Troperville
Help us survive. All donations are anonymous on the wiki and unacknowledged, as we don't wish to create a hierarchy among Tropers.
Editing
Tools
Toys
|
|
|
Unresolved Sexual Tension
|
redirected from Main.UST
alt title(s): UST Unresolved sexual tension. It's the engine that makes television run. — Michael Weatherly, in an NCIS episode commentary
Two people are obviously attracted to each other, but some element of the story is keeping them apart. This tension is frequently referred to as UST in fandom, where it is pronounced "oost" or Yu-Ess-Tee. Also known as " Long Unresolved Sexual Tension".
See Will They Or Won't They. UST is also a cousin of Just Friends. Moment Killer is a staple of a UST relationship. See Shipping Bed Death or Strangled By The Red String for when UST is resolved badly. My Sensors Indicate You Want To Tap That is a funny way to lampshade UST.
Examples
open/close all folders
- Neon Genesis Evangelion is chock full of this. Of course, it doesn't really go anywhere.
- Code Geass. The fangirls probably went ballistic: THREE valid pairings for the male lead alone, and enough done by one side or the other to establish the attraction as canon. The relationship between the two Tsunderes Kallen and Lelouch was especially frustrating because four-fifths of the second season saw every one of their private moments together interrupted by something bad or confusing. The other two were Shirley who died right after proclaiming her love and C.C. who just plain wanted to die, and use Lelouch to do so.
- Ergo Proxy, Vincent and Re-l. This is quite an important aspect of their relationship and is addressed as such in the anime:
- In Episode 1, right after they first meet, Vincent (as Ergo Proxy) breaks in on Re-l in her bath, pins her to the wall and strokes her lips quite roughly. This, plus his massive, dominant height while he lingers over her and her utter shock could qualify as a metaphorical Near Rape Experience.
- Then in Episode 12, Vincent pins Re-l to the bed while declaring his love, scaring her in the process. The camera angles make it all the more significant, accentuating their poses and Re-l's body.
- She actually takes advantage by kissing him only to reach for her gun and get him off her.That still leaves quite an impression on Vincent, though: later on, he inadvertently hammers on his own hand while daydreaming about this kiss.
- And then there's Episode 16, where UST may be the episode's main focus, as both are stuck on the stranded wind-ship. This episode has Re-l actually taunting Vincent by walking around in a Stripperiffic outfit, purposely opening the shower door to let him catch a glimpse and even asking straight for it at the end of the episode (though he can't quite hear it). All the while admitting to herself that she is, somehow, drawn to Vincent. In the end, nothing actually happens because of Vincent's shyness and the wind's return, but the atmosphere got really tense. (Subversion: the whole episode draws quite interesting parallels between fear of death and sex-drive).
- Maria-sama Ga Miteru introduces massive amounts of Unresolved Sexual Tension between students of an all-girl high school.
- Of course, the Suzumiya Haruhi series features this between Mikuru and Kyon, although this tends to depend on your camp and which theories you may subscribe to. Unfortunately for them, Haruhi isn't about to allow that come hell or high water due to her own UST with him (as exemplified by how Kyon saved the world from being remade by stealing a kiss from Haruhi, and the ending of Someday in the Rain), and on top of that it's also forbidden for Mikuru by time traveller-rules. Her future self appears to feel the same affection towards him, implying that nothing ever came of this, regardless.
- Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki on Bleach. Kubo described their current relationship in an interview as more than good friends, but less than lovers. Whether or not this changes has yet to be seen. Kubo has also stated that Rukia is like "a shining light" to Ichigo, at at the very least are precious Nakama and that their relationship, romantic or other wise, is the core of the story.
- There's also Ichigo and Orihime, though mostly on her end because he's Oblivious To Love.
- Sango and Miroku from Inuyasha! The UST is so obvious that their grope-slap exchange becomes a running gag throughout the series.
- Not just Inuyasha - Anything and everything by Rumiko Takahashi. The woman is addicted to this trope. It runs in her veins to the exclusion of blood.
- A more one-sided example is that of Setsuna toward Konoka in Mahou Sensei Negima. This gets turned up to nine thousand for the Spring and Summer anime specials.
- Resolving now, starting from chapter 252 with an epic
snog Pactio. Doesn't seem to be one-sided, either (Konoka was the aggressive one during the kiss. Her tongue, not Setsuna's).
