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Isolation-Induced Infatuation - TV Tropes

  • ️Mon Oct 21 2024

One or more characters are in a Closed Circle with little to no opportunity for romance, but suddenly, circumstances shift just a little as a newcomer arrives, who the isolated character(s) are flabbergasted to see and forget their manners in the rush of hormones.

The frustrating situation comes in different variations depending on the gender and sexuality of those involved. There are two variations of isolation commonly seen in media:

1. Literal isolation, where one or more people find themselves situationally stranded somewhere, whether it's because of being shipwrecked on a deserted island or trapped inside of a structure that they've no choice but to call home. The former is a staple of Island-based adventure stories.

2. Social isolation, where someone is either physically kept from the outside world on purpose due to something like living in a unwanted pampered life or due to living under Helicopter Parents, or they simply feel excluded and isolate themselves from society. This kind of isolation is more common nowadays in almost every form of media.

  • A single person has been either isolated or shielded from people all their lives, ends up finding someone of the compatible gender for the first time, whether they ran into them after running away or if they came into their area, and clings to them out of infatuation and curiosity.
  • A person of a particular gender or sexual orientation is surrounded by the opposite gender or incompatible orientation long enough to get frustrated until someone of their preference comes along.
  • Horny Sailors on a naval ship or spaceship full of heterosexual characters all of the same gender taking every opportunity they can get to reunite with their loved ones or to be lecherous once they're given the go to leave their ship and re-enter society.

3. A combination of both types of isolation. This can have aspects of both without necessarily outright being either one.

  • A man who is the Sole Survivor of his crew is shipwrecked on a Lady Land who is also isolated from the rest of the world (or vice versa of the genders). Either one or the other, or both, begin to openly desire each other whether out of lust or a need for comfort.

While none is always going to be 100% in either category, some can and will have more aspects than others which can qualify it to be classified as literal or social rather than both.

Regardless of the why or the how, one thing is for certain; The isolation will cause the characters to realize they need each other for either survival and/or for comfort which means they’ll begin to bond slowly but surely, and depending on how strong their feelings for each other, they may end up having sex from all the tension and loneliness. It can turn toxic, either from one party taking advantage of the other's isolated state and making sure to keep them isolated, or from the desire being so overwhelming that it leads them to make some very reprehensible choices.

Might be caused by being Too Desperate to Be Picky. Compare and contrast Situational Sexuality and its sub-trope Hello, Sailor!, where the same isolated circumstances cause the romance-starved characters to break their gender preference patterns and turn to each other instead. Sex for Solace can sometimes be the case if said characters are seeking warmth over being the only survivor(s) or has been overwhelmed by the isolation or what led to it.

See also the more short-term Ten Minutes in the Closet, in which The Matchmaker arranges for a cute couple to be Locked in a Room alone together, or Adam and Eve Plot which one of the parties might be trying to invoke as a justification.

Examples include:

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Literal Isolation:

Comic Books 

  • Madman: One arc saw Frank get stuck in prehistoric times with Dr. Flem. While there, he runs into a previous colleague of Flem's who got marooned there years earlier. After so many years on her own, she is so desperate for sex that she's willing to overlook the fact that Frank is rather obviously a re-animated corpse.

Fan Works 

Film — Animated 

  • Disney's Tarzan has the titular character shipwrecked as a baby and raised by gorillas in a secluded jungle on an island all his life. By the time Tarzan reaches adulthood, he falls in love with Jane, both after rescuing her from a group of angry baboons and because she's the first human woman he sees at all.
  • In WALL•E, the eponymous robot has been working on crushing garbage on Earth for 700 years, ending up alone when the other units broke down at some point, and collecting objects that caught his attention, and watching a VHS tape of Hello, Dolly!, particularly the hand holding scene. When the exploration robot E.V.A. arrives looking for vegetation, as a sign that humanity can return to Earth, Wall-E spends some time following her, and when they meet he tries to impress her, and becomes obsessed with holding her hand. When E.V.A. gets recalled to the Axiom with the plant, he follows her with the intent of "confessing" and holding her hand.

Film — Live-Action 

  • The Deadly Mantis: Upon Marge's arrival, the entire Arctic research base (made up of men who have been isolated for months) moons over her.
  • In Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Tarzan grew up in the jungle and has never seen a human woman until he meets Jane and rescues her from an attack by both crocodiles and hippopotamuses.

