History Main / RomanticPlotTumor

* While in the original story of Dr. Seuss' ''Literature/TheLorax'' the nameless boy came to get Truffula seeds from the Once-ler to restore his world after being turned to a total wasteland, the [[WesternAnimation/TheLorax2012 CGI animated film adataptation]] on the other hand, decided to give the boy (who in the film is named Theodore "Ted" Wiggins) a generic love interest as his main motivation for Truffula seeds was to solely win her affections because she wanted to see a real Truffula tree.

** While the reboot mostly avoided this in the first season, the second season has Priya and Caleb's turbulent relationship, especially in the second half. Other potential story arcs are discarded in favor of their drama, more interesting characters (including the season's winner) are pushed OutOfFocus (with the exception of Julia, and that's only because all her schemes now revolve around trying to break them up), Priya's character is derailed from a slightly naive but skilled girl to a repeat of love triangle-era Courtney, and Caleb repeatedly holds the IdiotBall so the arc can be needlessly padded out.

* The ''Film/{{Transformers|FilmSeries}}'' films helmed by Creator/MichaelBay were infamous for this, crossing over with HumanFocusedAdaptation. Many were deeply angered by [[JustHereForGodzilla the robots they'd actually come to see]] being constantly [[OutOfFocus sidelined]] in favor of the tedious romance between Sam and Mikaela, who has virtually no importance to the story whatsoever. It got worse when Creator/MeganFox refused to come back for [[Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon the third film]], resulting in Mikaela being [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replaced with some generic new girl who contributed even less]]. ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'' is widely considered the nadir in this regard, due to a scene where the plot literally stops dead in its tracks ''just'' so a side character can explain in detail why it's okay for him to have sex with [[Creator/MarkWahlberg Mark Wahlberg's]] underage daughter. Mercifully, when the series was [[ContinuityReboot rebooted]] with ''Film/{{Bumblebee}}'' and Bay was replaced by Travis Knight, any and all Romantic Plot Tumors were excised with extreme prejudice; the movie even has a TakeThat at this near the end, making it seem like Charlie and Memo are going to be StrangledByTheRedString [[BaitAndSwitch only for him to get bluntly and embarrassingly shot down]].

** Secondly, the love triangle itself drew plenty of scorn: A nurse in Hawaii falls in love with two fighter pilots. The first one apparently dies, so she goes to the other one. Then the first guy shows up alive, angst ensues, then the ''second'' guy appears to die. Eventually, one of them really does die, but only after knocking her up, leaving the runner-up to be the baby's father. By the halfway point of the movie, there was no way one could pretend to sympathize with the girl anymore; no matter which of her boyfriends died, she'd still have a spare. One newspaper review at the time summarized the film as:

* ''Literature/TheEmpyrean'': Unless you were already aware of and reading ''Fourth Wing'' specifically for the romance (which the cover and marketing didn't really play up as prominent), readers who were mostly interested in the fantasy plot about a dragon-gryphon war and a brutal dragon riding academy were often disappointed that the novel places far more emphasis on the Violet-Dain-Xaden love triangle, with the war barely being relevant until the climax and much of the worldbuilding left vague or pushed aside to focus on sexual tension and romantic drama (nor does it help that some readers felt the Violet/Xaden romance was a bit rushed). Even readers who like romance wished that the setting and fantasy elements were explored in greater depth, hoping that the sequel improves on this. Notably, the author's previous books are predominantly in the contemporary romance genre, so this could explain why the romantic plotline takes precedence.

* Unlike most [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherwoods movies made in India]], the Tamil film ''Film/{{Indian}}'' has a romantic subplot that is completely irrelevant to the main plot. The movie is about an aged ex-freedom fighter turned vigilante who is going around culling corrupt officials, and his own son is one such CorruptBureaucrat. Said son's romantic pursuit of a veterinarian has no bearing on how he behaves and his own father's pursuit of him in the end.

* The ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' films helmed by Creator/MichaelBay were infamous for this, crossing over with HumanFocusedAdaptation. Many were deeply angered by [[JustHereForGodzilla the robots they’d actually come to see]] being constantly [[OutOfFocus sidelined]] in favor of the tedious romance between Sam and Mikaela, who has virtually no importance to the story whatsoever. It got worse when Creator/MeganFox refused to come back for the third film, resulting in Mikaela being [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replaced with some generic new girl who contributed even less]]. ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'' is widely considered the nadir in this regard, due to a scene where the plot literally stops dead in its tracks ''just'' so a side character can explain in detail why it's okay for him to have sex with [[Creator/MarkWahlberg Mark Wahlberg’s]] underage daughter. Mercifully, when the series was [[ContinuityReboot rebooted]] with ''Film/{{Bumblebee}}'' and Bay was replaced by Travis Knight, any and all Romantic Plot Tumors were excised with extreme prejudice; the movie even has a TakeThat at this near the end, making it seem like Charlie and Memo are going to be StrangledByTheRedString [[BaitAndSwitch only for him to get bluntly and embarrassingly shot down]].

