History Main / GrandRomanticGesture

* In ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'', Agnes is in love with Jasper, but Jasper thinks they are BetterAsFriends because he is afraid that a relationship between them would break apart like his parent's marriage. In an attempt to get Jasper to face his fears, Agnes tries to face one of her own fears - she goes to the lake that Jasper enjoys swimming in, and dives into it from a great height, something that Jasper often did, but she was afraid to do. This quickly backfires; as Agnes isn't as good at swimming as Jasper, she ends up drowning before she can reach the shore, and Jasper gets sucked into Deadland when he tries to save her.

** Rory's college boyfriend Logan is fond of these, but they don't typically read as "romantic," so much as "throwing his money around" and "using them as a replacement for communication." In the series proper, he often uses them to get back into Rory's good graces when he's done something wrong, to distract from what's actually wrong. It culminates in him blindsiding her with a proposal in front of their friends and family at her college graduation, then leaving her when she says she wants to wait. In the revival, Rory's last contact with Logan is a huge night of revelry and debauchery meant to cheer her up, but is also what makes her realize she needs to break off their affair, because he will never grow up and she needs to move on.

** Meanwhile, the show portrays smaller, more personal, less flashy gestures as sincerely romantic, such as Luke building Lorelai a wooden archway for her wedding, ironically to the RomanticeFalseLead from earlier, which is seen as one of the sweetest things he does for her.

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': Interestingly, despite being a show that puts its romances front and center, the writers takes a pretty dim view of the GrandRomanticGesture, constantly showing them but subverting the expected reaction or outcome.

** In season one, Rory's boyfriend Dean builds her a car, which he presents with an "I love you." When she's not ready to say it back, he gets upset and breaks up with her.

** Rory's college boyfriend Logan is fond of these, but they don't typically read as "romantic," so much as "throwing his money around" and "using them as a replacement for communication." In the series proper, it culminates in him proposing at her graduation, and then getting angry when she feels she doesn't want to be tied down at 22. In the revival, her last interaction with Logan is a huge, spectacular show of debauchery designed to raise her spirits, and is what makes her realize she can't keep doing this, because he will never grow up and she needs to.
** Meanwhile, the show interprets smaller, more meaningful gestures as sincerely romantic. One of Luke's moments is when he hand carves a wedding arch for Lorelai, for her upcoming wedding, ironically to the RomanticFalseLead from above. Though given Luke's subdued CourtlyLove approach, this is this trope, he just doesn't want to call it that.

** Meanwhile, the show interprets smaller, more meaningful gestures as sincerely romantic. One of Luke's moments is when he hand carves a wedding arch for Lorelai, for her upcoming wedding, ironically to the FalseRomanticLead from above. Though given Luke's subdued CourtlyLove approach, this is this trope, he just doesn't want to call it that.

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': Interestingly, despite being a show that puts its romances front and center, the writers takes a pretty dim view of the GrandRomanticGesture.

** Meanwhile, the show interprets smaller, more meaningful gestures as sincerely romantic. One of Luke's moments is when he hand carves a wedding arch for Lorelai, for her upcoming wedding, ironically to the FalseRomanticLead from above.

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': Lorelai says that a proposal should be big and epic and have "a thousand yellow daisies". Cue her RomanticFalseLead boyfriend proposing to her by sending one thousand yellow daisies to her workplace.
** Rory's college boyfriend Logan is fond of these, but they don't typically read as "romantic," so much as "throwing his money around" and "using them as a replacement for communication."

** The show even points out that such gestures can be considered creepy and stalker-ish if the intended recipient does not welcome the gesture. This is referred to as the Dobler-Dahmer Theory. The example given: In college, Marshall sneaked into Lily's dorm room to sing her a ukulele song to ask her out. Lily was interested in him and so it worked, like Lloyd Dobler with the boombox outside the apartment in ''Film/SayAnything''. If Lily was not interested then he would come across SerialKiller creepy and crazy a la [[ComicBook/MyFriendDahmer Jeffrey Dahmer]].

