History Main / RelationshipWritingFumble

* FanPreferredCouple: Fans prefer to ship a character with someone other than their intended LoveInterest, possibly because they see more chemistry between them.

* DerailingLoveInterests: {{Romantic False Lead}}s are derailed by the author because they come across as better romantic partners than the intended LoveInterest.

Creators who break away from established relationship clues often end up confusing their viewers. They may have used LoveTropes between a parent and child, SiblingTropes between the two intended {{Love Interest}}s, or FriendshipTropes between two characters that hate each other. Although sometimes the writer can play with these tropes effectively, it more often leaves people with the completely wrong impression.

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1551472304022339600 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

* FriendshipWritingFumble: A platonic relationship that accidentally comes off as romantic to audiences.

* DerailingLoveInterests: [[RomanticFalseLead Romantic False Leads]] are derailed by the author because they come across as better romantic partners than the intended LoveInterest.

* FanPreferredCouple: Fans see more chemistry between two characters than their intended [[LoveInterest Love Interests]].

* FanPreferredCouple: Fans see more chemistry between two characters than their intended [[LoveInterest Love Interests]].

* NoYay: A romantic relationship that comes off as {{Squick}}y to audiences.

* FoeYayShipping: An antagonistic relationship that accidentally comes off as BelligerentSexualTension to audiences.

* IncestYayShipping: A familial relationship accidentally comes off as romantic or as BelligerentSexualTension to audiences.

* FriendshipWritingFumble A platonic relationship that accidentally comes off as romantic to audiences.

* FriendshiCreatorritingFumble A platonic relationship that accidentally comes off as romantic to audiences.

->''"...you cleaned his tonsils with your tongue! That's not a very 'motherly' thing to do!!"''
-->-- '''Creator/AmandaWinnLee''' on Shinji and Misato's relationship in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''

Most people, after reading enough fiction, begin to have an idea of how relationships begin to fit together, and can spot a budding romance a mile off. Sometimes, though, the writers break away from these conceptions and do something entirely unexpected. Normally, the writers figure out what the relationship between two people should be in a series, then they take the [[LoveTropes stock derivatives]] and toss in clues to cue the viewer into how things are between those two people. When this trope crops up, however, it's usually the result of a writer breaking from the established relationship types and attempting to forge unusual bonds. To do this, they need to either re-use existing cues (and risk the viewer [[MisaimedFandom drawing the wrong conclusions]]) or create new ones (and risk the viewer drawing the wrong conclusions). Although sometimes a writer will pull it off, it more often leaves people with the completely wrong impression.

This trope isn't about writers [[DesignatedLoveInterest fumbling the treatment of some relationship they ''meant'' to put in canon]]--making it more sympathetic or less sympathetic than they intended (in nine times out of ten, the trope you get in that case is FanPreferredCouple). This is about a writer fumbling their treatment of something that wasn't supposed to be a romantic relationship at all with the result that fans look at it and go "huh, seems like there's something there." Perhaps they accidentally made the protagonist and antagonist [[FoeYayShipping a bit too chummy]], put too much BelligerentSexualTension into SiblingRivalry, had too much connection within the IncompatibleOrientation end [[TriangRelations of the love triangle]], or even slipped off the tightrope of HeterosexualLifePartners. Regardless of how it happened, they managed to pull off a Relationship Writing Fumble and now the writers are stuck dealing with the consequences. In minor cases, it will just be popular {{Fanon}}, but sometimes you'll have entire fanbases assuming that's what the writer "really" intended.

The best ways to spot these fall into two groups--WordOfGod meddling and series dissonance:
* The WordOfGod comes out to explain how things ''[[ShipSinking really]]'' are.
* The relationship is reworked to either concede or prohibit the unintended consequences in an UltimateUniverse.
* The scenes and dialog in question are [[{{Bowdlerise}} overdubbed]], [[CanonDiscontinuity excised]], or {{retcon}}ned.
* MediaWatchdog bait in a [[AvoidTheDreadedGRating G-Rated]] series.
* One or both of the characters in question is MasterOfTheMixedMessage.

This is highly subjective, of course. What may seem like obvious {{subtext}} to you might not be the case to another (in particular, a lot of plain old SiblingRivalry commonly gets [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation interpreted]] as BelligerentSexualTension). See also: HoYay, FoeYayShipping, NoYay, IncestSubtext, HideYourGays, and TheNotLoveInterest.
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!!Examples Subpages:

[[index]]
* RelationshipWritingFumble/AnimeAndManga
* RelationshipWritingFumble/ComicBooks
* RelationshipWritingFumble/AnimatedFilms
* RelationshipWritingFumble/LiveActionFilms
* RelationshipWritingFumble/{{Literature}}
* RelationshipWritingFumble/LiveActionTV
* RelationshipWritingFumble/VideoGames
* RelationshipWritingFumble/WesternAnimation
[[/index]]

!!Other Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOQk_pWmisA remake]] of an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmuNpadhxo0&t=9s 80's Folger's commercial]] has a reunion between a guy who came back from for Christmas to his younger sister. In the original, this is innocent BigBrotherWorship due to her young age, but the remake ages her up and makes her actions seems rather [[IncestSubtext flirtatious]]. It ended up inspiring some parody videos, and even fanfiction, to play up the incest angle even further.
* A series of Renault Clio ads in the UK featured a pair of French people, a beautiful young woman named Nicole and a handsome old man--the viewer assumes from their ridiculous {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST and the old stereotypes about French men that they're lovers, until TheReveal when the woman addresses him as "Papa". This doesn't dispel the sexual tension, though, and they just look like an incestuous pair. When Creator/PeterCapaldi was asked about his role in Series 8 of ''Series/DoctorWho'', he reportedly was adamant that his relationship with the companion Clara had no sexual tension or flirting at all, requesting "no Papa-Nicole moments".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' had this between Carol and Harry, who were intended to be friends and PlatonicLifePartners. Despite that, there was some quite obvious [[UnresolvedSexualTension chemistry]] between the two from the start and WordOfGod -- after about forty chapters of vagueness -- wound up grudgingly admitting that the [[PortmanteauCoupleName ship name]] was cute, before apparently throwing up his arms, declaring that IJustWriteTheThing, and deciding to go with it. He's also added that by the sequel, both are more than JustFriends, with literally ''[[EveryoneCanSeeIt everyone]]'' being able to see it and their protestations ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis that they. Are. Not. Flirting]]'' being treated as a RunningGag. On a more serious note, both have tacitly admitted to being in love with each other, but with both of their issues (which are many, and varied), the two of them decided to keep things as they are for the time being, making it an AnchoredShip. For now. [[spoiler: As of chapter 46 of the sequel, they've had a RelationshipUpgrade.]]
* ''Fanfic/{{Deserving}}'' manages to do this with ''[[{{Squick}} two toddlers.]]''
* ''Hogwarts Exposed'':
** Caitlin and Emily are basically sisters through adoption. They are constantly enjoying each other's company, sleeping in the same bed, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick engaging in oral sex with each other]]. WordOfGod is that the oral sex is meant to be seen as a sign of the strength of their bond as sisters. A sporker of the series honestly couldn't tell if it was a joke or not when the girls declared themselves to be dating.
** The CardCarryingVillain school bully Dick Bancroft's interest in Jamie (who we're told he hates, and even tried to kill once) can easily be interpreted as romantic infatuation. Again, this hasn't been lost on sporkers.
* ''Fanfic/PrincessTrixieSparkle'': Luna and Shadow are supposed to be LikeBrotherAndSister, but many fans see them as a ChildhoodFriendRomance instead. It doesn't help that Shadow's FriendshipSong ballad, "My Dear Luna", parodies a love song.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Music]]
* "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town was supposedly not meant to sound like a bisexual romance song. The singer is jealous of her ex's new girlfriend. It would be bad enough that the singer is using the term "girl crush" [[YouKeepUsingThatWord incorrectly]], however the song is dripping with LesYay. With lyrics like "I wanna taste her lips/Yeah, 'cause they taste like you/I want to drown myself/In a bottle of her perfume" and "I don't get no peace/Thinking about her under your bed sheets/The way that she's whispering/The way that she's pulling you in/Lord knows I've tried/I can't get her off my mind", it seems like the singer is equally into both individuals.
* "Let's Love" by Music/{{Echosmith}}, was originally written as a duet despite the fact that the two singers are siblings. When the label decided to make it a single, they understandably wanted it rerecorded as a solo.
* "White Wedding" by Billy Idol, at face value, sounds a lot like incest. However, WordOfGod says that "little sister" was just supposed to be slang for "girlfriend" and is not ''actually'' about siblings.
* "Drops of Jupiter" by Music/{{Train}} is usually interpreted as a GriefSong addressed to a deceased girlfriend or wife by people who don't know the background behind it, since the lyrics make it seem like a LoveNostalgiaSong. It was actually written as a tribute to the lead singer's mother, who had died a few years prior to the song's release.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
** In the ''Scars of Mirrodin'' Block, Venser is supposed to have a relationship with Karn akin to that of a long lost pupil meeting the remains of his mentor... a relationship that was never developed beforehand (in fact, downright OutOfCharacter, considering both of them had more chemistry with Jhoira, Karn as a friend and Venser as a perv, and Karn actually disliked Venser), and this was never developed in the novel anyway.
** In an earlier Mirrodin Block, the main characters Glissa -- an elf -- and Slobad -- a goblin -- were supposed to be good friends or adopted family at best. However, between the frequent kisses she gives him, the fact that she doesn't mind undressing in front of him, and the blatant confession that he is important to her implies something else. The epilogue in the 'Fifth Dawn' only made it worse. Considering it was caused by bad writing, the writers were asking for the fumble.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* In ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'', Albus and Scorpius develop a forbidden relationship with one another that involves them risking their lives for one another, defying other people's attempts to keep them apart, and is even paralleled at one point with Snape and Lily's relationship. Said relationship is ''supposed'' to be strictly friendship, with Scorpius asking out his actual crush Rose at the end, but some readers interpreted it [[HoYay quite differently]].
* ''Theatre/SundayInTheParkWithGeorge'' has perhaps one of the oddest examples out there, introducing a fumble between a man and an apparition of his deceased great-grandmother [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane that may or may not actually be there]]. The man in question, George, is the [[IdenticalGrandson identical great-grandson]] of painter Georges Seurat, and she seems to think he's him, but Sondheim probably should've thought before giving lines like "[[TriumphantReprise We have always belonged together]]" to relatives.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* While WordOfGod has it that Miho from ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' isn't gay, she does seem to have a [[PseudoRomanticFriendship very close, intimate emotional connection]] with [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Ping.]] Or rather, Ping has an emotional connection with Miho, but not vice versa, mostly caused by Ping being a naïve cutie and Miho being a ManipulativeBastard.
* [=Davan/PeeJee=] in ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive''. WordOfGod claims it was fumble initially but turned into [[TrollingCreator trolling the shippers]] after they started asking when they would get together. Eventually he made clear that the two would never get together, at least in part because [[WriteWhoYouKnow the "real [=PeeJee=]"]] is against the idea.
* Stunt and Bumper from ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'' gave off extreme vibes of HoYay from the start. Except they were only meant to be HeterosexualLifePartners. In the end, the creator just went with it and gave them several moments of ShipTease.
* In ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'', the Nightmare Knight is supposed to have a parental relationship with all of the Disaster Masters. However, that was not made very clear outside of WordOfGod, making many people assume that Rosemaster's deep devotion and love for him were romantic rather than daughterly.
* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': The on-panel dynamics between the main characters are meant to be entirely platonic. However, two of the closer pairs of friends are gradually gaining a LikeAnOldMarriedCouple dynamic and are frequently seen doing things alone together. When the story reaches a point where the main group would have every reason to split up, the two pairs of very good friends plan to stay together either by choice or because someone else wants them to.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick'':
** During her ''Film/TheBabySittersClub'' review, she comments that [[{{Tomboy}} Kristy]] and [[AsianAirhead Claudia]] share looks that [[LongingLook seem to go on just a bit too long.]] She also notes that the subplot about Kristy's VisitByDivorcedDad comes off like an awkward meeting with an "ex who lost a lot of weight". [[{{Squick}} (Also, burnt pancakes shaped like sperm.)]]
--->'''Chick!Kristy:''' I'm just having an affair with my dad, you guys!
** In her crossover review of ''WesternAnimation/TheChipmunkAdventure'' with WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic, he incorrectly refers to the villains as lovers, only for the Chick to comment that they're brother and sister. This just {{Squick}}s him out.
** In her review of ''Film/{{Matilda}}'' guest star Creator/MaraWilson mentions how fans of the movie wrote a lot of slash fic between her character and the teacher (bear in mind, Matilda was six years old and the teacher adopts her at the end). A kind-of romantic clip of the two plays, and the Chick admits that she kind of sees it, to Mara's disgust.
--->'''The Chick:''' It's not ''not'' there!
* [[MindGameShip Flippy and Flaky]] from ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' are victims of this trope, according to most fans. In spite of the fact that the creator has set two prominent [[OfficialCouple official couples]] (Cuddles/Giggles and Handy/Petunia), [[FanPreferredCouple a lot of fans still want to see Flippy/Flaky happening]]. There are many reasons this happened, but the most important ones are the fact that Flaky is the only one who has appeared to get closer to Flippy, becoming a potential good friend of him, which apparently determined him to stop killing her. She even made him return to his normal self once, although Flaky has developed a phobia for him and she has started running away from him in the latest episode. There is also the fact that Flaky has no gender according to WordOfGod, in an interview that also reveals that Flaky is asexual.
* A weirdly circular example in ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel''. The friendship between Charlie and Vaggie was written so tenderly that many storyboard artists working on the show took them to be a couple; Vivienne decided to roll with that and they are canonically a couple now. But in the final product, their relationship is so subtle that many first-time viewers take Vaggie to simply be Charlie's friend, plus it doesn't help that Charlie is the only person Vaggie responds positively to and [[SatelliteCharacter her goals entirely revolve around Charlie's.]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Qrow and Clover were initially supposed to be antagonistic towards each other and only become friends over the course of Volume 7. However, fans mistakenly thought the pair was being set up for a romance due to several unplanned events that forced writer Eddy Rivas to acknowledge with hindsight that it could have been better handled: the voice actors so underplayed the early antagonism that fans didn't detect it; certain animators improvised body-language to be more flirtatious than intended; and the official RWBY social media account played with ShipTease. This led to a backlash from the LGBTQ community, who felt like they'd been queerbaited [[spoiler:when Clover's death ended the opportunity for some rare male representation in a female-dominated show]].
[[/folder]]

Most people, after reading enough fiction, begin to have an idea of how relationships begin to fit together, and can spot a budding romance a mile off. Sometimes, though, the writers break away from these conceptions and do something entirely unexpected. Normally, the writers figure out what the relationship between two people should be in a series, then they take the [[LoveTropes stock derivatives]] and toss in cues to clue the viewer into how things are between those two people. When this trope crops up, however, it's usually the result of a writer breaking from the established relationship types and attempting to forge unusual bonds. To do this, they need to either re-use existing cues (and risk the viewer [[MisaimedFandom drawing the wrong conclusions]]) or create new ones (and risk the viewer drawing the wrong conclusions). Although sometimes a writer will pull it off, it more often leaves people with the completely wrong impression.

* In the ''Scars of Mirrodin'' Block of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', Venser is supposed to have a relationship with Karn akin to that of a long lost pupil meeting the remains of his mentor... a relationship that was never developed beforehand (in fact, downright OutOfCharacter, considering both of them had more chemistry with Jhoira, Karn as a friend and Venser as a perv, and Karn actually disliked Venser), and this was never developed in the novel anyway.
* In an earlier Mirrodin Block of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', the main characters Glissa -- an elf -- and Slobad -- a goblin -- were supposed to be good friends or adopted family at best. However, between the frequent kisses she gives him, the fact that she doesn't mind undressing in front of him, and the blatant confession that he is important to her implies something else. The epilogue in the 'Fifth Dawn' only made it worse. Considering it was caused by bad writing, the writers were asking for the fumble.

* "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town was supposedly not meant to sound like a bisexual romance song. The singer is jealous of her exe's new girlfriend. It would be bad enough that the singer is using the term "girl crush" [[YouKeepUsingThatWord incorrectly]], however the song is dripping with LesYay. With lyrics like "I wanna taste her lips/Yeah, 'cause they taste like you/I want to drown myself/In a bottle of her perfume" and "I don't get no peace/Thinking about her under your bed sheets/The way that she's whispering/The way that she's pulling you in/Lord knows I've tried/I can't get her off my mind", it seems like the singer is equally into both individuals.

This trope isn't about writers [[DesignatedLoveInterest fumbling the treatment of some relationship they ''meant'' to put in canon]]--making it more sympathetic or less sympathetic than they intended (in nine times out of ten, the trope you get in that case is FanPreferredCouple). This is about a writer fumbling their treatment of something that wasn't supposed to be a romantic relationship at all with the result that fans look at it and go "huh, seems like there's something there." Perhaps they accidentally made the protagonist and antagonist [[FoeYay a bit too chummy]], put too much BelligerentSexualTension into SiblingRivalry, had too much connection within the IncompatibleOrientation end [[TriangRelations of the love triangle]], or even slipped off the tightrope of HeterosexualLifePartners. Regardless of how it happened, they managed to pull off a Relationship Writing Fumble and now the writers are stuck dealing with the consequences. In minor cases, it will just be popular {{Fanon}}, but sometimes you'll have entire fanbases assuming that's what the writer "really" intended.

This is highly subjective, of course. What may seem like obvious {{subtext}} to you might not be the case to another (in particular, a lot of plain old SiblingRivalry commonly gets [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation interpreted]] as BelligerentSexualTension). See also: HoYay, FoeYay, NoYay, IncestSubtext, HideYourGays, and TheNotLoveInterest.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Qrow and Clover were initially supposed to be antagonistic towards each other and only become friends over the course of Volume 7. However, fans mistakenly thought the pair was being set up for a romance due to several unplanned events that forced writer Eddy Rivas to acknowledge with hindsight that it could have been better handled: the so voice actors underplayed the early antagonism that fans didn't detect it; certain animators improvised body-language to be more flirtatious than intended; and the official RWBY social media account played with ShipTease. This led to a backlash from the LGBTQ community, who felt like they'd been queerbaited [[spoiler:when Clover's death ended the opportunity for some rare male representation in a female-dominated show]].

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Qrow and Clover were initially supposed to be antagonistic towards each other and only become friends over the course of Volume 7. However, fans mistakenly thought the pair was being set up for a romance due to several unplanned events that forced writer Eddy Rivas to acknowledge with hindsight that it could have been better handled: the voice actors so underplayed the early antagonism that fans didn't realise they were supposed to dislike each other initially; certain animators improvised scene animation to make the characters' body-language more flirtatious than intended; and the official RWBY social media account pushed the pairing via the use of ShipTease. This created a backlash from the LGBTQ community, who felt like they'd been queerbaited [[spoiler:when Clover's death ended the opportunity for some rare male representation in a show dominated by females]].

* While WordOfGod has it that Miho from ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' isn't gay, she does seem to have a [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship very close, intimate emotional connection]] with [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Ping.]] Or rather, Ping has an emotional connection with Miho, but not vice versa, mostly caused by Ping being a naïve cutie and Miho being a ManipulativeBastard.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': In Volume 7, Clover, a charming Atlas soldier, is introduced as a supportive friend in a time where Qrow really needed one. While the writing itself makes it clear they're simply friends, changes independently made by the animators that were not asked for by the writers (most noticeably, a recurring tendency of Clover to almost flirtatiously wink at Qrow), and the decisions of the official twitter account and voice actors to play up their relationship into almost romantic territory to promote the Volume (especially with posts likening them to more canonical couples like Ren/Nora and Yang/Blake) made fans assume the two were meant to be seen as a couple in the making, especially considering the fandom was, at the time, hungering for some male LGBT+ representation. This backfired immensely when the Rooster Teeth crew was accused of queerbaiting by the end of the Volume due to what happened in its last two episodes, and they admitted that these changes were not a good idea when they never intended to make them a couple.

!!Examples:

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/DotHackLegendOfTheTwilight'', particularly the anime adaptation, writes the brother and sister protagonists, Shugo and Rena, in a way that came across as incestuous to a lot of viewers.
* ''Manga/ZeroSevenGhost'': Teito and Mikage. Mikage tells Teito that he considers him to be as important as his own family (possibly meaning he considers Teito "family") before declaring "I love you, Teito." There's other suspect hints pointing to HoYay as well. Such as Mikage's running [[TheGlomp glomp]] upon meeting Teito again (complete with sparkles) and sleeping in the same bed together in the first episode.
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': During the period of Manga Chapters 92-93 several readers assumed Gabi had a crush on Reiner due to her blushing around him, constantly clinging to him, following him everywhere around, her insistence on holding his hand, and the fact that [[DoggedNiceGuy Falco]] [[TriangRelations clearly seemed to be jealous of her behavior towards him]]. But, chapter 94 revealed [[spoiler: that they're cousins]].
* ''Manga/BlackButler'': Ciel and Sebastian have so much HoYay that it's easy to forget they're only using one another for their personal goals (Ciel using Sebastian for revenge and Sebastian only helping him so he can eat his soul later). There are no real hints that indicate they care about each other as friends, or even fellow individuals, but their constant physical intimacy and dialogue has lead to fans shipping them together more than Ciel and his actual fiancee.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' centers almost entirely around the relationship between its protagonist, Ichigo, and the soul reaper who changed his life, Rukia, with whom he fights LikeAnOldMarriedCouple. They are described as the most important person in each other's world, and the series's best known arc, the Soul Society arc, is about Ichigo fighting against all odds to rescue her from certain execution. Nevertheless, Ichigo ultimately ends up with his admirer Orihime, who emerges from being primarily a DistressedDamsel and comic relief character to a serious romantic contender in the final arc, while at the same time Rukia, thanks to [[RankUp her new promotion to Lieutenant]], becomes too involved in soul reaper matters to hang out with Ichigo's friend group to the degree she used to. With all the emotional weight given to the relationship in the earlier arcs, however, more than a few fans were very surprised and displeased.
* WordOfGod reveals that this trope occurred between Creator/{{CLAMP}} members in the early chapters of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura''. The artist thought that Tomoyo had a crush on main character Sakura's older brother Touya, while the story writer actually meant for her to be in love with Sakura herself. When the artist found out her mistake, they quickly {{retcon}}ned the instances of Tomoyo blushing around Touya to be due to Touya (specifically, Touya's ears) reminding her of Sakura. [[http://usomitai.livejournal.com/68511.html CLAMP had a good laugh about this in a post-series interview.]]
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
** After the series ended, the staff used post-series [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary materials]] to answer the ShipToShipCombat between the fans of [[ActionGirl Kallen]] and [[MysteriousWaif C.C.]] by saying that Lelouch viewed C.C. as an equal. The problem came when they implied that C.C. essentially used Lelouch for her own emotional satisfaction, which [[WriterConflictsWithCanon blatantly contradicts her actions throughout the series]], especially late in the series and in the final episode, where she's shown [[spoiler:crying as he's assassinated, and happily speaking to his spirit in the final scene]]. The issue seems to be put down to rest with the sequel film, ''Anime/CodeGeassLelouchOfTheResurrection'', [[spoiler:where C.C. resurrects Lelouch because she still has some unfinished business and admits to Kallen that it's indeed selfish of her to do it. Lelouch doesn't seem to mind about it and in the end, he chooses to join her in travelling around the world and names himself as L.L. which, according to WordOfGod, is a WackyMarriageProposal and C.C. happily accepts it]]. But again, the ''Resurrection'' film is set in an AlternateContinuity and there are fans who are dubious with its canonicity.
** Kallen with Gino. A few scenes throughout the show seemed to establish a relatively [[FriendlyEnemy friendly rivalry]] between them, plus Gino's backstory from the official novels said that he had a crush on his family's Eleven maid, all seemingly an attempt to set up an eventual relationship. However, they just didn't interact enough to properly develop it, with the overall result looked more like Gino went from viewing Kallen as a WorthyOpponent to having a crush on her, but Kallen herself never visibly reciprocated. Considering that Kallen's focal relationship was supposed to be between Lelouch and herself, then Gino's advances falling short might be intentional.
** Rolo claims he sees Lelouch as his older brother, but in some scenes, it seems more like [[HoYay he's in love with him]]. This is to the point where some viewers saw [[spoiler:his killing of Shirley]] as a case of MurderTheHypotenuse when in fact it was because he wanted to murder Lelouch's real ''sibling'' Nunnally, and Shirley, who remembered Nunnally's existence and wanted to reunite Lelouch and her, was a threat to that happening.
* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'':
** An episode had Miyako and Mimi growing really close, and Miyako even has a [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment random]] {{Shoujo}}-styled ImagineSpot of herself and Mimi in {{Pimped Out Dress}}es embracing and looking deeply into each other's eyes. The implication was supposed to be that Miyako saw Mimi as a CoolBigSis, but some fans saw it differently. Not helping is that the scene is animated similarly to the LesYay-laden ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''.
** Daisuke also has gotten quite a bit of HoYay with Ken, especially as Daisuke becomes the main emotional support system of Ken.
** This trope plays a rather big part in why the series' DistantFinale (where Yamato and Sora were revealed to be married) was controversial for many fans. Hiroyuki Kakudou [[WordOfGod states that]] he always intended for [[{{Determinator}} Taichi]] and [[TheHeart Sora]] to be [[PlatonicLifePartners just friends]], and for Sora to fall in love with [[TheLancer Yamato]] as a way of subverting the usual pattern of the main boy and girl ending up with each other. This was also the plan for ''02'' until ''Our War Game!'' complicated this, because writer Creator/MamoruHosoda was unaware of the intended OfficialCouple and laid the Sora and Taichi ShipTease thick in the movie. When Sora began dating Yamato in ''02'', many people were confused at the sudden change in love interest. Even the voice actors expressed surprise at this. When ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'' rolled around, this time with a new writing staff, they began implicating once more that Taichi and Sora did have some tension and began marketing their relationship with Yamato as a LoveTriangle. In the English dub, the RelationshipUpgrade between Sora and Yamato seemed even more random and [[StrangledByTheRedString out-of-nowhere]]. Apparently, Jeff Nimoy, who was in charge of the English dub, [[WriterOnBoard shipped Taichi with Sora]], and thus the script changes made the dialogue look like Tai had a longtime crush on Sora while making the friendly conversations between Yamato and Sora rather awkward and even hostile at times.
** Taichi and Hikari have IncestSubtext that may or may not have been accidental depending on who you ask. Creator/MamoruHosoda, the director of Hikari's debut episode, did have a very strange interview about the incestuous undertones about their relationship. During a live stream on August 1, 2018, Hiromi Seki, the producer of the show, explicitly mentioned she had warned Hosoda about the episode, saying that the scene where Taichi returns to the Digital World "didn't seem like a parting between siblings, but a different relationship."
* ''Manga/Eyeshield21'':
** Mamori and Sena are supposed to be platonic friends, but apart from various references to Mamori's feelings for him being practically ''maternal'', some moments can be misinterpreted as ShipTease. Apparently they were supposed to be romantic at one time, but they eventually wrote that out and made them JustFriends.
** Agon's jerkass behavior towards his brother is limited to teasing and noogies while his brother, Unsui, wants nothing more then for Agon to live up to his full potential. In the anime this is {{flanderiz|ation}}ed into Agon being almost violently abusive to his brother and Unsui declaring that his sole reason for existence is to serve his brother. So a relationship that was meant to be fairly normal (Agon being a jerkass and Unsui being a bit of a prude), ended up having parallels to an abusive relationship.
* ''Anime/FafnerInTheAzureDeadAggressor'': This trope is probably the reason why [[HoYay the Kazuki/Soushi pairing]] is so popular among the fandom.
** At this point, in the middle of sequel ''Exodus'' and after over a decade since the original series, it is questionable whether it was this trope or intentional ShipTease. Kazuki is still as [[CluelessChickMagnet oblivious]] as ever and the series has not let up on the undertones. In fact, now they only look pretty darn domestic.
* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' and its [[TheMovie movie]], ''[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa Conqueror of Shamballa]]'', is rife with this:
** Probably the most unfortunate case is with Ed and Al, who seem [[IncestSubtext a lot more devoted to and obsessed with each other]] than merely ''brotherly'' affection would suggest.
** TheMovie arguably had some of this with Roy and Ed as well; Roy has basically [[spoiler:withdrawn from the military and his master plan to become Führer]], and it's only seeing Ed [[spoiler:return to Amestris]] that lifts him out of his funk. And then they fight alongside each other, completely ignoring Riza and Winry.
** There's also the intense fixation that Alfons Heiderich--Al's AlternateUniverse counterpart--has with Ed.
** On the girls side, Winry and Sheska spend a lot of vaguely romantic moments together and Winry isn't Ed's love interest like in the manga.
* Another HoYay example: ''Manga/GameXRush'', big time. It doesn't help that there are almost no major characters besides the two main guys, who spend the first volume in a platonic BelligerentSexualTension states and the second volume having Deep Emotional Confrontations and Meaningful Looks and Intimate (not ''that'' intimate!) Physical Contact.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** Masashi Ikeda, the director of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', said in an interview that he didn't intend a romantic relationship between main characters Heero Yuy and Relena Peacecraft, considering the political and symbolic relationship between the two to be much more important than a romantic relationship. {{Yaoi Fangirl}}s love to hold this interview up as "proof" that Heero is gay to support their shipping him with Duo Maxwell. However, they completely ignore a few ''other'' things Ikeda said, like the fact that he considered '''all''' romance in the series ancillary to the overall plot, that he considers himself horrible at writing male-female relationships, and, most importantly, that just because Heero and Relena didn't become a couple in the series doesn't mean that it'll never happen at all; Ikeda even admitted that he could see easily them getting together once their lives have settled down. This is further aided by the fact that every official sidestory has a strong emphasis on Heero and Relena's romantic attraction to one another, and that most of the cast (including Duo himself) [[ShipperOnDeck tries to get them to admit their feelings for each other]]. [[spoiler:And then the sequel novel ''Frozen Teardrop'', written by the anime's head writer, follows through on Ikeda's assertion and sees Heero and Relena getting married at the end.]]
** Likewise ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'', where the writers intended a romance between protagonist Shinn Asuka and teammate Lunamaria Hawke. Unfortunately, Luna only ever acted as a sort of sister figure to Shinn while openly crush on returning character Athrun Zala. In fact, they never hook up until Athrun (and Luna's sister Meyrin) are apparently killed (by Shinn!), the whole thing coming off more like survivor's guilt. And then in post-series interviews, the director called Shinn and Luna's relationship the only "pure" one in the whole show. The directors' claim could come from the films' compilations which expanded the relationship between Shinn and Luna making them the only couple that starts in the series. Meanwhile, most of publications by Sunrise state that Athrun was just Luna's idol and there was not love.
*** Speaking of Athrun, we've got his train wreck of a relationship with Cagalli. Thanks to AesopAmnesia he rejoins ZAFT and ends up having to fight Kira (again). When he finally pulls his head out of his ass, it looks like Cagalli has forgive him, but by the series end both are giving off very mixed signals. The movie may have been meant to correct this, but at this rate they won't finish it until G.R.R. Martin finishes A Song of Ice and Fire.
** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory Gundam0083]]'' has a notorious example of this. The whole series develops a relationship between protagonist Kou Uraki and WrenchWench Nina Purpleton, and it does this well enough. But then in the penultimate episode, Nina reveals that she's in love with TheRival Anavel Gato completely out of the blue (and does so by shooting Kou, who's trying to prevent a ColonyDrop). The only foreshadowing viewers are given is an extremely brief scene in the first episode where Nina seems to recognize Gato, but it could easily be written off as her just having an OhCrap moment. This moment, combined with her early abrasiveness and seemingly valuing machines over people, has made Nina one of ''Gundam''[='s=] biggest [[TheScrappy Scrappies]]. The manga adaptation handles this much better by having a {{Flashback}} that shows how Nina and Gato first met and develops their relationship a bit before the betrayal.
** And while we're at it, let's talk about Amuro Ray, the ''original'' Gundam hero. In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' he has a vague romance with Sayla Mass which is thrown off when he meets his apparent soulmate Lalah Sune (who he then kills accidentally). In the sequel ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]'', he got a new love interest, Beltorchika Irma. Unfortunately, she became a ClingyJealousGirl in record time, so much so that fans ignore [[WhatTheHellHero other characters (including Amuro) calling her on it]], or her later CharacterDevelopment. Then in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Char's Counterattack]]'', Amuro got a DisposableWoman, Chein Agi, whose relevance to the plot was basically nil. A good bit of this was RealLifeWritesThePlot since Sayla's actress was unable to return for ''Zeta'', and was ultimately only able a small cameo in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Gundam ZZ]]'' (the series in which Amuro ''doesn't'' appear) before the actress died.
** Creator/YoshiyukiTomino averted this somewhat in his novelizations, having Amuro and Sayla hook up in the original series novels, but the relationship is screwed up because Sayla is fixated on protecting the family name and begs Amuro to kill her brother right after they finish having sex. He wrote an alternate version of ''Char's Counterattack'' proposal where Beltorchika is still around and is in fact pregnant with Amuro's child, but this was not what was animated.
* [[Creator/OsamuTezuka Tezuka's ]] ''Lost World'' originally had a plant woman and Kenichi as the OfficialCouple, but ExecutiveMeddling made him have to portray them as LikeBrotherAndSister. It doesn't work because of how the story invokes the [[spoiler:AdamAndEvePlot at the end]], and the art and body language still make it obvious they're supposed to be falling in love ''romantically''.
* Creator/JamieMarchi was accused of this when writing the dub script for ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid''. Early in the show, the titular Miss Kobayashi responds to her dragon maid's advances with "I'm a woman, though." The dub took this at [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday face value]] and changed it to "I'm not into women," fearing that the original was homophobic for taking it as a given that being the same gender should shut down attraction in general. The problem was that, as {{Yuri Fan}}s who protested the change know, "But we're both girls" or similar statements are a {{Stock Phrase|s}} in the YuriGenre, at least in the ComingOutStory part of it, and changing it to literally convey IncompatibleOrientation because the script writer honestly believed the way it was worded makes Touru and her continued advances towards Kobayashi out to be [[DoggedNiceGuy disrespectful and selfish]] at best, [[PsychoLesbian predatory]] at worst.
* InUniverse in ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun''. Nozaki and Mikoshiba play the DatingSim ''[[FictionalVideoGame Conversations with 12 Girls/Girl Princess]]'', but after getting their happy ending they feel bad for Tomoda, the protagonist's best friend and the game's MrExposition, believing that they took up all his time and kept him from getting his own girlfriend or even enjoying his time in high school. They resolve to write a {{Doujin}} to give Tomoda his own HappilyEverAfter, but after going through the game's cast list they conclude that the person he has the best rapport with is...[[HoYay the main character himself]]. Which results in their Doujin becoming BoysLove, to Sakura's confusion when she sees the finished product.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Naruto and Sasuke share an AccidentalKiss in the third episode, have what can be interpreted as {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST pre-TimeSkip, and Naruto seems to have a "broken heart" thing going on after Sasuke leaves. [[spoiler:Their "bromance" gets played up for all it's worth in their final battle, with elaborate declarations of friendship along with emotional confessions and apologies after beating the crap out of each other. It's all very, ''very'' easy to interpret as BelligerentSexualTension or perhaps a fight and reconciliation between two former lovers.]]
** Although Sasuke and Itachi are brothers some fans find them to be [[IncestYayShipping closer siblings than the norm]] given their NoSenseOfPersonalSpace around each other, their confessions of brotherly love to one another, Itachi's HeadbuttOfLove to Sasuke, the Konoha School AU omake where Sakura calls Itachi and Sasuke's relationship "naughty", Sasuke's [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou obsession towards Itachi]] including his insistence that Itachi is perfect and his SanitySlippage when Itachi dies. He becomes sane again when Itachi is brought back from the dead briefly, and acts almost jealous when Itachi pays more attention to capturing Naruto than fighting him in Part I. Also, [[spoiler:Itachi is revealed to have killed the entire Uchiha clan and his lover for Konoha and kept his brother alive]].
** Many fans assumed Shikamaru and Ino, and to a lesser extent Chouji and Ino, were supposed to have something going on. It doesn't help that Ino is a headstrong woman [[LikeParentLikeSpouse just like Shikamaru's mother]] and [[spoiler:Shikamaru's eventual spouse Temari]]. The DistantFinale makes it clear that their friendship was never meant to be romantic. It is simply custom in their families for their clans to be good friends.
** And finally, this was deliberately {{invoked|Trope}} and {{exploited|Trope}} with Naruto/Sakura, mostly in the [[{{Filler}} anime adaptation]] where they were implied to have a closer relationship than [[LikeBrotherAndSister what was actually shown]] in the [[{{Canon}} manga]]. [[WordOfGod Kishimoto has stated in several post-series interviews]] that the two of them being close as teammates throughout the series was a [[TrollingCreator deliberate]] [[RedHerring mislead]], especially since Sakura was ''never'' intended to be Naruto's main love interest to begin with, while [[spoiler:[[OneTrueLove Hinata]], the girl Naruto truly fell in love with and got HappilyMarried to in the end]], ''always'' was, and [[spoiler:[[OfficialCouple Naruto/Hinata]]]] had been planned since the early stages of the manga.
** Some fans of ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' see Hanabi's fawning over her nephew Boruto as being too close to flirting.
** There is a moment when Naruto meets his mother for the first time and fawns over her being attractive. It's supposed to be cute familial praising, but his ''wording'' is awkward. The English dub fixes this by making Naruto sound more platonic.
* While ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is used in the quote above, that sort of thing was ''[[InvokedTrope very much intended]]'' to add to the weirdness of the show and the psychological problems of the cast. Misato ''wants'' to be a CoolBigSis or ParentalSubstitute to Shinji, but she doesn't know how to be that way towards him, so she gives mixed messages.
* Even though ''Manga/OnePiece'' is a strictly NoHuggingNoKissing series as stated by the [[WordOfGod creator, Eiichiro Oda, himself]], fans ([[ShippingGoggles especially certain ones]]) were quick to notice a few... interesting facts. Luffy, a ChasteHero by default, nosebleeds after having seen a naked Nami, but he is not affected at all by witnessing the much more buxom Boa Hancock in that same state of undress (who is also nothing short of head over heels in love with him!). Oda's explanation for this? Something along the lines of "Luffy only acts this way around Usopp, who is a bad influence". That is not a very convincing reasoning.
* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': According to the author, Oz and Alice aren't supposed to be a romantic couple, claiming their relationship is "on another level" and therefore they can't fall in love with each other. It's rather difficult to see that earlier in the manga, especially when one of their first interactions has them [[AMagicContractComesWithAKiss kissing to form a contract]]. There are also Oz's utter devotion and (temporary) {{Yandere}} tendencies towards Alice, Alice's {{Tsundere}} antics and the way she keeps fighting with Oz's servant [[HoYay Gilbert]] over Oz's attention.
* Did ''Anime/{{Penguindrum}}'' fumble in revealing that [[spoiler:Himari and Shouma are soulmates]]? Or was the ''entire show'' a precisely choreographed web of relationship fumbles? Depends on how you interpret it, much like the whole series.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** WordOfGod by Creator/TakeshiShudo, the head writer for the first season, is that Ash and Misty were not supposed to be a couple. Their relationship ''does'' often come off as romantic though, be it unrequited Ash's side or not. They have a BelligerentSexualTension type friendship throughout the Original Series and [[ClingyJealousGirl Misty has shown jealousy]] towards girls' behavior around Ash (especially in the second movie). This was not at all helped by American dub writers leaning into the pairing, with a music CD released in America after the show started picking up popularity featuring a song sung from Misty's perspective that flat-out says she loves Ash, but CannotSpitItOut[[note]]the Christmas album, if you're wondering[[/note]]. The American-produced ''Theatre/PokemonLive'' musical also featured a romance between them.
** In later seasons, Zoey and Dawn had a noticeable fumble early on as Zoey constantly appears to be flirting with Dawn (especially in the Japanese version). Dawn's reactions don't help (blushing in response in one instance), and neither does the "Prince and Princess" motif of their Contest clothing. Numerous fans thought that they were intentionally writing in a lesbian pairing, or at least a heavy HideYourLesbians (or RomanticTwoGirlFriendship case), as their dynamic is very similar to their predecessors May and Drew (who have ''did'' have ShipTease). Later episodes toned it down into Zoey being Dawn's mentor.
** Possibly Ash and ''both'' his companions in ''Best Wishes,'' Iris and Cilan. The former, mostly from their rivalry and from their PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure episode coming off like two lovers with broken hearts, and another episode involving them going on a day out on the town without Cilan, doing things together that don't involve Pokemon. Cilan and Ash's Pokemon pushing Ash to get back with her makes them all seem like [[ShipperOnDeck they ship it.]] Ash and Cilan get this with Cilan's very campy nature and HeroWorship of Ash, which often comes off as obsessive or romantic. The three were actually a popular [[OneTrueThreesome OT3]].
** There's a reason why non-shippers often joke that Pikachu is the only person Ash could ever love. Their friendship is incredibly strong and the focal point of a lot of the series. It doesn't help that [[InterspeciesRomance more than a few Pokemon canonically like Ash]].
** Jessie's and James' relationship definitely counts [[note]]Pokemon fans claim that that their "Rocketshipping" was one of the first and actually inspired the term "shipping"[[/note]]. They're very, very good friends (even if [[VitriolicBestBuds they don't always get along]]), with multiple episodes themed abut their relationship. James' [[PuppyLove childhood crush]] and fiancee is an IdenticalStranger to Jessie, they fit the MasculineGirlFeminineBoy cliche, and they're also very touchy with each other. Despite this, in the twenty years the anime has been running there hasn't been any undeniable ShipTease for them. The closest scene was Jessie blushing when James was on top of her in "Training Daze" (and that happened early in their friendship, so you can argue she lost any attraction over time).
* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': The fandom believed Ryoga and Ukyo were shaping up to become an OfficialCouple, due to all the ShipTease; particularly in the anime[[note]]which played this up even more; including by having Ryoga rescue Ukyo in the second non-serial movie ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GApD5uG5IlE Nihao My Concubine]]''[[/note]], due to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VTmtTtkE4 scenes like these.]] Rumiko tried to sink the pairing with the ''"Tunnel of Lost Love"'' story, then officially paired Ryoga with Akari, while Ukyo was given Konatsu as another would-be suitor (in addition to Tsubasa). You can guess how well that ''[[FanPreferredCouple didn't work.]]'' The problem?
** Akari was introduced in the last 4 volumes and had almost no development or personality traits beyond her obsession with pigs. So she was widely seen as a shallow [[LastMinuteHookup johnny-come-lately]], whose only purpose was to instantly fall in love with Ryoga simply because he defeated her pet sumo pig Katsunishki, and because Ryoga's cursed form was a black piglet. Thus, seeming like a consolation prize for him.
** Konatsu had it worse, since his feelings toward Ukyo remained one-sided because her heart was set firmly on Ranma. Aside from that, Konatsu's presence in the series amounted to a single story of his own and a one-panel cameo in the final story, so fans didn't see the point.
* In ''Manga/Reborn2004'', there seems to be a lot more UnresolvedSexualTension revolving around Tsuna with any other character besides his two canon love interests. Kyoko, a character Tsuna heavily reminds the reader from the very first chapter that he is in love with, is someone he rarely ever speaks to, and it has been revealed that the main reason he even likes her is because she was the first girl in a year to have spoken to him, yet he is willing to lay down his life for her even when they barely knew each other.
* ''Franchise/SailorMoon'':
** In the Cloverway English dub of the [[Anime/SailorMoon original anime]], the translators tried to [[HideYourLesbians hide lesbian couple]] Haruka and Michiru by making them cousins. Unfortunately, they [[DubText didn't remove any of the obvious subtext]] between the two, which was clear enough to be picked up on even by children who barely had a concept of homosexuality to begin with. So all they effectively did was to turn a lesbian couple into a ''furtively [[KissingCousins incestuous]]'' lesbian couple.
** In a late act of the original [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]], Venus and Mars have a discussion about how they can't seem to hold down normal romantic relationships. After the foe of the day is vanquished, they realize that with their duties to the princess, they will never truly have the freedom to be devoted to someone romantically. Mars makes the comment "We don't need men. We have each other."
* ''Manga/SeraphOfTheEnd'':
** It's hard to see Mika and Yuu as just childhood friends/family the way they claim to be when you see the extent they're willing to go to for each other and their NoSenseOfPersonalSpace and other moments with each other. In fact you'd be more inclined to believe Shinoa's statement of Mika being Yuu's girlfriend or Ferid commenting that Yuu is the "precious princess" that Mika wants to save. Even better, Mika doesn't deny it when Ferid claims that he is into Yuu.
** Krul and Mika's relationship started with a forced kiss from her to make him a vampire, and there are quite some moments of NoSenseOfPersonalSpace from both of them, though they are mostly related to drinking blood, which make some fans ship them. However, later chapters/episodes downplay their undertones and depict their relationship more of the [[ParentalSubstitute motherly kind]], and Krul explicitly calls Mika [[https://file-image.mpcdn.net/22779/641946/43.jpg her "son"]] at one point. From then on, most fans see their relationship as parental instead, which is in all honesty a lot better than [[NoYay shipping them]] given that Krul is a ReallySevenHundredYearsOld experienced woman despite her [[OlderThanTheyLook young appearance]], not to mention that when she first met Mika, he was '''''twelve'''''.
* One ''Manga/SketDance'' chapter, called "Siblings" focuses on the sibling relationship between Bossun's [[NotBloodSiblings adoptive sister]], Rumi, and his [[SeparatedAtBirth estranged]] biological brother, Tsubaki, but the way the chapter is set up, it looks more like an UnresolvedSexualTension. It begins with Rumi overhearing Tsubaki telling Bossun that he does not consider Rumi as his little sister, leaving her in a bad mood. In an attempt to get them "bond", Bossun had them watch a movie together, after which they proceeded to follow a typical dating sequence. It ends with them clearing up their misunderstandings, and they got along much better (to which Bossun remarked that "their relationship improved too quickly").
* ''Manga/SoulEater'': WordOfGod says in an interview in the "How to make a deathscythe" guidebook that he doesn't plan to take any of the main characters' male-female relationships beyond [[PlatonicLifePartners "normal" trusting relationships]]. Never mind that the way they're written, many fans are convinced that Maka and Soul (for example) are already well beyond that point. A girl hugging a boy is a little [[ShipTease tease-y]], but overall innocuous. A girl hugging a boy while both are naked? [[SarcasmMode It's purely platonic, of course. Strictly between friends. Nothing romantic whatsoever]]. There is also an arc involving the characters getting genderbent into the opposite sex. The basis for their appearances is their subconscious image of the ideal romantic/sexual partner. Soul looks an awful lot like Maka during this period, and is lampshaded as such. Black*Star and Tsubaki also look a lot like each other. [[SarcasmMode Way to stick to it, Okubo]].
* Season 1 of ''Literature/SoundEuphonium'' pushes the envelope of {{Romantic Two Girl Friendship}}s. Kumiko and Reina have a high amount of tension while Kumiko all-but-ignores the closest thing she has to a (male) love interest Shuichi. It seems like this might end in something, but season 2 emphasises Reina's unrequited crush on her music teacher while refocusing Kumiko's attention on [[spoiler:Asuka]]. It ends in Kumiko delivering platonic confessions to [[spoiler:her older sister Mamiko and her graduating upperclassman Asuka]], the latter which occus [[spoiler:when Kumiko and Shuichi have a RelationshipUpgrade in the original book]]. Kumiko and Reina's relationship stays ambiguous.
* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'': Arima and Sasaki/Kaneki confess they love each other in a familial sense. The amount of detail their relationship gets, and how Arima makes it quite clear that he "owns" Sasaki in addition to Kaneki calling Arima beautiful when they first met makes it hard to see their relationship as just familial.
* In ''Anime/TransformersArmada'', the relationship between Starscream and Alexis was interpreted as an InterspeciesRomance by many, and was a major factor in this version of Starscream becoming one of the franchise's premiere [[DracoInLeatherPants Dracos in Leather Pants]]. For reference, Starscream is a millennia-old, building-sized robot from outer space, and Alexis is a ''12-year-old human girl''.
* ''Manga/WanderingSon'':
** Momoko acts like a ClingyJealousGirl and SatelliteLoveInterest to her best friend, Chizuru, but she [[FlatCharacter doesn't get much character development]] apart from this {{ambiguously gay}} behavior. Nothing comes of it, however, and in later chapters it is implied that she likes ''Oka'', of all people.
** Saori and Takatsuki suffer heavily from this. They become friends over the first several dozen chapters but due to a love triangle their friendship bitterly breaks. All this does is create ''a lot'' of FoeYay between them. Later, when their friendship starts mending, Saori tells Takatsuki to grow out [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} his]] hair because it would look nice on him, they seem to know each other's favorite drinks, and when Saori dresses up the usually masculine Takatsuki for a school event, she begins to fawn in a similar way she does to [[WholesomeCrossdresser effeminate males]]. Later on, Saori begins dating [[spoiler:Fumiya]] but that does nothing to deter their close friendship. Most of their high school appearances involve Takatsuki and Saori being together and they're even [[MistakenForRomance mistaken for boyfriend and girlfriend]]. It doesn't help that Saori and her boyfriend suffered ShippingBedDeath and she goes to a romance-related get together without him, making their relationship seem very dubious. Despite this, nothing ever happens and [[spoiler:Takatsuki realizes he loves ''Nitori'' despite the two barely interacting anymore]].
* ''Anime/WhenMarnieWasThere'' is pretty infamous for this. It's a film about two girls who become very close. There's a lot of hugging, holding hands, cute dancing, [[OldFashionedRowboatDate rowboating]], and emotion flowing around the two--and it doesn't help that Creator/StudioGhibli is quite well-known for writing romance. Everything points towards a cute, bittersweet PuppyLove scenario among two girls but [[spoiler:it isn't even meant to be a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship. Marnie was DeadAllAlong and is Anna's ''grandmother'']]. Anna and Marnie's bond fails to seem [[spoiler:familial]] to a large number of viewers.
* ''Manga/{{Working}}'':
** Takanashi and Poplar, Poplar is completely Takanashi's [[CutenessProximity kind of girl]] and he shows a great deal of caring for her, and Poplar likewise seems to like him as well, though to be fair Poplar likes everyone, but she still seems to hold him dear a little more. This is even more noticeable when compared with Takanashi's OfficialCouple Inami, which feels like an abusive relationship in which he gets StrangledByTheRedString to justify just why he's with a girl that is everything he doesn't like and [[DoesNotLikeMen punches him all the time]].
** This also goes for Inami, whose RomanticFalseLead Kirio loves her lots and seems like the perfect match for her as he's the only guy able to block her punches, and in fact his love comes from her trying to punch him. She doesn't seem to dislike him either, but they don't get anything going on just because.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'' Joey and Mai are just "friends." Right. [[note]][[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries idon'tbelieveyou.]][[/note]] Probably because of this exact dynamic and being (relatively) popular characters, they earned the title "the only het pairing anyone likes" despite the large amount of HoYay in the series and the fact that Joey will be paired with any other male in the franchise you can think of.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has Yusei and Akiza, who are meant to be {{Implied Love Interest}}s, but though Akiza's clearly attracted to Yusei, his status as TheStoic and Akiza being DemotedToExtra means that it's rarely reciprocated and his relationship usually comes across as arms-length. By comparison, he's extremely close to Jack and Kalin, and his interactions with them drip with HoYay, not helped by their shared history of running around in tight vests calling themselves "Team Satisfaction." And just when the series started playing up Yusei and Akiza, along came Bruno, who is, if anything, even more openly close with Yusei -- Akiza is even visibly jealous of Bruno at one point when she sees them bonding. The whole thing comes across less as the apparently-intended ShipTease and HeterosexualLifePartners, and more as Yusei hopping from one gay relationship to the next and unsure of how to let Akiza down gently.
* Hiei and Kurama from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. Their relationship is depicted as close. Inevitably, of course, people take it farther than that. The evidence for them liking girls (or at least not liking one another) are put out there. The author said he never intended them to be a couple, but when fans asked him about it, he speculated that maybe he ''should'' have made them one. In the end, he said it's up to fans to decide. Toward the end, Hiei and Kurama say their goodbyes, with Hiei telling Kurama how much he means to him as a friend. Kurama jokingly responds that he's "not interested in [Hiei] that way" before they part. [[spoiler:Hiei goes to [[OfficialCouple live with Mukuro]] in Demon World, even giving her his tear stone.]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* The fan community of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse has long had rumblings of accusations that twins ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} and the ComicBook/ScarletWitch were more than a little too close to be "just" siblings. This becomes canon in ''ComicBook/TheUltimates''.
* ComicBook/IronMan and ComicBook/CaptainAmerica [[HoYay/ComicBooks have a tendency]] to go on about each others' eyes, risk life and limb for each other, do "buddy breathing", and that's not even touching on the time Cap rescued Tony from a burning building and the cover made it look like a romance novel, or Tony's speech to Steve's dead body in ''Comicbook/CivilWar: Confessions''. In an AlternateContinuity, Captain America ''married'' a female version of Tony Stark. Not only that, but Civil War never happened because they were together, and the world was actually a better place with their combined awesome.
* ''ComicBook/XMen'' characters Juggernaut and Black Tom practically lived in [[HoYay/XMen Ho Yay]] territory. Their concern for each other was unusual for villains and went beyond concern for a friend. Cain was so frantic when Tom's powers went haywire that he went to the X-Men for help, and Wolverine even called him out for caring more about his "boyfriend" than his own stepbrother. When he slept with ComicBook/SheHulk (later {{Retcon}}ned into an alternate Jennifer), the way he said "Sometimes women are just plain better" sounded like he actually tried both.
* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Creator/CarlBarks was apparently stunned by the implications the censors found in ''Back to the Klondike'', wondering how he could have missed it all. In the original, Scrooge kidnapped Goldie and made her work in his gold claim for a month to pay off a debt. As the censors rightfully questioned, what did they do at night? Watch television?
* Franchise/{{Batman}} and Robin have [[HoYay/{{Batman}} literally decades of this trope behind them]]. Jokes about Robin's short-shorts aside, for most of the time the two are the most important people in each others' lives.
** A non-romantic examples can also occur. It has become sort of a RunningGag among Batman fandom that the louder a writer insists Bruce and Duke Thomas are on enteirly professional terms with one another and do not have a father-son type relationship, the more likely that creator is to write Bruce acting like a surrogate father to Duke.
* Batman and Franchise/{{Superman}} aren't as prolific, but they have their fair share of Fumbling. There is an Elseworlds set in medieval-ish Japan where "Superman" made out with a female "Batman".
* Lenore and Ragamuffin from ''ComicBook/LenoreTheCuteLittleDeadGirl''. Ragamuffin is portrayed as a monster at first, a vampire who massacres and eats people alive. He also wants to kill Lenore in the very first episode in which he appears, even though he doesn't succeed because he's trapped in a rag doll. In the later volumes, he cares for her so much that he becomes [[KnightTemplarParent overprotective]] and focused only on defending her when she gets in reckless situations. Even when he returns to his old vampire self, [[TheNotLoveInterest he remains by her side and puts himself in danger for her]].
* Marv Wolfman [[ShipSinking sunk]] the ComicBook/{{Cyborg}}/Sarah Simms relationship in ''ComicBook/TeenTitans''; Wolfman eventually hooked Cyborg up with black scientist Sarah Charles instead (at least for a while).
* ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'': Donald is supposed to be in a relationship with Daisy, [[OfficialCouple as always]]. However, [[PhysicalGod Xadhoom]] is a {{tsundere}} for him and most of their dialogue come off as flirting (she is the biggest offender, but he does return it and never seems to mind) and she straight up kisses him on one occasion. His only complaint is her high body temperature.
* Franchise/SpiderMan [[DatingCatwoman and]] ComicBook/BlackCat had a fling in the 80s up until Peter realized that [[LovesMyAlterEgo she wasn't interested in having a normal relationship.]] Sounds simple enough, but even after getting HappilyMarried to ComicBook/{{Mary Jane|Watson}}, Peter ''still'' had baggage over the fact that Felicia liked Spider-Man more than him, leaving the implication that he wasn't as over her as he kept implying. Creator/KevinSmith even [[LampshadeHanging cast a lampshade]] over it in his Black Cat mini-series.
* ComicBook/{{Venom}}, or more specifically, Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote. While at face value nothing about them seems like anything hints at romance, especially with other adaptations where the symbiote is usually portrayed as a feral parasite, these two have a lot of moments where one could assume that their bond is romantic, to start, the symbiote had a long history of wanting to be with Spider-man and Eddie's first encounter with the symbiote was on a church of all places, they eventually start developing a very close bond to the point one could even die for the other and don't like to be apart, and on top of that, Eddie is usually bare naked under the symbiote. Its unknow if Venom's creator Davi Michelinie intended it to be romantic, but in Venom's second arc, there's a psychologist that describes the symbiote's feelings for Peter as similar to romantic and Peter tries to convince it into leaving Eddie by undressing himself. And this doesn't stop, by now, plenty of other writers not only have hinted it as being romantic but state it, having Eddie describe his bond with the symbiote as something beyond marriage or the symbiote describing their first bonding in the church to be similar marriage. Even writers who want to write their bond as toxic still keep the romantic overtones in some way or form.
* ''ComicBook/AForce'' managed to do this ''twice''. During the ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' miniseries, Lady Loki and America Chavez's relationship came off as way too friendly to pass for a mother-daughter relationship, and in the ANAD continuity, Singularity is supposed to come off as a little-sister figure to Nico, but was so chummy that one letter asked if they were going to become an official couple.
* ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'': Betty and Jughead have never been depicted as a couple or implied to have feelings towards each other, with most fans even interpreting Jughead as being gay or asexual. However, it's very easy for readers to pin them as a BetaCouple to Archie/Veronica, and they've been shown to be close friends in many issues and different series. For example, ''ComicBook/LifeWithArchieTheMarriedLife'' has Betty state that the person she missed most in Riverdale was Jughead. As AscendedFanon, the live-action adaptation ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' pairs them up.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' had this between Carol and Harry, who were intended to be friends and PlatonicLifePartners. Despite that, there was some quite obvious [[UnresolvedSexualTension chemistry]] between the two from the start and WordOfGod -- after about forty chapters of vagueness -- wound up grudgingly admitting that the [[PortmanteauCoupleName ship name]] was cute, before apparently throwing up his arms, declaring that IJustWriteTheThing, and deciding to go with it. He's also added that by the sequel, both are more than JustFriends, with literally ''[[EveryoneCanSeeIt everyone]]'' being able to see it and their protestations ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis that they. Are. Not. Flirting]]'' being treated as a RunningGag. On a more serious note, both have tacitly admitted to being in love with each other, but with both of their issues (which are many, and varied), the two of them decided to keep things as they are for the time being, making it an AnchoredShip. For now. [[spoiler: As of chapter 46 of the sequel, they've had a RelationshipUpgrade.]]
* ''Fanfic/{{Deserving}}'' manages to do this with ''[[{{Squick}} two toddlers.]]''
* ''Hogwarts Exposed'':
** Caitlin and Emily are basically sisters through adoption. They are constantly enjoying each other's company, sleeping in the same bed, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick engaging in oral sex with each other]]. WordOfGod is that the oral sex is meant to be seen as a sign of the strength of their bond as sisters. A sporker of the series honestly couldn't tell if it was a joke or not when the girls declared themselves to be dating.
** The CardCarryingVillain school bully Dick Bancroft's interest in Jamie (who we're told he hates, and even tried to kill once) can easily be interpreted as romantic infatuation. Again, this hasn't been lost on sporkers.
* ''Fanfic/PrincessTrixieSparkle'': Luna and Shadow are supposed to be LikeBrotherAndSister, but many fans see them as a ChildhoodFriendRomance instead. It doesn't help that Shadow's FriendshipSong ballad, "My Dear Luna", parodies a love song.