** Season 3 took the romance subplot from the previous season and amplified it tenfold, almost as though the writers were actively trying to make shipping fans of the show as upset and confused as possible. Coming into the third season, Star likes Marco but had to go back to Mewni at the end of season two due to the main plot, while Marco is dating his long-time crush Jackie. During season three, Jackie almost immediately dumps Marco knowing that he has stronger feelings for Star (though he doesn't realize this yet), allowing Marco to move to Mewni to be near Star. Unfortunately, Star has gotten over Marco and is now back together with her ex-boyfriend Tom, meaning that Marco is left pining for Star once he does realize his feelings. Meanwhile, the side characters of Kelly and Tad break up (for real this time), leading to the start of Kelly and Marco developing some strong ShipTease. But anything on that front is seemingly derailed when Star and Marco share a kiss towards the end of the season, albeit [[MistakenForCheating not for romantic intentions]], but still resulting in them rethinking what their relationship actually is. The heavy and confusing teasing of several pairings simultaneously takes the focus off more lore-related plot lines, mainly the Queen Eclipsa [[spoiler: and Heinous]] plot.

* ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'' suffered terribly from this due to a LoveTriangle between Megumi, her best friend Seiji and the Cures' mentor Blue. Seiji has a crush on Megumi, but Megumi was starting to have feelings for Blue (something that hadn't been seen since the ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'' saga), but Blue had been sending mixed signals all the way, running with the "Precure cannot fall in love" spiel while having ''something'' towards Megumi. There's this entire WillTheyOrWontThey until the ''entire subplot is dropped'' when [[spoiler:the Cures rescue Queen Mirage, return her to her true form -- a Cure in the past that ''Blue fell in love with and broke her heart because of his duties'' -- and they fell in love again]]! And anything between Megumi and Seiji is flat-out ignored! According to a [=PreCure=] fan, this is due to the writers not wanting the morals of the story to be distracted by the results. The morals is that romance can be happiness but at the same time causes misfortune and everyone should be mindful of other people's feelings even if they don't feel the same way.

* The first season of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' depicted the relationship between Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy, as they were depicted as two civilians who see how the world is affected with Celestial Being's mission to "unite" the world by conflict and both ultimately suffer as a result of it. In season two, however, you can argue that this gets bloated, as Louise becomes the warrant officer for the A-LAWS and Saji Crossroad joins Celestial Being to co-pilot the 00 Raiser. Turning it into a LoveTriangle is Andrei Smirnov, who is infatuated with Louise and will also do anything to protect her. This ate away screentime that could've been devoted to Allelujah battling (and accepting) his alter ego or showing the development of Nena Trinity.
* A lot of the fan complaints lobbed at ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'' center around a romantic quadrangle that develops midway through the story between the eponymous Char Aznable, Quess Paraya, Hathaway Noa, and Gyunei Guss. Quess is the direct instigator of this quadrangle, being a [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]] HateSink with psychic powers that affect a disturbing MoreThanMindControl effect on weaker Newtypes. Hathaway and Gyunei, both being weaker Newtypes, develop identical instant insane infatuations with Quess the moment they meet her and devolve from relatively likable kids (and in Gyunei's case, the OnlySaneMan in Neo-Zeon) into murderous CrazyJealousGuy types willing to shoot down allies or kill hostages if that's what it takes to impress Quess. As for Char himself, all his dignity is lost as he cold-bloodedly grooms the 13-year old Quess to be his {{Tykebomb}} (and ReplacementGoldfish for Lalah Sune according to Gyunei, though Char asserts in the climax that he never sees Quess as anything but a weapon... not that that makes his actions any better or at all excusable). Worst of all is that this romantic quadrangle dominates the story, motivating the actions of a good chunk of the cast and forcing the rest of it to react. The end result is that a story supposedly about Amuro and Char's final battle in large part focuses on an obnoxious child and the men (and boys) who want to bone her instead.
* A problem with the latter half of ''Anime/NagiNoAsukara'', where the plotlines revolving around FantasticRacism, the Sea God, [[spoiler: and the post time skip plotline revolving around the declining worldwide temperatures]] all take a backseat to the unraveling of a love triangle that eventually grows into a love spider-web, even at the expense of developing several characters whose ultimate role in the story gets reduced to "likes this person."

*** First is the love triangle between Nodoka, Yue, and Negi. It began with Nodoka developing an early crush on Negi and Yue trying to play matchmaker but succumbing to her own feelings. Not wanting to get in the way, she tried to withdraw before Nodoka made her realize it was okay. In the end, this love triangle became one of Yue's most defining characteristics with everyone telling her to hurry up and confess and Yue never getting around to it. It does take a back seat to plot when [[spoiler:she enters a magical academy due to her memory being erased]] though. This subplot strings along for several hundred chapters before getting a partial resolution a few months before the series ended [[spoiler:and in the end it went nowhere at all. Both Nodoka and Yue were rejected]].
*** Secondly is the relationship between Setsuna and Konoka. It became as a princess/bodyguard type relationship before yuri subtext began to grow. Setsuna's angst over the matter became ''the'' defining part of her character arc and lasted several hundred chapters without progress [[spoiler:even after a pactio]]. During the ordeal, Konoka's actual character diminished to insignificance.

*** When it looked like the manga was going back to the TournamentArc, it was once again discarded in favor of putting all focus on the potential romance between Touta and [[{{Tsundere}} Kirie]]. All the main characters suddenly wanted to drop everything so they could play matchmaker for Touta and Kirie. Several chapters were totally wasted on excessive {{Fanservice}} antics from a naked Kirie with Touta. It got to the point that the rest of the UnwantedHarem became utterly irrelevant because the other girls are always so OutOfFocus they don't try to get Touta hard enough or are rooting for Kirie.
*** Kuroumaru, the {{Expy}} of Setsuna mentioned above, was plagued with a very similar problem to their Shinmei-ryuu predecessor. Kuroumaru was presented as this person with NoBiologicalSex who was struggling to define their gender identity before they had to choose their physical sex at their sixteenth birthday, but Kuroumaru's character arc was soon dropped in favor of Kuroumaru's angst over their feelings for Touta. The issue went over a hundred chapters with no progress [[spoiler:even after Kuroumaru confesses the truth of their body to Touta right before they make a pactio]].

