History Main / TheNotLoveInterest

The Not Love Interest is an interesting phenomenon in which the character who fulfills a typical "LoveInterest" role doesn't actually have a romantic relationship with the hero. TheHero may have an actual love interest, but she will always be much less significant than this character.

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* Even after HarryPotter fell in love with Ginny Weasley, their romance always took a backseat to his friendship with Ron. Hermione also sometimes took this role, particularly when the trio are separated in ''Deathly Hallows''.

* ''Chronicles of Vladimir Tod'', Henry and Vlad. The two are extremely close and often act more like love interests than any of the girls (many girls, in Henry's case) that they are interested in. Vlad seems to be Henry's only serious relationship.

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*** Played more [[IncrediblyLamePun straight]] in the [[StarTrek2009 new movie,]] with Kirk and Spock re-enacting the basic pride and prejudice hate-turns-into-love story...only platonically. Damion Lindelof (producer) even commented on the DVD that the heart of the story was Kirk and Spock "falling in love with each other, in a way, but not in a romantic way, in a [[ButchCassidyandTheSundanceKid Butch and Sundance]] way."

** Nathan and Peter Petrelli. Oh my ''God'', Nathan and Peter Petrelli.

* Lorelei and Rory are this to each other in ''GilmoreGirls''.
* Similarly, but with a dollop of dysfunction, VeronicaMars and her father, Keith.
* No matter their [[SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan differences]], the [[VitriolicBestBuds insults flung between them]], or the [[WithFriendsLikeThese abuse heaped upon one another]], {{Merlin}} and Arthur are destined to be together. Just not [[HoYay ''together'']] together.

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* Similarly, in the "This is not a MeetCute" department, there's Double H to Jade in ''BeyondGoodAndEvil.'' After [[JamesBondage Double H's rescue]], he becomes Jade's loyal sidekick, following her everywhere. His single-sided devotion to her slowly deepens to a real friendship between the two of them, particularly evident when Double H [[FirstNameBasis stops referring to Jade as "Miss Jade."]] However, there's no overt ''romance'' between them, though they are frequently {{ship}}ped.

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** What a [[HelloNurse terrible waste...]]

*** I'm just gonna say it: Pick two crew members. Any two.

Alex enters the story, having a very... personal attachment to TheHero, Justin. Say they have [[NewOldFlame a long and passionate history]]. Say they [[SlapSlapKiss conceal deep affection by anger and fighting]]. Say Alex invokes emotion in Justin the other characters don't. Say Alex is more important to Justin than anyone else, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl or even the whole world]]. Alex is the second most crucial character, and plays as Justin's {{Foil}}. However, there is nothing romantic about Justin and his little sister. Or his old buddy he hasn't seen for ages. Or that old rival he's being forced to work with while hating him. Or...

Alex is Justin's Not Love Interest.

The Not Love Interest is an interesting phenomenon in which the character which fulfills a typical "LoveInterest" role toward the plot, doesn't actually have a romantic relationship with the hero. TheHero may have an actual love interest, but she will always be much less significant than this character. A [[YourMileageMayVary good]] source of HoYay and {{Shipping}} fuel in general; frequently happens with HeterosexualLifePartners and family members. It appears prone to being pointed out in interviews, DVD commentaries/special features, and other things [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]].

Compare HoYay, HeterosexualLifePartners, TheStraightWillAndGrace and LikeBrotherAndSister. [[IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with]] SheIsNotMyGirlfriend. This trope is to {{UST}} as oil is to water ''vapor''. InSpace.


Compare HeterosexualLifePartners, TheStraightWillAndGrace and LikeBrotherAndSister. This is the supertrope of RomanticTwoGirlFriendship.

Certain roles and dynamics are frequently shared between the hero(ine) and the LoveInterest, and characters in these dynamics frequently evolve into a romantic pair. This trope is what happens when two characters share a very close relationship, but it never actually manages to get to the romantic level. A lot of the time this is just because the characters don't especially want to- while sometimes this is a matter of sexual preference most often it's because adding a romantic dynamic would so substantially change the nature of the relationship that it would no longer be recognizable. The L word has a habit of screwing things up like that.

Because of titillation factors, such a relationship tends to be relatively unusual in fiction. The closer a pair gets to legitimately enacting this trope the more likely it is that fans are going to be convinced that there's a hidden layer of UnresolvedSexualTension as well as a special buffer intended to prevent enactment of HoYay.

In terms of narrative, while this character type is distinct from the LoveInterest they will often perform many of the same narrative roles simply due to the sheer strength of the emotional connection. They can be identified as separate largely because the LoveInterest generally has expectations of monogamy, while TheNotLoveInterest only wants the best for their partner, and only seek to preserve their friendship to the extent that both are still alive to enjoy it.

* [[TropeNamer Justin and Alex]] from ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''. They even have their own [[IncestYay/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace Brother Sister Incest page]].

Alex enters the story, having a very... personal attachment to TheHero, Justin. Say they have [[NewOldFlame a long and passionate history]]. Say they [[SlapSlapKiss conceal deep affection by anger and fighting]]. Say Alex invokes emotion in Justin the other characters don't. Say Alex is more important to Justin than anyone else, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl or even the whole world]]. Alex is the second most crucial character, and plays as Justin's {{Foil}}. However, there is nothing romantic about Justin and his little sister. Or his old buddy he hasn't seen for ages. Or that old rival he's being forced to work with while hating him. Or...

Alex is Justin's Not Love Interest.

