%%No quotes or pictures, please. It doesn't need either.

Love is a [[ThePowerOfLove powerful]] emotion. It can completely change the way a character acts and thinks. It can be used to create [[LoveHurts drama]], [[LoveMakesYouCrazy comedic relief]], or [[WillTheyOrWontThey suspense]]. Maybe the writer just wants to tug at the audience's heart in a way he couldn't with the rest of the story. Whatever the reason for introducing it, love is a powerful weapon in storytelling that can also make the audience feel okay with abrupt, arbitrary sex scenes.

However, like most weapons, a love story can be deadly in the wrong hands. Sometimes, a writer gets so caught up in [[TastesLikeDiabetes wringing every last drop of blood]] out of their romantic stone that they forget they have a compelling A-story to tell. This results in a RomanticPlotTumor: a comparatively weak romantic sub-plot overtakes the potentially more interesting main plot.

At best, it results in a compelling little side-romance between two minor characters that avoids becoming too important in the grand scheme of things. At worst, it becomes a monster unto itself and brings the whole story down with it.

A telltale sign of a RomanticPlotTumor is that you could edit out the romance thread completely and have the story still make sense (and be a more bearable length). The sad thing is that the creators usually put some thought and effort into crafting the romance; it isn't a TokenRomance, but it turns out to be more of a glaring intrusion than a typical Token Romance.

A specific form of GenreShift or PlotTumor. Often invokes StrangledByTheRedString and TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot. Contrast [[NoHuggingNoKissing No Hugging No Kissing]].

'''Do ''[[color:red:*NOT*]]'' use this page to complain about romances you don't like.'''
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[[foldercontrol]]
!!Examples:

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* The love affair between Yuki and Hitomi in ''{{ICE}}'' comes out of left field and goes nowhere for the rest of the OVA.
* The anime adaption of ''ValkyriaChronicles'' has this shoe-horned in about mid way though, which derails Faldio's, Alicia's and Welkin's characters whilst adding angst for the sake of it. Made particularly grating by virtue of the fact that if the writers wanted to add romantic tension all they had to do was include either [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Noce or Juno]] from the game.
** The LoveTriangle wouldn't have been that bad, though, if it didn't keep popping up during inopportune moments in ways that makes you question the characters' professional competence.
* ''ShakuganNoShana'' introduces an unimportant romantic subplot rather early on. After a few arcs have passed, it's to the point that more time is spent on telling you how the unimportant romantic subplot side-character feels about events than on actually showing the events.
** While Yuuji and Shana's chemistry is actually of some importance to the plot, as it nicely frames Yuuji's decision whether to remain in Misaki City, taking his chances against ever-stronger adversaries, or leave with Shana in order to better protect his family and friends, the love triangle with Kazumi is almost completely superfluous and unnecessary.
* Many fans find the [[SchoolgirlLesbians affair between Yasuko and Fumi]] in ''AoiHana'' is rather puzzling, especially in light of Fumi's obvious feelings for her childhood friend Akira. The whole thing feels rushed and tacked on and looks more like an elaborate scheme to establish that Fumi is ''truly'' a lesbian. It seems like the author realizes the inanity of it all when she [[spoiler:decides to have Yasuko {{put on a bus}}]], but not before spending up to ''two manga volumes'' on the relationship.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]
* The most famous example would probably be Anakin Skywalker's relationship with Padme in ''StarWars: Attack of the Clones''. Whether this was GeorgeLucas's writing or the actors' is up for debate; either way, you're left with an almost unwatchable love story that not only takes up a majority of the movie but also takes attention away from the perfectly serviceable assassination plot (although getting in the love story was necessary at some point).
** Aside from the badly done scenes themselves, the storyline went like this: Obi-Wan finds a planet of cloners--Anakin and Padme fall in love next to a river--Obi-Wan learns of a massive clone army--Anakin and Padme fall in love in a field--Obi-Wan confronts Jango Fett--Anakin and Padme fall in love while eating dinner. There was no flow to the romance; as a result, it felt as if they fell in love BecauseDestinySaysSo.
