Tropescilloscope: Romantic False Lead

A loves B. But C comes in and also loves B. Tension mounts. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Stuff Blowing Up The Smurfette Principle Tranquil Fury Even Evil Has Standards Sassy Black Woman Insult Backfire Our Vampires Are Different Manic Pixie Dream Girl Arc Words Fanservice Extra Spiritual Successor Posthumous Character Alpha Bitch In Name Only The Remake War Is Hell The Dreaded Belligerent Sexual Tension Grey and Gray Morality Serial Killer Bar Brawl Does Not Like Shoes Beware the Nice Ones Protagonist Title Grievous Bottley Harm Eiffel Tower Effect BFG More Dakka Almost Kiss Rule of Three Animated Credits Opening Ungrateful Bastard Suspiciously Similar Substitute Married to the Job Neck Lift Training Montage Non-Indicative Name Insane Troll Logic Blatant Lies Fatal Family Photo May–December Romance Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Eagleland Ghost Fiction Bond One-Liner Beard of Evil Amoral Attorney Mercy Kill Disappeared Dad Knight Templar Bolivian Army Ending Dull Surprise Breaking the Fourth Wall Facial Horror A Date with Rosie Palms Broken Pedestal Gorn Didn't Think This Through Mistaken for Gay Betty and Veronica Nothing Is Scarier Beta Couple Shoot the Shaggy Dog Dirty Old Man Jerk with a Heart of Gold Morality Pet Your Head A-Splode Silent Movie The Musical Suddenly SHOUTING! Visual Pun Vacation Films Continuity Nod The Mole A.I. Is a Crapshoot This Is Gonna Suck Taking the Bullet Moment Killer Parental Neglect Unwitting Instigator of Doom Reasonable Authority Figure Dramatic Irony Eyepatch of Power Evil Laugh Oh, Crap! Improvised Weapon Actually Pretty Funny Darkest Hour Unspoken Plan Guarantee Expy Composite Character The Un-Reveal Older Than They Look The Bad Guy Wins The Smart Guy Needs Wiki Magic Love Vomit Indiscretion Shot Loophole Abuse Not So Stoic Martial Arts Movie Reckless Gun Usage Pet the Dog Be Careful What You Wish For Credits Gag Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Get Out! Hoist by His Own Petard Animal Title Index Red Shirt Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Important Haircut Improbable Aiming Skills Slap-Slap-Kiss Daylight Horror Off with His Head! And the Adventure Continues Friend to All Children A Minor Kidroduction Asshole Victim Evil Brit And I Must Scream Not Using the "Z" Word Revenge Yandere La Résistance Blackmail Easily Forgiven Flipping the Bird Have a Gay Old Time Action Girl Bloodless Carnage Works Set in World War II Together in Death Cool Old Lady Last-Name Basis Bavarian Fire Drill Bald of Evil Unusual Euphemism Missing Mom Word of God Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Only Sane Man A Father to His Men Adaptation Distillation Self-Deprecation Curb-Stomp Battle No Celebrities Were Harmed No Ending Cool Guns Rated M for Manly Rasputinian Death Vampire Fiction Male Frontal Nudity Alas, Poor Villain Hooker with a Heart of Gold Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Evil Plan Mundane Made Awesome The Big Guy Covers Always Lie Madness Mantra Made of Iron The Lancer My Beloved Smother Bi the Way Manchild French Films Amusing Injuries The X of Y Death by Sex As You Know Re-Cut Thriller Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Failed a Spot Check Setting Update Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Sexy Discretion Shot Man on Fire Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Serious Business Extremely Short Timespan '80s Hair Artistic License – Military Genre Throwback Death by Irony Bait-and-Switch B-Movie Truth in Television Sole Survivor Guns Akimbo True Companions Dies Wide Open Red Oni, Blue Oni Five-Man Band Mighty Whitey Pragmatic Villainy Plot Hole Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Attempted Rape The '60s Every Car Is a Pinto Captain Obvious The Vamp Dual Wielding Here We Go Again! Disguised in Drag Dramatic Gun Cock Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Sequel Hook Jump Scare Early Installment Weirdness Groin Attack Big Fancy House Fake Shemp Deadpan Snarker Due to the Dead Mind Screw Central Theme Let's Get Dangerous! Meet Cute Guile Hero Suspiciously Specific Denial Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Rousing Speech Awesome, but Impractical Artistic License – Biology Documentary Author Appeal Star-Crossed Lovers Hope Spot Unresolved Sexual Tension Police are Useless Humiliation Conga Leaning on the Fourth Wall The Great Depression And Starring No Name Given I'm a Humanitarian One Steve Limit Diabolus ex Machina Mythology Gag Better to Die than Be Killed Animal