[[folder:Films - Animation]]
* Some fans assumed that ''WesternAnimation/{{Bionicle}}: The Legend Reborn'' was setting up Berix and Kiina as a "TinyGuyHugeGirl" couple -- they hate each other at first, continuously bicker, spend some time together after getting captured, make each other laugh, and after the final fight, Kiina's so glad that Berix is okay that she almost crushes him with her hug. But the writer of the books and comics (who only worked on the movie as a consultant) said no. Kiina was just worried about Berix's wellbeing because she's one of the good guys, but other than that, can't stand him. And they also belong to different species--not that that kept Kiina from falling for Mata Nui, who was technically an artificial being, in the sequel novel.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'' has the titular character and Mittens. Between some of their conversations, the way they are written together versus with other characters, and their body language around one another, it draws a fine line between a close sibling-like relationship and InterspeciesRomance.
* Periwinkle and Tinkerbell from ''Franchise/DisneyFairies'' are drawn to each other and instantly connect after meeting. They're compared to a pair of StarCrossedLovers and their film revolves around them trying to be together despite the dangers and barriers... They're also [[LongLostRelative long-lost twin sisters]].
* ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'': WordOfGod is that Dory was supposed to be a child substitute for Marlin, but her emotional speech to Marlin, "When I look at you... I'm home" and her seeing Nemo off to school by Marlin's side in the ending scene almost as if she had become the new "mom" to Marlin's "dad" role made many fans think that she was meant to be Marlin's ImpliedLoveInterest playing up the "quirky woman, serious man" trope. It's hard to find fanworks (especially MoePersonification art) that depicts them as platonic. ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' makes it a bit clearer that they're platonic; however, some still mistake Dory being Marlin's "family" to meaning that she is his mate.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' Anna is interested in both Hans and Kristoff, with varied conclusions, but both fall into StrangledByTheRedString in different ways (although [[spoiler: in Hans's case this was intentional]]) and Anna ultimately has ''way'' more romantic subtext with [[IncestSubtext her sister Elsa]] than either of them. The coronation scene where Anna tries to compliment Elsa comes off more as flirty than sisterly, as does her reaction to Elsa's new appearance when they reunite. It doesn't hurt that the ActOfTrueLove that saves the day is between the two of them. In context, it's sisterly love between Anna and Elsa, but since Disney has spent almost a century showing True Love as romance and ''only'' romance, since Elsa's narrative arc of finding her identity and learning to accept herself has such a heavy RainbowLens that 'Let It Go' became an instant LGBT anthem, and since her sister is both the only female character she spends much time interacting with and the person she has the closest and most important relationship with, it can come across as quite a mixed message for some. At the very least, [[FanPreferredCouple the massive amount of fan-works featuring the pairing]] suggests that there was enough unintentional romantic chemistry there to spark a ''lot'' of imaginations.
* The Creator/GoldenFilms movie ''WesternAnimation/MiracleInToyland'' contains some heavy subtext between the protagonist and his cousin. Gabriella is treated more like you'd expect an ImpliedLoveInterest childhood friend to be in cartoons. Jessie and Gabriella are both very touchy around each other as well.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'':
** ''My Little Pony: Equestria Girls'' did establish a canon love interest for Twilight Sparkle in Flash Sentry. The [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks sequel]] however has Flash DemotedToExtra and, apart from a couple of ShipTease moments, Twilight shares far more scenes with Sunset Shimmer. The film climaxes with the two of them sharing a duet in the final music number--and they're shown writing to each other at the end. This is already after the colossal ton of FoeYay between them in the first film. If that wasn't enough, in the final post-''Rainbow Rocks'' short 'Friendship Through the Ages', Twilight plays a piano with Sunset sitting on it. The latter then extends her hand to dance, but instead, Twilight gently strokes Sunset's arm. There's also classical music playing in the back, which gives this a romantic undertone. In a deleted scene of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames'', Sunset is pouring out her emotions to Twilight about keeping the magic under control when she hasn't done so with the other five and is in despair. What does Twilight do? She places her hands on Sunset's while smiling at her and telling her she is free to come to Equestria whenever she feels like it. And, in the actual movie, Sunset is constantly thinking about Twilight, as if one's partner wasn't responding to calls.
** The Human Twilight and Sunset aren't free from this either. Among other things, in the climax [[spoiler:Daydream Shimmer manages to snap Midnight Sparkle out of her evil stage by [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight talking her down]] and [[TakeMyHand taking her hand]].]]. A much sharper contrast to stop foes then what we've seen before. And in the ''Forgotten Friendship'' special, just as [[spoiler: Sunset has her memories of all her friends erased]] she looks longingly at Twilight and says "don't forget me".
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'' has the Mane Six making friends with various other creatures throughout the journey. But none are slashier than Pinkie Pie and Princess Skystar. They're clearly intended to be BirdsOfAFeather in a platonic way but their song together "One Small Thing" evolves into the two of them dancing together. Skystar also has a solo where she sings softly to Pinkie, while clutching her finds. Had one of the characters been male, it would easily be interpreted as a love song.
* ''WesternAnimation/RaggedyAnnAndAndyAMusicalAdventure'' While they ''were'' siblings in the original book series, which started in 1918, the 1941 cartoon {{retcon}}ned them into lovers for the first time. Every subsequent adaptation tends to be ambiguous about it; the 1977 feature film has their duet, 'Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers', comes off as heavily romantic, with Andy stroking her hand, hugging her from behind, and a weird segment where he's hidden under her apron(!).
* A lot of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' fans mistook Woody and Jessie for having ShipTease in [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory2 the second film]]. They're so similar, they have an ambiguous relationship, and they develop a close friendship over the course of the film. They also belong to the same toy line, implying they're LoveInterests in the in-universe franchise. Ken and Barbie, when they first meet, are shown to be immediately drawn to each other in an almost "instinctual" way because of being LoveInterests in their franchise, so some fans assumed Woody and Jessie would be the same, but ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' utterly [[ShipSinking killed]] the concept by having Jessie return Buzz's affections.