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The series loves to drum up romantic tension between two seemingly randomly selected characters. Usually it only leads to one or two scenes of flirtation -- a "Romantic Plot Freckle" if you will; sometimes it leads to an actual ongoing relationship - a "Romantic Plot Appendage," say; but sometimes it ends up as a full-fledged Romantic Plot Tumor, with an inordinate page count being devoted to a relationship that ends up being dropped as soon as the writer loses interest (or left the book) to be rarely, if ever, mentioned again. The one example of this which hasn't gone into remission, despite ''both'' sides of it being ''dead'', would be [[Characters/MarvelComicsLogan Wolverine]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean]] (Old Man Logan and Teen Jean are around, but have more of an IntergenerationalFriendship than anything else - which is good because as observed in comic, anything else would be creepy). Canon-wise, [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops Scott]] and Jean were the OneTruePairing, with Wolverine housing a crush on Jean and Scott being jealous. But eventually, they included Jean being attracted to Wolverine despite Scott's existence, though any time Scott got overly jealous he'd be called out on this, despite, you know, actually having good reason to be annoyed. Wolverine basically ends up with the only thing going for him is his love for Jean, and he'll angst about his inability to have her because of Cyclops despite the fact he has a lot more things to complain about, and Jean will all but cheat on Cyclops without actually consummating anything with Wolverine until it ends up with her almost stringing them both. Basically, whenever this gets played up, usually at least one of these three end up being driven entirely by this in characterization. To make matters worse, it seeped into the films, being the biggest defining romance in the series - though they did at least have the sense to have Jean be fond of Logan, but not be inclined to do anything more than flirt a little and, as Logan puts it, she ultimately chose Scott.

* ''Fanfic/ForgedDestiny'' suffered from this. Jaune's romance with Blake ending up forming a significant amount of Books 3 and 4, and to the detriment of the rest of the cast due to him being the point-of-view character. The author would take notice and promise to reduce this in the next book, only for Book 5 to arguably make it worse, as the story now focused on their relationship threatening to fall apart due to Jaune carrying the IdiotBall regarding both his love life and the main story for the entire arc. This culminates down the line in the latter half of Book 9, which is dedicated to how the love triangle between Jaune, Blake, and Ruby is affected by newfound political problems and issues that the characters must now grapple with.

* Inverted in ''Fanfic/MyInnerLife''. The relationship between Link and Jenna is the central topic even if there's nothing going on in it besides them just being super happy with each other. Every ''other'' plot point awkwardly bursts in instead. Though, it could be argued that the trope is played straight since the romance plot wildly overshadows events it really shouldn't. For example, Link goes off to war and the only concern given by the narrator is that Link might not be home for the birth of her first child with him. The entire war is ignored and resolved within a chapter so Link can get home, Jenna can have her moment being happy to have him back and the romance can continue drama-free.

* In the Creator/FrancisFordCoppola adaptation of ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' (but not in ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' by Bram Stoker), Dracula isn't after Mina Harker because he's an undead embodiment of evil, a monster seeking to feed on the blood of the innocent. It's because he's in love with her. Awww. And she loves him because it's a ReincarnationRomance. And Dracula wasn't cursed by God to be a vampire because he was an evil bastard who deserved eternal torment. No, Dracula willingly became one as a RageAgainstTheHeavens because his wife [[SuicideIsShameful committed suicide and her soul couldn't be redeemed]]. Never mind that none of this was in the book, or that the forced romance between Drac and Mina leaves her acting like a complete and unsympathetic bitch to everyone around her, especially her loving husband. Unsurprisingly, the Dracula and Mina subplot only exists because of ExecutiveMeddling, as they didn't think a straight horror film would sell tickets.

* The movie ''Fabian. Going To The Dogs'' mostly resolves around the romance between protagonist Jakob Fabian and aspiring actress Cornelia Battenberg, which is turned into the overarching narrative of the movie. The movie is based on a novel by Erich Kaestner, which tells its story very differently: Rather than an overarching plot the novel consists of many subplots in which the protagonist encounters different people. The love story with Cornelia, which seems quite conventional in comparison, is just one of them. The movie also cuts on Fabian’s relationship to his best friend Labude, which is a very important relationship and character foil to Fabian in the novel.

* The biggest complaint of ''Film/TheGiver'' is the romantic story between Jonas and Fiona that was not in [[Literature/TheGiver the book]]. In the book, Jonas merely had a crush on Fiona and the tragedy was that romance was ''impossible'' for them because Fiona was irretrievably brainwashed by the community and even committed "Release" on senior citizens. Also, the AgeLift changed the thread from PuppyLove to something more serious (on Jonas' side, at least).

* Unlike most [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherwoods movies made in India]], the Tamil film ''Film/{{Indian}}'' has a romantic sub plot that is completely irrelevant to the main plot. The movie is about an aged ex-freedom fighter turned vigilante who is going around culling corrupt officials, and his own son is one such CorruptBureaucrat. Said son’s romantic pursuit of a veterinarian has no bearing on how he behaves, and his own father’s pursuit of him in the end.

