Strangled by the Red String: Difference between revisions

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

** ''[[Ranma ½]]''... first of all, there's Akari Unryu; apparently, the demand for Ryoga to get a happy ending led to the creation of this girl, who is so perfect for Ryoga, and shows up so few times in her subsequent appearances that she has been derided as a [[Canon Sue|canon]] [[Relationship Sue]]. Mousse got some major attempts at redeeming his character, which can actually come off as rather jarring due to the fact he spent the early series trying to kill Ranma; and once boasted along the lines that he would gladly break any rules and forsake any honor to get Shampoo, though Shampoo never changed her opinion of him- while she did occasionally show him some "soft" moments, she spent most of the series outright abusing him and, on one occasion, was perfectly willing to go and play videogames while abandoning him to what she believed would be certain death at the hands of a life-sapping demon. Ukyo got an (attempted) and very literal [[Last-Minute Hookup]] in the form of an effeminate transvestite ninja master, who appeared less than Akari did.

** ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' is a case where this might actually be the ''happy ending''; initially, Shinobu, the [[Tsundere]] with [[Super Strength]], seems to be the [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]], though she legitimately falls out of love with Ataru Moroboshi due to recognizing that he is an apparently irredeemable [[Loveable Sex Maniac]]... her next choice of crushes? [[Handsome Lech]] and [[Royal Brat]] Shuutaro Mendo, who's not only just as bad as Ataru in terms of lustfulness, but is also chasing after [[Cute Monster Girl]] Lum. Meanwhile, she's being pursued by the [[gonk]]iest character in the series, a hulking, repulsive moron who repeatedly tries to ambush her. Finally, she earns the attention of Inaba, a shy and clumsy, but sweet, innocent and genuinely romantic character, whom she grows quite fond of. And then he only shows up in about one story...

* More or less parodied in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', where Kuwabara sees Yukina on a video tape once and decides that she is his soul mate and even provides a visual of the [[Red String of Fate]]. When he finally meets her and treats her almost like this, she seems more confused than anything and just goes along with it. Toward the end of the series, though, the relationship does seem to be on a more serious note.

** In the anime, it seems to run in the family, as Kuwabara's sister meets and pretty much instantly falls for Sakyo. Yes, ''[[Complete Monster|Sakyo]]'', who even in the anime, which tones down what a bastard he is, still doesn't seem to have any kind of heart of gold.

* Sorta alluded to in ''[[Zettai Shoujo Seiiki Amnesian]]'', where Himeko feels that Chikane's utterly intense devotion and love for her is too rushed.

* Takanashi and Inami of ''[[Working!!]]'' is basically a type 3. On a series that works on [[Status Quo Is God]], Takanashi goes from not liking being with Inami but having his nice moments with her, to blindly loving her more than anyone else in the world with zero explanation, despite Inami being the exact opposite of his tastes and, well, [[Does Not Like Men|punching him on the face when he gets close]]. And no, him liking her doesn't make her stop punching him.

* One can't help but feel this way about Tails and [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|Cosmo]]'s relationship in season three of [[Sonic X]]. There's really no reason why Tails fell for Cosmo so suddenly, or why Cosmo was paired up with Tails instead of any of the other (and older) males on the Blue Typhoon. And this pairing was strangled together even in-universe. In one particularly unfunny episode, the Chaotix try several methods to pair the two together. They do this because...um......well, uh......BECAUSE!

* Jil and Kaaya from ''[[Tower of Druaga]]''. This pairing was poorly developed and poorly written enough (especially in comparison to the more natural chemistry that Jil and Fatina had) that even most Kaaya fans were Jil/Fatina supporters. But alas, the protagonist ends up with the female lead.

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' has this both [[In-Universe]] with the concept of "imprinting", which means this can be done to werewolves as soon as the plot demands (arguably, all the examples in book 3 were only to prepare the reader for the last one) and just in general with Bella and Edward's relationship. Edward acts surly and moody toward Bella for the first half of the book, and yet Bella decides that she's "unconditionally and irrevocably in love with [Edward]" ''right after she realizes that he's a vampire who thirsts after her blood'', and is completely devoted to him from that point on, even in the face of Edward's own warnings about how he could ''kill'' her. Just how devoted is she? She's willing to give up her human life without any second thoughts to be with him forever after what can't be any more than a month of knowing him, and instantly leaps back into his arms after he renders her ''practically comatose'' by leaving her without explanation. ''And'' her interactions with Edward after the vampire "reveal" consist almost entirely of them repeatedly professing their love to one another and her even more repeatedly being "dazzled" by Edward's glorious beauty.

** Likewise, in the ''The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner'', with Bree and Diego and, later, Freddie. Bree and Diego interact for one night, she spends most of it afraid that he's going to kill her, and by morning they seemingly are madly in love with each other. The same goes for Freddie. Since it's from Bree's point of view and the "relationships" between her and the guys are so muted, it's possible that we're supposed to see it as her mistaking simple friendship for love (which would fit with her background of being abused and neglected), except that nothing ever indicates this and she acts almost exactly the same way Bella does, including {{spoiler|being perfectly alright to die when she finds out he's gone, because life without him isn't worth living.}}

* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series:

*** The [[Harry Potter (film)|films]] pushed this even further, mainly due to their being a [[Compressed Adaptation]] and thus leaving out a great deal of information. The two barely interact, sharing the screen for about seven minutes combined in the last ''three movies''. Whenever they are on screen together, they barely talk, instead just sharing a kiss and an awkward look before Harry rushes off to do something and Ginny sits down to be irrelevant to the plot.

* Patch and Nora from ''[[Hush, Hush]]'', full stop. Nora is warned by people who care about her to stay away from him, because he's clearly not a good person in any way, shape, or form. Patch stalks Nora, intentionally scares her, sexually harasses her, {{spoiler|[[Mind Rape|mind rapes]] her, and possesses her body<ref>[[I Thought It Meant|Not like that]], although no one's putting it past him.</ref>}}. On top of that, his ''original'' plan was {{spoiler|to murder her in cold blood}}, which he flat out ''tells her''—and, when she asks if he's going to do it, he admits that it's "tempting". Not in the dubiously-understandable [[Twilight|Edward Cullen]] resisting-''physical''-temptation way, either. Patch is tempted to {{spoiler|murder Nora}} simply because he feels like it. Nora even says, more than once, that she sees absolutely nothing good about Patch. Wait, why does she fall in love with him again?

* [[Ted Dekker]] does this in all of his recent books, and some of his older ones. ''Immanuel's Veins'' was a vampire romance novel, which was depressing when you compare it to some of his original works like the Circle series and ''[[Thr3e|Thr 3 e]]''. ''Obsessed'' was from the very start a man ferociously in love with some girl he had never met or seen. Even in some of his books that give relationships more time to build up, it's less talking about why his main character loves a woman, and more about how Intense his love is.

== Live Action TV ==

* Many ''[[Bones]]'' fans were let down by {{spoiler|Booth and Brennan's anticlimactic [[They Do]], in the form of their single night of cuddling that magically became a serious relationship in the season gap, especially since pregnancy was the cause. Emily Deschanel's real-life pregnancy had to be dealt with somehow, and fans wanted to see them together, but the time lapse felt like a cop-out.}}

** It also didn't help that they hooked up in the very next episode after Dualla's boyfriend Billy was tragically killed, with the writing not being as clear as it could have been that at least a couple months had passed, making it look like they practically started making out over Billy's corpse.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Love Tropes]]

[[Category:Romantic Resolutions]]

[[Category:YMMV Trope]]

[[Category:Character Derailment Tropes]]

[[Category:Love Is a Crapshoot]]