Romantic Plot Tumor: Difference between revisions

A specific form of [[Genre Shift]] or [[Plot Tumor]]. Often invokes [[Strangled Byby the Red String]] and [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]]. Contrast [[No Hugging, No Kissing]].

** Oddly, however, while it never existed in the game proper, the UST starts very early as a result of Faldio basically trying to get Welkin to see Alicia as a woman. The reason, as revealed by a flashback, is that Welkin once was dumb enough to "friend zone" a woman who would have married him, and Faldio does everything short of calling Welkin a moron in Episodes 11 and 12 as he blatantly hits on Alicia and declares he has feelings for her to attempt to get Welkin's goat and get him jealous enough he wouldn't screw things up for himself again, essentially being a stealth version of [[Shipper Onon Deck]]. That said, there is still little to no excuse for the UST angle popping up at the most inappropriate times.

* Many fans find the [[Schoolgirl Lesbians|affair between Yasuko and Fumi]] in ''[[Aoi Hana]]'' is rather puzzling, especially in light of Fumi's obvious feelings for her childhood friend Akira. The whole thing feels rushed and tacked on and looks more like an elaborate scheme to establish that Fumi is ''truly'' a lesbian. It seems like the author realizes the inanity of it all when she {{spoiler|decides to have Yasuko [[Put Onon a Bus]]}}, but not before spending up to ''two manga volumes'' on the relationship.

* Quite a few fans of ''[[Working (Manga)|Working!!]]'' resent that the developing relationship between Inami and Takanashi has more and more taken center stage, considering how the series is filled to the brim with other interesting characters.

** Jun's crush on [[Single -Target Sexuality|Yachiyo]] also shows shades of this. Unlike with Inami and Takanashi, however, it gets a lot less complaining as it's kind of cute, unlike Inami's crush which is almost [[Unintentionally Unsympathetic]] for the reasons said above.

* [[Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders]] gleefully parodies this trope.

* The ''[[X -Men]]'' series loves to drum up romantic tension between two seemingly randomly selected characters. Usually it only leads to one or two scenes of flirtation - a "Romantic Plot Freckle" if you will; sometimes it leads to an actual ongoing relationship - a "Romantic Plot Appendage," say; but sometimes it ends up as a full-fledged Romantic Plot Tumor, with an inordinate page count being devoted to a relationship that ends up being dropped as soon as the writer loses interest (or left the book) to be rarely, if ever, mentioned again. Examples (taken from all the X-Books) include Storm and Gambit; Cyclops and Psylocke; Nightcrawler and Meggan; Shadowcat and Pete Wisdom; Cypher and Psylocke; Storm and Callisto(!); Iceman and Mystique; Havok and the school nurse; Rogue and Colossus; and Storm and Wolverine.

* ''[[Secret Wars]]'' briefly diverts from the main plot to show a burgeoning romance between Magneto and the Wasp, of all people. Ends up becoming more of a [[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene]] because it's ''never mentioned again'' after an apparent one-nighter. Apparently Marvel was considering having Magneto join the Avengers after a [[Heel Face Turn]] and wanted to give him some sort of connection to a current member. He ended up leading the X-Men for a time instead.

* Most of the relationships in "[[Spider -Man]]" since "[[Brand New Day]]" can be seen as such. Most of them have any bearing on any of the ongoing plots at all. Even Peter's relationship with Carlie Cooper- which was set up since the very beginning of BND, and plenty of time spent emphasizing just how "perfect" the two are for each other- ultimately ends up being largely irrelevant and has hardly any impact on any of the major events in Peter's life. Even in "Spider-Island," Peter's relationship with MJ- his ex-wife/ girlfriend- is more important to the plot than his relationship with Carlie, who was his girlfriend at the time. This is especially egregious since the creators emphasized how important Peter being single was to the story, essentially arguing that the stories "couldn't work" if Peter wasn't single.

** Aside from the badly done scenes themselves, the storyline went like this: Obi-Wan finds a planet of cloners--Anakincloners—Anakin and Padme fall in love next to a river--Obiriver—Obi-Wan learns of a massive clone army--Anakinarmy—Anakin and Padme fall in love in a field--Obifield—Obi-Wan confronts Jango Fett--AnakinFett—Anakin and Padme fall in love while eating dinner. There was no flow to the romance; as a result, it felt as if they fell in love [[Because Destiny Says So]].

* The 2007 ''[[Transformers (Filmfilm)|Transformers]]'' movie, culminating in the scene in the car where Sam is shocked to discover that his love interest has a delinquent record. Note that at this point in the film he knew that world was in great danger from giant alien robots.

** [[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Film)|The sequel]] was even ''worse'', mainly because it had the gall to drag out their relation into a [[Will They or Won't They?]].

** [[Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Film)|The third film]] follows the same trend. He gets with a new girl, she gets kidnapped, and a good majority of everything he does in the rest of the film, from being forced to spy on the Autobots to calling in several of the human characters from the previous films, isn't so much about stopping the evil giant robots trying to take over the planet and turn all humans into slaves as it is about trying to rescue his girlfriend.

* The film adaptation of ''[[A Chorus Line]]'' is one of the worst cases of stretching out to tedious extent an affair (between Cassie and Zach) which should have been a minor romantic sub-plot - and, indeed, ''was'' originally a minor romantic sub-plot. This may have been done to beef up the part of Zach, who doesn't sing, enough to get a name actor to play him (Michael Douglas), since the other roles weren't and likely could not have been filled by name performers. ''People'' magazine's critic suspected it may have also been out of fear [[Viewers Areare Morons|movie audiences wouldn't relate to the plights of the dancers]].

* ''[[Enemy Atat the Gates]]'' keeps taking time away from a fascinating and incredibly taut plot centred around a sniper duel in besieged Stalingrad to focus on a tepid and uninteresting love triangle between three principals with zero chemistry.

* ''[[And Then There Were None (Literature)|And Then There Were None]]'': While this is surprisingly averted to a certain extent in [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]]'s stage version and the 1945 movie version, one of the biggest complaints from purists about the Harry Alan Towers film adaptations is that they focus much, much too heavily on showing the blossoming relationship of {{spoiler|the two survivors}} rather than focusing on the much more interesting mystery that made up the original story.

** Completely averted in the Russian version, though, were the relationship is . . . [[Rape Asas Drama|different]]. And the book, where there's nothing but the occasional small hint of [[UST]].

* [[The Movie]] of ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'' features a fairly obvious example of this trope, between Arthur and Trillian. The "original" source materials (book, TV and radio series) all handled their past differently, but agreed that Arthur had been briefly interested in Trillian during a single superficial encounter in the past; when he re-encounters her during the story, he displays jealousy at a few points, but not much more than that. By comparison, the movie version features an Arthur who is desperately pining over Trillian, who could have been his one true love had he not been afraid to pursue her, and he spends most of the movie time thinking about, worrying about or focusing on her. This was deliberately inserted by Douglas Adams when drafting the movie, before his death, to increase studio interest and audience acceptance of the movie. (Which doesn't necessarily rule out that the new love plot was half-baked or several draft rewrites away from being good.)

* Some ''[[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]]'' movies are like this when either the [[Bond Girl]] is a horrid character (Stacy from ''[[A View to A Kill (Film)|A View to Aa Kill]]'', Dr. Jones from ''[[The World Is Not Enough (Film)|The World Is Not Enough]]''), or she's interesting in her own right, but has no romantic chemistry with Bond at all, and yet the writers have her sleep with him anyway (Kissy from ''[[You Only Live Twice (Film)|You Only Live Twice]]'', Pam from ''[[Licence to Kill (Film)|Licence to Kill]]'', Wai Lin from ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies (Film)|Tomorrow Never Dies]]''). ''[[Quantum of Solace (Film)|Quantum of Solace]]'' {{spoiler|averts this; Bond and Camille actually don't get together in the end, which also happens in some of the novels)}}.

** Averted in ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Film)|On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'' where they actually take time to develop the romance between Tracy (Diana Rigg) and Bond (George Lazenby) complete with a [["Falling in Love" Montage]]. Bond has a tender scene where he proposes to her and they marry in the end. {{spoiler|Unfortunately Tracy is gunned down by Blofeld minutes after the wedding and she dies in Bond's arms}}.

