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->''"Falling in love with love is falling for make-believe."''
-->-- '''Lorenz Hart''', "The Boys from Syracuse"

A StockPhrase used to describe someone who either [[SerialRomeo seeks/has multiple relationships in quick succession]] or pines for/stays with someone they don't love [[LoveMartyr (or who treats them poorly)]], because they don't want to be alone. The implication is that the character cares more about being in a romantic relationship with someone than the person they're having the relationship with. Since this attitude is exactly as unhealthy as it sounds, such a character invariably ends up LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces. They may be AllergicToRoutine and have a hard time sticking around because they believe TrueLoveIsBoring.

This can result in LovingAShadow or be used as a {{Retcon}} when a hyped relationship becomes an AbortedArc. See also SerialRomeo.

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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''
** Brock from is this type; he falls for just about every female he meets. Except, for no reason other than she's one of the bad guys, Jessie from Team Rocket.
** Ash's Oshawott is much the same, falling for every female Pokemon he comes across.
* WordOfGod in regard to Akane's [[SchoolgirlLesbians crush on Madoka]] in ''KimagureOrangeRoad'': She is in love with the ''idea'' of being love with Madoka.
* Sanji of ''OnePiece'' as part of his ChivalrousPervert personality. Nami and Robin get it the most, but only because of proximity, but that also means they put up with it because they all know each other so well (and Nami in particular isn't above using it to her benefit.) HilarityEnsues when you try to explain this to fans who're too blinded by his good looks to realize this part of his personality and think it's anything other than funny in an outrageously sad and deluded way.
* In the North American dub, Arielle of ''ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'' actually invokes the Stephen Stills song, although in her case it's arguably as much a case of gleeful acceptance of her lustful urges as it is an emotional condition.
* The motivation of the main character in ''MillenniumActress'', who believes it's better than actually being in love.
* Explicitly the point behind Chihiro's arc in ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows''. Chihiro picks out boys to confess to because it's exciting to be in a love drama. Then she starts to have a real love drama, and it scares her into running away.
* Martina of ''[[{{Slayers}} Slayers Next]]'' falls in LoveAtFirstSight with virtually every named male character she meets over the course of the series. The fixation on Zangulus lasts long enough for her to get married off and removed from the cast.
* Tsugumi Halberd of ''SoulEaterNot'' introduces herself with "Hello, I'm 14 years old, in love with love, Tsugumi Halberd."
* Yuno's obsession with Yukiteru in ''MiraiNikki'' is an extremely warped version of this. She had just [[spoiler:[[SelfMadeOrphan murdered]] her AbusiveParents]] and saw no hope for her future, until a day when she and Yuki were the only ones who couldn't finish their 'write your dreams for the future' exercise. She decided then that her dream would be to marry Yukiteru, since it gave her some hope for the future.

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[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In "You And I Will Fall In Love", an ''AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfic, this is the only reason that Russia wants to fall in love with America [[spoiler: at first.]]

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[[folder:Film]]

* In ''SleeplessInSeattle'' when comparing the idea of love in the real world to love as it's portrayed in Hollywood, Rosie O'Donnell says to Meg Ryan, "Your problem is that you don't want to be in love, you want to be in love in a movie."
* In ''VelvetGoldmine'', the DavidBowie {{Expy}} Brian Slade in love not with Curt Wilde, but the "idea of Curt Wilde."
* The title character in ''DonJuanDemarco'' exemplifies this troupe as he calls himself 'the world's greatest lover'. The movie's tagline follows with 'the friends who try to cure him of it'. (This is the same case for his [[Literature/DonJuan literary role model]].)

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[[folder:Literature]]

* ''XWingSeries'': Tyria said this to Kell, also telling him that he was LovingAShadow.
* In the ''NeroWolfe'' novel ''A Family Affair'', a slightly hysterical female client tells Archie, "I want your arms around me!" Archie rebuffs her with, "You want arms around you. Not necessarily mine."
* The evil Walking [[strike:Man]] ''Dude'' from ''TheStand'' never even pretends to love his mate, merely reciting how he "loves to love Nadine". Subverted in that he's more interested in siring a child upon her than having a relationship.
* Lord Byron's ''Literature/DonJuan'' is a standard setter for Loving To Fall In Love. (The heartless-bastard lecher from Mozart's opera, not so much.)
* ASongOfIceAndFire, being a {{Deconstruction}} of many of the tropes of medieval fantasy literature, including chivalrous courtly love, has a few characters who fit this trope.
** Robert Baratheon has turned [[PosthumousCharacter Lyanna Stark]] into his version of TheLostLenore, mourning her for years, unfavourably comparing his living wife to her, and speaking as if she would have been the woman of his dreams if she had lived. However, it is implied (especially by Ned Stark,) that Robert didn't actually know her that well; in contrast to the angelic paragon of feminine virtue Robert seems to imagine, other people describe her in a {{Tsundere}}-ish way.
** Sansa Stark is another example of this, though she at least has the excuse of being very young. She constantly thinks of her betrothed Joffrey in terms of songs and stories, and in the first book she repeatedly and passionately declares that she loves him, despite only having a few (not particularly intimate) interactions with him. [[spoiler: She gets a rather rude awakening from this mindset when Joffrey chops her father's head off after promising to be merciful.]]
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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''FullHouse'' used that exact phrase. Jesse and Joey were fighting over a girl who showed interest in both of them. Danny stepped in and started asking them basic questions like: what is her last name, what is her eye color and what are her hobbies? Both of them were treating her like she was "the one" when in reality both just liked the idea of being in love.
* ''Series/{{Charmed}}''
** Piper says "I love love".
** Phoebe [[spoiler: marries a Cupid, basically a physical embodiment of love.]]
* ''GossipGirl''
** Nate Archibald has fallen head over heels for every single girl in the show, only to completely forget her two weeks later, not to mention all the {{Satellite Love Interest}}s the boy's had. At one point, Gossip Girl herself labels him the Class Whore.
** From season two and onward Serena fits this trope too. Especially in season three, where she has three "great loves" in the first twelve episodes.
* Ted from ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' has his love for love is his entire reason for living. His quest for the eponymous mother was the original driving force behind the show, though at this point nobody cares. In any case, he is rarely happy when out of a relationship and constantly complains/hopes to find "The One".