- There's also a bit of UST between Negi and Nodoka, although it's more "romantic tension" than "sexual tension" given the fact that Negi is ten years old.
- Lori/Coby, despite being 12 and 13 respectively, have enough UST to sink
Tidal Wave Shockwave Tidal Wave.
- Spike and Faye from Cowboy Bebop.
- Mostly one-sided, on Faye's part. Spike is rather hung up on Julia.
- Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye in Fullmetal Alchemist, with shades of Bodyguard Crush and Subordinate Excuse. Particularly played up in the manga version, which has also featured increasing UST between Ed and Winry.
- In Full Metal Panic, Kaname and Sousuke - namely the anime. At the end of the third season, just when it looks like they're finally at least going to hug, they're interrupted. Also, Mao and Kurz have a lot of UST which is eventually resolved in the Light Novels.
- This is what fuels most of the Shipping Wars in Pokemon. Of course, with Ash and Misty's long odyssey together, it's almost impossible to top with May or Dawn.
- Godchild and Count Cain fall into this trope easily. Half of the series is Cain kicking some ass the other half is having angsty dialogue with manservant Riff about how they'll accompany each other to hell and other such lovely things. Despite all of this the manga-ka Kaori Yuki claims they weren't a couple in the Angel Sanctuary art book.
- Vassalord IS this trope. Except it kind of gets resolved. Kind of. But not really as Charley and Johnny still haven't done it despite obviously WANTING to. Charley walks in on Johnny showering without a problem, 'nuff said.
- Repo! The Genetic Opera has Amber Sweet and Luigi. It's particularly evident at the beginning of "Mark It Up".
- In L.627 a French film directed by Bertrand Tavernier, narcotics cop "Lulu" Marguet is in love with HIV-positive prostitute Cecile, but they are kept apart by the disease.
- In The Mood For Love is entirely about UST.
- For a 19th-century novel, Jane Eyre contains a surprising amount of fairly obvious sexual tension. The scene in which Rochester, unwilling to let Jane return to her room, ends up clinging to her hand and acting as if he is about to kiss her comes to mind. Especially since it follows a scene in which she saves him from being burned alive in his bed.
- Ron and Hermione.
- This actually does get resolved, though.
- Leafpool and Crowfeather in the third WarriorCats series after being forced to "go their separate ways" by the freakin' Warrior Code. Also a lot of tension between them in Starlight before Crowfeather confesses his feelings at the end of the book. According to the narrator, the tension literally crackles like lightning.
- The tension between Elphaba and Glinda, from Wicked,was rather obvious,especially after Dillmond's death,to their travels to Emerald City. They also share two farewell kisses.
- The musical seems to play this up, due to the fact many of the actresses who play them act rather..Gay. They exchange many long glances, and often hold hands.
- The '90s Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew crossover books included a ton of UST between Nancy and Frank, including at least one illicit kiss; it could never come to anything, of course, since they both had steady love interests in their own series.
- Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice runs on subtle but pervasive UST.
Live Action TV
- Everywhere in Bones. the recent season finale shows how Brennan and Booth would be if they got married - it's really boring without the UST. And now Word Of God states that Booth remembers the fantasy, which will make his UST EVEN
BETTER WORSE.
- On Chuck, virtually every semi regular female character except his sister has this with the titular guy.
- Actually at least in the first season people thought there was with her too.
- Grissom and Sara. "Pin me," anyone?
- Still present even though they've gotten together, although now it's more like "Repressed Sexual Tension" since two members of the same shift aren't supposed to date. Plus, Grissom's her supervisor. Again when Sara leaves, then returns as a guest during season 9 with an undertone of the relationship maybe falling apart.
- Ultimately Sealed With a Kiss when William Peterson followed Jorja Fox in leaving the show - only the second kiss they ever have on-screen. The first was in Goodbye and Good Luck.
- Now that both Grissom and Sara are gone, Lab Rats Hodges and Wendy became the main UST couple. Lampshaded in a Season 9 episode when one of their co-workers says what the rest are thinking and asks why they don't just admit to each other how they feel.
- The Firefly-class merchanteer Serenity had Mal and Inara, and Simon and Kaylee.