* The 2008 film ''[[The Red Baron (Filmfilm)|The Red Baron]]'' was heavily criticized for shoe-horning the fictional character of Nurse Kate and making her love story with Manfred von Richthofen the central plot in the film. Yep, ''that'' Red Baron. '''The''' [[Red Baron]]. [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|They had the freaking Red Baron and they overlooked him]]. You could even say [[Incredibly Lame Pun|They Wasted A Perfectly Good Pilot]].

* An [[In -Universe]] example from ''[[The Fall (Filmfilm)|The Fall]]'': Roy is telling a story to a little girl name Alexandria. To spice it up a little--andlittle—and possibly showing how he's still upset over {{spoiler|his girlfriend leaving him for a man with a better job}}--a—a romance plot is suddenly introduced into his story. But ''because'' he's so depressed, the romance starts to become very, very bad, and in the end part of the point of his story (with Alexandria taking over the reigns) is the hero giving up on the love interest.

* The entire romance plot from ''[[Things to Do Inin Denver When You're Dead]]'' can be edited out of the movie with no effect at all on the story. This has, in fact, been done by some file-sharers. They simply removed every scene with the woman in it. The movie is reportedly none the worse for wear.

** Though in the book, it is suggested she drink the water in her teens so she can be immortal with him and become a love interest for the younger son.

* In ''[[Bram StokersStoker's Dracula]]'' (but not in ''[[Dracula]]'', by Bram Stoker), Dracula isn't after Mina Harker because he's a undead embodiment of evil, a monster seeking to feed on the blood of the innocent. It's because he's in love with her. Awww. And she loves him, because destiny says so. And Dracula wasn't cursed by God to be a vampire because he was an evil bastard who deserved eternal torment. No, Dracula willingly became one as a [[Rage Against the Heavens]] because his wife committed suicide and her soul couldn't be redeemed. Never mind that none of this was in the book, or that the forced romance between Drac and Mina leaves her acting like a complete and unsympathetic bitch to everyone around her, especially her loving husband.

** The recent "sequel" written by Stoker's great grandnephew, ''[[Dracula the Un-Deaddead]]'' completely buys into the "Mina and Dracula wuv each other" nonsense, making the book nearly impossible to read. That sound you hear is Bram Stoker rising from his grave and spinning.

* This happens in ''[[Harry Potter and the sixthHalf-Blood [[Prince (film)|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]] movie''. While the romantic subplots are in the book, they're forced to the forefront, making it seem like that was the most important part of the movie.

* The romance with Sarah (and indeed, Sarah as a character) were [[Executive Meddling|last-minute additions]] to ''[[Newsies]]'', supposedly because without her, the [[Ho Yay|implications of close friendships between boys from different social strata and the introduction of a group of said boys who get a collective morning wash-up/shower scene in the first ten minutes]] would be just too obvious. They were right, but adding her didn't help.

* The film adaption of [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians|The Lightning Thief]] unfortunately gravitates towards this level, which was one of the many complaints fans had towards the film. This is partially brought on by the age upgrade in the film. While the book series grows the romance to fit with the age of the characters (from twelve to sixteen), the film has the characters at age sixteen, making the character development moot.

* ''[[Maximum Ride]]'' began life as a fairly decent kids' series, full of action and fighting stereotypical [[Mad Scientist|Mad Scientists]]s. By book five, the relationship between the two main characters has become the entire focus of the (thin anyway) plot.

* [[Wayne Barlowe]]'s ''[[Gods Demon (Literature)|God's Demon]]'' has a romance between {{spoiler|Sargatanas and Lilith}} that feels like a completely gratuitous and cliched shortcut to cheap pathos. You could cut it without affecting the story at all.

* The [[Aubrey -Maturin]] series books come to a screeching halt on 2 occasions due to romance/females being added to the story. The first (In post-captain) is somewhat excusable, as it establishes their wives and family early in the series, and was described as the authors homage to [[Jane Austen]].

* Members of both the ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'' fandom and hatedom alike note that there is a pretty epic story to be told with the ancient vampire orders and werewolf clans and other sundry elements that are introduced, only to inevitably fall back to Edward and Bella. [[Word of God]] is that she was more comfortable writing romance than the dark story.

