Promoted to Love Interest: Difference between revisions

So. You're adapting this great book for the screen. It's got action, comedy, drama, rom...what, it ''doesn't'' have romance? Well, that won't do; we can't [[Strictly Formula|break the formula]]. Looks like it's time for a previously platonic character to be [[Promoted to Love Interest]].

 

 

This sort of thing [[Shipping|happens to everyone]] all the time in [[Fanfic|fanfiction]], for [[Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls|some]] [[Author Appeal|reason]].

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Oujirou in the ''[[Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer]]'' anime. His girlfriend in the manga epilogue [[Pair the Spares|gets shoved off]] with Misaki's own love interest from the manga.

* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' anime adaptation has promoted Faldio to love interest in order to introduce a ''[[Love Triangle]]''. Not only totally unnecessary considering the existing romantic subplot, but it's become a rather large [[Romantic Plot Tumor]]. For instance, a rather epic battle in the game against an enormous overpowered tank was completely avoided in the anime to allow Alicia and Faldio time to flirt.

* In the ''[[Tokko]]'' manga, Ranmaru and Sakura don't show any specific romantic interest in each other, but in the anime they develop feelings for each other and become love interests.

* Pretty much every movie version of ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]'' de-ages [[The Leatherstocking Tales|Hawkeye]] and pairs him up with one of the female characters. Which is [[Adaptation Decay|silly]], because there's already a romance, two even, and he's [[I Am Not Shazam|not actually the main character]] [[Ensemble Darkhorse|anyway]].

* Maggie Barnes in the ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'' movie.

** In the original radio series, Trillian was indeed meant as a love interest but things didn't progress the way Adams intended to. That's why their romantic involvement was played up in the movie.

* ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' does this with "Dizzy" Flores who, in the book, is a guy in the same platoon as Rico, and is only mentioned in the first chapter, due to the fact that he dies during a drop, and is not romantic at all. (Per the other wiki and, you know, the book.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(film)#Comparison_with_the_novel\] Of course, Dizzy gets an upgrade with boobs and boinked. It's good both ways.

** Um, no. Unless we're talking about different people, Winnie is 12 in the books and Jesse is either 15 or 17. Of course, nothing physical happens but {{spoiler|he does propose to her and offer to make her immortal when she's his age so they can be together forever.}}

** The book was a bit ambiguous as to exactly how romantic things were on Jesse's end. Winnie definitely felt something for him, but it could very well have been a [[Precocious Crush]]. Let's just say that in the book, the two certainly didn't go running through a field and plan to climb the Eiffel Tower together.

** The same was done in the film of ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]''.

* This is actually inverted in the movie adaptation of ''[[Psycho]]''. In the original novel Lila and Sam become romantically involved {{spoiler|after Mary is killed and they try to solve her murder.}} Hitchcock made their relationship platonic in the film, because it would be gross otherwise.

** In the 1982 sequel, though, Lila has married Sam and had a daughter with him, called Mary.

* One of the [[Reconstruction|changes made]] in the film version of ''[[Kick-Ass]].'' In the film, he ends up boinking with the girl he's got a crush on. {{spoiler|In the novel, he ends up crumpled on the floor at high school due to a [[Groin Attack]] from her boyfriend.}}

* The 1960 film version of [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s ''Fall of the House of Usher'' makes Madeline the fiancée of the narrator.

* [[Adaptation Decay|The film version]] of ''[[Queen of the Damned]]'' made the main subplot a romance between the two main characters who, in the book, do not speak.

** Well Watson shipped Violet Hunter, so it does make more sense, but I guess everyone loves someone who beats Sherlock Holmes.

