Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading in Literature.
- The Belgariad: David Eddings seems absolutely incapable of writing a sibling relationship without getting a bit eyebrow-raisingly emotionally intense — Polgara and Beldaran in the early parts of Polgara The Sorceress, especially, read rather more twincestuous than not. Although, how much of this is David and how much can be attributed to his co-writer and wife, Leigh Eddings, is really anyone's guess.
- In the third installment of The Book of the Named, Thakur thinks multiple times how unconventionally beautiful Newt is. She turns out to be his long-lost niece, which was obvious to the readers. There was probably a better way for Clare Bell to hint at their connection.
- Bridge to Terabithia is about a 10-year old boy named Jess who becomes best friends with a girl named Leslie. The book never suggests their relationship is more-than-platonic, but it's very easy for readers to view a Puppy Love scenario going on between the two. They spend most of their time with one another and have a close, kindered bond. Near the end, Leslie drowns in a river. Jess' reaction to this is a lot like a Belated Love Epiphany. The 2007 film rolls with the romantic elements of their friendship.
- A Court of Thorns and Roses:
- Mor and Cassian are intended to be Like Brother and Sister, but some of their interactions make it seem more like they're romantically/sexually attracted to each other. For starters, Mor lost her virginity to Cassian; although Mor says she mostly did it to get out of her arranged marriage, Cassian was quite willing to go along with it. Then there's Cassian's protectiveness of Mor and her using him as a buffer from Azriel (who has unrequited romantic feelings for her), which frequently includes her flirting with him. Mor also becomes quite possessive of Cassian whenever Nesta is around (whom Cassian is mated to), inserts herself between them and warns Nesta to stay away from him. Cassian himself often acts as if he's done something wrong if Mor catches him with Nesta and he tries to avoid being with her when Mor is about. One could argue Mor is just looking out for her friend given Nesta's prickliness, but the reactions from both of them can make it seem more like a woman being territorial over her crush and said crush not wanting to make her jealous.
- Several readers were given the impression that Lucien and Feyre's interactions indicated he was a potential love interest for her, with some readers actually shipping Feyre with Lucien over Tamlin in the first book, enjoying their banter and growing respect for each other. It helps that Lucien physically shields Feyre from Rhysand and lies that she's his fiancée to protect her, they both come to each other's rescue Under the Mountain and Lucien seems just as devastated as Tamlin by Feyre's death. In the second book Lucien also seems more aware than Tamlin of Feyre's mental state and attempts to coax him into supporting her better, with a few readers even getting the impression Lucien would end up as a canonical romantic rival. Feyre even flirts with Lucien in the third book to make Tamlin jealous, while Lucien ends up turning on Tamlin to help Feyre (after she rescues him from Ianthe). They were apparently never intended to be anything but friends, especially as Sarah J. Maas has indicated Feyre and Rhysand were always the endgame couple, and stated she originally intended for Lucien and Nesta to fall in love in the second book (before switching to a love triangle between Elain, Lucien and Azriel).
- Daughters of a Coral Dawn somehow hits this trope within its second paragraph. Protip, Katherine Forrest: when your narrator starts to wax lyrical on her own mother's "voluptuous hips" and "cantaloupe-sized breasts", something has gone very wrong.
- Fifty Shades of Grey: Ana and Kate are just supposed to be good friends, with Kate saying she loves her like a sister, but a lot of their interactions can come off as Les Yay, especially from Ana's end considering how often she points out Kate's physical attractiveness with similar terms she uses for Christian. It doesn't help that Kate cares a lot more about Ana's happiness and well-being than Christian seems to.
- The Great Gatsby has Nick and Gatsby. Probably unintentional, but one of Nick's first descriptions of Gatsby was "there was something gorgeous about him." Then again, since there's more than a little evidence that Nick is gay or at least bi (including an ambiguous encounter with another man at a party), whether this was a Relationship Writing Fumble or deliberate subtext is a matter of considerable literary debate.
- Harry Potter:
- J. K. Rowling insists that she was never trying to imply Neville/Luna, despite plenty of background moments between the two that can easily be interpreted in a cute shippy way (they stare at each other on the train, at one point she helps him into a chair...). This apparently was enough for them to get sorta-paired up in the movies.
