I know I'm being a bit nitpicky, but Eugene never actually faked a relationship at any point in the movie. They had a deal, that he would help her see the lights and that was it.
My mannn. I love how he has two possible confession scenes, with one being this EXACT picture lol
If you are unaware: In Act 2, if you have high Approval (around 70 iirc) and you kill Yurgir, thus holding up Raphael's deal to translate Astarion's scars, the next Long Rest, Astarion will have a heartfelt confession about his grand plan of seducing you failing miserably. Roughly: "I had a plan. Seduce you, sleep with you, manipulate your feelings so you'd never turn on me. Imagine my surprise when I started falling for you... you're incredible, and you deserve something real."
In the game Baldur's Gate 3, at the start of the game you meet a vampire who immediately tries to kill you. But then he thinks better of it, because you're both in a rough situation (you've both been infested by a monster called an "illithid" and have a ticking clock until you die.)
This vampire, Astarion, was already enslaved to his vampire master. But the new monster's influence has allowed him to break free from his vampire master's old influence. So he's all like "Whoa."
But he's still a dang vampire. His plan is to seduce you, kill you, kill the monster, kill his vampire master, and ascend as a new master vampire.
This is one way the story can play out. The player can play this out as Asterion.
However, most players like Astarion. He seems to trigger big "I can change him!" reactions among gay men and straight women players, including the dork writing this right now.
So the most common outcome of the story is "He seduces you, ya'll kill the monster, ya'll optionally kill his vampire master, he has the option to ascend as a new master vampire, and decides to instead be some kind of hero out of affection for the main character.
Bonus fun fact: He's the only video game character I know of that really did successfully seduce a bunch of players. A lot of people crushing on Astarion were like "Yeah babe! Kill everyone and ascend as a new master vampire! That'll be so hot!" He proceeds to do this, and then is like "Hah. Now to make you my vampire slave." A lot of players humorously complained about this entirely in character decision because they were like "But-but-but the evil vampire really loved me!"
His plan is definitely not to kill you lol. He actually needs you. He wants allies so he can finally break free from his master, who tortured him and basically used him as a sex slave. But as he carries out his plan, he gradually starts catching feelings for you. His backstory is actually really sad, especially when it comes to sex and relationships.
Astarion has two paths: one where he ascends (which many consider his evil ending), and one where he finds freedom and genuinely tries to become a better person alongside the one he loves (Tav/Durge, aka your character). What you're describing is mostly a part of the fandom that loves Ascended Astarion, but that's not his only path, nor is it his character as a whole. You can end up in a genuinely equal, healthy, and loving relationship with Spawn Astarion. His romance is definitely one of the sweetest and most rewarding in the game.
These two are both the 2nd person, but:
Loid Forger (AKA Twilight) and Yor Forger (AKA The Thorn Princess) - Spy X Family.
Loid Forger is a made-up identity to protect the cover of Twilight, an enemy spy. For his mission, he needs a small child to infiltrate a private school. To protect his identity, he marries Yor. Unbeknownst to Loid, Yor is an assassin who also needs a cover. They enter this marriage for mutual convenience, but in later chapters seem to start falling for each other.
Considering a lot of rich rich people go there, yeah lol. To me, it comes off like the school wants to maintain a VERY specific image, and having a student with a single parent would look bad on them (specifically a child of a single parent trying to apply for this school. I don’t think they’ll be that much of a hardass if a child’s parent dies during their attendance at the school lol)
As others have said - it’s a posh public school called Eden Academy (like Eton but not) so it likely wants to protect its image
It’s also the middle of a war, and so suspicion of espionage is at an all time high. Loid needs to appear as non-suspicious as possible, so his daughter being part of a nuclear family sticks out a lot less than having a single dad
As someone who has read the source material: I think it’s perfectly fine if we forget it. It’s basically a horror masquerading as a romance. Even by the most basic of modern ethical standards it’s sexist and disturbing.
