Oblivious To Love / Webcomics

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• Angels 2200: Unlike pretty much the entire rest of the ship's crew, Kid has no clue about Hammer's feelings towards her.
• In Avialae, it goes both ways with Gannet being oblivious of Bailey's crush on him for a long time and Bailey being oblivious of his own crush on Gannet for an even longer time (as well as being completely clueless about Gannet's attempts to flirt with him until Gannet flat-out kisses him).
• Bobwhite. Ben is the last person to figure out that Cleo has a major crush on him.
• Prep of Boyfriends. had zero clue that Goth was ever interested in him romantically. Despite the fact that the two have apparently full on had sex multiple times before their polycule formed.
• In Candi, the only member of the cast not aware of Jon's feelings towards Candi (up to and including his now ex-girlfriend) is Candi. Complicating things is the fact that Candi gets weirdly skittish when being pursued romantically, so Jon fears that if he confesses his feelings, it will wreck their friendship just as surely as a romance gone sour.
• Hank in Catena is absolutely clueless about the fact that Treiss has a crush on him. Bear also seems to be rather oblivious to Ivy's attraction to him.
• The trope is both played straight and played with in Cobweb and Stripes. In the mid-teen chapters, the leads start developing some Unresolved Sexual Tension. Lydia plays the trope straight, as she is aware of her own growing feelings for Betelgeuse but not of his for her. Betelgeuse, on the other hand, not only gradually becomes aware of both sets of emotions, but actively tries to ignore them in the hopes that they'll go away. He's got his reasons, one of which is that he's truly (secretly) afraid of hurting her.
• In Corner Alley 13, Noelle fails to realize that Tsac has feelings for her.
• Daily JoJo: When Eunjo and Wan meet up after a year of not seeing each other, Wan drops several romantic hints that Eunjo tries to rationalize as platonic gestures. When Wan leans in for a kiss, Eunjo pushes him away, thinking that he was just acting out of impulse. She then lies down and reflects for a while before wondering if Wan actually has feelings for her.
• In The Dementia of Magic, Matt has no idea Phinn has a crush on him.
• Carson from Dork Tower. Especially in the arc starting here. Cluelessness, thy name is muskrat.
• In Dumbing of Age, Lucy was obviously besotted with Walky and followed him around like a puppy. Walky basically treated her just another one of "the guys." When Dorothy (his ex-girlfriend) suggests asking out Lucy, Walky responds that he has no idea if Lucy even likes him. Dorothy can only stare at Walky in response.
  Walky: THIS IS WHY YOU GIRLS GOTTA KISS ME SO I KNOW WHAT'S GOIN' ON!
• Justin in El Goonish Shive has had a deep crush on Elliot for years, which at least one other character knows and several others may suspect, but Elliot himself has never picked up on it.
  • Elliot himself pretended to be oblivious to Sarah's flirtations so she wouldn't feel 'rejected' when finding out he already had a girlfriend. It Makes Sense in Context ... or at least in his own mind. His girlfriend dumped him, came out as a lesbian, and started dating his twin sister and Opposite-Sex Clone, Ellen. He and Sarah then started dating but broke up mutually when they realized they were incompatible. (She realized he was too laid back and didn't take romantic initiative enough to match her adventurous personality, and also didn't express physical attraction to her, to the point where she questioned whether he even did find her attractive. He realized that she was like a sister to him. They stayed friends.)
  • Mr. Verres, knowing there's a lot of Human-Uryuom offspring, managed to miss why his Uryuom secretary constantly wears a very female human form and likes to sit on his table. Though he is pretty smart (otherwise Lavender wouldn't be attracted, for one).
  • In an interesting variation, both Elliot and Susan are aware they're utterly enamored with each other, but aren't aware that it's mutual. It's just a matter of who does their Love Confession first. In the meantime, nearly everyone else is also aware of it and some actively ship them.
  • Justin and a newly-introduced character, Luke, were clearly attracted to each other at first sight — both Sarah and Grace noticed, and Grace has never been wrong about such a thing yet — but neither of them knew if the other is gay. Justin assumed at first that Luke was straight mostly because he's never met another openly gay guy. (Justin: "Something like ninety percent of people are straight." Grace: " ... That cannot possibly be right." Justin: "Probability is on my side. Or, more like it's actively opposing me.") When we get some narration from Luke's perspective, he complains about meeting Justin and finding himself in 'yet another case of my finding an obviously straight guy hot'. They got it sorted out eventually.
