History Main / HomoeroticSubtext

** ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' plays up the romantic symbolism of Nanoha and Fate's relationship for all it's worth, complete with TheDulcineaEffect and WhatBeautifulEyes, and their final scene crams in nearly every LoveConfession trope in the book. Later seasons drop the symbolism and their relationship looks like an married couple, including adopting a daughter together in ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS StrikerS]]''. However, despite WordOfGay from several staff members there's still some plausible deniability to keep them in the subtext category.

** ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' plays up the romantic symbolism of Nanoha and Fate's relationship for all it's worth, complete with TheDulcineaEffect and WhatBeautifulEyes, and their final scene crams in nearly every LoveConfession trope in the book. Later seasons drop the symbolism and their relationship looks like an married couple, including [[HasTwoMommies adopting a daughter together]] in ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS StrikerS]]''. However, despite WordOfGay from several staff members there's still some plausible deniability to keep them in the subtext category.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' has a shocking amount of FoeRomanceSubtext between Emma and Regina, that eventually turns into straight up HomoeroticSubtext when the latter makes a HeelFaceTurn. The first half of Season 4 has Emma attempting to rebuild her friendship with Regina, in pretty much the same way a lover would. One episode has a flashback to Emma's childhood about a friendship that went south - said friendship being incredibly charged with romantic undertones - and it's paralleled to Emma's current stance with Regina. The fact that Regina is the adoptive mother of Emma's son Henry has led to a couple of jokes about Henry [[HasTwoMommies having two mothers]], which is certainly no coincidence. It's by far the most popular ship on the show, named 'Swan Queen'.

** Snake and Otacon, starting in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' and continuing in every game set after, fall into every romance setup and couple cliche in the book, ranging from Otacon tentatively asking Snake "Do you think love can bloom on the battlefield?" to them [[HasTwoMommies raising a daughter together]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', forming the most enduring, longest lasting relationship in the series.

** Aside from Pearl and Garnet [[HasTwoMommies acting like Steven's mothers]] (including arguing about parenting strategies), Pearl is near-constantly sidling up to, latching on to, or clinging to Garnet, and is desperate to fuse with her; just a demonstration of the dance is enough for Pearl to throw her head back with her mouth open and blushing. When they do fuse in Season 2, they blatantly flirt and have a dance that's almost erotic, and it results in a multi-episode arc about how much they love being together, but because Pearl is too dependent she lies to get closer to Garnet, who is furious and hurt at the betrayal. Despite all this, Garnet makes it clear she has no interest in a romantic relationship, since she already ''is'' a romantic relationship.

** In the manga version of the bath scene, Rei was incredulous at the [[GagBoobs sheer size]] of Shizuka's boobs and had to see if they were real, [[SkinshipGrope by groping her]], though the readers don't get to see it. Instead, the next panel shows Saya's reaction, while Shizuka's cries of, "not there! ♥" and "no more! ♥" are seen [[SexyDiscretionShot from just out of frame.]]

** In the manga version of the bath scene, Rei was incredulous at the [[GagBoobs sheer size]] of [[ChristmasCake Shizuka's]] boobs and had to see if they were real, [[SkinshipGrope by groping her]], though the readers don't get to see it. Instead, the next panel shows Saya's reaction, while Shizuka's cries of, "not there! ♥" and "no more! ♥" are seen [[SexyDiscretionShot from just out of frame.]]
-->'''Saya''': ''[[[DeadpanSnarker deadpan]]]'' [[LampshadeHanging It sounds like]] [[HGame an H-Game]] over there....

** [[spoiler:Ao's WithAFootOnTheBus situation is resolved by her living in Mira's house because Misa's room becomes vacant owing to the latter going to college out of town.]] When Nanami learns the two living under the same roof, her first reaction is [[MistakenForGay accusing the two of being more than just friends]].* The ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'' manga confirms that Nyamo and Yukari went to an OneGenderSchool. It's known Nyamo was involved in an embarrassing "love letter" NoodleIncident as a teen. There are heavy implications she gave a love letter to a female student, unless it was a [[TeacherStudentRomance male teacher]].

* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Mira and Ao had a chance meeting when they were kids, which had a lasting impression to both, to the point that Mira developed a long-standing crush on Ao... before knowing Ao is actually a girl when they reunited many years later.
* The ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'' manga confirms that Nyamo and Yukari went to an OneGenderSchool. It's known Nyamo was involved in an embarrassing "love letter" NoodleIncident as a teen. There are heavy implications she gave a love letter to a female student, unless it was a [[TeacherStudentRomance male teacher]].

-->-- '''The Machine''', summarizing a typical conversation between two female characters, ''Series/PersonOfInterest''

* When the Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy quite literally crash into [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', they take him into their ship. They're all enamored with him but Drax is especially enamored with him. This one is PlayedForLaughs as Drax still hasn't gotten over the death of his wife but he calls Thor a "handsome, muscular man" and says he looks like "a pirate had a baby with an angel".

* Leon Powalski from ''VideoGame/StarFox'' has a dialog with Panther when Wolf performs a secret taunt in the Lylat Cruise stage in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''. This gives a rather ''interesting'' view to the character.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', the way Izaya and Shizuo hate each other, the psychological games, constantly moving into each others' personal space, and their rather obsessive loathing - which is a very odd departure for Izaya who 'loves all humans' - tends to be where people stamp BelligerentSexualTension on their relationship. While the author is apparently annoyed to some extent by the people who ship it, he has apparently said 'Hell, why not' and put in some subtext in later volumes, and the producers[=/=]writers of the anime pushed this into the forefront right off the bat.

