Root: Overly affectionate greeting.
Shaw: Greeting.
Root: Transparent rationale for conversation.
Shaw: Annoyed attempt to deflect subtext.
Shaw: Greeting.
Root: Transparent rationale for conversation.
Shaw: Annoyed attempt to deflect subtext.
— The Machine, summarizing a typical conversation between two female characters, Person of Interest - "If-Then-Else"
Though romance is important in many works, bonds of friendship between those of the same sex form some of fiction's most significant relationships. One common method of playing with these close relationships is to portray them similarly to romantic relationships, though the characters may feel nothing sexual for one another. For example, two male friends may bicker in an exaggerated manner, mirroring how television normally depicts husbands and wives, or one friend may voice jealousy of another with lines lovers normally use.
The juxtaposition is often Played for Laughs, especially with male characters. Other such scenes may attempt fanservice, particularly when the characters are the opposite gender of the intended demographic. Rarer, the subtext is Played for Drama, using common romance tropes to heighten the strength of the relationship, although whether this means the writer supports interpretations that the relationship is romantic is usually left ambiguous.
In older media, when there were rules forbidding overt displays of homosexuality, writers who wanted to create gay characters would often resort to homosexual subtext.
See also Pseudo-Romantic Friendship. Supertrope of Queer Flowers, which concerns floral symbolism as text revealing sexual orientations in subtext.
This page covers only intentional examples, chiefly those lampshaded by characters, Word of God, laughter or awkward pauses. It does not cover fans' delight at or tendency to view any interactions as gay; for that, see Ho Yay. It also does not cover any Ship Teases or actual homoerotism, where the characters may indeed be gay or bisexual for each other.
Examples:
- Anime & Manga
- Film — Animation
- Literature
- Video Game
- Web Original
- Western Animation
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- Johnny Turbo and Tony have a very peculiar relationship as it stands in the first two comics, but the "sub" part of the subtext goes completely out the window in the third one, "Sleepwalker".
Anime & Manga
- act-age has some playful subtext between the protagonist Kei and her fellow actress Chiyoko. It intensifies after the shooting of Death Island where they had to share several scenes, especially on Chiyoko's part. She'll often refer to her time alone with Kei as "dates", tell her friend Akira that she and Kei are in a "burning love" note and several chapter covers feature them in intimate poses. Chiyoko even carries a white lily (which symbolizes female romance) on one of them. Even Kei won't stop gushing on how "beautiful" Chiyoko is.
- Asteroid in Love often applies this as a kind of Ship Tease (especially between Mira and Ao), but occasionally on relationships that are treated as platonic, for laughs:
- Mira and Ao's first meeting. In no more than a few hours, they not only made The Promise but continues to treasure the person they met, and the promise they made, despite having not seen each other for years before the story started. As a result, Moe declares them Old Flame.
- In Chapter 7 (animated in Episode 3), both Moe and Misa realize Mira's self-made romance manga always have the Love Interest modelled upon Ao (whom she mistook for a boy for years). The implication of Mira having a crush on Ao, at least before knowing Ao's actually a girl, is not forgotten, since Mira at this point specifically forbids Ao from reading that manga.
- Ao's With a Foot on the Bus situation is resolved by her living in Mira's house because Misa's room becomes vacant owing to the latter going to college out of town. When Nanami learns the two living under the same roof, her first reaction is accusing the two of being more than just friends.
- A platonic example: When Mai recalls the first time she met Mikage, it was portrayed in an Art Shift to a Shōjo art style, complete with Bishie Sparkles. But the relationship was literally an "admiration" in the Senpai/Kōhai sense, with no further Ship Teases.
- The Azumanga Daioh manga confirms that Nyamo and Yukari went to an One-Gender School. It's known Nyamo was involved in an embarrassing "love letter" Noodle Incident as a teen. There are heavy implications she gave a love letter to a female student, unless it was a male teacher.
- Berserk: Griffith is one of the few people that Guts allows to touch him and Griffith is all sorts of jealous towards Guts. Oh and Naked Water Fight. It goes straight into horrifying territory with the Eclipse and the events that lead up to it.
- Bleach: To say Sui-Feng is attached to her mentor, Yoruichi Shihouin would be putting it mildly. Though the anime tends to play this up more than the manga does. One Omake has her conspire with Kiyone to try to get nude photos of Yoruichi
, while another has her imagine being rescued by her.
- Bubblegum Crisis:
- Priss's friendship with Sylvie had a large undercurrent of lesbian subtext. So much so that when Priss was forced to kill her, she was left heartbroken over it and briefly quit the Knight Sabres because of it.
- Their leader, Sylia, was subtly implied to have hidden feelings for Priss, which Lenna and Nene lampshade in the first episode, when Sylia was trying to hide her concern for Priss during a news broadcast of a boomer attack. Lenna offhandedly mentions that Priss could be in danger if she ran into the boomer without her suit, prompting Sylia to drop all pretense and immediately head for the changing room to suit up in order to save her, while Lenna and Nene have a giggle fit.
- Death Note features a lot of this between L and Light. This is consistent across all adaptations, from the original manga to the drama series.
- In Durarara!!, the way Izaya and Shizuo hate each other, the psychological games, constantly moving into each others' personal space, and their rather obsessive loathing — which is a very odd departure for Izaya who 'loves all humans' — tends to be where people stamp Belligerent Sexual Tension on their relationship. While the author is apparently annoyed to some extent by the people who ship it, he has apparently said 'Hell, why not' and put in some subtext in later volumes, and the producers/writers of the anime pushed this into the forefront right off the bat.
- Girls Bravo
- In that same episode Kirie gropes Koyomi in order to garner attention from the audience. Also, at the beginning of the episode Miharu and Koyomi wash each other, Miharu comments on how beautiful Koyomi is and gropes her.
- In the anime Kosame develops a Psycho Lesbian-type attraction towards Kirie after she fights her. Also, Hijiri has been obsessed with Miharu since childhood but after being defeated by Kirie in a fight she starts lusting after her instead. They both express their affections towards Kirie by resorting to attempted Black Comedy Rape.
- The second episode of season two features an all-girl kickbocking tournament set up by ultra pervert, yuri fanboy Fukuyama. Then there's the mud wrestling match between Kosame and Kirie who both wear nothing save for skimpy white bikinis. Lots of muddy groping ensues. Also, Kosame gets close to Kirie, blushes, tells her "I do hope that you can satisfy me" and kisses Kirie on the cheek and later on her lips.
- In Great Pretender, Laurent is highly affectionate with Makoto, both in that he's unabashedly touchy-feely with him, and in the way he speaks to him. He even gives Makoto the Affectionate Nickname "Edamame." However, the show stops just shy of confirming whether this is something he does just to mess with Makoto, or if he's actually in love/lust with his protege. The closest it comes to a confirmation one way or another is when Laurent tries to flirt with his compatriot Cynthia, and she replies that she "Thought Edamame was [his] favorite." However, it's ambiguous as to whether she's just teasing him back, or whether she thought he was genuinely more attracted to Makoto. Either way, Laurent stays mum, leaving the whole matter as subtext.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers might have some of this — being a comedy that also has a few Canon gay couples, it's hard to tell sometimes what is Played for Laughs and what is actual Ship Tease.
- Highschool of the Dead:
- In the manga version of the bath scene, Rei was incredulous at the sheer size of Shizuka's boobs and had to see if they were real, by groping her, though the readers don't get to see it. Instead, the next panel shows Saya's reaction, while Shizuka's cries of, "not there! ♥" and "no more! ♥" are seen from just out of frame.
- The anime version of the scene differs by showing the audience what Rei's doing. Shizuka is shown bent over the side of the bathtub with Rei fondling her breasts from behind. Though the animation makes it seem that she's doing Shizuka doggy-style, making her breasts appear to be bouncing instead. When Saya looks over her shoulder to see what's going on, her eyes go wide in embarrassment, and she quickly turn back around.
- Two scenes later, Rei is shown fondling Saeko's breasts, who was mindful to squeeze her thighs shut and cup her hands between her legs. It mainly served to prevent the audience from seeing Saeko's crotch, but also made sense in-series, given Shizuka's earlier cries of "not there".
- I Got My Wish and Reincarnated as the Villainess (Last Boss)! has homoerotic subtext between Elizabeth and Karen. Right from their first meeting, Luna wonders if Karen got into Elizabeth's new route unexpectedly. Elizabeth fawns over how cute Karen is and later gives a Declaration of Protection towards Karen. On the other hand, Karen also does to Elizabeth the stripping and groping that she originally did to her (male) game love interests.
- One of the writers for K, Blue, tweeted that Mikoto and Totsuka had a "special relationship" that was kept a secret because otherwise it would be considered "unmanly" in their gang.
- The Kids on the Slope anime is full of this, specifically between Sentaro and Kaoru. Even though the main characters eventually each have their own female Love Interests, they have an equal amount of Fanservice with each other:
- In Episode 1, the scene when Kaoru first meets Sentaro is blatantly ripped-off from some shoujo manga, complete with the pink background and the line "So, you have come to take me". It is explained later in the manga that Sentaro thought that Kaoru was an angel who've come to take him away in his nap, not helped by how Kaoru has been known as having a 'pretty face' according to Ritsuko (which she corrected into 'handsome' right away).
- Sentaro and Kaoru constantly bicker in exaggerated manners, even though they actually get along pretty well, as stated by Ritsuko. Kaoru throws a fit when Sentaro agrees to play music with another man! (Rock and roll, no less. The horror!)
- There are many scenes in which Sentaro has no sense of space around Kaoru, including patting his head or shoulders, trying to share a jacket with him to shelter from rain, or pining him down to his bed in a serious manner, much to Kaoru's surprise. Kaoru once literally states that Sentaro is so good-looking, he sometimes takes his breath away.
- Lupin III: The Columbus Files:
- The beach scene, where Goemon resuscitates Jigen by giving him mouth-to-mouth. Which Jigen might've had less of a problem with, had Goemon not been stripped down to his fundoshi (it's implied that he'd had to swim out to save Jigen and bring him ashore).
- In Rosaria's case, she seemed more than a little attached to Fujiko, who was amnesiac at the time. At one point, she jokingly asks Lupin if they can "share" her. Not that those two didn't have subtext before that.
- Lyrical Nanoha:
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha plays up the romantic symbolism of Nanoha and Fate's relationship for all it's worth, complete with The Dulcinea Effect and What Beautiful Eyes!, and their final scene crams in nearly every Love Confession trope in the book. Later seasons drop the symbolism and their relationship looks like a married couple, including adopting a daughter together in StrikerS. However, despite Word of Gay from several staff members, there's still some plausible deniability to keep them in the subtext category.
