Romantic Spoonfeeding

A use of Through His Stomach, with an excuse to get physically close to the Love Interest.

One person puts food into another's mouth as a romantic gesture. Very frequently, the feeding character will say a variant of "Say 'AAAH'" to the one that is being fed. The sensual aspects of the feeding usually get a lot of emphasis: doing it slowly, with a hand cupped under the other person's chin, maybe letting a fingertip linger in the recipient's mouth... you get the idea.

Often an action of Sickeningly Sweethearts. It's also part of some wedding traditions, like the newlyweds feeding each other soup or their wedding cake.

Compare Sweetheart Sipping, Indirect Kiss, Chocolate of Romance, or Erotic Eating. Spaghetti Kiss is a related trope.

Not to be confused with Strangled by the Red String, where the audience feels like they're being forcefully spoonfed a romance.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• In The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, the girls will usually do this with Rentarou. A Running Gag is that every time Karane tries to do it, she sticks the food into his eye.
  • The opening in the anime has the first five girlfriends do this at the same time - going so far that Rentarou ends with a Balloon Belly.
• In Bamboo Blade, there is a scene where Dan and Miya do this to each other (one of them using chopsticks, the other fork) in the schoolyard during the lunch pause.
• Played with in Berserk: Schierke tries to feed a bedridden Guts this way, but realizes what it looks like (she has a very obvious Precocious Crush on him), panics, and Guts ends up with a bowlful of very hot soup to the face.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Played for Laughs and for Ho Yay when Yukito drops by to visit Touya after he has an accident (in reality, he got involved in Sakura's Clow Card quests)... but Touya is the one who ends up spoonfeeding Yukito his pancakes.
• The Dangers in My Heart: This tends to happen between Ichikawa and Yamada often… mostly by accident, circumstance or miscommunication. Since they're Twice Shy, intentional moments are rarer.
  • During cooking class, Ichikawa eats a piece of burned pancake that Adachi made before Yamada could, grabbing her arm and shoving a fork-full in his mouth.
    Ichikawa : Ah man, Adachi's burned shit is the best thing ever. I'll take it all day. Yummy yummy.
    Adachi: (Flattered) Wha-...stup-! Man, don't you love me too much?!
  • Ichikawa misinterprets Yamada's mouth-opened reaction from him complimenting the bento she made for him for her wanting some and then awkwardly spoon-feeding it to her.
• Fairy Tail: Parodied in chapter 545.5. Juvia tries to invoke this by spoon feeding her beloved Gray, but he, already oblivious to her affections, is even more put off by how horrible the food is.
• Hitomi-chan Is Shy with Strangers: In Chapter 36, Kaoru and Hitomi's brother walk in just as Yuu and Hitomi are giving each other a taste of the food they just cooked.
• Appears in episode 5 Infinite Stratos where Ichika ends up with his entire harem trying to feed him at once. The solution was to have everybody feed each other.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: Ma Renka does this while having dinner with the titular protagonist, much to Miu's shock. Although she uses chopsticks instead of a spoon, she does invoke the "Say 'AAAH'" part.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
  • Played for Laughs when Kaguya and Shirogane (who are in the middle of an ongoing argument) both try to feed each other a piece of cake a the same time after being unable to decide who would offer the slice to the other person... at which point Fujiwara barges in and eats both pieces right off of their forks while scolding them for fighting.
  • Chapter 5 opens with Kaguya being scandalized at the sight of a girl offering her boyfriend some food from her bento. This imagery would be repeated over 200 chapters later, just with Kaguya offering Shirogane food and Iino being the one looking on with shock.
• From Lyrical Nanoha, invoked as Nanoha spoonfeeds Fate in their wholesome, lazy, child-free day off in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid Life volume 1 special 06: Mamas' Pride.
  Nanoha: [reaching spoon over the table] Here, ahh.
  Fate: [opens mouth] Ahh.
• Zig-zagged in My Clueless First Friend; in one of the chapters after Takada breaks his arm protecting Nishimura from a fall, Nishimura feeds Takada in this manner, down to telling him to say "Ahh" despite the fact that the two are not romantically involved. The sight prompts their mutual friend Adachi to ask "What are you, married?"
• Played with in My Monster Secret, for Asahi and Youko's first (real) date in chapter 101. Youko makes up some Blatant Lies about her omelet being better than the one in Asahi's bentou (even though it's the same) just so she can enact this trope, to her boyfriend's immense delight. Asahi then uses the exact same "tactic", full with a "say aaah", to his girlfriend's immense embarrassment. It's as adorable as it sounds.
• Spoofed and subverted in Naruto: Sakura offers to feed Naruto while his arm is out of commission, but Sai kills the mood by offering to feed him as well. Long story short, Kakashi is the one who ends up feeding Naruto.
• New Game!: In Chapter 37, Shizuku attempts to tease Umiko by offering some food to feed to her. Unfortunately for Shizuku, Umiko was in a similar situation previously and eats the food without hesitation.
• In Princess Mononoke, in the form of an Intimate Healing. When Ashitaka is injured and can't feed himself, San tries to put a strip of dried meat in his mouth. When he turns out to be too weak even to chew it, she takes it back, chews it up herself, and gently spits it into his mouth in a kiss. Slightly squicky but totally played as romantic.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: When the Nakanos visit Fuutarou in the hospital, Ichika and Miku decide to attempt this, with Miku even saying "AAAAHHH" as she tries to give him a bun of bread. Comically, Fuutarou ends up holding two buns in his mouth at the same time.
• At the end of Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream episode 44, after Bolttchi confesses his love for Nuttchi, the latter is seen spoon-feeding the former some cake.

