History Main / BaitAndSwitchLesbians

* In the GenderBender manga ''Manga/BokuGirl'' the main character gets confessed to by her female crush, only to turn her down and hook up with their her male BFF.

* ''Literature/SoundEuphonium'' has caused controversy due to this. Many (if not most) fans were drawn in due to Kumiko and Reina's relationship. Even though ''exact'' nature of their bond is never specified, the first season is incredibly heavy on the HomoeroticSubtext, which all seems to be moot when Reina confesses to Kumiko that she has feelings for their (male) [[TeacherStudentRomance teacher]]. This doesn't do much for the subtext between the two, but it's still unusual to confess feelings for someone else if you like someone, making fans debate whether anything canon was even really occurring between them. Season 2 began with the same sort of tension between the two, but over time Reina's crush on Taki took center stage in her arc (despite the continued HomoeroticSubtext between her and Kumiko). This made fans believe even more that they were being baited last season. In the books, Kumiko ultimately ends up with [[spoiler:Shuuichi]] but the anime downplayed him heavily, making fans worry that they'd get StrangledByTheRedString at the end. That didn't occur though. [[spoiler:[[NoRomanticResolution Nothing comes out of]] either Shuuichi/Kumiko or Reina/Kumiko.]] The ending ''did'' end with [[spoiler:Kumiko sobbing "I love you" to ''Asuka'', though it's hard to tell if it was platonic or romantic..]] Complicating things even further is the revelation in later books that [[spoiler:Shuichi and Kumiko broke up]], which makes any subtext between Kumiko and other girls afterward stand out even more.

* ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'': Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy hit this hard given their fierce devotion to each other is at the heart of the whole play and they invoke almost every romantic trope along the way. Their formerly-warring families [[StarCrossedLovers disapprove of their friendship]], when the rest of the school shuns them they declare they [[UndyingLoyalty don't need anyone but each other]], are canonically "heartbroken" [[ForbiddenFriendship when they're forced apart]] and exchange [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove numerous heartfelt confessions]] about how much they mean to each other. [[note]] Albus: "You're probably the best person I know. And you don't - you couldn't - hold me back - you make me stronger - and when Dad forced us apart, without you...." Scorpius: "If I had to choose a companion to be with at the return of eternal darkness with, I'd choose you." [[/note]] Albus is named after one of the only confirmed gay characters in the franchise, and the two of them together are pretty much a GenerationXerox of its most popular gay pairing. [[spoiler: Scorpius refuses to live in a world without Albus in it, the villain knows Scorpius is Albus's greatest weakness and the script outright parallels their feelings with the doomed Snape/Lily romance. Then in the second-to-last scene, Scorpius... asks out Albus's cousin Rose who has acted like a complete {{Jerkass}} and treated him horribly.]] A number of fans were ''not'' pleased.

* In ''Anime/WhenMarnieWasThere'', Anna forms a PseudoRomanticFriendship with Marnie that comes perilously close to making the LesYay subtext oozing between them virtually confirmed text with the two of them slow-dancing together underneath the moonlight and declaring each other to be the "the girl I love more than any other girl". Then all the LesYay is killed dead in the water when it's revealed that [[spoiler:Marnie is the spirit of Anna's ''grandmother''. Or Anna's fantasy of her built on the half-remembered stories her grandmother told her about her life. It's complicated]].

* While the original ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'' novels are a bit more lenient in {{subtext}}, the anime only has one canonical pairing, derailed when one member ''went off to become a nun,'' and when two girls are about to kiss, the camera cuts away as if it were [[SexyDiscretionShot something much more]] HarmfulToMinors. This is especially unusual, as ''[[PortmanteauSeriesNickname Marimite]]'' is pretty much defined by its [[YuriGenre Girls Love]] fandom.

** A common interpretation of "The Brain of Morbius" is that Mehendri Solon (who also has a lot of 'Ancient Greek', SissyVillain and EffeminateMisogynisticGuy coding) is attracted to the Doctor, which makes a good deal of thematic sense considering how it's paralleled to his minion Condo's attraction to Sarah. This might also have been something that was added to justify Solon's [[IdiotPlot nonsensical plan]], which Creator/TerranceDicks had complained about to the story's writer Creator/RobertHolmes.

