History Main / MatchmakerCrush

** ''Tokimeki Memorial 4'' has Miyako Okura, a HiddenInPlainSight SecretCharacter who's more than happy to play the part of the TheMatchmaker, in spite of being an UnluckyChildhoodFriend... Unless you manage to [[DoggedNiceGuy nag her into a date]]. [[spoiler: It all goes downhill from there, and unlocking her effectively [[PoisonousFriend cuts you off from being able to win almost all characters you haven't met yet.]] For worse, Miyako soon shows her {{Yandere}} side too...]]

* Literature/TristanAndIsolde: Hearing of her revulsion for King Mark of Cornwall, Tristan acquires a love potion, which with the best of intentions he intends to use on her to make her fall in love with Mark. But she deftly ensures Tristan drinks it so he falls in love with her.

* The legend of the star-crossed lovers Diarmuid and Deirdre in Myth/CelticMythology. The valiant and noble warrior Diarmuid is sent by his King to collect the lovely Deirdre, the fairest woman in all of Ireland, for her arranged marriage to the King Diarmuid serves. The King explains that he can only trust Diarmuid to be principled enough to ensure the beautiful woman arrives safely, and still a virgin. However, she is less than thrilled at being married off to a man twice her age. Romance begins and the two elope as lovers, enraging the king who sends warriors to track and slay them.
** This is further complicated if one takes into account the other versions of the legend in which Diarmuid is cursed with a spot on his skin that entrances any woman who sees it; which is what happened with Deidre who magically forces him to run away with her, though Diarmuid did come to genuinely love Deidre in time.
** This was later incorporated wholesale into the [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian mythos]] as the tale of Tristan and Isolde. Here, the added twist is that hearing of her revulsion for King Mark of Cornwall, Tristan acquires a love potion, which with the best of intentions he intends to use on her to make her fall in love with Mark. But she deftly ensures Tristan drinks it so he falls in love with her...

* ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'': At first, Gretchen is eager to hear about Jasper's relationship with his lost "[[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend friend]]" Agnes, is disappointed when he won't go into detail about the one intimate night they had, and seems totally fine with guiding Jasper across Deadland in the hopes of finding her. Not long into their journey, Gretchen starts to get jealous, realizing that no one has ever loved her as much Jasper loves Agnes.

* ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'': At the start of the song "Living Dead", Gretchen is eager to hear about Jasper's relationship with his "[[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend friend]]" Agnes, and agrees to take Jasper to Deadland's various hangouts in the hopes Agnes might be at one of them. By the end of the song, Gretchen has begun to grow jealous of Agnes, and feels hurt when Jasper doesn't want to dance with her at the last club.

* ''Anime/DragonQuestYourStory'': Bianca supports the hero on his Engagement Challenge set by Rodrigo to marry Nera, despite her own obvious feelings for the hero, and she even tries to coach Luca through his actual proposal.
* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'': At the start of the story, Ichika tries to hook up Fuutarou with one of her sisters, actively acting as mediator so they can get along better. However, spending some moments alone with him causes her to develop feelings for him, which cause her to become conflicted about what she should do. [[spoiler:Deconstructed later on, when after a chat with Yotsuba, she decides to be more selfish in her pursuit of him and resorts to underhanded methods to try and keep the others from making moves on him before she does]].

* A common variation in ''Manga/LoveHina'' stories is Mutsumi is trying to get Keitaro and Naru together because she loves them both and wants [[OneTrueThreesome all three of them to be together]].

* ''Tokimeki Memorial 2'' has Kotoko Minaduki, who wishes for her best friend, Hikari (the heroine, and main love interest of the protagonist) [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy to finish with her childhood friend of a protagonist]]. Being a solid Type A {{Tsundere}}, she will NOT hesitate giving [[ArmorPiercingSlap Armor Piercing Slaps]] to him if she ever feels he neglects Hikari. Yet the protagonist can woo Kotoko (much to her resistance to her growing feelings for him), leading to this trope, and [[spoiler: a SlapSlapKiss (coming all from Kotoko) on Kotoko's ending, where she and Hikari are in love with the protagonist]].
* ''Tokimeki Memorial 4'' has Miyako Okura, a HiddenInPlainSight SecretCharacter who's more than happy to play the part of the TheMatchmaker, in spite of being an UnluckyChildhoodFriend... Unless you manage to [[DoggedNiceGuy nag her into a date]]. [[spoiler: It all goes downhill from there, and unlocking her effectively [[PoisonousFriend cuts you off from being able to win almost all characters you haven't met yet.]] For worse, Miyako soon shows her {{Yandere}} side too...]]
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'': Bianca supports the hero on his Engagement Challenge set by Rodrigo to marry Nera despite her own obvious feelings for the hero.

* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'': In the first half of Season 2, Harley is all for Ivy and Kite Man getting married because she thinks that'll make Ivy happy, even encouraging Ivy to accept the proposal despite Ivy not being sure she wants that herself. [[spoiler:Midway through the season, Harley realizes she has romantic feelings for Ivy and sort of asks her to cancel the wedding with Kite Man so they can hook up. However, Ivy has already convinced herself Kite Man is her safe option for a stable married life and rejects Harley's confession.]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'': Throughout the {{Anime}} series, at every opportunity Kyou tries to push Tomoya to be with her twin sister Ryou, even though she too has a crush on him. And in the Visual Novel, Ryou doesn't even ''get'' a real route. Well, she does, but it doesn't count towards the true ending of the story.

* The Korean manhwa ''Green Boy'' has a more direct spin on this. [[GenkiGirl Ha-Eun]] has a crush on [[BadassBookworm Taejin]], who is already on crushing on [[ActionGirl Jae-in]]. Since Ha-Eun wants to be friends with both Jae-in and Taejin, she happily pushes them both toward each other even as she makes no secret about her crush on Taejin to both of them while assuring them that she'd never act on it because she [[ShipperOnDeck finds them both adorable together]]. The trope is played with, however, when later chapters show that this is partly [[StepfordSmiler a facade]], and she visibly struggles to stifle her GreenEyedMonster the first time she sees them kiss.

** During the earlier parts of the series, Rias Gremory would try pair her servants; Issei Hyoudou and Asia together, due to Issei being a HaremSeeker, while Asia is shown to have fallen in love with him due to him being a NiceGuy who saved her from being killed, as Issei was initially unable to see Asia's affection for him as romantic love. However, after Rias sees Issei fight earnestly for her in order to free her from her ArrangedMarriage and promising to rescue her, Rias falls in love with him herself, with the two girls becoming love rivals. However, due to Issei's desire for a harem, both accept the fact that they will have to share him, but compete for his attention and affection.

** Haruna aka Paru plays with this, she's acting as matchmaker for both Yue and Nodoka. After Negi's battle in the Ostian tournament she declares she has fallen for him... then laughs, declares she was kidding and gets yelled at for her joke.

* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'': At the start of the story, Ichika tries to hook up Fuutarou with one of her sisters, actively acting as mediator so they can get along better. However, spending some moments alone with him causes her to develop feelings for him, which cause her to become conflicted about what she should do. [[spoiler:Deconstructed later on, when after a chat with Yotsuba she decides to be more selfish in her pursue of him, and resorts to underhanded methods to try and keep the others from making moves on him before she does]].

* In ''Literature/{{Middlesex}}'', this happens with Desdemona and Lefty. Although Lefty was in love with her before she started trying to matchmake for him. It's only during the matchmaking process, however, that the feels start to become more reciprocal.

* ''Series/{{Community}}'': Played with in "[[Recap/CommunityS4E08HerstoryOfDance Herstory of Dance]]." Shirley and Annie both try and set Abed up with dates, and Abed thinks it will be fun to invoke the TwoTimerDate trope (without telling Shirley, Annie, or the dates). At the beginning of the night, he meets a girl named Rachel at the coat check, who thinks his plan sounds awesome and decides to help. Throughout the night, Rachel and Abed are getting closer, but he fails to notice and accidentally offends her. He goes back to apologize, and admits he really should have noticed.

* Inverted on ''Series/That70sShow''. Red tries to set Eric up with their coworker Stacey, but when he tries to talk Eric up to her she makes a pass at Red himself.

* The legend of the star-crossed lovers Diarmuid and Deirdre in Myth/CelticMythology. The valiant and noble warrior Diarmuid is sent by his King to collect the lovely Deirdre, the fairest woman in all Ireland, for her arranged marriage to the King Diarmuid serves. The King explains that he can only trust Diarmuid to be principled enough to ensure the beautiful woman arrives safely, and still a virgin. However, she is less than thrilled at being married off to a man twice her age. Romance begins and the two elope as lovers, enraging the king who sends warriors to track and slay them.

* Viola in ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' ends up PlayingCyrano when she's disguised as a boy and the man she's fallen in love with sends her to the girl ''he'' likes with love messages. Then the girl falls in love with ''her''....

-->'''Gregor''' (In the A support): [[LampshadeHanging "Ah, Gregor... You have let fair woman take your heart while you not looking. ...... *Sigh* Ah, well. Gregor must solider on..."]]

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses:

** [[spoiler: Misha is revealed to harbor one of these in Shizune's route. In a subversion, Misha isn't in love with Hisao... [[SchoolgirlLesbians but with]] ''[[SchoolgirlLesbians Shizune]]'']].

* Yukari, a bisexual girl from the manga ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'', is this for both Tsukune and Moka, who she openly ships together. This is because Yukari's in love with both of them, and she thinks that if they become a couple, it'll be easier for her to get a threesome with them.

