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Belligerent Sexual Tension / Video Games

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  • Sherry and Jake in Resident Evil 6. Sherry is a sweet girl generally, but occasionally she throws a sarcastic remark back at Jake, who is arguably the snarkiest character in the series. They also had their fair share of short-lived moments, and risked their lives to save each other countless times.
  • Gears of War: Baird and Sam, the two snarkiest Gears in the whole series, and if you play Gears of War III, that is one hell of an accomplishment. Taken to the logical extreme when they're falling off a collapsing bridge:
    Baird: "I suppose you want me to say I always loved you. But I don't! I really, really don't!" At the end, it's implied they end up together.
    • They do end up a quasi-couple by Gears of War 4. Baird claims Sam isn't his wife, but his "special lady friend".
  • Croix and Prier of La Pucelle Tactics spend the last half of the game this way, with most of the rest of the party seeing it, and them denying it. They finally admit their feelings to each other at the climax of the game, and then promptly go back to denying it again in public.
  • Adell and Rozalin from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. Lampshaded when Etna spots the trope and assures them that they aren't fooling anyone.
  • Fire Emblem as a whole has many of these. Given the nature of the games in question, all of those are optional pairings. If the player prefers, they can be paired with other people, or even no one at all.
    • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade gives us Hector and Lyn, as well as Dart and Farina. Also Lex and Ayra from the first half of the fourth game and Fee and Arthur from the second half, and Innes and L'Arachel from the eighth one... And doubly so with Ephraim and L'Arachel.
    • The fifth game, however, did not have the aforementioned option to pair units off as you will, and so as long as certain units survived, their endings would imply that they got together. Tanya and Othin appear to fit this trope quite nicely. The sixth game also doesn't have paired endings for anyone besides Roy, despite the decidedly romantic nature of some of the A-level support conversations, and it, too, has a couple of pairings that bring this to mind (Clarine/Rutger and to a lesser extent Klein/Tate).
    • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, the supports between Chrom and a female Avatar relie a lot on this.
    • Similarly, Lon'qu and Maribelle. Or to a degree, Lon'qu and the female Avatar as well.
    • And from the second generation, Severa and... well, just about anyone, but Severa and Laurent stands out for being one of the few supports where she gets as good as she gives.
    • In Fire Emblem Fates, Hana and Subaki work for Princess Sakura of Hoshido and have quite the rivalry about which one is the best subordinate. If their whole support chain is pursued, they get married.
    • Azama and Princess Hinoka's supports are chock-full of Snark-to-Snark Combat, despite Azama being Hinoka's retainer and therefore under her orders. Again, they get married if the whole chain is pursued - with Azama being a snarker even as he proposes to her, and Hinoka ultimately managing to turn the tables on him.
    • Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia has Mae and Boey. They clearly fancy each other, but their Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl dynamic causes them to frequently bicker among themselves, although it's usually in a playful tone than the average couple with this trope. Notably, they themselves often remark that they wouldn't have it any other way, and should they survive the game and get hitched, their endings will note that their bickering persists even after marriage.
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses has Manuela and Hanneman: while the two of them do respect each other, their polar opposite personalities have them constantly bickering. Naturally, they can get hitched, with their paired ending even noting that, despite getting married in a lavish ceremony, they continued to banter with each other like nothing had changed.
  • Elika and the Prince in Prince of Persia (2008) will spend more time snarking at each other than actually completing their quest, if the player lets them.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening introduced a Lady as a possible love interest for Dante. They didn't become an Official Couple, but that's how it's been in the first three games in the series. Each one introduced (aside from Trish, according to Wordof God) is a possible love interest for the protagonist, yet no Official Couple was ever stated, and each fan has a different favourite. However, Capcom has maintained that that the two have unresolved feelings for one another(with Trish playfully accusing Lady of being in love with Dante in the anime series, which leaves her flustered, and Morrison noticing a connection between them in his letter entries in Devil May Cry 5). It's pertinent to note that almost every fanfiction that has Dante and Lady as a couple has the later acting as a full-on Tsundere. Complete with her shooting Dante in the head whenever he angers her as a Running Gag.