Motifs Bowdlerise Make It Look Like an Accident The Ghost Worthy Opponent Leave the Camera Running Took a Level in Jerkass Parental Incest Outrun the Fireball Music Stories Double Entendre Broken Aesop Defrosting Ice Queen Superhero Costume Porn Half the Man He Used to Be Cold-Blooded Torture Bloody Hilarious The Hero Dies Killed Mid-Sentence The Dragon Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies It's All About Me Big Bad Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Darker and Edgier Scare Chord Anachronism Stew Fire-Forged Friends Bad Boss Adorkable Call-Forward NO INDOOR VOICE Large Ham Narrator Pyrrhic Victory Nice Hat Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! How We Got Here Stealth Hi/Bye Never My Fault "The Reason You Suck" Speech Hollywood Law Retired Badass Deus ex Machina In the Back You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Reality Has No Subtitles Rich Bitch What Happened to the Mouse? Heroic BSoD Pay Evil unto Evil Line-of-Sight Name Cruel and Unusual Death Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Camp Gay Anti-Villain Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Poor Communication Kills The '50s Match Cut Tempting Fate Made of Explodium The Quiet One Love at First Sight Parental Abandonment Implacable Man "Shaggy Dog" Story Artistic License – History Freudian Excuse Deliberate Values Dissonance Hero Antagonist Bound and Gagged Big Bad Duumvirate Vomit Discretion Shot Establishing Character Moment Meaningful Background Event Naïve Newcomer Pretty in Mink Domestic Abuse Camera Abuse Heel Realization Kill It with Fire Informed Ability Neck Snap Product Placement Casting Gag Dark Is Not Evil Twist Ending Drowning My Sorrows Fun with Acronyms A God Am I Determinator aka: The Determinator Red Right Hand The Cavalry Soft Glass Fate Worse than Death Video Credits Historical-Domain Character Psychological Thriller Dumb Blonde Big "NO!" I Need a Freaking Drink Rule of Cool Cool Shades Crazy Jealous Guy Running Gag Armor-Piercing Question Freeze-Frame Bonus Stalker with a Crush Race Against the Clock Mad Scientist Double-Meaning Title Black Comedy Rape Frame-Up Adaptation Expansion Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Cool Car Epic Movie Badass Longcoat Our Zombies Are Different Reality Is Unrealistic One-Word Title Coming-of-Age Story Stepford Smiler No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Kubrick Stare Faux Affably Evil Adaptation Name Change Femme Fatale Body Horror Bad "Bad Acting" Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Gold Digger Demonic Possession Not Quite Dead Cloudcuckoolander He Who Fights Monsters Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Dirty Cop Not So Above It All My God, What Have I Done? Disney Death Green-Eyed Monster Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Took a Level in Badass Politically Incorrect Villain Creator Cameo Scary Black Man Parental Substitute Action Prologue Sci-Fi Horror Exact Words One-Man Army Straight Gay Mr. Fanservice Handicapped Badass Annoying Younger Sibling Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Evil Is Petty Russian Films Dark and Troubled Past Market-Based Title Honor Before Reason Rule of Symbolism Dropped a Bridge on Him Only One Name Shown Their Work Celebrity Paradox As Himself Soundtrack Dissonance Big Applesauce Did Not Get the Girl As the Good Book Says... Catch-Phrase Obstructive Bureaucrat Earn Your Happy Ending Beauty Is Never Tarnished Up to Eleven Villain Protagonist Random Events Plot Badass Boast The Stoic The Starscream Brick Joke Jitter Cam Noodle Incident Adaptation Dye-Job Mama Bear Fat Bastard Karmic Death Chuck Cunningham Syndrome The Brute Ambiguous Disorder Apocalypse How Stylistic Suck Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Improbable Weapon User Tagline Sequel Escalation Mood Whiplash Anyone Can Die Jerkass Pragmatic Adaptation Never Trust a Trailer Small Name, Big Ego Time Skip Translation Convention Would Hurt a Child My Greatest Failure Throwing Your Sword Always Works Canadian Movies Skewed Priorities Historical Hero Upgrade Greater-Scope Villain Ship Tease Car Fu Gender Flip Bland-Name Product Butt-Monkey Ominous Latin Chanting Silence Is Golden Peek-a-Boo Corpse Ms. Fanservice Slasher Smile Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Gilligan Cut Fantastic Racism Bittersweet Ending Room Full of Crazy Obviously Evil Ax-Crazy Gratuitous English Face–Heel Turn Fingore Children Are Innocent Curse Cut Short Same Language Dub Aluminum Christmas Trees An Arm and a Leg Only Known by Their Nickname