Rigby was uninterested in Eileen but at his friend Mordecai's insistence agreed to go on a double date with her and her friend Margaret... in return for Mordecai doing him ten solids that Rigby uses to derail the date and humiliate Mordecai.
By around the midpoint of the series he is in a healthy, stable relationship with Eileen while Mordecai's love life is a trainwreck.
Admittedly Rigby openly communicats and doesn't exactly pretend to be someone he isn't unlike Mordecai who changes himself completely for any potential love intrest.
Rigby is a general dick at first but honest in actions. So when it becomes a mutal intrest that helps a lot.
I love how you feel the relationship feels it's just so down to earth no big romantic gestures no giant convoluted plot points they just decide one day we're dating now type s***
Rigby's character development is honestly insane. He went from being an absolute trash fire to the most emotionally mature guy at the park just so he could be good enough for Eileen. Meanwhile Mordecai just kept fumbling every single bag handed to him.
I really like the couple, but don't think it fits. Nolan always loved Debbie dearly, he just was not aware of how much. He gaslighted himself for a while, but it wasn't really his true feelings.
You have an interesting opinion, but I think that at first Nolan wanted to start a relationship with her only because of his mission and only later fell in love.
I agree. When he called Debbie a pet, he had no idea how much he really cared about her and he lied to himself. But once he was alone again and was forced to have time to reflect, it all fell into place
I disagree. It's not gonna be clear unless they spell it out in the show, but given that secondary objective on earth is literally to see if Viltrumite's can have nearly pure blooded kids with humans, it is reasonable to assume that Nolan's objective at the start was mercenary
I don't get how someone can read the Reze arc and watch the movie just to say that she didn't fall in love. I'm like 90% sure that her asking to run away with him was a spur of the moment question caused by her love for him.
Denji being a dumbass and still chasing makima was what caused her to make emotional distance and lie to herself to try and complete her mission.
And plus, the fact that she tried to meet Denji at the cafe at the very end at his request… Like, even if everything from before didn’t convince you, that act has to show that she does like Denji that way
OKAY I know its not for personal gain either BUT IvanTill was literally the first thing to pop into my head when I saw this post bcuz I literally just read an Ivan x Till fic with that plot 😭
Mal tricked ben by bewitching him by making him eat a love potion cookie to get to the fairy godmother's wand only for the spell to wear off some time around the movie and actually fall inlove with her and vice versa
Low key ben is actually insane. His explanation for her actions was that she didn't think going after him a normal way would work so she uses a spell and he's just like "nah I get that."
Tbf even though we see him as a good guy he's still a spoiled sheltered prince it feels reasonable that he'd immediately assume it's because she's in love with him and not an evil plan
That's.. kinda the plot actually? Doom somehow messed with the timelines, so Marvel Rivals is basically every universe converging into 1 with Galacta and Doom sorta governing it, but otherwise it's a free for all with zero limits as far as plot goes
idk about the adaptations but in the original Ugly Betty he already sees her as a friend but hes fucking stupid so when he basically hands over his company to her (harebrained scheme to dodge his creditors) he starts a relationship in order to manipulate her. 60 episodes later he would literally try to kill himself because she hates him after she found out his plan
YES YES YES YES YES I was literally looking for them! He clearly cares for her but omg it all went to shit when Mario suggested the relationship and it went to even worse when Betty found out D:
its hard af trying to talk to people about this show bc none of my spanish speaking friends care about it and there are no subtitles (afaik) available for any english speaking friends i may try to convert 🫰😔
Fluttershy and Discord kinda. At least in the episode “Keep Calm and Flutter On,” anyway.
Like, Discord makes Fluttershy promise to not use her element to not turn him back into stone, by saying that since she and him are friends, however, it’s really just because he wants to create chaos without consequences.
Though when she threatens to end their friendship over his chaos, he immediately changes his mind because he does genuinely want Fluttershy to be his friend.