** It also led to complaints that the totally silent {{LEGO}} version of the story made for a [[LegoStarWars video game]] was [[SilenceIsGolden more subtle]] and bearable.
** As with so much in the ''StarWars'' prequels, salvaged by ''DarthsAndDroids'', who make it about the ''players'' falling in love, and making a total mess out of acting it out through their [=PCs=].
* ''From Here to Eternity'' is a classic love story/character piece set in Hawaii on the eve of the Pearl Harbor raid. It works because it's about the characters facing history, not the history itself. Since then, almost every Pacific theater movie made (''Midway'', ''PearlHarbor'' (see below), ''Winds of War''), has tried to work in a love story, and all have been the worse for it.
* The film ''PearlHarbor'' is a serious offender. Besides the fact that it's a movie about ''the attack on Pearl Harbor'' and really has no need of a love story, the one we get is a ridiculous triangle with a girl and two guys that are completely interchangeable in her life. First one appears to die, so she goes to the other. 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, of course, leaving it to the runner-up to be the baby's father. By the halfway point of the movie, I simply couldn't pretend to sympathize with the girl anymore - no matter which of her boyfriends died, she'd have a spare.
** One newspaper review at the time summarized the film as: "A girl has to choose between her love for two pilots, when it's not clear how she tells the difference between them."
** The redoubtable RogerEbert: "''Pearl Harbor'' is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle. Its centerpiece is 40 minutes of redundant special effects, surrounded by a love story of stunning banality."
* ''{{Film/Spider-Man}} 3'' is a particularly bad offender, in which not only is the plot time already in danger due to three villains being shoe-horned into a series that had previously focused on one at a time, but the love story subplot, which was pretty much resolved in the second movie, is retreaded all over again with a level of {{Wangst}} rivaling ''{{Smallville}}'' at its worst, and allowed to take up half of the movie's screen-time.
* The 2007 ''[[TransformersFilmSeries Transformers]]'' movie, culminating in the scene in the car where Sam is shocked to discover that his love interest has a delinquent record. Note that at this point in the film, he knew that world was in great danger from extraterrestrial aliens.
** ItGotWorse in ''Revenge of the Fallen''. What would have been an [[YourMileageMayVary otherwise decent]] 90 minute movie ended up as 150.
* ''Flyboys'' might have been more endurable if it had dropped the love story (between two people who couldn't speak to each other, for goodness sake) and concentrated on TheSquad...
* The film adaptation of ''A Chorus Line'' is one of the worst cases of stretching out to tedious extent an affair (between Cassie and Zach) which should have been a minor romantic sub-plot - and, indeed, ''was'' originally a minor romantic sub-plot. This may have been done to beef up the part of Zach, who doesn't sing, enough to get a name actor to play him (Michael Douglas), since the other roles weren't and likely could not have been filled by name performers. ''People'' magazine's critic suspected it may have also been out of fear [[ViewersAreMorons movie audiences wouldn't relate to the plights of the dancers]].
* ''EnemyAtTheGates'' keeps taking time away from a fascinating and incredibly taut plot centred around a sniper duel in besieged Stalingrad to focus on a tepid and uninteresting love triangle.
** The love story was in the original too -- ''The Illiad''. Vasily = Achilles, Danilov = Agamemnon, Tania = Briseis, Sacha = Patroclus, Konig = Hector...
*** Which results in [[HoYay interesting implications]]...
* ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'': While this is surprisingly averted to a certain extent in AgathaChristie's stage version and the 1945 movie version, one of the biggest complaints from purists about the Harry Alan Towers film adaptations is that they focus much, much too heavily on showing the blossoming relationship of [[spoiler: the two survivors]] rather than focusing on the much more interesting mystery that made up the original story.
** And let's not forget the LoveTriangle in the game [[AdaptationDecay that wasn't even in the book.]] Averted in some parts of the game that focus more on solving the mystery than on the love triangle, though that begins to change as the game goes on.
