Awful Wedded Life/Playing With
Basic Trope: Marriage sucks.
- Played Straight: Alice and Bob are always bickering, and are living in a nearly Sexless Marriage.
- Exaggerated: Alice and Bob have fights that involve actual violence.
- Downplayed:
- Although Bob is a Henpecked Husband married to a Tsundere Alice, the marriage isn't portrayed as unhappy.
- Even though they don't really go on "date night" or have sex too frequently anymore, neither Alice nor Bob seem to be unhappy or regret their choice to marry.
- Inverted: Alice and Bob are Happily Married.
- Justified:
- Alice and Bob married for the wrong reasons, and/or rushed into marriage.
- The challenges of day-to-day life and raising three kids have started to take a toll on the marriage.
- Alice and Bob have personal problems that are starting to affect their marriage.
- Subverted: Alice and Bob have the occasional foible, but it all works out in the end.
- Double Subverted: But one or both of them is still unhappy.
- Deconstructed: Alice and Bob are unhappy, and that may affect their families. Plus, it puts a lot of stress on Alice and Bob themselves, leading to more bickering and more stress. Rinse and repeat.
- Reconstructed: Alice and Bob work through their marital problems, or get a divorce.
- Parodied: Slap Slap Kiss
- Lampshaded: "Why did I ever want to get married, again?"
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob are Happily Married.
- Alice and Bob are not married or living together.
- Enforced: Rule of Funny
- Invoked: Alice and Bob have a Fourth Date Marriage and find incompatibilities cropping up everywhere.
- Defied: Alice and Bob don't let that bother them, and treat each other with respect and set healthy boundaries. Their relationship improves.
- Discussed: "I heard Alice and Bob fighting again last night."
- Conversed: "I don't know why they don't just get divorced. Really, I think Charles is a better match for Alice, anyway."
- Played For Laughs: Almost always is.
- Played For Drama:
- Alice and Bob have affairs.
- The relationship is portrayed as very dangerous.