Basic Trope: Saying, "I love you" implies that somebody wants to start a romantic relationship, or if they're already in one, a serious romantic relationship.
- Straight:
- Alice tells Bob she loves him. They have been dating, but Bob feels a bit awkward because he doesn't want to have the responsibility of a relationship as serious as the one he thinks Alice is implying she wants.
- Alice tells Bob she loves him, even though they're only best friends in a platonic way. Bob worries that Alice might have a crush on him.
- Exaggerated: Alice and Bob are Happily Married and they hug, kiss, have sex, call each other Affectionate Nickname's, etc... and they still feel awkward using the word "love".
- Downplayed:
- Bob is a bit embarrassed, but he does say, "I love you too" back.
- When Alice admits to not having a crush on Bob, he accepts her statement.
- Alice doesn't directly confess her feelings for Bob, but she dispenses with the Honorifics and Last-Name Basis, in a culture where only those who are very close to one another call each other by their first names.
- Justified:
- Bob grew up in a very strict family where only serious couples told each other, "I love you".
- Alice, being new at speaking Bob's language, used the word for marital love instead of platonic love.
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob are nemeses, but Alice, despite being OK with insulting Bob in general, feels awkward about saying she hates him.
- For whatever reasons, Alice and Bob throw the word "love" around casually but feel shy about mundane words like "like".
- Subverted:
- It turns out that Bob was worried about Alice wanting a serious relationship because he overheard her imply it a while back.
- Alice says, "I love you" to her pal Bob. Bob says, "Oh no, what if Alice... doesn't like the dress I bought for her?"
- The language that Alice and Bob speak uses different words for different kinds of love. (Romantic/sexual, platonic friendship, familial, even just general kindness/compassion, love for animals, love for inanimate objects or attributes, and so on.)
- Double Subverted:
- Said "implication" was another declaration of love.
- Bob tries to cheer himself up by saying, "Yeah, but what if she likes it?", then worriedly asks, "What if she likes me?"
- It's not Alice's first language, and she uses the wrong word by mistake, which makes Bob feel embarrassed.
- Parodied:
- Bob freaks out and accuses Alice of incest when she says, "I love you," to her father.
- The moment Alice says, "I love you," Bob eagerly says, "Yes, I will marry you" and starts planning a wedding.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob ponders over the implications of Alice's "I love you".
- Averted:
- Alice does not tell Bob she loves him unless they already are in a serious romantic relationship.
- Bob's fine with Alice telling him she loves him.
- Enforced: "We need to create a conflict in Alice and Bob's relationship that will eventually cause them to break up, allowing Alice to get together with her intended final love interest. Let's write an argument about the seriousness of their relationship, starting with a misinterpretation of a simple 'I love you'."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Alice and Bob can easily pretend to be a couple, or if they already are, they can pretend to be a more serious couple: just say, "I love you" to each other!
- Defied: Bob decides to wait until Alice says she wants a serious relationship/has a crush on him.
- Discussed: "If I say, 'I love you', does that sound too romantic?"
- Conversed: "Whoa, that character just told her best friend she loved him and he worried about the implications?! The shippers must be having a party!"
- Implied: After Alice says, "I love you", Bob looks a bit embarrassed.
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
- Played for Laughs: ???
- Played for Drama: ???
Back to The "I Love You" Stigma.
