Romantic Plot Tumor - TV Tropes

• There are two notable examples in Negima! Magister Negi Magi.
  • First is the love triangle between Nodoka, Yue, and Negi. It began with Nodoka developing an early crush on Negi and Yue trying to play matchmaker but succumbing to her own feelings. Not wanting to get in the way, she tried to withdraw before Nodoka made her realize it was okay. In the end, this love triangle became one of Yue's most defining characteristics with everyone telling her to hurry up and confess and Yue never getting around to it. It does take a back seat to the plot when she enters a magical academy due to her memory being erased though. This subplot strings along for several hundred chapters before getting a partial resolution a few months before the series ended and in the end, it went nowhere at all. Both Nodoka and Yue were rejected.
  • Secondly is the relationship between Setsuna and Konoka. It became a princess/bodyguard-type relationship before yuri subtext began to grow. Setsuna's angst over the matter became the defining part of her character arc and lasted several hundred chapters without progress even after a pactio. During the ordeal, Konoka's actual character diminished to insignificance.
• Four big examples in UQ Holder!:
  • The shoehorned Time-Travel Romance between Touta and his mother figure Yukihime/Evangeline. Before it happened, the story was setting up the start of a plot-relevant Tournament Arc where Touta would go to the top of the Space Elevator in the finals and face his most powerful enemy Fate and his missing grandfather Negi. Then, literally out of nowhere, Yukihime's former teacher Dana kidnaps Touta and takes him to her castle located at the Void Between the Worlds to train him and some of his friends. In the middle of his training, Touta continues bumping into a Yukihime from the Middle Ages and the two quickly develop romantic feelings for each other while all of the plot and other characters are completely pushed aside.
  • When it looked like the manga was going back to the Tournament Arc, it was once again discarded in favor of putting all focus on the potential romance between Touta and Kirie. All the main characters suddenly wanted to drop everything so they could play matchmaker for Touta and Kirie. Several chapters were totally wasted on excessive Fanservice antics from a naked Kirie with Touta. It got to the point that the rest of the Unwanted Harem became utterly irrelevant because the other girls are always so Out of Focus that they don't try to get Touta hard enough or are rooting for Kirie.
  • Kuroumaru, the Expy of Setsuna mentioned above, was plagued with a very similar problem to their Shinmei-ryuu predecessor. Kuroumaru was presented as a person with No Biological Sex who was struggling to define their gender identity before they had to choose their physical sex at their sixteenth birthday, but Kuroumaru's character arc was soon dropped in favor of Kuroumaru's angst over their feelings for Touta. The issue went over a hundred chapters with no progress even after Kuroumaru confesses the truth of their body to Touta right before they make a pactio.
  • Right when it looks like the main cast will go to the Final Battle against the Big Bad, the plot gets derailed by an abrupt Time Skip where Touta is separated from his allies and must go look for them. As he finds the girls, entire chapters are spent on them advancing their relationship with Touta including having sex with him while all other characters and plot points are thoroughly ignored or put on hold.

• At least in the anime anyway... As of Chapter 190 in the manga she may be the only reason he can recover his heart... or cementing his new state as a brainless unstoppable killing machine. In Chapter 197, the former wins.

• Supergirl (1982): A substantial chunk of the second half of the book was spent on Linda Danvers and Philip Decker's relationship, at the expense of actual important plotlines (the mysterious and nefarious Circle sending their agents after Supergirl, the return of Dick Malverne, Linda struggling to strive a balance between her two identities...), which never reached a resolution because the writer was too busy writing another lovers' quarrel scene to tie up all loose ends before the book's cancellation.
• Supergirl (2016): Despite being warned that his book was being cancelled, Steve Orlando chose to focus on Kara Danvers and Benjamin Rubel's burgeoning romance, even devoting one entire issue to Ben and his relationship with Supergirl, rather than properly developing and pacing the main plot (Kara being targeted by the D.E.O. and its newest director), with the result that the final issue was rushed, introduced new characters and plot developments out of nowhere, and reached a sudden, unsatisfactory resolution. It does not help that Ben was put on a bus afterwards.

• Louie and Cecilia's romantic subplot seems to just exist for the sake of having a token romance in the movie at all, and it overall comes off as cloying.
• Elsa's crush on Rex. Unlike Louie and Cecilia, this one's way more ambiguous, given Rex's reactions to Elsa's flirting show he doesn't feel very comfortable about the whole thing, even when she flat out reveals her feelings right after the climax. Thankfully, it's got just two scenes and that is all.