- The first Compilation Movie cuts all the side plots and most of the secondary characters, focusing more heavily on Nanoha and Fate's relationship than the series did and adding even more symbolism. Meanwhile the second movie not only adds scenes for them that weren't present in the series, but also adds piles for Hayate and Reinforce, making the latter a prominent character from the beginning and expanding on her personality and devotion to the former. It even slips in some Nanoha/Fate/Hayate subtext in the end.
- Maken-ki!: There are subtle and not-so-subtle hints that Takaki and Yuuka may be more than friends:
- In the manga, they arrived together for the group's vacation to Okino Island, as if they were a couple and during the flashback in chapter 48, Yuuka referred to Takaki as "her important person." While the preface page to chapter 45 plainly shows them engaged in foreplay, while spooning together in lingerie.
- In the anime, Yuuka is seen groping her during the beach party in episode 13 (they were both drunk). And when Usui was made principal of the school and ordered the girls to bodypaint each other, Yuuka chose Takaki. She paints her midriff, but the overhead camera angle and Takaki's moaning makes it appear she's going down on her.
- In the manga, they arrived together for the group's vacation to Okino Island, as if they were a couple
- Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun
- While playing a Dating Sim, Nozaki and Mikoshiba begin to wonder if the Bromantic Foil actually has feelings for the protagonist. While the Bromantic Foil is a pretty common character archetype, in real life his one-minded dedication to the protagonist's happiness might seem a little suspect. So Nozaki and Mikoshiba decide to make a Fix Fic where he finally gets a girlfriend of his own so he's not spending all of high school helping out a friend at the cost of himself. They look through the list of girls in the Dating Sim, but once again realize that the only character that makes sense for him as a love interest is the protagonist.
- Nozaki basically worships the ground Ken walks on because he's so thrilled to have a competent editor. In the process, he's more anxious around him and willing to please than he would be for his girlfriend, if he had one. Sakura is baffled, especially since Ken clearly dislikes him.
- Naruto:
- Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha are this + Foe Romance Subtext. As it turns out, this is because they're the reincarnations of the Sage of the Six Paths younger and older sons, respectively. After Madara finally died, they were reincarnated again — as Naruto and Sasuke.
- Naruto and Sasuke have this and it's lampshaded often by other characters. There's also the three accidental kisses they had, the Does This Remind You of Anything? moments, the occasional No Sense of Personal Space around each other, and Naruto angsts/thinks quite a bit about Sasuke in Part II.
- Kakashi and Obito. After his death, Kakashi's guilt caused him to idealize Obito to such an extent that everything in his life revolved around him. He spent years trying to live up to Obito's loyalty to his comrades and kind-hearted nature, and even adopted an entirely new personality and mannerisms to emulate Obito as a memorial to him. Even his chronic lateness is attributed to Obito — not only was Obito similarly late as a kid due to his helpful nature, but also, Kakashi's lateness is because he spends every. single. day. at the Memorial Stone, staring at Obito's name for three hours straight. Obito is the one death Kakashi has never been able to move past, all but making him The Lost Lenore to him. Learning that Obito was Tobi, and thus responsible for nearly every tragedy he and his team (especially Naruto and Sasuke) have suffered over the course of the manga, including their sensei's death, almost breaks him beyond repair. On Obito's end, though he doesn't admit it, Kakashi is equally important to him. Obito's ideal world is not only one where Rin is alive, but also one where his closest friend lived up to the ideals that drove him in his youth.
- Ino and Sakura's relationship has some of this. There's even a section of Konoha Hiden: The Perfect Day for a Wedding that mentions that they're very close Childhood Friends who work together so well that they practically breathe in sync. They both come to the same store and get the same gift at the same time. It's then stated that if they were a man and a woman, they likely would have fallen in love then and there.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
- Negi and Fate Averruncus. The subtext is noticed and lampshaded in-story with the girls wondering if they have a strong new rival for Negi.
- Much earlier, there was Negi and Kotarou.
- Konoka and Setsuna spent most of the manga in this state, with endless comedic scenes revolving around the latter's Bodyguard Crush and the former's utter refusal to acknowledge it one way or the other. Then came the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue where the text states they married on the same year, accompanied by a picture of Setsuna giving Konoka the Bridal Carry.
- As an extremely genre savvy shoujo manga, Ouran High School Host Club plays up the homoerotic subtext for both fanservice and laughs. After all, a decent amount of Yaoi Fangirls have to be reading it. It's even invoked in universe when the twins play it up during club activities.
- Persona 4: The Animation:
- Episode 12 seems to have a lot of this between Yu and Yosuke. Yosuke pulls Yu out of Mitsuo's Shadow's illusion, and they then look each other in the eye while in Jiraiya's arms. At the end of the episode, Yosuke calls Yu by his first name. Episode 19 has some tension during the group date. Yosuke says that he feels he was "about to cross a line that should never be crossed," and searches frantically for a drink. It gets even better in the English dub where he says that he "has just went to a place he can never come back from".
- Episode 15 and the Love Hotel, Chie, Yukiko, and Rise in the rotating bed having giggle fits. Something similar happens when Teddie, Yosuke, and Kanji end up in a bed together, except in that case the only one laughing is Teddie.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica is rife with this, to the point that some fans jokingly refer to the series as "Miserable Lesbians: The Anime". Literally every pair of the five main girls who get some significant interaction have subtext (and for those that don't interact they have spin-off material, like Mami and Kyoko in The Different Story), while Homura/Madoka is constantly taken to the bleeding edge of subtext and text, especially in Rebellion, where their devotion to each other forms the entire plot. The staff are not only aware of this and toss out Ship Tease like candy, but also occasionally reveal that they ship it too.
- Seraph of the End has a lot of homoerotic subtext, mostly between Mika and Yuu in all its adaptations.
- Soul Eater: After a failed attempt to combine their powers, Soul tells Black Star that "It's over between us". The background becomes pure pink like a scene in a shoujo manga, and the dialogue is clearly meant to emulate a rejection.
Black Star: (blushing) What exactly are you saying, Soul?
Soul: If we try to stay together like this... I'll only end up hating you. It's for the best.- This is immediately followed by Black Star sheepishly asking if they can still be friends.
- The Story Between a Dumb Prefect and a High School Girl with an Inappropriate Skirt Length: Supposedly, Tasaki's BL manga (about their friends Sakuradaimon and Izubuchi) has it, but to Poemu it just looks like a normal Shonen manga. Note that in the actual manga Izubuchi and Sakuradaimon are straight and have shown no hints otherwise.
- The last episode of Student Council's Discretion plays it for laughs where the protagonist is doing his best to avoid this as best he can and failing utterly until he finally manages to relax and give the other guy some advice. Curse you, Mafuyu!
- While Fai and Kurogane in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- almost pass into Official Couple territory, the genre makes them into one huge Ship Tease because the mangaka love to hear fans scream in frustration.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has Judai and Johan who both quickly became close after meeting each other. The subtext is even thicker when Johan was kidnapped, and Judai dropped everything and everyone to save him. Yubel never considers Asuka a threat to their love, but they are murderously jealous of Johan, even asking Judai if he prefers him over them.
Art
- While Naudline Pierre claims that the Winged Humanoids are all just metaphors for the main character, every character is female and many of them depict their interactions as intimate. The fact that the main character is always nude doesn't help.
Comic Books
- A particularly notable example in DC involves Batman semi-sympathetic villains Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. They had significant homoerotic subtext right from the start, with Ivy regularly trying to get Harley out of her abusive relationship with the Joker and both of them showing a great deal of physical affection to each other and emotional intimacy. The Harley Quinn solo title from the New 52 era on started with this and then moved on to suggestive dialogue implications of them being into a sexual relationship, Sexy Discretion Shots, and finally on-page kissing and them being an acknowledged couple.
- Fairly common throughout many DC Comics. One notable example is the relationship between longtime friends Dick Grayson and Roy Harper. During their time running the Outsiders, teammate Grace tells Roy that, "It's better to have you around pissing him off. Without all the sexual tension. At least the obvious sexual tension. I always thought you boys would make a swell couple in an erotic Butch and Sundance kind of way." There are multiple similar instances of lampshade-hanging around the nature of their relationship.
- Lampshaded in Greg Rucka's Whiteout. The writer has explicitly stated he wanted to play with this trope as seen in buddy cop films. Marshall Carrie Stetko and secret agent Lily Sharpe's banter verges on flirting, which does not escape the others (one person comments to Lily, "I think she likes you.) There are several scenes where a hetero couple would kiss under the same rising tension, and they share two tender moments - when Lily buttons Carrie's shirt and when Carrie tends to Lily after the latter is severely beaten.
Fan Works
- Imperfect Metamorphosis, given that it lampshades everything in the Touhou Project fandom, inevitably has scores of this. Marisa constantly makes sex jokes regarding her friends, Alice is heavily implied to be crushing on her, Mima casually flirts with Reimu and Reisen, something develops between Rumia and Rin Satsuki, Mystia and Wriggle are Mistaken for Romance, Kaguya and Mokou have their usual Foe Romance Subtext, and Yuuka is all but outright stated to be a serial rapist who kept Wriggle as a "pet" for a while.
- In The Knight of Storm's End, Littlefinger tries to discredit Stannis Baratheon by making a fuss over his relationship with Davos Seaworth and Jon Snow, implying Stannis's interest for them runs this way. The story is still floating around in the sequel, as seen when Oberyn asks if Jon and Shireen could end up involved with each other before playfully recalling Shireen's father is supposed to be the one sleeping with the lad.
- Little Hands, Big Attitude: When Tails hears the phrase "Dr. Robotnik's granddaughter", since he's only familiar with Ivo Robotnik, he tries to figure out who would Ivo possibly have a romantic relationship with. The only person he can think of is the also male Agent Stone. In another instance, Sonic outright calls Agent Stone Robotnik's boy-toy. There is no indication in the fic that the two are or ever were in a romantic relationship.
- In the Dark Fic Prison Island Break, Sonic and Shadow's husband-wife relationship is very deliberate, with Sonic in the husband role. Their interactions scream Slap-Slap-Kiss, except without the kissing, and Shadow quits complaining when Sonic calls him 'Girlfriend'. As well as the hilarious arguments, there are some very tender moments:
Sonic: Listen, Shadow-man, we're gonna get out of this place. I know it's possible. And you know what, Shadow? If you're right, and this plan doesn't work... I'm gonna keep trying more plans until we do. All of us.
Shadow: How do you do that?
Sonic: Well I just happen to be so awesome and-
Shadow: Not that, you idiot. The other thing. How do you stay so cheerful? Why don't you just kill yourself and get the pain out of the way? How can you face today, when it's so fucking awful? What do you do to bear it?
Sonic: Same thing you do, I guess... I look up at the sun every morning. And I race it to tomorrow...