- The entire concept was skewered beautifully in the episode "War Stories", however. Wash, sick of being left on the ship during most jobs (what with being the pilot), declares his suspicion of UST between his wife Zoe and Captain Mal Reynolds. Said captain is dumbfounded by the very suggestion; while the two of them do have an extensive history, their relationship is only that of old friends/war buddies. Once the situation has resolved, however, Mal and Zoe make a show of it, just to needle Wash for being overly suspicious. There's so little romantic chemistry that even hardened mercenary Jayne, normally the crudest and most lecherous of the crew, is unnerved.
- Law And Order Special Victims Unit between Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson; the Elephant In The Living Room until the episode "Fault".
- Pam and Jim from the American version of The Office. A lot of critical speculation said that its resolution would destroy the show. It's continuing strength even after dealing with the UST is a testament to the writing team.
- Sliders: Being a Genre Blind Chick Magnet, Quinn has this with both female regulars as well as any Girl Of The Week. Ironically, Quinn is eventually replaced by his Alternate Universe counterpart, who seeks girls a lot more actively but doesn't have nearly the same luck as the other Quinn, who wasn't really looking.
- Stargate SG-1: O'Neill and Carter flirt with this, but behind-the-scenes forces make any romantic feelings between them genuinely appear and disappear at apparent random (as opposed to Will They Or Wont They.) Nonetheless, it showed up least once a season.
- Them being married in at least one AU doesn't help.
- After O'Neill left the show, Daniel and Vala took over the job of teasing the audience about the potential of their relationship, though it was less heavy handed in that case. Well, at least until they got together in a timeline that ended up being reset.
- Mulder and Scully. 'Nuff said.
- Present between Maddie and Jonathan on several episodes of Jonathan Creek. Refreshing in that both actors were well outside the established romantic lead type.
- If anything Jonathan and Carla had it worse in the fourth series. Not helped by the fact that they dated, broke up due to a silly misunderstanding, and the next time they saw each other Carla was married. Whoops.
- This was the whole premise of Moonlighting, a romantic Dramedy series starring Bruce Willis and Cybil Sheppard as private detectives. The whole show jumped the shark in the fifth season when they finally consummated their relationship; the tension was simply gone and it become yet another sitcom.
- Lampshaded in the series finale, a great example of the show's frequent Breaking The Fourth Wall. The two detectives come back to the office to find it being dismantled by people working for ABC; an ABC network executive tells them that viewers had enjoyed watching them fall in love, but after they'd already fallen they lost interest.
- The downfall of Moonlighting was the result of tons of behind-the-scenes problems that plagued the show for the duration of its run, ranging from script and episode delays to a writer's strike that struck mid-season to the declining quality of scripts to (infamously combative) lead actors who simply didn't want to continue working on the show. Bruce Willis launched his film career with Die Hard between the third and fourth seasons and Cybil Sheppard, reportedly never pleased with the long working hours, wanted more time off to spend time with her growing family. While it's easy (and common) to write off Moonlighting's decline as a result of Resolved Sexual Tension, it isn't that simple.
- The title character and his doctor in the short-lived show Jake 2.0. While they came close at one point to "consummating their relationship", the show was cancelled before anything could come of it.
- Word Of God is that, had they been allowed to finish off the season, they would have ended up living Happily Ever After.
- Essentially the series spanning relationship of Harm and Mac in JAG, as half of their spats in and outside the courtroom liked to play with this. The wake of failed relationships also seemed to keep their UST alive and well, as both Harm and Mac would have a new love interest by mid-season or the start of a new season. This lasted until the final episode where they decide to finally get married.
- Friends , obviously. That show lived off UST, they'll resolve it once then something will go wrong and it'll build up again over time, over and over again.
- Niles and Daphne on Frasier, in one of the most drawn-out examples, with some absolutely brutal Moment Killers and a plethora of Paolos. Opinion is mixed on the effect of them getting together on the last seasons of the show. It ran for four more years thereafter, and even after they did get together, it took them almost an entire season to consummate. Of the four seasons, they were married for two.
- Undeniably, Jack and Liz on 30 Rock, no matter how much Tina Fey says it's not going to happen.
- Sue Thomas and Jack Hudson on Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye. A few episodes plays with this, e.g. "The Newlywed Game" where the pair goes undercover as a married couple, and "The Kiss" where Jack fakes having a affair with Sue to maintain their cover at a law office they infiltrated.
