Lucky dog...
A romance, sexual or otherwise, between two different species. Sometimes they are humanoid aliens, and a
Green-Skinned Space Babe is involved, or they can be a
Friendly Neighborhood Vampire and a human, two
Funny Animals, or a
Beast and Beauty couple. The type of species can diverge greatly, so long as they are different.
May include a moral about the
Fantastic Racism version of inter-racial romances. Also may be
Starcrossed Lovers, anyone looking for more built in angst will make one of these a
Mayfly December Romance. In
less realistic settings, can easily result in
Half Human Hybrids or
Hybrid Monsters.
Chances of it actually becoming an
Official Couple (and evolving into a mixed marriage) are increased if the nonhuman has a
human form, although that still doesn't take away the
Squick for a steadfast minority of viewers. Most people accept it, though, if there are
no humans involved, just two different animals. And since humans are animals, this can also be used to examine popular notions about
morality. For anthropomorphic animals, this can be a source of
Furry Confusion, especially if they're the
only couple seen to be of different species.
For some this is
the way to go about First Contact.
Alien invaders seemingly love to tempt humans with this as part of their
Masquerade, although
you'd think they'd learn better.
A lot more likely to happen in fan works (
Fan Fic,
Web Comics, etc) and more likely to be...um...NSFW.
See also:
Extreme Omnisexual;
But You Screw One Goat!;
Mars Needs Women;
Divine Date;
Deus Sex Machina;
Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?;
Boy Meets Ghoul; and
Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action for when you wonder how these two things could actually reproduce. May involve
Exotic Equipment or the
Male-to-Female Universal Adaptor. May lead to
Half Human Hybrids or to a
Non-human Lover Reveal if one member was keeping secrets. If society does not approve of such romance, then it's also
Maligned Mixed Marriage.
Interspecies Friendship is the platonic version of this trope.
Examples:
