Tropes related to the process of romantic connections and outings that can aim at casual fun or finding your One True Love. There may be wedding bells for some. Others may get their heart broken. Others may have fun when you're young... or not so young.
Can overlap with Flirting and Courtship, but these usually follow those.
Prelude to Wedding and Engagement Tropes and Marriage Tropes.
Tropes:
- Accidental Declaration of Love: A character accidentally confesses their love for another character during a date.
- Agents Dating: When agents (secret agents, police agents, etc.) go on a date.
- Am I Just a Toy to You?: Person A is serious about the relationship; Person B thinks it's just a fling.
- Aquarium Date: Two people go on a date at an aquarium.
- Bachelor Auction: A bunch of male characters auction themselves off to raise money, often for charity.
- Bad Date: A character's date goes horribly (or hilariously) wrong.
- Blind Date: A date between two persons who have never met before.
- Bonding Through Shared Earbuds: Two persons enjoy the somewhat intimate act of sharing a pair of earbuds.
- Chocolate of Romance: Expressing love through the giving of chocolates.
- Compensated Dating: Persons — usually younger women — dating older men for pay.
- Date Peepers: Two persons on a date are spied upon by people they know, with or without their knowledge.
- Dating Do-Si-Do: If a show runs long enough, every single character is going to date every other single character eventually.
- Dating Service Disaster: A character goes on a date with someone they met online, only to find out they're not who they expected.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: A girl, typically a Bratty Teenage Daughter, dates a boy whom her father disapproves of.
- Developers' Desired Date: In a game where you can date/marry anyone in a large roster of characters, blatant favor is shown towards one or a few characters.
- Doppelgänger Dating: A character meets a Love Interest who is eerily similar to an established character.
- Double Date: Two couples go on a date together.
- Escape Call: A character arranges for someone to call them in order to get out of an event.
- Fake Relationship: Two characters who aren't romantically interested in each other pretend to be a couple.
- Ferris Wheel Date Moment: A couple on a date go on a Ferris Wheel.
- Flowers of Romance: Flowers in the contexts of a relationship.
- Forever Fling: A short-lived, youthful, passionate romance is the yardstick by which all the couple's subsequent romances are measured and fail.
- I Got You a Drawer: A character gives their girlfriend a drawer as a gift.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: A couple have trouble expressing their feelings with the word "I love you".
- In Love with Looks: A character dates someone because of their looks rather than their personality.
- Insignificant Anniversary: One or more characters celebrate a mundane anniversary, often an arbitrary number of days for starting a romantic relationship.
- Meet the In-Laws: A character formally meets the parents of their significant other for the first time. Tension ensues.
- Mixtape of Love: A mixtape shared between couples.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Person forbids someone to date his sister.note
- Not a Date: Two characters go out together, but are insistent that they aren't going out on a date.
- Offscreen Breakup: A couple is stated to have broken up, but we don't actually see it go down.
- Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: A lady and her suitor have a romantic date on a rowboat.
- On the Rebound: Two characters break up after a serious relationship, and one of them quickly jumps into a new relationship.
- Opposites Attract Revenge: A character's love interest leaves them for their ideological opposite, causing a feud.
- Overdramatic Dating Commotion: When two characters dating or apparently dating cause a Comical Overreaction among other characters.
- Parent-Preferred Suitor: When someone's parents prefer one Love Interest over another.
- Pick Up Babes With Babes: A man takes care of someone else's child in order to attract women.
- Prank Date: Someone is asked out on a date as a Practical Joke.
- Relationship Gone Public: When a couple in a Secret Relationship finally decide to go public with their relationship.
- Relationship Labeling Problems: Characters can't decide what to call their relationship.
- Replacement Goldfish: A character is replaced with another character. This can include getting a new Love Interest who looks/acts similar to their old one after the previous one dies/leaves.
- Ridiculously High Relationship Standards: A character who is obnoxiously picky with who they date.
- Romantic Wingman: A character enlists a friend to assist him in his romantic endeavors.
- Secret Relationship: Two characters in a romantic relationship keep it a secret from everyone.
- Speed Dating: A character tries speed dating in order to meet someone.
- Stood Up: Two characters plan a date, but one of them doesn't show up.
- Sweetheart Sipping: A couple share a milkshake with two straws.
- Teacher/Parent Romance: A teacher and the parent of one of their students start a romantic relationship.
- Third Wheel: One character is hanging around a couple.
- Terrible Pick-Up Lines: A character attempts to use smooth one-liners to attract their preferred mate. It doesn't go well.
- Trial-Period Dating: Two characters date (with genuine romantic interest on the part of one of the two) on the condition that the relationship lasts for a finite period of time.
- Tunnel of Love: An amusement park ride for couples to go on.
- Two-Timer Date: A character schedules dates with two different people at the same time.
- Unseen Pen Pal: A pen pal relationship in which one of the characters is concealing their true identity.
- Wait for Your Date: A man is forced to wait for his date who is fussing over their hair/makeup/clothing, etc.
- You're Not My Type: A character doesn't return someone's affections because that person doesn't fit their ideal mold.