** During the earlier parts of the series, Rias Gremory would try pair her servants; Issei Hyoudou and Asia together, due to Issei being a HaremSeeker, while Asia is shown to have fallen in love with him due to him being a NiceGuy who saved her from being killed, as Issei was initially unable to see Asia's affection for him as romantic love. However, after Rias sees Issei fight earnestly for her in order to free her from her ArrangedMarriage and prosming to rescue her, Rias falls in love with him herself, with the two girls becoming love rivals. However, due to Issei's desire for a harem, both accept the fat that they will have to share him, but compete for his attention and affection.
** After seeing Rias fall in love with Issei, [[HeterosexualLifePartner her best friend]]; Akeno Himejima, tries to help progress their relationship by sometimes giving Issei advice or teasing them about their relationship. However, due to seeing Issei's determination and victory during Rias' engagement, Akeno became attracted to him and offered to have an affair with him, much to Rias' dismay.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolD×D''

* ''LightNovel/High School D×D''

** After seeing Rias fall in love with Issei, her best friend; Akeno Himejima, tries to help progress their relationship by sometimes giving Issei advice or teasing them about their relationship. However, due to seeing Issei's determination and victory during Rias' engagement, Akeno became attracted to him and offered to have an affair with him, much to Rias' dismay.

* Fanfic/Jgss0109sQueensOfMewni: Queen Hemera the Builder and her eventual husband, Roman Fields. Hemera’s younger sister, Nixie, developed a crush on Roman when he first came to the castle, but was too shy to approach him, so she asked Hemera to talk to him for her. The more time Hemera spent with Roman, however, the closer they became. [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard It certainly didn’t help that Nixie kept putting off approaching Roman herself, pushing him and her sister closer together]].

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

** Akira Ookochi, who asked Negi directly to go the Pactio route with Ako, Makie, and Yuuna (Ako and Makie both like Negi, while Yuna needs the Pactio to follow in her mother's footsteps) but refused to get one for herself. Until a long while later. Lampshaded by Chamo right before the last fact happens.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':
** Yue Ayase supports her friend Nodoka's feelings for Negi. First, she has no interest in Negi. Then she starts becoming attracted but suppresses it. Eventually, Yue gets found out and tries to run away in shame, but Nodoka tells her that it's okay for both of them to have feelings for Negi and that they're still friends. Additionally, Nodoka [[CovertPervert soon comes up]] with an [[MarryThemAll interesting solution]] that embarrasses her.
** Haruna aka Paru plays with this, she's acting as matchmaker for both Yue and Nodoka. After Negi's battle in the Ostian tournament she declares she has fallen for him... then laughs, declares she was kidding and gets yelled at for her joke.
** Akira Ookochi, who asked Negi directly to go the Pactio route with Ako, Makie, and Yuuna (Ako and Makie both like Negi, while Yuna needs the Pactio to follow in her mother's footsteps) but refused to get one for herself. Until a long while later. Lampshaded by Chamo right before the last fact happens.

** Quoted above: Sain from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken]]'' tells such phrases to his best friend and partner Kent in their B support, having noticed Kent's BodyguardCrush on their common lady of liege Lyndis, whom he also has a crush on. (Then again, this ''is'' [[ChivalrousPervert Sa]][[ShipperOnDeck in]] we're talking about.)

[[folder:Web Comics]]

Why? Perhaps they felt unworthy and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy just wanted their beloved to be happy]], but in the end just can't resist their own feelings. Or maybe their intentions were pure at the beginning, but the excessive attempts to help their target caused feelings to bloom.

* In ''Manga/DadTheBeardGorillaAndI'', Yukari wants to pursue Souichi, and she is helped by Tsukasa and Hino, who give her tips on how to attract his attention, and try their best to find opportunities for the two to get together. Eventually, Tsukasa falls for Souichi, while Hino becomes attracted to Yukari. [[spoiler: The first pair becomes an OfficialCouple, while the second gets a MaybeEverAfter after the former gets married.]]

** Yue Ayase supports her friend Nodoka's feelings for Negi. First, she has no interest in Negi. Then she starts becoming attracted, but suppresses it. Eventually, Yue gets found out and tries to run away in shame, but Nodoka tell her that it's okay for both of them to have feelings for Negi and that they're still friends. Additionally, Nodoka [[CovertPervert soon comes up]] with an [[MarryThemAll interesting solution]] that embarasses her.
** Haruna aka Paru plays with this, she's acting as matchmaker for both Yue and Nodoka. After Negi's battle in the Ostian tournament she declares she has fallen for him... then laughs, declares she was kidding, and gets yelled at for her joke.
** Akira Ookochi, who asked Negi directly to go the Pactio route with Ako, Makie and Yuuna(Ako and Makie both like Negi, while Yuna needs the Pactio to follow in her mother's footsteps) but refused to get one for herself. Until a long while later. Lampshaded by Chamo right before the last fact happens.