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]
* The Mad Hatter and Alice are a bit on the edge in Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010''. It's some weird crossbreed between platonic affection for a savior and romantic affection for someone Hatter is confusedly attracted to. Actually, it was a [[SealedWithAKiss full-blown romance]] in [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the original draft of the screenplay]].
* In the 2017 film version of ''Literature/BeforeIFall'', lead character Samantha Kingston's love interest is supposed to be her awkward admirer Kent [=McFuller=]. However, she has ''a lot'' more chemistry with her best friend and the local AlphaBitch, Lindsay Edgecome, who sniffs her hair, calls her "bae," and even kisses her deeply enough to leave a lipstick marking, which Sam seems to enjoy. On the final cycle of the GroundhogDayLoop, Sam's confrontation with Lindsay is also far more emotional than the one with Kent.
* ''{{Film/Carrie}}'':
** The Creator/BrianDePalma [[Film/Carrie1976 version]] has Tommy kiss Carrie out of nowhere at the prom. In [[Literature/{{Carrie}} the book]] it's made clear that Tommy only saw Carrie as a friend and was taking her to the prom as a favor to Sue. The film doesn't really explain why he's kissing Carrie -- since he's basically cheating on Sue. This is probably why both remakes go out of their way to say that Tommy only sees Carrie as a friend.
** Also in the [=DePalma=] version, there's an awful lot of LesYay between Carrie and Coach Collins, the only teacher who likes her. Collins' actress Betty Buckley stated she intended to portray her as a {{lesbian|Jock}}, but never specified whether she was supposed to be attracted to Carrie.
** ''Film/Carrie2002'' really amps up the amount of scenes between Carrie and Sue, to the point that it almost seems like Sue is interested in her. And Sue also makes a throwaway joke about her and Carrie having a lesbian affair.
* ''Film/TheDevilWearsPrada'': Unlike their book counterparts, the interactions between the film versions of Andy and Miranda come off to many as BelligerentSexualTension, and a MayDecemberRomance later on, rather than the overbearing boss-employee relationship it is supposed to be. This is especially apparent after Andy's make-over, where Miranda checks her from head to toe and proceeds to stare at her as she walks away. Meanwhile, Andy goes from complaining about Miranda behind her back to repeatedly gushing about her to people and breaks things off with Christian immediately after finding out the plan to replace Miranda. The scene where Andy finds Miranda after Miranda learns of her impending divorce is often singled out by fans as seeming to come out of a romance movie. This gets lampshaded by both Emily, "Why didn't you just climb into bed with her", and Andy's actual love interest Nate, "The person whose calls you always take. That's the relationship you're in". It doesn't help Nate is outright considered TheScrappy by many fans of the film for being so unsupportive of Andy's career.
* ''Film/EndersGame'': There is a ridiculous amount of apparent romantic subtext between Ender and his sister Valentine, to the point that she's appearing in his mind games as the princess that he has to rescue from a castle, and she's the one that Graff turns to in order to convince Ender to return to the Battle School after he suffers a HeroicBSOD. It's so prominent that the movie's attempts to hint at a romance between Ender and classmate Petra barely even register.
* The infamous ''Film/FantasticFour2015'' barely took the time to set up Reed and Sue as the iconic couple from the comics. Instead, they dwelled on how Ben Grimm, friends with Reed since childhood, helped him reach the scholarship he'd always dreamed of, how Ben (and not Reed's parents) helped Reed move into the Baxter Foundation, how Reed could not consider deploying the teleporter without Ben there, the list goes on. The emotional peak of the movie is when Reed abandons Ben (specifically Ben) in a government facility to save himself from being experimented on... and Ben's reaction is not that unlike a scorned lover. Deleted drafts of the script had Ben consider enlisting in the army once he realizes Reed is moving on with his life and forgetting him. Uh...
* ''Film/{{Freaks}}'': Hans and Frieda -- a romantic couple -- [[IncestuousCasting are played by brother and sister]] Harry and Daisy Earles. To prevent things from getting ''too'' freaky, their romance is very very much downplayed. There isn't even a kiss between them. We've got the BetaCouple for that.
* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'':
** Yeah, Storm Shadow, you're killing the Baroness' husband on "Destro's orders." Sure... Doesn't help that they come off of as more of a BattleCouple than Scarlett and Snake-Eyes, the ORIGINAL pair of leading lady and badass ninja. The novelization seems to add considerable mutual witty banter and, yes, flirtation.
** The {{Novelization}} also offers HoYay for Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, who seem to be matching OfficialCouple (sort-of) Duke and Ana/The Baroness flashback for flashback, meaningful look for meaningful look. (Bizarrely carries over to the ''Ninja Showdown'' kid's book.) Oddly out-of-place due to the gist of their past relationship being "We really, ''really'' don't like each other."
* ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' amps up Scarlet and Melanie's RomanticTwoGirlFriendship. Since Ashley is off at war for most of Part 1, Melanie shares far more scenes with Scarlet. It's made quite clear that Melanie is utterly devoted to her. Even her husband won't get away with making Scarlet cry. Scarlet likewise shows far more distress over [[spoiler: Melanie's death at the end]] than [[spoiler: Rhett breaking it off with her]].
* ''Film/HarryPotter'':
** Harry and Hermione. Likely due to the fact that Creator/DanielRadcliffe and Creator/EmmaWatson had more natural chemistry, the amount of Harry/Hermione subtext in the movies is astounding. There are ''added'' scenes in almost every movie that (if it were any other series) would suggest they were the OfficialCouple. There is a large group of fans who did not read the books and just watched the movies who were certain that Harry and Hermione were going to end up together. Which is not to say that there are no Harry/Hermione shippers among the fans of the books, see the Literature section for more info. The films' head writer Creator/SteveKloves, while reading the books, thought Harry and Hermione would end up together and told J.K. Rowling he was surprised when they didn't; this has often been [[GodNeverSaidThat twisted by fan word-of-mouth]] into Kloves being a rabid shipper of the pairing and actively trying to undermine the canonical couples.
** In every film in which Luna appears, there's at least one scene between her and Harry that can be taken as ShipTease, only one of which (him bringing her as his date to Slughorn's party) was in the books. Combine this with the fact that Harry and Ginny's courtship was [[StrangledByTheRedString seriously abbreviated]] from the books, and one gets the distinct impression the writers were only grudgingly admitting Ginny was the intended love interest. Interestingly, Luna was [[ImpliedLoveInterest sorta-kinda paired up]] with [[spoiler:Neville]] in the finale, which also wasn't in the books. In the books, neither of them end up with anyone but WordOfGod says they both marry other people (Luna marries someone who wasn't even in the books), prompting [[spoiler:Neville's]] actor to say in an interview that their relationship was basically a summer fling.
* ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'':
** Ryan and Sharpay Evans; maybe the writers should have ''thought'' first before creating a pair of twins who are always hanging on and around each other, make a habit of [[IncestuousCasting playing romantic partners in theater]], and are even implicitly marketed in the franchise's posters and imagery as being a main couple. We're even told that "if Sharpay could play both Romeo and Juliet her brother would be out of a job". The Creator/DisneyChannel series ''Series/ShakeItUp'' ''deliberately'' invokes this trope in Gunther and Tinka -- WordOfGod even states that this was done to poke fun at the relationship of Ryan and Sharpay as well as Gunther and Tinka's {{Expy}} status of those characters. There's an incredibly good reason why [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSBoARL2N3g this song]] was cut from the first movie. Go to 1:12 and tell us those characters are supposed to be brother and sister, especially a brother and sister who don't particularly have any strong emotional bond to justify it a little.
** Ryan and Chad introduce a HoYay Relationship Fumble in the second movie. Ryan's actor wanted him to be explicitly gay and into Chad, but Disney wouldn't allow that at the time. Thus, the two were played up in a romantic fashion, which was gone by ''3''.
* ''Film/TheHungerGames'' omits almost all of Katniss' internal monologue. As a result, the fact that she's ''faking'' a romantic attraction to Peeta during this installment of the movie series for the benefit of the crowd and her own survival doesn't come through fully. By the end of the movie, it looks like a genuine romance between the two instead of the initially tragic one-sided relationship of [[Literature/TheHungerGames the books]]. The love story is made to seem like it's [[spoiler:between Katniss and Gale, with Peeta and her public fake-romance with him being an obstacle to overcome]] while in the books, it's actually [[spoiler:a love story between Katniss and Peeta, with Gale only in the mix for a triangle that never really kicks off and lasts only through the first half of the second book]]. And, most of all, for making the love story seem front and center when it's a side plot in the books. For [[Film/TheHungerGamesCatchingFire the second film]], the filmmakers chose to add relationship bits between Katniss and one guy and remove a lot of relationship bits between her and the other guy -- presumably in order to milk more out of the love triangle concept and even things out between the boys. Consequently, many people who have only seen the films and not read the books, including several film critics, believe that [[spoiler:Gale is Katniss' boyfriend]] when in actuality [[spoiler:he's her male friend who feels unrequited love for her]]. To the point where there's a lot of criticism against [[spoiler:both Katniss and Peeta over Katniss "cheating on" Gale.]]
* Shura and Vincento in ''Film/HussarBallad''. It's supposed to be a clear-cut example of DefeatMeansFriendship, but looks less platonic than that. When they first appear (after she takes him prisoner), they smile happily at each other and look (especially Shura) quite giddy, as if they have just been in bed rather than in battle. Vincento’s compliments to Shura sound like flirting (the official English subtitles aren’t helping: “That’s the first time I meet an enemy like this” is translated as “I’ve never met the likes of you”). Then, when they meet at the French camp (she on a spy mission, he after his escape), they share a long HeldGaze before [[spoiler:Vincento decides to commit treason for her sake, the very thing he said he’ll never do]]. Additionally, Shura’s treatment by her official LoveInterest looks more like abuse than BelligerentSexualTension to many modern viewers, while Vincento is nothing but affectionate towards her. The creators, it seems, were aware of the problem, because in the original play, Vincento ''tenderly kisses Shura'' several times [[spoiler:to convince the French she is his brother]], which got removed from the film.
* ''Film/TheIntern'': Jules and Ben's friendship is supposed to be platonic, but a couple of scenes do give the impression things are heading in a romantic direction. Namely, when she passes out drunk in his arms and shows surprise at Fiona being in his house. Likewise, their hotel room scene looks as if it's going to head for Jules making a pass at him. Nothing happens of course, but the setup is curious.
* In ''Film/TheKissingBooth2'' Chloe and [[spoiler:Noah]] are intentionally hinted to have romantic interest in each other, only for it to be revealed they're really just friends. Trouble is, some viewers think they carried off the "bait" part of the BaitAndSwitch a little ''too'' well, as [[spoiler:Noah]] and Chloe come off as rather flirty and touchy-feely for platonic friends (especially compared to [[PlatonicLifePartners Lee and Elle]]).
* In ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven2016'', Sam Chisolm and Emma Cullen have significantly more screentime and frankly more chemistry in their scenes then she does with Faraday.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** Throughout the MCU's Film/{{Captain|AmericaTheFirstAvenger}} [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier America]] [[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar trilogy]] of films, Captain America and his childhood friend Bucky Barnes are so intensely devoted to each other that they're willing to throw everything away including their own lives and reputations just to protect each other, while Cap's relationship with his official love interest, Sharon Carter, is so conspicuously underdeveloped in comparison, that a lot of people are convinced Bucky is Captain America's ''real'' love interest. Even the films' writers fumbled mid-sentence, describing their relationship as a "love story" before quickly calling them brothers. It got to the point that in 2016 a popular hashtag called [=#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend=] was launched, in part due to how differently their relationship came off to viewers than the writers expected.
** ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' with Clint and Natasha. Natasha is unendingly loyal to Clint and wants to save him from Loki so much she at one point offers to free him in exchange for freeing Clint, while he seems to know more about her than anyone else. There wasn't anything explicitly romantic about them, but they're depicted as so close that fans assumed they were each other's ImpliedLoveInterest, resulting in them becoming the most popular Het couple in the fandom. Oddly, it's partly because Natasha ''never'' flirts with him that they seemed like they could be romantic. Until in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' when you find out they're LikeBrotherAndSister, [[spoiler:especially when Clint's wife is introduced]], which resulted in a ''very'' annoyed fandom.
* There were a lot of things wrong with ''Film/MaximumRide'', but main character Max's love interest Fang suffered [[FlatCharacter a total lack of personality or interesting features]], and most of his conversations with Max involved him disagreeing with her or questioning her priorities. Meanwhile, Ari has a tragic backstory, is hopelessly corrupted, has a reunion with Max after many years, and Max constantly has dreams about him. If not for the film going on to express in a more obvious way that Ari resented Max, it might have run its course before viewers realized it wasn't going to be a love triangle. Even more awkward, it turns out that in [[Literature/MaximumRide the books]] most of the characters [[spoiler: are genetically related in some way due to being lab rats, including Max and Fang. However, Ari and Max share an actual father]].
* ''Film/PaperTowns'': Unlike [[Literature/PaperTowns the book]], Lacey and Ben don't have much chemistry. Many viewers felt Lacey had more chemistry with ''Q'' than she did with Ben, or than Q did with Margo. This was possibly a holdover from [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/19/paper-towns-john-green_n_6902886.html an earlier (and, according to John Green, far worse) version of the script]] which did in fact change the OfficialCouple from Q and Margo to Q and Lacey.
* Pete and Natalie from the ''[[Film/PetesDragon2016 Pete's Dragon]]'' remake give off a PuppyLove vibe in a lot of scenes, especially in their first scene together.
* ''Film/PrincessProtectionProgram'': Carter and Rosie are supposed to be at odds with each other before becoming best friends. However, their earlier moments come off more like the kind of BelligerentSexualTension you would find in a teen romance movie. Including a scene where Rosie orders Carter to dress her for bed. Also, due to how short of a time they have known each other, it's easy to read their latter bonding moments as flirty. Particularly the scene where they are trying on dresses or the one with them in front of the mirror. In the latter Rosie is very close to Carter from behind, and basically tells her she's beautiful, before placing a crown on Carter's head. There's also the burping scene which features the two on a swing and opening up to each other, which seems straight out of a romance story. Plus the [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=koSYNaMNp0E extended ending]] where the two become agents together and end up slow walking down the beach together.
* ''Film/{{Push}}'': If the reviews and fan reactions are anything to go by, whatever relationship thirteen-year-old Cassie and twenty-three-year-old Nick were supposed to have wasn't what the audience saw, given her ClingyJealousGirl behavior once Kira arrives. The worst offender was the hotel scene when Cassie leaves, "powers her use" by getting drunk, then returns to curse out Nick's actual love interest Kira, making it come across as though she has a PrecociousCrush.
* The 2018 film ''Red Joan'' is about an elderly woman being outed as a Cold War spy - who first became one by entering a romance with a Soviet agent. Except the first scene establishing her past has her meeting a HardDrinkingPartyGirl who climbs into her room, has NoSenseOfPersonalSpace and is very friendly. This character Sonya just becomes Joan's friend (and eventual contact when she begins spying) but the scene is very much a MeetCute - making it look like Joan was actually a lesbian. Indeed some early scenes between Joan, Sonya and Leo make it look like a LoveTriangle is forming - with Sonya as the Hypoteneuse.
* The movie ''Film/SchoolOfRock'' has this with Dewey and Principal Mullins, as Dewey is [[DefrostingIceQueen the only person who manages to get past her harsh exterior]] and they share a touching scene where she rants about how [[BeneathTheMask she hates having to be such an uptight killjoy all the time]] but feels she has to because of the pressures of her job and [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre Dewey reassures her she's still a cool person on the inside]], plus he discovers she's something of a rock chick herself and they share a mutual passion for music. Later on he gets a SoProudOfYou from her despite fradulently becoming a teacher when his class manage to win the battle of the bands and they even share a hug. Nothing comes of all the ShipTease, but the musical does pick up on this and they become an OfficialCouple at the end of the show.
* This happened in ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' to the Scott/Knives and Scott/Ramona relationships as a result of Edgar Wright starting production of the film while the comic book series was still ongoing and mistakenly thinking that Scott was going to end up with Knives instead of Ramona. When the final comic volume confirmed Scott/Ramona as the endgame couple, Wright changed the film's ending to have Scott choose Ramona over Knives... but the rest of the film leading up to that point still reads a lot like it's setting up Knives to be a better match for Scott than Ramona by giving them more romantic scenes and chemistry while at the same time giving Ramona much less CharacterDevelopment than the comic book did.
* The fumble between Warren and Layla in ''Film/{{Sky High|2005}}'' is very famous in the fandom. Layla spends most of the movie [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend crushing on childhood friend Will]], who is [[ObliviousToLove oblivious]] due to pining for, and eventually dating, the older, prettier Gwen. Layla cries on the shoulder of school bad boy Warren, who has his own reasons for disliking Will, and the two decide to [[OperationJealousy pretend to date to cheese him off]]. They have a number of cute scenes and even go to Homecoming together and by all appearances have a good time before the party is crashed by the bad guys. Will only learns Layla likes him in the last fifteen minutes (from Warren, no less) and just sort of realizes he likes her back without much buildup. This may or may not have been intentional; the film was originally planned as the first in a series of four, and [[WordOfGod according to one of the writers on IMDB]], Will and Layla wouldn't have lasted and she'd have "officially" gotten with Warren.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In the prequels Anakin and Obi-Wan are hit by this trope. The most overt examples are Anakin showing more affection to Obi-Wan than he does to his wife, and Obi-Wan's continued reluctance to off the homicidal brat even after witnessing his deeds first hand. The {{Novelization}} of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' outright states that Anakin loves both Padme and Obi-Wan, that his fall to TheDarkSide was ultimately a choice over which one of them he loved more, and describes them during their fight as "closer than brothers, closer than lovers".
** Luke and Leia, and their behavior towards each other in ''Film/ANewHope'' and half of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. Whether they were intended to be siblings from the beginning is one of many things that falls victim to Lucas' FlipFlopOfGod, but the end result is this trope. The Westermarck effect doesn't get a chance to kick in when you separate twins immediately after birth. [[note]]And in fact there's a phenomenon called "genetic sexual attraction" where closely related people who only meet as adults become intensely attracted to each other.[[/note]]
** The sequel trilogy saw [[ShipToShipCombat shipping wars]] break out in the fanbase, with the three major camps being [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan Finn/Rey]], [[FoeYay Rey/Kylo]], and [[HoYay Finn/Poe]]. All three pairings have moments in all three films that can be interpreted as ShipTease, and this wasn’t helped by [[TrollingCreator comments from the cast poking at the issue]]. Near the very end of the third film, [[spoiler: Rey/Kylo becomes canon... only for Kylo to die immediately after the couple shares their FirstKiss]]. The rest of the potentially romantic subtext between the characters remains unaddressed. Needless to say, some fans found the film’s resolution of the romance angle confusing and underbaked.
* In the low-budget film ''Film/ATalkingCat'', the character Chris is supposed to wind up with Tina, but the film is so poorly written that he winds up having more chemistry with Tina's [[HoYay brother]], Trent. (Bonus points for the fact that both the boys go swimming in the pool together at one point.) It's worth noting that the company that made this movie also specializes in explicitly homoerotic films.
* ''Film/TeenBeachMovie 2'': Lela and Mack are supposed to be friends and straight with boyfriends. However, Lela begins the movie basically ignoring her boyfriend Tanner and seemingly pinning over Mack. When she finds Mack's necklace, Lela readily abandons her whole life, including Tanner if he hadn't followed, just to see her again. When first arriving in the real world, she's overly excited to wear Mack's clothes and model for her, while acting like a teenage girl in front of her crush. Lela hangs out with Mack to the point that Tanner gets jealous, and then refuses to leave her new life and seemingly Mack behind. Lela ends the film by throwing Mack her jacket and winking at her. For Mack's part, she seems starstruck when she sees Lela look "normal" for the first time, with her mouth hanging open. She encourages Lela to rewrite the movie, and in the alternate timeline is obsessed with the movie ''Lela, Queen of the Beach'' even more than Brady was with ''Wet Side Story''.
* During the wedding in ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} Breaking Dawn Part 1]]'', some thought the dance between Bella and Jacob looked more natural with more connection and romance than the dance between Bella and Edward.
* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': There is rather a lot of affection between Dorothy and the Scarecrow. Most notable is the goodbye scene where she saves him for last and says, "I think I'll miss you most of all," -- though nothing comes of it. This is partly due to a dropped plot point -- where the film would have ended with a MaybeEverAfter scenario between Dorothy and Huck (the Scarecrow's human counterpart). But since Dorothy is meant to be only twelve or fourteen in the film, it's quite possible this is just a platonic pairing.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
** In [[Film/XMen1 the first film]], there is [[FanPreferredCouple Wolverine and Rogue]]. She follows him around like a schoolgirl with a crush -- which she is, as it's mentioned at one point later that she's actually "taken with him" -- tells him that she wants to live her life on the road with him in the beginning, she walks into his bedroom at night, they hug, he goes after her and does everything he can to save her, he embraces her again and sticks his face to hers when she's unconscious so that he could give her his life force and, in the end, she tells him that she doesn't want him to leave, so he gives her his dog tags as a memory of him, which she keeps until his return. In fact, in [[Film/X2XMenUnited the second film]], Rogue's DesignatedLoveInterest Bobby actually picks up on this and is clearly jealous of Wolverine.
** ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' is mostly about a heterosexual relationship, but the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth is too strong to be unintentional. While both characters repeatedly talk about how they're 'brothers', the constant SomethingElseAlsoRises, playful flirting, eyeing each other, phallic symbolism, and grappling each other while yelling "Feels good, doesn't it?" kind of ruins the 'brothers' vibe. It's worth noting that the comic-book version of Wolverine's childhood featured a significant redhead named Rose as his first love interest. The first scenes in the movie are copied almost directly from the comic, except with a young Sabretooth in Rose's place.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': David Eddings seems absolutely incapable of writing a sibling relationship without getting a bit eyebrow-raisingly emotionally intense -- Polgara and Beldaran in the early parts of ''Polgara The Sorceress'', especially, read rather more {{twincest}}uous than not. Although, how much of this is David and how much can be attributed to his co-writer and wife, Leigh Eddings, is really anyone's guess.
* In the third installment of ''Literature/TheBookOfTheNamed'', Thakur thinks multiple times how unconventionally beautiful Newt is. [[spoiler:She turns out to be his long-lost niece, which was [[DramaticIrony obvious to the readers]].]] There was probably a better way for Clare Bell to hint at [[spoiler:their connection]].
* ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'' is about a 10-year old boy named Jess who becomes best friends with a girl named Leslie. The book never suggests their relationship is more-than-platonic, but it's very easy for readers to view a PuppyLove scenario going on between the two. They spend most of their time with one another and have a close, kindered bond. Near the end, Leslie [[spoiler:drowns in a river]]. Jess' reaction to this is a lot like [[spoiler:a BelatedLoveEpiphany]]. The 2007 film [[ShipTease rolls]] [[PromotionToLoveInterest with]] the romantic elements of their friendship.
* ''Daughters of a Coral Dawn'' somehow hits this trope within its ''second paragraph''. Protip, Katherine Forrest: when your narrator starts to wax lyrical on her own mother's "voluptuous hips" and "cantaloupe-sized breasts", something has gone ''very'' wrong.
* ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'': Ana and Kate are just supposed to be good friends, with Kate saying she loves her like a sister, but a lot of their interactions can come off as LesYay, especially from Ana's end considering how often she points out Kate's physical attractiveness with similar terms she uses for Christian. It doesn't help that Kate cares a lot more about Ana's happiness and well-being than [[BastardBoyfriend Christian]] seems to.
* ''Literature/{{Graceling}}'': It ''seems'' like Kristin Cashore does this in ''Fire'' with the title character and Prince Brigan, with his nearly 180 regard of her, going from ([[ItMakesSenseInContext understandably]]) absolutely ''despising'' her for being the daughter of a monster to honestly trusting her. It becomes FridgeBrilliance, however, once it's revealed [[spoiler:Brigan learned early on in the book that Fire [[SelfMadeOrphan killed her own father]] in order to save Brigan's life--because Brigan's survival meant the difference between the kingdom's survival and the kingdom falling into complete ruin. It's a good enough reason for Brigan to seriously reconsider his initial hatred of her]].
* ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'' has Nick and Gatsby. Probably unintentional, but one of Nick's first descriptions of Gatsby was "there was something gorgeous about him." Then again, since there's more than a little evidence that Nick is gay or at least bi (including an ambiguous encounter with another man at a party), whether this was a Relationship Writing Fumble or deliberate {{subtext}} is a matter of considerable literary debate.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Creator/JKRowling insists that she was never trying to imply Neville/Luna, despite plenty of background moments between the two that can easily be interpreted in a cute shippy way (they stare at each other on the train, at one point she helps him into a chair...). This apparently was enough for them to get [[PromotedToLoveInterest sorta-paired up]] in the movies.
** While arguably not as prevalent as in the movies, a lot of readers didn't really get the LikeBrotherAndSister vibe that Rowling intended for Harry and Hermione, resulting in her being bombarded by questions from fans and ''journalists'' asking when they would get together. It didn't help that InUniverse, a lot of the characters seemed to believe they had feelings for each other or [[ShesNotMyGirlfriend were actually dating]], or Rowling emphasizing a kiss from Hermione to Harry on the final page of ''Goblet of Fire'' ("She did something she had never done before and kissed him on the cheek"). The problem also stems from Rowling's choice to write the series entirely from Harry's perspective; we see a lot of Harry's interactions with Hermione, Ron and both, and since Hermione is the girl that Harry spends the most time with by far and they never come across as anything but friendly and amicable, it is natural to see Hermione as the love interest. Conversely, readers never get to see how Ron and Hermione interact with each other one on one ''when Harry is not around'', where a lot of their relationship's development would tend to happen. (Eventually, Rowling herself admitted that while writing the last book, Harry and Hermione were coming across as a potential couple due to these factors.)
* ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'': Wardwick is very close to his magically bound slave, Oreg. So close, in fact, that Ward's younger brother gets jealous. The fact that it is the brother, not the love interest, who is jealous, is probably meant to imply that the relationship is more sibling-like. However, fandom concludes that love interest is not jealous because she is a cool, relaxed lady, and just... ship her with Ward and Oreg as threesome. Just as in LOTR this is merely a matter of interpretation of affectionate gestures, though unlike Tolkien the author is cool with homosexuality and may have decided to just not care [[ShippingGoggles what readers might read into it.]]
%%* At first in the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'', Eragon's feelings for Arya seem forced. This ''was'' a problem in ''Eldest'', but he does improve in ''Brisingr'', two sharing more natural moments together. At the end of the series, Arya has developed feelings for him, but decides the only proper thing is a JailBaitWait. Eragon, meanwhile, thinks that'd be nice, and might give that a try, if he didn't have some important business to do--whoops look at the time! Not really their faults mind you since they both made promises they couldn't back out of and that those promises had to be fulfilled on [[spoiler: two separate continents...]]
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': When Creator/JRRTolkien created Sam and Frodo as one of fantasy's signature [[HeterosexualLifePartners BFFs]], he probably didn't realize that there would be those who would interpret it romantically. The whole world he created in fact has different standards, standards that would normally be respected today. People are openly, emotionally, and physically affectionate without it being perceived as emasculating or sexual. At the time he was writing, especially considering Tolkien's own life experiences, this sort of friendship was common and even encouraged -- although playing it for HoYay was not unheard of either (see [[Analysis/TheLordOfTheRings analysis]] as well as [[HoYay/TheLordOfTheRings the series' HoYay page]]).
* In the teen novel ''Party'' by Tom Leveen, a character talks about his casual friend like he has a crush on her and is in denial. However, nothing happens and he helps another guy get together with her with no sign of jealousy.
-->"She's very good looking but I'm not interested in her."\\
"I'm jealous of any guy who would date her."\\
"I can't be interested in her because my father wouldn't let me date a non-Muslim."
* ''Literature/TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'':
** If it weren't for Scathach being such a ShipperOnDeck for Francis and Joan's marriage, you could accuse Scatty of being into Joan herself. Then again Scatty seems to have LesYay with just about everyone else in the series too.
** The twin protagonists too. There are some lines and scenarios that feel almost as if it's a love story between Sophie and Josh. Neither of them has a canon love interest either. Of course with TheReveal of the last book [[spoiler:that they're not actually related]], it makes this a teensy bit better.
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'' -- the two {{Official Couple}}s are Elinor/Edward and Marianne/Colonel Brandon, yet Marianne gets all the interaction and conversations with Edward on the proverbial screen (because he and Elinor are TwiceShy), and Elinor and Colonel Brandon become such close friends and spend so much time together that the [[ShipperOnDeck Shippers On Deck]] understandably soon believe they are the OfficialCouple (because they are frequently the only two sensible people in the same room, and therefore gravitate toward each other). Creator/JaneAusten frequently mocked {{shipping}} in her books (see ''Literature/{{Emma}}'').
* In ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', [[NotBloodSiblings Septimus and Jenna]] were intended to explicitly see each other as honorary siblings due to the latter having been essentially adopted by the former's family after the murder of Jenna's mother and seeming death of Septimus himself as a baby all on the same day ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]). The narrative itself likewise at times tries to actively enforce this intention by having several words of narration and dialogue indicate that the two view each other as if they were siblings while also giving Jenna a canon love interest in the form of Septimus's best friend Beetle while Septimus himself later gets the possibility of a future romance teased between first him and Syrah and later [[LastEpisodeNewCharacter Rose]]. Despite all this, however, a surprisingly large number of seemingly rather suggestive (albeit, in fairly subtle and kid friendly fashion) or similarly romantic undertone possessing moments shared between Septimus and Jenna over the course of the series ended up present in the series to the point that a sizable number of readers genuinely thought that ''they'' were intended to be the main OfficialCouple.
* A truly [[{{Squick}} squicky]] example shows up in Creator/JodiPicoult's novel, ''A Spark of Light'', with the main character Hugh intended to be a DotingParent and PapaWolf for his daughter, Wren, but instead he comes off as creepily obsessed with her. He and Wren never argue or disagree on any subject, are extremely close because Hugh raised Wren after her mother walked out, he considers Wren his "universe", constantly goes on about how special she is, laments that eventually some boy is going to "steal" her from him and defies his boss's orders to talk down the gunman because his daughter is trapped inside the clinic with him (with his boss arguing that because Hugh isn't capable of being impartial in this situation, he can't be trusted to negotiate effectively). His marriage to his wife, Annabelle, broke down because he was such a ControlFreak, yet he isn't mentioned being interested in other women and focuses all his time and energy on Wren, with his sister Bex being her surrogate mother figure. It comes off like an emotionally-stunted man latching onto his daughter as a LivingEmotionalCrutch after driving away his wife.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':
** [[DesignatedHero Bella]] and Jacob have a pretty popular fanbase due to Meyer actually taking the time to develop their relationship and stated that they knew each other as kids. Yet Jacob still ends up as the [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Unlucky Childhood Friend]], whereas no matter how much Meyer states that what the OfficialCouple Edward/Bella have is [[SexEqualsLove "true]] [[StalkingIsLove love"]], it doesn't change that she wrote their relationship as creepy and obsessive.
** There are some scenes that can easily support [[LesYay Bella/Alice.]] This was almost certainly not intentional on Meyer's part, but it's still there.
** In ''[[BrokenBase Breaking Dawn]]'', Jacob/Leah seemed to be the obvious direction for the Unlucky Childhood Friend(s), especially because of the BelligerentSexualTension involved. However, Jacob [[StrangledByTheRedString imprinted]] on [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Bella's two-minute-old child,]] and that was that.
** In ''The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner'', Bree spends a lot of time wondering if Diego (her love interest) has some special bond with Riley (the leader of their coven) that means that he would be willing to betray her to Riley. This, plus a scene where it sounds like Victoria is suspicious that Riley's loyalties might be swayed from her (keep in mind that she controls Riley via his feelings for her) to Diego, makes it sound very much like Diego and Riley are lovers and his relationship with Bree is just platonic affection. It really doesn't help that Diego's interactions with Bree (a peck on the cheek, holding hands, etc) could just as easily be done between friends and that Bree's constant insistence that Diego trusts her over Riley sound like she's in denial.
* Kes and Bo, the central twin characters of the ''Literature/WindOnFire'' trilogy, just adore each other, and as the characters age, their love feels increasingly... not siblingly. Whether this is a "fumble" is a moot point: William Nicholson seems very confident in his portrayal, never seeming to try and escape the slightly {{twincest}}uous tone of their relationship.
* ''Literature/HowNotToWriteANovel'' discusses this trope, using an example story called "The Deafening Hug" in which the narration describes the protagonist's sister in very amorous ways, giving the impression that there is (possibly one-sided) BrotherSisterIncest going on. Afterwards the author points out that people will [[ShippingGoggles see love interests everywhere]] so you'd better be careful when, say, writing cousins ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' style.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/The100'': The creators have said that Clarke and Bellamy are JustFriends, but many fans see it otherwise. The two have a plethora of moments that could be seen as ShipTease and good on-screen chemistry. They develop an incredibly close and strong bond to the point that they’re willing to die for each other without a second thought and prioritize saving one another over far more rational goals. Overall, the entire relationship comes off more as UnresolvedSexualTension than two close friends. It doesn't help that their actors ended up getting married in real life.
* ''Series/NineOneOne'' Series creator Tim Minear wonders how people ship Buck and Eddie (or "[[PortmanteauCoupleName Buddie]]") from as early as 2x01, Eddie's introduction episode. Fans are quick to note, however, that Eddie's introduction scene (him wearing shirt in slow motion while "Whatta Man" plays in the background) suits more as love interest's introduction rather than a rival that threatens someone's heartthrob status within a group and things goes downhill (depending on how one sees it) from there. From Buck's great agony over the possibility of Eddie getting hurt or dying, Eddie trusting Buck with Christopher, his son, more than anyone else which culminates in him writing Buck as Christopher's legal guardian IN HIS WILL, lingering gazes that suggest interest between them not stopping even after they date other people, their lack of personal spaces with each other in earlier seasons, Buck's lack of protest when people assume he's into men, Eddie's freak out over Anna being called Christopher's mother which resembles more of a "gay panic" rather than fear of having ready-made family too soon after Shannon's death, the creators' shout outs to shippers during Season 2 that don't help things (Santa elf assuming Christopher is both of their son, about which Buck doesn't correct, and Instagram live comments that squeal about them possibility being couple)... The two have been given stereotypical will-they-won't-they plotlines with each other to the point that Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt outwardly says she sees why people ship them together and would like for Buck and Eddie to become a couple and Creator/OliverStark himself showing signs that he's quite invested in his character's relationship with Eddie.
* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'': According to show creator Creator/RyanMurphy and Cordelia's actress Creator/SarahPaulson, Cordelia and Misty Day have a mother-daughter relationship. However, they are a popular ship within the fandom. Misty's quick hero-worship of Cordelia comes across more like a student who has a crush on her teacher. While Cordelia teaches Misty magic, she even tells her husband to get out so she can do so, making Misty stay when she tries to leave and acts like someone mad that their ex is interrupting their date. Cordelia also quickly grows attached to Misty and is crushed by her death, which haunts her for years, and which she takes harder than the death of her husband. When Misty is eventually revived in ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse Apocalypse]]'', Cordelia is overjoyed at seeing her again and says that despite knowing her for such a short time, she's missed her forever. The last we see of either is after Mallory brings Misty back, with the two embracing each other. Paulson and Creator/LilyRabe also have a natural chemistry which makes the two come off a lot closer than they should be in the story.
* Discussed in-universe in ''Series/BrooklynNineNine''; when discussing the {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST between Detectives Peralta and Santiago, Detective Boyle recounts an example from his past where he and a girl he had {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST with tried being JustFriends but eventually succumbed to their lust... while starring in a high-school production of ''Theatre/{{Annie}}''.
-->'''Boyle:''' We were supposed to hug, on stage. And at first, that seemed like nothing too. But by opening night, we were full-on making out.\\
'''Santiago:''' As Annie and Daddy Warbucks?\\
'''Boyle:''' Mmm-hmmm... [[NoYay the audience was]] ''[[NoYay not]]'' [[NoYay on board]]. Playwright sued the school.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** The writers realized they were writing ''way'' too much BelligerentSexualTension into Cordelia and Xander's interactions, so they just went with it and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSZMjtvL6Vc made them a couple.]]
