History Main / GrandRomanticGesture

* In ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', [[spoiler:Kaguya and Shirogane's relationship takes the biggest step forward when the latter plans an elaborate scheme to distract all the supporting characters that would normally get in the way and engineer a huge romantic gesture during the culture festival. There's a big ol' kiss and everything seems great. ''However,'' afterward, while Kaguya appreciates the gesture and finds it very romantic, she makes a point to drive in to him that [[IJustWantToBeNormal she would really prefer something much more low key, normal and honest from here on]]. She's just as excited to have a quiet kiss on a park bench with no one else around on a snowless Christmas Eve.]]

** Chandler is in love with Joey's girlfriend Kathy but doesn't want to pursue it because of Joey, but suffers terribly. When it's her birthday, he buys her an old edition of ''Literature/TheVelveteenRabbit'' because it was her favourite book when she was a kid. When his friends tell him that this will be incredibly meaningful, screaming 'I love you', especially compared to Joey's present (he's got nothing; has an idea for a pen with a clock and later charges Chandler with a task of buying a present for her instead of him). Chandler ends up giving the book to Joey to give it to her because he wants her to have it. She figures it out, though, because Joey fails to see what's behind 'an old and expensive book'.

* The Russian song ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE7W8q905Q4 Million scarlet roses]]'' is about an artist who fell in a love with an actress who loved flowers. So he sold his house and his paintings and bought [[TitleDrop millions of scarlet roses]], turning the square in front of her window into a sea of flowers. It's actually based on a legend about the Georgian painter Niko Pirosmani.

* In the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' episode "Time Keeps on Slippin'", Fry and Leela get married after Fry does something incredibly romantic for her. The problem: Because of the random time slips plaguing the episode, neither of them remember what it is he did for her, and she demands a divorce. In the end, he rediscovers what he did: [[spoiler:Rearrange a bunch of '''stars''' to say "I love you, Leela". Unfortunately, [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold the romantic gesture is blown up before she sees it again]].]]

Sub-tropes include SerenadeYourLover, FlowerFromTheMountaintop, RaceForYourLove, SuperpoweredDate, OverlyLongAirplaneBannerGag, and WackyMarriageProposal.

* ''VisualNovel/MagicalDiary'' sees Damien (if you pick his path) writing you offers of anything he can think of that you might want. This includes [[BreadEggsMilkSquick jewels, silk dresses, a seat in the government, and world conquest or the death of your enemies]]. He later apologizes for the last one, musing that it would probably be wrong - unless you wanted him to, but he admits that he doesn't actually know how to be 'good'. "But for you, I would try." Possibly just played with, in that the game (as it currently stands) does not let you see if he would actually go through with any of this.

Contrast ActOfTrueLove, where love is shown by sacrifice.

** The grandest ones are pulled off by Mark.
*** In the opening, he hires a full band to hide in the chapel where his best friend is getting married.
*** Later, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFnSgPC-VXA he stands outside a girl's house in the snow]], plays Christmas carols on a CD player, and [[spoiler:silently delivers an elaborate love letter/goodbye to her on cue cards]]. Interestingly, in the creator commentary, the writer/director says he wrote several different grand romantic gestures for the scene (ex. flying in on a helicopter, covering the street with roses), but the female assistants in his office told him they were too elaborate to be really romantic.

* In ''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.

* Towards the end of ''Film/BrideAndPrejudice'' Darcy makes a real effort for Lalita that includes drums.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TrueLove": Joe has prepared Chastity's transfer to their department, and she'll be arriving February 14, [[UsefulNotes/AmericanHolidays Valentine's Day]]. That's when [[spoiler:Joe plans to announce that she is its OneTrueLove]].

** 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 Jeffrey Dahmer.

** Berney giving his bride the rehearsal dinner she dreamed of, by redirecting to it a hockey rink filled with Canadian stereotypes, and getting her there under pretense that he was arrested trying to break in to a laser tag place.

* In ''Series/{{Coupling}}'' Patrick tries to tell Sally that he loves her (and buggers it up, but it's not like he's got much practice at that sort of thing), then, having bought out the entire pub for the evening, plays the Spiderman theme with his two best friends dancing to it. In costume. Sounds odd, except that he and Sally had their first kiss to the Spiderman theme.

