Parental Marriage Veto/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The parents don't approve of the Love Interest.

  • Played Straight: Alice brings Bob over to meet her parents, who act very cold towards him.
  • Exaggerated: Alice's father chases Bob away with a gun.
    • Alice and Bob are killed by Alice's parents.
    • Alice is sent by her parents to live with a relative in a foreign country, because they don't want her to see Bob again.
    • Alice's parents hate Bob despite never having met him even once.
  • Justified: Alice's parents already know Bob, and they know he's a terrible person.
  • Inverted: Bob does not like Alice's parents.
    • Alice's parents really like Bob, and encourage her to keep seeing him.
  • Subverted: Alice's parents are very polite to Bob during the visit.
  • Double Subverted: But once he leaves, they have nothing but bad things to say about him.
  • Deconstructed: They may be making a rush to judgment, based on Bob's appearance or social class or simply out of concern for Alice.
  • Reconstructed: But Bob proves what a good person he is, and proves his love for Alice, and her parents eventually accept him.
  • Parodied: Alice's parents reject Bob for having a pulse.
  • Lampshaded: "But Daddy, he loves me!"
  • Enforced: Alice's social class
  • Zig Zagged: Alice's parents like some of her boyfriends, and hate others.
  • Averted: Alice's parents really like Bob.
    • Alice and Bob are not a couple and/or Alice's parents have never met Bob.
  • Invoked: Bob shows up at Alice's house looking like a punk-rocker or other such "undesirable" (as defined by the likes of Alice's parents)
  • Defied: Alice and Bob's parents make an effort to accept Alice's Love Interests just the way they are, and get to know them before judging or critiquing them.
  • Discussed: "Now, I have to warn you, baby, my parents are tough to impress."
  • Conversed: "What the hell does it matter what Mr. and Mrs. Troper think of Bob, as long as he loves Alice?!"
  • Played For Laughs: Alice's father slams the door in Bob's face.
  • Played For Drama: Alice suffers Honor-Related Abuse for getting together with Bob.

Back to Parental Marriage Veto