---> '''Cordelia:''' I'd rather be worm food than look at ''your'' pathetic face!\\
'''Xander:''' Then go! I'm not stopping you!\\
'''Cordelia:''' I bet you wouldn't! I bet you'd let a girl go off to her doom all by herself!\\
'''Xander:''' Not just any girl. You're special.\\
'''Cordelia:''' I can't believe that I'm stuck spending what will probably be my last few moments on Earth here -- ''with you''!\\
'''Xander:''' I ''hope'' these are my last few moments! Three more seconds with you, and I'm gonna...\\
'''Cordelia:''' 'I'm gonna' what? Coward!\\
'''Xander:''' Moron!\\
'''Cordelia:''' I '''hate''' you!\\
'''Xander:''' '''I hate you!'''\\
''[They kiss for the first time -- hard]''
** During "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E7TheInitiative The Initiative]]", Riley is seen comforting a depressed Willow at a party. Riley's sensitivity here and the chemistry between Creator/AlysonHannigan and Marc Blucas in this scene led some viewers to believe the show was heading for a love triangle, with Willow stealing Buffy's not-yet-boyfriend.
** In Season 4's "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E9SomethingBlue Something Blue]]", Buffy and Spike getting married was supposed to be a joke and the catalyst to Buffy deciding she was over bad boys, but there was so much chemistry between them that the Spuffy pairing just took off.
** WordOfGod says that by season three, he had decided that either Xander or Willow would eventually come out as gay. He was apparently leaning toward Xander, but in season four Creator/AlysonHannigan and Creator/AmberBenson had such astonishing chemistry that Willow/Tara became canon instead.
** Also in season 4; Riley Finn is introduced alongside his two fellow military buddies, Forrest and Graham. Forrest, however, seems to be inordinately fixated on Riley's romantic relationship with Buffy and openly dislikes her as soon as Riley shows any interest in her. Though the writers only intended Forrest to be a concerned friend who was in too deep in the Initiative, more often than not he came across as a jealous, scorned admirer who hated that Buffy stole his man. Even Marc Blucas himself has joked in interviews that he was pretty sure Forrest was in love with Riley.
* ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'': In 2x08, the Mandrake tries to get Ambrose to show it affection by oddly flirting with him and asking if it can sit on his lap, which visibly throws him off. Ambrose later mentions to Sabrina that the Mandrake's thoughts, feelings, and desires are all the same as her own, which implies [[FridgeLogic (likely by accident)]] that Sabrina might have some sort of [[KissingCousins crush on him]]. This does not dovetail well with the fact that they are family and basically treat each other like siblings.
* On ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', Chuck's interaction with Sarah is constantly shown as being platonic, but the way Chuck and [[IncestIsRelative his sister Ellie]] interact around each other is flat-out "[[JustFriends friends who want to be lovers]]" writing. He even does the falling-over-himself and stuttering bits that you expect from a [[HollywoodNerd TV show's portrayal of geek romancing]]. It turns out that Chuck was originally intended to have a love interest in his civilian life, but when it was decided that complicated matters too much, she was dropped... and many of her lines given to Ellie. The writers caught this subtext after the first season aired, and then started taking corrective measures.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'':
** Season six has a guy named Travis, who has a rather close relationship with his sister. A few lingering glances, asking her to stay home from work, and the BigBad talking about Travis wanting to "play house" with her makes their relationship seem... off-kilter.
** The series had a lot of tension between Debra and Dex (who is her adopted brother). It wasn't helped by the fact that the actors were dating RL (and got married). In Season 6 the writers actually acknowledge it by having Debra fall in love with Dex (never actually acted on).
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The original series is firmly NoHuggingNoKissing, but numerous Doctor/[[TrueCompanions companion]] relationships have an element of romance to them, deliberately or otherwise, most notably with 4 and Sarah Jane Smith, a point that would later be revisited between her and 10.
** There's a preposterous amount of sexual tension between Richard the Lionheart and his sister Joanna in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E6TheCrusade The Crusade]]". The original script did have them as an incestuous couple until Creator/WilliamHartnell objected.
** Whatever was going on between Steven and Dodo. In some stories, they get ShipTease (like "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E6TheArk The Ark]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E8TheGunfighters The Gunfighters]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E9TheSavages The Savages]]"), which is fine... except that "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E5TheMassacre The Massacre]]" has Steven imply he thinks she may be ''his own'' descendant (he guesses she is the descendant of Anne Chaplet, but a 17th Century French woman wouldn't give her surname to her children unless she'd had them out of wedlock and there'd be no specific reason for him to expect that, [[BoldlyComing unless]]...). It's possible the implication of her descent from him was simply an oversight, or Steven being mistaken -- it's also possible that Dodo and Steven's relationship was more familial as the WillTheyOrWontThey seems to exist mostly in other peoples' heads and Dodo's strange behaviour in "The Gunfighters" can be explained by [[CloudCuckooLander her being strange anyway]] -- but it's unlikely that both of these were supposed to be true at the same time.
** Polly doesn't generally appear to have interest in anyone, but she calls the Doctor 'gorgeous' in one throwaway scene in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E8TheFacelessOnes The Faceless Ones]]", and when she leaves the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Ben to keep working hard and Polly to [[StayInTheKitchen look after Ben]], implying that they are romantically involved (as well as being [[ValuesDissonance alarmingly sexist by modern standards]]).
** Whether Jo is the Third Doctor's ImpliedLoveInterest tormenting the audience with {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST, or whether she's a surrogate daughter figure, depends entirely on [[DependingOnTheWriter what works for that particular story]].
** At least for the latter's first few appearances, the relationship between the Doctor and the Master was [[FriendlyEnemy far too amiable]] for TheHero and his EvilCounterpart. As mentioned in FoeYay, their respective actors were good friends and this entered into their performances, but most appearances from the 1980s onwards extrapolated this into straight HoYay -- eventually heterosexual when the Master regenerated into a woman.
** Notorious real-life flirt Creator/TomBaker was prone to sizing up female costars which his character was presumably intended to have no interest in. Bettan in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]" is a nice, helpful female character whose job is to show up for about ten minutes to help the Doctor get back to his companions, but the {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST between them is distracting.
** The [[DestructiveRomance abusive relationship]] HoYay subtext between Styggron and Crayford in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion The Android Invasion]]" deserves a mention. Styggron is intended as an obsessive control freak who has no interest in anything besides his convoluted plan, and it was supposed to be him manipulating Crayford for these ends and then abandoning him. Unfortunately, the [[GambitRoulette gibberish-level convolution of his plan]] means that his {{Gaslighting}} of Crayford comes across as abuse for its own sake. The {{Padding}} scenes added by Creator/RobertHolmes add a whole subplot where Styggron straps down Crayford to an AgonyBeam scanner to psychologically torture him by creating and destroying a robot duplicate in front of him, which makes Crayford's later obsessive devotion to him come off as inexplicable, unless he's emotionally codependent. The Doctor eventually has to talk Crayford into realising that Styggron's been lying to him about who he really is, which Crayford plays in the manner of someone finally realising the truth about an abusive husband.
** The Doctor and Leela. Their relationship has a bigger power dynamic differential than most Doctor/companion relationships, with Leela being his student and, to a certain extent, his creation. Their relationship was intended to be more distant and vertical than with Sarah Jane, a carry-over from the Third Doctor era who didn't quite fit the Fourth Doctor's alienness. None of it stops the Doctor checking her out in pretty dresses and trying to grope her thighs or sniff her hair while hiding with her in doorways.
** The Doctor and K-9 were supposed to be VitriolicBestBuds. Early in K-9's run, Tom Baker plays it more like the Doctor sincerely [[SitcomArchNemesis hates]] the RobotDog and is only tolerating him because he's useful. Check out "Underworld", where he outright ''snarls'' at K-9's unhelpful comments, and plays the scene where he has to [[CharacterShilling talk about K-9 being his best friend]] slightly mockingly, as if he's buttering up K-9 for favours.
** Romana was a very attractive woman (in both of her incarnations) and a Time Lord like the Doctor, thus removing the InterspeciesRomance issue entirely. She was his intellectual equal, and thus the usual mentoring overtones of his relationships with most other companions were absent and they came across more as (possibly romantic) partners. Creator/TomBaker and Creator/LallaWard had a [[RomanceOnTheSet rather volatile real-life romantic relationship]] during their run on the show adding a large dose of RealitySubtext as well, which resulted in some Relationship Acting Fumble. In some episodes they come across as ridiculously in love and are clearly turning each other on a lot with their presence -- and in others they won't even look at each other and stumble through their lines in a contemptuous monotone. WordOfGod is that one can sometimes tell if the actors had had a falling out by how they interacted on screen.
** During the Fifth Doctor's run, there was a no touching rule between the Doctor and his female companions to dispel the notion that he could be having a sexual relationship with either of them. It just made fans think he was having one with the token ''male'' companion of the time, who wasn't subject to those restrictions. Creator/PeterDavison noticed this himself during a DVDCommentary, musing that Turlough was created so that the Doctor would have someone he could "put his arm around".
** The rather 1980s belief that physical contact between the same gender [[SlashFic wouldn't be interpreted sexually]] meant that fans instead latched onto female companions Tegan and Nyssa, two characters who, despite the infinite dimensions of the TARDIS, [[HeterosexualLifePartners feel the need to share a bedroom]]. When Tegan rejoins the crew in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]", Nyssa gives a whoop of delight and hugs her, while the Doctor looks like he'd rather be somewhere else. Out of sequence recording didn't help: Creator/SarahSutton and Janet Fielding were asked to tone down their chemistry since they were coming across as ''very'' close in only Tegan's second story.
** The Fifth Doctor and Susan are also widely noted to have looked like they were checking each other out in their scenes together. Possibly a bit hard to play a convincing grandfather-granddaughter relationship with a ten-year age difference in the wrong direction.
*** In the same story, there's a whole scene where the '''First''' Doctor appears to be checking out his granddaughter's arse that was so gobsmackingly overt that reruns cut it out.
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]", Naismith and his daughter seem to have a ''lot'' of sexual tension going on, almost to the point of {{squick}}. Since the show is still aimed at kids, and the UST has no bearing on the plot whatsoever, it just comes across as random.
** Creator/StevenMoffat loves exploring the murky territory between familial love, sexual love, and different familial roles, usually via time travel. While a small vocal minority still insists that he's in favour of WifeHusbandry, it's usually tasteful, and he's won awards for stories focusing on these themes more than a couple of times (see: "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace The Girl in the Fireplace]]", about the Doctor's protection of a little girl as she grew causing her adult self to fall in love with him; and "Listen", where time travel accidents cause Clara to meet her boyfriend's child self, her boyfriend's IdenticalGrandson, and the child self of the Doctor). But it's very unlikely he would have had the Doctor, Amy and Rory all flirting with each other so much if he'd known [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants where their arc would end up going]]. Or the parts where River appears to flirt with Amy. Even after he knew ''exactly'' what he was doing, he was still pushing the sexual angle between Amy and the Doctor hard, by repeatedly implying for BaitAndSwitch reasons that Amy's baby was the Doctor's.
** The Doctor and Clara Oswald. As soon as they get together as a team, there's near-constant subtext about their friendship not being in a brotherly-sisterly realm, despite its platonic nature. The Doctor reluctantly (if happily) shows signs of having a chaste crush on Clara, largely because she's given him a new sense of purpose after he was very withdrawn from the world prior to befriending her. This is not helped by Clara, cheeky as she often is, taking him by the shoulder in episodes like "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E9Hide Hide]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E11TheCrimsonHorror The Crimson Horror]]" or making him shyly squirm over minor gestures of affection. Jenna Coleman herself noted that Clara had grown to really like him, but it wasn't until his regeneration in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]" that she (belatedly) realised she was a little bit in love with him as well. Despite Creator/PeterCapaldi begging Creator/StevenMoffat not to write the relationship between Clara and his more morose incarnation as romantic (at least, so the claim has been made; this has since been denied), theirs is an intense bond, complete with long anguished looks at each other and a flat-out (if veiled) love declaration. [[spoiler:At the end of season 9, the Doctor subjects himself to billions of years of torture to undo her death, shoots another Time Lord (with a gun!!) to escape with her, and then uses tech to lobotomize his memories of her as the only possible way of letting her go.]]
--> '''Doctor:''' Clara, I'm not your boyfriend.
--> '''Clara:''' I never thought you were.
--> '''Doctor:''' I never said it was ''your'' mistake.
* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'':
** Though opinion is divided (as plenty of viewers strongly dislike this pairing), the relationship between Tom and Mary can come across as the two of them acting like a married couple after the deaths of their respective spouses. They're brother and sister-in-law (Tom's [[spoiler:late wife Sybil]] is Mary's sister) and each get new love interests over the course of the show -- but Tom and Mary often spend nearly every waking moment together, are able to communicate without words, are the missing mother/father figure to the other's child, and have an understanding of each other that goes beyond what anyone else in the show has. When Tom becomes TheMatchmaker to Mary and her latest {{Love Interest|s}}, most of his heartfelt speeches about why Mary should be with Henry are phrased in such a way that some fans feel like Tom is talking about ''himself'' ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7y2b-ndeqs as with this one]]), viewing it as though it's all part of a desperate attempt to fight his own feelings.
** To those viewers whose ShippingGoggles are oriented in a slashier direction, Tom's efforts to set the pair up come across as his having a MatchmakerCrush on ''Henry''. Effectively, the writers have created an OfficialCouple where both parties have more chemistry with Tom Branson than each other, which is impressive as far as this trope is concerned.
* InUniverse in ''Series/FatherTed'': Ted and Dougal are attempting to write lyrics for an entry for [[Series/EurovisionSongContest Eurosong]]. Dougal's first suggestion for lyrics for a song called "My Lovely Horse" is "My lovely horse I want to hold you so tight/ I want to rub my fingers through your tail and love you all night." When Ted points out that the lyrics should be about being best friends with the horse, not about being in love with the horse, Dougal proposes "Take this lump of sugar, baby, you know you want it."
* ''Series/{{Flash Forward|2009}}'' features a gay couple on their first date discussing getting married, having children, and saying things like 'I'd never leave you'. That doesn't happen the first time you go out for dinner (although, Janis does end up being put-off by the obsessiveness that her date ultimately displays). Furthermore, Janis has more chemistry with Demetri (who has a fiancee, with whom he has not a terrible amount of chemistry) than with the aforementioned date.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Several viewers thought that Tyrion had romantic feelings for Sansa in Season 8, and some felt Sansa may even have reciprocated them to a degree. Tyrion expresses admiration for Sansa and states they "should've stayed married", to which Sansa says it wouldn't work "because of the dragon queen" without giving any other explanation or any indication that she'd have any emotional objections to them staying married. Sansa also makes a point of telling him that of all the men she was betrothed/married to, he was the best. And then there's their emotionally charged moment while they're hiding in the crypts and could be killed at any moment. It doesn't help that Tyrion previously admitted to finding Sansa attractive but refused to act on it on moral principle. However, given Tyrion's later confession that he's fallen in love with Daenerys, the writers apparently didn't intend for him to have romantic interest in Sansa.
** Jon and Sansa's relationship is also supposed to be a cute sibling one, but some fans saw it as them as KissingCousins instead, especially with Jon being extremely protective of Sansa after they reunited and threatening every man who mentions her (Littlefinger, Theon, Tyrion) and only Sansa's presence is able to calm him down during his NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on [[spoiler: Ramsay Bolton]]. Sansa also becomes very close with Jon after not even sharing scenes with him in Season One, taking care to dress him as a Stark, talking about what a great man he is and gently touching his arm or face, etc.
** Sansa appears to be a magnet for this trope, because Theon's behaviour towards her also smacks of romantic feelings. She is the only person capable of pulling him out of his Reek persona by reminding him of who he was and it's when her life is threatened he [[spoiler: finally snaps, kills Myranda and escapes Winterfell with Sansa]]. Later he returns to fight by Yara's side but she realises what he really wants is to return North and help his adoptive family and gives him her blessing to do so. On his return, Daenerys is clearly expecting Theon to bow to her (since Yara and Theon came to offer an alliance with Dany earlier), instead Theon goes and kneels to Sansa over the dragon queen and tells her he'll fight by her side "if she'll have him" and she's seen smiling warmly at him as they share a meal in Winterfell hall. Sansa is utterly distraught when [[spoiler: Theon is killed in the battle and puts her direwolf pin on his body before it burns.]]
** [[UpToEleven Sansa]] and [[LesYay Margaery]] big time. Sansa clearly looks up to Margaery a lot, and Margaery, besides being a very touchy-feely friend, has a soft spot for Sansa beyond just some PetTheDog moments, low-key mentors her about sexuality, offers her roses, casually mentions that some women like "pretty girls" ''while looking at Sansa'', and, as characters put it in-universe, ''adores'' Sansa. Also, the two often share prolonged gazes while holding hands an make plans for the future. Definitely not helped by Creator/NatalieDormer having chemistry with about anyone and anything, much less so by Creator/SophieTurner being ''very'' supportive of the ship, constantly mentioning in in [[https://watchersonthewall.com/sophie-turner-suggests-sansa-try-women/ interviews]], suggesting Littlefinger’s aforementioned "Queen Margaery ''adores'' Sansa!" line from Season 5, and… [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwsHCzI1nV4 this]].
* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'':
** We have the normal BettyAndVeronica dynamic for Lorelai and Rory's romantic interests. The WillTheyOrWontThey gets resolved between Luke and Lorelai in the fifth season. Dean gets awkwardly PutOnABus and [[ThirdOptionLoveInterest Logan Huntzberger]] complicates Rory and Lorelai's relationship for the first half of season 6. Then Luke suddenly finds out he has a pre-teen daughter he never knew about, drawing the WillTheyOrWontThey between Luke and Lorelai out until the series finale. In an attempt to "fix" the mistakes from the sixth season, Logan doesn't even end up with Rory, while Luke and Lorelai finally get together in the finale -- yet it feels more like a LastMinuteHookup for some.
** Jess and Rory. They had a very popular relationship in Season 3 that ended because of issues between the characters, InUniverse bad-timing, and Jess's spin-off (which was later cancelled). They continued to harbour feelings for each other and when Rory was going through a confused, unfocused time during Season 6, Jess briefly returns to the series as a guy who's grown up, worked through his rebellious phase, and has successfully published a novel. Jess won over more viewers when he encouraged Rory to get her life back on track, go back to Yale, and patch things back up with her now-estranged mom, who Rory was really close with.[[note]]At this point in the series, Rory gave up her studies after being told by a leading newspaper CEO and journalist that she doesn't have the skills to be a journalist -- the goal and dream Rory had spent her life working toward. In her devastation, Rory becomes a college drop-out, lives in her grandparents' pool house, parties with her boyfriend Logan, and is estranged from her mother during this period in the series[[/note]] Some fans thought that the writers were heading toward Rory dumping her boyfriend, then-RebelPrince Logan pre-BreaktheHaughty, and moving past her Season 6 mistakes like Jess did. Some fans also thought that this would be when Jess/Rory got their timing right and would get back together -- but no. She rejects Jess and returns to Logan. Many a FlatWhat was heard from the fandom that day.
** Taken UpToEleven for nearly all relationships in the 2016 revival, which manages to alienate some fans from the Jess/Rory, Logan/Rory, ''and'' Luke/Lorelai ships. Rory and Logan are having an affair while being involved with other people, which fans argued was out of character for both of them, particularly following Logan's CharacterDevelopment in the original series and made both characters UnintentionallyUnsympathetic. Jess and Rory get less than five minutes of screen time together and are friends now despite their heartbreaking last scene in the original series without much of a backstory to connect these dots over the last decade since we saw them together. The writers revive the WillTheyOrWontThey plots for both Jess/Rory and Rory/Logan literally ''minutes'' from the end. Luke and Lorelai are having the same issues with their relationship they were having in the original series -- despite the nine year time jump -- during which they've been in a committed relationship and living together. They do eventually [[spoiler: tie the knot]], but not before teasing a break-up for nearly an entire 90-minute episode.
** Marty, a sweet fellow Yale classmate of Rory who seemingly combines the positive traits of Dean and Jess. Yet nothing ever happens and Marty is written out to make room for Logan. Rather than giving the character a proper sendoff, Marty unexpectedly returns during the last season, having become a {{JerkAss}}, seemingly only to strengthen the friendship between Rory and her [[ThoseTwoGuys two new Yale friends, who were mostly devoid of personality]].
** There are those fans who believe that Paris's uncanny ability to insert herself into every facet of Rory's life means she's clearly enamored with her, something that Rory is utterly oblivious to. Some believe Paris displays far more chemistry with Rory than any of her so-called "[[TheBeard boyfriends]]".
* In ''Series/GoGoSentaiBoukenger'', Natsuki has no memory of anything that happened before she met Masumi -- [[spoiler:her memories were erased to protect her identity as the last survivor of a destroyed civilization.]] They go everywhere together, do everything together, and Natsuki is explicitly stated to be "the light to Masumi's darkness" and the only one who can pull him out of a state of intense despair. They are one of the most popular ships in the entirety of the franchise, yet they never reached OfficialCouple status, and the actors stated [[WordOfGod in interviews]] that the characters' relationship was akin to that of parent-child or brother-sister.
* ''Series/HannahMontana'': Miley and Lilly are just supposed to be best friends, but most fans think they have more chemistry together than with their actual love interests. Their relationship is filled with LesYay, and is often given a lot more focus than their romantic ones. In the first episode, Miley's afraid to tell Lilly she is Hannah, in a way that resembles someone being afraid to tell their childhood crush they like them. The Movie also gives a lot more focus and weight to their fight than to that of Miley with the BoyOfTheWeek, Travis. Lilly eventually gets with Oliver, but the show makes it clear that Miley is her most important relationship, and she chooses to help Miley over Oliver multiple times. When the two do fight it comes off to many fans like an old married couple. There's a good reason most fanfiction about the show interpret them as already dating.
* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', some fans ship Peter and Claire and have been before it was [[TheReveal revealed]] they are uncle and niece. When these two meet episodes before TheReveal and before viewers knew they were even remotely related, it was believed these two might get together... in a very ''non'' platonic way -- but it was revealed that any romantic dynamic some fans saw was entirely unintentional. After TheReveal that they are related, writers backed away from Claire and Peter's initial dynamic pretty quickly. The big problems with Peter and Claire were 1) They had excellent InUniverse reasons to be thrilled to meet each other, and the fandom interpreted it as the start of a RescueRomance, 2) they were both introduced as young, hot characters with the same questions about their powers, and 3) because the show hadn't revealed that they were related yet, people started shipping Claire and Peter right away. It didn't help that the actors [[RomanceOnTheSet actually dated.]]
* ''Series/{{House}}'':
** The friendship between [[HeterosexualLifePartners House and Wilson]] had such intense HoYay overtones that writer Doris Egan couldn't resist writing just a bit more of it each episode. This earned her the nickname "Saint Doris" among fans, but the other writers weren't quite on board and kept downgrading Egan's RelationshipUpgrade moments again. Showrunner David Shore had to WordOfGod nix the canon likelihood of House and Wilson becoming a couple in a semi-famous interview with TV critic Mo Ryan, after Doris Egan's writing on the "Amber" StoryArc made the {{subtext}} nearly text. This was not the first, the last, or even the most blatant hint for the two.
** The UnresolvedSexualTension and the surprising resemblance between [[MentorShip House and Cameron]] was written effectively enough, and Creator/HughLaurie and Jennifer Morrison had chemistry enough, that even after the two of them were paired off with different people, they could scarcely be in the same room for more than ten seconds without making many fans wonder how they hadn't already jumped each other's bones. It's possible that [[spoiler:Cameron was written off the show]] in order to [[ShipSinking put an end to any possibilities between them once and for all]].
* If the writers of ''The Series/InspectorLynley Mysteries'' wanted viewers to believe Havers and Lynley ''aren't'' falling head-over-heels in love throughout the course of the show, they ''really'' shouldn't have had them call each other [[spoiler:their reason to get up in the morning]], or given them the infamous CryIntoChest at the end of "In Divine Proportion" that looks like nothing so much as a man comforting his traumatized lover. Many, ''many'' fans have pointed out that Lynley has much better chemistry--and a much healthier relationship -- with Barbara than he ever did with [[SatelliteLoveInterest Helen]].
* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'':
** Happens in-universe and played for laughs in the episode "[[Recap/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphiaS04E13TheNightmanCometh The Nightman Cometh]]". Charlie intends the protagonist of the eponymous play to be a man in love with a princess who has his soul corrupted by the Nightman, a demon he battles against. However, he's initially named the Little Boy and certainly doesn't look or act like he's meant to be a grown man, adding an unintended [[MistakenForPedophile pedophilic undertone]] to the princess's duet with him. On top of this, while intended as nonsexual, the Nightman taking his soul is laden with HomoeroticSubtext; the scene features a FadeToBlack as the Nightman creeps under his covers, and Frank's character [[{{Mondegreen}} keeps mispronouncing]] "boy's soul" as "boy's hole" -- even the actors involved thought they were staging a rape scene. (It's heavily implied as well that [[WriteWhatYouKnow the story is inspired by Charlie having been molested]] by his CreepyUncle.) Naturally, Charlie is incensed at all of this and insists that there are no undertones whatsoever.
--->'''Mac:''' Ummm... I think we have to be very careful about how we do the rape scene.\\
'''Frank:''' Yeah.\\
'''Charlie:''' Wh-what in God's name are you talking about? There's no "rape scene".\\
''(Mac and Frank give Charlie a confused look)''\\
'''Mac:''' ...Well, sure. I pay the Troll Toll and then I rape Dennis--\\
'''Charlie:''' ''No!'' You don't rape him! You ''become'' him! You do ''not'' rape him!\\
'''Frank:''' He doesn't?
** A similar thing happens in the Gang's attempts at ''Film/LethalWeapon'' fan films. They're intended to have Riggs and Murtagh's daughter be the OfficialCouple, but the film is so laden with so many male {{Fanservice}} scenes and intimate moments with Riggs and Murtagh (up to and including playful shower wrestling) that most people upon viewing the film assume it to be a porno. They throw in a scene of the two visiting a strip club while [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday talking about how not-gay they are]] in an attempt to cover this. It doesn't help that the wedding scene has both Riggs and Murtagh's daughter visibly flinching away from the BigDamnKiss (as a result of their actors hating each other).
* In ''Series/LifeWithDerek'', the titular character and his [[NotBloodSiblings step-sister]] Casey are supposed to have an antagonistic SiblingRivalry relationship with one another but come across more like they have BelligerentSexualTension than anything else, and thus, feel like a pair of FlirtyStepsiblings in deep denial of their attraction to each other. Not helping is that WordOfGod states that Derek and Casey "care for each other more than anyone", nor that Michael Seater (Derek's actor) and Ashley Leggat (Casey's actress) openly shipped the Derek/Casey pairing and (most likely due to being good friends in real life) had great on-screen chemistry.
** To a lesser extent, there's Edwin (Derek's little brother) and Lizzie (Casey's little sister), who have a similar FlirtyStepsiblings vibe with ToyShip mixed in.
* ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'' has this when it comes to Midge's friendship with Lenny Bruce.
* ''Series/TheMentalist'' has Jane and Lisbon, who the writers ''insist'' have a platonic version of BelligerentSexualTension. Fans didn't buy it, and in later seasons it seems as if the writers just ran with it. As of season 5 [[spoiler:Lisbon has begun to fall in love with Jane]]. Even Jane's [[spoiler:[[ShipperOnDeck hallucination of his daughter]]]] ships them.
-->'''Jane''': He does love you... how could he not?
* ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'':
** Arthur and Morgana behave like FlirtyStepSiblings, with lots of BelligerentSexualTension. In series two, the writers immediately backed off, leery about BrotherSisterIncest implications and the need to justify the increasingly marginalized Gwen by [[RelationshipUpgrade upgrading her to love interest]] for Arthur. But the third season has TheReveal that Morgana is [[spoiler:Uther's biological daughter and Arthur's half-sister]], throwing past Arthur/Morgana interactions into a whole new light. In the most of the well-known versions of Arthurian legend, Mordred is their son, not a kid who they rescue together, and in all of ''those'' they're usually brother and sister. ([[ItWasHisSled Mordred generally turns out]] to be a BastardBastard and attempts to get revenge on Arthur as a morality tale against out-of-wedlock relationships and incest.)
** In the first season of the show, before Arthur got roped into a for-life OfficialCouple, most of the fans thought that Arthur/Merlin was a legitimate thing, what with the long poignant gazes, the BelligerentSexualTension, and the Slash Dragon saying things like "A half cannot truly hate that which makes it whole" every two seconds. Consider the following dialogue between Merlin and his mother:
--->'''Hunith:''' He must care for you a great deal.\\
'''Merlin:''' Arthur'd do the same for any village. That's just the way he is.\\
'''Hunith:''' It's more than that. He's here for you.\\
'''Merlin:''' I'm just his servant.\\
'''Hunith:''' Give him more credit than that. He likes you.
** While the respective actors of Arthur and Gwen have great friendship chemistry, but the moment she starts being all "I believe in you, Arthur," and he's all "I love you, but we can never be together," the whole scene starts reading like cardboard. Bradley James has said himself that when he's kissing Angel Coulby, it's very mechanical. Of course, this was a fumble that couldn't really be avoided, what with them being Arthur and Guinevere and making the move to have Gwen ''not'' be an arranged marriage princess.
** Some people were a bit confused as to why Gwen and ''Merlin'', on the other hand, seemed to be hitting it off rather... well during the first season. Gwen ''did'' have a crush on Merlin, but starting with episode 5 she was getting over it (to a certain degree of success). Too bad the writers rushed so many major developments, such as her and Arthur almost spontaneously developing feelings for each other in Series 2. It's probably for this reason that physical contact between Merlin and Gwen was limited from that point on, to tone down Colin and Angel's chemistry (the characters are meant to be LikeBrotherAndSister).
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': The relationship between Adrian Monk and his two attractive female assistants was certainly not an out-of-the-box relationship type. In spite of the obvious opportunities for sexual tension, there is virtually none of it, and the show is all the better for that. Overall, Sharona and Natalie are shown as feeling devotion and even love toward Monk, but in an utterly platonic, somewhat motherly way. Monk, for his part, was always dedicated to the memory of his late wife. However:
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Married," when Monk and Sharona have to impersonate a married couple to investigate a man who's married Randy's mother, there is an eyebrow-raising tender moment where Sharona thanks Monk for letting her wear Trudy's ring to carry off the ruse.
** With Natalie, there were a few isolated incidents where she really seemed to be coming onto him. Such as several scenes in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank" where she fawns over how handsome he looks in a security guard uniform, or the downright bizarre stake-out scene in "Mr. Monk and the Genius," where Patrick Kloster spots her and Monk spying on him and Natalie inadvertently blurts, "We should kiss!"
* In ''Series/{{Neighbours}}'', Libby Kennedy and Stephanie Scully are meant to be 100% heterosexual. Their actors... do not portray them as 100% heterosexual. (The writers added fuel to the fire when, after Libby had left the show, Steph suddenly started dating women.)
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'':
** It's probably down to Jennifer Morrison having chemistry with half the male guest stars on the show, but Emma and August certainly seemed as if something was about to go on. Most of August's early scenes consisted of him flirting shamelessly with her and yet nothing came of it. It almost seems as if the writers retconned into a platonic thing, as August was PutOnABus in Season 2 and Emma was then given two more canon love interests. [[spoiler:August's Season 4 return]] at least acknowledges this somewhat -- with Killian getting a little jealous at their conversations.
** As noted [[http://betterwithbob.blogspot.ie/2015/08/bobby-reviews-once-upon-time-season-1_10.html here]], the chemistry between Snow White and Red Riding Hood and the way their scenes are shot look very couple-y. Although Red is a ShipperOnDeck for Snow and Charming, there's no denying the sheer amount of LesYay Snow and Red have.
** Emma and Regina have been noted to have this, particularly from Season 4. One episode is devoted entirely to Emma attempting to rebuild her friendship with her. And Emma's devotion to Regina is startlingly like that of a lover, ''especially'' in the Season 4 finale. Despite both of them having canon love interests, many fans are convinced that Emma and Regina are the show's OfficialCouple. It helps a bit that they share a son in different ways -- Emma is Henry's biological mother while Regina is Henry's adoptive mother. Both are devoted mothers to Henry so Emma and Regina's relationship to each other and to Henry can play as HasTwoMommies.
** Despite Aurora being married to Philip, he's out of sight for most of Season 2 and she shares more screen time with Mulan. Writers seemed to pick up on this one and subvert the trope by revealing that [[spoiler: Mulan actually is in love with Aurora]].
** Emma and Lily have this in spades. Lily first appears in a flashback as a special friend that Emma once had. Their scenes are shot, lit and scored in a way that made fans wonder if Lily was really AmbiguouslyGay. If the character had been a boy, it would have immediately been interpreted as a love story. Naturally when Lily was brought back, the LesYay aspect was played up in their scenes even more.
** Season 3 also sets up a SheIsNotMyGirlfriend moment between Hook and Tinkerbell (yes, really). When Emma asks if they were ever involved, Tink denies it while Hook implies it. The matter is never approached again.
** Despite Ariel's introduction episode being all about her trying to win Eric's heart, she shares only one scene with him. And yet she makes more of an emotional connection with Snow. The friendship between them is given far more development and screen time than Ariel's crush on Eric.
* ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': Jane and Maura are intended to be HeterosexualLifePartners, but unless one of them is literally in bed with someone else it's very easy to just pretend that they're married. Given the amount of time Jane spends are Maura's house, it wouldn't be difficult for a casual viewer to mistake them as living together. There has been no shortage of subtext, including multiple instances of falling asleep in the same bed, undressing in front of one another, Maura being the only non-family member present at Rizzoli family events (many of which Maura hosts), heart-to-hearts between both Maura and Jane and Maura and ''Jane's mother'', and long, significant glances and meaningful lines, as well as several probably unintentional but still rather poignant parallels. It's firmly established that Jane cares for Maura just as much as her brothers, and Jane is implied to be the first close friend Maura has ever had. The writers have tried to temper this by introducing a [[GuyOfTheWeek revolving door]] of increasingly [[CharacterShilling "perfect"]] love interests for both characters and putting more and more emphasis on their love lives with other people, but [[DieForOurShip to no avail]]. The end of season four has a scene where Maura ''starts crying'' after she finds out that Jane might get engaged ([[spoiler:she doesn't]]).
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' has J.D/Dr.Cox as the most popular ship in the fandom and part of the reason for this is because J.D's HeroWorship of Dr. Cox comes off like a serious crush. J.D is one of the very few people who gets to see Dr. Cox's more vulnerable side, he often insists on being touchy-feely with Dr. Cox, even when he gets viciously rebuffed, calls him "Perry" in later seasons and records his voice so he can play it back to him later. They even treat a NervesOfSteel woman who has a NervousWreck of a husband and J.D comments they remind him of himself and Dr. Cox, who doesn't deny it. Dr. Cox meanwhile calls J.D "newbie" or some variety of girl's names and refers to him as "my intern/attending", plus he drags J.D to a bar with him in the middle of the night, while J.D is in his pyjamas, because he doesn't want to drink alone. It doesn't help J.D/Elliot was supposed to have been sunk in Season Three by them becoming increasingly dysfunctional and they only got together again very late in the show when Creator/BillLawrence caved under fan pressure, while Jordan was only supposed to be a OneshotCharacter before she gets made into a recurring one and she's basically just a DistaffCounterpart to Dr. Cox.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** Chloe and Clark, non-stop. The producers tried to sink it via WordOfGod multiple times, but the way they write their relationship, they just like torturing viewers. More than one article covering the special "Justice" made the mistaken assumption that Clark's jealous guarding of Chloe from The Flash--er, Impulse was on his own behalf rather than Jimmy Olsen's. Given that this behavior has been happening all the way up to and including Season 8, it's difficult to blame people for [[{{WMG/Smallville}} the Chlois theory]] when they keep doing this.
** [[HoYay/{{Smallville}} Clark and Lex]] in earlier seasons. There was a lot of unintentional(?) innuendo in their relationship, starting with Clark performing CPR on Lex in the Pilot. Director's commentary for the pilot suggests that they either invoked this intentionally or can see how they started it, joking about the CPR being Clark and Lex's first kiss.
* On ''Series/SoWeird'', the writers devoted ''a lot'' of screen time to the close relationship between Carey and Molly, for whatever reason. The writer's admit that Carey came off as too mature for it to have a mother/son vibe, and could easily be seen as a MayDecemberRomance.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** Cam Mitchell and Samantha Carter. WordOfGod said that the Carter/O'Neill ship was OfficialCouple, nonetheless at one point the SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute page referred to Mitchell [[UnresolvedSexualTension picking up where O'Neill left off with Carter]]. Particularly the macaroons scene from "Line In The Sand".
