Death of the Hypotenuse/Playing With

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Basic Trope: Someone in the Love Triangle dies so that the other two can be together.

  • Straight: Bob still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Alice, who is now dating Chris. Chris dies and Bob is there for Alice, which rekindles her feelings for Bob.
  • Exaggerated: Bob is the only one of Alice's boyfriends who hasn't died shortly after they started dating her. She eventually gets the hint and starts dating Bob again.
  • Downplayed: Chris falls into a coma so that Bob and Alice can get together.
  • Justified: Chris knew that Alice still had feelings for Bob as well and, knowing he was going to die, encouraged Alice and Bob to get together in his will.
  • Inverted: Alice and Bob die, and are together in the afterlife.
  • Subverted: Bob and Alice grow close after Chris' death, but Alice meets Steve at a support group and falls in love with him.
  • Double Subverted: Steve is still mourning his late girlfriend, Stephanie, so he lets down Alice gently. Bob and Alice continue to get closer and eventually end up together.
  • Parodied: Alice gets with Chris after she and Bob break up. Chris gets struck by lightning literally the second after Alice asks him out.
  • Deconstructed: Bob watches Chris die in a horrible accident and later wonders if part of him let his rival die so that he could be with Alice. Alice suspects this as well and venomously tells Bob that she never wants to see him ever again.
  • Reconstructed: Years later, Bob has worked through what turned out to be survivor's guilt and Alice came to realize she was irrationally lashing out in her grief. The two reconcile and eventually marry.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob has feelings for Alice, but decides to get together with Delilah, but then Chris dies leaving Alice free, but Bob stays with Delilah until she dies. Bob is about to go after Alice again until Chris comes Back From the Dead
  • Averted: Chris doesn't die, and he and Alice stay together.
  • Enforced: "We need to get Alice and Bob together, but we have no spare lady to pair Chris with. Eh...let's bump him off."
  • Lampshaded: "Wow, Chris died, huh...well, that leaves Alice free!"
  • Invoked: See Murder the Hypotenuse, Die for Our Ship.
  • Defied: Alice knows what Bob is secretly hoping for and tells him point blank that he does not win by default just because Chris is dead.
  • Discussed: "Sometimes I think that Chris was supposed to die just so we could be together."
  • Conversed: "It's obvious that Bob and Alice are gonna get together. Poor Chris, we hardly knew 'im."
  • Plotted A Good Waste: ???
  • Played For Laughs: Chris tries to kill himself so Bob can be with Alice, but always fails in slapstick ways.
  • Played For Drama: Chris gasps his last in sobbing Alice' arms, expressing his love for her in a faint voice while even Bob is holding his hand. Afterwards both need an angsty eternity to recover and start a relationship.

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