Basic Trope: Two characters are in a romantic relationship but are never seen having sex and are never implied to have sex either and they seem fine with it.
- Straight: Alice and Bob are married, but they don't have kids and there's nothing to suggest that they have sex.
- Exaggerated: Despite being married, they maintain VERY strict boundaries with each other. They never appear closer than a foot apart in public, and at home they have separate beds. They don't even use typical affectionate gestures with each other. All that being said, they're still madly in love after years of marriage.
- Downplayed:
- Alice and Bob do lots of hugging, kissing, and generally being affectionate, so it's obvious they are in love, however, none of it is sexual and there's no evidence they ever have sex.
- Sexless Marriage
- They have sex, but only to have kids, not for pleasure.
- Justified:
- Alice and Bob are both asexual, but aren't aromantic, so they got married.
- Alice and Bob are in a Marriage of Convenience but don't like each other in "that way", so they agreed to keep it sexless.
- One of them made a vow of chastity despite being in love, and the other respects that.
- Alice and Bob are still children: their marriage was an Arranged Marriage to seal an alliance between their houses.
- Alice and Bob are an incestuous couple, and they don't want to risk having children with horrible genetic disorders.
- Alice and/or Bob have an incurable sexually transmitted disease.
- Bob lost his junk in an accident.
- Alice is a mermaid and Bob is not. They decided that having the emotional relationship of romance is more important than the physical aspect and elected to sidestep the Mermaid Problem this way.
- Alice and Bob are just kids, and their "relationship" is of the innocent, childish variety.
- Alice and/or Bob have a condition that makes them unable to perform in bed, so they've decided to avoid the issue in the first place.
- Inverted:
- Any scene with Alice and Bob together is either a sex scene or has lots of innuendoes.
- Alice and Bob are just friends, but they have sex and generally act romantic.
- Subverted: Carol accidentally walks in on Alice and Bob having sex.
- Double Subverted: She just thought they were but it was just something else mundane going on.
- Parodied: Alice and Bob treat holding hands, kissing etc the way most people would treat sex (doing these activities in private, repulsed at the idea of doing them when not married, etc)
- Zigzagged: Sometimes Alice and Bob seem to have a sexual relationship, sometimes they don't but still seem to have a romantic relationship, and other times they seem like just friends.
- Averted: Alice and Bob are confirmed onscreen to have a sexual relationship (they have biological children, someone discusses them having sex, they are seen having sex etc).
- Enforced:
- The writers don't want sex to be implied, discussed or shown because it's a kids' show.
- The producers want to avoid a Restricted Rating.
- The film has been censored by the government and edited to remove sex and nudity by the actors.
- Lampshaded: "We're allowed to see each other naked, we're married, we just never...you know"
- Invoked: Alice makes it clear to any boyfriends that if they get married, she still won't have sex.
- Exploited: They don't need to worry about Alice getting pregnant unexpectedly.
- Defied: Alice and Bob have sex.
- Discussed: "Why does that married couple never seem to...well, you know?"
- Conversed: "Those two characters are married but never seem to do it?"
- Implied: Alice and Bob both have Virgin Powers. They get married but don't lose their powers.
- Deconstructed: The lack of intimacy in the relationship eventually leads to the marriage failing.
- Reconstructed: Alice and Bob decide to continue the relationship despite the lack of intimacy because they love each other regardless.
- Played for Laughs: Alice and Bob are talking with their friends about their love lives. When the topic of sex is discussed, they immediately react with disgust.
- Played for Drama: Alice and Bob constantly have their relationship questioned because of their lack of a sex life.
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