Rule of Romantic

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The limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to how romantic it is.

No, this is not about the 19th century artistic movement, but about how fiction deals with love. And just like Rule of Cool, Rule of Drama, Rule of Funny, and Rule of Scary, if something is considered romantic enough by the audience, it can be excused, not matter how unrealistic it is. This is entertainment, after all.

Now Values Dissonance can come into play far more often than the other "Rule" tropes, which is not only across national lines, but across gender. Now guys deny it, but they do have a notion of romantic. It's just that not only is it extremely different than what's in a typical Romantic Comedy or Romance Novel, they also tend to be more private about it, at least in American culture.

This trope doesn't actually apply with Shipping Wars. Those people usually just care about making their couples look good. You can tell because they often praise an unrealistic point if it supports a couple they favor, and slam that exact same point if it supports a couple they don't.

Compare Rule of Drama, Rule of Glamorous, Rule of Sexy.

Sub Tropes include:

• Abduction Is Love
• Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other
• Beast and Beauty
• But Your Wings Are Beautiful
• Grand Romantic Gesture
• Happily Ever After
• Held Gaze
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
• Last-Minute Hookup
• Literally Falling in Love
• Love Transcends Spacetime
• The Power of Love
• Runaway Bride
• Runaway Fiance
• Train Station Goodbye
• Twirl of Love
• Unresolved Sexual Tension
• You Don't Want to Die a Virgin, Do You?

Examples of Rule of Romantic include:

Anime and Manga

• In Chobits, Hideki cannot have sex with Chi—ever. He doesn't care because he still loves her.

Film

• WALL-E. How is it that EVE's kiss restores WALL-E's memories and personality?
  • Well, the Buy'n'Large website (sadly defunct as of October 2008) explicitly Hand Waved this: "Your WALL-E unit may take up to 10 minutes on first boot before scanning for additional operating software (eg. hazardous waste protocols)." But if you have any soul, you wouldn't need an explanation.
    • I always figured that it was because the electric spark that shot into him at the moment of the kiss jolted his systems a bit.
• The Meet Me In Montauk part from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. While it makes sense that he'd be able to hold onto that shred, how did she end up on the right train? Totally doesn't matter.
  • The mind wipe hadn't been completely effective on her either, as made obvious by her scenes with Patrick.
• About half the works in the Disney Animated Canon, at least until recently. Then again, the stories they were based on used this anyway, like Beauty and the Beast.

Live Action TV

• How Pushing Daisies is able to gloss over the fact that Ned can't actually touch his girlfriend, to the effect of "It doesn't matter, they love each other."
  • Though they definitely got creative with various forms of plastic wrap.
  • Ned says he's built contraptions.