* Everyone expected ''Film/MaryShelley'' to spend some time on the titular character's tumultuous marriage to Percy Bysshe Shelley -- but viewers weren't necessarily expecting the film to almost exclusively focus on it, to the point that her greatest professional accomplishment, the writing and publication of ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', is relegated to the third act and still nearly overshadowed by marital drama. Even more disappointing was the HistoricalDowngrade given to Mary Shelley, who in reality was a highly unconventional woman who was fully on-board with her and Percy's open marriage and had lovers of her own. In the film, she's portrayed as a victimized waif waiting for her volatile, philandering husband to come home.

* The 2008 film ''Film/TheRedBaron'' was heavily criticized for shoe-horning the fictional character of Nurse Kate and making her love story with Manfred von Richthofen the central plot in the film. Yep, ''that'' Red Baron. '''The''' RedBaron. [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot They had the freaking Red Baron and they overlooked him]]. You could even say [[{{Pun}} They Wasted A Perfectly Good Pilot]].

** Leafpool/Crowfeather -- These two suffer from the same issues as Bluestar/Oakheart above, only without the prior build-up. What's worse is that their relationship is the focus of more than just one book; half of ''The New Prophecy'', the last two books of ''The Power of Three'', and about half of ''Omen of the Stars'' is heavily reliant on their fling in ''Starlight'' and ''Twilight''. Of course, considering what it resulted in, it is partially understandable. However, plenty of fans are sick of them at this point.

* The Kara/Lee/Sam/Dee LoveDodecahedron from ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' got completely out of control, hurting the otherwise-enjoyable Season 3. Which is an accomplishment for a quadrangle that only existed in four mid-season episodes out of 20 in the season overall, but it seems to really stick out in fans' memories. The WillTheyOrWontThey between Kara and Lee lasted until the series finale, though to a lesser degree, as the writers largely abandoned the messy quadrangle for the infinitely sweeter and more organic Roslin/Adama romance.

* The 11th UK series of ''Series/{{Big Brother}}'' was thought to be the last ever at the time, and was promoted as a grand finale to the franchise. What it ended up being about was nothing but the showmance between Josie and John James. It took up most of the screentime, with hours of them just sat under a duvet, and their fans multivoted to evict everyone who wasn't sucking up to them or even who just looked at them the wrong way, leaving a very hollow series. And, surprise surprise, they weren't together much longer after the series had ended.

* ''Series/CobraKai'': Part of the reason why the second season is viewed by some as [[SeasonalRot a step down]] from the first season is that too much screen time was devoted to the teen romances of a LoveDodecahedron between Samantha [=LaRusso=], Miguel Diaz, Robby Keene, and Tory Nichols. The romantic pairings of Sam with Robby, and Miguel with Tory, were viewed as boring and hard to relate to, in contrast to Season 1's development of Miguel's romance with Sam. Making it worse is that these love triangle shenanigans are what cause the karate war on the first day of school in the season finale, when Tory sees Miguel cheat on her with Sam at a party, and responds by picking a fight with Sam at school, triggering an all-out riot that ends with Miguel breaking his spine when Robby kicks him over a railing, and Sam getting her arm lacerated by Tory with spiked knuckles. Season 3 was viewed as a step back to form by focusing much less on romance and tying up the love triangles in a definitive way by having Sam get back together with Miguel while laying the seeds for Robby to hook up with Tory.

*** While the build-up and initial execution is sweet, the fact that it's ended so abruptly just as it was getting started due to Elektra's re-entrance into Matt's life, ''and'' the fact that there are some viewers seem to prefer him with Elektra, made some people feel like it was kind of pointless. Matt coming clean with Karen about his secret identity in the last scene of season 2 doesn't help, as many (especially the Matt / Elektra shippers) believed that Matt was only settling with Karen because of Elektra getting killed by the Hand.

** The GenreShift between the Classic and New series from a NoBudget children's horror-comedy serial to a reasonably-budgeted flagship export under the BBC's "Original British Drama" imprint means that the show focuses a lot more on romance now than in the old days. This did help boost the show's popularity and achieve a similar MultipleDemographicAppeal to the show's '60s and '70s heyday, but every season arc ended up focusing on romance and ThePowerOfLove, which alienated many Classic series fans, who had long been used to NoHuggingNoKissing. Even many non-Classic fans find it cheesy and poorly executed.

* Claire's relationship with West in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' was not one of the show's more successful moves, not least due to West being the only person in the entire run who Claire had absolutely NO chemistry with. Including Sylar and her UNCLE

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' suffered from this greatly. The series started out with Ted focusing on trying to get together with Robin, succeeding by the end of season one, and then them breaking up at the end of season two. Not so bad yet, namely since that at that point it was treated as a ForegoneConclusion, and we knew sooner or later, Ted would meet his real wife. But then as the show went on it continued to have Ted and/or Robin pining for the other only to repeatedly go through a lesson that they just weren't right for each other, all the way up to the final season. And then the final episode came. [[spoiler: The ship between Robin and Barney, one that a lot of fans preferred no less, was almost immediately thrown out minutes after the episode began, and much later it turned out that [[StuffedInTheFridge Ted's wife fell deathly ill six years prior to the events of the show's framing sequence]]. The plot tumor took over in-universe as well as it revealed that even though Ted was telling his kids the story of how he met his future wife, the fact that he focused more on Robin when he was telling the story was actually because he wanted permission from them to start dating Robin again, all so they would hook up at the last minute.]] All this after it was thoroughly established that the two did not belong together. Needless to say, a lot of people were unhappy.