Shadow: I thought I was the only one... - Touhou Ibunshu has characters toss out "I love you"s with abandon, have no hesitation to get intimately close, with Remilia practically seducing Reimu, and have a tendency to end up naked with each other on a common basis. By the final arc the "subtext" part is dropped, with Kaguya and Eirin explicitly stated to have been married for centuries, and by the very end Marisa and Alice are also a couple.
- Waiting is worth it: Bakugo's overprotectiveness over Izuku and Izuku's emotional dependence on Bakugo in-turn has led to a lot of people - from Izuku's mother to Uraraka - to assume that the two are together. Bakugo denies it of course, and Izuku has no idea what they're talking about.
Film — Live-Action
- The Ruthless guide to '80s action movies straight-out acknowledges the "hidden gayness" of '80s action movies and elaborates on it in detail. Top scorers are, of course, Top Gun, Commando and Red Heat.
- Judd Apatow's films, either the ones he produces or directs, usually star two male companions who act as though they have a secret crush on one another. His are considered to be the pioneering "bromance" films, and were later hit with some controversy over whether or not this presented emotional men sympathetically or as just another Gay joke.
- Almost all of Kevin Smith's films in the The View Askewniverse especially revolve around two men and their very close friendships. Some of these films (like Chasing Amy between the protagonist and his male best friend) openly portray it as attraction, but most leave it as subtext. He acknowledged that he would put some of this content in his films as Fanservice directed at gay people.
- Between Ripley and Call in Alien: Resurrection, which Word of God says was intentional. Given who wrote it, is anyone surprised?
- When the Guardians of the Galaxy quite literally crash into Thor in Avengers: Infinity War, they take him into their ship. They're all enamored with him but Drax is especially enamored with him. This one is Played for Laughs as Drax still hasn't gotten over the death of his wife but he calls Thor a "handsome, muscular man" and says he looks like "a pirate had a baby with an angel".
- Gore Vidal claims to have inserted homoerotic subtext into the script of Ben-Hur, treating two male characters as former lovers. The characters otherwise appear straight, and Charlton Heston later claimed complete ignorance of the subtext. (Heston's ignorance was a case of Enforced Method Acting. Vidal told Stephen Boyd privately to act as if his character was in love with Ben Hur.)
- Betty Buckley has said that, in the 1976 version of Carrie, she played the gym teacher Miss Collins as a lesbian in order to invoke this in her interactions with Carrie.
- Fight Club: All over the place, and in fact it's an important part of the plot, since much of the conflict may stem from the Narrator's sexual confusion. The phallic imagery gets so out of control that at many points it's not even imagery. It should be noted that the subtext was taken down a notch in the movie.
- Foxcatcher adds in subtext that March Schultz and John Du Pont have a twisted sexual relationship going on. This ranges from seemingly insignificant things like Mark frequently being shirtless around John to rather questionable scenes - such as a late-night wrestling practice, and Mark giving John an Intimate Haircut. The real Mark Schultz took exception to this implication and slammed the film, before calming down after a while.
- High School Musical: Lucas Grabeel wanted his character to be gay and hook up with Chad in the end and Corbin Bleu (Chad's actor) rolled with it, leading to plenty of subtext between the two (especially the infamous "I Don't Dance" sequence). However, thanks to the Moral Guardians, the subtext was largely gone by the third film.
- Hot Fuzz:
- Original drafts of the film had a love interest for Angel named Victoria. When the character was removed, much of her dialogue was given intact to Danny, leading to lots of subtext, which was then consciously played for laughs. When the writers and actors discovered Hot Fuzz Slash Fic, they were amused, and even started tweeting their own Hot Fuzz slash fanfiction.
Edgar Wright (via Twitter): We wrote some Nicholas Angel and Danny Butterman slash fiction. It was called Hot Fuzz...
Commenter: You do realize this counts as Canon to us now? - Simon Pegg stated in an early interview from 2007 that Hot Fuzz has a love story between Nick and Danny.
Simon: Angel has his ex-girlfriend and she says, ‘Until you find someone you care about more than your job, you won’t be able to switch off.’ And then he does, but it’s Danny.
- In 2021, a Twitter user asked Wright if he'd ever do a gay romcom with Pegg and Frost. Wright responded by telling them to watch Hot Fuzz.
- Pegg actually acknowledges this in his previous work with Wright, Shaun of the Dead.
- Original drafts of the film had a love interest for Angel named Victoria. When the character was removed, much of her dialogue was given intact to Danny, leading to lots of subtext, which was then consciously played for laughs. When the writers and actors discovered Hot Fuzz Slash Fic, they were amused, and even started tweeting their own Hot Fuzz slash fanfiction.
- I Love You, Man tried to sell itself as "the first bromantic comedy." It covered the start and development of a male friendship much how other movies might a romance, and largely not as a parody.
- Immortal: Between Nikopol and Horus. Technically, they're involved in a MFM threeway romance with the same woman through Horus possessing Nikopol during the act, but Horus takes an extraordinary interest in Nikopol as well, beyond what would be necessary to fulfill his own purposes.
- Masters of the Universe: Hardly surprising given that it's a movie based on a toy line which consisted of what were essentially homoerotic male dolls. Despite conquering Castle Grayskull and seemingly assured of victory, the evil/sexually repressed Skeletor becomes obsessed with chasing He-Man (a muscly Aryan barbarian with a fondness for wearing leather panties, S&M gear and baby oil who proudly wields his big manly weapon in front of all and sundry) halfway across the universe in order to chain him up in just his underpants and watch him get whipped in front of everyone. This was the actual storyline in a children's movie. Let that sink in...
- A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge is an odd case. After its release many people noted its strange homosexual subtext. Years later the scriptwriter revealed that he intentionally added these elements to the story, but the entire rest of the production crew, the director included, simply never noticed. Robert Englund has gone on record saying that he thinks that Freddy in this film represents Jesse's repressed homosexual desires. Mark Patton (who played Jesse) came out as openly homosexual after the film was released, and thinks that his self-doubts about his sexuality at the time when the movie was shot carried over into his performance.
- There are some serious guy-love vibes in Pain & Gain.
- Along with tight action sequences, the homoerotic subtext is half the point of So Close.
- For Strangers on a Train, Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Walker (Bruno) worked out an elaborate series of gestures and physical appearance to suggest the homosexuality and seductiveness of Bruno's character while bypassing censor objections.
- Top Gun was rife with subtext. Years later, asked if his role in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was his first gay character, Val Kilmer joked that it was - but only if you don't count Top Gun.
- In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage forms a bromance with Javi Gutierrez, a Loony Fan who helps write Cage's next movie. Almost romantically, the guys engage in several intimate conversations, share personal items, and eventually admit that they love each other while holding each other at gunpoint.
- X-Men: Apocalypse:
- Writer Simon Kinberg has said that Apocalypse is the third chapter of a love story between Magneto and Professor X.
"If First Class was Erik's story and Days of Future Past is Charles' story, then Apocalypse will be both of their stories. The first movie was about Erik becoming empowered. That's the origin story of a man's power. Days of Future Past is about a guy who is a mess, masterminding the end of this massive movie. So they are both at their peak powers at the start of Apocalypse, so Apocalypse for me is the culmination of that three-act love story."
- Kinberg later adds that when Erik calls Charles by his professor title for the first time in the movie series, it's a sign of respect and love which is greater than "old friend" because in the Alternate Timeline, Xavier is less pacifistic than in the original timeline.
Simon Kinberg: 'I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul looking for trouble.' The way that James said that line, to me, it's almost a Magneto delivery. It's a threat. And there's a response from Fassbender where he gives a little smile. And the little smile to me, that I read that smile and Michael and I talked about that smile, the smile was Magneto understanding Charles has learnt my lesson. That's a militant Charles Xavier. Erik says, 'Good luck, professor.' It's the first time he ever called Charles 'professor.' And it sort of shows respect that I found it really beautiful that Michael said it subtly loving.
- While promoting Apocalypse at SDCC, James McAvoy summarized his character's love-hate relationship with Erik (and Michael Fassbender agrees).
McAvoy: It's that thing in a love story where you don't always like the person you're in love with, but you still love them. Charles and Erik always hated the way [the other] approached things. It's like, "Argh, he's always wanting to kill the humans! He's always going about the same old shit," and yet I just love the guy. I can't kill him, I don't want to mind-control him, I love him.
Fassbender: That's right.
- Writer Simon Kinberg has said that Apocalypse is the third chapter of a love story between Magneto and Professor X.
- X-Men: First Class:
- According to co-screenwriters Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz in the "Second Genesis" featurette (which was included on the DVD/Blu-Ray release), this movie is essentially a love story between Charles and Erik, with Raven and Hank being the Beta Couple:
Miller: The story between Charles and Erik is on some level this tragic romance. You gotta arrange the other elements in that way, too.
Stentz: Yeah, in this case you have Hank and you have Raven who end up being kind of the B-story version of the same thing you're seeing playing out with Charles and Erik. It's the making and breaking of a relationship. - In the rare "Magneto the Survivor" featurette, First Class producer Simon Kinberg refers to Professor X's and Magneto's separation as a divorce when he discusses their older counterparts.
"What I love between Ian [McKellen] and Patrick [Stewart] in X1, 2, 3 is the sense that they're disappointed in each other. They actually wish that the other one would just come back to them, come back to their side, you know, 'we could be so great together.' It really is a post-divorce story. Understanding the origin of their conflict was the thing that was most interesting to me in this film. Understanding the beginning of their political fissure and their emotional fissure."
- James McAvoy called the movie a "love story" between Xavier and Magneto, even though when pressed for clarification, he admitted they were not gay. The film certainly did concentrate heavily on the two's relationship, and the final scene, in which the two split and their surrogate children chose sides, played out like a couple's divorce.
McAvoy: It is a little bit of a mini-tragedy that [Xavier] and Magneto don't, you know, have sex and become married and become best friends.
- According to co-screenwriters Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz in the "Second Genesis" featurette (which was included on the DVD/Blu-Ray release), this movie is essentially a love story between Charles and Erik, with Raven and Hank being the Beta Couple:
- As with A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge, critics picked up on a gay subtext in Jeepers Creepers 2 on release, perhaps all the more so as it's running counter to the vocal antipathy toward gay people expressed in dialog.
Roger Ebert: Despite Scott's homophobia, the movie has a healthy interest in the male physique, and it's amazing how many of the guys walk around bare-chested. The critic John Fallon writes "at a certain point, I thought I was watching soft gay erotica."
Literature
- Some of Edgar Pangborn's stories feature openly gay relationships; in others, such as "Tiger Boy", sexual attraction between young men is heavily suggested but never stated directly.