* TheMovie version of ''TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' features a fairly obvious example of this trope, between Arthur and Trillian. The "original" source materials (book, TV and radio series) all handled their past differently, but agreed that Arthur had been briefly interested in Trillian during a single superficial encounter in the past; when he re-encounters her during the story, he displays jealousy at a few points, but not much more than that. By comparison, the movie version features an Arthur who is desperately pining over Trillian, who could have been his one true love had he not been afraid to pursue her, and he spends most of the movie time thinking about, worrying about or focusing on her. This was deliberately inserted by Douglas Adams when drafting the movie, before his death, to increase studio interest and audience acceptance of the movie.
** Which [[MisBlamed has never stopped anyone from complaining]] about how ''horribly'' those damn studio execs ''butchered'' Adams' Glorious Vision(tm).
** There's also the fourth ''Hitchhiker's'' book, ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'', which neglects most of the usual cast and the plots about the dolphins and God's final message in favor of Arthur and Fenchurch's love story.
* Some JamesBond movies are like this when either the BondGirl is a horrid character (Stacy from ''AViewToAKill'', Dr. Jones from ''TheWorldIsNotEnough''), or she's interesting in her own right, but has no romantic chemistry with Bond at all, and yet the writers have her sleep with him anyway (Kissy from ''YouOnlyLiveTwice'', Pam from ''LicenceToKill'', Wai Lin from ''TomorrowNeverDies''). [[spoiler: ''QuantumOfSolace'' averts this; Bond and Camille actually don't get together in the end, which also happens in some of the novels)]].
** The writing of most of these "romances" are awful to the point of Squick. In a few cases, the way Bond forces his "romance" on the girl is practically rape.
* The 2008 film ''The Red Baron'' was heavily criticized for shoe-horning the fictional character of Nurse Käte 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]].
** So, you're saying They Wasted A Perfectly Good Pilot?
* ''NationalTreasure'' would be a much better movie if Ben and Abigail didn't "fall in love." When will people learn that Nic Cage just cannot portray romance?
* An in-universe example from ''TheFall'': Roy is telling a story to a little girl name Alexandria. To spice it up a little--and possibly showing how he's still upset over [[spoiler:his girlfriend leaving him for a man with a better job]]--a romance plot is suddenly introduced into his story. But ''because'' he's so depressed, the romance starts to become very, very bad, and in the end part of the point of his story (with Alexandria taking over the reigns) is the hero giving up on the love interest.
* ''DownPeriscope'' features Kelsey Grammer as captain of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits aboard a diesel-powered submarine during some wargame exercises. It's a fairly decent comedy, except for the romantic subplot featuring Lauren Holly as the dive officer that Kelsey inevitably falls in love with.
* The entire romance plot from ''Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead'' can be edited out of the movie with no effect at all on the story. This has, in fact, been done by some file-sharers. They simply removed every scene with the woman in it. The movie is reportedly none the worse for wear.
* Central plot of ''{{Slumdog Millionaire}}'' is a romantic story which didn't even exist in the novel the movie was based on. Presumably, because producers don't believe that the movie without a romance can sell well.
* ''{{Zack and Miri Make a Porno}}'' starts as a film about a group of losers trying to make a porno film, but gradually focuses on a romantic subplot to the point where it completely abandons porn plot near the end in favor of romantic comedy of errors.
* The book ''Tuck Everlasting'' is a ComingOfAgeStory about a preteen girl getting to know a family of [[FlyingDutchman Flying Dutchmen]]. TheFilmOfTheBook is about a teenage girl falling in love with the younger son of a family of Flying Dutchmen.
* The completely unnecessary addition of a Caspian/Susan subplot in ''The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian". The movie's story is interesting and compelling, and then you have lines like "It would never work out between us. After all, I am 1300 years older than you." The only redeeming scene involving Susan and Caspian together is when Lucy mocks one of the worst lines in the movie "You may need to call me again!".