Cool Old Guy For Want of a Nail Black Best Friend Real Life Creative Closing Credits No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Shipper on Deck Department of Redundancy Department Big Damn Heroes Love Triangle Take That! Adapted Out Character Development Brutal Honesty Adaptational Villainy Zombie Stories Exactly What It Says on the Tin Genre Savvy Cat Scare Book-Ends The Faceless Depraved Bisexual She Cleans Up Nicely Never Found the Body The '80s Country Matters Rule of Funny Military and Warfare Films Disney Villain Death Heroes Want Redheads Put on a Bus Motor Mouth Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Author Avatar Cluster F-Bomb Wretched Hive Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Obfuscating Stupidity All Girls Want Bad Boys Interrupted Suicide Instant Death Bullet Expository Hairstyle Change Eye Scream Rewatch Bonus Naked People Are Funny Overprotective Dad In Medias Res You Killed My Father The Chessmaster Damsel in Distress Bond Villain Stupidity All for Nothing Jerkass Has a Point Dirty Coward MacGuffin Deal with the Devil Television Movie Index Lock and Load Montage Romantic Comedy Sports Stories Papa Wolf Becoming the Mask Chewing the Scenery Crapsack World Hidden Depths Dwindling Party Italian Films Chiaroscuro Comically Missing the Point Shout-Out Say My Name The Ditz The Chick Card-Carrying Villain Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Wham Shot What the Hell, Hero? Anti-Hero Adaptational Heroism Villain Opening Scene Horror Films Scenery Gorn Decoy Protagonist Age Lift Show Within a Show Dying Moment of Awesome Bunny-Ears Lawyer Woman in White As Long as It Sounds Foreign Hypocrite All There in the Script Contrived Coincidence Fourth Date Marriage Babies Ever After Rape as Drama Shower Scene Wham Line Offscreen Teleportation Those Two Bad Guys The Alcoholic Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun She's Got Legs Cassandra Truth Science Fiction Films Your Cheating Heart Unusually Uninteresting Sight Irony You Have Failed Me Affably Evil Developing Doomed Characters Dissonant Serenity Bullying a Dragon Kick the Son of a Bitch Names to Run Away from Really Fast Dark Action Girl Token Minority Ambiguously Gay You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Cowboy Cop An Axe to Grind Mooks Gone Horribly Right Dark Reprise Scenery Porn Artistic License – Law Catapult Nightmare Danny Peary Cult Movies List Foregone Conclusion Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Genre Shift Redemption Equals Death Redshirt Army Badass Normal There Is No Kill Like Overkill Adaptational Badass Undying Loyalty Does This Remind You of Anything? Lampshade Hanging British Films German Films Chase Scene Calling the Old Man Out Paper-Thin Disguise Artistic License – Geography Only in It for the Money Face Death with Dignity Getting Crap Past the Radar Roaring Rampage of Revenge Stealth Pun Gory Discretion Shot Deliberately Monochrome Chekhov's Gun Drives Like Crazy Cain and Abel Anachronic Order Idiot Ball "Awesome McCool" Name folderlabel Malevolent Masked Men Agony of the Feet After the End Hero of Another Story Sealed Evil in a Can Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Smoking Is Cool The Dog Bites Back Evil Is Hammy Punch-Clock Villain Historical Villain Upgrade Death of a Child Tap on the Head Offscreen Moment of Awesome All Just a Dream Disproportionate Retribution Recycled IN SPACE! Defiant to the End From Bad to Worse Authority Equals Asskicking Big Brother Instinct Evil Sounds Deep Punny Name N-Word Privileges Sadistic Choice Abusive Parents Christmas Movies Index Boom, Headshot! From Nobody to Nightmare The Stinger Reality Ensues Knife Nut It Will Never Catch On Death Glare Accidental Murder Refuge in Audacity The '70s Black Comedy Dressing as the Enemy Manly Tears Early-Bird Cameo The Ace Badass in a Nice Suit Artistic License – Gun Safety The Film of the Book All There in the Manual Homage Romantic False Lead Black Dude Dies First Chekhov's Skill Biopic The Mafia Distracted by the Sexy Framing Device The Hero Left the Background Music On The Lost Lenore Dutch Angle Villain Song Fainting Mexican Standoff Arch-Enemy Black and Gray Morality Precision F-Strike Extreme Doormat Leitmotif Imagine Spot Hate Sink Eureka Moment Not So Different Heel–Face Turn Light Is Not Good Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Shut Up, Hannibal! Insistent Terminology Conspicuous CG Abhorrent Admirer Monumental Damage Despair Event Horizon Not What It Looks Like Australian Movies Death by Adaptation Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Overly