- In the Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures book Fear Itself, Anji, via some Skype-like technology, "walks in on" Fitz and the Doctor having what initially looks like an intimate moment, although actually the Doctor is injured and Fitz is tending to him. She jokes that maybe she should Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone. The whole series quickly became an exercise in how homoerotic Fitz and Eight could get without the censors catching on. When it turned out that the censors didn't even care much, the attraction between them became much more blatant and (after a few dozen books) turned into snogging, naughty dreams, and Fitz' inner monologues about how he wanted to get laid by the Doctor.
- Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte has an In Universe Case. Endo and Kobayashi occasionally comment on "yuri developments" in Lieselotte's interactions with Fiene in the Fictional Video Game Love Me Magically!. They elect not to explain to Siegwald what they mean by that, especially since it actually wouldn't be too crazy for things to develop in that way based on what they know—and they ship Siegwald / Lieselotte and Baldur / Fiene.
- Fight Club was all about this, according to Chuck Palahniuk: an attempt to see how far he could push Homoerotic Subtext and not offend the manly men who read it.
- Redfern Jon Barrett's The Giddy Death of the Gays and the Strange Demise of Straights focuses on the relationship between roommates Dom and Richard, who become increasingly romantic despite the unwavering heterosexuality of each.
- As time goes on in Girls Kingdom, the amount of homoerotic subtext between Himeko and Misaki grows to the point where other characters are pointing it out. From feeding each other donuts to stroking each other's hair to Himeko clinging to Misaki when the former doesn't want to wake up, it's merely a question of when it went from subtext to text.
- In Jeeves and Wooster, after Bertie has ended an argument with Jeeves:
I felt like one of those chappies in the novels who calls off the fight with his wife in the last chapter and decides to forget and forgive.
- Jack Kerouac's On the Road contains plenty of homoerotic energy between the two main characters, one of which is a hedonistic bisexual. They share women and engage in three ways laden with subtext.
- When Oscar Wilde was on trial for "gross indecency" (gay sexual acts short of sodomy), part of the trial was debating in court about whether his book The Picture of Dorian Gray had gay subtext.
- In Oscar Wilde's short story The Portrait Of Mr W. H., the characters debate over supposed Homoerotic Subtext in Shakespeare's sonnets. Wilde plays with Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory, and even the reader starts wondering if the assumptions could be true.
- In Psmith in the City, after Mike gets moved out of Psmith's department, Psmith is deeply mournful and even quotes a song about lost love (the lyrics slightly altered to fit the situation).
- Warriors: Ravenpaw and Barley are two male barn cats who live alone together and have gone on note that they aren't interested in she-cats. They're officially "best friends", but at least one writer thinks they're a couple.
Live-Action TV
- Buck and Eddie from 9-1-1's dynamic as a whole may vary, but the creators acknowledged that at least one of their scenes were made with this in mind.
- When Buck tries to apologize to Eddie for suing the department, some of the shots looks ambiguously romantic. The director of that episode said to one of the fans she was "Glad we hit our goal!"◊
- And then their infamous scene where Eddie was shot in front of Buck out of nowhere. The cinematography is viewed by some as intense as it is romantic. When the director was confronted about the framing choices on twitter, she only replied with zipped mouth emoji◊.
- With Buck being revealed as bisexual in Season 7, the network switch of the show from FOX to ABC, Buck's male love interest's actor revealing that his storyline with Buck was originally supposed to be with Eddie, and Buck and Eddie's potential romantic pairing being openly (and seriously) referenced in interviews (but not as canon yet), some have started to wonder if 9-1-1 is playing the slow burn long game with actually pairing them up romantically, which would make it a rare case where the Homoerotic Subtext went from subtext to text. Of course, nothing has happened yet, so it remains to be seen how it will end up.
- When Buck tries to apologize to Eddie for suing the department
- A Running Gag in Angel is that the title character is often Mistaken for Gay, but when rival vampire Spike joins Team Angel in Season 5 the Ho Yay goes off the scale. This is lampshaded in the DVD Commentary for "Destiny".
"They're always up for a little homoeroticism — David and James."
"I think this was the scene when Joss Whedon saw it shot he said, "Why don't they kiss already?" - In the Babylon 5 episode (5x4): "A View from the Gallery", a workman having listened to G'Kar and Londo bickering wonders aloud, "So, how long do you figure they’ve been married?"
- Raj and Howard from The Big Bang Theory, to the point where Leonard's mother asks when they're going to express their latent homosexual feelings for one another. They even virtually make out.
- Often played for laughs on Blue Mountain State, a show notable for its use of Testosterone Poisoning as well. Thad has a penchant for finding ways to get the team naked and subjecting them to sadistic things, often as a part of hazing, or just for reasons that only make sense to him. One player mistakenly thinks he is being invited to a threesome with the coach and his wife and after some agonizing decides to go for it, and not just to have a shot at the wife.
Thad: Harmon, before you got that dick pic, how much of your day was spent thinking about Coach in a sexual way?Harmon: One percent, tops.Thad: Now?Harmon: He's the only person I've thought about sexually in the last eight hours.
- In Boston Legal, Alan and Denny would often joke about their relationship as if it were a sexual one. The nods came in almost every episode, and they even ended up dancing together once. In the final episode, they actually married each other, still maintaining a platonic relationship.
- Boy Meets World did a non-stop torrent of jokes in later seasons about Cory and Shawn acting like couple. There was a break-up episode which revolved around this premise, Cory's fiancee Topanga admitted that she knew Cory loved Shawn more than her, Cory wished Shawn was there the night he lost his virginity... There was also a lot between Jack and Eric.
- While Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a canon lesbian character with Willow it still got in quite a bit of this trope too, namely in Buffy and Willow's friendship (before she came out) and Buffy and Faith's intense, emotionally charged rivalry. The guys sometimes got in on it too, with writer Jane Espenson confirming that Giles and Ethan were written like ex-boyfriends. Likewise Spike with Xander or Andrew, and the latter with the other members of the Trio.
- Troy and Abed from Community, and everybody knows it. To the point where, when Troy starts dating Britta, Abed is referred to as her "boyfriend's boyfriend". And when Abed starts spending time with a new friend, Troy becomes jealous and goes "all psycho girlfriend on him", in the words of Britta while she is on a date with Troy.
- The eponymous Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa are very close, and the show has fun teasing the audience about it. Arisugawa's neighbour mistakes them for a couple when she spots Himura entering Arisugawa's apartment. When Himura serves Arisugawa breakfast during a tough case, Arisugawa quips that he feels like a newlywed. In the "Study in Vermilion" case, Mutobe confesses to Arisugawa that he harbours unrequited love for Akemi, which Arisugawa compares to his own feelings towards Himura. The final episode has the duo attempting to categorise their relationship, settling eventually on an inseparable bond that's stronger than friendship. Nothing explicit ever comes from the teasing, however.
- The Daily Show and The Colbert Report has this between Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The actors deliberately play it up in their characters.
- Doctor Who:
- Several of the Sylvester McCoy-era stories include homoerotic subtext between many of the minor characters as part of the series' turn towards the political during this time, often involving main character Ace. In particular, "The Curse of Fenric" and especially "The Happiness Patrol" contain significant subplots as allegories for queer rights.
- The running case of Ace and her Girl of the Week in several episodes, including "The Curse of Fenric", and "Survival", the latter of which was intentional on the author's part and even censored a bit by The BBC.
- The new series delights in this, occasionally taking it right into homoeroticism. The friendship between the Eleventh Doctor and Craig is the best example played to the letter, to the point where they get Mistaken for Gay by everybody.
- Whilst the Doctor/Master Foe Romance Subtext has always existed, Scream of the Shalka and the Tenth Doctor episodes took it further than it had ever been. Paul Cornell confirmed that the Doctor and the android Master were an item in Scream of the Shalka, while Russell T Davies has confirmed on multiple times that he believes the two to be almost soul mates, which is part of what makes it so tragic. Steven Moffat has also admitted to shipping them, going so far as to get them together at the end of the parody Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death, after the Doctor regenerates into a woman, and to have them kiss in the main series story "Dead Water"/"Death In Heaven" after the Master regenerates into a woman.
- The Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz have had many moments that could be interpretated as this, and fans often make comparisons between them and the Tenth Doctor/Rose; the subtext only grows stronger within the books, especially in the story 'The Maze of Doom'. "Eve of the Daleks" reveals a lot of it, if not all, actually is romantic on Yaz's part (although she hadn't let herself realise it before), while Thirteen is studiously Not Letting On she knows about Yaz's feelings.
- Eastbound & Down: The ongoing relationship between Kenny and Stevie is a terrific parody of a romantic relationship, Kenny being the (over)dominant personality and Stevie being the emotionally sensitive one.
- Friends:
- In multiple episodes, Joey and Chandler have conversations about completely innocent subjects that sound exactly like those a couple would have. In one episode, Joey tells Chandler they should buy a new table for the apartment and Chandler worries it is "too soon". He starts talking about how things went when he brought furniture with his old roommate Kip, aggravating Joey ("I know all about Kip!"), who later asks Chandler if Kip was "better than me".
- In one episode, a conversation between Rachel and Monica about the fact that Monica has been shopping with Julie (Ross' girlfriend at the time) sounds exactly as if Monica has cheated on Rachel. Of course, from a certain point of view, it is true. She's done something meaningful with Rachel's rival.
- In the first episode of Joey, he frustratedly tells his sister "Chandler and me were not a gay couple!"
- Full House starred three men living together in San Francisco, and some early viewers thought the characters Jesse and Joey were a gay couple. This quickly proved not to be the case, but the show did have some fun with the idea. In one episode, the two tried to bathe a baby, and one ended up singing a love song to the other rather than to the baby. A third character walked in, and this was a case of Innocent Innuendo — until he left with the baby and the two chose to stay in the tub together and the song resumed. A few seasons later, the two worked together and tried to convince their boss to let them work from home, saying, "Joey and I... we have a baby together."
- Game of Thrones invokes quite possibly the most nightmarish example ever between Theon Greyjoy/"Reek" and Ramsay Snow, who tortured Theon so horribly that he now doesn't even remember his former identity. This is done while Ramsay is gently bathing him no less.
- House of the Dragon: Young Alicent and Rhaenyra have an incredibly close friendship that include spending time in the garden together, Rhaenyra wanting to take Alicent on dragon rides, sitting together at The Tourney, and Alicent dressing Rhaenyra for her promotion-to-heir ceremony with the two holding hands with their heads very close to each other. Even Episode 3 still shows Alicent trying to mend her bridge with Rhaenyra—with their interactions inadvertently coming off as a mutual case of Woman Scorned—likelier to give their coming conflict at the Dance a very tragic edge. To their credit, Milly Alcock and Emily Carey discussed having consciously invoked it as they performed.