* In ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'', Agnes is in love with Jasper, but Jasper thinks they are BetterAsFriends because he is afraid that a relationship between them would break apart like his parent's marriage. In an attempt to get Jasper to face his fears, Agnes tries to face one of her own fears - she goes to the lake that Jasper enjoys swimming in, and dives into it from a great height, something that Jasper often did, but she was afraid to do. This quickly backfires; as Agnes isn't as good at swimming as Jasper, she ends up drowning before she can reach the shore, and Jasper ends up getting sucked into Deadland when he tries to save her.

* In ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'', Agnes is in love with Jasper, but Jasper thinks they are BetterAsFriends because he is afraid that a relationship between would break apart like his parent's marriage. In an attempt to get Jasper to face his fears, she tries to face one of her own fears - she goes to the lake that Jasper enjoys swimming in, and dives into it from a great height, something that Jasper often did, but she was afraid to do. This quickly backfires; as Agnes isn't as good at swimming as Jasper, she ends up drowning before she can reach the shore, and Jasper ends up getting sucked into the Underworld when he tries to save her.

* In ''Film/{{Twins}}'', Vincent has his love interest's room fully decorated with flowers. She is floored when she enters.

* Interestingly, whenever a {{Yaoi}} manga features a filthy rich suitor, it often ends up with exactly this. The most common case is often that the poor guy's porch/garden/etc. is filled with flowers/his favorite food/whatever he stated he likes or with the suitor appearing with the most ridiculous flower bouquet. A bit rarer is the suitor giving something apparently common to his love (a ring, a dessert, a decorative object), just to explain that the price is actually equal to that of a house or race car.

* In 1996's ''Film/BedOfRoses'', Lewis sends Lisa bouquet after bouquet of all the thornless "sterling roses" he can get from every florist and supplier he can call after she mentions a fondness for him. Lisa is touched, but also kind of disturbed by the excessive scale of the gesture.

* In 1996's ''Bed of Roses'', Lewis sends Lisa bouquet after bouquet of all the thornless "sterling roses" he can get from every florist and supplier he can call after she mentions a fondness for him. Lisa is touched, but also kind of disturbed by the excessive scale of the gesture.

Runs heavy on RuleOfRomantic. In RealLife, be warned: this has appeared on [[http://www.doctornerdlove.com/2011/10/four-lies-movies-taught-us-about-dating/all/1/ lists]] in the lines of "stupid things movies taught us would work," particularly if you're not already in a relationship with them; doing something stupidly, outrageously romantic for your established significant other is ''very'' different from doing it for someone you aren't even dating, and the latter is liable to be massively awkward. (See also: [[StalkerWithACrush stalking]].)

* In ''Film/JasonsLyric'', Jason intends to win [[LoveInterest Lyric]]'s heart by taking her on a date, borrowing a city bus for themselves and setting up a mock picnic in an abandoned bus station. Later, he takes her to a secluded bayou before eventually kissing and making love to her in the woods.

* In ''Jason's Lyric'', Jason intends to win [[LoveInterest Lyric]]'s heart by taking her on a date, borrowing a city bus for themselves and setting up a mock picnic in an abandoned bus station. Later, he takes her to a secluded bayou before eventually kissing and making love to her in the woods.

* In ''Jason's Lyric'', Jason intends to win [[LoveInterest Lyric]]'s heart and takes her on a date by borrowing a city bus to themselves and set up a mock of picnic in an abandoned bus station. Later, he takes her to a secluded bayou before eventually making love to her in the woods.

* In ''Jason's Lyric'', Jason borrows a city bus just to take [[LoveInterest Lyric]] on a date and already set up a mock of picnic in an abandoned bus station. Later he takes her to a secluded bayou before eventually making love to her in the woods.

Runs heavy on RuleOfRomantic. In RealLife, be warned: this has appeared on [[http://www.doctornerdlove.com/2011/10/four-lies-movies-taught-us-about-dating/all/1/ lists]] in the lines of "stupid things movies taught us would work," particularly if you're not already in a relationship with them; doing something stupidly, outrageously romantic for your established significant other is ''very'' different from doing it for someone you aren't even dating. A massive gesture by someone you're not into is liable to be massively awkward. (See also: [[StalkerWithACrush stalking]].)