• Some felt this way about how things played for Ron and Hermione in the sixth book as well.
• In general, the relationship dramas of Half-Blood Prince are highlighted by two key facts. Firstly, it gives the impression of cramming plenty of relationship development into one book, with Harry/Ginny feeling Strangled by the Red String thanks to Harry's feelings for her coming rather suddenly (barring subtle hints that many readers took as poor writing) and his "chest monster"; Ron/Hermione meanwhile embodies UST since the fact they Cannot Spit It Out becomes tiresome due to overexposure. Secondly, major developments (which are smattered through the novel) aside, the book is a Breather Episode that comes between the tense Order of the Phoenix (which was about preparing for a war that the Ministry of Magic refused to believe was on the horizon) and the climactically fast-paced Deathly Hallows (which brings all the tensions between the cast to the fore and finally resolves them, while they're on The Quest as the war finally breaks out in full).

• In the first books, the Farseer Trilogy, quite a bit of time is spent on the Fitz/Molly subplot and it gets quite tedious to listen to Fitz endlessly pining and wangsting over her when there's far more important matters going on (this is especially egregious in Royal Assassin), especially as Molly herself isn't an interesting or even particularly likeable character and instead just spends her time bitching about how Fitz doesn't spend enough time with her and gets angry with him for having a life outside of her. You get the impression Fitz merely likes her because she's the only girl his age he knew growing up. It's even lampshaded in the third book when Kettle points out to Fitz that their love for each other was more about who they used to be rather than who they are and their relationship is based on childhood memories and not much else. Even Fitz comes to see Kettle's right and decides to gracefully back away and let Burrich settle down with Molly instead, knowing Burrich deserves to be happy.
• To a lesser extent in the Liveship Traders trilogy, there's the Althea/Brashen subplot that is initially just Ship Tease on both sides, but they go through a cycle of meeting up/flirting/arguing/having sex/miscommunicating/storming off/pining, repeated several times over the course of the books and it gets quite tiresome after a while, especially as Althea's goal of winning back Vivacia takes a backseat to her obsessing over her feelings for Brashen which is probably why she ends up not getting the ship back at the end of the books.

• Graystripe/Silverstream — Whether their romance was tragic or overdramatic, Graystripe will forever be associated with this relationship, and almost everything in the series involving him is somehow tied in with Silverstream and his love/obsession with her.
• Firestar/Spottedleaf — A much more divisive ship than the above (probably the most divisive of the series, in fact). Little to no relationship was built between the two while Spottedleaf was still alive, yet the entire rest of the series treats it as though they had a big, intricate romance that ended in tragedy. Their "relationship" serves the plot quite a bit despite barely existing at all. Sometimes, like in the cast of Firestar's Quest, the focus is so into this shadow of a ship that the main plot gets pushed to the side.
• Bluestar/Oakheart — In the first series, their romance was considered a tragic story that threw both, but especially Bluestar, into a sympathetic light. In Bluestar's Prophecy, once Oakheart enters the picture, almost Bluestar's entire arc is about her underdeveloped, sudden, and short romance with him.
• Bramblestar/Squirrelflight — While their relationship is considered one of the better ones for the most part, the plot sometimes decides to spend WAY too much time on their relationship drama and has Bramblestar give Disproportionate Retribution to Squirrelflight after the plot involving their kits. The New Prophecy focuses on them for almost half of the arc, and Bramblestar's Storm may as well be called "Bramblestar and Squirrelflight: Will They or Won't They?".
• Leafpool/Crowfeather — These two suffer from the same issues as Bluestar/Oakheart above, only without the prior build-up. What's worse is that their relationship is the focus of more than just one book; half of The New Prophecy, the last two books of The Power of Three, and about half of Omen of the Stars are heavily reliant on their fling in Starlight and Twilight. Of course, considering what it resulted in, it is partially understandable. However, plenty of fans are sick of them at this point.
• Dovewing/Tigerheart — Their relationship was pretty drawn out, Dovewing's feelings spanning almost the entirety of Omen of the Stars and serving as a major plot for her, despite Tigerheart's devotion being rather limited and being seen as a traitor in her eyes for helping his Clan hold her sister hostage and being in the Dark Forest. By Bramblestar's Storm, set a whole six moons after the ending of Omen of the Stars, she still has very obvious feelings for him. It took yet another arc and one Super Edition for their Will They or Won't They? to finally be resolved, with Dovewing having Tigerheart's kits and deciding to move to ShadowClan to be with him. In total, that's fourteen books, fifteen if Dovewing's Silence is counted. Understandably, their relationship, bearing almost no substance, got old fast. If one never read the chapters of the fourth arc told through the POV of the three other main characters, one would think an imminent war wasn't about to break out between the living cats and the vengeful cats of the Dark Forest.

