Basic Trope: A couple that used to be Just Friends gets a Relationship Upgrade, and things don't exactly work out.
- Straight: Alice and Bob become an Official Couple, and they're happy for a while, but then they start fighting.
- Exaggerated: Alice and Bob declare their undying love for one another, then two minutes later, they're fighting.
- Downplayed: Alice and Bob become an Official Couple. When they were Just Friends, they used to bicker more or less once a week, but now it's twice a week.
- Justified:
- Bad qualities that Alice and/or Bob overlooked are now beginning to surface.
- Alice and Bob really weren't suited for one another, since they have different goals and ideals.
- Alice and Bob have been friends for a long time, and while they are good friends, there's no chemistry because of Westermarck Effect, and trying to force coupliness ends up causing more misery than happiness.
- The mystery of another person that makes the early stages of a relationship exciting never happened because Alice and Bob spent so much time together that there was no real mystery.
- Alice and Bob started spending too much time together and neglecting everyone and everything else they once cared about, and are now feeling it.
- The sex was really bad, making them regret ever upgrading.
- Inverted: Alice and Bob break up and decide that they are Better as Friends. (They can either be happier that way or not so much.)
- Subverted: Alice and Bob start dating and initially felt awkward getting lovey-dovey with their best friend, but manages to stick through the initial awkwardness and continue the relationship.
- Double Subverted: Even after months of giving the whole "dating" thing a try, Alice and Bob felt No Sparks from each other and all their attempts to force a romantic chemistry end up in even more discomfort. Finally, they decide that they will never work as a couple and break off for good.
- Parodied: Alice and Bob argue about who loves the other more, or do a No, You Hang Up First routine
a la xkcd. - Zig Zagged: Alice and Bob keep breaking up and getting back together.
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob get together, but don't seem to have any major problems or fight.
- Alice and Bob don't get together.
- Enforced:
- Rule of Drama
- A Take That! at shippers of a Fan-Preferred Couple that the writer(s) does not like.
- Lampshaded: "Ever since you two got together, all you do is fight over the littlest things!"
- Invoked: Alice and Bob have their first "sleepover", and Bob is messy in Alice's apartment.
- Exploited: Damien plays matchmaker for Alice and Bob to drive them apart. He's Bob's Heterosexual Life-Partner and all this ship teasing with Alice means Bob has less time to spend with his buddy Damien. Damien hopes that if Alice and Bob have a Relationship Upgrade, they'll finally get sick of each other so he can have Bob all to himself.
- Defied: Alice decides not to let it bother her too much and just reminds Bob nicely to please tidy up after himself.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Alice and Bob are miserable when they thought they'd be happy, because they are starting to notice qualities that didn't matter so much when they were friends, but now pose a threat to their coupledom or just annoy each other. They may have been spending too much time together, or maybe the timing of the Relationship Upgrade was off. If they stay together, they will continue to be unhappy; if they don't, they may resent one another.
- Reconstructed: Alice and Bob work through their problems and become a stronger couple. They still have disagreements, but feeling secure in their relationship, they don't let it get to them. They may even start to enjoy playfully bickering with each other.
- Played For Laughs: Toilet Seat Divorce, Awful Wedded Life.
- Played For Drama: Bob angsts over how he'd always thought a happy marriage with Alice was inevitable, but now he'd gotten what he wanted, and it was worse than being single.
- Implied: Alice and Bob get a Relationship Upgrade. The next time Alice shows up, she seems depressed and angry, and refuses to tell anyone why Bob isn't with her.
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