Basic Trope: Someone tries to kill a romantic rival to get them out of the way.
- Straight: Alice poisons her romantic rival Claire's drink so she can have Bob all to herself.
- Exaggerated: Alice not only poisons Claire (an actual romantic rival), she also poisons Dara whose relationship with Bob is only Mistaken for Romance, since Alice didn't even bother to do her research first.
- Downplayed:
- Alice puts sleeping powder in Claire's drink to temporarily incapacitate her, so Bob will take Alice to the dance. Claire is fine in an hour or two.
- Alice blackmails Claire into leaving town to have Bob for herself.
- Justified:
- In Alice's culture, the concept of Klingon Promotion applies to love interests too.
- It's a Psychotic Love Triangle; not only is Alice the type to kill a woman to get a boyfriend, Bob's the type to actually be into that sort of thing.
- Inverted:
- Alice wants Claire and Bob to be happy together without her, maybe even to the point of removing herself from the love triangle by tragic means.
- Bob is the one trying to kill Claire for getting between him and Alice.
- Alice kills Bob to make sure Claire never gets to be with Bob.
- Alice grants Bob eternal life, so Bob will turn to her after Claire turns old and dies.
- Subverted:
- Alice plans to kill Claire, but stops at the last minute.
- Turns out Alice isn't interested in Bob.
- Turns out Claire isn't interested in Bob — Alice just misinterpreted. Further, it turns out Claire's actually interested in Alice (and is unaware of Alice trying to kill her).
- Alice is sorely tempted to kill Claire but her motivations for contemplating this have nothing to do with Bob.
- Double Subverted:
- ...because she's planning to win Bob's love with a Wounded Gazelle Gambit when Claire retaliates.
- Alice wasn't trying to kill Claire because she wanted Bob for herself. She wanted Claire out of the way because she ships Bob with someone else.
- After another strong temptation to slash Claire's throat, Alice realizes she's going to lose eventually to the urge to kill. She resolves to remove the hypotenuse once and for all — herself.
- Parodied:
- Alice is all sweetness and smiles when Bob is looking, but keeps lunging for Claire with a knife the instant Bob turns his back.
- Alice still lunges at Claire when Bob is looking, but she's lunging at her with a rubber inflatable sword that squeaks every time it hits. Because of this, Claire and Bob think that Alice is just kidding around and has a laugh about it.
- Zig Zagged: Alice poisons Claire's drink, but then has second thoughts and tries to get the drink back, causing hilarity to ensue as they play Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo. They are interrupted when Bob enters the room and takes a sip from the drink himself, which is Played for Drama. It turns out, though, that you need to drink more than a sip for the poison to be noticeable, and Bob starts asking why Alice looked so upset. Alice, overreacting and failing to think of an excuse, drinks the whole thing herself while declaring "You'll never take me alive!"
- Averted:
- Alice resolves to win Bob's heart by fair means.
- Three-Way Sex
- Polygamy is possible in the setting. Alice agrees to be Bob's second wife.
- Enforced: The writers want Alice out of the story, and having her get arrested for derailing herself seems the quickest way.
- Lampshaded: "Did you see the look on Alice's face? I bet Claire is checking her drinks pretty damn carefully these days."
- Invoked:
- Alice is encouraged to kill Claire by someone else who wants her dead.
- Bob pretends to be interested in Claire, knowing that would put her in Alice's crosshairs.
- Exploited: Alice tries to kill Claire, but Claire knew it was going to happen; so, she sets a trap in order to expose Alice's true face to everyone else, including Bob.
- Defied: Alice choses her own dignity over her Unrequited Love and just parts ways with Bob and Claire forever.
- Discussed: "She should have been your first suspect. The jealous lover is one of the oldest ones in the book, aside from the butler, of course."
- Conversed: "The writers of this show seem to think that a woman can't be in love without it turning her into a murderer."
- Deconstructed:
- Alice succeeds in eliminating Claire and winning Bob's heart, but the strain and guilt soon cause her to have a breakdown, preventing her from getting any pleasure out of her prize.
- Bob discovers what Alice did to Claire, he is horrified and immediately breaks up with/calls the cops on her.
- Claire becomes The Lost Lenore for Bob, causing him to swear off dating for a while regardless of whether he finds out about Alice's involvement.
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice constantly attempts to kill Claire on numerous occasions. However, she's so incompetent that it seems more like she's attempting to be a practical joker.
- Alice openly murders Claire to get with Bob, yet everyone finds them a cute couple, even the ghost of Claire.
Ha! Can't you see the link back to Murder the Hypotenuse loves me more than you? You had your chance and you blew it! Just grow up and accept—No! Wait! Put down the—BLAM! BLAM!
