Basic Trope: Two characters always fight because they secretly like each other.
- Straight: Alice and Bob constantly bicker with each other. At the end of the series, they start dating.
- Exaggerated: Alice and Bob were Arch Enemies who tried to kill each other whenever they met. They end up Happily Married with children by the end.
- Downplayed:
- Whenever Alice and Bob flirt, there is noticeable edge to their comments.
- Alice and Bob are Vitriolic Best Buds with a few hints of Unresolved Sexual Tension.
- Justified:
- Alice is a Tsundere, and it's the only way she knows to express her feelings. Bob just doesn't get it.
- Alice and Bob are both Jerkasses, but the more they know each other, the more they have feelings for each other.
- Alice and Bob hate eachother because they are mutually attracted to each other—constantly asking themselves What Does He/She See in Her/Him and getting frustrated they can't answer that.
- Inverted:
- Kiss-Kiss-Slap.
- Bob and Alice act romantically towards each other, so they get into fights.
- Subverted:
- Everyone assumes that Alice and Bob secretly like each other, but they really do hate each other.
- Alice and Bob's banter starts out as playful banter, but grows to become more bitter and resentful.
- Double Subverted: Alice and Bob have convinced themselves that they hate each other to hide their true feelings from themselves.
- Parodied: Alice and Bob get into a ridiculous Kung Fu Fight whenever they meet.
- Zig Zagged: Alice and Bob constantly switch between loving and hating each other.
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob keep arguing and never end up together.
- Alice and Bob end up together, and only argue occasionally.
- Enforced: "People will find it too sappy if they are openly affectionate to each other. After all we can't let these characters be too happy now can we?"
- Lampshaded: "Look, Alice and Bob are fighting again. Would they just go home and kiss already?"
- Invoked: Alice and Bob are in a situation where dating would be frowned upon, so they pretend to hate each other in public.
- Exploited: Bob and Alice are both turned on by conflict so they fight as a means of foreplay.
- Defied:
- Alice rejects Bob's admission of love so that he will have more to argue with her about.
- Alice and Bob decide that their relationship, whichever way it'll go, shouldn't be tainted by vitriol.
- Discussed: "Do they really want to beat each other up, or are they just trying to convince themselves they do?"
- Conversed: "When characters fight like that, it always means they're in love."
- Deconstructed:
- Alice and Bob's frequent arguments and lack of common ground or compromise descends into outright abuse, and one or both of them are miserable.
- Destructive Romance.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice and Bob have mutually consensual, literal hatesex and enjoy it.
- Alice and Bob decide to see a couples' therapist and learn to work through their problems. As a result, their relationship is much healthier and they, at most playfully banter with each other.
- Untwisted: Alice and Bob's friendly conversations are full of stealth insults, flirtatious stealth insults.
- Implied: A shopowner who knows Alice and Bob is often sighing and muttering about how they should "stop messing the shop up and just kiss already".
I’m never going to admit I love the Belligerent Sexual Tension page.