* Since your typical {{hentai}} game has one or two major male characters and boatloads of pretty girls, the marketing images often involve multiple female characters looking mighty friendly, even if there's not even a romantic friendship between them in-game. For that matter, several games play up a romantic friendship between two girls and teasingly suggest that one of them may be gay for the other, only to eventually drop that subject without so much as a girl/girl kiss ever being shown. Obviously some authors do not agree that GirlOnGirlIsHot - at least, not hot enough to put in the actual game rather than the advertising.

This trope is also occasionally applied to male characters, [[WatchedItForTheRepresentation usually in order to appeal to]] {{Yaoi Fangirl}}s and an LGBTFanbase without [[ButNotTooGay alienating homophobic viewers]], in which case it's usually known as queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is usually considered quite homophobic, or at least patronising and cynical when it's done these days, but in the past was often [[FairForItsDay the only way queer creators could make media featuring characters like themselves]] due to the values of the time. In these cases, the SlashFic fanbase often shows up to make the {{Subtext}} text.

* ''WebVideo/AreTheyGay'': Discussed in his ''Series/OurFlagMeansDeath'' video, "The End of Rainbow Capitalism". Alex finds that fictional works will often directly hint at the potential for a queer relationship between two male characters, only to not follow through on it. However, he points out that this happens less often with regard to women as he finds people are far more willing to actually follow through with lesbian relationships.

* ''WebVideo/AreTheyGay'': Played with in his ''Series/OurFlagMeansDeath'' video, "The End of Rainbow Capitalism". Alex finds that fictional works will often directly hint at the potential for a queer relationship between two male characters, only to not follow through on it. However, he points out that this happens less often with regard to women as he finds people are far more willing to actually follow through with lesbian relationships.

* A fairly common GenderBender cliché is to have the formermly male protagonist start out with a female love interest, then "graduate" to a male one as [[SecondLawOfGenderBending they become more comfortable with being a girl.]] Occasionally this happens via a second GenderBender to said female love interest.

* ''Literature/SoundEuphonium'' has caused controversy due to this. Many (if not most) fans were drawn in due to Kumiko and Reina's relationship. Even though ''exact'' nature of their bond is never specified, the first season is incredibly heavy on the HomoeroticSubtext, which all [[ShipSinking seems to be moot]] when Reina confesses to Kumiko that she has feelings for their (male) [[TeacherStudentRomance teacher]]. This doesn't do much for the subtext between the two, but it's still unusual to confess feelings for someone else if you like someone, making fans debate whether anything canon was even really occurring between them. Season 2 began with the same sort of tension between the two, but over time Reina's crush on Taki took center stage in her arc (despite the continued HomoeroticSubtext between her and Kumiko). This made fans believe even more that they were being baited last season. In the books, Kumiko ultimately ends up with [[spoiler:Shuuichi]] but the anime downplayed him heavily, making fans worry that they'd get StrangledByTheRedString at the end. That didn't occur though. [[spoiler:[[NoRomanticResolution Nothing comes out of]] either Shuuichi/Kumiko or Reina/Kumiko.]] The ending ''did'' end with [[spoiler:Kumiko sobbing "I love you" to ''Asuka'', though it's hard to tell if it was platonic or romantic..]] Complicating things even further is the revelation in later books that [[spoiler:Shuichi and Kumiko broke up]], which makes any subtext between Kumiko and other girls afterward stand out even more.

* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'': Former lore writer Runaan wrote a Twitter post where she accused Riot of queerbaiting with Graves and Twisted Fate after the ''Double Double Cross'' cinematic. Within the post, she explained she had been trying to write the pair as married for years and faced open hostility about it from her higher-ups, only for Riot to claim the HomoeroticSubtext between the pair was intentional after the fandom responded positively to it, suggesting that teasing the pair was okay but [[ButNotTooGay actually having the two be married was unacceptable.]]

** Creator/PatrickTroughton and Frasier Hines were given a lot of room in how they wanted to play the Doctor and Jamie and chose to interpret a lot of their scenes as if they were lovers. Particularly of note is the scene in "The War Games" where the Doctor has to look for an item in Jamie's sporran, and starts rooting around in there, with Jamie making appropriate facial expressions. There's also a telesnap of the Doctor looking up Jamie's kilt with an approving expression.

* Classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' often did this - while the people making the show were open-minded about the subject (as theatrical people tended to be even in those days), homosexuality was illegal for the first five years of its run and then prohibited from children's television by MoralGuardians for the next ten. Same-sex innuendo was often put in as a means of adding colour to the often programmatic side characters or as a means of poking gentle fun at the Doctor's [[ChasteHero enforced lack of interest]] in women. Naturally, this got it a large LGBTFanbase, and many of its stars (Frasier Hines, Creator/TomBaker, Kate O'Mara, Creator/SophieAldred...) got serious gay-icon cred for their roles in ''Who''. By contrast, the 2005 revival series skips the coy innuendo and allows itself to be ''actually'' gay (with occasional falls into friendly QueerPeopleAreFunny from time to time).

* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'': Kaneki is established as AmbiguouslyBi as he gets HoYay with a lot of male characters, particularly with Tsukiyama who is pansexual and obsessed with him to the point of "loving Kaneki above all over things" and they get much ShipTease throughout the series with an omake having Kaneki be Cinderella with Tsukiyama as a perverted prince obsessed with eating him. Kaneki seems charmed by Tsukiyama essentially flirting with him to gain his trust and when he's acting in a caring manner to Hinami in an omake Kaneki thinks "What a gentleman. If only he could always be like this." (In regards to Tsukiyama's obsession with wanting to eat him) [[spoiler: Although Kaneki makes emotionally charged statements of requesting Tsukiyama stay by his side until the end while naked it veers towards this as right after the HoYay moment Kaneki mentions Touka who he had sex with and who gave him her parents ring which he shows Tsukiyama. Ultimately, the HoYay ends up being unrequited on Tsukiyama's side as Kaneki has sex with and marries Touka which he informs Yomo and Tsukiyama of. Some fans argue that Kaneki had more interactions with people other than Touka making it seem like the buildup to their romance was rushed and undeveloped. Tsukiyama seems to be crying when Kaneki tells him about his and Touka's engagement but rather than react with jealousy like he did when Touka and Kaneki were together in the initial series he chooses to go the IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy route and organizes the wedding for Kaneki and Touka.]]

** In ''ComicBook/RainbowRowellsRunaways'', the creative team hinted that Molly was developing an interest in other girls, with her becoming particularly close to her classmate Abigail. It was then revealed that Abigail was [[OlderThanTheyLook a middle-aged woman in a teenage girl's body]], they had a falling out, and the matter of Molly's interest in other girls was quickly dropped. However, the series does manage to [[AvertedTrope avert]] this when Nico and Karolina ''finally'' get together.

* Various ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' spinoffs have really ramped up the HoYay between Cloud and Sephiroth, but it never rises beyond the level of superficial fanservice and innuendo. ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' is a particularly bad offender, contriving to put Cloud and Sephiroth on the same side and having them lose their memories of the reasons they're enemies (and, in Cloud's case, his memories of his female love interests), but going absolutely no further with the pairing than to have Sephiroth just repeat his subtextual BastardBoyfriend dialogue from ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren''. This is even to the extent of ignoring the interesting dynamic between the two of them from the original game that got everyone shipping it in the first place.
** The remake justifies this trope by settling for a one-sided NoYay from Sephiroth's side, with the creepy homoerotic subtext in his interactions with Cloud being ramped up even more, played absolutely for horror and connected to Sephiroth trying to manipulate Cloud's mind and exploit him for his plans. Straight or gay, no one would feel anything that isn't, you know, ABSOLUTE HATRED, for the man who literally ''destroyed their hometown and still taunts them about it''.

* Comes up often in ''Anime/RinneNoLagrange'', especially in the scene where Madoka and Lan make dramatic {{Love Confession}}s to each other... [[ShowWithinAShow for a movie]]. That last detail was left out of the episode preview. They were actually supposed in a relationship at some point, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen but this was written out of the show before it aired]] and replaced with lots of subtext and this trope.

In the eyes of fandom, a show's major selling point is that its principal characters are lesbians... but oops, it was just a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship after all! The viewers have been {{Ship Tease}}d; and now that the writers got their attention, they can write more comfortable (to them) relationships. The lesbian {{subtext}} may [[BaitAndSwitchCredits not even last beyond the opening credits]].