• The title character of Evon is in deep deep denial about her feeling towards Hero. Even going so far as denying it to herself when confronted by her clone, who shares her memories and outright states that they're both in love with him.
• Girl Genius:
  • Moloch von Zinzer, who's crushing on Sanaa, delivers this comment to Snaug , who is crushing on him, after he managed to speak to Sanaa normally.
    Moloch: I... I don't know [if I'm over her]. I... everything is suddenly so different. I mean, I still like her...
    Snaug: Oh, really...
    Moloch: But see— (Lightly gripping Snaug's chin) until the last few days, I never had a chance to get used to being around attractive women! So, Sanaa? Yeah, she's smart and tough and I like being around her — but since I feel the same way about you, I obviously don't know anything about romance. Stupid, huh?
    [Cut to Snaug desperately clutching at Professor Mittlemind]
    Snaug: Oh, Professor, I want to kill something so very, very much!
    Mittlemind: My goodness. He is a dangerous one.
  • Jiminez Hoffmann completely fails to notice that Princess Larana acts the same way around him that he acts around Collette. When he realises Larana is betrothed to him for Altar Diplomacy between the two underground kingdoms, he vows to get out of it for her sake.
• Andrew Smith of Gunnerkrigg Court is an interesting case. He puts up with Parley because she's "hotter than hell", but manages to mistake her constant tsundere-style signs of affection for mockery. Then two strangers told him straight. Then she reacted on giving her a flower (a teacher set him up) by unconsciously teleporting them right into her bed. And starts to spontaneously teleport close to him several times per week. And he still was in the deep stunned surprise when she confessed.
• Most of the characters in Homestuck have just reached puberty at the start of the comic, so their lack of previous romantic experience is understandable, but even so a number of them seem extremely dense in that regard. Some examples:
  • Vriska Serket had no honest idea that her moirail Kanaya was in love with her. In fact, she thought that Kanaya had a crush on Tavros, the object of Vriska's (hate-filled) affection. There's also another moment where Karkat opens a memo, invites John and Dave into it, and starts ripping into them about 'flirting' with Vriska and Terezi. Cue John being thoroughly confused.
  • John is amazingly dense when it comes to this. Even after Karkat's lecture about avoiding sloppy interspecies makeouts, he still manages to interpret Vriska's invitation to go on a date as an offer to hang out and watch some movies as friends.
  • Karkat himself appears to fall victim to this, as it shown several times that Nepeta has a serious crush on him, yet he never acknowledges it. This is bizarre considering his expertise and intuition regarding romance. One later panel finally brings this up when he admits to another character that he is aware of Nepeta's feelings, but he doesn't reciprocate and has been deliberately ignoring the situation because there's just too much else going on to deal with it.
  • Eridan Ampora believes Feferi Peixes is Oblivious To [His] Love, but it's at least possible and maybe probable that she's very much aware of it and is only acting oblivious in an attempt to keep Eridan (who is a pretty terrible person even by troll standards) at a distance. When he eventually tries to confess, she basically tells him that even the level of friendship they've had is rather more than she wants. Much Drama Ensues.
  • Zig-Zagged with Jake. At first he seems to be oblivious to his friends all having crushes on him, but soon proves that he's a lot more perceptive than people originally thought. However, when Jane tells him she doesn't have a crush on him, he accepts it immediately even despite her strange behaviour. However, while in a dreambubble later on Dirk, playing the role of his subconscious, suggests that he might have misinterpreted her, though Jake uneasily dismisses the idea. And through all this, he still appears oblivious to Roxy's genuine interest in him, unintentionally or otherwise.
    • Then, he concludes that Jane must disapprove of his relationship with Dirk because she's in love with Dirk, which causes her to flip out. It's not until after he's alienated all his friends that he realises how much of an ass he's been.
• MegaTokyo: The whole school has known about it for years.
• The entirely one-way drama plays out in A Moment of Peace. Crux, god of In-Between Places, is completely oblivious to the fact that the goddess of Stories has been crushing on him ever since they started talking at the base of Dawn Mountain.
• In Monsieur Charlatan, his compliment gives her a moment of hope before he unwittingly dashes it.
• Both Helen and Dave of Narbonic spend most of the run of the series completely oblivious to the fact that the other is smitten by them.
• Shine from NEXT!!! Sound of the Future just cannot figure out why Gumiya doesn't have a girlfriend even though he's so popular... Even him admitting that just the thought of her is enough to cheer him up, how he lavishes her with praise, and his constant blushing in her presence is not enough to clue her in to his feelings for her.