** Ino and Sakura's relationship has some of this. There's even a section of ''LightNovel/KonohaHidenThePerfectDayForAWedding'' that mentions that they're very close ChildhoodFriends who work together so well that they practically breathe in sync. They both come to the same store and get the same gift at the same time. It's then stated that if they were a man and a woman, they likely would have fallen in love then and there.

* The last episode of ''LightNovel/StudentCouncilsDiscretion'' plays it for laughs where the protagonist is doing his best to avoid this as best he can and failing utterly until he finally manages to relax and give the other guy some advice. Curse you, Mafuyu!

** While ''LightNovel/FateZero'' proper is quiet on the homoerotic tension between some of the Masters and their Servants, the Einzbern Consultation Room shorts are anything but.

** Several of the Sylvester [=McCoy=]-era stories include homoerotic subtext between many of the minor characters as part of the series' turn towards the political during this time, although it generally didn't directly involve the main cast. In particular, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric The Curse of Fenric]]" and especially "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol The Happiness Patrol]]" contain significant subplots as allegories for queer rights.

* ''VideoGame/RabiRibi'': Rita and Saya have a SempaiKohai relationship (with Rita being the sempai), and Saya is shown to be more than a little fond of her. Unfortunately, Saya also has a case of CannotSpitItOut.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': The relationship between Mondo Oowada and Kiyotaka Ishimaru, after they bond over a sauna endurance contest and their mutal hot-bloodedness. They become close, openly affectionate with each other, and extoll their 'manly bond'. And when they're asked if they realize what that sounds like, the answer is '[[BluntYes yes]], but we don't care'. [[spoiler: It ends horribly when Mondo becomes the second culprit and is executed, utterly breaking Ishimaru.]]

** ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': Young Alicent and Rhaenyra have an incredibly close friendship that include spending time in the garden together, Rhaenyra wanting to [[RomanticRideSharing take Alicent on dragon rides]], sitting together atTheTourney, and Alicent dressing Rhaenyra for her promotion-to-heir ceremony with the two holding hands with their heads very close to each other. Even Episode 3 still shows Alicent trying to mend her bridge with Rhaenyra--with their interactions inadvertently coming off as a mutual case of WomanScorned--likelier to give their coming conflict at the Dance a very tragic edge. To their credit, Creator/MillyAlcock and Creator/EmilyCarey discussed having [[InvokedTrope consciously invoked it]] [[https://www.gaytimes.co.uk/culture/house-of-the-dragon-stars-address-queer-subtext-it-was-purposeful/ as they performed]].

* ''LightNovel/EndoAndKobayashiLiveTheLatestOnTsundereVillainessLieselotte'' has an InUniverseCase. Endo and Kobayashi occasionally comment on "yuri developments" in Lieselotte's interactions with Fiene in the FictionalVideoGame ''Love Me Magically!''. They elect not to [[NoInnerFourthWall explain to Siegwald]] what they mean by that, especially since it actually wouldn't be too crazy for things to develop in that way based on what they know--and they {{ship|perondeck}} Siegwald / Lieselotte and Baldur / Fiene.

** The anime version of the scene differs by showing the audience what Rei's doing. Shizuka is shown bent over the side of the bathtub with Rei fondling her breasts from behind. Though the animation [[NotWhatItLooksLike makes it seem]] that she's doing Shizuka doggy-style, making her breasts appear to be [[{{Gainaxing}} bouncing]] instead. When Saya looks over her shoulder to see what's going on, her eyes go wide in embarrassment and she quickly turn back around.

** Bubblegum and Marceline have all the signs of ex-girlfriends who had a nasty break-up but still want to get back together, starting in "What Was Missing" and expanded on in "Sky Witch", [[ComicBook/AdventureTime the comics]], and ''[[ComicBook/AdventureTimeMarcelineAndTheScreamQueens Marceline and the Scream Queens]]''. WordOfGod is that they ''did'' use to date, but the threat of MoralGuardians means this will likely never be acknowledged in the show. [[spoiler: Spoiler alert: [[TheBigDamnKiss It finally got acknowledged during the GrandFinale of the main series.]]]]

In older media, when there were rules forbidding overt displays of homosexuality, writers who wanted to create gay characters would often resort to homosexual subtext. See also HomoeroticDream and PseudoRomanticFriendship. Supertrope of QueerFlowers, which concerns floral symbolism as text revealing sexual orientations in subtext.

In older media, when there were rules forbidding overt displays of homosexuality, writers who wanted to create gay characters would often resort to homosexual subtext. See also HomoeroticDream. Supertrope of QueerFlowers, which concerns floral symbolism as text revealing sexual orientations in subtext.

* When the Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy quite literally crash into ComicBook/{{Thor}} in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', they take him into their ship. They're all enamored with him but Drax is especially enamored with him. This one is PlayedForLaughs as Drax still hasn't gotten over the death of his wife but he calls Thor a "handsome, muscular man" and says he looks like "a pirate had a baby with an angel".

** ''HomoeroticSubtext/LoveLive''
** ''HomoeroticSubtext/LoveLiveSunshine''
** ''HomoeroticSubtext/LoveLiveNijigasakiHighSchoolIdolClub''
** ''HomoeroticSubtext/LoveLiveSuperstar''