  • Jessica and Kyle of Lunar: The Silver Star fit this trope very well, with Jessica being a Hot-Blooded, Cute Monster Girl dropout priestess and Kyle being a drunken, Loveable Rogue bandit running a sort of Monster Protection Racket.
  • From the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Knuckles the Echidna and Rouge the Bat, particularly in Sonic Adventure 2. They spend the entire game competing with each other on who can collect the most pieces of the Master Emerald which cultivates in a final confrontation. Rouge slips and almost falls into the lava shaft below (Even though she's a bat and could have flown...) and Knuckles wastes no time rescuing her in which results in a Held Gaze between the two before she regains her senses and starts berating him for rescuing her. Word of God confirms she does develop a crush on him after this.
  • Loni and Nanaly in Tales of Destiny 2. Oh. So. Much. Every time she gives him a bone-crusher makes you think "Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other"
  • In Tales of the Abyss, Luke and Tear have a relationship like this. But then again, everyone treats Luke like dirt. After the Wham Episode, their relationship becomes much less belligerent as Luke begins to mature (after an overlarge heaping of Break the Haughty) and Tear starts showing her more gentle and caring side.
  • Another example can be found in Chester and Arche in Tales of Phantasia. And it's taken to insane levels in the sequel, Narikiri Dungeon (specifically, the PSP remake).
  • Another examples from the Tales Series is the relationship between Karol and Nan in Tales of Vesperia. This is fueled primarily by two things—one, Nan's guild, the Hunting Blades, spends a good portion of the game antagonistic to Karol's guild, Brave Vesperia. Two, although both do like each other, Karol doesn't realize the crush isn't one-sided. Nan gets frustrated when Karol fails to see it, most prominently in the finale of Karol's version of the 100-Man Brawl.
  • Mass Effect:
    • Shepard and Miranda's romance can play out this way, as seen here.
    • Shepard can also joke that Joker has this sort of relationship with EDI. And in Mass Effect 3, this plays out.
    • Shepard's interactions with Liara during Lair of the Shadow Broker, if the two were involved in the first game. This is mostly due to Liara's new Darker and Edgier attitude, which eventually cracks and is revealed to have been an act to help her cope with the murky business of being an information broker on Illium. Afterwards, their interaction veers into Like an Old Married Couple territory.
    • Garrus and Tali in the third game have shades of this as well. They didn't get along well at all in the first game, and in the second, one of them threatened the other with a shotgun in order to shut them up. Third time around, they patch up their differences, and if neither of them are occupied with Shepard, they hook up.
    • Take Back Omega has a lot between Aria and Nyreen, left over from when they were an item. Aria and Renegade!Shepard likewise have this relationship, leading to Aria planting a "Shut Up" Kiss on them at the end. Aria's relationship with Paragon!Shepard is similar, though less belligerent and more annoyance at their "boy/girlscout" ways.
    • Citadel lets Shepard suggest that this is the reason for Miranda and Jack's bickering. They are NOT amused.
      Miranda: Oh my god.
      Jack: Kasumi, I will find you and I will hurt you badly. Ugh... I need another drink.
      Miranda: One for me too.
    • Fem!Shep and James Vega can have this if you have the Citadel DLC (which adds in other romances such as Samara). One of the first conversations they have is during a sparring match. Their very first conversation on the ship is them butting heads over abandoning Earth to build a coalition.
  • Dragon Age II features a companion system based on Friendship/Rivalry rather than Like/Dislike; you can have both genuinely romantic and Slap-Slap-Kiss relationships with your party members. They carry on the theme from the main rivalry with the character; e.g. getting Merrill to stand up for herself.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition: A party banter has Dorian suggest that this is the underlying force behind Varric and Cassandra's less-than-positive relationship. Needless to say, neither of them are amused. Likewise, another party banter suggests this between Dorian and Iron Bull, especially with this gem of an exchange:
    Iron Bull: Quite the stink-eye you've got going, Dorian.
    Dorian: You stand there, flexing your muscles, huffing like some beast of burden with no thought save conquest.
    Iron Bull: That's right. These big muscled hands could tear those robes off while you struggled, helpless in my grip. I'd pin you down, and as you gripped my horns, I. Would. Conquer. You.
    Dorian: Uh. What?
    Iron Bull: Oh. Is that not where we're going?