* The Brazilian 1956 classic ''[[The Devil to Pay In The Backlands]]'' seems to suffer a little with this trope. Let's see, there's a <small>FREAKING WAR</small> going on, with a character [[You Killed My Father|seeking for revenge]] and others doing [[Deal Withwith the Devil|deals with the devil]], but mostly people just remember the gay love storyline, wich is written amazingly, by the way.

* In ''JAWS'' there is an illicit love affair, lasting one afternoon, between Matt Hooper and Ellen Brody. It seems so contrived, it is easy to believe the rumor that it was the product of [[Executive Meddling]]. The [[Adaptation Displacement|better known (and more critically praised)]] [[Jaws (Filmfilm)|film adaptation]] thankfully removes it and makes Brody and Ellen a [[Happily Married]] couple instead.

* There has been much debate over whether ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Half-Blood Prince (novel)|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]'' suffers from this. On one hand, it's quite natural for 16-year-old teenagers to be thinking about love and crushes even if they're wizards/witches and the romances don't really stop the main plot from advancing significantly; on the other hand, the romances can be considered as less interesting than the questions of what Draco is up to and how Voldemort can be taken down. Suffice it to say that everyone has a different opinion on this, and [[Internet Backdraft|it's best not to]] [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|bring up the debate here again]].

* The fourth ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'' book, ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'', which neglects most of the usual cast and the plots about the dolphins and God's final message in favor of Arthur and Fenchurch's love story.

** The [[Romantic Plot Tumor]] was averted with the fifth book, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Mostly Harmless|Mostly Harmless]]'', thanks to Fenchurch conveniently being erased from existence. It still [[Creator Breakdown|has problems]], though.

* In ''[[Don Quixote (Literature)|Don Quixote]]'', the last chapters of the First Part solve the [[Love Dodecahedron]] between Dorotea, Don Fernando, Lucinda, Cardenio, Clara and Don Luis, leaving Don Quixote as a mere spectator in his own book. In the Second Part Cervantes makes a [[AuthorsAuthor's Saving Throw]] when Don Quixote opines:

{{quote| "...and I know not what could have led [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|the author to have recourse to]] [[Show Within a Show|novels]] and [[Romantic Plot Tumor|irrelevant stories]], [[ItsIt's All About Me|when he had so much to write about in mine; no doubt he must have gone by the proverb 'with straw or with hay, &c.,' for by merely setting forth my thoughts, my sighs, my tears, my lofty purposes, my enterprises]], [[Door StopperDoorstopper|he might have made a volume as large, or larger than all the works of El Tostado would make up]].}}

* ''[[Smallville]]''. It doesn't help at all that the person whom Clark dedicates so much time fawning over is considered the creator's pet, or that she's [[Foregone Conclusion|not even his canonical love interest]], and then they had the gall to bring her back after she was [[Put Onon a Bus]], only to be [[Put Onon a Bus]] ''again'' this time for good.

** Also, Chloe and Oliver. Particularly jarring because Chloe seems to have forgotten about being married to Jimmy, that he bought her the Watchtower, and that she's declaring her one true love and sleeping with Oliver...''2ft from where Doomsday brutally murdered him''. Also, some find Oliver's "one true love" comments suspect pending bullshit status considering he's said the same thing about Lois and Tess and any girl of the month he's dating.

* In the fourth installment of the A&E ''[[Horatio Hornblower]]'' adaptation (''The Wrong War'' or ''The Frogs and the Lobsters,'' depending on what country it was released in), Horatio gets into a brief romantic subplot with a local girl during a mission in France. The story was already dealing with three separate plot threads and the romance with Mariette could have been taken out without changing any major events - and since Mariette's never mentioned after the conclusion of her little story arc, its usefulness as character development for Horatio is questionable. The fact that Mariette isn't terribly popular even among the portion of the fandom that ''doesn't'' ship Horatio with his [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] best friend doesn't help.

* Rose Tyler and [[The Nth Doctor|the Tenth Doctor]] from ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', many long-time viewers perplexed at how much screentime was eaten by the Doctor making gooey eyes at a none-too-special human girl. This was particularly jarring considering up until then (with a few exceptions) the series was firmly [[No Hugging, No Kissing]], and on a show where characters had been coming and going for decades Rose and Rose alone was constantly mentioned [[CreatorsCreator's Pet|in glowing terms]] even after her departure.