** Earlier, like all the way back in Season 1, there was Samantha and Daniel, who seemed to hit it off and share several very shippy emotional scenes. These dropped off significantly later on, so this can probably be chalked up to EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. Also, it would have been rather inappropriate, since Daniel's whole reason for being on the team was to rescue his wife from the Goa'uld. However, in what was intended to be [[PutOnABus Daniel's swansong]], Samantha weeps over his fatally injured body saying she never told him how she felt about him. Which is just... weird.
* Elizabeth Weir and John Sheppard of ''Series/StargateAtlantis''. They're written like they're the show's blooming romance, and actors Creator/TorriHigginson and Creator/JoeFlanigan certainly play it like they're a couple. In spite of the relationship's popularity, the writers completely deny any such thing.
* ''Series/StargateUniverse'' went the other way. Chloe Armstrong appeared to be developing a strong relationship with Eli Wallace, a somewhat chubby math geek. This was nixed when she suddenly started sleeping with Lt. Matthew Scott.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** Most ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' viewers assumed Captain Archer and Science Officer T'Pol were intended to be each other's main romantic interests since that's how they were written, until the writers put a stop to that by grabbing hold of T'Pol's BelligerentSexualTension with Trip.
** The ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' writers famously stopped giving Bashir and Garak so many scenes together when they found out the characters had a huge shipping following. It didn't help that the Bashir and Garak subtext was (according to Andrew Robinson, Ron Moore, and Robert Hewitt Wolfe) ''put there deliberately'' with the expectation that nobody would really notice. The same thing happened shortly thereafter with Bashir and O'Brien, but this time the writers realised the [[SlashFic slashers]] were gonna slash anyway, so they continued to emphasize that friendship.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': Kirk and Spock are either in love with each other, or this trope. It's possible they started out as the latter, but the writers were certainly aware of the former interpretation by the time ''[[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture The Motion Picture]]'' was filmed--the novelisation reveals that there are rumours about the relationship even in their universe. Instead of attempting to de-slash the relationship, the movies seem to take the subtext and run with it, to the point that the two of them can arguably be read as a married couple. "[[Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock The noblest half of myself]]", anyone?
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' actually managed this with a breakup: Kes dumps Neelix while possessed in "Warlord", yet everyone treated this as though it was a genuine end to the relationship and both were free to move on. They also managed enough HoYay to kill a slashficcer on contact, culminating in a StrangledByTheRedString relationship between Seven and Chakotay, ''both of whom'' had had more romantic chemistry with Janeway than they had with each other.
*** Website/SFDebris has pointed out in his reviews how scary it is how much chemistry Harry has with Tom than with any of the show's other characters. Like the episode where Tom gleefully points out all the times Harry fell for a woman who for one reason or another he stood zero chance with. [[RunningGag "But I'm sure there's nothing gay about this."]]
* In ''Series/{{Suburgatory}}'', Tessa and her father George sometimes act more like a couple than a father and daughter. In particular, Tessa has a tendency to refer to George by his first name, instead of calling him "Dad" or "Father". The show even lampshades this when George's friend Noah calls their relationship disgusting.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** Sam and Dean are unusually co-dependent (to the point of it being unhealthy) for just being brothers. They risk their lives for one another countless times, and both of them readily admit they are each others' greatest weakness. In the early seasons especially, the brothers were ''very'' touchy-feely with each other, especially Dean towards Sam (though Sam gave as good as he got in Seasons 3 and 4, when he was pretty well permanently terrified that Dean was going to die). Throw in more emotional scenes, brotherly-devotion speeches, and {{Died In Your Arms|Tonight}} weepery, and they definitely stretched the idea of how "normal" brothers interact. In later seasons this seems to have calmed down, but the brothers have also finally learned how to hug. Eric Kripke, the creator, has admitted that he can see why so many fangirls see the HomoeroticSubtext between the brothers, lampshading it several times during the series, and one of the Exec Producers herself has been known to refer to the show as ''The Epic Love Story of Sam and Dean''.
** Dean and Castiel got so many emotionally intense scenes highlighting their "profound bond", like Dean becoming a depressed mess after Castiel's supposed death and carrying around his trenchcoat as a keepsake and Castiel repeatedly prioritizing Dean's life over his own, Heaven, and the safety of the entire world, that some fans honestly thought that the show was setting them up to be a romantic couple. Like with the above Sam and Dean example, later seasons tried to dial back the HoYay between them and emphasize that their bond was a friendly/family-like one, but that didn't stop the shippers. Interestingly, [[spoiler:the final season confirmed that Castiel really did love Dean romantically]], so either the showrunners eventually decided to [[AscendedFanon just partly roll with this Relationship Writing Fumble]] or the fans weren't all that far from the mark after all.
* Allegedly, the writers of ''Series/TinMan'' were going to ship DG and Cain, but Neal [=McDonough=] refuses to film love scenes of any kind. As such in the miniseries, fans are split down the middle as to whether there was an attraction -- or more of a father/daughter relationship. The fact that Cain believes his wife to be alive for half the story muddies the issue even further.
* Series/TheVampireDiariesUniverse:
** ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Damon is in love with Elena, but some fans are convinced that he and Bonnie are into each other in later seasons. When they are stuck in the prison world, Bonnie and Damon form a deep bond, with Damon routinely making her breakfast and the two coming off like an old married couple, which even Kai calls them out on. Damon also gets annoyed at Kai flirting with Bonnie, which many saw as him being jealous. He also saves Bonnie from Kai, despite knowing that doing so would mean he wouldn't be able to see Elena again for a while, and spends a good portion of the following season trying to reconnect with her like a guy trying to win a girl back. Creator/IanSomerhalder and Creator/KatGraham's close friendship also leads to Damon and Bonnie having far more chemistry than Bonnie does with actual love interest Enzo.
** ''Series/{{Legacies}}'': The writers and characters InUniverse have repeatedly stated that Hope and Josie are never going to get together, with their crushes on each other being very much in the past. However, a lot of fans feel that they still have far better chemistry than Hope and Landon. In the first season, Hope and Josie have a scene where they argue in the park that is framed and shot similar to a BelligerentSexualTension scene from a high school RomCom. In another universe, their counterparts are paired together for the sake of a joke (which comes off as far more tender than they meant it to). The second season tries to paint Josie/Landon/Hope as a love triangle, but it makes Josie come off like a kid with a crush, who doesn't know how to deal with it. When everyone's memories of Hope return, Hope refuses to return if it will hurt Josie (which leads to Josie telling her to stay while holding hands, as a soft romance song plays in the background). When Josie turns evil, Hope tries to desperately bring her back (even trapping someone who suggests killing her in a simulation), before jumping into Josie's subconscious where Josie's good half (disguised as a talking pig) tells Hope to try kissing her sleeping form to wake her up like out of a fairy tale. The chemistry between them is so noticeable that several of the show's actors, including Creator/DanielleRoseRussell (Hope) and Creator/KayleeBryant (Josie), have admitted to shipping them as well.
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': In the first half of season two, the writers put Veronica and Duncan back together as a couple (after quite a while of both the characters and the audience believing they were most likely half-siblings!), and, according to what the writers and show-runner said in interviews, it was a supposed to be a happy, healthy relationship. It did ''not'' come off that way at all. Instead, it came across as a miserable relationship where Duncan was having dreams about his ex-girlfriend Meg, generally acting as though he would rather still be Meg, keeping secrets from Veronica. On top of everything, the sex was clearly lousy.
* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': Tori Vega and Jade West are supposed to be enemies and competing for the same guy, Beck. However, as many fans have pointed out, they seem to have more sexual tension with each other, to the point where it's borderline BelligerentSexualTension. Tori often goes to great lengths to help Jade and win her approval. Jade for her part, seems to often flirt with Tori and will often go to Tori when she's upset. The two are also twice made to play a married couple and even go on a date (albeit by force). Jade also ditches her boyfriend Beck in the final episode and instead spends it with Tori. It got to the point where phrases with their ship name started trending worldwide on Website/{{Twitter}}, and the show and creators started to lampshade it.
* The writers of ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' seem to have given Justin and Alex, who are brother and sister, an almost BelligerentSexualTension-like dynamic. It stems, just like the example from ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', from the fact that Justin was intended to be a next-door neighbour only for it to be switched late on in pre-production. It doesn't help that one episode featured Alex accidentally wishing that everyone forgot Justin was her brother, causing ''their own mother'' to comment that they'd make a cute couple. They try to remedy this by giving them both relationships, and the Justin/Juliet one almost works. Then they got rid of Juliet, [[PutOnABusToHell when they made her an eternal mummy slave]] [[TheBusCameBack and didn't bring her back until near the end of the series]]. And ''right after Juliet left'', Alex came and comforted Justin, giving him a big, consoling hug.
* Mulder and Scully of ''Series/TheXFiles'' are a classic example. The idea that the characters would have an intense platonic relationship but ''not'' be sexually or romantically interested in one another was firmly established in the original idea for the series, and the writers repeated it in interviews for years. But by around Season 5 or so the characters seemed to have different ideas, and eventually the writers went with it. It's an interesting case of a Relationship Writing Fumble becoming a canon relationship.
* ''Zero Chill'':
** Sky is supposed to be in an OfficialCouple with lead character Mac, with his sister Kayla being her best friend, and they do have a solid amount of ShipTease and build-up. However, once Sky and Mac actually get their RelationshipUpgrade, the LesYay that was already present between her and Kayla gets even more prominent. There's a climactic moment in the middle of the show where Sky has to choose between skating with Kayla and going on a date with Mac that seems a bit more charged than a normal FriendVersusLover situation, and after she finds out that Sky and Mac have gotten together, Kayla reacts with more jealousy than what would be expected. The triumphant emotional scene of the first season's finale is Sky choosing to skate with Kayla at her big skating competition even though this would disqualify her from competing and lose the respect of Kayla's instructor. It's also easy to forget that Sky and Mac are supposed to be together, given that they act more like good friends rather than a couple.
** To a lesser extent, there's also Mac and Ava. He helps her be a part of the team and see one of their hockey games by suggesting that she disguise herself as the team's mascot, and once it's revealed that [[spoiler:Ava gave the team's strategies to an opposing team]], Mac is the only person to stand up for her, even though he was blamed for it and ostracized by the rest of the team as a result. It all comes across as ShipTease rather than just Mac helping/defending a friend.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town was supposedly not meant to sound like a bisexual romance song. The singer is jealous of her exe's new girlfriend. It would be bad enough that the singer is using the term "girl crush" [[YouKeepUsingThatWord incorrectly]], however the song is dripping with LesYay. With lyrics like "I wanna taste her lips/Yeah, 'cause they taste like you/I want to drown myself/In a bottle of her perfume" and "I don't get no peace/Thinking about her under your bed sheets/The way that she's whispering/The way that she's pulling you in/Lord knows I've tried/I can't get her off my mind", it seems like the singer is equally into both individuals.
* "Let's Love" by Music/{{Echosmith}}, was originally written as a duet despite the fact that the two singers are siblings. When the label decided to make it a single, they understandably wanted it rerecorded as a solo.
* "White Wedding" by Billy Idol, at face value, sounds a lot like incest. However, WordOfGod says that "little sister" was just supposed to be slang for "girlfriend" and is not ''actually'' about siblings.
* "Drops of Jupiter" by Music/{{Train}} is usually interpreted as a GriefSong addressed to a deceased girlfriend or wife by people who don't know the background behind it, since the lyrics make it seem like a LoveNostalgiaSong. It was actually written as a tribute to the lead singer's mother, who had died a few years prior to the song's release.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In the ''Scars of Mirrodin'' Block of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', Venser is supposed to have a relationship with Karn akin to that of a long lost pupil meeting the remains of his mentor... a relationship that was never developed beforehand (in fact, downright OutOfCharacter, considering both of them had more chemistry with Jhoira, Karn as a friend and Venser as a perv, and Karn actually disliked Venser), and this was never developed in the novel anyway.
* In an earlier Mirrodin Block of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', the main characters Glissa -- an elf -- and Slobad -- a goblin -- were supposed to be good friends or adopted family at best. However, between the frequent kisses she gives him, the fact that she doesn't mind undressing in front of him, and the blatant confession that he is important to her implies something else. The epilogue in the 'Fifth Dawn' only made it worse. Considering it was caused by bad writing, the writers were asking for the fumble.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* In ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'', Albus and Scorpius develop a forbidden relationship with one another that involves them risking their lives for one another, defying other people's attempts to keep them apart, and is even paralleled at one point with Snape and Lily's relationship. Said relationship is ''supposed'' to be strictly friendship, with Scorpius asking out his actual crush Rose at the end, but some readers interpreted it [[HoYay quite differently]].
* ''Theatre/SundayInTheParkWithGeorge'' has perhaps one of the oddest examples out there, introducing a fumble between a man and an apparition of his deceased great-grandmother [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane that may or may not actually be there]]. The man in question, George, is the [[IdenticalGrandson identical great-grandson]] of painter Georges Seurat, and she seems to think he's him, but Sondheim probably should've thought before giving lines like "[[TriumphantReprise We have always belonged together]]" to relatives.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/BahamutLagoon'' was ambitious. Instead of following the more common romance tropes, the [[HeroicMime hero]] starts in a relationship with the princess, only for her to make her own decisions and pursue [[DidNotGetTheGirl somebody else]] while [[CharacterDevelopment growing]] to face a greater destiny. But in execution, it created Square's [[NeverLiveItDown single most loathed female character]], at least in the country [[NoExportForYou where it was sold]]. Falling for the man who helped kill her father should have been heavy and dramatic, but Princess Yoyo's dialogue around him sounded meme-inducingly shallow. The way she struggled with her remaining feelings for the hero came off as selfish and emotionally manipulative. All the while, the player got the hero's perspective of reassembling her kingdom, fighting an empire to save her, and continue serving her. Also [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking her name was Yoyo]], so it was harder to see her as deep. Aside from being one of the earliest cases of [[{{Netorare}} NTR]], there were too many emotional {{gut punch}}es for what most players saw as an unlikable heroine.
* ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'': The sex scene in ''Six Days A Sacrifice''; the idea is that the character who'd lost most of their hope for survival proceeded to hop into bed with each other, in what Word of God says was supposed to be representative of their descent into near-savagery. This was widely assumed to be badly done Fanservice. He's remarked that if he had the chance to remake the game he would turn it into a rape instead to properly convey the tone he was going for.
* The creators of the infamous UsefulNotes/Atari2600 porn game ''Custer's Revenge'' claimed in response to criticism that the game was meant to depict a consensual sex scene where Custer seduces a Native American woman. However, between the context of a US Cavalry officer having sex with an Indian woman, the fact that other Indians seem to be shooting at Custer as if they're trying to defend her, the fact that the woman doesn't move and is up against a cactus (implying her to be restrained somehow), and the lack of any story to imply seduction, along with the back of the box saying "she's not about to take it lying down"... well, suffice to say the accusations that the game depicted a rape were hardly unfounded.
* The relationship between [[PlayerCharacter V]] and [[{{Deuteragonist}} Johnny Silverhand]] in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', though how much of it is this trope and how much is deliberate ShipTease is debatable. The game features four [[RomanceSidequest romance sidequests]], and Johnny isn't one of them. In a mission called "Tapeworm", V can jokingly ask if sex was the first thing Johnny thought of when he took over their body, with Johnny quickly saying that V's not his type. Despite that, there's a lot of moments that hint that their bond might be something deeper than simple PlatonicLifePartners[=/=]HeterosexualLifePartners: The achievement for completing the mission where V gets the biochip with Johnny's VirtualGhost on it is called "The Lovers" (after the [[TarotMotifs arcana symbolising human relationships]], not only romantic ones), he can compare his and female V's dynamic to an [[LikeAnOldMarriedCouple old married couple]], he seems jealous when V pays attention to someone other than him, and a sidequest where you fix a broken rollercoaster and take it for a ride together is called "Rollercoaster of Love", after a song, like most missions in the game. The pair's constant snarking and bickering can be read as BelligerentSexualTension, and the whole progress of their relationship brings to mind countless "enemies to lovers" stories. There are also DummiedOut voicelines of Johnny calling V "My princess/prince" completely sincerely (why they were cut is unclear). Johnny's behavior in the "Temperance" ending makes him look like [[spoiler:he's mourning his soulmate]]. Their relationship can be easily read as platonic or romantic, depending on the player's preference. There are so many of these moments and the subtext of Johnny growing to love V as the game progresses is so strong, that some fans [[EpilepticTrees speculate]] that in early development, Johnny was actually a fully-fledged romance path.
* Many first-time players of ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' mistakenly assume Amelie is Sam's estranged wife when she's actually his ''sister'' [[spoiler:albeit an adoptive one.]] The confusion is probably caused by a mixture of their exact relation not being discussed all that directly in the early parts of the game, Sam's wife getting offhand mentions before it's established that [[spoiler:she's been [[PosthumousCharacter dead]] for awhile]], and Sam and Amelie's early interactions making sense either way, which all causes players to make an incorrect connection in their heads. It really doesn't help that Sam at one point jokingly compares their relationship to that of [[Franchise/SuperMario Mario and Princess Peach]]; in context, he's just riffing on the fact that he's spent much of the game [[SaveThePrincess trying to rescue her from kidnappers]], but given that Mario and Peach aren't siblings...
* In the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' series, while Wang Yuanji is Sima Zhao's wife, she seems to show more affection towards ''his brother'' Sima Shi. This was remedied in ''[[VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi Warriors Orochi 3]]'' and the official sequel ''Dynasty Warriors 8'', where Yuanji showed a lot more affection and loyalty to Zhao.
* All ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games suffer a little from this. Most of the time, [[CelibateHero the main hero usually doesn't show his emotions]] for other girls, or any kind of romantic feelings. That is somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]], since you can [[{{Shipping}} root for you favorite couple]], but at the same time, the canon couples tend to have a BrokenBase.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' has Cecil/Rosa/Kain in a love triangle. The intent was for Cecil and Rosa to be in a relationship from before the start of the game, and Kain to be his friend who secretly loved Rosa. Many have pointed out that Cecil rudely kicks Rosa out of his room for trying to talk to him about his feelings before leaving to go and talk about his feelings to Kain, and that he [[HoYay always seems more worried about Kain than Rosa]]; while Kain complains about having to spend time with Rosa, viewing it as a punishment, and insists he'd rather be out fighting Cecil instead. Even Kain's statement of jealousy about Rosa comes across more like he was jealous of Cecil's qualities that allowed him to attract Rosa, rather than desiring Rosa at all for himself.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'':
*** Terra has some ShipTease with any male character she talks to. At first, [[TreasureHunter Locke]] saves her, then [[PrinceCharming Edgar]] gives her a reason to fight, Banon welcomes her into the fold, [[BareFistedMonk Sabin]] helps her with her faith -- and even Celes (a woman) get to bond with her about their mutual ability to use magic and whether or not they can fall in love. Later she has a long talk about feelings with General Leo, and about not having feelings with [[{{Ninja}} Shadow]]. Her lover? No canon love interest.
*** Ultros is supposed to be a DirtyOldMan with a taste for pretty girls, but has a non-trivial amount of HoYay with Chupon (especially in the Japanese version). Square and the fans alike have run with this and make frequent jokes about his bisexuality -- from his description in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAllTheBravest'' (which describes his relationship with [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Typhon]] as 'questionable'), to the description on his menu item in Square Enix's Eorza Cafe, to his attraction to {{Bishonen}} Noel in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2''.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
*** Many gamers when playing ''VII'' for the first time thought Barret and Tifa were a couple, or a couple that had recently split up.
*** Marlene is introduced in a BaitAndSwitch scene implying she's Cloud's daughter with Tifa, and although it's immediately revealed that she's actually Barret's, the perception influenced ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' where Cloud and Tifa act like Marlene's parents, with her dad Barret never interacting with her beside appearing with her in the group photo in the ending.
*** Johnny's relationship to Cloud has confused fans for ''years''. The intention behind Johnny was that he was a friend of Tifa's (possibly ex-boyfriend) who had grown up in Midgar before the start of the game and feels jealous of Tifa's crush, [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Cloud]]. Unfortunately, the crucial early scene establishing Johnny's antagonism towards Cloud (where he yells at him and begs him to '[[IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer treat her like an angel of this slum]]') was [[DeletedScene cut]], so the player's interactions with him in Midgar only show his good side, and we never learn about his affiliation with Tifa. This means the later scene where Cloud encounters Johnny in Costa del Sol and he berates Cloud seems to come out of nowhere, in addition to his lines being mistranslated so that he ends up telling Cloud: "We were in SOLDIER, and childhood friends before that. You were such a playboy. And a @&$%ing murderer!" Since Cloud's backstory is extremely confusing anyway, fans were stuck. Many assumed Johnny was mistaking Cloud for [[ShadowArchetype Zack]] (the person Cloud had taken his FakeMemories of being in SOLDIER from); a previous (unrelated) scene had shown Cloud reading a letter Tifa had received from a childhood friend who'd left Nibelheim to live in Midgar, which many other fans assumed was Johnny. In reality, all Johnny had been saying was something like "It can't be! You're that ex-SOLDIER, [Tifa's] childhood friend, and sexy playboy! A, and... a murderer!" It's at least finally cleared up in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' where Johnny just has a crush on Tifa while he's trying to get to Cloud's good side by calling him "bro" with little success.
*** The original draft for Lucrecia's story would have had her as the one woman on Hojo's staff, being drugged and raped to serve as mother of the genetically modified baby that would become Sephiroth. This was cut and replaced with Lucrecia being a willing participant in the experiment, which has the effect of turning her originally intended LostLenore role into a weird, abusive relationship where Vincent is still obsessively in love with a woman who did crimes against humanity. ''VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus'' ramps this up to the point where she is ''responsible for the death of Vincent's father'', and yet he doesn't love her any less.
*** Part of the reason the ''Complete'' cut of ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' came out was because, in the original movie, Cloud had far more to do with the unrelated Vincent than he ever spent willingly talking to his own family members. The extended version gives him an actual relationship with his adopted ward Marlene, when in the original he only had a couple of scenes where he was even ''in the same room with her''.
*** Vincent in ''VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus'' has {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST with Shalua, a certain flirty tinge to his relationship with Yuffie, and an ImpliedLoveInterest plotline with a character that biologically appears as a ten-year-old. His official love interest is still [[TheLostLenore Lucrecia]].
*** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'', Tifa and Aerith are both Cloud's love interests, who get parallel scenes where each one shows him around the area of Midgar they live in, each asks him about their outfit, each do the PietaPlagiarism pose with him, and so on... until they meet each other, get on better with each other than they do Cloud, agree to go on "a date" with each other, and start to exclude Cloud from their plans and dungeon puzzle activities, which makes him visibly annoyed. Since Cloud is a CelibateHero with NoSocialSkills who is always defensive around the girls, showing profound discomfort and clumsiness even with hugging or touching them, his romantic chemistry with them is limited compared to how much they are both able to react with open affection for each other. Even in The Drum, when the party is divided, Cloud is partnered up with Barret to develop ''their'' bromance while the girls continue to cheer each other on, joke and, apparently, flirt.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' After Tidus has met Yuna, he has a dream about the two of them preparing to run away to Zanarkand--only for Rikku to show up, angrily saying he said he would take her. The dream looks as if it's setting up a love triangle between the three. But by the time Rikku joins the party, Tidus and Yuna are already established as the OfficialCouple and later all Rikku's scenes with Tidus make it clear they're LikeBrotherAndSister.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' has no official romance, but a lot of ShipTease. Vaan and Penelo look as if they're set up to be LikeBrotherAndSister, and Penelo seems to be TheNotLoveInterest to him. But then the game ends with an implication that there is a romance involved ("every sky pirate needs a partner"). Balthier is TheCasanova but he has special affection towards Fran, and there is a line from her in the sequel that says he tried to woo her. There's also a line in the ending about how Ashe misses Basch; the way it's delivered suggests it's in a romantic way rather than platonic. There are also one or two scenes that hint at a Vaan and Ashe pairing--as her DefrostingIceQueen moments are usually with him. But again nothing is confirmed.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'':
*** Fang and Vanille. Nothing is exactly stated, but Fang's heavy concern for Vanille and her readiness to take on the world if it meant to protect Vanille, just made their interactions a little subtext-heavy. Same with Vanille, who went out to find Fang, after being separated from her earlier on. Whether it's intended as HomoeroticSubtext, HeterosexualLifePartners, a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship or simply a carry-over from the original concept of [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Fang being a man]] and their interactions not changed is anyone's guess.
*** Hope and Lightning. They spend a good amount of time alone together when the party splits up and Lightning does take Hope under her wing, to toughen him up. Their interactions can easily swing between motherly/mentor feelings on Lightning's side, but can just as easily be seen as romantic. ''Then'' came ''[[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII Lightning Returns]]'' and put a heavy subtext into the relationship of Lightning and Hope [[note]]in the Japanese version[[/note]], to the point that it almost feels like they ''are'' being set up as a romantic couple, which caused the English localization to lessen this emphasis and throw in a nod towards a potential crush from Hope towards Vanille, only to be immediately denied and never brought up again as the game keeps marching into Lightning and Hope's territory. Then the post-game novel was released, and any kind of subtlety is thrown off the window, starting with Hope (now reborn as a young man) denying having ever seen Lightning as a mother figure and revealing he went insane over illusions of Lightning prior to his abduction and the [[WordOfGod author (who is also the scenario writer for the trilogy)]] dropping major hints towards Lightning going to meet Hope in the in-game epilogue.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': Due to the relaunch of the game, much of the Scions characters and relationships were a case of AllThereInTheManual for players who didn't play 1.0. 2.0 didn't spend much time re-establishing them. For the most part this wasn't a huge deal, but it did lead multiple players to misunderstand the relationship between Thancred and Minfillia. Since the former is a pretty big playboy and also cares very deeply for the latter, many players misconstrued this as romantic love, when in actuality it was closer to parental. See, in 1.0, Minfillia's father died in an accident, and Thancred felt guilty for being unable to save him, leaving her an orphan, so he (along with F'lhamnin, the woman responsible for said accident) essentially became her foster parents. He even at one point in Heavensward has to clarify to Krile that his interest in Minfillia is strictly non-romantic. So when he TookALevelInJerkass during Shadowbringers, it wasn't [[spoiler:due to potentially losing his love for a child, it was because his daughter was planning to sacrifice herself for a young girl that looks just like her.]] If there is anyone that Thancred is really interested in beyond his playboy ways, it's F'lhamnin.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'':
*** The entire game, practically. The story's constant focus on the relationship between Noctis and his three male friends, combined with his obvious reluctance to get married, can come across as him being a closeted gay man and marrying purely for politics. It doesn't help that he only interacts with his canon love interest in two or three scenes on-screen, while there are entire quests called "Tours" dedicated to Noctis just hanging out and bonding with any three of his friends one-on-one.
*** Ignis, towards Noctis. Brotherhood is a major theme of the game, and the four main characters are described at various points as having a brotherly bond of friendship. At one point Regis explicitly tells a young Ignis to serve as a brother to Noctis. But Ignis's extreme level of dedication to Noctis, including his willingness to throw away the entire world's future in exchange for his friend's safety among other things, and the fact that his relationship with Noctis employs numerous of what are typically thought of as LoveTropes, to the same or even greater degree than what Noctis's actual love interest gets, caused quite a lot of players to come away believing his attachment to Noctis is rooted in feelings of a more [[HopelessSuitor romantic]] than brotherly nature instead, and not always because of ShippingGoggles.
*** Speaking of Lunafreya, although she and Noctis are supposed to be the OfficialCouple, and is said to have been in love with him since [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood]], most fans who saw ''Anime/KingsglaiveFinalFantasyXV'' believe she had more romantic chemistry with [[FanPreferredCouple Nyx Ulric]]. This is likely the result of ''Kingsglaive'' being based on the early portion of the game from when it was still ''Versus XIII'', and in [[WhatCouldHaveBeen taking over Noctis's original role]], whatever romantic development Noctis was supposed to have with Stella was inadvertently carried over to Nyx's interactions with Lunafreya. It also doesn't help that Lunafreya is a notorious case of TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter in the main game and that even fans of her and Noctis's romance have heavily criticized it for being StrangledByTheRedString, leaving her relationship with Nyx to be the better developed of the two.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', Agrias Oaks is a conflicted bodyguard to the princess. The princess gets captured, so Ramza offers to go along to help, despite his superior's objections. When his superior turns on Agrias in an attempt to kill said princess, Ramza fights him off. Later, the princess is captured once again and Agrias is forced to flee, getting saved by... you guessed it, Ramza. At this point in the game, however, she joins the rest of the generic player characters [[{{Permadeath}} and can die permanently]]... Whereupon she gets a few lines of dialogue in the next fight, and then nothing whatsoever. The ''[[UpdatedRerelease War of the Lions]]'' rerelease then went and added an optional mini-event where Mustadio reveals his previously-unmentioned crush on Agrias, with the possibility that she might reciprocate. So, which character is supposed to be her romantic interest, again?
** The two main characters of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' are the (twin) brother and sister pair Yuri and Chelinka. Presumably their interaction was intended to be platonic, but when Yuri is swearing to always protect Chelinka and never to leave her side, this gets a lot harder for the players to believe...
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'':
** Ike, TheHero of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' has a very ambiguous sexuality that has been debated for years in the fandom. In the first game, it looked like he was bisexual on account of having massive amounts of ShipTease with Princess Elincia and [[DeadpanSnarker Soren]] (though Elincia's share of ShipTease [[DubText seems to have been added only the English script]]). In the second game, Ike's romantic subtext with Elincia was written out entirely, to both give way to Elincia being more receptive to Geoffrey's BodyguardCrush on her (which can end up in marriage if the player so desires) and ramp up the amount of HoYay between Ike and Soren, painting the second more as a StraightGay. Then ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' revealed a character named Priam, who wields Ike's sword and claims to be his descendant. While some fans have simply settled on believing Priam to simply be a descendant of Ike's sister Mist, which is a rather plausible idea due to [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Marth being a descendant of Anri the Hero through Anri's brother Marcellus]], it's not necessarily a perfect theory, so any attempt to "prove" Ike's sexuality one way or another through the way inheritance now works have fallen through. As such, if Priam ''is'' Ike's direct descendant and Ike was intended to be either straight or straight-leaning bisexual all along, the writers on both sides of the ocean did a pretty terrible job of getting that across. However, due to Ike's lack of what could be perceived as romantic attraction to either of them from his side of things, [[TakeAThirdOption it is possible]] for none of the above to be true at all.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' has a case of the opposite with Rafiel and Nailah. While the game makes it clear they're close, and that she saved his life in the past, what little interactions they do have don't seem particularly romantic and an optional conversation gives Nailah ShipTease with Tibarn. The two also lack a paired ending. So some fans were surprised when Rafiel and Nailah's appearances in a special ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' banner made it explicit that they ''are'' a couple, and always have been.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' can be seen as doing this with Chrom and the Avatar. While it makes sense for them to be close, due to them being the main characters and best friends, Chrom has four (five if you count the Village Maiden) other possible brides and the Avatar of either gender can marry anyone of the opposite gender. But the writing in the final arc puts so much emphasis on the relationship that it's like they're married no matter who you chose for their spouses; with the possible exception of Lissa, Frederick, Lucina and ''maybe'' Basilio and Flavia, any other spouse of the Avatar gets pushed into the background, and Chrom's wife stops being relevant after chapter 13. Even the Future Past DLC makes a big deal of how much the Avatar loved Chrom and features them watching over Lucina together at the end. If you ship either character with anyone else, it can be really jarring. Part of this (such as the "love" line during The Future Past) was a case of LostInTranslation: the Japanese version was always careful to be ambiguous about their relationship (so that their dialogue would make sense regardless if they were married, in-laws or just friends) but the English language has much less room for ambiguity.
* Isaac, from the ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' series, has a warning for his fellow {{Heroic Mime}}s: Don't have a [[RedOniBlueOni talkative best friend]] (Garet) [[ExpositionFairy who constantly reminds you that]] [[SaveThePrincess you have to rescue]] [[ChildhoodFriendRomance your girlfriend]] (Jenna). [[ShipperOnDeck The fealty to the pairing]], plus scenes where the two interact directly, could easily be misconstrued [[TriangRelations as intent on him staking his own claim]]. (And since you're a Heroic Mime, you can't say anything to counteract that impression; not even to the Player!) Furthermore, don't make things worse by allowing [[TheSmurfettePrinciple another female]] [[FanPreferredCouple on the team]], [[WhiteMage no matter how]] [[TheMedic useful she is]] (Mia).
* [[InterspeciesRomance Rox the Charr and Braham the Norn]] from ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' had a relationship layered with ShipTease when they were first introduced in Season 1 of the Living World, most notably when Braham reacted to Rox excitedly telling him that she might earn a place in a Charr warband like a boy hearing from the girl he has a crush on that she's getting a scholarship to a university on the other side of the country. It came to a head during the climax of the season, when Braham's leg was broken and Rox refused to leave his side, despite it costing her the place in the warband she craved, [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy even when Braham was telling her she had to go]]. Unfortunately this was never developed further after this, with [[WordOfGod the developers]] admitting on a livestream that the two were JustFriends.
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
** The writers have a strong tendency to overdo the scenes with Sora and Riku. Most people seem to agree that the actual ''fumble'' comes when they reunite in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', in which Kairi and Sora simply have a hug (which, at first, he makes somewhat awkward-looking by not hugging back for a few seconds out of surprise), while in the reunion with Riku, he gets on his knees and cries his eyes out going "I looked for you!". At the same time, though, the series makes it very clear that Sora cares deeply Kairi, and he ''did'' get on his knees for her too earlier, albeit not in front of her and [[AintTooProudToBeg in a sadder context]] (and the HD remaster made it more apparent that he actually cried over her too in the Gummi Ship after learning she had been kidnapped by Axel.)
** Many of Sora and Riku's interactions in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' are ''especially'' heavy on the HoYay. This probably stands out most near the end [[spoiler:while Sora is comatose]]. One could argue that it's not even a fumble at this point, and the writers are [[PanderingToTheBase well aware of what they're doing.]]
** The first two games also created a bit of subtext between Sora and [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]], not helped by the fact that her canon partner wasn't in the first game. The first scene between Sora and Ariel does have something that looks like flirting going on. Ariel's desire to see other worlds is paralleled to Sora's ambitions at the start of the game. Plus they share a couple of intimate scenes and Ariel is the only one of the Disney characters to worry about never seeing Sora again. But Sora is clearly attracted to Kairi and Ariel gets paired up with Eric in the second game (something that Sora actually helps with).
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' shows that they didn't learn from the Sora/Ariel thing, as it recreates almost exactly the same scenario with Sora/[[WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}} Rapunzel]]. Much of the gameplay in Corona boils down to "Rapunzel sees a new outside-world thing and Sora shows her how awesome it is". In ''KHIII'', this is a vehicle for fun minigames, where in ''Tangled'', it was a vehicle for romantic development. Making this either better or worse is that, unlike in ''KHI'' Atlantica, Rapunzel's canon romantic partner ''isn't'' AdaptedOut -- Flynn is right there in your party as well, watching as this all happens, and you half expect it to turn into a LoveTriangle.
* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', any and all {{Romance Sidequest}}s were reduced to this. It appears the reason for this is that Obsidian's Chris Avellone is quite anti-romance, and even goes on record that he doesn't want one in his games unless it ends badly.
* X and Zero from ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' are infamous for being the biggest [[HoYay/VideoGames Ho Yay]] couple in the series, despite only being best friends in official canon. The biggest source for this is ''X5'', which had some pretty heartfelt lines during the climax and ''especially'' [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mmx5nomav-50.png this line]] from the ending.
* The author of ''VideoGame/MermaidSwamp'' has stated on her Twitter that she finds it surprising people ship Rin and Seitaro together, as she considers them to be VitriolicBestBuds at best. In the game itself, they can unintentionally come off as having BelligerentSexualTension instead, due to scenes such as Seitaro running into the bathroom when he hears Rin scream, then staring at her while she's naked, and Rin teasingly suggesting they "sleep together". The pair also seem a little ''too'' insistent that they'd never be attracted to each other, and in one of the bad endings [[spoiler: Rin outright commits suicide to [[TogetherInDeath be with Seitaro]] after he died]].
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** The franchise as a whole has lots of glaring HoYay elements, many of which are [[FanPreferredCouple a lot more appealing]] than the official pairings, but the games rarely ever acknowledge them in the text, sticking to innuendo only. What makes it this trope is that male/male NotLoveInterest pairings are often much more developed, with Snake and Otacon having a long-term friendship and living together in a nuclear family [[HasTwoMommies with a child]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots by the fourth game]]. Theories as to why this is are varied -- is it a [[ButNotTooGay attempt to write sincere queer love stories without alienating a straight audience]]? {{Queerbaiting}} a YaoiFangirl and LGBTFanbase contingent? An AffectionateParody of the buddy-focused 80s action movies that ''Metal Gear'' {{Pastiche}}s, or even a {{Deconstruction}} of that aspect of them? Or is it genuinely accidental?
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has Meryl (in her ending) imply that Ocelot raped her ("Torture?" "''And things even worse than that.''"), which is tone-deaf for a number of reasons -- not least that every later appearance of Ocelot, especially since ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', has shown him to be a NobleDemon and [[SingleTargetSexuality gay]]. Apparently, the localiser was shocked when people interpreted Meryl's dialogue this way; the line is excised from the VideoGameRemake, and the graphic novel adaptation reveals the actual incident was Sniper Wolf (the only female FOX-HOUND terrorist, and [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday extremely heterosexual]]) forcing Meryl to watch Snake's torture.
** In the original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', Wolf feels up Snake's chest and [[StalkerWithACrush flirts at him]], while Ocelot whistles in amusement as she leaves. The remake elaborates this moment into a bizarre scene where Ocelot attempts to get a kiss off Wolf and she is disgusted, which seems strange for Ocelot, even if he's trying to mock her.
* In ''Millennium: A New Hope'', an RPG by [[VideoGame/LaxiusForce Indinera Falls]], two of the main characters, Marine and Benoit, seem to have slight hints of ShipTease in their dialogue, despite the fact that they are [[IncestSubtext cousins]]. They even have their own mild ShipperOnDeck, a fairy named Jeanne.
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'': Not so much a "writing fumble" as "[[DummiedOut forgetting to delete the dialogue]]", but the player character's relationship with either [[FanPreferredCouple Bishop or Neeshka]]. Depending on your dialogue choices, Neeshka can swear to a male PC that she won't let anything happen to him and that he's her "most important person", while Bishop will flat-out ask a female PC to [[OutlawCouple run away with him]], and may later admit [[spoiler:to having romantic feelings for her]].
* ''VideoGame/Persona5'' has Ryuji and Ann, who have been friends since junior high. Their VitriolicBestBuds dynamic seems to come across as BelligerentSexualTension. The game does make efforts to potray the two as PlatonicLifePartners, by having Ryuji bluntly reject Ann's offer for a date and asking her to introduce him to a rival model, while Ann is hinted to have a crush on [[PlayerCharacter Joker]] during her Confidant events. However, there are still some moments and cutscenes in the game's story, which can easily cause the player to [[MistakenForRomance second guess the nature of their relationship]], such as Ann being shown to be the most devastated and later upset at Ryuji, [[spoiler: for seemingly making a HeroicSacrifice to save the rest of the Phantom Thieves during their escape from Shido's Palace]], which can be a bit awkward if Joker is dating her, since he's just shown standing around smiling as he watches his girlfriend look like she's on the verge of confessing her love for his best friend.
* ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterIV Super Street Fighter IV]]'' has Guy and Rose, most evident during their Rival Battle and during their endings. It seems as if Capcom was trying to [[ShipTease pair these two up]], ''despite the fact that Guy [[HappilyMarried is already married]] [[OfficialCouple to Rena]]'' (at least by the time of ''[[VideoGame/FinalFight Final Fight: Streetwise]]'', [[FanonDiscontinuity if one considers it canon]]). Never mind the fact that Rose would appear to be a {{Celibate Hero}}ine (at least, as long as Bison is still menacing the planet), meaning that [[TrueCompanions she and Guy]] were probably intended to be portrayed as PlatonicLifePartners.
* ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'':
** The relationship between the main character and his younger sister -- who is the crown princess and heir apparent of the queendom -- is, perhaps, depicted as being a little ''too'' close. While it does work the way it was probably planned (making the player care for her, and providing a real motivation to rescue her when she becomes the prisoner of rebellious nobles early on), it can easily be misconstrued as BrotherSisterIncest (and NoYay, too, just for good measure). Especially considering that the two of them share a bed at one time, and that the "[[MultipleEndings Good Ending]]" has you, following her coronation as Queen, take on the position of General of the Armies, which is reserved for the Queen's Consort.
** If you talk to [=NPCs=] in Sol Falena before the final dungeons, they will say that your sisterly queen intends to radically reshape the state: turning the Queendom into a constitutional monarchy and abolishing the whole "tournament winner becomes Queens' Knight Captain and Queen Consort" tradition being at the top of her agenda. On the other hand, the good ending heavily implies that the prince ends up with Lyon, [[BrotherSisterIncest who also happens to be his sister]] albeit adopted... Well, at least, the children [[NotBloodSiblings won't be inbred]].
* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'':
** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfRebirth'', Claire is Veigue's ImpliedLoveInterest, and he does show interest in her wellbeing. The problem with this is they are [[IncestIsRelative adopted siblings]]. This can {{Squick}} people out and have them seeking out another love interest for Veigue, which is easily found in Tytree. Tytree is constantly trying to win Veigue's approval and respect, and is in general [[TheHeart his emotional support]] in later portions of the game. They also have a very [[BelligerentSexualTension subtext-laden fistfight]] partway through the game, and afterwards Tytree is ecstatic at being the "closest one to Veigue." Yeah. Add that Tytree doesn't seem all that interested in women and the alternate couple of Veigue/Tytree is quite reasonably popular, enough to rival Veigue/Claire.
** Natalia and Guy in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. She is obviously in love with [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend Asch]] and that is their [[StarCrossedLovers relationship]] in the game. But during an emotional time at the mid-point of the game, Natalia gets some bad news and Guy becomes extremely kind and gentle towards her. While Guy has always been mentioned to be a bit of a smooth-talker towards women, despite his gynophobia, he pays extra attention to Natalia at this point, is the first one to notice when she is too distracted to move on and cheers her up. Ultimately, nothing comes from it and was never intended, despite the two still having moments of being together when the party splits up.
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia'' has the official couple as Jude and Milla. However, in Jude's route, he gets [[ShipTease ship-teasing]] with any of the party members. He is the first person who is really kind to [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer Elize]] and becomes important to her, with implication-to-outright-stating that her dream is to become Jude's bride. There is a ton of, though [[ObliviousToLove onesided]], teasing with his childhood friend [[GenkiGirl Leia]]. And then there's [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything that tethering thing]] with Muzét. Whether the developers were a little ''too'' open or having fun with ship-teasing all over the place or because they honestly never intended it to go that far, most people saw more natural chemistry between him and the other girls. [[AmbiguouslyGay Even with]] [[HoYay Alvin]]. The flirting with Alvin is almost certainly deliberate, with how Alvin constantly draping his arm over Jude and flat out asks him very on [[HomoeroticSubtext whether he swings both ways.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' does a rather positive example of this between [[BattleCouple Joel and Tess]], despite what WordOfGod has claimed. In-game, their interactions and trust in each other can be read in various ways, with Bill mentioning 'trouble in paradise' at one point, but nothing ever being a name for the exact nature of their relationship. Tess does say at one point that 'there must be enough here', being the closest to indicating that there might be romance between them, but whether it goes into the physically intimate or merely a deep bond of trust realm is up for interpretation.
* In ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' (alternate continuity than ''Film/TronLegacy''), Monolith seemed to be trying to imply some interest between Jet and Mercury, but the pair had a critical lack of scenes together, and Mercury spending half that screentime under a memory wipe put a severe damper on it.
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}:'' There was speculation after ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' whether Adam was just Samus' CO or whether there was [[ImpliedLoveInterest more going on between them.]] ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' states Adam is a father figure to Samus, but there was still enough confusion that some reviewers accidentally listed Adam as Samus' boyfriend.
* This trope is the reason why there's lots of HoYay between [[TheHero Rean Schwarzer]] and [[TheRival Crow Armbrust]] in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel''. The game is supposed to treat the two of them as rivals who have differing opinions of the war and why Crow shot the chancellor, while Rean is a bonafide ChickMagnet and does have a few women attracted to him. Unfortunately, the game presents them being a couple who underwent a bad break-up and are trying to mend their relationship. The game does have some elements of dating sim for Rean to pair up with any girl but unfortunately, all those events end up being optional and can be skipped by players if so desired. Crow's events, however, are mandatory to the plot (he's technically TheDragon) and Rean always thinks about Crow even if he's not there. Even Rean's rant towards [[spoiler:the chancellor that Crow supposedly killed but turned out to be not dead is all about for Crow and why the chancellor didn't stay dead (said chancellor is Rean's missing dad which complicates things)]]. It doesn't help that both Rean and Crow end up having the only CombinationAttack in the ''entire Erebonia arc''. Even [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure Lloyd and Rixia's combo attack]] from the previous game isn't in ''Cold Steel II!'' Succeeding games just made things worse where in ''Cold Steel III'', Rean thinks about Crow way too much while on Crow's end, [[spoiler:he starts remembering who he is after he sees Valimar (and Rean's students) fight against [[FinalBoss The Nameless One]]. After Rean kills The Nameless One in rage for killing one of his friends, Crow immediately stops fighting Alisa's team with his mask dropping and immediately ''jumps down thousands of miles to the bottom of the Gral of Erebos'' (summoning his mech) and immediately restrains Rean to get a hold of himself.]] Meanwhile in ''Cold Steel IV'', an in-game month passing by [[spoiler:where Rean breaks out of his confinement, Crow (and [[HeelFaceTurn Duvalie]]) team up with him but before the fight starts, Crow tosses Rean, who is still in his UnstoppableRage, a 50 mira coin and Rean has a mild response to it. And then there's the First Rivalry of the game (where all the Divine Knights have to fight in specific areas and whoever loses gets absorbed by the winner) where Crow nearly disappears but Rean won't let him ''by hugging'' Crow so tightly while Valimar reverses the absorption and gives the power back to Ordine to sustain Crow's life.]] All these happen ''before'' Rean even starts doing any bonding events.
** If you thought that was the end of it, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie'' takes things UpToEleven where [[spoiler:Crow joins Rean's route ''twice'' compared to the rest of Old Class VII. And in Rean (and C's) FinalBoss fight against Zoa-Gilstein (who is not the FinalBoss of the main game), he joins with them. In fact, he, Rean, and C cannot be taken to the main FinalBoss of the game (as Lloyd leads that). Finally at the end of the game, he and Rean interact with each other instead of Rean interacting with one of his 11 [[LoveInterest love interests]]. In fact, the choice for Rean having a love interest at the start of Rean's chapter is only referenced twice throughout the entire game: once when Rean remembers her and the other is when Jusis apologizes to the simulated version of Normal Ending Rean from ''Cold Steel IV'' (long story) that he didn't bring his loved one in that Rean's final moments.]] Can anyone tell how Rean is supposed to be a harem protagonist?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* While WordOfGod has it that Miho from ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' isn't gay, she does seem to have a [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship very close, intimate emotional connection]] with [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Ping.]] Or rather, Ping has an emotional connection with Miho, but not vice versa, mostly caused by Ping being a naïve cutie and Miho being a ManipulativeBastard.
* [=Davan/PeeJee=] in ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive''. WordOfGod claims it was fumble initially but turned into [[TrollingCreator trolling the shippers]] after they started asking when they would get together. Eventually he made clear that the two would never get together, at least in part because [[WriteWhoYouKnow the "real [=PeeJee=]"]] is against the idea.
* Stunt and Bumper from ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'' gave off extreme vibes of HoYay from the start. Except they were only meant to be HeterosexualLifePartners. In the end, the creator just went with it and gave them several moments of ShipTease.
* In ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'', the Nightmare Knight is supposed to have a parental relationship with all of the Disaster Masters. However, that was not made very clear outside of WordOfGod, making many people assume that Rosemaster's deep devotion and love for him were romantic rather than daughterly.
* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': The on-panel dynamics between the main characters are meant to be entirely platonic. However, two of the closer pairs of friends are gradually gaining a LikeAnOldMarriedCouple dynamic and are frequently seen doing things alone together. When the story reaches a point where the main group would have every reason to split up, the two pairs of very good friends plan to stay together either by choice or because someone else wants them to.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick'':
** During her ''Film/TheBabySittersClub'' review, she comments that [[{{Tomboy}} Kristy]] and [[AsianAirhead Claudia]] share looks that [[LongingLook seem to go on just a bit too long.]] She also notes that the subplot about Kristy's VisitByDivorcedDad comes off like an awkward meeting with an "ex who lost a lot of weight". [[{{Squick}} (Also, burnt pancakes shaped like sperm.)]]
--->'''Chick!Kristy:''' I'm just having an affair with my dad, you guys!
** In her crossover review of ''WesternAnimation/TheChipmunkAdventure'' with WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic, he incorrectly refers to the villains as lovers, only for the Chick to comment that they're brother and sister. This just {{Squick}}s him out.
** In her review of ''Film/{{Matilda}}'' guest star Creator/MaraWilson mentions how fans of the movie wrote a lot of slash fic between her character and the teacher (bear in mind, Matilda was six years old and the teacher adopts her at the end). A kind-of romantic clip of the two plays, and the Chick admits that she kind of sees it, to Mara's disgust.
--->'''The Chick:''' It's not ''not'' there!
* [[MindGameShip Flippy and Flaky]] from ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' are victims of this trope, according to most fans. In spite of the fact that the creator has set two prominent [[OfficialCouple official couples]] (Cuddles/Giggles and Handy/Petunia), [[FanPreferredCouple a lot of fans still want to see Flippy/Flaky happening]]. There are many reasons this happened, but the most important ones are the fact that Flaky is the only one who has appeared to get closer to Flippy, becoming a potential good friend of him, which apparently determined him to stop killing her. She even made him return to his normal self once, although Flaky has developed a phobia for him and she has started running away from him in the latest episode. There is also the fact that Flaky has no gender according to WordOfGod, in an interview that also reveals that Flaky is asexual.
* A weirdly circular example in ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel''. The friendship between Charlie and Vaggie was written so tenderly that many storyboard artists working on the show took them to be a couple; Vivienne decided to roll with that and they are canonically a couple now. But in the final product, their relationship is so subtle that many first-time viewers take Vaggie to simply be Charlie's friend, plus it doesn't help that Charlie is the only person Vaggie responds positively to and [[SatelliteCharacter her goals entirely revolve around Charlie's.]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': In Volume 7, Clover, a charming Atlas soldier, is introduced as a supportive friend in a time where Qrow really needed one. While the writing itself makes it clear they're simply friends, changes independently made by the animators that were not asked for by the writers (most noticeably, a recurring tendency of Clover to almost flirtatiously wink at Qrow), and the decisions of the official twitter account and voice actors to play up their relationship into almost romantic territory to promote the Volume (especially with posts likening them to more canonical couples like Ren/Nora and Yang/Blake) made fans assume the two were meant to be seen as a couple in the making, especially considering the fandom was, at the time, hungering for some male LGBT+ representation. This backfired immensely when the Rooster Teeth crew was accused of queerbaiting by the end of the Volume due to what happened in its last two episodes, and they admitted that these changes were not a good idea when they never intended to make them a couple.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The Lemongrabs in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. Before the reveal by both WordOfGod and in the series itself that they were actually brothers, the ambiguous nature of their relationship caused many fans to assume they were lovers. It wasn't helped by scenes of them nuzzling each other when they first met, as well as calling their artificially created family of Lemon Children "[their] boys". Several disturbing scenes in later episodes, however, caused most shippers to ultimately [[AbandonShipping jump ship]].
* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'': While Phil and Lil's IncestSubtext in ''Rugrats'' can be written off with ChildrenAreInnocent, this spin-off has them as preteens where there are several 'wait...what?' moments; the second episode has Lil asserting her independence, moving into her own room and playing it very much like a break-up (complete with an ending that features a BetterAsFriends resolution). Another episode deals with Lil growing breasts, and Phil's reaction to it is very atypical of a brother. There's another episode where Phil hits it off with a friend from the soccer team, and Lil didn't like that her friend was taking her brother away from her.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Azula's actions towards her {{brother|SisterIncest}} are nothing short of [[TheVamp seductive]], though admittedly that's how she acts with ''everyone''. No WordOfGod whether or not this is intentional. But they sure loved to tease the fans with this idea such as a possible pairing in the series between her and the Blue Spirit, aka Zuko's alternate identity.
** Azula's interactions with Ty Lee and vice versa come off as romantic, to the point where even Azula's voice actress thinks Azula loved Ty Lee, but this was unintentional. Azula was manipulating Ty Lee for her own gain and Ty Lee was afraid of disobeying her. It's just that Ty Lee's default personality is to be [[PerkyFemaleMinion upbeat]] and [[AffablyEvil friendly]] to everyone and Azula's default FauxAffablyEvil personality, as noted above, is to act seductive towards everyone, so their interactions come off as a whole lot friendlier than one would expect between a blackmailer and her victim. But that's why at the climax of "The Boiling Rock" [[spoiler:Ty Lee betrays Azula to save her friend Mai without a second thought]].
** Zuko and Katara have a number of moments that look like ShipTease and UnresolvedSexualTension, even [[FoeYay before]] [[VillainousCrush Zuko's]] HeelFaceTurn. There is the infamous moment when they're in a cave together and Katara touches Zuko's scar, their "field trip" episode after Zuko joins their group, and Zuko's attempted HeroicSacrifice for Katara in the finale, which ends up with Katara cradling Zuko. Many assumed that Katara was [[BettyAndVeronica the Betty to Mai's Veronica]] and that the series was exploring Zuko's feelings for Katara after he ran off from Mai. WordOfGod says they were never intended to be a couple, but their status as a FanPreferredCouple led to a bit of [[TrollingCreator trolling]].
** If you watch "Jet" without knowing that Katara and Sokka are siblings, it can come off like a LoveTriangle between them and the title character. It starts with Katara being annoyed by Sokka's role as the boring, practical guy; she gets swept up in [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys bad boy Jet]] while Sokka disapproves; then she realizes that Jet is a jerk and Sokka's way of seeing things was right all along. Switch out Sokka for Aang (whose crush on Katara is oddly not addressed in this episode) and it would be textbook early ship fuel.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'':
** Ben and Gwen Tennyson are supposed to be cousins, but the writing style used in the original series is more like persistent BelligerentSexualTension in a NoHuggingNoKissing world mixed with a bit of prepubescent flirting. They obviously appear to like each other, helped by scenes like the HandsOnApproach slow-dance lesson. Ben and Gwen being the only recurring characters in their age range outside Kevin 11 only helps this interpretation as, well, you don't have many options. Unless you think the girl who wanted Ben as a pet is a good match for him (we'll get back to her later). As a fun fact, Gwen was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen supposed to be a classmate and close friend]] before the writers realized that they needed a good reason for her to accompany Ben and Grandpa Max on the road trip, leading some to view the SlapSlapKiss dynamic as a leftover from that earlier stage of development which evolved into pure fumble afterwards. The [[WesternAnimation/Ben102016 2016 reboot]] in which the duo is more friendly with each other, with Ben even giving a speech telling Gwen how great he thinks she is in one episode, has no such excuse to fall back on.
** Ben and Kevin have ''a lot'' of HoYay, especially during the time when [[MisterSeahorse Ben was pregnant]] ([[ItMakesSenseInContext don't ask]]). They change relationships every new season, since they switch between FoeYay and HoYay. Especially in ''Alien Force'', despite all the hate in the past, Ben forgets everything and trusts Kevin by the second episode (with bonus HoYay), and later when Kevin goes evil again Ben sounds like he is ready to kill Kevin but Gwen doesn't let him. And then in ''Omniverse'', Kevin goes evil ''again'' but Ben saves him this time.
** Really, the Relationship Writing Fumble is just a regular part of the series at this point. Gwen starts dating Kevin? They have more subtext with Ben and Charmcaster, respectively, than they do with each other. Ben's final love interest as revealed in ''Omniverse''? Little-to-no chemistry between them due the character (the aforementioned girl who wanted his werewolf form as a pet) not appearing in the franchise for over 200 episodes, especially compared to the interactions between [[HoYay Ben and Rook.]]
* The [=DiC=]-era ''WesternAnimation/CareBears'' episode "Last Laugh" starts with the shocking revelation that [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness "Cheer Bear ISN'T cheerful!"]] The reason? Grumpy Bear. Cheer Bear explaining that she feels like she's failing to live up to her name because he's the one person she's never been able to cheer up does nothing to prevent her from coming across as someone simply suffering from an unrequited crush (if anything, [[ILoveYouBecauseICantControlYou that only makes it worse]]).
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': In addition to all of his other similarities to ''Franchise/SpiderMan'', Danny's relationship with his sister, Jazz, often resembles Peter Parker's with Mary Jane (the [[HeroesWantRedHeads red hair]] doesn't help). You half-expect Jazz to say, "Go get 'em, tiger," at the end of "The Ultimate Enemy," especially after the hug, lovingly touching his hand, and considering their dialogue sounds strikingly similar to Danny's and Sam's during their LastMinuteHookup:
-->'''Jazz''': Don't think this means I'll stop being meddling and overprotective./'''Sam''': I just have to warn you, I still have my own way of doing things.\\
'''Danny''': Wouldn't have it any other way./That's what I'm counting on.
* ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'' gave viewers 7 straight seasons of very strong, obviously intentional {{subtext}} between [[HoYay/DragonsRidersOfBerk Dagur and the object of his obsession, Hiccup]]. [[OfficialCouple Hiccup and Astrid]] are engaged by Season 7. In Season 8, the same episode where Dagur announces he's engaged (to a woman he met for the first time two episodes and a very short time chronologically ago) has him get down on one knee, take Hiccup's hand, and beg him to be his best man while sobbing uncontrollably about how he can't bear the thought of having his wedding without him, with Hiccup acting even more awkward than usual at his [[NoSenseOfPersonalSpace utter lack of personal space]]. Possibly, the scene was supposed to be PlayedForLaughs; instead, it comes across as an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove from someone who knows his feelings are unrequited and is resigned to despair over his fate towards someone who knows it and wants to soften the blow.
* ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'' has this in spades. Pepper is always jealous whenever Rhodey looks at another girl and ''starts a fist fight'' over Rhodey wanting to hang out with another friend of his who's a girl. She also has a heart to heart and long, laughter-filled date with Gene in one episode, after which she becomes his devoted Gene-can-do-no-wrong fangirl and texts/calls him constantly. Tony also comes across as flirting with Rhodey a lot of the time, made even more HoYay intensive whenever Rhodey yells at him to open up and stop blocking people out. They have so many heart to heart conversations and Tony apologizes to him so often it's more reminiscent of a squabbling couple than best friends. Then there's the way Whitney follows Tony around even when he's being an asshole to her (although given her abusive father, she might just be okay with it) and how far she'll go to save his life... And we're not even going to get into Tony's fanboying of Gene Khan. Oh, and in the last few episodes, Rhodey seems to care a bit more about Whitney than he lets on.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Kim and Shego are supposed to be enemies but Shego's [[TermsOfEndangerment nicknames]] for Kim and the fact she ''really'', ''really'' enjoys fighting with her carry a lot of FoeYay undertones, something that some fans really took to. However, Shego was eventually paired with [[spoiler:Drakken]] and Kim with Ron but some don't let that stand in their way. Eventually the series threw [[FandomNod those fans a bone]] with the episode "Stop Team Go", where the two become friends after Shego is turned good.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' gives us a perfect example of HoYay overshadowing the possible love interests. Bugs is shown to be in a some-what relationship with Lola ([[StalkerWithACrush somewhat]]) but most of the dialogue (and premise) can be seen as Bugs and Daffy being married.
* The Ruby-Spears ''WesternAnimation/MegaMan'' cartoon [[http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=jYA-j78XFn4 slipped up pretty damn bad]] in "Bro Bots." As an added bonus, in the last fight scene, [[spoiler:Protoman ends up more-or-less ''straddling'' his younger brother, who then wraps his legs around Proto's friggin' ''waist'']].
-->'''Megaman''': You and me. One on one. No PANTS.\\
'''Protoman''': You got it.
* Brad and Jenny from ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'' are meant to be PlatonicLifePartners. However, some episodes implied that Jenny ''might'' have something of a crush on Brad. Needless to say, the fans took notice, making Brad[=/=]Jenny the popular ship.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** The episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E5GriffonTheBrushOff "Griffon the Brush Off"]] is ''very'' easy to interpret as a messy LoveTriangle centered around Rainbow Dash, with Pinkie Pie as the StalkerWithACrush and Gilda as the {{Clingy Jealous|Girl}} PsychoExGirlfriend. Even the opening is near identical to WesternAnimation/PepeLePew chasing his newest true love, complete with Pinkie performing his little love hop.
** What, exactly, is the relationship between Twilight Sparkle and Spike? They're definitely close enough to consider each other family, but the nature of their bond is never specified. They've shown signs of being friends, siblings, [[ParentalSubstitute mother and son]] (Twilight ''did'' hatch him, after all), and it can be argued that Spike shows evidence of having a PrecociousCrush on her at times. Asking the production crew doesn't help much either, as Creator/LaurenFaust said that she considers Spike to have been raised by [[GodEmperor Celestia]], while series director Jim Miller states that he was raised by Twilight. It isn't until season nine's "Twilight's Seven" that we finally we learn that they view each other as siblings, with that reveal being the result of ''Spike's own voice actress'' asking for this issue to be cleared up. Whether Twilight's parents raised him or such duties were split between them and Celestia is still up in the air, though.
** Cheese Sandwich's idolisation of Pinkie Pie appears to be simple respect for her talents. However there are a couple of lines in the episode that suggest he could have actually fallen in love with her. The subtext for a romance is definitely there. It may have been intentional, given that [[spoiler:they're married in the DistantFinale]].
* ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'': A lot of fans mistakingly believe that Chase and Skye, as well as Marshall and Everest, have ShipTease going on between them. But as series director, Charles E. Basien, [[WordOfGod said in his own words]], "Those scenes from past episodes only show the friendship [Chase & Skye and Marshall & Everest] have." That has done little to nothing to stop the fans, however.
* Velma and Shaggy have been a popular ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' ship for years. As early as ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' there have been signs such as Velma having Shaggy's cough medicine at hand and Shaggy having a spare pair of Velma's glasses. However, this wasn't ShipTease. It was a by-product of the two having originally been ''siblings'' during development. Some elements spilled into the final product, resulting in accidental ShipTease. Some future productions do end up making a relationship between the two AscendedFanon however, granted if only briefly, such as ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated''.
* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'':
** Bow and Glimmer got this both ways. Writers and cast were describing them as LikeBrotherAndSister right up until the final season was about to be released, but a couple of episodes made it seem like Glimmer had an unrequited crush. Then, when they actually did hook up in the series finale, so little had changed about their relationship from the times it was described as LikeBrotherAndSister over the course of the season that many people felt like it [[StrangledByTheRedString came out of nowhere with less than half an hour of show left]], making it a fumble from the other end.
** To an extent this applies to Adora and Catra as well. While most saw their caring for one another from Day 1, between both being raised by Shadow Weaver and growing up together it's not a wonder that many viewers assumed they were supposed to be like sisters, at least until the series finale.
** WordOfGod confirmed in interviews that Adora/Catra and Bow/Glimmer were the endgame plan from day one, which means that presumably the writers did not intend Glimmer and Adora to have as much ShipTease as they did - even as they put in a scene where Adora's devotion to Glimmer literally saves her life near the end of the second-last season.
** In a rare positive example, Catra and Adora's romance was ''supposed'' to be subtle. It was clear Noelle and the writers underestimated how much viewers would read into Adora's and Catra's interactions and quickly realized that Catra was in love with Adora.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
** In [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie the movie]], after Spinel reveals her TragicBackstory, she and Steven sing a duet called "Found" where Steven assures her she will love again (in those exact words) and offers him her hand. Spinel's hesitant body language, the focus on their joined hands, and Spinel's parts in the song all suggest a DefrostingIceQueen finally opening up and falling for someone new after being hurt. Spinel's immediate shine to Steven and her ClingyJealousGirl behavior before this do not help, and neither does the fact that Steven's actual love interest, Connie, [[DemotedToExtra barely appears in the movie]]. It continues in her next appearance where she gains ''[[WingdingEyes heart eyes]]'' on sight of Steven and immediately rushes to smooch his face. Due to Steven still being sixteen at the time and already in a relationship with Connie, this was very obviously not meant to be romantic.
** WordOfSaintPaul stated that Peridot was intended to be asexual and aromantic, making it unlikely that she was in a relationship with Lapis Lazuli. They have the single longest section on [[ShipTease/StevenUniverse SU's Ship Tease page]] and the announcement did little to discourage Lapidot shipping in the fanbase. It certainly doesn't help that at least one other boarder openly shipped the two.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':
** WordOfGod says that the main characters (with the notable exception of OfficialCouple Robin and Starfire) all love each other LikeBrotherAndSister, even Beast Boy and Raven. Although, it has also been stated that Raven and Beast Boy were written as '[[LikeAnOldMarriedCouple an old married couple]]' just without the relationship part, so really, the fumble was unavoidable.
** As mentioned, the Titans are all platonic except for Robin/Starfire. A lot of fans have trouble seeing Robin and Raven as only friendship, especially on Raven's side. They understand each other so well and have such a good friendship in later episodes that many thought Raven liked Robin and she's the only person capable of calming his mind in "Haunted", something even Starfire wasn't able to accomplish. Robin is also the one who volunteers to go find Raven in the underworld in Season Four when Trigon causes TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt (even being willing to tolerate ''Slade's'' presense if it means he can find Raven). It doesn't help that in the comics Raven did have an unrequited crush on Robin. Nothing has been confirmed though.
** [[BigBad Slade]]'s obsession with making Robin, then Terra, his "apprentice" is borderline sexual, especially with him taking measures to control their bodies - Robin with nanobots and Terra with a suit grafted to her nervous system. It doesn't help that he actually slept with Terra in the comics.
** Cyborg and Bumblebee were initially written to dislike each other in hopes that the fandom wouldn't assume she was his love interest [[TokenMinorityCouple just because they're both black]]. All this accomplished was [[FanPreferredCouple making the pairing extremely popular in the fandom]] due to their constant bickering coming off as BelligerentSexualTension.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama,'' [[JerkJock Jo]] and [[LovableJock Brick]]'s relationship was apparently meant to be a simple rivalry between two jocks[[note]][[PortmanteauCoupleName "Jock" also happens to be their ship name]][[/note]] of opposite genders. In practice, they have enough BelligerentSexualTension interspersed with [[FriendlyRivalry moments of respect]] that it comes off like a romance arc where the writers just forgot to give them a RelationshipUpgrade at the end. It also doesn't help that Dawn's comment about Brick having a "need to be dominated" seems like perfect setup for a PitbullDatesPuppy scenario.
* In the "Rebirth" trilogy of ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', the relationship between Arcee and Daniel Witwicky is suddenly deepened, probably as a prelude to making him her Headmaster partner. Then at the very end of the final episode Daniel, who is literally inside Arcee's head at the moment, tries to make what sounds very much like a romantic confession only for Arcee to shush him, saying she feels the same way.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', Jack and Arcee(different character than the one above) behave like they have ''something'' going on, despite one being a human teenager and the other being a fully adult transforming robot. Complete with Jack remarking that part of the reason he cares so much for her is that she was "his first" and Jack's mother remarking that Arcee "isn't the kind of girl I imagined him ditching me for".
* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'':
** The exact nature of Keith and Shiro's relationship with each other. They're the closest of the main paladins, but because the show doesn't get around to explaining Keith's backstory until two thirds into the show, it's not clear for a long time exactly when or how they got to know each other and what kind of bond they shared, and whether it was friendship, familial, or something else. Of course there's the official WordOfGod-supported stance that the two are ''[[HeterosexualLifePartners very close friends]]''. At one point Krolia mentions Shiro having helped raise Keith, and he does have some (admitted by WordOfGod to be unintentional) resemblance to Keith's father, suggesting a ''fatherly'' role[[labelnote:Although...]]Given Keith's own extreme resemblance to his mother and certain other similarities with how his parents met, others interpret the resemblance as yet more HoYay of the GenerationXerox-induced LikeParentLikeSpouse kind[[/labelnote]]. However, this is contradicted by flashbacks which show Shiro as closer to a BigBrotherMentor instead, and Keith himself also describes Shiro on two separate occasions as ''brotherly'' (although that interpretation also receives some pushback from WordOfGod). Meanwhile, because up to that point the two share quite a lot of HoYay, because Shiro [[TheNotLoveInterest fulfills quite a few of the roles a love interest normally would]] towards Keith[[labelnote:Explanation]][[LivingEmotionalCrutch Shiro]] is the most important person to Keith, to the point that Keith becomes unhinged when he thinks Shiro might be dead. A lot of Keith's motivation throughout the series is protecting [[BadassInDistress Shiro]] and keeping him safe, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl to the point of jeopardizing crucial missions against galactic threats on the off chance that Shiro could be harmed or leave him]]. At one point Keith makes an explicit DeclarationOfProtection towards Shiro under intimate circumstances, which Shiro acknowledges and accepts. Keith even prefers [[TogetherInDeath dying along with Shiro]] to the prospect of living on without him, and gives him a (admittedly platonic) AnguishedDeclarationOfLove. The show also compares and contrasts Shiro's relationship with Keith to his former lover[[/labelnote]], and because neither have any other viable love interests to speak of [[spoiler:aside from Shiro's LastMinuteHookup brought about by an AuthorsSavingThrow]], bolstered by Shiro being gay and thus IncompatibleOrientation not being an obstacle, others interpret them not as TheNotLoveInterest but as each other's ''ImpliedLoveInterest'' instead, despite the show's indications otherwise.
** After previous seasons established that Acxa and Keith shared some sort of unspoken bond, Season 7 has a few moments of heavy ShipTease that appeared to suggest Acxa had romantic feelings for Keith. However nothing ever comes of it, and in fact the following season focuses much more heavily on her budding [[LesYay friendship]] with Veronica.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick]] and Artemis probably were only supposed to come off as friends or siblings, but their banter winds up coming playfully romantic, he already knew [[spoiler:who her parents were]] but still trusted her, and then she outright straddles him in "Darkest". (ItMakesSenseInContext.) Canonically she's dating his best friend, and they have enough [[HoYay/YoungJustice2010 Ho Yay]] themselves that some fans just [[OneTrueThreesome ship all three together]].
[[/folder]]