- While arguably not as prevalent as in the movies, a lot of readers didn't really get the Like Brother and Sister vibe that Rowling intended for Harry and Hermione, resulting in her being bombarded by questions from fans and journalists asking when they would get together. It didn't help that In-Universe, a lot of the characters seemed to believe they had feelings for each other or were actually dating, or Rowling emphasizing a kiss from Hermione to Harry on the final page of Goblet of Fire ("She did something she had never done before and kissed him on the cheek"). The problem also stems from Rowling's choice to write the series entirely from Harry's perspective; we see a lot of Harry's interactions with Hermione, Ron and both, and since Hermione is the girl that Harry spends the most time with by far and they never come across as anything but friendly and amicable, it is natural to see Hermione as the love interest. Conversely, readers never get to see how Ron and Hermione interact with each other one on one when Harry is not around, where a lot of their relationship's development would tend to happen. (Eventually, Rowling herself admitted that while writing the last book, Harry and Hermione were coming across as a potential couple due to these factors.)
- Hogfather: Susan’s whole relationship with Bilious, the Oh God of Hangovers is a case of this. She rescues him from the Castle of Bones and spends the majority of the novel forming a bond with him, it’s shown that Susan has a severe case of I Just Want to Be Normal and scared away men in the past due to her supernatural nature yet to Bilious who was just born into the world she is normal and doesn’t have hide her weird qualities since he is no less strange. This helped by the moments where she explains the world to him like Jane with Tarzan, the bit where Bilious asks if she likes kids and Susan gets abashed in her own Ice Queen way or the Thanks for the Mammary they have while riding on Death’s horse Binky. Yet when Bilious meets Violet the Damsel in Distress Toothfairy they openly fell in love and stay together, as though the previous hundred pages with Susan and Bilious‘s bond didn’t matter in the slightest. Hell Susan was even a bit waspy towards Violet for unsubtly trying to be cute and attractively dim to the Oh God.
- How NOT to Write a Novel discusses this trope, using an example story called "The Deafening Hug" in which the narration describes the protagonist's sister in very amorous ways, giving the impression that there is (possibly one-sided) Brother–Sister Incest going on. Afterwards the author points out that people will see love interests everywhere so you'd better be careful when, say, writing cousins Ben 10 style.
- Hurog: Wardwick is very close to his magically bound slave, Oreg. So close, in fact, that Ward's younger brother gets jealous. The fact that it is the brother, not the love interest, who is jealous, is probably meant to imply that the relationship is more sibling-like. However, fandom concludes that love interest is not jealous because she is a cool, relaxed lady, and just... ship her with Ward and Oreg as threesome. Just as in LOTR this is merely a matter of interpretation of affectionate gestures, though unlike Tolkien the author is cool with homosexuality and may have decided to just not care what readers might read into it.
- The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors: With Evil Chancellor Nushrok and his Daddy's Little Villain adult daughter Anidag, it's highly unlikely the author intended their relationship to be viewed as anything non-platonic, considering the book is a Soviet children's fairytale and is supposed to steer well clear of sexual topics. However, multiple readers older than the target audience have noticed that Nushrok and Anidag's interactions don't look entirely familial, what with them constantly using genuine endearments towards each other (especially since they don't care a straw for anyone else) and him being rather too appreciative of her beauty. Furthermore, when he offers her the crown, the scene reads disturbingly like an Unholy Matrimony marriage proposal.Nushrok: Aren't you beautiful? Doesn't your voice sound like music? What speeches you'll be able to make from the palace balcony! Just try to seem kind, darling. The entire kingdom must know that you generously give to the poor. And not crooked mirrors, of course… You'll need a bit of money for it — a little bit! You have the same cold and practical mind as myself, Anidag! With your help, I'll manage matters wonderfully! And I'll hold the entire kingdom in thrall. Tell me, do you accept, my dear daughter?The beautiful lady wordlessly bowed her head, and Nushrok touched her hair with his lips.
- Land of Oz:
- Ozma and Dorothy's relationship may not have read as romantic to the child audiences of the 1900s, since the time period had different standards of physical and emotional affection.
- Likewise, the Tin Woodsman and the Scarecrow also are very cheerfully fond of one another, frequently visiting one another with matching thrones in their respective palaces so they both can sit together.
- The Lord of the Rings: When J. R. R. Tolkien created Sam and Frodo as one of fantasy's signature best friends, he probably didn't realize that there would be those who would interpret it romantically. The whole world he created in fact has different standards, standards that would normally be respected today. People are openly, emotionally, and physically affectionate without it being perceived as emasculating or sexual. At the time he was writing, especially considering Tolkien's own life experiences, this sort of friendship was common and even encouraged — although playing it for homosexual undertones was not unheard of either.
