New Old Flame: Difference between revisions

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Usually, it ends in death, [[Put Onon a Bus]], [[Bus Crash|death on a bus]], or with some similar [[Reset Button]].

Often, the character with the [['''New Old Flame]]''' is [[Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder|already (re-)married]], and it turns out it's not just the audience that's surprised.

Compare to [[Remember the New Guy?]], [[Romantic False Lead]].

* ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|Haruhi Suzumiya]]'': Foreshadowed in the first novel, appears in the ninth.

* Done in the ''[[Kannagi (Manga)|Kannagi]]'' manga, triggering an absurd amount of [[Fan Dumb]] in Japan wherein people were burning their copies of the books simply because the character was no longer "innocent" despite the lack of anything sexual being mentioned in the story.

* Done in ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]'', concerning the past of {{spoiler|Athena}} and Hayate.

* In ''[[Soul Eater (Manga)|Soul Eater]]'' Marie's [[New Old Flame]] shows up. It appears like they both have leftover feelings for one another and are about to rekindle their relationship when said [[New Old Flame]] suffers from {{spoiler|[[Bus Crash|Death On A Bus]]}}. It kind of serves to set of the Stein/Marie shippers, since Stein is the one who consoles her.

* Lori Lemaris was this in the [[Silver Age]] ''[[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]]'' comics: Clark Kent's sweetheart from college (who turns out to be secretly an Atlantean mermaid).

* Glittering Goldie is [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Scrooge McDuck]]'s one true love. They break up due to [[Poor Communication Kills]] ... and some accident and bad choices and such. "The Prisoner of White Agony Creek", "Hearts of the Yukon" and "Last Sled to Dawson" show as much.

* In the epilogue of ''[[Dark Reign]]'', during the funeral of {{spoiler|Sentry}}, Rogue reveals that they were in a relationship. Not only do her given reasons for the relationship boggle the mind, (there's a fair amount of people who can be in a physical relationship with Rogue and not get killed) but it's in incredibly bad taste since {{spoiler|Sentry}} was ''married.'' The whole thing feels like the writer is saying, "hey guys! This guy got to tap that ass! [[Unfortunate Implications|You should feel sad such a playa is gone!"]]

* A while back, we learned that [[Incredible Hulk (Comic Book)|Bruce Banner]] of all people had an incredibly hot girlfriend in college, but dumped her because he was a neurotic twit. She's now a [[Hot Scientist]], and still bitter about the breakup.

* In ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies (Film)|Tomorrow Never Dies]]'', the villain's wife, Paris Carver, is an old lover of [[James Bond]]. Given Bond's [[Really Gets Around|history]], this probably happens a lot.

* The titular [[Robin Hood (Disney film)|Robin Hood]] and Maid Marian, who had been childhood friends and were in love before they were separated for some time and later reunited.

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[ProsperosProspero's Daughter|Prospero Lost]]'', Ferdinand reappears. With even a reasonable explanition of why he didn't show up for their wedding. Then it turns out he's a fake, then it turns out -- letout—let's just say this trope gets zigzagged in this work.

* The [[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]] novel ''Shadows On A Sun'' brings back McCoy's ex-wife and has the start of a romance before {{spoiler|she dies.}}

== Live -Action TV ==

* The same plot mechanism is put to different use (with shades of "[[Luke, I Am Your Father]]") in ''[[The Pretender]]'' episode "At the Hour of Our Deaths", which revolves around Miss Parker's adoptive sister -- neversister—never hinted at before, dead by the end of the episode, and never referred to again. The series also included several straight instances.

* Lucille in the last two episodes of ''[[Chef (TV)|Chef]]'' served this purpose.

* Reconstructed in River Song from ''[[Doctor Who]]''. She is most likely a new old flame from the Doctor's personal future. When the Tenth Doctor meets her for the first time, she is extremely intimate with him right from the start, even knowing his true name and calling him sweetie and pretty boy. Then she {{spoiler|sacrifices herself to save 4400 people, including the Doctor, and dies in front of him.}} After he regenerates into the Eleventh Doctor, they spend several episodes flirting, during which Amy Pond decides she must be the Doctor's future wife. By the end of the fifth series, he may or may not have proposed to her. (He seems unsure himself whether he just did or not.)

* Jack Harkness and John Hart on ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'', John is also Jack's [[Evil Counterpart]].

** Unsurprisingly, Jack has a few more of these. The radio plays gave us Stella Courtney (from 30 years ago) in ''The Dead Line'', and the Duchess in ''Golden Age'' (very much a [[New Old Flame]]: he hasn't seen her since 1924, she hasn't aged a day.)

** And again from the series itself, Estelle from the episode "Small Worlds". The twist in that case being that Jack is passing himself off as the son of her former lover (himself), apparently not wanting to explain his immortality to her. However, when she's {{spoiler|killed by [[The Fair Folk|the fairies]],}} Jack is clearly heartbroken.

** Then there's Angelo in ''[[Torchwood: Miracle Day]]'', who ends up the reason this whole mess started. Unfortunately, he comes back {{spoiler|on his deathbed, in a coma, and dies shortly after}}.

* Happened in an episode of ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' when Doyle's ex-wife, Harry, popped in to get their divorce papers signed. Needless to say, Doyle's new love interest Cordelia was surprised by how much that bothered her.

* An episode of ''[[MashM*A*S*H (TVtelevision)|Mash]]'' had womanizing Hawkeye's "one true love" show up.

