History Main / RelationshipWritingFumble

* 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 (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.

** Season six of 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.

* 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]].

** [[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, 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]].

'''Charlie:''' ''No!'' No, you don't rape him! You ''become'' him! You do ''not'' rape him!\\

** 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 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.]]

* ''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 [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend his childhood 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' pulled the same trick with their own Arcee years before. In the "Rebirth" trilogy, they suddenly deepened the relationship between her and Daniel Witwicky, probably as a prelude to making him her Headmaster partner. Then at the very end of the final episode, Daniel tries to make what sounds very much like a romantic confession only for Arcee to shush him, saying she feels the same way.

** 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 [[{{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]].

** The UnresolvedSexualTension and the [[NotSoDifferent 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]].

** ''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. 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.

** When Remus Lupin was first introduced to the series, a common AlternativeCharacterInterpretation was that his lycanthropy was a fantastical metaphor for being homosexual (later on it was clarified it was supposed to be a metaphor for HIV... a disease heavily associated with gay men) and his interactions with Sirius were positively ''laden'' with HoYay. Back in the day, this reading was so common that even fanfic sites that explicitly didn't allow non-canon pairings allowed Lupin/Sirius; it was widely assumed they were in an ongoing relationship. Then Tonks rather abruptly declares at the end of the sixth book that she's in love with Lupin when everyone assumed she was grieving over [[spoiler: Sirius's death]]. Even after they got together, Lupin's initial reaction was calling himself "too old and too broken" for her (as well as implying he'd either been aware of her feelings for some time and was dodging the issue, was grieving for a past lover, or had already rejected her once before), and he was seemingly all too willing to ditch Tonks and their newborn son to go on an adventure with Harry, Ron and Hermione, which Harry himself [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out on.]] It doesn't help Tonks is pretty much DemotedToSatelliteLoveInterest once she confesses, nor does the fact that she is Sirius' cousin (and in fact only known relative who is neither already married or evil), giving off a pseudo-SettleForSibling vibe. The result still had some convinced that Lupin really didn't reciprocate her feelings and just went along with it because the other Order of the Phoenix members (especially [[HappilyMarried Arthur and Molly]]) pressured him into it because they wanted him to be happy and [[spoiler: Sirius was dead]]. Even the actors thought Lupin was into Sirius!
* ''Literature/HowNotToWriteANovel'' warns against this, calling it "The Deafening Hug." It goes on to tell us that people will [[ShippingGoggles see love interests everywhere]] so you'd better be careful when, say, writing cousins ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' style.

* Originally, ''Theatre/PokemonLive'' revealed that [[LukeIAmYourFather Giovanni was Ash's father]], which was changed to Delia dating him before she met Ash's father. However, they still have a lot of subtext and innuendo together in the finished product, and as a result, it's easy to see Giovanni still being Ash's biological father. This is an invoked example as the writer of the play has said there's subtext that Giovanni is Ash's biological dad.

** 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/AgeOfUltron'' when you find out they're LikeBrotherAndSister, [[spoiler:especially when Clint's wife is introduced]], which resulted in a ''very'' annoyed fandom.

** 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 viewerss than the writers expected.

** 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.
** ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'':
*** Like their comic counterpart, there's Cap and Tony. They spend most of their time bickering, Tony rants about him behind his back, Cap challenges him to 'go a few rounds', but when shit hits the fan, those two go together to fix the engine and work together surprisingly well. Basically, it feels like BelligerentSexualTension kind of relationship more than a pseudo-sibling rivalry like intended.
*** Tony and Bruce, though possibly intended. Tony is the only one who doesn't treat Bruce like a timebomb, even playfully teasing him and trying to get him to open up, gushes about how awesome the Hulk is, while Banner seems to listen to him and is the only person who isn't annoyed by his antics, then later saves his life as the Hulk.
*** 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 they're 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 you find out they're LikeBrotherAndSister, [[spoiler:especially when Clint's wife is introduced.]]
** Cap and Natasha also get hit with this. The two spend most of ''[[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier The Winter Soldier]]'' working together, and develop a very strong bond with moments of ShipTease, including a KissOfDistraction. Future films also show them clearly to be very close. Once again, the very underdeveloped nature of Cap’s canon romance with Sharon is partially to blame, as it’s hard to ignore that there’s a female ally whom Cap has far more chemistry and interactions with.
** In ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', Valkyrie was made into a [[RaceLift black]] [[TwoferTokenMinority bisexual]] whose female lover [[spoiler:had been killed protecting her]]. She and Thor were intended to be BashBrothers who never pursue a romance because Val was still in mourning, but the scene establishing that was cut from the film. Instead, their onscreen relationship comes off as sexual tension that never goes anywhere. Even if the writers just wanted to show a man and woman as platonic friends, they still went out of their way to inform us that Thor is now single, and then he encounters a beautiful female warrior of similar age and background and rouses her out of her BrokenBird slump. Thor and Val arguably had better chemistry than most of the ''actual'' romances in the MCU.

[[folder:Films - Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** 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 [[FinalDeath 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?

* ''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.

* ''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.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'' Jounouchi 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 "[[FanPreferredCouple the only het pairing anyone likes]]" despite the large amount of HoYay in the series and the fact that Jounouchi will be paired with any other male in the franchise you can think of.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has Yusei and Aki as the supposed OfficialCouple with a touch of StrangledByTheRedString, but though Aki's clearly attracted to Yusei, his status as TheStoic and Aki 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 Kiryu, 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 Aki, along came Bruno, who is, if anything, even more openly close with Yusei -- Aki 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 Aki down gently.

* 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/TheLegendOfHeroesZeroNoKiseki 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/TheLegendOfHeroesHajimariNoKiseki'' 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?

* ''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 inpending 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/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 learning of her divorce, is often singeled out by fans as seeming to come out of a romance movie. This gets lampshadesd 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.

** 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'' where Beltorchika is still around and is in fact pregnant with Amuro's child, but this was [[RecursiveAdaptation a novel based on the anime based on his first novel]].