• Some feel this way about the end of Tales of Destiny 2. It's not that Kyle and Reala's tragic romance isn't... Well, tragic, or heartwrenching, it is pretty sad that Kyle has to choose between letting Reala get erased from time or dooming the world, it's that it starts taking up the whole plot and starts stealing the spotlight off of more interesting subplots and characters that are hastily swept under the rug to make way for it.
• Tales of the Abyss:
  • The blossoming romance between Luke and Tear, to some people. It begins to start up rather abruptly, shortly after Luke's Important Haircut, when he is actually still focusing on his personal quest of becoming a better person after the fiasco that was Akzeriuth, in which he killed the citizens of an entire town and romance would not be something that high on his list. Especially since the Akzeriuth fiasco also revealed that, via cloning, Luke is technically only 7 years old mentally. Their interactions are always awkward, they don't really advance their romance past this highly awkward stage and it gets worse as the game progresses. More and more scenes seem to shove the two of them together, which does not work well with the aforementioned awkwardness. This romantic subplot could've easily been taken out of the game entirely and not have made much difference, considering the game is already dealing with a heavy plot of talking about one's meaning of existence and finding one's spot in the world.
  • Natalia and Asch's romance. Despite it being more of a side-thing, their few scenes together are given focus in a way to likely counter the above Luke and Tear moments. Ignoring the potential Squick factor that the two of them are cousins though it's revealed that Natalia is not the king's real daughter, making her completely unrelated to Asch, said scenes of them can come across as wanting to play up a Star-Crossed Lovers aspect in their relationship, with Asch initially being their enemy, but then turning into the aloof Anti-Hero who doesn't want to join. The fact that Asch dies later, leaving her heartbroken, doesn't help the Star-Crossed Lovers idea.
• Tales of Graces with Asbel and Cheria, most noticeably in the Lineage and Legacies arc. During the main arc, it was made obvious that Cheria was carrying a torch for Asbel but never managed to tell him and Asbel himself never noticing. And the main arc had Cheria mention that, since she realized that Asbel would never get it and there was a period of lack of prolonged contact between them, she decided to move on and do things on her own. Any potentially romantic opportunities were then left in sidequests. Contrary to that, the Lineage and Legacies arc was practically nothing but Cheria and Asbel's very obvious romance. Asbel is portrayed from the beginning as thinking of Cheria in a special way, both get very stuttery around each other and blush a lot, with the rest of the party teasing the two about it as well. It's very different from their portrayal in the main arc and has caused some players to accuse Namco of having strangled the two with a red string of fate.
• Tales of Xillia has Jude and Milla. The fact that any romantic scene between the two of them is a YMMV moment itself on whether it actually counts as romantic or something else, and the game heavy-handedly shoving the two together a lot makes any potential romance between them unpleasant to go through in the game. Especially if it comes over the potential better option of Jude and Leia. Jude and Milla did not fare better in the sequel. While Jude was made less of a Satellite Character and his Character Chapters focus on his attempt at making his spyrite technology work, so that spyrix will no longer be needed, the fourth and fifth Chapters heavily shove Milla and Jude together again, completely taking the focus off of the spyrite aspect. The attempts at romantic scenes come across as very awkward and out of place and while his spyrite technology does advance as well, it comes at the cost of viewing said awkward scenes.

• Lampshaded in Act 6 when John proclaims that he's sick of shipping and just wants to focus on getting stuff done.
• Act 6 takes it into full-blown parody, with Aranea slipping into a self-indulgent Exposition Dump about leprechaun romance, which is noted to be completely irrelevant to the story and shown to be pointlessly complex. She's interrupted in the middle of her speech because the rest of the cast is starting to get pissed off by the pointless romance.

Costa Concordia Q&A

The court also focused a lot on the affair with Cemortan, even though it basically had nothing to do with the tragedy. It was fairly incidental. To be fair, we did that too, we thought it was funny, but they turned it into a media circus and the claims of her "distracting the captain" were, as far as we can tell it, are just untrue. (laughs) Thank you for the note, by the way: one of the editors here says "it's not like he had her bent over the steering wheel at the time!" Yeah, brilliant, yeah, couldn't have put it better myself.