Belligerent Sexual Tension vs Like An Old Married Couple

Hello, so I see both Belligerent Sexual Tension and Like an Old Married Couple reference the other but I'm having a hard time distinguishing the differences between two. The difference doesn't seem to hinge on whether or not the pair is actually a couple and they're both about arguing with the other person.

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Attraction manifested as or represented by hostility.
• Like an Old Married Couple: A comfortable partnership manifested as or represented by comfortable bickering.

This in mind, BST is really more for couples, would-be couples, or two characters who have Ship Tease: it's sexual tension for a reason. LAOMC can be applied to those pairs, but also to siblings, best friends, etc. The key to the latter is that they have such a solid partnership that they can just rag on each other all the time.

Like an Old Married Couple is two people who are emotionally close to each other but bicker all the time over the stupidest minutia. In fact it could be compared to Like Brother and Sister. Belligerent Sexual Tension is a bickering relationship that is a cover for more intimate feelings they are trying to ignore or oblivious to. It's a companion to Unresolved Sexual Tension.

Edited by KJMackley on Aug 17th 2020 at 6:48:19 AM

In principle, the difference is if the two characters might have a sexual relationship or not. In practice, we need to limit Belligerent Sexual Tension to examples where the work implies the two characters have sexual feelings that need to be resolved before a more mature conversation can take place. BST examples between two friends that don't even have the possibility of a romantic/sexual relationship should be removed.

Like an Old Married Couple is broader, but cannot cover all "a couple fights" examples because not all conflicts fit the comfort and loyalty aspects. Ideally we should be able to cite an In-Universe comparison to married people, but I don't think it is a requirement. Couples can have sexual tension without being comfortable with one another, such as in Star Wars with Han/Leia.

There's assorted miscellany signs you can look for to see if a "couple fights" is one or the other, but they can overlap. Generally I look for the distinction of bickering versus escalating. LAOMC argues about petty things and the moment someone else tries to get invovled they team up to debate the outsider. BST would use that as fuel for yelling louder, heading towards Slap-Slap-Kiss territory. LAOMC isn't about physically fighting but about easily transitioning between arguments and affection. These are, however, minor traits that don't work as requirements, just as signposts.

Thanks everyone, the explanations really cleared it up for me.

Can anyone explain the distinction between Like an Old Married Couple and Vitriolic Best Buds?

I generally don't see LAOMC as physically abusive. VBB usually doesn't have comfort, even though both tropes imply a lot of loyalty.