History Main / RedStringOfFate

* ''LetsPlay/LifeSMP'': The main gimmick of Season 3, ''Double Life'', is that each player's health-bar is linked to another, [[{{Synchronization}} if one takes damage so will the other]], and [[CantLiveWithoutYou if one dies, the other does as well]]. The official series description refers to these duos as "soulmates". Since the game doesn't directly tell people who their soulmate is, most of Day 1 was spent with everyone running around punching each other to find their partner. (And in [[spoiler:Jimmy and Tango]]'s case, they didn't find out until the latter lost his first life.) This is eventually PlayedForDrama once a couple of the players decide to ScrewDestiny.[[note]]For context, this is mostly of the platonic variant due to the content creators' boundaries on shipping.[[/note]]

** This trope also shows up in straight form in a huge number of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fics, using every imaginable variant from literal strings to timers to shared injuries. Marinette and Adrien are ''always'' soulmates, and usually so are Alya and Nino, and sometimes other combinations.

* Parodied in ''Manga/SoulHunter'', after Tou Sengyoku [[HasAType improbably falls for]] [[{{Gonk}} Dokoson]]. The second time she meets him (he was trying to sneak on her while she was sleeping to kidnap her) she invokes this trope... except that it's not a red string wrapped around the finger but a massive red cable with huge shackles at the ends tying his neck to her arm. Dokoson isn't amused.

* Toward the end of the ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' movie "Remember My Love", notorious lech Ataru is shown to have multiple red strings attached to every one of his fingers. It's implied that he might ''like'' to be faithful to Lum, but...

* In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the guest star of the week, Troi's arranged fiance, has been having dreams of a beautiful woman. When the Enterprise meets with a plague-infested ship, he finds the woman is there and has been having dreams of him, and created portraits of him. He decides to go with them to help them treat the plague.

* ''Series/Touch2012'', in which a young boy appears to be able to sense patterns in the larger world through numbers, specifically calls out to the Chinese legend, though implies connections beyond just love (a person saving someone's life, a person having an object another person desires but wouldn't have met otherwise, etc.)

* In ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', [[EldritchAbomination Nyarko]] claims that she and Mahiro are connected by the red ''tentacle'' of fate. Given that it's Nyarko saying it, the truth of this is ... questionable.

* [=IRyS=] and Bae of ''WebAnimation/{{Hololive}}'' joke that they're romantically connected by identical moles on their feet which are specifically likened to the red string of fate.

* ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'':
** Trolls think this. However, since troll romance is not just one type, but 4, there could a red string, a pale string, a black string, or an ashen string.

* Gepetto from the ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' series uses this literally as his ultimate weapon. It's acquired after his sidequest, where it's revealed that his dead daughter's soul lies within his puppet, saving him from a demon. The string manifests as their filial love; Her devotion to her father, and his to his daughter. (For reference, he attacks with the puppet, and puppet strings are the weapons, adding attack power and the like.)

* In ''Literature/{{Toradora}}'', the class' ProfessionalWrestling show for the SchoolFestival (don't ask) involves them threatening to cut their ChristmasCake homeroom teacher's red string of fate to threaten the heroine. The teacher is [[BerserkButton naturally upset]] at witnessing this and tries to attack the play. The audience assumes it's AllPartOfTheShow as the stage hands carry her off.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'', the class' ProfessionalWrestling show for the SchoolFestival (don't ask) involves them threatening to cut their ChristmasCake homeroom teacher's red string of fate to threaten the heroine. The teacher is [[BerserkButton naturally upset]] at witnessing this and tries to attack the play. The audience assumes it's AllPartOfTheShow as the stage hands carry her off.

* In the ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' manga, Gauron implies that this is what [[HoYay fatefully keeps bringing him and Sousuke together]]. Sousuke does not react well to the suggestion.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Index speculates that the reason why nearly any girl who meets Touma falls in love with him is that his AntiMagic right hand, Imagine Breaker, negates the Red String of Fate for other people.

* In ''Film/KamenRiderTheFirst'', a partially-suicidal Haruhiko runs away from the hospital to a field where he can grieve alone, only to realize that a red string had somehow caught on his clothes. Behind him walks up Miyoko, his love interest, and the string was a thread from the red sweater she was wearing which had caught and began unraveling as he ran. She directly quotes the concept, and he proceeds to hug her for all he's worth. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, since they were both [[IllGirl terminally ill]], things don't [[LoveMakesYouEvil turn out]] [[RedemptionEqualsDeath very well]].]]

