You Have Waited Long Enough/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Someone who promised I Will Wait for You is pressured to marry someone else.

  • Straight: Hawke has departed on a grand quest, leaving behind his beloved Sophia, who swore she'd wait as long as it took for him to return. However, her parents decide that promise or not, she needs to get married, and try to force her to entertain suitors.
  • Exaggerated: Three minutes after Hawke leaves, Sophia's parents tell her she is now engaged to Jack.
  • Justified: Sophia's parents just want to see her happily married, and are convinced Hawke will never return, despite their daughter doggedly clinging to hope and refusing to listen to reason.
  • Inverted: Hawke, aware his life's quest will take years at best and could very well end his life, encourages Sophia to find another instead of wasting her years pining after him.
  • Subverted: Though Sophia's parents feel she's waited long enough for Hawke's return, they decide against forcing her to find another, knowing that will only harden her heart against them.
  • Double Subverted: ...But surely she will forgive them eventually, right? And certainly, it's better than watching her waste away pining for somebody that won't ever return...
  • Parodied: Hawke has barely walked out of sight before Sophia's parents start hounding her to find another lover.
  • Deconstructed: The waiting has been taking its toll on Sophia; the once vibrant young woman has become introspective and withdrawn, having basically put her life on hold as much as possible while waiting for Hawke's return. She villainizes her family for wanting her to move on, creating an even greater rift between them and causing her parents to start despising Hawke, blaming him for their unfortunate situation.
  • Reconstructed: But in her new, more thoughtful state, she proceeds to study magic and other matters; when Hawke does return, matured by his experiences, she has also matured.
  • Zig Zagged: Her parents try to force her to marry Jack, but when he falls out of favor with the king, they break off the engagement on the grounds it was invalid, and then Sophia starts to fall in love with Richard, and her parents encourage her, and suddenly she breaks off, remembering Hawke.
  • Averted: Lovers never part.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: ???
  • Invoked: ???
  • Exploited: Sophia's father forces her to marry Jack because that will make Hawke show up.
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: Sophia is obviously more in love with the vision of herself as the endlessly faithful lover than with Hawke, and Hawke is a Miles Gloriosus whose return nevertheless deeply relieves Jack, who was afraid he'd have to marry the silly girl.
  • Played For Drama: Hawke struggles to survive his mission, driven on by the knowledge that the woman he loves is back home waiting for him. Meanwhile, the audience gets to see how Sophia's parents are trying to get her to give up on him.

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