Asian Animation

• In Season 3 episode 31 of Happy Heroes, after he defeats the wolverine monster in a fight in the sky, Happy S. plummets to the ground and lands on a robot by accident. The robot's romantic partner was trying to spoonfeed them before Happy S. literally dropped into the scene.

Fanfic

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: From "Improving Logistics":
  Ami cut away at her own portion using her good hand and keeping the piece of shark in place with her telekinetic powers. A brief fantasy of Jadeite helping her by feeding her the pieces flitted through her mind, and she hung her head as her cheeks flushed.
• Firefly: “Hug” mentions Wash chopstick-feeding Zoe when her arm and hand were injured and she couldn’t properly hold the sticks. He was making a joke of it but she rolled her eyes and let him do it.
• Oni Ga Shiku Series: Subverted and Lampshaded. Mei is always so focused on making her support items that Izuku has to carry her out of the lab, and feed her while she's working, even helping her drink water. Ochako, who is present for the entire thing, thinks to herself that this is the most shoujo-manga thing she has seen in her entire life, and it's coming from two people who are platonic friends. And yes, they really are Just Friends.
• Temporal Anomaly: Sougo and Five lovingly feed each other cake at the reception of their wedding.

Film

• In 9½ Weeks the two lead characters feed each other in front of an open refrigerator as foreplay.
• Played with in the film Ever After. The pretty stepsister invokes this—the prince goes to hand her a treat (we find out later it's chocolate), and she closes her eyes and opens her mouth suggestively. The prince is obviously not aroused, and actually looks a little disturbed by it, but he feeds it to her.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: At Christmas, Ginny hand-feeds Harry some mince pies she made. Then her brother Ron comes in and sits between them with some much larger pies he made. He seems completely oblivious to what he interrupted.
  Ron: [offering to Harry] Pie?
  Harry: No, thanks.
  Ron: [shrugs and eats it himself]
• Parodied in Hot Shots!, where Topper and his gal feed each other. At one point Topper fries an egg on her belly.
• Done in Miao Miao with a chicken foot, which turns out much cuter than it sounds.

Literature

• A couple of examples in the Deryni books:
  • Duke Jared McLain and Lady Vera Howard are seen feeding each other during a banquet in Childe Morgan.
  • Princess Janniver and Sir Jatham Kilshane spoonfeed each other during their wedding banquet in King Kelson's Bride.
  • Late in King Kelson's Bride, Princess Richelle Haldane is seen feeding grapes to her fiance Brecon Ramsay while they're on a hunting trip with other members of their families.
• More romantic handfeeding, but part of growing Homoerotic Subtext between Misaki and her mistress, Himeko, in Girls Kingdom is Himeko's feeding Misaki donuts by hand. While Misaki is hesitant the first time, afterwards, she willingly eats Himeko's offered donuts.
• In Gone with the Wind, while describing her honeymoon with Rhett, Scarlett mentions that sometimes he would bring her breakfast in bed and feed her as though she were a child.
• The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: In the entry for Yogurt:
  Yogurt is served [...] when you are raveneously hungry and would murder for a nice filling bowl of Stew. Nevertheless, you smile politely and make appreciative noises, because the person serving it to you is an attractive member of the opposite sex and, after the meal (if such it can be called), you plan to take a bath.
• Dead Lies Dreaming: When Eve is building a rapport with / flirting with / interrogating Del:
  in an ice cream parlor, feeding the other participant spoonfuls of frozen yoghurt while gazing wistfully into their eyes.