* Bram Stoker's Dracula. Dracula isn't after Mina Harker because he's a 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 destiny says so. Never mind that none of this was in the book, or that the forced romance between them leaves her acting like a complete and unsympathetic bitch to everyone around her, especially her loving husband.
** It's kind of unfortunate, because seeing how Konami has run with it, it could have been something epic! Perhaps one day, a remake...hopefully directed by Carlo Verdone.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]
* In the ''WheelOfTime'' books, the author goes on and on about the Faile-Berelain-Perrin triangle, and devotes pointless chapters to Perrin's agonizing over his kidnapped wife while plodding along aimlessly in his search for her, adding tedious bulk to an already horribly bloated series. Really, most of the love stories in ''The Wheel of Time'' were Lucasian.
* This accounts for almost the entirety of the ''{{Twilight}}'' series, with stuff like action and plot seemingly just tacked on as an afterthought.
* ''MaximumRide'' began life as a fairly decent kids' series, full of action and fighting stereotypical MadScientists. By book five, the relationship between the two main characters -- who are ''brother and sister'' -- has become the entire focus of the (thin anyway) plot.
* The first book in ''TheHouseOfNight'' series had Zoey get a hot boyfriend and try to fend off her ex-boyfriend, but it was still mostly about Zoey becoming familiar with the vampyre world. The second book put more focus on Zoey finding herself having ''three'' boyfriends at once, but the vampyre plot still had more attention and importance. The third book is when this trope fully emerges, with Zoey's juggling of her three boyfriends taking up as much space as the much more interesting plot with Aphrodite and Stevie Rae, if not more. It tapers off for a bit after Zoey finds herself boyfriend-less at the end of the third book, but is back with a vengeance in the fifth book with Zoey even getting a new suitor to fill the place of the one she lost. Because what we ''really'' want to read is Zoey angsting about her UnwantedHarem when there are things like an impeding war and a potential vampyre conspiracy going on.
* In ''Red Storm Rising'', the Soviet Union attacks NATO, and it shows this war through the eyes of many people. While each branch can be taken as good or bad, one branch almost seems shoehorned in. A First Lieutenant in the USAF escapes after an attack on Iceland along with a small group of Marines. He contacts his base and continues to evade Soviet Forces until they come upon a house where Soviets have raped a girl. This results in a forced romance story in the middle of WORLD WAR III.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* ''{{Smallville}}''. It doesn't help at all that the person whom Clark dedicates so much time fawning over is considered the CreatorsPet, or that she's [[ForegoneConclusion not even his canonical love interest]].
** The show seems to be getting better about it in season 8, appearing to be the transition from "Superboy" to "Superman" (a recent trailer for an upcoming episode teases the idea of finally seeing Clark in a Superman suit and Lana is gone so we can all do a happy dance). But if you're a fan of the show, don't worry; Lana should be back for a few guest spots and there is still the Jimmy Olsen/Chloe/Doomsday love triangle which attracts this trope like Meteor freaks to Lana.
***Update: She returned and it was this trope all over again and everything we didn't like about Lana got worse and Clark's growth was completely derailed until she left.
* In the fourth installment of the A&E ''HoratioHornblower'' adaptation (''The Wrong War'' or ''The Frogs and the Lobsters,'' depending on what country it was released in), Horatio gets into a brief romantic subplot with a local girl during a mission in France. The story was already dealing with three separate plot threads and the romance with Mariette could have been taken out without changing any major events - and since Mariette's never mentioned after the conclusion of her little story arc, its usefulness as character development for Horatio is questionable. The fact that Mariette isn't terribly popular even among the portion of the fandom that ''doesn't'' ship Horatio with his EnsembleDarkhorse best friend doesn't help.
* Rose Tyler and [[TheNthDoctor the Tenth Doctor]] from ''DoctorWho''. This was particularly jarring, seeing as up until then (with a few exceptions) the Doctor had almost always been portrayed as asexual, yet suddenly he falls head-over-heels for this particularly average, nothing-special character. While it was fine in the first series, the second series became particularly vomit-inducing with the doe-eyed looks every episode, not to mention the uncountable amount of [[ShillingTheWesley "Rose Tyler, you're brilliant"s]]. She became so clingy by the end of the fourth series that the Doctor had to dump her in a parallel world with a bloody ''clone'' just to get rid of her.
