Basic Trope: The diamond or other stone on an engagement ring is huge!
- Straight: Bob decides it's finally time to propose to his longtime girlfriend Alice. He presents her with a ring that features a diamond the size of a marble.
- Exaggerated:
- The diamond is the size of a doorknob!
- ...And it's surrounded by two other diamonds each the size of a golf ball!
- And that's just the promise ring, never mind the actual engagement ring!
- Downplayed: The diamond isn't HUGE, but it's still big enough that you can tell it definitely cost Bob a pretty penny.
- Justified: Bob has the means to buy Alice such a ring, and wants to lavish her.
- Inverted:
- Bob presents Alice with a ring that has a 0.25-karat diamond.
- Bob presents Alice with a Simple, yet Opulent ring.
- Subverted:
- Bob proposes with a huge flashy ring. The diamond is actually only one or two karats.
- Bob proposes with a huge flashy ring. The stone is not a diamond.
- Bob proposes with a fake ring. It looks awesome, but it's actually just glass.
- When Bob goes to pick out a ring for Alice, he looks longingly at a large ring, but settles on a smaller and more affordable one.
- The jeweler's shop sign ring wouldn't look out of place on the set of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. No way Alice can wear that thing, even if it were a real ring.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob proposes with a huge flashy ring. It turns out the stone is not a diamond. However, it is some other type of precious stone.
- Alice can go and pick out a new stone if she wishes later.
- The real ring is on order, and has such a stone.
- Alice and Bob are going to go ring-shopping together, and Alice can pick out any size diamond (or any other type of stone) she wishes.
- The salesman talks Bob into springing for the larger ring, or buying it on credit.
- Parodied:
- Bob proposes to Alice with a Ring Pop. Alice wears it proudly, and every member of her Girl Posse is jealous.
- The stone is so large that Alice needs someone or something to hold up her hand.
- The stone is larger than Alice, Bob, or both.
- Carol laughs at Alice's ring, saying it's the ring of a mistress (not a wife), and shows off an even larger ring.
- Everyone needs protective goggles to protect their eyes if they want to see Alice's ring.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob wants to buy Alice a ring with a massive diamond. He's a major gangster and can afford it. He buys her one, but it turns out Alice doesn't like it, it's too flashy and it looks fake to boot. Bob returns it and buys her another one, slightly smaller, but still huge. It turns out this one really is fake. Alice wants to choose her ring herself, but Bob doesn't want to get engaged anymore.
- Averted:
- Bob does not propose to Alice.
- Bob does a ringless proposal.
- Alice's diamond is not particularly large or notable.
- Enforced:
- Conspicuous Consumption
- Credit Card Plot
- "We need to show that Bob is a major gangster and we need to paint Alice as shallow and materialistic."
- Lampshaded: "I love that I got a stone as big as this one. It's like I'm a princess in a fairy tale."
- Invoked: Alice is a major gangster's girlfriend and wants to be his wife. She asks him to propose to her with an expensive ring with a huge stone so that all the people she knows will be jealous and will respect her as his future spouse.
- Exploited: Alice has turned down many proposals ... all because her boyfriends did not get her a stone that was large enough for her liking.
- Defied:
- Bob considers pampering Alice with a huge ring. However, he wants to save money for the wedding, and for things like their first home, so he buys a smaller one.
- Although Alice has the option to have a larger and/or more valuable stone put in, she chooses not to, because she cares more about its sentimental value.
- Alice and Bob decide that the money would be better spent on a down payment on a first house than on a piece of jewellery.
- As much as Bob would like to buy Alice a diamond the size of a doorknob, he just doesn't have that kind of money. So he gets her a smaller diamond, or even a CZ/crystal/moissanite ring instead.
- Discussed: "Did you know that Bob proposed to Alice? Did you see her ring? It's so gorgeous. The diamond is huge."
- Conversed: "Just once in my life I'd like to feel like Alice. How come girls in movies always get engagement rings this huge?"
- Deconstructed Alice rejects Bob's proposal due to the ring's size and because she doesn't want to marry a criminal, leaving Bob heartbroken.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice changes her mind later, perhaps after Bob goes straight.
- Bob keeps the ring and uses it to propose successfully to Danica, who's as attractive as Alice to him but isn't as uptight about the provenance of her rings.
- Played for Laughs: Alice slowly falls over and incurs Amusing Injuries when she puts the ring from Bob on her finger.
- Played for Drama: Bob gives Alice a ring with a large diamond. Charlotte then complains that the ring that David gave her wasn't so impressive. This leads to resentment between Charlotte and David, which then makes David hate Bob.
- Implied: The ring isn't shown, but Alice says, "Oh, Bob got me a ring with such a big diamond!"
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