** Then there was the romantic plot with the Eleventh Doctor and River Song, which ended up taking over ''an entire season'', to say nothing of {{spoiler|the plot thread of River being Melody Pond, Amy and Rory's child.}} It didn't help that they both ended up begin [[Strangled Byby the Red String]] to the point of many former fans of the pairing growing to dislike it... which is the exact same thing that happened with Rose Tyler in earlier seasons.

* Bill and Sookie... good God, ''Bill and Sookie''! This is a particularly bad example as ''[[True Blood]]'' has a lot of really interesting ideas (Discrimination against vampires, how would Immortals function in the real world) that is being completely sacrificed for the sake of a love triangle no one wants with three characters who are almost all completely lacking in redeeming features (Sookie has the IQ of wet tissue paper and her actions leave everyone worse off, Bill is a mass murderer who has no problems killing when it suits him and Eric is a violent psychopath who has never even pretended to be sorry for his innumerable crimes and is really just short of a [[Complete Monster]]).

* The writers of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' ''KNEW'' that Jonas Armstrong (Robin Hood) was leaving at the end of the third season. Why then did they think that it was anything even '''close''' to a good idea to have him involve himself with Kate, [[The Load|the team liability]]? The actors had no chemistry at all, and the "romance" served no purpose whatsoever expect to milk time away from better characters and more interesting plots, secure Kate's position as the most hated character on the show, and make Robin appear [[Jerkass|impossibly shallow]], Kate being his second girlfriend since {{spoiler|his wife's horrific death}} and the woman that his best friend is blatantly interested in. Even more illogically, the writers actually go to the trouble of bringing back {{spoiler|Marian for a [[Together in Death]] scene}}, making Robin/Kate even ''more'' pointless than it already was.

* TV critics have this opinion of the Cameron/Chase romance in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. Fans mostly loved it, partly because it was the only happy ending/positive portrayal of love in the series, though [[Love Hurts|of course]] that didn't last long.

** Foreman/Thirteen is a plot tumor so debilitating it makes Cameron/Chase look like a mild case of sunburn. As if they couldn't make Thirteen anymore more of a [[CreatorsCreator's Pet]].

* The Nicole/Bryce/Keiko situation on ''[[Flash Forward 2009|FlashForward]]''. While there were some legitimately heartwarming moments, this entire subplot could have been cut out of the show with minimum impact on the overall story, and it occasionally killed the momentum of the main solving-the-blackout mystery. Mark and Olivia's marital drama also verged on this, although that did tie into the plot more regularly.

* The Kara/Lee/Sam/Dee [[Love Dodecahedron]] from ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' got completely out of control, hurting the otherwise-enjoyable season 3. The [[Will They or Won't They?]] between Kara and Lee lasted until the series finale, though to a lesser degree.

* For many fans the John/Aeryn relationship finally degenerated into this in the fourth and final full season of ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]''. After coming up with convincing reasons for UST and angst for three seasons, much of S4 seemed like making up excuses to first have them angst and then rapidly get them together for the final third because the writers suddenly decided it was time. And Aeryn in particular lost practically all the dimensions she had previously, so that almost everything was about her relationship with John. Most fans who feel like this think that the writers did manage to redeem the 'ship for the [[Wrap It Up]] "The Peacekeeper Wars".

* The Kimberly/Tommy/Katherine triangle in the first seasons of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' didn't start this way, and was actually pretty well put together, all things considered. Then came ''Zeo,'' and the infamous [[Ass Pull]] "Dear John Letter" Kimberly sent to Tommy. Katherine was forced to [[Die for Our Ship]], relationships on ''[[Power Rangers]]'' have been handled '''very delicately''' ever since, and "Tommy Oliver = Jesus" jokes began (since at this point Tommy had also become a [[Spot Light Spotlight-Stealing Squad]].)

* Claire's relationship with West in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' was not one of the show's more successful moves, not least due to West being the only person in the entire run who Claire had absolutely NO chemistry with. Including Sylar.