* In ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'', Chase moves to ''England'' to be with Zoey after she transfers boarding schools. This ends up biting him in the butt, though, when she switches back to P.C.A. to confront him about his feelings for her.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' episode "Full Metal Attraction" is full of them, as Fenton Crackshell's over the top grand romantic gestures drive Gandra Dee to distraction:

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' episode "Question Authority," Superman takes Lois on a picnic date... on top of a suspension bridge.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' brought us the actions [[MadHatter Jervis Tetch]] used to woo his Alice. Including, but not limited to -- brainwashing a pair of thugs to go jump off a bridge to impress her with his bravery when they're about to get mugged; brainwashing the Maitre'd of a restaurant (as well as the ''rest'' of the staff) into getting them a seat and the romantic usuals (violin/flowers/etc.). After she reconciled with her boyfriend the same night, though, he uses brainwashing to break them up again, then does the "extravagant Flower surprise" in her house... which he didn't have a key for. Alice is, understandably, creeped out - but mostly because Jervis had no way of knowing that the two had broken up.

* The ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "The Hand that Rocks the Mabel" shows the dark side of this trope when [[CrazyJealousGuy Gideon Gleeful]] uses Grand Romantic Gestures to pressure Mabel into continuing to go out with him, doing things like training a parrot to squawk out an invitation to a dance, or setting off fireworks that spell out her name.

* Happens in ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' after Kirito and Asuna's RelationshipUpgrade, and it turns out these teenagers have no idea what to do after sex.
-->'''[[TalkingToThemself Kirito's Left Brain:]]''' Look, just say anything!\\

'''Kirito's Left Brain:''' [[BigNo NNOOOOOO!!!!]]\\

-->'''Asuna's Right Brain:''' BITCH WHY THE FUCK DID YOU SAY YES!?!\\

* In ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', [[spoiler:Kaguya and Shirogane's relationship takes the biggest step forward when the latter plans an elaborate scheme to distract all the supporting characters that would normally get in the way and engineer a huge romantic gesture during the culture festival. There's a big ol' kiss and everything seems great. ''However,'' afterward, while Kaguya appreciates the gesture and finds it very exciting, she makes a point to drive in to him that [[IJustWantToBeNormal she would really prefer something much more low key, normal and honest from here on]]. She's just as excited to have a quiet kiss on a park bench with no one else around on a snowless Christmas Eve.]]

* In ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', [[spoiler:Kaguya and Shirogane's relationship takes the biggest step forward when the latter plans an elaborate scheme to distract all the supporting characters that would normally get in the way and engineer a huge romantic gesture during a festival. There's a big ol' kiss and everything seems great. ''However,'' afterward, while Kaguya appreciates the gesture and finds it very exciting, she makes a point to drive in to him that she would really prefer something much more low key, normal and honest from here on. She's just as excited to have a quiet kiss on a park bench with no one else around on a snowless Christmas Eve.]]

* Bud Light lampshaded and subverted this trope in one of their "Real Men of Genius" radio ads,[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXRoc4k_4os Mr. Stadium Scoreboard Proposal Guy]]

* Bud Light lampshaded and subverted this trope in their "Real Men of Genius" radio ads, one being[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXRoc4k_4os Mr. Stadium Scoreboard Proposal Guy]]

* In A.L. Phillip's Literature/TheQuestOfTheUnaligned, Alaric uses the Prince's Crown to [[spoiler: transform Laeshana into an orah, thus simultaneously allowing her to marry him, giving her the full power that she has been seeking for years, and freeing her of the black aspect of her fire-magic that she's been fighting her whole life.]]

* The ''[[Franchise/BattleTechExpandedUniverse [=BattleTech=]]]'' setting's likely most iconic example would still have to be the way in which one of its most famous {{Magnificent Bastard}}s cemented his reputation once and for all right at his wedding to friend and foe alike, as seen in the novel ''Warrior: Riposte'':
--> '''Hanse Davion:''' "My love, I give you the Capellan Confederation!"
* In ''The Participants'' by Brian Blose, [[spoiler: immortal observers Hess and Elza are separated before they profess their love when the Creator ends one world and replaces it with another. After a few hundred years of life, Elza encounters Hess again - because he has spent all his time walking the new world in search of her.]]