Long Gag It Can Think Take a Third Option Victoria's Secret Compartment Police Brutality No-Sell Closed Circle Ambiguous Ending Jerk Jock Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Laughing Mad For the Evulz Brother–Sister Incest Manipulative Bastard Death Seeker The Atoner Humans Are Bastards Adults Are Useless Broken Bird Heroic Sacrifice Demoted to Extra Funny Background Event Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Race Lift Would Hit a Girl Off-into-the-Distance Ending Villain Ball Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Destination Defenestration Cat Fight Foreshadowing Arranged Marriage Slashed Throat Wounded Gazelle Gambit Smug Snake Storming the Castle The Bully Those Two Guys Action Genre Psycho for Hire Good Is Not Nice Immune to Bullets Meaningful Echo Sinister Minister The End... Or Is It? Red Eyes, Take Warning World of Ham Film Noir Index Japanese Films Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie An Aesop Action Survivor Spanner in the Works Meaningful Name He Knows Too Much Empathic Environment Really Gets Around No Antagonist Bilingual Bonus The Reveal Major Injury Underreaction Henpecked Husband Psychopathic Manchild Heterosexual Life-Partners Sir Swears-a-Lot Call-Back Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Properly Paranoid Big-Bad Ensemble Accidental Misnaming Antagonist Title Fanservice Faking the Dead Bloodier and Gorier Public Domain Feature Films Air-Vent Passageway Spell My Name with an "S" Break the Cutie Fantasy Films Sanity Slippage Index of Film Westerns Adult Fear Blood from the Mouth Ascended Extra Fiery Redhead Kick the Dog Crazy-Prepared I Did What I Had to Do Playing Gertrude Red Herring What You Are in the Dark Alliterative Name Brainless Beauty Hell Is That Noise Foil Kids Are Cruel Artistic License – Physics The Oner Blood Knight Actor Allusion Super Strength The Power of Love Mugging the Monster Villainous Breakdown Eldritch Abomination Creepy Child Very Loosely Based on a True Story Gainax Ending Only a Flesh Wound Berserk Button Fatal Flaw Taking You with Me Advertised Extra Plucky Comic Relief Retirony The Alleged Car Four-Temperament Ensemble Fish out of Water Trailers Always Spoil Funny Foreigner Evil-Detecting Dog Deconstruction Epic Fail Intrepid Reporter Chekhov's Gunman Pre-Mortem One-Liner Drugs Are Bad Captain Ersatz Dogged Nice Guy Horror Comedy Even Evil Has Loved Ones Canon Foreigner Evil Counterpart Maybe Ever After The '90s Shirtless Scene Villain with Good Publicity Retcon Male Gaze Nice Guy Shell-Shocked Veteran Loads and Loads of Characters No OSHA Compliance Hong Kong Films Totally Radical Evil vs. Evil Spiteful Spit Determinator 20 Minutes into the Future Downer Ending Happily Married I Have Your Wife Laser-Guided Karma Not Even Bothering with the Accent Woman Scorned Flashback Stock Footage Slasher Movie Hypocritical Humor Lighter and Softer The Sociopath Intergenerational Friendship Mr. Exposition Ironic Echo Logo Joke Kill 'em All Sacrificial Lion I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Fan Disservice The Voiceless Wrong Genre Savvy Drill Sergeant Nasty Wicked Cultured Badass Grandpa Historical In-Joke Driven to Suicide The Casanova Bare Your Midriff Film Noir Hair-Trigger Temper I Want My Beloved to Be Happy All Men Are Perverts timeperiod Real Life Writes the Plot Combat Pragmatist Corpsing Corrupt Corporate Executive The Load Final Girl Riddle for the Ages Famous Last Words Enemy Mine Crucified Hero Shot Ripped from the Headlines "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Men Are the Expendable Gender Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor The Place Auto Erotica Vitriolic Best Buds Back from the Dead Spared by the Adaptation Pimped-Out Dress Adaptational Attractiveness Too Dumb to Live Title Drop Ass Shove Film Series Badass Bookworm Hollywood Darkness Karma Houdini Mystery and Detective Films Pretty Little Headshots Anguished Declaration of Love Bury Your Gays Unreliable Narrator Bottomless Magazines Break the Haughty It's Personal Award-Bait Song Whole Plot Reference O.O.C. Is Serious Business Batman Gambit Affectionate Parody Toplessness from the Back "Well Done, Son!" Guy Once More, with Clarity! The Stoner Bring My Brown Pants Those Wacky Nazis Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Based on a True Story Novelization The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite The Cameo Everyone Has Standards Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Dramedy Well-Intentioned Extremist Aside Glance Big Eater Daddy's Girl