Literature 

  • In the fantasy trilogy Duncton Wood, an intrepid group of moles from the countryside makes its way into the heart of London to rediscover an urban colony that for many generations has been progressively more inbred and dying out because the vast urban sprawl of the city has cut it off from new blood to revitalize it. Their perilous trek over, the newcomers realize the knowledge and the wisdom of one of the oldest mole settlements must be saved — the purpose of their visit. Unfortunately, the elderly and inbred scholars, who have led a pretty much monastic life and only have a handful of females of well above breeding age, all go crazy over the young females who have arrived with the incomers. Meanwhile, the elderly females become both jealous of the new younger ones, and begin flirting with the males. An explosive situation happens.
  • Earth's Children: In The Valley of Horses, Ayla lives completely alone for three years due to being banished from the Neanderthal clan who raised her. She then meets Jondalar, the first human being she's seen in years and the first man of her own kind she's met (that she consciously remembers) after she saves him from a cave lion and treats his wounds. She finds him intensely attractive and hopes they'll eventually have sex, though she initially struggles to communicate this. Over the months it takes for Jondalar to recover, they fall in love and Jondalar introduces Ayla to his people's culture and sexual pleasure. He eventually convinces her to come travelling with him and integrate with society. Although Ayla gets to know many other people and nearly marries another man in The Mammoth Hunters, she always regards Jondalar as her true love.
  • In Interesting Times, Rincewind is on a vacation on a tropical island when he encounters an all-female tribe, who have been missing a man's company. They offer him "the pleasures of the flesh", clearly meaning sex, but due to Rincewind's sexual inexperience, he interprets this to mean potatoes instead. This leads to a Running Gag throughout the book of Rincewind confusing his sexual urges with a desire for potatoes.
  • Tarzan of the Apes arguably is the Trope Maker, as this book was one of the first known stories to demonstrate it. Tarzan grew up among the apes in the jungle after his parents were shipwrecked and killed by wild animals and has never met a (white) human woman before Jane. After Jane's arrival in the jungle, Tarzan repeatedly saves her from the dangers of the jungle later in the book, and eventually he fell in love with Jane upon her arrival.

Manhua 

  • Parodied in one strip of Old Master Q where Master Q is shipwrecked on a deserted island. A plane crashes, and an attractive woman swims to shore, and Master Q takes advantage of the situation by making a move on her only for the story to reveal the woman to be a karate expert, who promptly opens a can of whoop-ass on Master Q. Cue the last panel where the lady is drinking coconut juice, and Master Q (covered in Amusing Injuries) is a servant fanning her while dressed in a hula outfit.

Western Animation 

  • Defied in Johnny Bravo in the episode "Buffoon Lagoon", where Johnny and a nameless woman are stranded on an island due his perverted antics. The woman makes it known under no uncertain terms that she is not interested in him simply because he's the only guy around and is absolutely having none of his nonsense as she just wants to get off the island and away from him. Johnny repeatedly tests her patience throughout the entire episode, from being forced to rescue him from quicksand that he mistook for pudding to Johnny destroying her makeshift radio in his attempts to impress her, and by the end of the episode, she literally swims off the island and takes her chances in the sea just to get away from him.
  • Deconstructed in We Bare Bears in the episode "The Island", where the baby bears wash up on an island and meet two castaways named Dave and Karla and live side by side with them. One day when the bears go look for more coconuts, they discover Dave has been secretly withholding supplies and a life raft from Karla because he wants her to fall in love with him. When Karla finds out about this and about Dave leaving the trio for dead in quicksand, she is furious and escapes the island with the bears using the raft and supplies, leaving Dave all alone on the island.

Social Isolation:

Anime & Manga 

  • Implied with Hakari in The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You. She mentions in Chapter 2 studying up on what boys like, and she ends up imprisoned in her home after her mother discovers that she’s dating a boy with four other girlfriends. When Rentarou confronts the mother about Hakari, she attempts to justify herself as stopping her daughter from making the same lust-driven mistake that she did in her youth. This quickly shows itself to be a case of Psychological Projection when the mother is revealed to be one of Rentarou’s soulmates, with her only restraint having been fear of disrespecting the memory of Hakari’s late father.
  • When Taichi from Yuureitou goes to a secluded opium village Disguised in Drag, he ends up as the Precocious Crush of an adolescent boy. Taichi notes that he doesn't make a particularly attractive woman, and the attraction is brought on by him being one of the few "young women" the boy has seen.

Comic Books 

  • The Punisher: In the The Punisher (2001) story arc "Streets of Laredo", Frank is jumped by the hotel owner almost as soon as he gets there, as she hasn't seen a man for six months. He just goes along with it so he can get information out of her.

Fan Works 

  • In An Arm and a Leg (Ravager Zero), Elsa has more-than-familial feelings towards her sister Anna. She admits that her years of isolation and repression have left her sexually frustrated and confused. After confessing, Anna prompts Elsa to try and look around for romance. She eventually falls for Hank.

Film — Animation 

  • Deconstructed in Frozen (2013), where Anna was desperate for any kind of closeness after being practically shut out by her sister Elsa because of Elsa's fear of her own powers, which was only worsened by the deaths of both their parents. Anna thus latched on to Prince Hans, the first guy she met who showed any kind of interest in her. Unfortunately, Hans anticipated this when he learned of their parents' deaths and deliberately set things up so that she would fall in love with him, which was easy because Anna Thinks Like a Romance Novel, and Hans proves to be anything but the good Disney Prince of other fare and in fact is the true villain of the movie.

Film — Live-Action 

  • In Hot Shots! Part Deux, Topper Harley is found working odd jobs at a monastery. The team sent to find him includes a woman. The monks, having been celibate for years, all behave like idiots trying to impress her.
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Played for Laughs with the maidens of Castle Anthrax, who live in isolation and are very pleased when Sir Galahad the Pure shows up at their door. It's eventually reciprocated; he's ready to do away with the "Pure" part with all 160 of them when he gets an Unwanted Rescue.

    Zoot: Oh, it is a lonely life — bathing, dressing, undressing, making exciting underwear... We are just not used to a handsome knight!

  • Played for drama in Rocketman (2019):
    • For a good portion of the film, Elton struggles with his sexuality, as a gay man in the '60s/'70s with a limited social circle. His feelings of isolation and detachment are the focus of "Tiny Dancer", as he watches his friend and crush, Bernie, go off with a woman; as a result, he wanders around the party alone, ignored by the other party goers, and ends up alone at a campfire. This is when John Reid shows up to offer him a drink, compliment him on his concert earlier that night, and boost his confidence in a way that also comes off as flirting. Elton is awkward and confused at first but swiftly begins to fall for him. They sleep together afterwards, cementing Elton's infatuation with John; it doesn't take long before they're officially dating. Unfortunately, this does not work out for Elton; in fact, his previous isolation only made it easier for John to win him over so quickly.
    • A variant occurs later on. After leaving John, briefly losing Bernie, and while dealing with the force of his many addictions, Elton is ready to be with whoever shows him any affection period. This means that when he meets the kindly nurse Renate, he's ready to abandon his common sense and retreat into the closet just to have a relationship. Cut to them getting married. Of course, it was doomed to fail, as Elton was incapable of actually having a stable romance with a woman.

Literature 

  • In Lord of the Rings, Eówyn was raised as a housewife/caregiver in Edoras, the capital of Rohan. However, she has always dreamt of finding glory on the battlefield just like the men of her people do. When she meets Aragorn for the first time, she quickly falls in love with him, but her brother Eómer is quick to point out that it's not his person she is infatuated with, but the idea of glory that he brought into her life — "the cage", how she described it up to that point

Live-Action TV 

  • In Lodge 49, Gloria becomes smitten with barely hygienic slacker Dud because she is desperately lonely since her husband left her and her co-workers got fired, and he's the only person at Orbis who treats her like a human being, and since he's a temp, she won't be forced to fire him.

Video Games 

  • In Persona 5, Futaba was a Hikikomori before she encountered Ren/Joker for the first time — she hadn't spoken to anyone but her father in person for years at this point. During their confidant quests, Ren helps her become more comfortable in the real world, when she also falls in love with him. You as the player can decide for yourself if this feeling is mutual. To a lesser extent, this applies to all of the romantic options in the game, as they're all women who are socially isolated for one reason or another (Ann's looks and half-foreign heritage, Makoto's awkwardness around people she doesn't know, Haru's wealth...) which leads to several adult characters who will potentially pursue a romantic relationship with Ren despite him being underaged if he chooses to initiate.