** Even with Nine it was a little much. A massively brilliant 900+ year old non human, falling head over heels with a not-too-bright cutie because...uhm, why? Rose was a decent companion but not a convincing love interest.
** And then there's that woman, Christina or something? from the Easter special. Which was even 'worse' because, well, there wasn't an entire season of set-up. Maybe it's just a Ten thing.
*** The two at least had decent banter, though the actual romantic undertone was questionable. Potential equal of opposite sex = attraction I guess. I think Rose just lucked out by being the first companion post-war.
*** Ten also had Madame de Pompadour, and also the schoolmarm from the Family of Blood (though he was amnesiac there). On the other hand, approximately his entire species was wiped out, so no surprise if he's lonely and maybe a bit too attached to his first companion thereafter.
**Nothing romantic was ever made explicit, and part of the Doctor's HumansAreSpecial thing means he will ''always'' have good things to say about his main sidekick.
*The romance between {{Angel}} and Cordelia Chase? WAY outta left field. Made even more [[UnfortunateImplications unsettling]] by the fact that the first couple seasons portrayed their relationship as more of a surrogate Father/Daughter one.
**Wanna complain about Angel and Cordy? At least they were always portrayed as caring ''' a lot''' about each other and as very close friends... now ''Connor'' and Cordelia, [[{{Squick}} that's a whole other story]].
*Pretty much every romantic relationship with {{Buffy}} ends up with like this. I think the worst is when they castrated Spike just so he could be her dark knight in shining armor.
* The Jack/Kate/Sawyer love-triangle in the TV series ''{{Lost}}''. Especially grating as the series has committed to a definite endpoint, and every second spend on this is one less second that could have been used clearing up the show's numerous mysteries and dangling plot-threads.
* For some, the US version of ''TheOffice'' has this trope in spades with Jim and Pam. Others think that the entirety of season 3 would have worked perfectly fine without Jim and Karen's relationship, and a percentage thinks they're equally cancerous. These tend to split along shipping lines, so YMMV.
* Bill and Sookie... good God, ''Bill and Sookie''! Let me put it this way... if TrueBlood didn't revolve around them, it could actually be watchable. But since it does, and the writers find a way to shove their "''romance''" into every.single.scene, the show's mostly glorified crap. When even the freaking Wall Street Journal is writing arcticles on how much Bill sucks, you know there's something wrong.
** If the series follows the books, perhaps things will improve once [[spoiler:Sookie dumps Bill and gets a new boyfriend.]]
* 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 expect 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]], something that should have been a real TearJerker, but only comes across as cheap and fake simply because Robin was embracing his rebound girl not ''two seconds ago''. The two characters had little in common, no future together, and the entire relationship played out like a bored rock star indulging a simpering groupie.
* Not sure how the fans feel about it, but TV critics seem to have this opinion of the [[{{House}} Cameron/Chase]] romance.
** Actually, a lot of fans loved it. However, that may have been partly because - to date - it's the only happy ending/positive portrayal of love ''in'' {{House}}.
** Foreman/Thirteen is a plot tumor so debilitating it makes Cameron/Chase look like a mild case of sunburn.
* The Cook/Effy/Freddie [[TriangRelations love triangle]] in series 3 of ''{{Skins}}'' was one of those that looked perfect on paper, but was ''horrendous'' on screen; Cook's an unlikeable twat, Freddie [[XPacHeat can't act]] and Effy can only get away with being weird and mysterious when she's a side character (like she was in the first two series). The triangle was so all-consuming that it destroyed every other storyline it touched (not for nothing did it become known as the [[FanNickname "Triangle Of]] [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM"]]), including most notably the {{Bromance}} between Cook, Freddie and JJ. The only storyline to escape unscathed - the Naomi/Emily/Katie triangle - is the most popular of the season, and by some distance.