* Weaponized by [[AbsoluteCleavage Ijuna]] from ''Manga/EdensZero'': her Ether Gear, Red Destiny, allows her to control and manipulate a series of red strings: if the binds two people together with them they will forcibly fall in love with each other... but if the string is cut they will feel endless hatred instead.

* [[http://shiveress.deviantart.com/art/Forevermore-142099586 This]] lovely piece of art here. Perhaps not a traditional example, but it's there, and it's most likely romantic.

The trope namer is an East Asian belief originating from Myth/ChineseMythology called ''yīnyuán hóngxiàn'' (姻緣紅線/姻缘红线) also known as the Red String of Fate or Red Thread of Marriage. Frequently found in Japanese works, where it's referred to as ''akai ito'' or ''unmei no akai ito''. The concept is that two people who are destined to be together are attached by an invisible red string tied by the ''Yuè Xià Lǎorén'' (月下老人, "the Old Man Under the Moon"), the old lunar matchmaker god. In the Chinese mythos, the string is tied around both parties' ankles. In the Japanese mythos, it's traditionally bound from a male's thumb to a female's pinky finger, but it's more common these days to show ''both'' parties attached at the pinky.

The trope namer is an East Asian belief originating from Myth/ChineseMythology called ''yīnyuán hóngxiàn'' also known as the Red String of Fate or Red Thread of Marriage. Frequently found in Japanese works, where it's referred to as ''akai ito'' or ''unmei no akai ito''. The concept is that two people who are destined to be together are attached by an invisible red string tied by ''Yuè Xià Lǎorén'', the old lunar matchmaker god. In the Chinese mythos, the string is tied around both parties' ankles. In the Japanese mythos, it's traditionally bound from a male's thumb to a female's pinky finger, but it's more common these days to show ''both'' parties attached at the pinky.

* The 2012 series ''{{Series/Touch}}'', in which a young boy appears to be able to sense patterns in the larger world through numbers, specifically calls out to the Chinese legend, though implies connections beyond just love (a person saving someone's life, a person having an object another person desires but wouldn't have met otherwise, etc.)

** In ''Anime/BleachFadeToBlack'', Ichigo and Rukia's red spirit threads are linked to one another, allowing Ichigo to find Rukia when she went missing during the events of the movie.

** Continuing with L.J. Smith, in ''Literatue/TheSecretCircle'', Adam and Cassie are bound together by a silver cord, like Stefan and Elena.

Warning: [[StrangledByTheRedString Choking Hazard]]. May be related to the PinkySwear. Usually involved in ReincarnationRomance. See also FateDrivesUsTogether and ForgottenFirstMeeting. Compare LoveBeforeFirstSight and MindlinkMates. {{Soulmate AU Fic}}s use a form of this. Has nothing at all to do with StringOnFingerReminder, which is about a character tying a string around their finger to help them remember something important.

* In ''Literature/SoundEuphonium'', Kumiko and Reina are connected by one in the season one ED. They end up friends in a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship.

* ''I'm Addicted to You'' begins when Hinase Hotaru, a girl who's never fallen in love before, gets confessed to by Hananoi-kun, the class pretty boy whose love comes on too strong. She starts going out with him in order to find out what love's about, and the title page of chapter 2 shows them tied together by a string of fate around their pinky fingers: Hananoi-kun holds up his pinky while looking affectionately at Hotaru, who is examining her end of the string with wide-eyed curiosity.

* In an episode of ''Anime/ChouKuseNiNarisou'', a gay teacher who mistakenly develops a crush on Nagisa suggests to her that there's a Red String of Fate connecting them. Nagisa can actually ''see'' the string, and yells at the teacher to cut it out....

* ''Literature/HeavenOfficialsBlessingTianGuanCiFu'' sees Hua Cheng literally tying a red string between himself and Xie Lian, and giving it enough power that no matter how far apart they are or how much is in the way, it will always still be there as long as they both exist. Although all it ''actually'' does is reassure them that the other is alive, every other character who sees it clearly believes it's this trope. Xie Lian eventually admits that it is, once he accepts that Hua Cheng is in love with him.