* In ''Literature/TheCourtshipOfPrincessLeia'', Leia is being wooed by [[PrinceCharmless Prince Isolder]] of the powerful and glamorous Hapes Consortium and is cognizant enough of the political ramifications of such an alliance to seriously consider it. To compete, Han enters a shady Sabaac game and wins a ''planet'' in an attempt to impress Leia, fails, and ends up [[AbductionIsLove abducting her]] to visit "his" new planet, which turns out to be in an ex-Imperial warlord's territory and is inhabited by a tribe of Dark Side-using "witches." Needless to say, it takes a bit for Leia to ultimately end up marrying Han.
* In ''A Knight To Remember'', Virago wins Holly's heart by jousting for her in a Renaissance festival. It's an even grander gesture than she intended, as Holly was already in love with her, but was afraid that Virago [[IncompatibleOrientation couldn't return her feelings]].
* In ''Yuck, A Love Story'', Austin lassos the CheesyMoon to give to Amy as a birthday present. And before that, he wears a superhero costume and builds a life-size statue of an ''Apatosaurus'' in her yard using Popsicle sticks.

* In ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', Kaguya and Shirogane's relationship takes the biggest step forward when the latter plans an elaborate scheme to distract all the supporting characters that would normally get in the way and engineer a huge romantic gesture during a festival. There's a big ol' kiss and everything seems great. ''However,'' afterward, while Kaguya appreciates the gesture and finds it very exciting, she makes a point to drive in to him that she would really prefer something much more low key, normal and honest from here on. She's just as excited to have a quiet kiss on a park bench with no one else around on a snowless Christmas Eve.

* In ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'', not only does Howl replicate Sophie's old room, but he brings her to, essentially, a private dimension featuring ''stunningly'' gorgeous GhibliHills, which he declares is his gift to her. The gesture works and Sophie even changes back into her younger self for the longest time yet in the film--until she realizes that the reason Howl is doing this is because he's about to leave.
* 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 guys 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.
* The one in the end of ''[[Anime/ToAruHikushienoTsuioku The Princess and the Pilot]]'' stands out due to the economic FridgeHorror involved. If that really was "more gold than he could spend in a lifetime", and he threw it all into the sea just to show her that she mattered more to him, thereby removing it from the nation's economy, ''during a war''... well. It's a movie.

* At the end of ''Film/PrettyWoman'' Edward arrives at Vivian's apartment in a white limousine and climbs up the fire escape to try to convince her to marry him. Earlier in the movie she had told him about her fantasy of a prince on a white horse coming to carry her off, and it was previously established that he had a fear of heights.

* In ''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.
* Gyeon-woo tries this in ''Film/MySassyGirl'' by having him and the "girl" sneak into an amusement park at night (that his friend works at) with a huge grand jesture with all the lights turning on for just the two of them. Instead they met an AWOL soldier who holds them hostage.

* In ''Literature/TheCourtshipOfPrincessLeia'', Leia is being wooed by [[PrinceCharmless Prince Isolder]] of the powerful and glamorous Hapes Consortium, and is cognizant enough of the political ramifications of such an alliance to seriously consider it. To compete, Han enters a shady Sabaac game and wins a ''planet'' in an attempt to impress Leia, fails, and ends up [[AbductionIsLove abducting her]] to visit "his" new planet, which turns out to be in an ex-Imperial warlord's territory and is inhabited by a tribe of Dark Side-using "witches." Needless to say, it takes a bit for Leia to ultimately end up marrying Han.

** When Ted proposes to Victoria, he fills the flat they lived in with huge amount of gorgeous red roses. She loves it and is ready to accept him, [[spoiler: but they never get engaged because Ted doesn't accept her request to distance himself a bit from Robin.]]

** Barney's epic BatmanGambit to get [[spoiler:Robin]] to marry him, which originates with getting her to break up with her dimiwitted boyfriend via an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove, manipulating her to become a CrazyJealousGuy as he pretends to date her co-worker Patrice and leaving the final steps in the hands of Ted, because having also dated Robin if he didn't approve he wasn't going to go through with it.

