The journey of two characters from strangers to lovers.
One of the perennial herbs and spices in the cauldron of storytelling old and new. It's been around a while, it's a major driving force of fiction and it's not going anywhere. A surefire crowd pleaser; probably the only way to really, really screw it up is to overdo it. Induces emotional stakes in an audience like nothing else.
Comes in a myriad forms and flavors. Employs plenty of tropes to get itself across, though a lot of them are mutually exclusive. Like many other tropes, the Romance Arc is looking for a balance: Too many stock derivatives and it's just too much; too few, and it's not much of an arc at all.
See also: Love Tropes; How to Become a Love Interest
Here are some of the common checkpoints of a Romance Arc in typical chronological order.
Tropes:
- Love Before First Sight
- Boy Meets Girl
- The Bet
- Criminally Attractive
- The Dulcinea Effect
- Fate Drives Us Together
- Honey Trap
- In Love with the Mark
- Introduction by Hookup
- Kids Play Matchmaker
- Love at First Note
- Love at First Punch
- Love at First Sight
- Marriage Before Romance
- A Match Made in Stockholm
- Meet Cute
- Rescue Romance
- Samaritan Relationship Starter
- She Is All Grown Up
- A Side Order of Romance
- Just Friends
- Unresolved Sexual Tension
- Almost Holding Hands
- Almost Kiss
- Belligerent Sexual Tension
- Bonding Through Shared Earbuds
- Bonfire Dance (if romantic)
- Cannot Spit It Out
- Dance of Romance
- Date Peepers
- Everyone Can See It
- Fake First Kiss
- False Start: Something prevents a long-awaited love confession from happening.
- Held Gaze
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone
- Longing Look
- Moment Killer
- Mutual Pining
- Operation: Jealousy
- Playing Hard to Get
- Redundant Romance Attempt: Acting out of character to impress a love interest who likes your true personality.
- Relationship Revolving Door
- Romance Ensues
- Romantic False Lead
- Ship Tease
- Wrong Guy First
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore
- Maybe Ever After (probable exit point)
- Relationship Upgrade
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!
- Boy Loses Girl
- I Have Your Girlfriend
- I Will Wait for You
- Second Act Break Up
- Break His Heart to Save Him
- Break Up Demand
- A Deadly Affair
- Downtime Downgrade (where the "Second Act" is either a Sequel or in between episodes)
- Make Up or Break Up
- The Masochism Tango
- Proxy Breakup
- Third-Act Misunderstanding
- Boy Finds Girl Again
- Did Not Get the Girl
- Her Heart Will Go On (exit point)
- The Big Damn Kiss
- Demoted to Satellite Love Interest
- Happily Ever After
- Happily Married
- Hooked Up Afterwards
- I "Uh" You, Too
- With This Ring
- Wedding Finale
- Together in Death (exit point)
- Reincarnation Romance (Go back to start)
- No Romantic Resolution (exit point)