  • The Exile (if male) and Jedi Master Atris in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords have this dynamic, as she admired them before they left to fight in the Mandalorian Wars against the Council's orders and when the male Exile finally returns to her she talks to him like a jilted lover rather than a former colleague. When her apprentice Brianna returns after traveling with him, she tortures her out of jealousy with the implication these feelings accelerated her fall to the Dark Side. The male Exile can imply that he was very well aware of her feelings, and might have even reciprocated if she wasn't such a complete Ice Queen.
  • The Smuggler and Risha in Star Wars: The Old Republic, likely homage to Han and Leia in the source material.
  • Left 4 Dead 2 Ellis is Smitten with Zoey the moment he lays eyes on her. When he gets a chance to see her again, she may be rather belligerent and insult him. This does nothing to tarnish her "Angel" image in Ellis's eyes.
  • The Nameless One and Annah in Planescape: Torment,. The intensity of it is left to how Jerkish the player wishes to be, which in turn determines how provoked Annah will be to hold up her Tsundere end.
  • The relationship between Squall and Rinoa in Final Fantasy VIII initially has some elements of this thanks to the conflict between Squall's stoic cynicism and Rinoa's enthusiastic idealism. The trope only really applies up until they reach Galbadia Garden in disc 1, however, after which point Rinoa is more interested in finding out what Squall is thinking than in challenging him over it.
  • Fear Effect. Hana and Glas have something like this. They have a habit of pointing guns at each other and giving tough talk to each other. Glas is the one who gives her a hand and helps her up in various situations. Hana did give Glas a hand and help him up in the first game. Also, the one female of the Eight Immortals says to Glas about Hana being his friend, which he tries so very hard to deny. A Fear Effect Inferno trailer shows Glas putting a hand over Hana's hand. He awkwardly tells her that "I just want to say...be careful, you know?" A few seconds later, she smiles and puts her head against his back, surprising him. She responds "We've all got to be careful." Considering what happens later...well, see the Love Triangle entry.
  • In Solatorobo, Red and Elh play with this trope. Normally they are quite capable of working together, but if Red should do something incredibly stupid (and he will), Elh is not shy about calling him an idiot and giving him a slap or a good Megaton Punch or two, or just glaring and leaving the room.
  • Lily and Taiga have this sort of relationship in Duel Savior Destiny, though it doesn't seem as though Taiga realizes he's attracted to her at all. Mia, the clingy little sister, is actually rather genre savvy about this and tries to get them to stop fighting so Lily treats him like a normal squad member rather than switch from tsun over to dere.
  • In Fallout: New Vegas, a Male Courier and Cass have this type of relationship and often bicker Like an Old Married Couple. In fact, before companion romances were dropped, they were supposed to wake up in bed together, having gotten married whilst insanely drunk the previous night.
  • Von Mackwitz und Fräulein Eleonore from Die Reise ins All. They start as an military loving buff and an journalist, who think that military shouldn't influence politics or people at all. In the end, they are married and parents as well.
  • In the Guild Wars 2 expansion Heart of Thorns, if the Player Character is a female Sylvari,there's a definite Ship Tease between the character and Canach, though it has yet to be expanded and go anywhere, given both characters are Deadpan Snarker Tsunderes.
  • Mortal Kombat: Starting with the film, Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage fell here, Sonya insulting Johnny's grandstanding ego and lack of ability to take anything seriously. Johnny throws back a few more insults, puns, bad movie references, and then flirts. Come Mortal Kombat X, it's zig-zagged: they're ex-spouses, and still squabbling, but the events in-game events start them reconciling, if only as Amicable Exes (at least by now).
  • World of Warcraft: Illidan and Maiev show some signs of this in the new dungeon introduced in patch 7.2, Cathedral of Eternal Night. Prior to this there was never any hint of this in any official medium, but Illidan/Maiev shipping was common in fanon. The dungeon is likely just Blizzard doing a Shout-Out to said fanon, but if it's developed any further it will become Ascended Fanon.
  • Shall We Date?: Ninja Shadow:
    • Subverted in Asagi's path, since he and the Sweet Polly Oliver heroine seemed to head towards this but she got to see his Hidden Depths rather soon and they warmed up to one another faster than typical BST couples.