- The Pendragon Adventure: Mark and Courtney spend the entirety of the series getting close to one each other. Mark is the one to save Courtney from one of Saint Dane's attacks and he spends time in the hospital by her side. Courtney's boyfriend, Bobby, ends up breaking up with Courtney since he fell in love with Loor, a sentiment that Courtney accepts as she feels she has grown apart from Bobby in the many years he's been gone. In book 8, Mark and Courtney share an Anguished Declaration of Love at gunpoint that made fans think the two had become an Official Couple... Except D. J. MacHale clearly hadn't meant it that way, since the whole thing was entirely ignored in book 9 and the series ends with Bobby and Courtney getting back together and growing old together.
- The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel:
- If it weren't for Scathach being such a Shipper on Deck for Francis and Joan's marriage, you could accuse Scatty of being into Joan herself. Then again Scatty seems to have Les Yay with just about everyone else in the series too.
- The twin protagonists too. There are some lines and scenarios that feel almost as if it's a love story between Sophie and Josh. Neither of them has a canon love interest either. Of course with The Reveal of the last book that they're not actually related, it makes this a teensy bit better.
- In Septimus Heap, Septimus and Jenna were intended to explicitly see each other as honorary siblings due to the latter having been essentially adopted by the former's family after the murder of Jenna's mother and seeming death of Septimus himself as a baby all on the same day (long story). The narrative itself likewise at times tries to actively enforce this intention by having several words of narration and dialogue indicate that the two view each other as if they were siblings while also giving Jenna a canon love interest in the form of Septimus's best friend Beetle while Septimus himself later gets the possibility of a future romance teased between first him and Syrah and later Rose. Despite all this, however, a surprisingly large number of seemingly rather suggestive (albeit, in fairly subtle and kid friendly fashion) or similarly romantic undertone possessing moments shared between Septimus and Jenna over the course of the series ended up present in the series to the point that a sizable number of readers genuinely thought that they were intended to be the main Official Couple.
- A truly squicky example shows up in Jodi Picoult's novel, A Spark of Light, with the main character Hugh intended to be a Doting Parent and Papa Wolf for his daughter, Wren, but instead he comes off as creepily obsessed with her. He and Wren never argue or disagree on any subject, are extremely close because Hugh raised Wren after her mother walked out, he considers Wren his "universe", constantly goes on about how special she is, laments that eventually some boy is going to "steal" her from him and defies his boss's orders to talk down the gunman because his daughter is trapped inside the clinic with him (with his boss arguing that because Hugh isn't capable of being impartial in this situation, he can't be trusted to negotiate effectively). His marriage to his wife, Annabelle, broke down because he was such a Control Freak, yet he isn't mentioned being interested in other women and focuses all his time and energy on Wren, with his sister Bex being her surrogate mother figure. It comes off like an emotionally-stunted man latching onto his daughter as a Living Emotional Crutch after driving away his wife.
- The Twilight Saga:
- There are some scenes that can easily support Bella/Alice. This was almost certainly not intentional on Meyer's part, but it's still there.
- In Breaking Dawn, Jacob/Leah seemed to be the obvious direction for the Unlucky Childhood Friend(s), especially because of the Belligerent Sexual Tension involved. However, Jacob imprinted on Bella's two-minute-old child, and that was that.
- In The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Bree spends a lot of time wondering if Diego (her love interest) has some special bond with Riley (the leader of their coven) that means that he would be willing to betray her to Riley. This, plus a scene where it sounds like Victoria is suspicious that Riley's loyalties might be swayed from her (keep in mind that she controls Riley via his feelings for her) to Diego, makes it sound very much like Diego and Riley are lovers and his relationship with Bree is just platonic affection. It really doesn't help that Diego's interactions with Bree (a peck on the cheek, holding hands, etc) could just as easily be done between friends and that Bree's constant insistence that Diego trusts her over Riley sound like she's in denial.
- Kes and Bo, the central twin characters of the Wind on Fire trilogy, just adore each other, and as the characters age, their love feels increasingly... not siblingly. Whether this is a "fumble" is a moot point: William Nicholson seems very confident in his portrayal, never seeming to try and escape the slightly twincestuous tone of their relationship.
- In Worm, the writer, Wildbow, is adamant about the idea that main character Taylor is straight, and has no romantic interest in other women. This was largely out of a belief that writing her as gay or bisexual would be "pandering" when he isn't gay himself. The problem is, the story's narration (which is in first-person) tends to focus a lot more on the attractiveness of female characters compared to male ones, which gives many readers the impression that Taylor thinks the women she encounters are really hot and she's pretty lukewarm on the guys.
