Tropes that result in or occur during a situation wherein one loves another who doesn't return the feelings.
Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: A common victim of unrequited love is someone regarded as disgusting by the recipient of their love.
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: A character's feelings fade after their love interest is gone for a long time.
- All Love Is Unrequited: No romantic affections are returned.
- Attractiveness Isolation: When someone who is otherwise attractive has trouble getting a date due to potential suitors believing that person won't want to return their affections.
- Balanced Harem: Every haremette has a chance with The Hero, but only one is likely to win him.
- Celibate Hero: A common magnet of unrequited love is someone who wants nothing to do with romance.
- Chaste Hero: A common magnet of unrequited love is someone who can't even comprehend love and sexuality.
- Childhood Friend Romance: A character has a crush on someone they've known since childhood, but the recipient of the crush only likes them as a friend.
- Commitment Issues: Character doesn't want to settle down into a relationship, so any potential suitors aren't likely to win their affections.
- Competing with a Corpse: Someone is still hung up on a deceased loved one and can't move on.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: They initially don't return someone's love, but come around after a while.
- Did Not Get the Girl: The end result of unrequited love is not hooking up with that person.
- Disposable Fiancé: The Romantic False Lead who loses their partner's affections.
- Dogged Nice Guy: He/she just can't take a hint that the recipient of their love is just not interested.
- Everything but the Girl: They can achieve or gain everything they want with the exception of their love interest's affections.
- False Soulmate: Sometimes they're revealed to be this because they don't return a character's love.
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: A character's first relationship ended badly and now they have trouble returning other people's affections.
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: The character may be putting off or resisting the divorce because they still love their spouse.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: A character only realizes they love someone after they get together with a different person.
- Green-Eyed Monster: A victim of unrequited love gets enraged at seeing the object of their affection with someone else.
- Hanahaki Disease: A terminal disease where someone vomits flowers because of unrequited love.
- Heartbroken Badass: Even badasses can be victims of unrequited love.
- Hopeless Suitor: They never had a chance of getting their feelings returned.
- If I Can't Have You…: Commonly said when you're not good with being rejected by someone you love.
- Ignored Enamored Underling: A character loves the person they work under, but they don't love them back.
- Incest-ant Admirer: Similar to Abhorrent Admirer, but said admirer is related to the object of their affections.
- Incompatible Orientation: Differing sexual orientation prevents romantic affections from being returned.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: Love is not returned because the word "love" makes the recipient uncomfortable.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A more positive outcome of unrequited love is when a character is willing to let the object of their affections go be with the one they really love.
- Jealous Romantic Witness: A character watches their Love Interest being romantic with their rival suitor.
- Just Friends: The recipient of an unrequited crush only likes the other person as a friend.
- Love Cannot Overcome: The Hero's adventurous lifestyle scares their Love Interest away from returning their feelings.
- Love Hungry: Character desperate for love goes out of their way to make their unrequited crush love them.
- Love Martyr: The object of their affections not only doesn't return their feelings, but actively treats them like crap yet they willingly put up with their abuse because they love them.
- Love Triangle: Two people like the same person, only one is liable to win this.
- Love Will Lead You Back: Character pines after someone who left them and may never come back to them.
- Loves Me Not: Someone with an unrequited crush plucks something to determine if they have a chance with the object of their affections.
- Loving a Shadow: They only love the idea of a person rather than the person themselves.
- Mad Love: The one who suffers unrequited love is too insane to take a hint that their crush doesn't love them.
- Mixtape of Love: Mixtapes can be a bad way to show your affection for someone.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: In extreme cases, a character might try to bump off their love rival.
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Male characters don't return the feelings of women who actively pursue them.
- Not Good with Rejection: Not getting romantic affections returned can cause the victim to turn evil or off themself (or their love interest. Or both).
- Oblivious to Love: A character's love interest doesn't even realize they have romantic feelings for them.
- The Obstructive Love Interest: The Love Interest who constantly rejects someone crushing on them due to misinterpreting their behavior.
- Patient Childhood Love Interest: If they're unlucky, their friend may never return or even notice their affections.
- Peerless Love Interest: Usually considered to be way out of their league (possibly with an added dose of Loving a Shadow).
- Pining After Protagonist's Parent: One of The Hero's parents has an unrequited suitor.
- Prince Charming Wannabe: He thinks he's a woman's perfect guy, she disagrees.
- Rejected Marriage Proposal: Often because the one being proposed to doesn't return the proposer's feelings.
- Rejection Affection: Continuing to chase after an unrequited crush no matter how often they reject you.
- Romantic Runner-Up: They could've been The Hero's main Love Interest, but ultimately, they never get any feelings returned.
- Runaway Bride: The bride decides she doesn't actually want to get married on the day of the wedding.
- Runaway Fiancé: A character accepts a marriage proposal but then decides to run off before the big day.
- Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: They consider themself to be someone's Love Interest, but the other person disagrees.
- Ship Sinking: Something happens in the story that prevents a couple from ever getting together, even if one of them has feelings for the other.
- Sigh of Love: Sighing longingly when in the presence of a Love Interest that you know you can't have.
- Sleeps with Everyone but You: A promiscuous character won't have sex with this person despite being willing to shag just about everyone else.
- Spurned into Suicide: A person kills themself when their Love Interest won't return their feelings.
- Stalker with a Crush: A common unrequited love victim is the character who creeps out the recipient of their affections by stalking them.
- Starboarding: Romantic pairings that are one-sided.
- Stringing the Hopeless Suitor Along: A Hopeless Suitor is trying to move on, but the one they love won't let them. But the person still doesn't want the suitor.
- Supporting Harem: The supporting cast of a Harem Genre story who have one-sided crushes on one of the leads.
- Torch Song: Sentimental ballads often sung about unrequited love, thus "holding the torch" for the one who doesn't love them back. Often sung by female characters.
- Twice Shy: Two characters with mutual love are both too shy to openly return the other's feelings.
- Unbalanced By Rival's Kid: The child of an unrequited crush and a love rival causes distress for a character.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: A Childhood Friend Romance never happens between the Childhood Friends no matter how much one of them would want it to.
- Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Continuing to love someone you can't have.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: A crush is not returned so the crusher gets over it, only for the crushee to develop feelings for the former.
- Unrequited Tragic Maiden: She's hopelessly in love with a man she can never be with.
- Unwanted Harem: When one character is the love interest for multiple people and would rather not be.
- Unwanted Spouse: A character's whose spouse doesn't want to be married to them (can be a mutual feeling but not always).
- Villainous Crush: Evil character crushes on The Hero, naturally they don't return their feelings.
- Villainesses Want Heroes: Female villain has a one-sided crush on The Hero.
- Woman Scorned: Her Love Interest doesn't return her feelings, and now she's vengeful about it.
- Yandere: A common victim of unrequited love who tries to murder anyone they see as a threat to their love.
- You Never Did That for Me: Realizing that your crush doesn't love you by seeing how they treat others compared to you.
- You're Not My Type: Not returning someone's affections because that person doesn't fit your ideal mold.