* Sophia in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' is at least a little in love with her best friend Katarina, but unlike everyone else she seems more interested in getting her to date her older brother Nicol. [[BigBrotherWorship Given how much she thinks of her brother]] that says a ''lot.'' With her advice, Nicol is the only one to manage so successfully get her to accept a girly gift like a necklace by making sure it's not too expensive and resembles one from a story Katarina likes.

* In ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'', this trope is used in two occasions to prove that even Keima can be GenreBlind:

* In ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', Coop, a cupid who's job it is to find true love for people, falls in love with his charge, Phoebe.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Rachel made this mistake twice with Ross. First, she initially agrees to Phoebe setting Ross up with a "bald" girl before finding out that said girl has grown her hair back and is beautiful. Second, she begs Ross to take Emily (her boss's niece) to the opera so she can meet up with Joshua, but then starts having feelings for Ross again when he and Emily are getting married.
* In ''Series/GossipGirl'', Chuck spends the first half of Season 1 trying to help his friend Nate have sex with Blair. And then the second half trying to prevent them having sex.
* On ''Series/HomeAndAway'', Rachel has twice set her coworker Julie up with her male friends, only to discover that said friends were more interested in her. This was previously done to Rachel, when Dan and Leah tried to set her up with Peter only to discover that Peter was in love with Leah.

* On ''Series/{{Misfits}}'', Rudy spends all of Series 4 and the beginning of Series 5 trying to get Jess to go out with Finn. Rudy being Rudy, it's fairly inevitable that he eventually ends up falling for her himself and going to extreme and comical lengths to ensure everyone gets a happy ending. [[spoiler:Making a video of Jess on the loo so that Finn will see her at her most unattractive, accidentally posting it to Website/YouTube instead of texting it to Finn, then knocking her phone into a lake before she can watch - only to have her see it later anyway on someone else's computer, because that's how the Internet works - is actually one of the less disastrous things he does.]] Luckily it all works out... eventually.

* ''Series/{{Skins}}'' does this in the S4 finale; [[spoiler:Katie is trying to get Thomas and Pandora back together, but realises at a fairly awkward moment that the plan has gone badly wrong and she's fallen for him...]]

** This was later incorporated wholesale into the [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian mythos]] as the tale of Tristan and Isolde. Here, the added twist is that hearing of her revulsion for King Mark of Cornwall, Tristan acquires a love potion, which with the best of intentions he intends using on her to make her fall in love with Mark. But she deftly ensures Tristan drinks it so he falls in love with her...

* In the opera ''La Gioconda'', the main character Gioconda is in love with the rebel Enzo. However he's in love with the noblewoman Laura, who saved Gioconda and her mother at the beginning. [[UnrequitedTragicMaiden Gioconda]] decides to repay her debt to Laura by helping her escape from her loveless marriage and get together with Enzo, [[spoiler: even [[HeroicSacrifice giving her life to do so]].]]

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'': Subverted. In [[TheAce Cordelia]] and [[BoisterousBruiser Gregor's]] supports, Gregor develops feelings for Cordelia [[UnrequitedTragicMaiden who has been in love with Chrom for a long time]], but decides to give her tips to win his affections instead. In the S support, however, Cordelia surprises Gregor via declaring her love for ''him'' instead, and [[RelationshipUpgrade they get together]].

* [[spoiler:Rider]] in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', judging by ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia''. She's clearly pushing Sakura and Shirou together the best she can (very awkward, uncomfortable and dangerous-feeling way) in Heaven's Feel, but in the sequel she's revealed to have something of an attraction to him as well. Oh, and Sakura gets [[{{Yandere}} very]] jealous when Shirou admits that [[spoiler:Rider]] is very beautiful and he likes her. He means it in a completely platonic way, but Sakura's self esteem isn't very good. Interestingly enough, being nice to [[spoiler:Rider]] still gets you Sakura points -- and this includes the scene where Shirou says [[spoiler:Rider]] is pretty.

* Riki in ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'' starts to develop feelings for Sasami during her route, even though he's trying to help her out with her feelings for Kengo. In his case, it's more out of necessity since [[spoiler:he believes that Sasami created the artificial world they're trapped in out of a desire to confess her feelings to Kengo, and that they'll remain trapped until she settles things. The route eventually shows that she isn't the creator of the artifical world like he first thought]].

* Inverted with ''Webcomic/{{Candi}}''. Linda tries to convince Candi to ''leave'' her boyfriend, and winds up falling for him during her scheme to break them up to help Candi.

* In ''Manga/KannazukiNoMiko'', Chikane actively pushes Himeko to date Souma because [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy she wants her to be happy.]]

Sometimes overlaps with WifeHusbandry when an older man tries heroically to pair a younger woman off with men her own age, only to fall for her himself.