** Kiva also features a subplot in which Wataru's friend Shizuka develops a romantic interest in him and tries to come between him and his official love interest Mio. Inexplicably and without warning, Shizuka then decides that Wataru and Mio are perfect for each other, and becomes a [[Shipper Onon Deck]], again with no relevance to or impact upon the story. The focus on romantic storylines (much more than is typical for a Kamen Rider series), some of them seemingly pointless, is a possible reason why Kiva is one of the least successful entries in the franchise.

* ''[[Studio 60 Onon the Sunset Strip]]'' suffers from this, devoting more time in the last half of its single season to the Matt/Harriet [[Will They or Won't They?]] than to the stronger storyline about another character's brother becoming a POW.

== Professional Wrestling ==

* While most wrestling romances make no sense anyway (due to them being fake) the romance between Edge & Vickie Guerrero from 2008 to 2009 has to take the cake. It had no rhyme or reason and was obviously created to make Edge seem like even more of a tool (a task he could easily accomplish by being, well, himself). Romantic Plot Cancer is probably a more appropriate term [[Incredibly Lame Pun|considering that said romance did worm its way into virtually ever pay-per-view and sometimes, even RAW]].

* ''Rock of Ages''. Drew and Sherrie meet and have [[Love At First Sight]]. Why? Well...they're both attractive and they both like cherry slushies. Seriously. Then they're kept apart because Drew makes one, tiny, mention of them being "just friends". Sherrie (who, to be fair, has been set up as [[The Ditz]]) then takes this to the extreme and barely talks to him since they're '''just friends''' and then sleeps with rock star Stacee Jaxx in the Men's bathroom. Drew gets jealous and then he won't talk to her. And blah, blah, blah, long story short: they're both [[Too Dumb to Live]] and are in desperate need of a [[Sorkin Relationship Moment]]. And then to top it off the show's 2nd act makes clear that two side characters are the [[Beta Couple]].

* Many fans of ''[[Tales of Destiny (Video Game)|Tales of Destiny]] 2'' would agree that the romance between Kyle and Reala was also badly executed. Truth is, they never really interacted much, except when they "go out on a date on Phandaria"... three times. Whenever they are in Phandaria, you can expect Reala to get Kyle to a park and tell him about her fears and [[Mary Sue]]-ness and insecurities and so on. Other than that, not much. Most people agree that [[Beta Couple|Loni and Nanaly]] worked a lot better, even though getting a less lot of screetime.

* Raiden and Rose of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' are the most infamous example of this for the entire medium, and they are ''both'' viciously hated [[The Scrappy|Scrappies]] because of it. It was poorly written, poorly acted ("It's empty, ''JUST LIKE YOUR HEART''"), was confusing even by [[Mind Screw|the high standards of the game]], served no purpose other than given Raiden something else to [[Wangst]] about, and the player was hit in the face with it ''every time they saved''. The game is an intense [[Base Breaker]], but ''everyone'' agrees that the romance could have been better served locked into a box and thrown into the ocean. The part that complicates it all is that Kojima ''really is'' insane enough to write an ''intentionally'' aggravating subplot into a game, just to prove whatever overarching thematic point he thinks he's making, especially since he intended it to be the last game of the series.

** The best(or worst) part of it all, it can be completely avoided. Sure, you can skip the nearly all conversations between the two and not many are plot related so you aren't missing much. But I'm referring to the simple fact surrounding it all. She only talks to Raiden about their relationship when the player decides to save the game. So if the player is good enough to play without saving their progress, or doesn't mind using continues, it can be nearly averted, {{spoiler|except for maybe the ending.}} Possibly could be a way of Kojima telling the player "[[Testosterone Poisoning|Be a man, real men don't save everytime they walk in a new room or area]] or and if you wanna save a lot, be ready to suffer through this Horrible Chick Flick"

* ''[[Aquaria (Videovideo Gamegame)|Aquaria]]'': Naija meets Li. Naija kisses Li. Naija discovers that Li can follow her around and shoot things too. Li gets kidnapped. ''...and that's where the game lost its thread. [[Angrish|NGRGFABHLG.]]'' The romance would perhaps not be so bad if not for the fact that Naija's very first meeting with Li in fact heralds the inevitable loss of the thread. At this point, she ceases to continue to explore Aquaria because she's curious about what happened to all these civilizations that suddenly went extinct, and explores Aquaria because she is a character in a video game with a cursor telling her where to go; so happy is she to have companionship that, were it not for the fact that she completely lacks autonomy from the weirdo with the mouse, she could happily settle down and refuse to even acknowledge that there is a world outside her cave, as long as Li is with her. Indeed, any time she stays put in "human" form for more than a few seconds, and Li is around, they drift together and start snuggling, ''regardless of nearby enemies or other hazards''.