** Chandler is in love with Joey's girlfriend Kathy but doesn't want to pursue it because of Joey, but suffers terribly. When it's her birthday, he buys her an old edition of ''Literature/TheVelveteenRabbit'' because it was her favourite book when she was a kid. When his friends tell him that this will be incredibly meaningful, screaming 'I love you', especially compared to Joey's present (he's got nothing; has an idea for a pen with a clock, and later charges Chandler with a task of buying a present for her instead of him). Chandler ends up giving the book to Joey to give it to her, because he wants her to have it. She figures it out, though, because Joey fails to see what's behind 'an old and expensive book'.
** After a fight with Monica, Chandler decides to pull one of these. Of course he takes it a step too far and ''proposes''. Thankfully Monica knows his neuroses well enough to see what's going on and talk him out of it.
---> '''Monica:''' Chandler, um, I want you to take just a minute and I want you to think about how ridiculous this sounds.
---> '''Chandler:''' Yeah, I'm kinda wishing everyone wasn't here right now.
** In Season 6, Chandler attempts to make his real proposal as big and surprising as possible. Naturally this backfires but luckily Monica pulls one of her own, filling their apartment with candles and proposing when he arrives.

* In ''Series/ChinesePaladin'', this combines with FlowerFromTheMountaintop: Ling'er has always wanted to see (nonexistant, but nobody tells her that) red dandelions; [[TheHero Xiaoyao]] and ''his'' love interest [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy Yue'Ru]] conspire to produce them for her.

** Howard gives Bernadette a necklace shaped like a star. Not ''that'' grand... until he explains that he's going to need it back, because he's going to space in a few weeks.

** A romantic hike Patrick arranges for David turns into them intertwining grand romantic gestures. [[spoiler: David initially whines about the length, hurting Patrick's feelings, but when Patrick hurts his foot David apologizes and insists they continue and even carries Patrick for a section of the hike. They reach a spot with a beautiful view where Patrick used to come and think about David before they were together. As David sets up the picnic, he finds Champagne. Patrick directs him to a ring box and gets on one knee and proposes. David tearfully says yes.]]

* The song ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p2k55F-uag Only You"]]'' by The Platters is commonly used as grand romantic gesture for most occasions. However the song is also a double edged sword since the song has regressed to a point of being [[StalkerWithACrush a song associated with stalkers.]]

-->'''Mary Sue:''' I bet he'd kill people for me, if I asked him to! ...oh ''dear''. He probably would, too.

** He buys lunch for her at work, in the blue collar Duckburg Bean Factory. The lunch is a candlelit gourmet meal, complete with a mariachi band for musical accompaniment.

--> '''Singing Chocolates''':
--> Oh, we're the singing chocolates,
--> As sweet as we can be,
--> Fenton gives his love,
--> To his sugar Gandra Dee!
--> '''Gandra''': Oh, Fenton, you shouldn't have done it!
--> '''Fenton''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint I knew I should have hired the Acrobatic Assorted Nuts instead!]]
** Fenton later buys Gandra Dee a two-story cake "with chocolate frosting, marshmallow topping and aluminum siding."

** Later, the episode "Let's Go Fly a Coot" lampshades this with Bart catching up to Milhouse's e-cigarette smoking cousin Annika as she was about to board a plane home. She thinks Bart is about to do one of these, calling it "so American." What happens however [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech is quite different.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'': In "The Bitter Rose", Orko goes after the FlowerFromTheMountaintop to prove his love for Dree'Elle. Initially it causes problems for everyone until it's revealed he did something unexpectedly beneficial, after all.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Deconstructed in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E8HardToSayAnything Hard to Say Anything]]", as Big Mac and Feather Bangs compete in romantic gestures in an attempt to woo Sugar Belle, but it ends up just wrecking her shop and driving her away. Eventually Big Mac learns the moral that a heartfelt gesture is more important that a big flashy one, and builds a new display case for Sugar Belle to replace the one he broke.

* Invoked in ''TenThingsIHateAboutYou''. When Patrick is trying to romance Kat (for corrupt reasons), he's told, at a certain point, that one of these is the only way to get her attention. So he publicly serenades her over the school's PA system, bribing the marching band to accompany him, and ends up getting sent to detention. Not only does this work, but the results start him on the path to [[BecomingTheMask falling for her for real]].

* In ''KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', Kaguya and Shirogane's relationship takes the biggest step forward when the latter plans an elaborate scheme to distract all the supporting characters that would normally get in the way and engineer a huge romantic gesture during a festival. There's a big ol' kiss and everything seems great. ''However,'' afterward, while Kaguya appreciates the gesture and finds it very exciting, she makes a point to drive in to him that she would really prefer something much more low key, normal and honest from here on. She's just as excited to have a quiet kiss on a park bench with no one else around on a snowless Christmas Eve.