- Tony and Angela from Who's the Boss? — to the point where their Dance of Denial annoyed even the secondary characters.
- Shawn and Juliet from Psych are definitely showing what looks like some UST, granted it's not the premise around which the show is built (thank god). There was a moment in season 2 where Shawn and Jules almost kissed but Jules wound up rebuking him and in season 3 Shawn was turned down for a date with the girl from the aquarium because she didn't want to get in the way.
- Shawn himself has a high school potential sweetheart "The one who got away" named Abigail. They met again at their high school reunion which led to resolving a lot of their UST. But just when Abigail seemed interested in pursuing a new relationship, Juliet was in Shawn's line of sight and he clumsily but politely backs out of it. Several episodes later he decides to go for it with Abigail and just as he gets popcorn for her, Juliet tries to resolve their UST.
- In NCIS, despite both characters having relationships with other people over the course of the show, Tony and Ziva have kept up an ongoing unresolved sexual tension for four seasons and counting. The series intentionally capitalizes on the UST with episodes like "Under Covers," in which they are obliged to pose as married assassins and fake having a lot of sex in the process, and "Boxed In," in which they spend most of the episode Locked In A Box.
- Lampshaded by Gibbs in "Smoked". "You two done playing grabass?"
- Lampshaded by a (married) Hooker With A Heart Of Gold who instantly sees the UST between Tony and Ziva. She offers to help get rid of some of Tony's tension (he's still very hung up on his ex, the Arms Dealer's Beautiful Daughter) and comments on how such a hyper vigilant woman could be so blind (Ziva has no idea what she's referring to).
- There's also a bit of this hanging around Abby and Mc Gee. Nobody knows if they will or won't, much to the dismay of the shippers.
- This troper senses barrels of it between Jack and Renee on the new season of 24. She may or may not be insane.
- Word Of God confirms that the two will hook up in season eight.
- OK. Season Two of Life. Episode... I think it's six, "Jackpot", the one with the lottery winners. The bit where Crews climbs over the wall, gets shot at and falls off? Anyone else think that when Reese screams, "Crews!" the emotion's a bit more than concern?
- Not to mention, those two would be so much better together than the Reese/Tidwell storyline.
- And hooking Crews up with practically everything in a skirt? Where is the respect?
- Used effectively in Season 4 of The Sopranos between Carmela and Furio. It ends painfully when Furio panics about his feelings for Carmela, due to the fact that she's The Boss's wife, and moves back to Italy. In the season finale, it becomes an important factor in Tony and Carmela's separation.
- And of course, Tony and Dr. Melfi, who knows him emotionally perhaps better than any other woman in the series—being his therapist and all.
- House: House and Cuddy, anyone? Their entire relationship is built on UST from their college days.
- Word Of God indicates that they'll kiss later this season.... Nope, it was just a delusion (which convinces House he needs to be institutionalized)
- Farscape...oh Farscape. THE UST Between John Crichton and Aeryn Sun in the beginning had its own gravitational field. Even after it was resolved, their unstable relationship made it feel like it never really got resolved (thus averting Shipping Bed Death) until the condensed, mini-series fifth season.
- Castle, although at this point it's more "He thinks she's the most amazing creature he's ever run across, and she is doing her best to convince herself she doesn't like him."
- Smallville. At some point on the show, everybody crushes after everybody. But almost never in pairs.
- Jack and Gwen on Torchwood. Whoever else Jack might be shagging, it's those two who've gotten the longing gazes and a certain nearly incendiary shooting lesson.
- Gene and Alex on Ashes to Ashes have been dancing around the will-they-won't-they issue since the first episode of the show, the whole police force already thinks they're shagging, and the writers have ramped up the tension even more drastically in the second series. Of course, any potential relationship between the two may be seriously hampered by the fact that Alex is quite probably trapped in her own head and Gene himself is quite possibly imaginary...
- Starbuck and Apollo had unresolved sexual tension even after having sex. There was a whole episode with an A-plot about it, aptly named Unfinished Business.
- The Nineties breakfast show The Big Breakfast was powered by UST when Johnny Vaugn and Denise Van Outen were the two co-hosts. Even the advertising trails hinted at it when they were rehired.
- The West Wing had Josh Lyman and Donna Moss.
Western Animation
|
|