Alicent: You aren't worried about your position?
Rhaenyra: (With her head planted in Alicent's lap) I like this position. It's quite comfortable.
- House of the Dragon: Young Alicent and Rhaenyra have an incredibly close friendship that include spending time in the garden together, Rhaenyra wanting to take Alicent on dragon rides, sitting together at The Tourney, and Alicent dressing Rhaenyra for her promotion-to-heir ceremony with the two holding hands with their heads very close to each other. Even Episode 3 still shows Alicent trying to mend her bridge with Rhaenyra—with their interactions inadvertently coming off as a mutual case of Woman Scorned—likelier to give their coming conflict at the Dance a very tragic edge. To their credit, Milly Alcock and Emily Carey discussed having consciously invoked it as they performed
- Good Omens lays it on thick in the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley, to the point that a passerby who witnesses a fight between them sympathetically tells Aziraphale "You're better off without him."
- Grimm: Nick and Monroe, to the point where some fans think that the latter's courtship of Rosalee was just to emphasize that Monroe was NOT gay.
- House has this in egregious amounts, mainly between House, the Doctor Jerk, and Wilson, his loyal Lancer and only real friend. Most of the time it's hard to point a finger at it though, because with House's personality, any of the sexually loaded comments (including some of the "I'm so gay for you" and "will you marry me" sort) could, and most likely are, just sarcasm so thick it's impossible to say what House actually means. Wilson, again, has learned to sometimes pay House back with the same thing. And in the end, the only thing actually happening between them is friendship and constant teasing; both have heterosexual interests and relationships/activity of their own.
- How I Met Your Mother:
- Mainly with Barney, Ted, and Marshall (in any combination of the three), though Lily and Robin have their moments, too (it's canon that Lily has some sort of sexual interest in Robin, possibly a nod to Alyson Hannigan playing a lesbian character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
- In one episode, while Marshall and Lily were still broken up, Marshal finds a new guy friend in a similar situation and they get the idea to do things together that the would normally only be allowed to do with girlfriends, like having brunch. Marshall gets much teasing from the rest of the gang and he eventually gets uncomfortable with how much this feels like a real relationship. Yet at the end when the other guy gets back with his girlfriend, Marshall is hurt as though he'd been cheated on or dumped.
"Let's brunch out Bro-Style." - Although many characters on Legends of Tomorrow are gay or bisexual, the series is still full of this between characters who have not both canonically indicated interest in the same gender.
- In season one, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory are partners in crime, and very close friends.
- Although it's later revealed that Snart is bisexual and in an alternate universe is engaged to a man, the way that Rory reacted to Snart's death suggested that they were very close.
- Many fans saw this in Rory and Ray Palmer during Season Two.
- Ray and Nate Heywood have a lot of this, including frequent comments on how attractive the other is, and really enjoying hugging each other.
- There was also the moment where Nate ended up revealing to his dad that he was a superhero, while holding a stark naked Ray in a bridal carry.
- Zari has mentioned that she thinks Charlie is hot.
- Gary Greene and John Constantine, although it was implied shortly after that they did start sleeping together after the end of that episode.
- In season one, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory are partners in crime, and very close friends.
- Once Upon a Time has a shocking amount of Foe Romance Subtext between Emma and Regina, that eventually turns into straight up Homoerotic Subtext when the latter makes a Heel–Face Turn. The first half of Season 4 has Emma attempting to rebuild her friendship with Regina, in pretty much the same way a lover would. One episode has a flashback to Emma's childhood about a friendship that went south - said friendship being incredibly charged with romantic undertones - and it's paralleled to Emma's current stance with Regina. The fact that Regina is the adoptive mother of Emma's son Henry has led to a couple of jokes about Henry having two mothers, which is certainly no coincidence. It's by far the most popular ship on the show, named 'Swan Queen'.
- The fact of Henry having two mothers has by now become canon. It has even been referred to multiple times by the characters themselves.
- Shawn and Gus in Psych act like an old married couple CONSTANTLY and apparently can't spend more than an hour apart without repeated phone calls. Shawn likes to pretend they really are in a relationship around other people because it makes Gus incredibly uncomfortable.
- Raven's Home is about two recently divorced women living together and raising their kids together. Their kids call each other by "Aunt". Raven and Chelsea are very close Childhood Friends, neither have any love interests, and Chelsea has to clarify they're just friends at least once.
- Rizzoli & Isles plays into this trope with the title characters more and more with each passing season. The writers seem to take some sort of perverse delight in making the two seem like an old married couple, then swerve into talking about their relationships with men (or sometimes while talking about their relationships with men).
- Scream Queens (2015) featured a considerable amount of this between Chad and Brock in Season 2. Chad corners him in the shower in a Ho Yay charged confrontation that becomes a Failed Attempt at Drama when Chad - who is also fully nude - realises "I think our wieners just touched". The episode after that featured a similar scene where Chad once again cornered Brock naked in the shower room, this time noticing that their "wieners" were symmetrical.
- Scrubs is overflowing with bromance between Turk and JD, up to and including a duet between the two called "Guy Love" in the musical episode in season 6.
- Seinfeld:
- Jerry Seinfeld's favorite episode portrayed the rise and fall of one of Jerry's friendships like the start and end of a romance. The two-parter was called "The Boyfriend."
- "The Outing" deliberately played up all the subtext between Jerry and George when a reporter mistakes them for a couple after they act the way they always act in front of her. It doesn't hurt that them being closeted gay men would make a lot of sense (especially George).
- The BBC's Sherlock has enough of this that it's been lampshaded since the first episode, when one of the two main characters thought the other was hitting on him and their landlady assumed they were a couple. Later episodes see John Watson repeatedly telling secondary characters that he isn't gay, and he does, indeed, date women.
- Speer Und Er: Discussed Trope. Hitler actually tells Speer's fiance that he needs to "borrow" her husband for his plans, and by the end of the war their falling-out resembles a marriage in crisis. Speer's oldest son put it down to Hitler's "Austrian charm".
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Original Series: Kirk and Spock have so much that they're the Trope Namer for Slash Fic. Later, in an infamous footnote to the novelisation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Gene Roddenberry coined a Vulcan word specifically to describe the relationship between Kirk and Spock; "t'hy'la" is defined to mean "friend/brother/lover". When asked about the possibility of a romantic relationship between Kirk and Spock, Roddenberry explicitly compared their relationship to that of Alexander the Great and Hephaestion, then said:
Roddenberry: We certainly believed the affection was sufficient for [a romantic relationship], if that were the particular style of the 23rd century.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
- Chief O'Brien and Dr. Bashir, who are also Vitriolic Best Buds. Starts when Miles is venting to Julian about his wife, Julian understands and Miles says "exactly why can't my wife be more like—" and cuts himself off realizing what he was about to say. In an episode years later, they both admit that while they love their spouses/girlfriends, they like each other a little bit more.
- Andrew Robinson and Alexander Siddig have been open about playing up the homoerotic subtext in Garak and Bashir's relationship from the beginning. Robinson in particular has repeatedly and quite bluntly said he always considered Garak "omnisexual" and he was absolutely hitting on the handsome young doctor from their first scene together.
- Star Trek: Enterprise: Lt. Malcolm Reed with Captain Archer, Commander Tucker, and Major Hayes.
- Star Trek: Picard: Although Word of God has denied that Hugh is gay, his actor Jonathan Del Arco (Word of Saint Paul) nonetheless continued to incorporate his experience as a gay man into his character (as he has done so since Hugh's debut in The Next Generation's "I, Borg"), so for Picard, Del Arco chose to depict Hugh as being in love with Elnor. In "Nepenthe", the two men are strangers, yet they form an immediate rapport, and they have No Sense of Personal Space with each other. Del Arco promotes Hugh and Elnor as a couple, calling his co-star Evan Evagora as "my Elnor" with three rainbow emojis, which represent the LGBTQ flag.
"I was like, 'This is Hugh's last moment and I'm going to make some personal choices, and so I'll make them personal choices about how I want them to be,'" says Del Arco. "And I think there were a lot of things about Elnor that for me resonated as a gay man." There certainly is a spark between the two characters in that moment. And while reps for CBS say that Hugh has not been identified as gay, Del Arco took his own experience as a gay man into consideration when playing that scene. "You know, I think he loved him," he says. "I think in essence he might've been in love with him in the time that he was there. I think that the hope was really someone loves him. Someone who was idealistic. I think he saw a lot of himself in Elnor. Hugh used to have that sense of innocence, of righteousness. And all those things were hopeful to him, because he hadn't been in a space of hope for all this time."
- Del Arco reiterates that "we shot the death scene last (same day) at that point it was about [Hugh's] love for Elnor and letting go."
- Del Arco reiterates
- Star Trek: The Original Series: Kirk and Spock have so much that they're the Trope Namer for Slash Fic. Later, in an infamous footnote to the novelisation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Gene Roddenberry coined a Vulcan word specifically to describe the relationship between Kirk and Spock; "t'hy'la" is defined to mean "friend/brother/lover". When asked about the possibility of a romantic relationship between Kirk and Spock, Roddenberry explicitly compared their relationship to that of Alexander the Great and Hephaestion, then said:
- Supernatural has buckets of this from the very first season although there is ongoing debate as to how much of it was intentional and how much of it was accidental.
- Show creator Eric Kripke has cited Jack Kerouac's On the Road as one of many early influences on the show and the main characters of that book (Sal and Dean) have lots of sexual tension between them. Making their counterparts in the show brothers didn't seem to scrub the narrative of that dynamic and led to copious amounts of Incest Yay Shipping. It didn't help matters that the brothers were constantly Mistaken for Gay.
- Depending on the situation (and writer of the individual episode), Dean can appear coded as bisexual. He flirts with a young, male sheriff's deputy at one point, has an obvious crush on the character Dr. Sexy, MD and knows there is a gay bar in Miami called Purgatory.
- Castiel's affection for Dean is noticeably intense and treated sometimes as a Running Gag and at times a genuine love story. In the final season, Castiel finally admits to being in love with Dean while Dean's feelings are left ambiguous.
- After Sam asked Balthazar for "angel advice" in 6.11, Balthazar immediately makes a quip about his "boyfriend" and Sam simply responded with "Cas can't help me."
- Lucifer's attachment to Sam comes off as menacing, stalkerish, and sexual. It pretty much confirmed that he raped Sam during their time in Hell.
- The demon Crowley is portrayed as a Depraved Bisexual who constantly flirts with men, including both Winchester brothers, mocks Castiel's affection for Dean and in Season 10 appears to develop feelings for Dean.
- Taskmaster: The dom/sub sexual tension between the Taskmaster and his assistant is quite intentional and played up more and more starting from series 3. By series 6 they've kissed on screen. They've also discussed it outside the show.