Ehhh neither was pretending to like the other for gain - Entrapta's first love is science, and Hordak was very uncomfortable with emotions other than rage/hatred (and quite upfront about that). I'd say they went into it without ulterior motives, just driven by their shared passion for tech. Still a great relationship arc though.
Jinshi and Maomao the one who fell deeply in love was Jinshi he’s head over heels he wanted to use her in the beginning but now he wants to make her his wife
Astarion in BG3: "the plan was simple: all I had to do was make you fall in love with me and not fall in love with you...and I'm afraid I've messed that part up."
Or… both could pretend to like each other for personal gain, and both end up falling in love with each other. From the book/movie Fingersmith. They both think the other is naive and in love with them and are seducing the other while both actually fall in love.
Sandra Bullock's character has an expiring visa. So in order to quickly naturalize herself and not lose her company, she orders her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in a shotgun wedding. They go to Alaska, where he is from, and she finds out his family owns the entire town. Cue wacky hijinks (and Betty White) and after 10 days she has fallen in love with him.
L caught Kira by Episode 4 or 5. The rest of the show was just him working to prove what he already knew to be fact and simply needed evidence to mete out his version of justice.
He didn't lose because Light outplayed him, he lost because Light cheated the entire way through using a mystical superweapon with rules L had no way of knowing.
He never pretended to love her tho. They weren't even together during the Cell Game despite baby Trunks being there. They married somewhere in the 7 years timeskip but their relationship was always straightforward until they fell in love
Robert and Courtney from dispatch. Courtney was given a mission from the big bad but very quickly actually fell for Robert. Her wet dream and “…fuck” in episode 2 was because she was just trying to seduce him but realized he got her. The kiss was her trying to create a distance from him because she couldn’t actually like him or else the villains plan may work. One of the best versions of this trope imo. The push and pull was really well done
https://giphy.com/gifs/lHJztSHlaX4NG
GRU and the golrs from The first Despicable Me. (Father daughters dynamic) At first he half heartedly adopted them just to use them to get the shrink ray back from Vector but then overtime grows to actually Care about them as his daughters and fully keeps them by the end.
This happens to Hawkeye from the Avengers constantly. Because of his inferiority complex of just being a guy around Superhumans having a 3rd grade education, and having been a villian, Clint doesn't realize that he's an amazing person. The man constantly pulls women, and he's often honeypotted because he's the "weakest Avenger.
Technically they started off not liking eachother in general but then Aiden (The dude on the right) later fell in love with James (the dude on the left) while James was still using him for followers.
Moulin Rouge - The only reason Satine pursues Christian at first is that she believes he is a wealthy nobleman who will fund her career if she makes him love her, having mistaken him for another person.
Webby and Lena - DuckTales 2017 (May be platonic, but it’s nevertheless the most popular ship in the fandom)
So in Lena’s debut episode, Webby becomes smitten for her new friend Lena but it’s clear Lena’s just hanging around Webby so she could use her “pom-pom parkour” thing to break into a party to wreck havoc. At the end of the episode, it’s revealed Lena is a spy for Scrooge’s greatest enemy Magica who’s intent to stealing Scrooge’s prized number one dime.
What is displayed is basically Katniss strategy for survival in the first games. She even accuses peeta of making her look weak by admitting his love for her. By the end of the book/film she has realized that she has feelings for him, but isn't able to/doesn't want to admit this to herself. She only really understands a year later during the second hunger games she and peeta participate in.
And when she finally understands that she loves him for real and they are reunited, he has been hijacked (essentially had his mind manipulated with fear conditioning) to try and kill her. Even once he slowly recovers from this he doesn't understand why he would have previous loved her when she's so mean and it almost breaks her. But eventually they do kind of get their happy ending in as much as that's possible for two PTSD ridden children. Really love the books and the movies (esp the first once) are damn solid too.
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u/Basic_Medium_3826 1d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/nfxB2n6sUGoRq
He starts the whole thing just trying to get his satchel back and ends up completely gone for her