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' features Mr. Peanutbutter, an [[PettingZooPeople anthropomorphic labrador retriever]], as a member of the main cast who uses these as his primary method of showing affection and love. Of course, being a wealthy celebrity leads to him being able to throw huge surprise parties and buy helicopters for people to ride in just for the hell of it without a second thought. A lot of his StoryArc revolves around him working on his marriage with Diane Nguyen, who doesn't care for grand gestures, parties, or surprises, and would much rather spend time having intimate conversations and private moments, and his difficulty in understanding that [[ItsAllAboutMe not everyone likes the same things that he does or appreciates the same things he would.]]

Sub-tropes include SerenadeYourLover, FlowerFromTheMountaintop, RaceForYourLove, SuperpoweredDate, and WackyMarriageProposal.

** The most referenced one is Ted stealing a blue French Horn for Robin to proclaim his love; they had their first date at a restaurant that had the instrument on the wall and she loved it. Everybody brings flowers, Ted brought her the horn. In a ContinuityNod, before they broke up, a waiter recognized him and made him bring it back. A later episode shows the restaurant now has the horn chained to the wall.
** Ted took the blue instrument in-joke [[SerialEscalation further]] by hiring a group of musicians to play music for her with instruments that were also painted blue.
** Ted made it rain once for Robin. She was supposed to go on a company trip with a colleague who was hitting on her, so Ted performed a RainDance. Amazingly, it did rain despite the forecast and amazingly, Robin finally agreed to be with him.
** The two-minute date with Stella is a standout. Ted was in love with her, but she didn't have time for a romantic relationship in her busy life -- all she had was her two-minute lunch break. So Ted put together a date scheduled to fit into this time constraint, spending about 20 seconds each on a dinner, movie, dessert and walk back to her business. It worked.
** When Ted proposed to Victoria, he filled the flat they lived in with huge amount of gorgeous red roses. She loved it and was ready to accept him, [[spoiler: but they never got engaged because Ted didn't accept her request to distance himself a bit from Robin.]]
** Marshall once managed to get an ''entire marching band'' to sneak into a lonely airport where Lilly is waiting alone and play "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight while disguised as fellow travelers so he can kiss her for New Years. Try topping ''that''.
** Even Barney got into it later. He refused to leave a diner for a really long time until his love interest of the season, Nora, agreed to go out with him again.
** The show even pointed 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 was 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 comes across SerialKiller creepy and crazy a la Jeffrey Dahmer.
** Barney's epic BatmanGambit to get [[spoiler:Robin]] to marry him, which originated with getting her to break up with her dimiwitted boyfriend via an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove, manipulating her to become a CrazyJealousGuy as he pretends to date her co-worker Patrice and leaving the final steps in the hands of Ted, because having also dated Robin if he didn't approve he wasn't going to go through with it.

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': Lorelai said 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.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'':
** Played with in the episode "The Rain King", where the "villain" is unconsciously causing tornadoes and thunderstorms because of his pent-up romantic desire for the woman he is unable to confess his feelings to. When she learns about it, she realizes that causing a thunderstorm out of love for her is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for her.
** Mulder's after-dark baseball lesson could count, too. For most couples, this would simply be a cute date. But given that his and Scully's relationship moves ''slower'' than a snail's pace and usually takes two steps forward and one step back, this is a pretty gutsy and grand gesture on his part.

** On a smaller scale, Chandler cleans the entire apartment after he and Monica move in together. It was very sweet because Monica is obsessed with organizing and cleaning.

** Monica performs a very touching one during their wedding organizing when a woman tries to get Monica's wedding dress by booking Chandler's dream band on the day of their wedding. Without telling Chandler Monica gives away the dress so he can keep the band.

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', vampire [[StalkerWithACrush Spike]], to prove his love to Buffy... stuns her with a cattle prod, chains her to a wall and offers to kill his ex for her. In hindsight, this probably wasn't the best idea.
** Later, however, he goes and gets his ''soul'' for her, which falls under this trope a little bit better.

* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Leonard gives Penny a preserved snowflake from the North Pole.
-->'''Leonard''': It'll last forever. I preserved it in a one percent solution of polyvinyl acetal resin...
-->'''Penny''': Oh, my God. That's the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me that I didn't understand!

-->'''Howard:''' So when I get back, I can give you a star that's literally been in space. ''(beat)'' Take ''that'', any guy that ever bought you anything!

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'':