- Teen Wolf:
- Stiles is very interested in whether or not he's attractive to gay guys, and asks both Scott and Danny whether they find him attractive. And Derek Hale does not care for anyone's personal boundaries.
- Scott pins Danny down and smells him during lacrosse practice, Derek really enjoys pinning Stiles to walls, and the males in this series are just really really touchy-feely. Scott seems utterly unfazed by Stiles coming in his window, hanging off his roof, etc.
Stiles: (to Scott) Do you enjoy hurting me? - Xena: Warrior Princess has the famous, beloved relationship between Xena and Gabrielle, which had everything (including multiple on-screen kisses) short of explicit confirmation that they were a couple. The writers proceeded to then ramp up the subtext even further in the final seasons.
Music
- Tears for Fears: Roland Orzabal wrote the lyrics for "When in Love with a Blind Man" (which is about unrequited love for a man who's oblivious to one's romantic feelings), and Curt Smith is the lead vocalist on the song, so this strongly implies that the character who's pining for a (presumably straight) guy he can't have is male, and thus he would be gay or bisexual. note
- Eminem often plays with his reputation for homophobia by turning it into homoeroticism:
- Eminem's Depraved Bisexual character, Ken Kaniff, is mostly there to do parodies of Eminem's singles turned into nonsense about cocks and dicks, but he also tends to be responsible for the most sexual moments on Eminem's records. Despite his homophobia, Slim doesn't seem to be bothered by Ken being an Abhorrent Admirer, instead calling him his "friend" and being amused by his intrusions. Em has played Ken on stage while touring, miming sex acts on a pair of blow up dolls dressed like Insane Clown Posse... who then call Eminem's name, upsetting Ken.
- In "Stan", Stan wants to "be together" with Slim Shady, but it's left ambiguous as to whether this is in a sexual, romantic or just Heterosexual Life-Partners way. Marshall, in his verse, seems to be creeped out by it, but it's also left up to interpretation whether it's due to Marshall being homophobic, having Incompatible Orientation, or just being repulsed by Stan's overinvestment and Ax-Crazy personality. Some fans consider the Silly Love Song sample to represent the idea that if Stan and Marshall ever did get together, their relationship would be as happy as the one in the Sampled Up "Thank You". The version of "Stan" performed with Elton John seems to lend weight to the queer reading, with Elton decorating the track with a romantic piano part which puts the emphasis on Stan and Marshall as Star-Crossed Lovers, rather than a Murder Ballad. In several later songs, Eminem has used Stan's name when he's needed talk about how even men want him, or needed a boyfriend for a punchline.
- Several of Eminem's mid-2000s songs imply he's an Armored Closet Gay, like "Rain Man" ending in him asking Dre if it's gay to "play putt-putt golf with a friend", before asking him about an escalating list of increasingly contrived homoerotic fantasies. In "FACK" he panics when a girl puts a finger in his ass, repeating, "I'm not gay, I like boobs, boobs..."
- Eminem also loves to do Faux Yay with Dr. Dre. In "My Dad's Gone Crazy", he comes out of the closet - "all this time, me and Dre have been fucking with hats off". He hits on Dre in "Just Lose It" and tries to backpedal, blaming it on Beer Goggles.
- In live performances with D12, Eminem used to do stage gay stuff with Bizarre, like caressing his belly and massaging his nipples.
- "My Darling" combines this with Screw Yourself for a weird Solo Duet in which Slim Shady sings to Marshall Mathers that he's his darling, they're meant to be together, and that Slim wants Marshall's soul, mind, heart and body. The song ends with Marshall embracing Slim as the chainsaw sounds in the background reach a fever pitch.
- The Diss Track "Killshot" is based on the idea that Machine Gun Kelly is so obsessed with Eminem that he's like Stan from "Stan", and can't rap because his mouth is (metaphorically) full of Eminem's cock. However, he never tells Kelly to get the cock out of his mouth, instead telling him (at the end) to leave it in there.
Mythology
- Gilgamesh and Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh is the Ur(uk) example.
Professional Wrestling
- The relationship between Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins has had a weird hybrid-cross of this and Foe Romance Subtext that has dated back to when they first met (and had their first feud) in FCW. Throughout their days in The Shield, the closeness between Ambrose and Rollins was constantly remarked on, to the point that the two acted more like a tag team than former tag team champions Rollins and Reigns. So, it's hardly a surprise when that Ambrose took Rollins' betrayal harder than Reigns did, spawning a blood feud that would span the better part of the next two years and included near obsessive hatred of one another and even an Anguished Declaration of Love. Tensions cooled in 2016, mainly because Rollins spent half the year out with an injury and then he and Ambrose were put on separate shows during the Brand Extension — only to flare up in 2017 after Ambrose was traded back to RAW. Due to both running afoul of the Miztourage, Ambrose and Rollins found themselves in an uneasy, on-and-off Teeth-Clenched Teamwork relationship, where Rollins, having made a Heel–Face Turn in the interim of their separation, tried to make amends with Ambrose, only to be rejected. Except, Ambrose was conflicted about the entire situation and still ended up helping Rollins out regardless. What followed was weeks of (b)romantic Will They or Won't They?, in which the two men constantly teased whether or not they would bury the hatchet and reunite as a team, comprised of endless back-and-forth teaming up, bickering and one point even brawling. During the segment where they finally made up, the subtext had become so blatant that even male wrestling fans were seriously starting to wonder if they were going to screw or not.
Radio
- Hello Cheeky took great delight in this trope...which is a bit strange, since two of the four main characters were married.
Barry: Oh, Denis, don't get upset. I do love you when you're angry...but don't get upset.
- Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me's 09/05/15 show parodied this (mocking Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis) when Peter Sagal said he and Bill Kurtis were going to go down to the county courthouse to get married, and then have the wedding reception at the county jail. (They're both straight in real life.)
Theatre
- A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder includes an entire song between Henry and Monty, "Better With A Man," full of wordplay and visual innuendo that deliberately evokes this.
'''When a fellow needs a little helping hand/ Who'll be there? It's almost guaranteed/ No one else could ever really understand/ Only another man knows what you need/ And when a man has fallen down upon his knees/ In such a moment who'd be better than/ Someone who's self-controlled/ Someone who's strong and bold/ Someone as good as gold/ It's better with a man.
- In Hamilton, John Laurens and Alexander Hamilton are written as unusually attracted to each other, in reference to historical suspicion that they had some type of sexual relationship.
Video Games
- Advanced V.G. II: In the second story mode cutscene, Tamao fantasizes about holding hands with her role model, the Player Character, Yuka Takeuchi... while they're naked; complete with Love Bubbles and a flowery background. Then gushes and giggles about it (seen from 0:27-1:00).
- Geldoblame from Baten Kaitos Origins, from his dress and mannerisms to his clear obsession with Quaster Verus (including keeping a scrapbook dedicated to the man) hints pretty strongly that Geldoblame is into the guy. When it's revealed Verus is the Big Bad and he pulls a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness, this exchange strongly implies there was even a mutual relationship between them at one point:
Geldoblame: You're going to abandon me, sir? But I've done everything for you!Verus: You were beautiful once, but not anymore. Old toys are a waste of space. What else would I do but throw you away?
- Batman: The Telltale Series: From the game's second season we have John Doe, The 'Verse's equivalent of The Joker, who though non-malicious until Chapter 5 at least, shares the Homoerotic Subtext between him and Batman with his other counterparts. There is at one point an instance of them sharing an Indirect Kiss when John snatches a smoothie Bruce is drinking and starts drinking it instead. He also thinks Bruce is "very handsome". Kent Mudle, the game's director, has confirmed John was written as bi, to the surprise of no one who played the game.
- Jin Kisaragi of BlazBlue has a disturbing fixation upon his older brother, Ragna the Bloodedge. On the one hand, Word of God has it that Jin is straight, in love with Tsubaki Yayoi and cannot conceive how his feelings for his brother could ever be interpreted by others as romantic in nature. On the other hand, the guys over at Arc System Works are also having WAAAYYY too much fun abusing Ragna's Butt-Monkey status by upping the subtext to nigh-canonical levels.
- In Born of Bread, the final cutscene of Yagi's personal quest has strong romantic undertones with Kakoi: Kakoi tells Yagi that he's spent all his time looking for something special when the one he needed was right in front of him all along, he tells Yagi he needs him, and he promises to wait for Yagi to finish his quest... But he's talking about opening a dojo with him. It nonetheless is treated like an Anguished Declaration of Love. Given that Yagi is a Stock Shōnen Hero Genre Refugee, and Kakoi is a straight-up Sasuke expy, it's one big parody of the Ho Yay-laden nature of many shonen hero/rival relationships. Further cementing its parody status is the fact that their mentors are an actual gay married couple; in other words, if the game was going to make it text, it would have.
- Death Stranding: Sam and Deadman have a shower scene together. They are fully clothed, and it's done so they can exchange top secret information without being recorded (the shower stall is the only place without cameras), but the lenghts they go to to make anyone potentially observing them believe they are actually having sex is almost excessive: Deadman invites Sam into the shower stall, only to then pin him there with his arm and press his face as close to Sam's as possible. In one of the later shots, we can see that Sam was actually briefly pressed chest first into the wall, facing away from Deadman. They keep standing incredibly close to eachother, even when the walls of the stall go dark and it's almost impossible that someone can see them. Sam is afraid of touch, so he keeps squirming and bashfully averting his face from Deadman.
- In Disgaea 4, Fenrich is possessive enough of Valvatorez that Fuka wonders if he's gay for the vampire in question. He never says he isn't. This only increases with the Tyrant Valvetorz Flashback DLC.
- Final Fantasy:
- In the original Final Fantasy VII, Cloud and Barret have a sort of Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them frenemy relationship that occasionally shows moments of sincere affection - occasionally too sincere, as the developers occasionally have fun making them flirt for comic effect. Later Final Fantasy VII material has focused much more on the erotic elements of the relationship between Cloud and Sephiroth, who fits comfortably in the trope of the sexually threatening Gothic villain.
- In Final Fantasy XIII, Fang and Vanille live and die for each other, getting to eventually spend the rest of their lives together in the ending. Fang was originally intended to be a male character who would be Vanille's love interest, but she was changed to female in development without removing the romantic elements. However, the game's lack of focus on romantic involvement makes this mostly subtextual.
- The Cast Full of Pretty Boys of Final Fantasy XV was played up like this in the marketing, and the characters break the fourth wall to tease each other about this on occasion. However, the biggest example is Ignis, who is almost certainly gay, though nothing has ever been confirmed. In Episode Ignis, Ignis is fascinated by Noctis, has Gaussian Girl flashbacks about almost holding his hand, is willing to burn his own soul to death in order to protect Noct, and the other characters tease him about his lack of interest in Ardyn in such a way that implies that the issue isn't that Ardyn is male. Some official Valentine's Day promo art depicted Ignis' Valentine as (the male) Ravus.