** It's actually quite revealing to draw out all the significant relationship triangles to see how they interact ([[EverybodyHatesMathematics they do form a planar graph]]), because it demonstrates how central the Cook/Effy/Freddie triangle was and how important it was that it was done well. Which it wasn't.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Theater}}]]
* ''Anyone Can Whistle'' has one of the worst-written love plots in musical comedy, involving some PoirotSpeak and a whole lot of {{Wangst}}.
* The tendency for this kind of behavior in radio soap operas was famously skewered by StanFreberg in a skit called [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajPbgklMNxA ''John And Marsha'']]. An entire intelligible narrative made solely out of the two actors [[SayMyName saying each others' names in different tones]]. It actually works pretty well.
** Benny Hill did a video version; the camera remains in a tight closeup of their ''hands'' the entire time.
* While many adaptations of ''The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' add romantic subplots to the point of LostInImitation, the musical ''Jekyll & Hyde'' really pushes it - it's not ''just'' that Jekyll's juggling two women who long for him (aristocratic Emma and prostitute Lucy; the latter also becomes Hyde's prey), but that a bunch of big showstopping songs are trucked out for both of them. Lucy, in particular, gets so much attention that the show's momentum slows to a crawl. It doesn't help that the long wait for the first transformation of Jekyll to Hyde this causes also qualifies it as TwentyMinutesWithJerks.
**ItGetsWorse in the very first concept album of it. For one thing, there are only two singers in the whole album- Colm Wilkinson as Jekyll/Hyde, and Linder Eder as both her fiance AND the prostitute. Oh, and the centerpiece of the show was supposed to be a song called "Love Has Come of Age". Yep, THAT [[WallBanger was supposed to be the centerpiece]] of a show about the doctor and his murderous alter ego. ThisTroper never actually [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch listened to the whole thing]], but he still really wonders how it's supposed to work.
* The better part of the Backstreet Boys song "Larger than Life" is an oddly refreshing statement about having their lives turned upside-down by an unending swarm of screaming fans and paparazzi. Then, without warning, it turns into a song praising them and wanting to "[[IntercourseWithYou thank [them] in a different way]]". Where did ''that'' come from?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* While the romance between Emil and Marta in ''TalesOfSymphonia 2'' is not ''nearly'' as poorly written as many of the other examples on this list, it is ultimately inconsequential to the main plot except as a source of {{Foreshadowing}}. Plus, if Marta tried any harder to win Emil, she'd be a StalkerWithACrush, and that's just creepy.
* [[MetalGear Raiden and Rose]]. Let me just say this: GYAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* ''{{Daria}}'' fans, when thinking of this trope, have one name burned forever into their minds - ''Tom Sloane''. Also inverted in that Tom's WriterOnBoard-decreed appearance (WordOfGod says that Tom was added 'because having Daria date was a normal high-school experience'), but the general fandom belief is that Tom was brought in to quash fandom rumors that Daria and Jane had a thing for each other... which the fans would have most likely have gone along with (if the FanFic in that direction is any indication).
* An episode of ''TheFairlyOddparents'' had Timmy getting annoyed that [[ShowWithinAShow the Crimson Chin]] was spending months focusing on finding a love intrest instead of fighting crime. His ArchEnemy even gets annoyed that he's making things too easy for him.
* The "romance" between Gwen and Kevin of ''{{Ben 10 Alien Force}}'' is shoved down the audience's throat at every opportunity, some suspect to [[ShipSinking drown out]] the KissingCousins vibe given off by Ben and Gwen in the [[{{Ben 10}} original series]]. It doesn't help that the relationship stops making chronological sense. In "Plumbers Helpers," Gwen switches into HeIsNotMyBoyfriend mode from the "Why won't you ask me out?" attitude of "All That Glitters," Even though before that, when Kevin was obviously flirting with her, she effectively said she'd never go out with him even "[[RelationshipWritingFumble if Ben wasn't here]]."
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