** [[Sonic X]] season 3. Tails and [[Spot Light Spotlight-Stealing Squad|Cosmo]]. Much screen time was spent on their relationship instead of the interplanetary war between Sonic's friends and an evil race of warrior robots. The worst part is that you could pair Cosmo up with pretty much any of the boys on the ship (especially Knuckles) and she would've been just as compatible, perhaps even moreso, considering that Tails is sometimes characterized as thinking [[Girls Have Cooties]].

* ''[[Sinfest]]'' has put increasing amounts of focus on the romance between nerdy bookworm Criminy and lonley succubi Fuschia. It doesn't overrun the entire story, and the sublot is still rather sweet and not many fans are complaining about it.

* In-universe example. An episode of ''[[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]'' had Timmy getting annoyed that [[Show Within a Show|the Crimson Chin]] was spending months focusing on finding a love interest instead of fighting crime. His [[Arch Enemy]] even gets annoyed that he's making things too easy for him.

* The "romance" between Gwen and Kevin of ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force (Animation)|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'' is shoved down the audience's throat at every opportunity, some suspect to [[Ship Sinking|drown out]] the [[Kissing Cousins]] vibe given off by Ben and Gwen in the [[Ben 10 (Animation)|original series]]. It doesn't help that the relationship stops making chronological sense. In "Plumbers Helpers," Gwen switches into [[He Is Not My Boyfriend]] mode from the "Why won't you ask me out?" attitude of "All That Glitters," Even though before that, when Kevin was obviously flirting with her, she effectively said she'd never go out with him even "[[Relationship Writing Fumble|if Ben wasn't here]]."

** In Season 3, the writers ''try'' to give the romance more conflict once Kevin turns into an amalgam of monstorous elemental body parts and his relationship with Gwen is tested. However, this just makes the [[Romantic Plot Tumor]] even ''more'' obvious, as not only is it obvious that their relationship will survive this situation, but too much time is dedicated to the testing of it, rather than focusing on more important things like Ben's busted omnitrix or the conflict with Vilgax. Their romance troubles are even shoehorned into an episode that otherwise revolves around [[Solid Gold Poop]]!

* ''[[Scooby -Doo! Mystery Incorporated]]'' seems to spend more time on the angst involved with Daphne's unrequited love for Fred and Velma competing with Scooby for Shaggy's attention than the actual overarching mystery in the first half of the first season. The second half got better about this.

* The Lance/Kitty romance in ''[[X -Men: Evolution]]'' season 2 was this, even if it doesn't get mentioned much even by its detractors. [[Strangled Byby the Red String|It came out of nowhere]], Lance changed personalities, [[Ron the Death Eater|and Scott got a lot of hate from it]] for not trusting Lance when he tried to join [[Straw Man Has a Point|despite being completely justified]].

** However, this was, fourtunately, mostly shortlived, with only a few callbacks later and in the finale where {{spoiler|its impplied that Lance and Kitty get back together after he comes to her rescue to fight Apocalypse}}, but happened during season 2, which was, notably, also filled with many romantic plots that, in all honesty, don't really effect any of the plots. Scott and Jean's [[Will They or Won't They?]], Jean and Duncan, Scott and Taryn, Rogue and Scott, Kurt and Tabitha, Kurt and Amanda, its, quite litterally, apparent that a writer left a script inside the Romantic Plot Sun Bathe. You could argue that it was at least written well for the most of it, especially when compared to the comics, but to non-shipping fans it comes off as a little too much in only a single season.

* [[Lauren Faust]] has specifically stated that this trope is to be averted for [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]], for it has derailed many a girl's cartoon show in the past.

* [[Justice League: Crisis Onon Two Earths]] the main story was about the league trying to liberate an alternate earth from an evil Justice League but spent quite a bit of time developing a pointless romance between Rose Wilson-2 and [[Martian Manhunter]].