History PlayingWith / HintDropping

** Alice likes Bob and resorts to dropping hints to get him to make the first move, as men are supposed to. Bob doesn't take the hint and instead hooks up with another girl who asked him out. Alice, furious, confronts him about not getting her obvious hints. Bob in turn tells her that if she wanted to become his girlfriend, she should have ''just told him'', calling out her refusal to be direct as cowardice and fear of rejection.

* '''Deconstructed''': Alice wishes aloud that Bob would propose; Bob doesn't take the hint and Alice becomes depressed and angry (see "Played for Drama"). The story, instead of painting Bob the bad guy, shows how Alice herself might be partly to blame, that maybe she could have avoided a lot of misunderstanding had she been more direct.

* '''Straight''': Alice says to her long-therm boyfriend, Bob, that she has been thinking a lot about "settling down on a more permanent basis" recently. Bob doesn't catch on and doesn't propose.

* '''Inverted''': Alice makes an innocent remark, and [[RhetoricalRequestBlunder Bob mistakes it for a suggestion]].

--> '''Alice:''' Wow, Charlie and Eve look so happy together. I wish we had something like that.\\
'''Bob''' [''whispering'']: Not so obvious, Alice -- [[BreakingTheFourthWall it's only ten minutes into the show]], [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle I'm not supposed to figure out you like me yet]].\\
'''Alice:''' Oh, right. Let me start over. *ahem* Wow, Charlie and Eve look so happy together. Have you ever thought about going out with someone?
* '''Zig Zagged''': After they know each other for a long time, Bob comes to the conclusion that Alice was dropping hints, then stopped. He's embarrassed he didn't see it before and tries to win her over subtly, earning her interest for the first time - she wasn't trying to suggest anything before, but now he's dropping hints that caught her attention.

* '''Exploited''': Every time Bob does something nice for Alice, she says "finally, I've been trying to tell you to do that forever...'

* '''Deconstructed''': Alice wishes aloud that Bob would propose; Bob doesn't take the hint and Alice becomes depressed and angry (see "Played For Drama"). The story, instead of painting Bob the bad guy, shows how Alice herself might be partly to blame, that maybe she could have avoided a lot of misunderstanding had she been more direct.
* '''Played For Drama''': Alice wishes aloud that Bob would propose. Bob doesn't take the hint and doesn't propose. Alice takes this as evidence that Bob doesn't pay much attention to her and that, by extension, he doesn't really care about her. Alice is shattered, her self-worth devastated, and she slips into depression.
* '''Played For Laughs''': Alice drops hints like crazy, and Bob keeps coming up with zany, unrelated explanations for her behavior.

%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
%%
%%* '''Implied''': ???

%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???

* '''Justified''': Alice must drop hints because she lives in a society which would frown severely upon her being so forward.

* '''Straight''': Alice wishes aloud that Bob would propose to her. Bob doesn't catch on and doesn't propose.

* '''Subverted''': Alice becomes angry that Bob didn't take the hint and didn't propose. But, at the end, Bob mentions that he ''can'' take a hint, then drops to one knee; he was just waiting for the right moment.

* '''Downplayed''': ???

* '''Zig Zagged''': ???

* '''Exploited''': ???

%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???
%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???

--> '''Alice:''' Wow, Charlie and Eve look so happy together. I wish we had something like that.
--> '''Bob''' [''whispering'']: Not so obvious, Alice -- [[BreakingTheFourthWall it's only ten minutes into the show]], [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle I'm not supposed to figure out you like me yet]].
--> '''Alice:''' Oh, right. Let me start over. *ahem* Wow, Charlie and Eve look so happy together. Have you ever thought about going out with someone?
* '''Deconstructed''': Alice wishes aloud that Bob would propose; Bob doesn't take the hint and Alice becomes depressed and angry (see '''Played For Drama'''). The story, instead of painting Bob the bad guy, shows how Alice herself might be partly to blame, that maybe she could have avoided a lot of misunderstanding had she been more direct.
* '''Reconstructed''': ???

I hear Main/HintDropping is a nice place to visit, maybe we could go there sometime...

* '''Double Subverted''': Bob, down on one knee, makes Alice a ''business'' proposal.

* '''Enforced''': "Let's have Bob not take the hint! It shows that [[CloserToEarth Bob isn't as sensitive and attentive as Alice]], and it's [[HilarityEnsues funny]]!"

--> '''Bob''' [''whispering'']: Not so obvious, Alice -- [[BreakingTheFourthWall it's only ten minutes into the show]], [[NotSoFastBucko I'm not supposed to figure out you like me yet]].

* '''Inverted''': Alice makes an innocent remark, and [[RidMeOfThisPriest Bob mistakes it for a suggestion]].

** See also '''Invoked'''.
* '''Inverted''': Although Alice is shown to toss hints (unsuccessfully) at Bob on a regular basis, this time around it's Bob who drops the hint, and Alice who fails to catch on.

* '''Parodied''': See '''Exaggerated''', '''Double Subverted'''.

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