    • Surprisingly played straight by the heroine and Makoto Nakagawa. One of her most important missions there is to pose as a girl and as his girlfriend after he blows her cover and he quite' enjoys getting under her skin as it happens.
    • Played with in Tsubaki Kusunoki's route: he's a snarky Manipulative Bastard and often toys with the heroine's emotions and thoughts, which make her react passionately to his presence.
  • Junpei and Akane in Zero Time Dilemma (but not in Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors). They're clearly in love but tend to get on each other's nerves a lot, mostly over disagreement about whom to save as Akane wants to save everyone while Junpei just tries to save them.
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, many of the possible spouses in the game are downright rude to the Dragonborn. The biggest example being Njada Stonearm, the Block trainer of the Companions, a tough-as-nails woman who repeatedly insults the Dragonborn ("I'm still trying to figure out why Skjor let you in in the first place!") and only treats them with a modicum of respect after the very final quest in the Companions story, which involves freeing Kodlak's soul from the grasp of the Daedric Prince Hircine. But once you marry her, she's nothing but honey talk.
  • Ensemble Stars!:
    • Kaoru and Souma clash a lot early in the year, as Kaoru is trying to be The Slacker who skips school and only cares about dating girls, while Souma is a rule-abiding type who disapproves of his laziness and tries to prevent him from continually hitting on Anzu. In this case, though, the sexual tension is almost entirely on Kaoru's side - despite thinking of himself as straight he's quite attracted to Souma's Long-Haired Pretty Boy looks and can barely go five minutes without talking about his long, silky hair or how he would kiss him if he were a girl but totally won't because he's not into guys obviously! (Souma, bless his heart, has zero idea what any of this means.) Over time, they gradually come to respect each other and become something like friends.
    • There's also something like this between Tsukasa and Leo - Tsukasa tries to be the image of a refined, graceful Princely Young Man, but Leo's eccentricity and insensitivity brings out his easily offended and stubborn side, resulting in him frequently getting angry at him. But he highly admires Leo's talent and desperately wants his affection, with Ho Yay definitely part of that. (For an example, in one scene Tsukasa walks in on Anzu cleaning Leo's ears. When Tsukasa says something about being jealous, Leo assumes he wants to be in Anzu's position, making Tsukasa very flustered.)
  • Hathram and Pharna in Emerald Dragon. The two often bicker over things, mainly Pharna getting annoyed at Hathram's playboy attitude and insensitivity, and Hathram shooting back at her to be more lady-like. Despite that, it's noted some of Hathram's fangirls that Pharna is always with him, and it's clear to the rest of the party that they truly care about one another.
  • In Ikemen Sengoku, the female main character, an outspoken and strong-willed Plucky Girl, gets into this in routes where her love interest has a fondness for teasing or snark — namely, with Nobunaga, Yukimura, or Mitsuhide. Ieyasu's route is a surprising aversion; despite him being a classic Tsundere who uses sarcasm to hide his true feelings, the MC has only one early scene where she snarks back at him before him saving her from bad men and her being forced to live with him for her protection cause her to mellow out towards him very quickly compared to Nobunaga and Mitsuhide's routes where she spends at least the first five chapters loudly insisting that she does not like the guy's haughty and teasing treatment of her, no siree, not even a little bit.
  • Brighton and Twila from Mario Party 6 seem to have a G-rated relationship.
  • Sadu and Magnai in Final Fantasy XIV are leaders of opposing tribes and they always want to one up one each other. Magnai is full of pride while Sadu like to watch Magnai squirm from her antics and taunts. The two once fought each other for three days straight before declaring the fight a draw. A few characters bring up the possibility of the two of them being in love, but they deny it.
  • Cyberpunk 2077: A lot of interactions between V and Johnny Silverhand can be interpreted as this if you choose to read their relationship as romantic.
  • Nier Replicant has the red bag couple, a married man and woman living in Seafront who are famous for their loud and spectacular arguments (the townsfolk consider them a form of public entertainment). It is made very clear that underneath the arguing, the two are very Happily Married and love each other dearly.
  • Horizon Zero Dawn: It is said that there is a hint of sexual tension between Aloy and Helis in the scene of Aloy being jailed in Sunfall though it is still arguable.

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