Love Actually|Love, Actually]]'' solidly runs on this trope, but the best ones are pulled off by Mark. In the opening, he hires a full band to hide in the chapel where his best friend is getting married. Later, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFnSgPC-VXA he stands outside a girl's house in the snow], plays Christmas carols on a CD player, and {{spoiler|silently delivers an elaborate love letter/goodbye to her on cue cards}}. Interestingly, in the creator commentary, the writer/director says he wrote several different grand romantic gestures for the scene (ex. flying in on a helicopter, covering the street with roses), but the female assistants in his office told him they were too elaborate to be really romantic.
* In ''[[A Knight's Tale]]'', Will says he'll win a jousting tournament for his paramour. She says he'd win anyway for his own pride, and if he really loved he'd ''lose'' for her. He grudgingly goes on to do just that, sitting still and getting slammed repeatedly by his opponents' lances until she relents and informs him that, if he loves her, he won't lose another match and will win the tournament after all.
* In ''[[Big Fish]]'', the main character finds out the girl he's in love with is engaged to another man. Rather than give up, he organizes a series of grand romantic gestures, like switching out a slide in her prof's lecture to read "I love Sandra!", hiring a sky-writer to do the same, and culminating in {{spoiler|planting thousands and thousands of her favourite flower outside her dorm room window}}.
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* In ''[[The Great Race]]'', the main character {{spoiler|loses a car race around the world on purpose (stopping right before the finish line)}} just to prove a girl that she's important to him.
* In ''[[Bed Of Roses]]'', Lewis sends Lisa bouquet after bouquet of all the thornless "sterling roses" he can get from every florist and supplier he can call, after she mentions a fondness for him. Lisa is touched, but also kind of disturbed by the excessive scale of the gesture.
* Towards the end of ''[[Bride and Prejudice (Film)|Bride and Prejudice]]'' Darcy makes a real effort for Lalita that includes drums.
* ''[[Good Luck Chuck]]'' features this after Chuck sleeps with Cam, where he lavishes attention on her in the hopes that [[It Makes Sense in Context|she won't move on after they've had sex]]. However, [[Reality Ensues]] when Cam gets unnerved by the change in his personality and newfound clinginess.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The exact phrase is used verbatim in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''
{{quote| '''Lucille:''' Buster, hi. It's me again. I've still got those Producers tickets, and I'd love to share them with you. I don't want you to think I'm taking this more seriously than you are. Unless you're planning some grand romantic gesture, my feelings are just the teensiest bit hurt.}}
* Ted in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' is a fan of pulling these off. The [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|two-minute date]] is a standout.
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** Even Barney got into it later. He {{spoiler|refused to leave a diner until Nora agreed to go out with him again.}}
* ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'': Lorelai said that a proposal should be big and epic and have "a thousand yellow daisies." Cue her [[The Paolo|boyfriend]] proposing to her by sending one thousand yellow daisies to her workplace.
* Played with in ''[[The X -Files]]'' episode "The Rain King", where the "villain" is unconsciously causing tornadoes and thunderstorms because of his pent-up romantic desire for the woman he is unable to confess his feelings to. When she learns about it, she realizes that causing a thunderstorm out of love for her is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for her.
** Mulder's after-dark baseball lesson could count, too. For most couples, this would simply be a cute date. But given that his and Scully's relationship moves ''slower'' than a snail's pace and usually takes two steps forward and one step back, this is a pretty gutsy and grand gesture on his part.
* In ''[[Coupling]]'' Patrick tries to tell Sally that he loves her (and buggers it up, but it's not like he's got much practice at that sort of thing), then, having bought out the entire pub for the evening, plays the Spiderman theme [[Crowning Moment of Funny|with his two best friends dancing to it. In costume.]] Sounds odd, except that he and Sally had their first kiss to the Spiderman theme.
* [[Subverted]] in the episode "Sweet Dreams" of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' in which Prince Arthur is put under a spell to fall in love with the spoilt princess Vivian. He wakes up with the desire to woo her with increasingly elaborate measures, ranging from taking her a roast chicken to scaling the castle wall at night to reach her bedroom and finally fighting a duel to the death with her father. When the spell wears off due to a [[True Love's Kiss]] from Guinevere, he takes her a single red rose.
** Played straight when Arthur proposes to Guinevere by candlelight. He's filled her wooden house with lit candles in what is quite frankly a terrifying fire hazard.
* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', [[Action Girl|River Song]] threatens to unravel all of time and reality by stalling The Doctor's death... to build a distress beacon that calls out to every point in time and space. {{spoiler|She couldn't allow the Doctor to die without knowing how much he is loved, by a million ''million'' people throughout all of creation... and by [[Love Confession|none moreso than her.]] }}
* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', [[Stalker Withwith a Crush|Spike]], to prove his love to Buffy... had her chained to a wall and offered to kill his ex for her. In hindsight, this probably wasn't the best idea.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Fourze (TV)|Kamen Rider Fourze]]'': How does Shun try to ask Miu to the prom? By sending a truck to school with a giant screen that says "I Love You!", appearing in a white tuxedo with a large bouquet of flowers, and having the football team as his backup.
 
== [[Music]] ==
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* A [[Valentines Day Episode]] of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' had Apu doing a series of these for Manjula. Homer and the other husbands tried to sabotage them becauses they couldn't compete with him.
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Time Keeps on Slippin'," Fry and Leela get married after Fry does something incredibly romantic for her. The problem: Because of the random time slips plaguing the episode, neither of them remember what it is he did for her, and she demands a divorce. In the end, he rediscovers what he did: {{spoiler|Rearrange a bunch of '''stars''' to say "I love you, Leela". Unfortunately, [[The Greatest Story Never Told|the romantic gesture is blown up before she sees it again]].}}
* Tying in with the [[Cracked]] example above, ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'' brought us the actions [[Mad Hatter|Jervis Tetch]] used to woo his Alice. Including, but not limited to - brainwashing a pair of thugs to go jump off a bridge (literally) to impress her with his bravery when they're about to get mugged; brainwashing the Maitre'd of a restaurant (as well as the ''rest'' of the staff) into getting them a seat and the romantic usuals (violin/flowers/etc.). After she reconciled with her boyfriend the same night, though, he uses brainwashing to break them up again, then does the "extravagant Flower surprise" in her house... which he didn't have a key for. Alice is, understandably, creeped the hell out - but mostly because Jervis had no way of knowing that the two had broken up.
 
{{reflist}}
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