* Used in the aptly-named [[Hogan's Heroes]] episode [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|"Klink's Old Flame."]] It's played with, though: Klink hears that his old flame is coming to the stalag, but she is now married to an influential general. Knowing that if she rediscovers her old feelings for him, he could end up fired or shot, [[Hilarity Ensues|he takes drastic measures to make himself as unattractive to her as possible.]] {{spoiler|Ultimately subverted though, as it's later revealed she never got past a handshake with him, and she's actually an underground agent who arranged the 'reunion' to meet with Hogan.}}

* In [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Leethe Adama2004 ''Battlestar Galactica'']], Lee Adama is angsty when he is reminded of his ex-girlfriend, whom he ran from after she told him she carries his child. Which is reasonable, just that he is the closest thing to a protagonist in this show, and the first time this is mentioned is the 14th episode of the ''second season''.

** In the minisodes we discover that Gaeta was involved with an Eight model Cylon on New Caprica. It doesn't end well. Although there's been no mention of this up till now, the webisode cleverly works in a previously unexplained [[Noodle Incident]] -- what—what Baltar whispered in Gaeta's ear before he found that [[The Pen Is Mightier]].

* Although not a lover, an episode of ''[[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]]'' does this strangely. One episode is based around the funeral of their old army buddy. There's a lot of tender reminiscing, and even a lingering close-up on a photo of the five of them standing together in uniform. This is made only ''slightly'' less poignant by the fact that ''we've never heard of this guy before, nor will we again''.

** The war buddy version is also seen in the ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'' episode "The Message" with Tracey.

* Variant in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'': Jadzia Dax and Lenara Kahn had technically never met before their one-episode romance, but the previous hosts of their symbionts were married.

** Played straight in the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV)|DS9]]'' episode "Profit and Loss", where Quark's old flame from the Bajorean Occupation, a Cardassian woman, returns to the station.

* Dr. [[House (TV series)|House]] and the now-married Stacy. More recently, it was revealed that Wilson has been dating his first ex-wife.

** And as of season 7, Cuddy. However, the writers have [[Status Quo Is God|returned everything to normal]] at the season's end.

* Lise Hampton, [[Babylon Five5|Garibaldi]]'s former significant other, shows up mid-fourth-season (after a brief mention in the first season) married to his new boss, [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|William Edgars]]. To Garibaldi's credit, he kept things remarkably professional. In a strange twist (for this trope, not for the overall storyline, in which you could see it coming a mile off), Edgars [[Death of the Hypotenuse|dies]] (no, Garibaldi didn't do it) and the two get back together by the end of the season.

* An oft-ignored season one episode of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' introduces us to [[The Casanova|Dean]] [[The Charmer|Winchester]]'s ex-girlfriend Cassie. We get a glimpse of what Dean looks like in love, and it turns out he's kind of a sap. Sam has fun needling him about it until he realizes who dumped whom and why, and how badly [[The Woobie|Dean]] actually got hurt.

* In one episode of ''[[Castle (TV series)|Castle]]'', he and Beckett investigate a murder that took place during the wedding of one of Castle's exes. {{spoiler|There's jealousy from Beckett's side, a lot of talk at the station, and a brief rekindling between Castle and the girl before she does get married and tells Beckett, "He's all yours."}}

* ''[[Charmed]]'' has a variant, where in the first season Prue's love interest is the same guy she dated in high school (which, since he's introduced that way right away, doesn't feel jarring). The "skipping foreplay" part is sort of [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructed]]; they sleep together on their first "new" date, and while Prue is obviously embarrassed when she tells Piper about it, she argues when Piper says it's basically the same as sleeping with a guy on the ''very'' first date.

* In ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', Noah Hicks, Sydney's former partner, shows up for a few episodes at the end of Season One.

* Det. Jo Rosati is Luke's ex-girlfriend in ''[[Rookie Blue (TV)|Rookie Blue]]''. She joins 15th Division at the start of season 2 and forms a love triangle with Luke torn between her and his girlfriend Andy. {{spoiler|Jo and Luke sleep together which leads to Andy dumping Luke}}.

* Tony's ex-fiancee Wendy showed up mid-season 8 of ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]''. Whether she will become the [[Romantic False Lead]], or the actualy [[Love Interest]], remains to be seen.

* ''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'': Otto's conscience was finally starting to tormenting him for having tricked his rival out of the way so he could marry Gretchen. Otto then invited said rival over. However, when it turned out said rival was still in love with Gretchen all those years, Otto expelled him before Gretchen ever knew he came back.

* Many ''[[Modesty Blaise (Comiccomic Stripstrip)|Modesty Blaise]]'' stories begin with the appearance of an ex-lover of either Modesty or Willie who needs help.

== WebcomicsWeb Comics ==

* ''[[Flipside (Webcomic)|Flipside]]'': In Chapter 30, Bernadette encounters her former lover in Marvallo, revealing the reason for her neurotic insecurity about monogamous relationships.

* Elita One from ''[[The Transformers (Animationanimation)|The Transformers]]'', who showed up, helped Optimus Prime and the gang, and then was never seen again.

* Zuko and Mai of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' (pun probably intended) -- textbook "skip all the boring foreplay and get right to the intensity." Contrast with the heroic [[Official Couple]], who were in the foreplay stage for ''fifty episodes''.

** And while they were probably joking, [[Word of God]] says that [[Action Girl|Suki]] once dated [[Hero Worshipper|Foamy]] [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|Mouth]] [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Guy.]] "She's not too proud of it..."

* Désirée D'Allure, Monterey Jack's ex-fiancée from the ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Animationanimation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' episode "Love Is a Many Splintered Thing". Complete with a [[Reset Button]], yes.