* Arthur/Gwen start off this way in ''Series/Merlin2008''. In the first series, the two barely interact (and Gwen outright dislikes Arthur) until the last few episodes, when they have a few shippy moments. Then in early Series 2 Arthur impulsively kisses Gwen, then suddenly Arthur is declaring he "cares for (Gwen) more than anyone" and everyone and their dog are going ShipperOnDeck talking about [[StrangledByTheRedString how deeply they obviously feel for each other]]. Series 3 and 4 don't exactly downgrade their relationship but do allow it to develop and breathe in a more organic way with the two discussing things, working as a team, and dealing with various issues and obstacles, and they develop into a solid OfficialCouple, then RulingCouple.

* ''Series/OneTreeHill'': The long-running Peyton/Lucas/Brooke love triangle. It was dragged out until just before the mid-season finale of Season 4, even though the issue was completely resolved at the end of Season 1, with Lucas clearly choosing Peyton over Brooke - only for his own bad decisions earlier in the season to cause Peyton to end things with him. This led to the show to repeat the ''exact same'' triangle a second time with of course the exact same outcome, wasting ''two other seasons'' on the already resolved matter until Lucas and Peyton finally got together for real mid-season 4.
* In ''Series/PeakyBlinders'', Tommy and Grace are teased in the first Season even though Grace is TheMole working for his enemy, she eventually falls for him for real but still ends up selling him out and leaves Birmingham at the end of the first season. Come season two and Tommy has a new {{Love Interest|s}}, May, but ends up in a LoveTriangle with Grace when she briefly returns to Birmingham and the season finale has ''three'' women (May, Grace, and Lizzy) waiting for him. He ends up [[spoiler: marrying Grace]] in season three because she got pregnant, but this is cut short when [[spoiler: Grace dies.]] The plot tumor comes in two parts - firstly because not only did Tommy "fall for" Grace when he knew absolutely nothing about her and knew she'd lied to him several times before he discovered she was working for Campbell but he is still hung up over Grace at the beginning of season two despite the fact she, you know, ''sold him out to his worst enemy'' and [[EasilyForgiven he forgives her for this for seemingly no apparent reason]] (Polly even lampshades this) and secondly, she continues to appear in the show ''long'' after her character has served her purpose. Tommy continues to [[spoiler: hallucinate Grace years after her death]] and seems inexplicably incapable of getting over her even after [[spoiler: he marries Lizzy and has a daughter with her]]. This is especially egregious because she's the only character Tommy does this with - he lost his first love, Greta, and his friends [[spoiler: Danny and Freddie]], his own mother and [[spoiler: ''John'']], but none of them keep showing up and interrupting the story over and over again when they're supposed to be gone like Grace does.
* The writers of ''Series/RobinHood'' ''KNEW'' that Jonas Armstrong (Robin Hood) was leaving at the end of the third season. Why then did they think that it was anything even '''close''' to a good idea to have him involve himself with Kate, [[TheLoad the team liability]]? The actors had no chemistry at all, and the "romance" served no purpose whatsoever except to milk time away from better characters and more interesting plots, secure Kate's position as the most hated character on the show, and make Robin appear [[JerkAss impossibly shallow]], Kate being his second girlfriend since [[spoiler:his wife's horrific death]] and the woman that his best friend is blatantly interested in. Even more illogically, the writers actually go to the trouble of bringing back [[spoiler: Marian for a TogetherInDeath scene]], making Robin/Kate even ''more'' pointless than it already was.

* The Jack O'Neill/Samantha Carter UST of ''Series/StargateSG1'' sometimes became a Romantic Plot Tumor. The writers hadn't planned on pairing the two -- it started being hinted at once they learned that fans already thought there was something going on between the couple -- and it was clear that they had no idea where to go with it. It was buried at several points (with an entire episode practically dedicated to ending the ship), yet it crops up again every time, including several plot arcs where both Jack and Sam found someone but, of course, ended up ending those relationships in favor of the UST. It even became a RunningGag in the series, where every single Alternate Universe showed them being together, usually because Sam wasn't in the military in that universe.

* ''Series/{{Wednesday}}'': The Xavier/Wednesday/Tyler love triangle has been denounced by fans as the worst part of the first season. Many fans believe it is entirely out of character for Wednesday Addams to be in such a plot and that it was showhorned because they're a conventional trope in the YA genre. None of the characters can make the viewer buy that they're attracted, let alone in love with one another, so the amount of time that the story spends trying to add relationship drama just feels like time that could be spent on other, more interesting sub-plots and characters (including characters who arguably had better romantic chemistry with Wednesday but weren't conventional hunky males or even [[LesYay male at all]]).
* ''Series/WynonnaEarp'' was sadly hit hard with this in the third season. [[spoiler: Doc and Wynonna's relationship got a lot of attention, and not in a good way. For starters, Dolls was abruptly killed off, which ended the love triangle permanently, only for two more triangles to start up and at the same time. Even worse, Wynonna and Doc kept going back and forth between wanting to be together and denying their feelings. It got to the point where Wynonna and Doc's storyline got way more attention than the actual storyline of everyone getting together to fight the BigBad.]]

