No Hugging, No Kissing: Difference between revisions

[[Shipping Tropes|Doesn't stop Shipping]] [[Toy Ship|in any]] [[Ghost Shipping|way]], [[Cargo Ship|shape]], [[Crossover Ship|or form]]. In some occasions, the writers change their mind along the way and [[Relationship Upgrade|decide to reward fans with an intimate relationship]], but they don't actually illustrate it and don't decide to do it until the [[Last-Minute Hookup|very last second]].

 

 

Compare and contrast [[Ship Sinking]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Despite being a melodramatic shoujo series, ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' 's director found [[Shipping]] an annoyingly common [[Plot Tumor]]; many of the relationships in the show are either ambiguously complicated if not morally uncomfortable. [[The Movie]], in contrast, has just enough time crunch to [[Les Yay|give the fans what they want]] for the lead characters.

 

 

* ''[[Tintin]]'' has this in spades, no major characters have shown any interest in romance whatsoever. The only exception is Professor Calculus, who has an innocent crush on Bianca Castafiore.

** According to the book "Tintin: Herge & His Creation", Snowy would have been a female human and love interest for Tintin had the Tintin stories not been originally published for a conservative Christian newspaper. Apparently conservative Christians look down upon romance between unmarried couples.

* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[The Princess Bride]]''. When Westley has to leave and he and Buttercup start a romantic kiss goodbye, the young boy to whom the story is being read complains "Is this a kissing book?" In response, the narrator switches to the part where Westley is murdered by pirates. The boy comments: "Murdered by pirates is good." However, by the end, the boy allows Westley and Buttercup to have a romantic kiss, without complaint.

* In the film adaptations of both [[The Da Vinci Code]] and Angels & Demons, the romantic subplots between Langdon and Sophie and between Langdon and Victoria are scrapped altogether (it was stated that this would make the film less realistic). Langdon does give Sophie a friendly peck on the forehead, but that's about it.

{{quote|This is a film too bad to be good & too good to be so bad it’s good. DULL is the watchword, unless watching Richard Gere’s Shatnerian reactions to a phone ringing is your idea of edge-of-the-seat horror. That Mothman never makes an appearance would be fine if the film gave us something else, or kept a mystery worth keeping- but nada. & this is perhaps the only ‘action’ film I can recall where a [[Romantic Plot Tumor|gratuitous love story]] would have improved the tale. Laura Linney’s Connie is the only character developed to any emotional or deep extent, or which induces any concern. She radiates a down-home sensuality, yet John never makes a move, even after saving her. Not even a peck on the cheek. Loser!}}

* In the made-for-TV film ''Path of Destruction'': Katherine Stern and Nathan McCain apparently go on a date at the end, although they never hug or kiss.

 

== Literature ==

** It is also true that ''any'' mention of sexual activity in Lovecraft is not only off-screen, but depicted as grotesque and produces abominable things that should not be. (''[[The Dunwich Horror]],'' ''[[The Shadow Over Innsmouth]]'')

* R.L. Stine's ''[[Goosebumps]]'' books often assign the protagonist a best friend of the opposite sex. No one ever seems to address the topic of romance between the two; in fact, [[Purely Aesthetic Gender|there's virtually no difference between male and female characters at all]]. Differences between the sexes are only important when the characters are teenagers, just as said differences tend to be [[Truth in Television|in real life]]. This is most likely because the books are aimed at prepubescent kids, and he wants both genders to be able to relate to it.

** Though he did avert it in ''one'' book, "How I Learned To Fly," in which the male protagonist actively wants his relationship with his female friend to be romantic.

** Deliciously inverted in {{spoiler|The Ambassadors.}}

* ''[[Redwall]]'': The word "love" is almost never used except for family and friendship types of love. (Making the throwaway line in ''The Sable Quean'' where a female [[Mook]] [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones|declares "I loved him"]] [[Minion Shipping|and vows to avenge her slain mate]] even more striking.) Martin and Rose, the most famous couple, are never described with the word "love", and barely even hold paws onscreen, but it's still clear that they're very important to each other, and {{spoiler|still heartbreaking when Rose is killed}}.