Live Action TV

• In one scenario of the What If? episode on The Big Bang Theory, Raj and Howard share a dessert and Raj cleans Howard's mouth with a napkin. It's yet another joke about their friendship — they often look like a couple in love. Howard is disturbed, but Raj is delighted ("That is so us!").
• Subverted in the episode "The Bet" of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Amy loses the bet with her colleague Jake (whoever makes more felony arrests over the year, wins) and has to go on the worst date ever with him. She later says that nothing will be worse than her date with her aunt's dentist. She shares a memory of him offering her a piece of his food on a spoon. As she leans over to eat it, he starts checking her teeth with two spoons.
  Dentist Guy: You should try some of this.
  Amy: OK...
  Dentist Guy: Oh. OK. Hold on. Yeah, dessert is out of the question.
  • Mentioned in "Honeymoon", where Captain Holt in a bout of professional depression inadvertently winds up at the same tropical resort as Amy and Jake on their honeymoon (Gina had been promoting said resort in the precinct). Amy suggests bringing Holt along on their activities to cheer him up enough to leave.
    Jake: But aren't most of our activities geared towards couples?
    Amy: Name one couples activity that wouldn't be more fun with your boss there!
    Host: Welcome to Sensual Food Tasting. The art of feeding your lover.
    Holt: I feel like I don't belong here.
• In "The Lion and the Rose" of Game of Thrones, during the feast of the royal wedding, bride and new queen Margaery feeds Joffrey with a piece of their wedding pie.
• How I Met Your Mother:
  • In "Slutty Pumpkin", Marshal and Lily are dressed in matching Halloween outfits and share dinner — Lily spoonfeeds Marshal. They later also share a dessert.
  • Robin is reluctant to do any lovey-dovey stuff with Mike in "Slutty Pumpkin". Mike wants her to taste his chicken, but she refuses and defies the trope. Lily tells her she should be more girlfriend-like and she attempts to share her sundae, but she likes it too much, so it doesn't really work out well.
  • In "Something Blue", Marshal and Lily try to feed each other at their wedding with the cake. Lily is completely drunk and sees Marshal's face twice or thrice, and she falls down.
  • "We're Not from Here": One of Gael's way of showing his love. In Argentina, he lets Robin taste some fruit. He only uses his fingers, and it's even more intimate than using a spoon. It turns Robin on. However, when he uses his fingers to feed her some spaghetti and sauce with sensual "here, taste, experience your food", she's just nervous that he's gonna ruin her sofa.
  • Ted spoonfeeds Stacy, a Girl of the Week from episode "Little Boys". It's part of a montage of them doing couple-y stuff, like them cooking together or him spontaneously buying her a flower.
  • When Ted dates Cathy, a girl that talks too much (her annoying habit which he only realized when others pointed it out), they are shown cooking together in their being-in-love montage. Ted spoonfeeds Cathy.
• In the episode "Convalescence" of Murdoch Mysteries, Mrs Jones, a pretty young widow, takes an opportunity and she spoonfeeds the sick and injured Detective Murdoch whom she came to visit.
• In My Family, an older man feeds his young girl-friend when they have formal dinner in a restaurant. Megan, the older guy's wife, tries to top him and make him jealous, so she asks Ben (who plays her lover for the evening) to spoonfeed her as well. Ben is a bit clumsy, though, and it's very awkward.
• In one episode of Nurse Jackie, an old guy refuses to have a heart operation because it would only make him feel more sick even though he knows he's dying. His beloved wife spoon-feeds him with her super tasty and super healthy chicken soup.
• In Ready or Not (1993), Busy's oldest brother and his fiancée sit close together at the table, sharing one meal and spoon-feeding each other in an episode close to their wedding.
• In Sex and the City, Harry buys Charlotte some ice cream for dessert and she eats it while they walk on the street. She offers him a bit on a spoon and he later takes another bite from the cup.

Video Games

• Jam is shown trying spoonfeeding the target of her affections, Ky Kiske, in her third Guilty Gear XX story ending, having taken a nervous Ky on a picnic and attempting to feed him heart-shaped chocolates with her chopsticks.
• In The Sims 2, one of the romantic interactions available when characters are eating at a table together is "feed a bite". The Sim initiating the interaction takes food off his/her own plate with the fork, and offers it to his/her partner. The partner either accepts it, which improves their relationship score, or is disgusted, with predictable results.

Webcomics

• In Sonichu, Punchy Sonichu feeds a french fry to Layla Flaaffy while they're eating together at McDonald's.
• Played with in El Goonish Shive: While Tedd feeding pizza to Elliot after Elliot injures his hand is a platonic display of affection (well, mostly platonic), that doesn't stop Mr. Verres from suspecting it might be romantic.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: When Finn is trapped in a dream, he is at a picnic table being spoon fed by his girlfriend, Flame Princess. "Open wide, honey. EAT IT NOW!!"
• Family Guy: Parodied when Peter realizes the fatter Lois is the more turned on by her he gets.
• Hey Arnold!: Invoked by Helga when she was faking having amnesia and pretending not to know how to use a spoon, prompting Arnold to help by feeding her. Helga is secretly infatuated by this while the other kids who are watching from afar are disgusted.
• In the Ready Jet Go! episode "A Visit from Uncle Zucchini", Celery is briefly shown feeding "enchisushisagna" to Carrot.
• In Young Justice: Miss Martian displays this trait with Superboy and briefly with her ex, Lagoon Boy.
  • In the Season 1 episode, Coldhearted, Miss Marian fed Superboy a piece of birthday cake while happily wiping away the frosting on his lips and tasting it herself, much to the shock and amusement of Kid Flash and Artemis.
  • In the Season 2 episode, Depths, Miss Martian fed Lagoon Boy a crab cake, this reaction was met with disgust and disapproval by those watching, especially Superboy.
  • In the Season 3 finale, Nevermore, set a few years after they reconciled, Miss Martian feds Superboy a slice of pie during a private party for the original Team members.

Real Life

• A part of wedding traditions in some cultures. During the dinner, bride and groom feed each other, sometimes with cake or the main course. Suffice to say, both are usually so nervous that they can barely eat anything.

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