* Most adaptations of ''[[Dracula (novel)|Dracula]]'' make Mina Murray Harker (or her equivalent, as sometimes her role and that of Lucy Westenra are flipped or combined) into the title character's love interest, a trend that's often attributed to ''[[Bram Stoker's Dracula|Bram Stokers Dracula]]'' (the film), which made Mina the reincarnation of Vlad Tepes' bride Elisabeta. However, a similar incident occurred in the 1970 TV version, where ''Lucy'' looked like Dracula's lost love, and even the 1950s Hammer Horror version referred to Dracula in the posters as "the terrifying lover who died- yet ''lived''!" In the book, there was indeed a vague indication that Dracula intended for her to become his queen, but Mina regarded this as [[A Fate Worse Than Death]], complete with all the rape associations that went along with this.

*** Which was doubly inverted in the movie, where Mina's husband is dead and she has no affair with Quatermaine. Sawyer flirts with her a bit and she did have an affair with Dorian Grey in the past, but it's implied that her years of living as a vampire have left her unable to really love anyone.

* [[Disgaea Hour of Darkness/Characters|Flonne and Etna]] from ''[[Disgaea Hour of Darkness]]'' in the [[Disgaea]] [[Disgaea Novels|novels]]. In the game the nature of their feelings for [[Disgaea Hour of Darkness/Characters|Laharl]] is very debatable, in the [[Disgaea Novels|novels]] they both got a crystal clear crush on him.

== [[Theater]] ==

* The play ''[[The Solid Gold Cadillac]]'' had a relatively low-key romance between Mrs. Laura Partridge and Ed McKeever, even though the narration referred to the couple as "Cinderella" and "Prince Charming," who (of course) were married in the end. The movie version is much more of a romantic comedy, playing up the romance between McKeever and <s>Mrs.</s> ''Miss'' Partridge to an extent that the [[Tabloid Melodrama]] about the characters is fairly justified.

* In the musical of ''[[The Producers]]'' the previously minor part of Swedish secretary Ulla is not only expanded into leading lady but she becomes Bloom's love interest and briefly is the center of a one-sided [[Love Triangle]] between him and Max.

* The musical adaptation of ''[[The Scarlet Pimpernel (theatre)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]'' adds a romantic history for the villain Chauvelin and the heroine Marguerite, making the former something of [[The Vamp]], since the latter used to be [[Heel Realization|on his side]]. In the original novel, they were nothing more than acquaintances in the past and Chauvelin sees Marguerite as nothing but "a tool" now, his faith in her intellect to help him nab the Scarlet Pimpernel and his constant [[Terms of Endangerment]] aside.

* In ''[[Seussical]]'', [[Horton Hears a Who!|Horton]] gets a lover interest in Gertrude McFuzz, a character from another of Seuss' books.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Also in the first movie, there are some incredibly obvious hints that Hahli and Jaller like each other, though this was back before the hugging/kissing rule was really brought in.

** And now that the story takes place in a world where there's no such thing as [[No Hugging, No Kissing]], one of the female characters (well, the only one to ever get a spotlight, anyway) will show feelings toward the main hero, Mata Nui. [[Word of God]] says these feeling which could barely even be called love will only get referenced in one short scene in a novel, and their so-far friendly relationship won't go any deeper, since the storyline is still intended for a younger male audience (who, according to them, are still afraid of cooties), and since Mata Nui is an outcast from the no-romance world ({{spoiler|and he also has to get his old [[Humongous Mecha]] body back sometime}}).

** Spider-Woman's daughter was in the cartoon as well. Her feelings about her mom's relationship with Stark were not shown (except in one episode where they have a fake wedding for some reason, and she's not happy).

* ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' [[Averted Trope|averts]] this in the case of [[Fiery Redhead|Mary Jane Watson]]. In the comics, she's one of several [[Love Interest|LoveInterests]] for Peter, albeit the one he finally married (until OMD, at least). In most adaptations, most notably the movies, she's given a greater role while the others are reduced, cut or [[Composite Character|combined]] with her. In ''Spectacular'' she goes with Peter to a dance in her first appearance, but is otherwise just a friend--the main love interests are [[Betty and Veronica|Gwen Stacy and Liz Allan]] (plus some heavy-duty flirting from [[Dating Catwoman|Black Cat]] when she appears).