** Ike, TheHero of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' has a very ambiguous sexuality that has been debated for years in the fandom. In the first game, it looked like he was bisexual on account of having massive amounts of ShipTease with Princess Elincia and [[DeadpanSnarker Soren]] (though Elincia's share of ShipTease [[DubText seems to have been added only the English script]]). In the second game, Ike's romantic subtext with Elincia was written out entirely, to both give way to Elincia being more receptive to Geoffrey's BodyguardCrush on her (which can end up in marriage if the player so desires) and ramp up the amount of HoYay between Ike and Soren, painting the second more as a StraightGay. Then ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' revealed a character named Priam, who wields Ike's sword and claims to be his descendant. While some fans have simply settled on believing Priam to simply be a descendant of Ike's sister Mist, which is a rather plausible idea due to [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Marth being a descendant of Anri the Hero through Anri's brother Marcellus]], it's not necessarily a perfect theory, so any attempt to "prove" Ike's sexuality one way or another through the way inheritance now works have fallen through. As such, if Priam ''is'' Ike's direct descendant and Ike was intended to be either straight or straight-leaning bisexual all along, the writers on both sides of the ocean did a pretty terrible job of getting that across. However, due to Ike's lack of what could be perceived as romantic attraction to either of them from his side of things, [[TakeAThirdOption it is possible]] for [[{{Asexuality}} none of the above to be true at all]].

** After Spinel reveals her TragicBackstory, she and Steven sing a duet called "Found" where Steven assures her she will love again (in those exact words) and offers him her hand. Spinel's hesitant body language, the focus on their joined hands, and Spinel's parts in the song all suggest a DefrostingIceQueen finally opening up and falling for someone new after being hurt. Spinel's immediate shine to Steven and her ClingyJealousGirl behavior before this do not help, and neither does the fact that Steven's actual love interest, Connie, [[DemotedToExtra barely appears in the movie.]] It continues in her next appearance where she gains ''[[WingdingEyes heart eyes]]'' on sight of Steven and immediately rushes to smooch his face.
** WordOfSaintPaul stated that Peridot was intended to be [[{{Asexuality}} asexual/aromantic]], making it unlikely that she was in a relationship with Lapis Lazuli. They have the single longest section on [[ShipTease/StevenUniverse SU's Ship Tease page]] and the announcement did little to discourage Lapidot shipping in the fanbase. It certainly doesn't help that at least one other boarder openly shipped the two.