Long-Distance Relationship/Playing With

Basic Trope: Two halves of a couple live far away from one another.

• Played Straight: Alice and Bob are a couple, but Alice lives in Massachusetts and Bob lives in California.
• Exaggerated: Alice lives in Massachusetts, and Bob lives on the moon.
• Inverted: Alice and Bob live in the same town or city.
• Justified: Alice and Bob started dating when they did live in the same area, but one of them had to move.
  • Alice and Bob met at a Fan Convention of some sort and only get to see each other in person once a year at the convention.
  • Alice and Bob met on an online dating service or through a "pen-pal finder club" or something.
  • One of them is in the military, and is on active duty.
  • For whatever reason(s), Alice and Bob have to keep their relationship a secret.
• Subverted: Alice and Bob start dating in the same city.
  • Alice and Bob decide that because of the distance, they are going to have an open relationship
  • Alice and Bob don't live that far from one another.
  • Alice and Bob are not a couple, but just really good friends.
• Double Subverted: But then it turns out that Alice is a foreign exchange student from England and has to go back there at the end of the semester. And Bob doesn't want to break up simply because of that.
  • But then decide later that they can make it work and close the relationship, or simply end up not seeing other people anyway.
  • But they live about an hour or two away.
  • They really miss and/or want to see each other in-person, though.
• Deconstructed: The long distance can put strain on the relationship: there's UST and the fact that the other person is missed but not there, and it can lead to cheating...or jealousy and suspicion of cheating.
• Reconstructed: Alice and Bob agree to spend time talking to one another and invest in webcams, and they make the most of the time they do get to spend together in person. They also agree to be faithful to one another and stick to that.
• Parodied: Alice and Bob live in completely different universes!
• Lampshaded: "My girlfriend lives in Boston, so I only get to see her a couple times a year...thank God for the Internet!"
• Averted: Alice and Bob live in the same town or city.
  • Alice and Bob are not a couple.
• Enforced: "Hmm...let's see. Last season, Alice was Put on a Bus, but we want her to get together with Bob without too much Continuity Snarl...I know! We'll make them have a Long-Distance Relationship!"
• Invoked: Alice meets Bob through an online forum.
• Defied: Alice and Bob decide that warm, fuzzy feelings to the contrary, an LDR is just too stressful and inconvenient. They decide to be Just Friends.
• Discussed:
• Conversed:
• Played For Laughs: Bob comes over...and turns out to be a Starfish Alien
• Played For Drama: Alice and Bob miss each other so much, and get jealous...the relationship becomes an emotional rollercoaster. Can they overcome their problems? Or will they end up breaking up?

---

Back to Long-Distance Relationship