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[[folder:Music]]

* The Richard Rodgers song "Falling In Love With Love."
* In The Format song "Inches And Falling":
--> ''I love love''
--> ''I love being in love''
--> ''I don't care what it does to me''
--> (...)
--> ''If fingertips are relationships''
--> ''Then I could barely carry your weight''
--> ''If fingers are mistakes''
--> ''Don't use this one to point the blame''
* The RebaMcEntire song "The Fear of Being Alone."
-->''So don't say that word''
-->''Not the one we both heard too much''
-->''You may think you do but you don't''
-->''It's just the fear of being alone''
* PinkFloyd, "One Slip".
-->''Was it love, or was it the idea of being in love''
-->''Or was it the hand of fate that seemed to fit just like a glove''
-->''The moments slipped by and soon the seeds were sown''
-->''The year grew late, and neither one wanted to remain alone''

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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* A complicated example from the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' supplement ''Races of the Dragon'' is the spellscales, a race of dragon-descended humanoids named for the fine, iridescent scales on their flesh. A vivacious people, spellscales throw themselves wholeheartedly into romantic relationships of any kind - falling helplessly in love with a total stranger, enjoying an illicit tryst, pining for someone unattainable, or suffering through a MayflyDecemberRomance or an unfaithful spouse - before growing bored and finding love again. Other races describe spellscales as eternal adolescents, but it should be noted that they ''do'' care for their partners and their relationships, though melodramatic and often short-lived, are genuine.
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[[folder:Theater]]
* ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'': Romeo is often described this way. Sometimes Juliet is, too. The Austrian version of ''RomeoEtJulietteDeLaHaineALamour'' has Benvolio even say "He is in love with the idea of being in love" about Romeo.
%%* Freddy is often [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation interpreted]] as this in ''MyFairLady''.
%%* Orsino from ''Theatre/TwelfthNight''.
* ''FiniansRainbow'' has the song "When I'm Not Near The Girl I Love (I Love The Girl I'm Near)."
%%* Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With".
%%* The lovers in ''CommediaDellArte'' are often like this.
* Cherubino from ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro'' describes himself as one of these.
* In RodgersAndHammerstein's ''Film/{{Cinderella}}'', the mother appears to be warning her daughters about how bad this can be ("falling in love with love/is falling for make-believe"). However, watching it closely, it looks more like the mother was in fact ''[[SubvertedTrope very deeply]]'' in love with her late husband, and dislikes the eponymous Cinderella because she reminds her of him. The cynicism is clear a little later in the song: "learning to trust is just for children in school..." Note, this song was not written by Rodgers and Hammerstein but Rodgers and Hart, and was originally written for their 1938 musical ''The Boys From Syracuse''.
* Linda accuses Robbie of this in the Broadway production of TheWeddingSinger in the song "A Note From Linda".
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' has dealt with this a few times. [[http://xkcd.com/464/ This strip]] has the girl leaving the boy after accusing him of this.
* In ''OneOverZero'', Ghanny claims to be in love with Terra, but Petitus tells him that he's only projecting his vision of the ideal woman on her: "You latched onto the first female you saw, and applied all your ideas about love to her. She wasn't the one, though."
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes:'' Pepe Le Pew falls instantly in true love with anything he ''thinks'' is a female skunk.
* On ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', [[GenkiGirl Mabel]] decides to have an "epic summer romance" in the pilot and spends some time flirting with every unrelated male of approximately compatible age she can find.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* This is a stereotype within the lesbian community, where lesbians are described as being "serial monogamists,". They have intense, all-absorbing relationships that quickly fizzle, with each breaking up only to repeat the cycle anew with someone else. In fact a common joke goes "What does a lesbian bring to a second date? A U-haul van."
** Other sexual orientations are also like this. They stay with someone they're not particularly attracted to just because that other person is into them, stay with someone who doesn't respect them or is even downright abusive, or keep a dead relationship going because neither one wants to break up; all because they don't want to be alone.
* This is particularly heart-breaking on teenage relationships. At first, they picture themselves (sometimes after just one month of being a couple) as being married and having a home of their own and having kids. When the relationship is over, they find a new partner, start changing little bits of their fantasy, and start the cycle all over again.
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