Western Animation 

  • Played for laughs in American Dad!, where Buckle had been isolated from humanity for so long that he forgot what his original name was. Upon meeting Haley, he immediately falls in love and tries to romance her with his outdated and desperate methods. By the end of his introductory episode, he ends up married to the equally desperate Jewish woman, Sharryl, who was roped into one of Roger's schemes to marry Jewish just to get a new juicer as a wedding gift.
  • Gargoyles: For much of the series, the Manhattan gargoyle clan consisted of five males and their pet. The only females they had regular contact with were Elisa Maza, a human police officer, and Demona, their leader Goliath's now-evil ex. After Goliath and Elisa visit Avalon, where a group of gargoyles were raised in seclusion, they return to New York with Angela, Goliath and Demona's daughter. The three younger males of the clan then spend an entire episode trying to flirt with Angela in various ways, much to Angela's annoyance until she finally lays down the law and tells them to knock it off.
  • In Miraculous Ladybug, a significant component of Kagami Tsurugi's unhealthy fixation on Adrien Agreste is the fact that he is the only boy (and one of the only humans) that her incredibly strict mother allows her to spend any time with. Notably, she gets considerably less obsessed with him after season 3, when she befriends Marinette Dupain-Cheng, to the point that she ends up giving up a relationship with him because she realizes that he and Marinette are in love with each other, and she decides it would be better to have two friends than a Love Triangle.

Both kinds:

Anime & Manga 

  • Nagasarete Airantou: Airan Island is a Lady Land until Unlucky Everydude Ikuto Touhouin washes up on shore and gains an Unwanted Harem.
  • In the Amazon Lily arc in One Piece, Luffy just had the (mis)fortune of falling into a Lady Land that is the Amazon Lily Island. The tribeswomen who discovered him (after they strip him naked because he got sick) stares at him in both awe and puzzlement.

Fan Works 

  • In God Help the Outcasts, Because of how long he's been held prisoner in the Monster Containment Facility, Dr. Cockroach is instantly attracted to Susan when they first meet. The author has stated that this is partially because he's gone sixty years without seeing any women. Fortunately, he's too polite and has too much respect for her to act on his feelings at least until he learns they're somewhat reciprocated.

Film — Live-Action 

  • The Grand Illusion: Played with. The film is set in a World War I POW camp, and when one of the prisoners puts on women's clothing for a theatrical production, the isolated POWs are agog in lust since it's the closest they've seen to a woman in months.

Film — Animation 

Literature 

  • Everworld: One chapter finds the main cast in a relatively backwoods part of Everworld, where the narration notes that the girls there, innately looking for males outside their bloodline, leer at the men in the cast.
  • Lilith's Brood: Played for Drama when the alien Oankali introduces Lilith, who's recently awakened from suspended animation, to another human they'd rescued from Earth After the End. He's thrilled to meet a human woman for the first time since his childhood, but quickly proves to be mentally unstable and tries to assault her when she's not interested in having sex then and there.

Theatre 

  • Deconstructed in EPIC: The Musical, where after spending countless years on a supernaturally isolated island, Calypso is utterly ecstatic when Odysseus washes up on her shore, immediately proclaiming him to be her lover. Unfortunately, she also fails to understand her love is unrequited and tries to convince him to enjoy their life together, oblivious to the hero's pain as he pines for his wife and mourns his friends. [[Things proceed to escalate until Odysseus becomes suicidal, horrifying Calypso, who still can't understand why her love doesn't help]].

Western Animation 

  • The Smurfs: Double subverted in the third book, "The Smurfette", where Gargamel creates a Smurfette to have her presence cause in-fighting among the Smurfs for her, but it doesn't really work out at first since her presence isn't enough to attract the Smurfs, who find her annoying and bully her. It isn't until Papa Smurf gives her "plastic smurfery" that the Smurfs get attracted to her.

Web Original 

  • Team Fortress 2: In the comics, the Heavy brings two of his colleagues to his family's house. His sisters, who have not seen a man for twenty years, hope it's Sniper and Spy, but are disappointed to see it's Scout and Soldier instead. Zhanna is desperate enough to sleep with Soldier, which then becomes a real romance after Soldier's disconnection with reality starts rubbing off on her (such as when they both start fighting naked and covered in honey).
  • Referenced in It's Just a Show. On their episode on Mystery Science Theater 3000's take on The Deadly Mantis, hosts Beth and Adam refer to this trope when the arctic research base lusts after Marge's arrival, comparing it to the scene in The Grand Illusion where a French POW puts on women's clothing for a play and the other prisoners stare on in "stunned, eroticized silence."