- In Grand Theft Auto V, Michael and Trevor's relationship borders on this. Throw in Rule of Funny and you get gems like:
Michael: So you're taking me on a date, and you forgot your car, T?
- Kingdom Hearts:
- While the series has pitted Kairi as the object of Sora's affections, he and Riku seem to have a type of "chemistry" of their own.
- Then there's Roxas and Axel; whose overwhelming bromance is a major part of their characters.
- Although Mass Effect has several canon same-gender romance options, Shepard can get extremely close to most of the characters s/he can romance (and a few s/he can't) regardless of gender, their interactions playing out much the same way even if an explicit romance isn't an option, especially Ashley, Kaidan, Garrus, Tali, and Miranda. Some of this has to do with cut content; Ashley and Kaidan were originally planned to be romance options regardless of Shepard's gender in Mass Effect, and a romance route for Tali and FemShep was scrapped for Mass Effect 2, the lingering effects of which can still be seen (Kaidan at least became a romance option for MaleShep as well as FemShep in Mass Effect 3).
- Metal Gear:
- Snake and Otacon, starting in Metal Gear Solid and continuing in every game set after, fall into every romance setup and couple cliche in the book, ranging from Otacon tentatively asking Snake "Do you think love can bloom on the battlefield?" to them raising a daughter together in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, forming the most enduring, longest lasting relationship in the series.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater increasingly plays up Ocelot's obsession with Big Boss as falling into Stalker with a Crush territory, including Volgin commenting on how he "caught [Ocelot's] eye". Later games reveal that Ocelot devoted decades of his life solely to preserve Big Boss's legacy. Word of God eventually confirms that Ocelot is indeed in love with him, but the games themselves are "only" subtext.
- Poor Raiden has a habit of picking up Rivals who love being aggressively sexual towards him. Vamp spends much of his screentime in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and MGS4 flirting with Raiden, with one of their fights in the latter being more erotic than some actual sex scenes. Meanwhile, Sam in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance talks about unlocking Raiden's Blood Knight tendencies like it's some sort of sexual awakening, and has Boss Banter lines that wouldn't be out of place in a porno ("Why that's very good. Yes, I like that." "Pretty boy!" "Show me a good time, Jack!")
- Kaz and Snake are not officially any sort of item, but Hideo Kojima had to fight for them to have extended Almost Kiss shots, and they can date in a semi-canon bonus mission. There was also a tie-in audio drama which contained a very graphic naked fight between them, which has to be taken in context with the male/male romance audio dramas that are a common hobby in Japan.
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker: Party member Linzi is not a romance option for either gender Player Character and she never outright states that she is gay. However, from the dialogues it is clear that she harbors a crush on Valerie, with her writing constantly bringing up her heavenly beauty (doomed to failure if she'd tried to pursue it, since Valerie is straight). She also becomes flustered around Annamede Belavarah if taken along to the Rushlight Tournament, to a degree that goes way beyond being simply starstruck, and is stated to have failed her exams because of her presence prior to the game's start. She also flirts with Octavia in Campside banters, and is offered to join a threesome with her, but ends up too flustered to accept. Linzi's writer confirmed during a Q&A session that she was intentionally written as a lesbian.
- Rabi-Ribi: Rita and Saya have a Senpai/Kōhai relationship (with Rita being the sempai), and Saya is shown to be more than a little fond of her. Unfortunately, Saya also has a case of Cannot Spit It Out.
- Leon Powalski from Star Fox has a dialog with Panther when Wolf performs a secret taunt in the Lylat Cruise stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This gives a rather interesting view to the character.
Panther: A skirmish... Just the place for a bunch of space drifters like ourselves.
Leon: Star Wolf is really giving it his all out there. I'm more than a bit envious of him. Those razor-sharp claws. Those keen fangs. He moves wildly and fights with the spirit of a warrior possessed! Any prey he sets his eye on is doomed to be shredded to pieces!
Panther: Umm... Leon? Are you feeling all right?
Leon: Yes, of course! Fine! Just fine. Haa ha haaaaa ha haaahaaa...
Panther: Set me straight here Leon. Are you envious of the shred-DER or the shred-DEE? - Star Ocean: Till the End of Time vaguely implies that Nel and Clair may be an item. Clair often concerns herself with Nel's safety, such as when Nel went to the Kirlsa Facility on her own in order to rescue her two subordinates, Tynave and Farleen, and when she returns with them, Clair and Nel share a prolonged embrace (seen at 4:00-4:20). The manga version of the scene isn't as subtle; when they hug this time, they're shown blushing and staring into each other's eyes, while Fayt and Cliff watch in the background, until Cliff finally has to clear his throat to break them up.
- Tales of Zestiria : Sorey and Mikleo. Calling it subtext would be an understatement, Theres enough examples to fill out this entire page; including scenes such as Sorey staring at Mikleo in the bathing room while surrounding women are in their bikinis and almost every argument they get in is basically a lover's quarrel. Official art from the game even puts the two side by side in a manner suspiciously similar to how a yaoi fanific cover page would. Even Sorey's voice actor has gone on record supporting the ship. At this point it's basically all but confirmed.
- Xenogears:
- Citan and Fei. Like the example below, calling it subtext would be an understatement, even if both have canon heterosexual partners. How about that dialogue mention of their sharing baths? Not enough? In one scene, they share a bed with some very suggestive Double Entendre about being "prepared" that could be for the battle ahead... or for sex. Still not enough? Citan is very jealous of anyone he thinks Fei has slept with - from the doctor in Nocturne/Nortune he replaced to Elly herself. Still not enough? Fei's alter Id tells Citan he likes him - which is something from a being that only knows hatred and violence as a language.
- Rico and Hammer. Although it is an abusive relationship, their interactions are pretty much "supertext."
- A rejected concept for the game included the idea of the Elements bonding through sex with each other. Seeing as the first round was all men and the second is all female except for one man...
- It's heavily implied that Citan as Hyuga and Sigurd were a couple in Jugend, and one of the creators once drew official art of them as a couple.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- Shu Takumi is on record as saying that he didn't intend Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth's relationship to be read as romantic, but when he realized how popular Wrightworth was in the fandom, he started to include some intentional romantic subtext in their scenes.
- The massive, massive levels of Ho Yay aside, there's Metis Cykes and Aura Blackquill. Nothing comes of it because Metis is a Posthumous Character, but the robots they worked on together call them both "mommy", and Aura is absolutely hellbent on avenging Metis's death. And when Aura talks about the incident in court, we get this exchange:
Aura: You know exactly how I felt about her! Her respect as a coworker isn't all that I wanted!The Judge: Hmmm... then what did you want from her?Phoenix: ...Did you really just go there, your honor? - Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: The relationship between Mondo Oowada and Kiyotaka Ishimaru, after they bond over a sauna endurance contest and their mutual hot-bloodedness. They become close, openly affectionate with each other, and extoll their 'manly bond'. And when they're asked if they realize what that sounds like, the answer is 'yes, but we don't care'. It ends horribly when Mondo becomes the second culprit and is executed, utterly breaking Ishimaru.
- Ikemen Sengoku:
- Hideyoshi's Undying Loyalty to his lord Nobunaga is so intense that it causes the female main character to mistakenly believe that he's in love with Nobunaga instead of her. It really doesn't help that Hideyoshi phrased his loyalty to Nobunaga as "giving my heart and body to him", or that even after he and the main character get together on his route, she acknowledges that she still has to share him with Nobunaga and confesses to occasionally feeling jealous of how important Nobunaga is to him.
- It's not just Nobunaga that Hideyoshi gets homoerotic subtext with, either; his Vitriolic Best Buds relationship with Mitsuhide is reminiscent enough of Belligerent Sexual Tension that on one route when they're making up after a bitter fight, the main character thinks while watching them, "Come on, you two, kiss already." And then there's this exchange between them on Mitsuhide's route:
Hideyoshi: I'm going to figure out what's inside your heart if I have to cut it out of your damn chest.
Mitsuhide: ...My, how romantic. - Katawa Shoujo is rife with this in Shizune's, Lilly's and Hanako's routes, to the point of Threesome Subtext. Early on Shizune and Misha are established as almost literally attached at the hip before the reveal that Misha really is in love with Shizune, while Lilly and Hanako have the closest, caring, most emotional relationship out of anyone in the cast. Even if he's currently dating one of them, Hisao regularly acknowledges that the girls have a bond that he will likely never understand.
- Nasuverse:
- Issei and Shirou in Fate/stay night. Shirou notices occasionally and is kind of bothered, though Issei seems oblivious as to how his behavior appears. As of Fate/hollow ataraxia, even the other students at their school notice it, mentally including Issei as part of the harem surrounding Shirou.
- In Fate/hollow ataraxia, the "secret-flower-garden-o-meter" goes off the scale when Rider starts playing with Rin's hair.
- While Fate/Zero proper is quiet on the homoerotic tension between some of the Masters and their Servants, the Einzbern Consultation Room shorts are anything but.
Zecchan: The fanfic for those twonote is going to be so hot. - Charlotte and Mary in Shikkoku no Sharnoth. The series is extremely fond of highly ambiguous writing and portraying non sexual things in a sexual manner, so Charlotte's yandere devotion to Mary is probably not romantic. But damn is it hard not read it that way.
- In Spirit Hunter: NG, Akira's relationship with the female idol Kaoru, which features subtle Ship Tease and clear interest on Kaoru's end, is reflected in his equally important relationship with his Childhood Friend Seiji. Anything that Akira does with Kaoru, he can do with Seiji - go along on a pseudo-date, give them a ride on his bike, listen to them sing, or get a special ending with them. Kakuya is revealed to be madly in love with Akira, and is jealous of both Kaoru and Seiji for being closer to Akira than she is - in the Normal End, she can possess either one of them in her attempt to violently romance Akira. They even bicker Like an Old Married Couple, with Kaoru jokingly calling them 'lovebirds' because of it. All that said, Seiji is more attracted to Akira's aunt, while Akira doesn't show much interest in romance at all.
- In Sunrider, the Ambiguously Bi Icari Isidolde quickly forms a close if vitriolic friendship with the Ambiguously Gay Kryska Stares, causing other members of the crew to speculate that their relationship isn’t strictly platonic. Kryska, being a professional soldier, neither confirms nor denies the idea that they’re a couple; Icari, being a Type-A Tsundere, denies it vociferously, much like she denies her obvious attraction to Kayto Shields.
Webcomics
- Fans interpretation of Charizard and Clefable's relationship in 151 Hidden Depths.
