Stood Up: Difference between revisions

[['''Stood Up]]''' is a Romance Trope that extends over several genres. Bob and Alice make plans to get together, either a date or just hanging out (with one or both of them pinning their hopes on it really being a date). The big night comes. Bob and Alice get all gussied up for the meeting.

...until the restaurant starts closing up for the night, leaving Alice to accept the ugly truth -- shetruth—she's been Stood Up. The staff of the restaurant react in one of two ways:

# Bob shows up later with an apology and an extremely good reason for not having been there but he can't explain or if he does, Alice doesn't believe him. This usually makes things worse between Bob and Alice. Type Three [['''Stood Up]]''' situations are commonplace for [[Superhero]] stories, or people in supernatural situations, unless there's a [[Dating Catwoman]] situation going on.

The person stuck doing the waiting in a [['''Stood Up]]''' situation is almost [[Always Female]], though doesn't ''have'' to be related to romance.

* ''[[Tenchi Muyo!|Tenchi in Tokyo]]'' has a mixture of '''Type 1''' and '''Type 4''' in a certain episode that features Tenchi agreeing to meet up with his prospectprospective girlfriend Sakuya Kumashiro, but Ryoko shows up and they go inon an impromptu date. When it's all over and Ryoko goes back home after a great day, Tenchi goes home, passes by the local park... and finds Sakuya, who has been waiting for him around ''five hours'' (thank God she chose a bench in the park instead of a restaurant). She lets Tenchi explain himself and forgives him, but she can't help crying anyway as she explains herself to Tenchi as well. {{spoiler|Since Sakuya is a "shadow" of the [[Big Bad]] Yuugi, there's some lampshading as Yuugi watches the whole exchange over, and when Sakuya starts crying... Yugi cries too, much to her own shock. }}

* ''[[Code Geass]]'' does a version of [[Stood Up]] that doesn't quite fit one of the five examples above. Shirley, one of Lelouch's best friends who has a crush on him, invites him to a concert. When an important meeting for his [[La Résistance]] group comes up, he tries to phone her to apologize and not rise suspicions/risks for either of them, but she calls him first to say that she and her mother have to do something out in the country. When he finally shows up at the concert hall long after it's over, Shirley's standing alone in the rain and looking ''very'' tearful. He tries to apologize, but she interrupts to reveal that her father Joseph was killed by Zero (Lelouch's secret identity), and that "something out in the country" was identifying his corpse. Cue full-episode [[Angst]] for Lelouch. {{spoiler|And a full-blown [[Break the Cutie]] for poor Shirley.}}

== [[Fan Fiction]]Comics ==

** Will realizes he's [[In with the In Crowd|started mistreating his original group of friends when his powers manifest]] and he's moved from [[Sidekick]] to Hero. By way of making it up to childhood friend Layla, he invites her out for Chinese food. This is doubly significant because Layla has romantic feelings for Will, and Will hates Chinese food, but knows Layla loves it; so Will's truly trying to prove how sincerely sorry he is. Unfortunately, the [[Alpha Bitch]], Gwen, puts the moves on Will that afternoon and evening and he completely forgets about having promised to meet Layla for dinner. Layla is left to lean on the shoulder of busboy Warren Peace. On remembering, Will feels like a [[Jerkass]], and Layla is understandably furious.

* In the sixth ''[[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]'' film, Harry flirts with a [[Canon Foreigner|random Muggle waitress]], whom he's forced to stand up when Dumbledore arrives just before their date. She's never seen again. [[Roger Ebert]] took a liking to this incidental character and expressed his hope that they could fit her into the next movie somehow.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* Not actually romantic--[[Squick|or at least, we hope not]]--but—but in an early episode of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', after finding out what her father does for a living (he's a spy, like her), the two of them make a dinner date for the first time in many, many years. You see her waiting... and then he pulls up outside, outside her field of vision. You think, just for a second, that he's doing to join her... and then he pulls out his phone and says he's working late. She accepts this quietly, then almost breaks down once he hangs up because she knows he's lying to her.

* ''[[CSI: NY]]'' had a rare female on male version that was somewhere between '''Type 1''' and '''Type 2'''...Lindsay had agreed to meet Danny for dinner but stood him up because she was wanting to deal with her past trauma on her own before going anywhere with a relationship. Things worked out eventually and now they're a [[Happily Married]] [[Official Couple]].

* Gender-flipped in ''[[Dragon Age 2]]'', when Aveline chickens out at the last minute and leaves Hawke to occupy Donnick until he gets bored and leaves.

* ''[httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20180221053139/http://kismetropolis.com/ Kismetropolis]'' has a '''Type 3'''. Forsythe is desperately '[https://web.archive.org/web/20080209200303/http://www.kismetropolis.com/view.php?date=2006-01-27 ''trying'' to make his date] with Jamie, but he is thwarted by an old lady, and a gang fight [started by demons]. Jamie, however, is willing to be forgiving even before he tries to give his good reason.