Just Friends/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Two characters are friends, then they fall for each other.

  • Straight: Alice and Bob are friends. At the end of the series, they end up in a relationship.
  • Exaggerated: Alice and Bob have been best friends since early childhood. They end up married at the end.
  • Justified: Alice and Bob have been together so long they are comfortable with each other, and a transition to a more serious commitment comes easily.
  • Inverted: Better as Friends
  • Subverted: Everyone assumes that Alice and Bob like each other, but they really are just friends.
  • Double Subverted: Alice and Bob have convinced everyone they are Just Friends, but once everyone stops bugging them about it, they come to realize that all those people had a point.
  • Parodied: Bob is completely ignored by Alice every time he tries to tell Alice he loves her.
  • Deconstructed: Alice and Bob start a relationship; the relationship is staid, boring, and and one or both regret ruining their friendship.
  • Reconstructed: Alice and Bob decide to separate, their old friendship develops again, and after a period where they stay friends, they develop love for each other once more, but with experience and more maturity, they take steps to avoid repeating their old mistakes, and remain together from then on.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice falls for Bob. Bob has just given up on his love for Alice. Alice then gives up on Bob, just as he falls for her again.
  • Averted: Alice and Bob simply remain friends. No-one mentions how great they'd be together, neither develops feelings for the other.
  • Enforced: "All our friends think we'd be good together, I'm not sure, but don't you think we should give it a go?"
  • Lampshaded: "Alice and Bob still think they aren't going to end up together."
  • Invoked: "I feel the best relationships are built around a solid friendship. This way, we have the chance to really get to know each other."
  • Defied: Alice rejects Bob because she doesn't want to ruin their friendship.
  • Discussed: "Alice and Bob have a really good friendship, I think Bob has feelings for her though."
  • Conversed: "Characters with that good a friendship will always fall in love with each other."

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