- Girl Genius: The many moments of subtext between Gil and Tarvek while the later is being rescued from an assassination attempt by the former and their shared love interest Agatha are lampshaded by a random attacking Spark, "The heir to the empire has run off with the storm king! Everywhere is chaos!"
- Black and White from Grey is..., their relationship has a lot of this. They bicker like a married couple and have no problem showing affection for each other.
- Best Friends Akila and Katrina get quite a bit of this in The Noordegraaf Files For one, they share a room, have been known to sleep together, and Blush like crazy when asked about each other's feelings. Akila has since been confirmed be attracted to Kat by Word of God. On the other side, Katrina claims "I see [Akila] as a sister." - accompanied with an image cuddling topless with her in - panel. Riiiight...
- The Order of the Stick:
- A Discussed Trope. When Roy and Belkar are enlisted as gladiators, the warden states that the act of defending a weaker prisoner from stronger ones will create a friendship with strong homosexual overtones that will not be fully explored.
- Strip #723 is filled with a lot of deliberate homoerotic innuendo. (Belkar and Roy are trying to cover for the fact that they recognize Tarquin because he's Elan's dad.)
Tarquin: What? Do I have something on my face?
Roy: No, uh, no... It's just— uh— you look like—
Belkar: You look like a really handsome man, and hanging out with these sweaty gladiators has turned my friend and me totally gay. - Vinnie and Rabbit from Skins. They bicker constantly and argue Like an Old Married Couple.
- Ja Wangnan and Nya Nia from Tower of God. Ja keeps commenting on how feminine Nia looks, has quite a few scenes with him, they share a roomnote and Nia's number is saved under "My Beloved Nia~♥♥". Subtle. Ja Wangnan does not take his death well, which in a society where you can die at any time and already seen countless deaths, means quite abit.
- Binary Stars: While it isn't explicit, Half-Human Hybrid Kass takes every opportunity to be near Joana, often with a blush on her face.
- The Manor's Prize: While The Chariot and The Hanged Man butt heads at the start, their conflict involves a good deal of blushing. Hanged Man accuses Chariot of feeling her up on occasions, and also refers to Chariot as "My daring prince."
Web Original
- Demo Reel has Donnie, who despite being married gets an entire episode's worth of focus on his heavily implied affairs with two male internet reviewers, titled appropriately enough, Lost in Translation: Bromance Version. He also gets tons of Ship Tease with the rest of the cast, especially Karl, Tacoma and Rebecca.
- In the Tom Cruise Pitch Meeting, the producer suggests he is willing to start a relationship with Tom Cruise to advance his career.
Western Animation
- Adventure Time:
- Lemongrab and his clone, Lemongrab 2. They live together, have babies together, nuzzle when naked, and even hug when naked. They act like a married couple, and Princess Bubblegum said she had created Lemongrab 2 for Lemongrab "to be with," in a rather suggestive voice. And then in "Too Old" Lemongrab eats Lemongrab 2.
- Bubblegum and Marceline have all the signs of ex-girlfriends who had a nasty break-up but still want to get back together, starting in "What Was Missing" and expanded on in "Sky Witch", the comics, and Marceline and the Scream Queens. Word of God is that they did use to date, but the threat of Moral Guardians means this will likely never be acknowledged in the show. Spoiler alert: It finally got acknowledged during the series finale.
- American Dad!:
- Steve and Snot are often hinted towards may or may not be a couple.
- Parodied in an episode where Steve and his friends find a script for The Fast and the Furious next movie. The movie basically crosses into pornography as most of the male cast goes out of its way to either make out with each other or have on-screen sex. In order to get the movie made, they decide edit out the content and deliver to the producers, only to find out the producers actually expect the gay stuff in it, as they shoot the movie with it and edit out the outright sex and make outs in order to keep the subtext in those movies. Except on France, on France they show the whole thing.
- As Told by Ginger:
- Courtney Grippling inexplicably takes an interest in Ginger and constantly going out of her way to be her friend - with a few episode plots paralleling the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
- Courtney's Best Friend Miranda also gets incredibly jealous at her interest in Ginger, making the situation look like adultery. Most of Miranda's antagonising of Ginger is usually out of jealousy.
- Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy from Batman: The Animated Series. In the episode where their partnership was formed, they walk around Ivy's secluded trailer in nothing but dress shirts and underwear and constantly talk about how men are worthless, and in later episodes they share an apartment and continue to walk around in rather skimpy clothing (when Harley is not with the Joker). A later episode has the (scantily-clad) Ivy pushing the (scantily-clad) Harley down onto their hotel room's (single) bed with a pillow, at which point the scene abruptly ends. Word of God is that Harley and Ivy are indeed in such a relationship, off and on.
- Dragons: Riders of Berk: Snotlout has a huge and blatant crush on the hypnotized Fishlegs' 'Thor Bonecrusher' persona, who is basically the ultimate viking. Astrid even flat-out states he's fallen in love with Fishlegs, and after Fishlegs breaks out of his hypnosis, Snotlout gives him a kiss on the cheek, claims 'Thor' broke his heart, and then flies off on Hookfang in tears.
- Duck Dodgers played for laughs with Marvin the Martian to Daffy "Wait, wait! You can't run off with her, you're MY arch enemy" made to sound very much like they're in a relationship, compounded with his claim "But Dodgers, you can't leave me like this, those other enemies meant nothing to me!"
- In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Lyra and Bon Bon were increasingly depicted as if they were a couple in response to the duo effectively being the fandom's One True Pairing, to the point that it was parodied in Slice of Life with the "marital" spat between the two with so much emphasis being put on them being best friends that it was obviously on purpose to tease the fans. It steadily escalated from there with the two having heart iris-outs, holding hands, exchanging gifts on the show's equivalent to Valentines Day, and going on dates, all the while with Word of God being adamant that they weren't lovers. The final episode however confirmed that yes, they actually are a couple, featuring both a marriage proposal in one episode and a photo of their wedding in another. Whether the writers flip-flopped on the issue or were setting up the twist all along is anyone's guess.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- Buford and Baljeet, up to having an episode about them titled "Bully Bromance Breakup", complete with breakup song.
- Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus constantly have their Friendly Enemy status played like a dysfunctional couple, the epitome of which was Doof having an "affair" with another secret agent, Peter the Panda. One episode had Peter's nemesis try and get revenge on Dr. D. for the incident, acting like a jealous boyfriend. Doof even gives him relationship advice.
- The shorts featuring Ace and Gary (aka "The Ambiguously Gay Duo") from Saturday Night Live were riddled with this, and lampshaded constantly by everyone who saw them in action.
- The Simpsons:
- Lenny and Carl. There have been a few jokes about this, of course.
Lenny: [seeing Homer and Marge kissing] Remember when we used to kiss like that... with our respective girlfriends?- Later season did the same for Wiggum and Lou. Wiggum is usually the overly emotional wife/girlfriend.
Wiggum: Lou, you can't leave the force! I can change!
Lou: I just think there's more money in private security.
Wiggum: What I'm hearing is I'm too fat! [Eats a sundae between sobs]- One episode brought Chief Wiggum and Homer together. There was a falling out between them when Wiggum became too needy but they kind of make up by the end.
- While Smithers would obviously prefer his relationship with Mr. Burns to be something different, the show often offered such jokes about their relationship earlier on.
- One episode had Apu and Snake seeing a therapist, acting like a married couple:
Apu: He used to rob me 2-3 times a week. Now, I'm lucky if I get it once a month.
Snake: He never initiates it. I have to do all the work. He just stands there...
Therapist: Now, now, don't talk through him. Talk to him.
Snake: (sighs) Apu, sometimes when I rob you, it's like you're not even there.
Apu: That is because you are robbing my brother Sanjay!
Snake: Dude, I didn't know...
Apu: Oh, just shut up! - South Park has many jokes concerning Stan and Kyle's deep friendship. And even when it's not part of a joke, a lot of their deeper moments simply reek of Ho Yay.
- Steven Universe has this with nearly every combination of the gems, helped along by there being an actual lesbian couple (Ruby and Sapphire) and Gem fusion being an allegory for relationships (not necessarily romantic, but easily interpretable as such).
- Aside from Pearl and Garnet acting like Steven's mothers (including arguing about parenting strategies), Pearl is near-constantly sidling up to, latching on to, or clinging to Garnet, and is desperate to fuse with her; just a demonstration of the dance is enough for Pearl to throw her head back with her mouth open and blushing. When they do fuse in Season 2, they blatantly flirt and have a dance that's almost erotic, and it results in a multi-episode arc about how much they love being together, but because Pearl is too dependent she lies to get closer to Garnet, who is furious and hurt at the betrayal. Despite all this, Garnet makes it clear she has no interest in a romantic relationship, since she already is a romantic relationship.
- Pearl and Amethyst have a dynamic near-identical to every Belligerent Sexual Tension couple out there. An Odd Couple that couldn't be more different, they frequently get into arguments over the tiniest things and get on each others' nerves constantly, but in serious or intense situations they prove that they truly, deeply care for the other and can be amazingly supportive and caring when they put aside their differences, most directly shown in "On the Run".
- Lapis and Jasper fusing into Malachite is an extended metaphor for a toxic relationship, literally pulling each other down and endlessly hurting the other with their anger and pain while still unable to separate, until they're both warped into someone worse. Then there's "Alone at Sea", which plays this as creepily and blatantly as possible with the abusive treatment. Lapis hates Jasper and frequently tells Steven she doesn't deserve to be happy and is a terrible person while admitting she misses Jasper. Meanwhile, Jasper has been stalking Lapis across the ocean looking for her, begging and intimidating her into fusing as Malachite again, complete with saying word-for-word "it'll be different this time! I've changed, you've changed me!" while having body language painfully accurate of husbands/wives about to hurt a spouse. While both have done terrible things to each other, Lapis was the first to be forced into making the fusion, and admits she never wants to go back to the way they were.
- In-Universe, Peridot perceives this as existing between characters Pierre and Percy in the show Camp Pining Hearts.
Peridot: Pierre and Percy present the strongest battle formation. They'd destroy the camp!
Steven: You got all that from one episode?
Peridot: It's subtext, Steven.
- In the pilot episode of The Venture Bros., Billy and Pete talk about how Doc has takes big, strong bodyguard Brock with him everywhere. Might be a case of Early-Installment Weirdness, since Doc and Brock's relationship wasn't exactly homoerotic. Pete and Billy, on the other hand...
- The Doc/Brock subtext was a reference to a perceived Benton/Race subtext in the original Jonny Quest cartoon, which was spoofed in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law too.
- Dean's naivite also led him to describe Dermott as Hank's "boyfriend", causing Trianna to say Hank's finally out. Made even creepier by the revelation that Hank and Dermott are half-brother, and that Hank slept with Dermott's mother.