--> The court also focused a lot on the affair with Cemortan, even though it basically had nothing to do with the tragedy. It was fairly incidental. To be fair, [[HypocrisyNod we did that too]], [[RuleOfFunny we thought it was funny]], but they turned it into a media circus and the claims of her "distracting the captain" were, as far as we can tell it, are just untrue. ([[{{Corpsing}} laughs]]) Thank you for the note, by the way: one of the editors here says "it's not like he had her bent over the steering wheel at the time!" Yeah, brilliant, yeah, couldn't have put it better myself.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': While it has plenty of supporters, the crush the show gave Characters/{{Wonder Woman|TheCharacter}} on Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}} has also been frequently accused of this by a few Wonder Woman fans. These fans preceived the relationship as the creators of the show, many of whom were admitted Batman fanboys like Creator/BruceTimm, turning DC's premier heroine into a cheerleader for Batman. The fact that the series ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' had already made the pairing DoomedByCanon served to make any romantic moments between the two even more superfluous.

* This was seen as the main problem with ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' during its middle seasons, with some viewers being unenthused by many episodes concerning Mordecai's rocky love life. The show itself jokes about this in its final, LeaningOnTheFourthWall episodes, with the Seer noting that viewer interest had leveled off once Mordecai started dating Margaret. Season 6 in particular is widely disliked due to the sheer amount of episodes dealing with the LoveTriangle between Mordecai, Margaret, and CJ. Many fans quickly got tired of it due to seeing CJ as both a better match for Mordecai and a more interesting character than Margaret, or conversely thought the CJ relationship had run its course due to her trust issues and Mordecai [[TookALevelInJerkass taking a level in jerkass]]. Other common criticisms were that it overshadowed the development Rigby and [[spoiler:Eileen]]'s relationship, or that some fans just didn't care about the romance at all. In fact, Rigby and [[spoiler:Eileen]] later became a fairly popular ship due to them having a far more [[BetaCouple healthy and supportive dynamic]].
* A lot of Beth and Jerry's [[TheScrappy scrappyness]] in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is owing to how much screen time their failing dysfunctional marriage and petty squabbles get, particularly in Season 2 where they both took massive [[TookALevelInJerkAss levels in jerkass]] and their bickering bordered on [[DemotedToExtra demoting Rick and Morty to extra]]. Many fans either never cared about their marriage at all, have just gotten sick to death of it never going anywhere, are just incensed that it's [[JustHereForGodzilla taking screen time away from Rick and Morty's adventures]], or even feel Beth and Jerry are much more interesting characters when their dysfunctional relationship isn't the focus and feel potentially good characters are [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter being squandered]]. It's clear the writers picked up on this fact as Season 4 [[AuthorsSavingThrow barely even touched on their relationship drama]], Season 5 poked fun at it, and Season 6 reveals that the Jerry they got at Jerryboree was a different Jerry just to give that nonsense a good dose of TakeThatScrappy: when he appears he is dismissibly referred to as "Season 2 Jerry", everyone hates him, even their new ''Jerry'' thinks he sucks, and he ends up being killed in a [[GreyGoo pretty disturbing manner]] by [[AdorableAbomination Mr. Frundles]] without anyone else even really caring.

* One of the more heavily disliked aspects of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' is Donatello's constant crush on April. It wasn't so bad during the first season where it just popped up every now and then, but in season two the new writers decided to take it and make it the primary aspect of Don's character, making every single one of his appearances devoted to him lamenting on his crush on April and getting jealous over Casey, which has also wound up limiting April's character development as well. Even worse is by the end of the season it seemed that the whole love-triangle aspect was finally resolved, only for the whole thing to come back with a vengeance early on in the third season. By that point, fans had become sick of it. They circled back on it, though.

* The media has often been [[WorstNewsJudgmentEver accused of this when it comes to news]], with focus on celebrity gossip, relationships, and breakups over... well, real news. An example would be ''The New York Post'' on January 1, 2012. On December 31, 2011, news sources reported about further unrest in Syria, the acknowledgement of Kim Jong Un as the supreme leader of North Korea and a warning about the nation not changing their policies, general elections in Jamaica, saber-rattling by Iran against the United States and Israel (or the other way, depending on how you look at it), and Russell Brand ending his marriage to Katy Perry. Guess which story showed up on the front page of the New York Post.

*** The blossoming romance between Luke and Tear, to some people. It begins to start up rather abruptly, shortly after Luke's ImportantHaircut, when he is actually still focusing on his personal quest of [[CharacterDevelopment becoming a better person]] [[spoiler: after the fiasco that was Akzeriuth, in which he killed the citizens of an entire town]] and romance would not be something that high on his list. Their interactions are always awkward, they don't really advance their romance past this highly awkward stage and it gets worse as the game progresses. More and more scenes seem to ''shove'' the two of them together, which does not work well with the aforementioned awkwardness. This romantic subplot could've easily been taken out of the game entirely and not have made much difference, considering the game is already dealing with a heavy plot of talking about one's meaning of existence and finding one's spot in the world.

* ''Manga/FoodWars'' began an arc about the appearance of underground chefs who threaten to smear Tootsuki's reputation by abusing the Shokugeki system. This set-up was apparently nothing but a vehicle to introduce a ''romantic'' rival who wants to win Erina's hand. This ended up invalidating Erina's CharacterDevelopment. She went from a strong girl to a fragile person who is willing to turn her back on her friends and spend the rest of her life with some obnoxious creepy stranger just to satisfy her absentee mother who prioritizes gourmet over her daughter's wellbeing. Worse, Soma and Asahi make it clear that they are only interested in Erina's God Tongue to further their culinary skills, although Soma is slightly concerned for her wellbeing. Soma finally quashes Asahi, only for Erina to conveniently regain her confidence and curb stomp Soma at the BLUE finals. Soma heads overseas and cuts off contact with Erina. In the epilogue, in an [[{{Squick}} inane twist]], Asahi is revealed to be [[spoiler:Erina's half-brother and Azami's illegitimate son, retrospectively making the whole BLUE Arc to be SurpriseIncest.]] The conclusion of the epilogue exacerbated it further: [[spoiler:The ShipTease between Soma and Erina ultimately results in a MaybeEverAfter, meaning that there was never a reason to introduce a LoveTriangle in the first place]].

** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in Season 15 with Sam and Eileen, in that Eileen turned out to be an unwitting plant for Chuck - basically a ''deliberate'' Romantic Plot Tumor. On the other hand, PlayedStraight in a variety of ways, including: Eileen appearing far more romantically interested in Sam than vice versa (arguably some CharacterDerailment for the hitherto-independent Eileen, whose role in the plot became solely "love interest for Sam"); Sam himself appearing mostly confused by the whole thing and not especially romantically interested in Eileen; confusion as to why Chuck would need a spy in the first place when he could already see everything Sam and Dean were doing; and writers seemingly not sure what to do with Eileen or the fledgling relationship after Chuck's mid-season reveal, taking it entirely offscreen thereafter. In the second half of the season, Sam and Eileen appear to never even see each other save for a single date when Sam needed to be out of the way for plot reasons - but then near the end of the season, we see Eileen has a picture of Sam as her cell background, again indicating a more serious relationship. The fact that Eileen apparently [[DeathIsCheap died and was resurrected]] in the final episodes, and Sam never seems to so much as text her to see if she's okay ([[spoiler:and is implied to have married someone else in the DistantFinale]]), caps off the confusion.

* Many critics of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' pointed out that the romance between Noctis and Luna gets a lot of screen time, but never feels convincing or satisfying, with the characters mostly communicating via scrapbook, exposition, or anguished pleas. It might have passed muster by the standards of average {{Eastern RPG}}s, and Luna's lines about 'wanting to be by his side' and Noct's anguish over not being able to protect her come right out of the well-regarded Cloud/Tifa romance in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', but because the NotLoveInterest relationship between Noct and his friends is very well-done and moving, it stands out as comparatively weak.

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsK'' doesn't just have a boring LoveTriangle between [[OriginalGeneration Mist Rex and his teammates]] taking up a good portion of the game, but it also takes time and focus away from the plot of ''Anime/{{Godannar}}'', which has a LoveTriangle that's handled far better. The icing on the cake, however, is the fact that in one of his many condescending speeches, Mist tells ''Godannar'''s Goh to [[{{Hypocrite}} stop agonizing over his love woes and just pick a girl already]]. Is it any wonder Mist is [[TheScrappy one of the most hated SRW' characters ever]]?

* ''WebVideo/InternetHistorian'' felt this way about the media coverage and even court trial of the Costa Concordia disaster, as explained during his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Crdz7Uo7c Costa Concordia Q&A]]. Not that he's defending former shipmaster Schettino, and he in fact feels Shettino got exactly what he deserved, but he also feels the captain was made a {{Scapegoat}} by focusing far too much on his affair with Domnica Cemortan while the other people on the bridge got off scot-free despite them ''also'' being implicitly responsible for the disaster as well, as well as the ship having engineering problems like flood doors that failed to close.

* ''Series/OneTreeHill'': The (painfully) long-running Peyton/Lucas/Brooke love triangle. It was dragged out until just before the mid-season finale of Season 4, even though the issue was completely resolved at the end of Season 1, with Lucas clearly choosing Peyton over Brooke - only for his own bad decisions earlier in the season to cause Peyton to end things with him. This led to the show to repeat the ''exact same'' triangle a second time with of course the exact same outcome, wasting ''two other seasons'' on the already resolved matter until Lucas and Peyton finally got together for real mid-season 4.

* ''Series/OneTreeHill'': The (painfully) long-running Peyton/Lucas/Brooke love triangle. It was dragged out until just before the mid-season finale of Season 4, even though the issue was completely resolved at the end of Season 1, with Lucas clearly choosing Peyton over Brooke - only for his own bad decisions earlier in the season to cause Peyton to end things with him. This led to the show to repeat the exact same triangle a second time with of course the exact same outcome, wasting two other seasons on the already resolved matter until Lucas and Peyton finally got together for real mid-season 4.

* ''Series/OneTreeHill'': The Peyton/Lucas/Brooke love triangle, dragged for almost four seasons for basically no reason and making the characters act in illogical and forced ways and repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
** It was resolved at the end of season 1, with Lucas choosing Peyton as he was in love with her and getting involved with Brooke just to rebound Peyton, with no real interest in her. Come the second season, instead of progressing the Lucas/Peyton relationship, they basically put a ResetButton for everyone involved: not only Lucas and Peyton barely interacted for the entire season, but they went so far as they almost made a {{Retcon}} from the whole story set-up, making Lucas [[StrangledByTheRedString suddenly decide she was in love with Brooke out of nowhere]] halfway through the season (despite having even said to her face she didn’t love her at the end of season 1) and same for Peyton [[StrangledByTheRedString with Jake]]. All this was made much worse by the fact that season 2 took place right after season 1, with no TimeSkip between the season 1 finale and the season 2 premiere, making all the things listed above which happened in season 2 even more forced.
** When they finally decided to make the story get back on track at the beginning of season 3 and restart the Lucas/Peyton relationship, they spent the entire season making Peyton realize she really never loved Jake and was still in love with Lucas. In the meantime, they made Brooke and Lucas get back together and their relationship was nothing more than them just fighting all the time about how wrong they were for each other (something they had already realized during their first relationship in season 1) and because Brooke was aware all along of Lucas' unresolved feelings for Peyton, with both going on stubbornly being in denial about it. All this was made much worse since the writers forcedly kept holding them together until the beginning of the fourth season, always finding new and unconvincing excuses not to break them up, even though basically every episode of season 3 could have been the right one to do it.
** Before they finally put Lucas and Peyton together in season 4, they made Brooke and Lucas definitely accept they weren't really in love with each other and then Lucas realized Peyton was the one for him all along, basically going back to the exact same point they left things at the end of season 1 and thus making everything that happened between Peyton, Lucas and Brooke in season 2 and 3 regarding the love triangle completely useless and pointless.