 

 

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' had three on-screen kisses in seventeen years, often taking [[Will They or Won't They?]] to painful levels.

** Not to mention those kisses were all done by the same couple. That couple was Kimberly and Tommy. Which means that all three kisses happened between Tommy's debut (middle of season 1) and Kimberly's departure (middle of season 3) That amounts to three kisses in roughly the span of two seasons, out of what is now 19 seasons and nearly 20 years.

** [[Executive Meddling]] forces may have been at work, too. According to ''[[Power Rangers SPD|SPD]]'' executive producer Greg Aranowitz, higher ups demanded as-low-as-possible levels of romance in the series, since it's targeted at little boys and all (he only said that about SPD, naturally, but who knows what goes through the minds of Disney).

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' took this one to the point where a noticeable section of fans believed (and still do) that Time Lords are asexual, and have contrived extremely elaborate [[Fan Wank]] to make this a biological viability. A form of this supposed asexuality is [[Canon]] in one [[Expanded Universe]] novel series, based off plans script editor Andrew Cartmel had for the Seventh Doctor—but the [[Expanded Universe]] isn't part of the TV show canon.

** The new series very quickly made efforts to dispel this aspect of the original series, with the Doctor and Rose having a [[Will They or Won't They?|slow-burning relationship]] climaxing in a kiss at the end of the first season. By now, the Doctor has snogged or been snogged by Cassandra, Reinette, Astrid, Joan, Martha, Donna, Amy, River, Catherine, the freaking {{spoiler|TARDIS}} [[Ho Yay|and Captain Jack]] (and Rory in the comics), all for various reasons. Naturally, many of that first section of fans dislike the new series for precisely this reason. However, the writers are quite respectful towards the fans who'd rather see the Doctor be chaste, and always leave room for a bit of denial. (As for the Rose thing: {{spoiler|he leaves her behind forever so she can go live happily with his mortal clone. Problem solved!}})

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Very mildly averted in the ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' novels, where Cain is a devoted pursuer of women, and there's a few other relationships mentioned when they cross his path. It's mostly offscreen, and mostly implied, but it's there.

 

* Obsidian Entertainment's later ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'', in comparison, avoids it almost completely (save for a single scene under the moon), and whatever sexuality-related themes are there are mostly played for laughs.

** The expansion pack to ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' however does have one romantic option for the main character (based on his/her gender). [[Level Up At Intimacy 5|It affects your stats in game.]]

* ''[[Freelancer]]'' makes it very clear that Trent and Juni start out as brothers at arms to end up as close friends, but nothing more.

* ''[[Touhou]]'' has no romance whatsoever. Hell, only a literal handful of characters even have known family members.

** The closest to subverting this trope is Wu's ending on ''DW7'', with Sun Quan carrying Lian Shi (both are an example similar to Zhao and Yuanji). Koei, you really need to to make these relationships believable.

* As mentioned in the anime, there's little romance in ''[[Pokémon]]'' other than implications and subtext.

* Love and sex are never mentioned in ''[[Dark Souls]]''. The only marriage ever mentioned is off screen and neither character involved is personally encountered. It might just be that the world [[Crapsack World|sucks]] so much no one can really bother thinking about such things, or that the Dark Sign is also [[Sterility Plague]].

 

== Web Comics ==

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* The closest thing to romance in ''[[Invader Zim]]'' is [[Mauve Shirt|Gretchen]]'s implied crush on [[Hero Antagonist|Dib]], [[Eviler Than Thou|Tak]]'s brief and incredibly violent "relationship" with Zim (motivated by revenge and SCIENCE!, respectively), and [[Robot Buddy|GIR]]'s very obvious interest in [[Creepy Child|Gaz]].

* Despite the many love songs and possible [[Incest Subtext]] in ''[[The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan]]'', the lives of Mr. Chan and his children were decidedly romance-free (on camera, anyway). The only romantic subplot ever was between the family dog and a one-episode canine character.

* ''[[My Little Pony]]'' in general tends to not have any on-screen romance.

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