The Not Love Interest is an interesting phenomenon in which the character which fulfills a typical "LoveInterest" role toward the plot, doesn't actually have a romantic relationship with the hero. TheHero may have an actual love interest, but she will always be much less significant than this character. A [[YourMileageMayVary good]] source of HoYay and {{Shipping}} fuel in general; frequently happens with HeterosexualLifePartners and family members. It appears prone to being pointed out in interviews, DVD commentaries/special features, and other things [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]].

Compare HoYay, HeterosexualLifePartners, TheStraightWillAndGrace and LikeBrotherAndSister. [[IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with]] SheIsNotMyGirlfriend. This trope is to {{UST}} as oil is to water ''vapor''. InSpace.

[[WizardsOfWaverlyPlace http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/notloveinterestjalex_1016.png]]
[[caption-width:320:Pretty much the epitome of this trope.]]

* An interesting case in ''Eyeshield21'': at the beginning of the series [[TeamMom Anezaki]] [[MamaBear Mamori]] initially joined the football club for the sake of Sena, her childhood friend, arguably most important person at the time and NotLoveInterest. More specifically, she joined to protect him from the bullying of the football club’s captain, [[MagnificentBastard Hiruma]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Yoichi]]. Initially, Sena is all Mamori cared about, getting worried over his injuries and yelling at Hiruma for picking on him and etc. However, as the series progressed, Mamori started [[ShipTease spending more time with]] and [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther getting closer to]] ''someone else''...the aforementioned [[BelligerentSexualTension Hiruma Yoichi]]. It got to such a point that at the end of the manga, although Sena is still a dear friend to her, Mamori completely intends for her and Hiruma to play seriously and defeat him, since he's on a rival team now. So while Sena remains the NotLoveInterest and important to Mamori, it's [[ShipTease hinted]] that [[OfficialCouple at the end of the day]], sticking by Hiruma is higher on her priority list.

* [[TropeNamer Justin and Alex]] from ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''. They even have their own [[BrotherSisterIncest/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace Brother Sister Incest page]].

!!Examples

* Ando fills this role for Hiro on ''{{Heroes}}''.

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* Alot of people play Neeshka like this, in NeverwinterNights2, as she's a genuinely likable character, but the developers never finished her RomanceSidequest

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<<|ExampleAsAThesis|>>
<<|LoveInterests|>>)

* An interesting case in ''Eyeshield21'': at the beginning of the series [[TeamMom Anezaki]] [[MamaBear Mamori]] initially joined the football club for the sake of Sena, her childhood friend, arguably most important person at the time and NotLoveInterest. More specifically, she joined to protect him from the bullying of the football club’s captain, [[MagnificentBastard Hiruma]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Yoichi]]. Initially, Sena is all Mamori cared about, getting worried over his injuries and yelling at Hiruma for picking on him and etc. However, as the series progressed, Mamori started [[ShipTease spending more time with]] and [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther getting closer to]] ''someone else''...the aforementioned [[BelligerentSexualTension Hiruma Yoichi]]. It got to such a point that at the end of the manga, although Sena is still a dear friend to her, Mamori completely intends for her and Hiruma to play seriously and defeat him, since he's on a rival team now. So while Sena remains the NotLoveInterest and important to Mamori, it's [[ShipTeas hinted]] that [[OfficalCouple at the end of the day]], sticking by Hiruma is higher on her priority list.

* An interesting case in ''Eyeshield21'': at the beginning of the series [[TeamMom Anezaki]] [[MamaBear Mamori]] initially joined the football club for the sake of Sena, her ChildhoodFriend, MostImporantPerson and NotLoveInterest. More specifically, she joined to protect him from the bullying of the football club’s captain, [[MagnificentBastard Hiruma]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Yoichi]]. Initially, Sena is all Mamori cares about, getting worried over his injured and yelling at Hiruma for picking on him and etc. However, as the series progressed, Mamori started [[ShipTease spending more time with]] and [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther getting closer to]] someone else...the aforementioned [[BelligerentSexualTension Hiruma Yoichi]]. It gets to such a point that at the end of the manga, although Sena is still a dear friend to her, Mamori’s perfectly willing for her and Hiruma to defeat him, since he’s on a rival team now. Thus, will Sena is still the NotLoveInterest, it seems Hiruma is now holding the place of Most Important Person- with ShipTease!

** [[ActionGirl Ashley]] and [[NiceGuy Kaidan]] in the first game, and [[WrenchWench Tali]] and [[HitmanWithAHeart Thane]] all have shades of this with a Shepard of the same sex left over from when they were planned to romancable by either gender.

The other wiki has a page devoted to this [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_friendship phenomenon]]

** Mal and Zoe. One episode centres around Wash's complaints that there's {{UST}} between them. However, at the end of the episode Mal and Zoe's attempted kiss (to "defuse" this so-called tension) is ''painfully'' awkward.

* Chuck and Elly seem to do a lot more hugging then Chuck and Sarah in...Chuck.

Alice enters the story, having a very... personal attachment to TheHero, Bob. Say they have [[NewOldFlame a long and passionate history]]. Say they [[SlapSlapKiss conceal deep affection by anger and fighting]]. Say Alice invokes emotion in Bob the other characters don't. Say Alice is more important to Bob than anyone else, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl or even the whole world]]. Alice is the second most crucial character, and plays as Bob's {{Foil}}. However, there is nothing romantic about Bob and his little sister. Or his old buddy he hasn't seen for ages. Or that old rival he's being forced to work with while hating him. Or...

Alice is Bob's Not Love Interest.