This is pretty common in [[{{Moe}} Bishoujo fandom]], where the RomanticTwoGirlFriendship develops for a number of unintentional factors. One could say that [[GirlOnGirlIsHot the audience likes girls in large quantities, and seeing two girls acting cute to each other, is better than one]]. One could also point out that ''far'' more attention is put into the interaction and communication between the girls; while a relationship with a guy just "happens" with most development offscreen. And if they're the [[ImprobablyFemaleCast only people you see]] but the show still maintains particular tropes, the audience is sometimes led toward an imagined payoff that might not be there. Often, this is coupled with a young age for both characters as well as the lack of any actual 'sexuality' in either character, barring [[IfItsYouItsOkay concessions]], as this outcome is harder to rationalize for an adult character. Note that any romantic relationship with boys, on the other hand, is considered completely serious at any age. Yes, it's [[DoubleStandard hypocritical]].

* ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis: Tokyo 2040'' spent its first half building the SempaiKohai relationship -- and RomanticTwoGirlFriendship -- between Priss and Linna. The final half of the series drops this subplot like a hot potato for a [[LastMinuteHookup sudden romance between Priss and Leon]] that fits the "offscreen explanation" part of the trope to a T; Leon shows up at her club while she's on stage, does a smarmy clap for her, Priss grins a bit, and from there on in they're treated as dating. Ironically, it was the original ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' {{O|riginalVideoAnimation}}VA that gave rise to the mantra among many early anime fans that "All women in anime are lesbians. Unless they're bisexual."

* The opening credits of ''Manga/VenusVersusVirus'' combine this with BaitAndSwitchCredits, although the two girls never really have that kind of relationship in the show, which isn't helped by the GeckoEnding of the anime. Despite all this, the manga is licensed as a [[YuriGenre Girls Love]] manga. The two have quite the RomanticTwoGirlFriendship - not helped by all the touching, blushing, and lampshades- and by the end, it's all but stated Lucia is in love with Sumire. [[spoiler:However, Sumire's bond with Lucia took a turn for the worse late into the series and even when it's rekindled it's ambiguous whether her affections are the same.]]

* ''Manga/HidamariSketch'' has a mild example, in that Miyako sometimes flirts heavily with Yuno, just to let things fizzle out because of her unfocused nature. And then of course there is the relationship between Hiro and Sae, although that is more a clear case of RomanticTwoGirlFriendship.

* ''Literature/{{Hyouka}}'' has a lot of implied romance between Chitanda and Ibara in the ''ending'' [[BaitAndSwitchCredits credits]]. Strangely, this isn't even shown until the end of the second episode, and by then it's pretty clear that they don't even have a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship in the series itself.

* In ''Anime/WhenMarnieWasThere'', Anna forms a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship with Marnie that comes perilously close to making the LesYay subtext oozing between them virtually confirmed text with the two of them slow-dancing together underneath the moonlight and declaring each other to be the "the girl I love more than any other girl". Then all the LesYay is killed dead in the water when it's revealed that [[spoiler:Marnie is the spirit of Anna's ''grandmother''. Or Anna's fantasy of her built on the half-remembered stories her grandmother told her about her life. It's complicated]].

* ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'': Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy hit this hard given their fierce devotion to each other is at the heart of the whole play and they invoke almost every romantic trope along the way. Their formerly-warring families [[StarCrossedLovers disapprove of their friendship]], when the rest of the school shuns them they declare they [[UndyingLoyalty don't need anyone but each other]], are canonically "heartbroken" [[ForbiddenFriendship when they're forced apart]] and exchange [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove numerous heartfelt confessions]] about how much they mean to each other. [[note]] Albus: "You're probably the best person I know. And you don't - you couldn't - hold me back - you make me stronger - and when Dad forced us apart, without you...." Scorpius: "If I had to choose a companion to be with at the return of eternal darkness with, I'd choose you." [[/note]] Albus is named after one of the only confirmed gay characters in the franchise, and the two of them together are pretty much a GenerationXerox of its most popular gay pairing. [[spoiler: Scorpius refuses to live in a world without Albus in it, the villain knows Scorpius is Albus's greatest weakness and the script outright parallels their feelings with the doomed Snape/Lily romance. Then in the second-to-last scene, Scorpius... asks out Albus's cousin Rose who has acted like a complete {{Jerkass}} and treated him horribly.]] A number of fans were ''not'' pleased, especially as Rowling was seen as a genuine advocate for the LGBT community (well… the LGB community…).

In the eyes of fandom, a show's major selling point is that its principal characters are SchoolgirlLesbians... but oops, it was just a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship after all! The viewers have been {{Ship Tease}}d; and now that the writers got their attention, they can write more comfortable (to them) relationships. The lesbian {{subtext}} may [[BaitAndSwitchCredits not even last beyond the opening credits]].

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