** Plenty of fans, especially adult fans feel this way about the ongoing romantic tension between Mike and Zoey between ''Revenge of the Island'' and especially ''All-Stars''; already coming across as overblown and repetitive, with Mike's Multiple Personality Disorder seen as distasteful in serving as the sole obstacle of their romance, many have gone so far as to blame the critical failure of the latter season almost entirely upon this plot.

** ''The Ridonculous Race'' also had Stephanie/Ryan. Unlike with Carrie/Devin, the reaction to them is about as negative as previous ''Total Drama'' examples (if not, worse) due to many finding their immaturity to be very insufferable (most of their post-breakup conversations boil down to them yelling and screaming at each other) as well as dodging elimination '''two''' times due to most of them conveniently falling into the "Non-elimination episode if an important character loses" trap that the original series was guilty of.

* One reason [[WesternAnimation/BatmanHush the animated adaptation]] of ''ComicBook/BatmanHush'' was so polarizing among coming fans was that a great deal of the canon material from the comic was omitted in favor of AdaptationExpansion focusing heavily on Bruce and Selina's romance.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Most of the relationships since "ComicBook/BrandNewDay" can be seen as such. Most of them have no bearing on any of the ongoing plots at all. Even Peter's relationship with Carlie Cooper -- which was set up since the very beginning of BND, with plenty of time spent emphasizing just how "perfect" the two are for each other - ultimately ends up being largely irrelevant and has hardly any impact on any of the major events in Peter's life. Even in ''ComicBook/SpiderIsland,'' Peter's relationship with MJ -- his ex-wife/ girlfriend -- is more important to the plot than his relationship with Carlie, who was his girlfriend at the time. This is especially egregious since the creators emphasized how important Peter being single was to the story, essentially arguing that the stories "couldn't work" if Peter wasn't single. The Carlie relationship has actually become fairly critical to the main plot in ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'', well after the actual relationship ended. [[spoiler: Carlie is one of the few people who knows that Doc Ock has taken over Peter Parker's body.]] However, this is only made worse by the fact that Carlie just isn't that interesting or sympathetic as a character on her own and her "relationship" with Peter is by far one of the least convincing romantic subplots the web-slinger's ever had.
* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The series loves to drum up romantic tension between two seemingly randomly selected characters. Usually it only leads to one or two scenes of flirtation -- a "Romantic Plot Freckle" if you will; sometimes it leads to an actual ongoing relationship - a "Romantic Plot Appendage," say; but sometimes it ends up as a full-fledged Romantic Plot Tumor, with an inordinate page count being devoted to a relationship that ends up being dropped as soon as the writer loses interest (or left the book) to be rarely, if ever, mentioned again. The one example of this which hasn't gone into remission, despite ''both'' sides of it being ''dead'', would be Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} and [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean]] (Old Man Logan and Teen Jean are around, but have more of an IntergenerationalFriendship than anything else - which is good because as observed in comic, anything else would be creepy). Canon-wise, [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops Scott]] and Jean were the OneTruePairing, with Wolverine housing a crush on Jean and Scott being jealous. But eventually, they included Jean being attracted to Wolverine despite Scott's existence, though any time Scott got overly jealous he'd be called out on this, despite, you know, actually having good reason to be annoyed. Wolverine basically ends up with the only thing going for him is his love for Jean, and he'll angst about his inability to have her because of Cyclops despite the fact he has a lot more things to complain about, and Jean will all but cheat on Cyclops without actually consummating anything with Wolverine until it ends up with her almost stringing them both. Basically, whenever this gets played up, usually at least one of these three end up being driven entirely by this in characterization. To make matters worse, it seeped into the films, being the biggest defining romance in the series - though they did at least have the sense to have Jean be fond of Logan, but not be inclined to do anything more than flirt a little and, as Logan puts it, she ultimately chose Scott.

** Metzen, one of the lead writers for ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', outright loathed the Thrall and Jaina ship which was extremely popular amongst the fanbase. He wanted everyone to know that cross-species relationships just weren't going to happen on his watch. Even if he had to shove a forced romance down everyone's throats to make his point.
** One could argue the impracticality of them falling in love given that they belong to two warring factions, but in the tie-in novel ''The Shattering,'' it is specifically stated that Thrall cannot be with Jaina because "she is not an orc." Seems silly when you look at some of the canonical interracial relationships in the game, such as the gnome in River's Heart and his human wife, or, more famously, the human Rhonin and his high elf wife, Vareesa Windrunner, who even have two half-elf children.