• Niels: Agent 300 spent the better part of a year completely blind to his partner's obvious attraction to him. It took said partner nearly being killed for 300 to realize that not only was 250 in love with him, but he felt the same way.
• In The Order of the Stick, Elan, who is a Genre Savvy mix of The Ditz, Quirky Bard, and Cloud Cuckoo Lander, takes hundreds of strips, and dozens of hints, to finally reciprocate Haley's feelings. Although oddly, in the prequel book, he guesses/teases her with the idea shortly after they meet, clearly flustering her. Then he sees something shiny or something...
• Out There: Sherry is so very much oblivious to Ari's attraction to her, she thinks that since Ari looks at her differently than she looks at Miriam, it means Ari's attracted to… Miriam. [1] Meanwhile, Miriam, who has decided she's attracted to Ari, can't get Ari to realize it; Ari thinks she has embarrassed Miriam by offering her menial work. [2]
• Questionable Content:
  • Clinton is decidedly smitten with Brun, but she's completely oblivious even when he tells her she's pretty. It's to the point that even the staff at the restaurant they had lunch in feel sorry for him.
    Waitress: The kitchen staff has been eavesdropping and wanted me to give you this pity milkshake.
    Voice: Sympathy milkshake!
    Clinton: I'm lactose intolerant.
  • Elliot has been less than subtle about his crushes on Brun and Clinton, but neither has picked up on it. While Brun has made it clear she has a hard time parsing out people's emotions without them being spelled out for her Clinton has no such excuse, especially as Elliot talked to Clinton about his crush on him (leaving out Clinton's name) while they were talking about their respective crushes on Brun.
• Rain, to Maria and Gavin's crushes on her.
• Sandra and Woo has minor character Thomas oblivious to Luna's crush on him. Larisa has some ideas on how she could drop him some hints... And boy, he needs them...
• In Schlock Mercenary, Lt. Elf had a major crush on Captain Tagon, a crush that was obvious to every member of the crew except Tagon. (Pretty much every attempt by Elf to broach the subject was interpreted by the one-track minded — and occasionally stunningly dense — Tagon as referring to their current mercenary job). She eventually gives up on Tagon and hooks up with Second-In-Command and company Mad Scientist, Kevyn.
  • Actually it is pretty clear that Tagon was well aware of Elf's romantic intentions (though it is unclear how long he has been aware of it). He makes it pretty clear he understands the problems in getting romantic with a lower-ranking officer in a military environment. Getting Kevyn and Elf together appears to be a bonus reason to promote her to the rank of Commander aside from her obvious aptitude and command capabilities.
  • It should also be noted that the last time Tagon fell in love, it ended with his bioweaponized girlfriend assassinating most of his family, so his being a little gunshy on the subject can be understood.
• Art and Kat from Sequential Art are both in such denial about each other, that even Cupid is powerless.
• In Shinigami Death Punch, Purple remains completely oblivious to White's feelings despite increasingly obvious signs. He's also oblivious to Blue's blatant come-ons, a source of eternal frustration for White.
• Squid Row Mouse.
• Andy of Sticky Dilly Buns is a male ditz whose main character feature is total obliviousness to any kind of romantic or sexual signals, despite which he falls into a sort of romantic friendship with Ruby, The Ingenue. A swimming pool lifeguard, he apparently gets flirted with constantly, but is completely immune to it.
  Gina: ...no matter how shameless WE are.
  • This even extends to broad hints from Ruby, even though they've recently agreed to discuss the possibility of getting physical. When Ruby and her sister Amber discuss the matter, Ruby has difficulty believing that anyone could be that clueless, given how heavy her hints were — and she has a point.
  • Andy's obliviousness is taken to the extreme to provide a punchline for this strip.
    Ruby: Do you want to take my clothes off, Andy?!
    Andy: Like, now?
    Ruby: Like, now.
    Andy: ...Okay.
    Ruby: Let's do this.
    Andy: So we're going swimming?
• Qiu Tong from Their Story did not know Sun Jing was in love with her despite the fact Everyone Can See It. She rejects Sun Jing's Love Confession however it's a Foregone Conclusion they will date eventually.
• Tripping Over You: After Milo kisses Liam and a confused Liam initially rejects him, an entire comic is dedicated to showing all the obvious signs of affection Milo showed to Liam during their many years of friendship and Liam wonders out loud, "Why am I so slow?"
• Twinkie & Mars Bar: While Twinkie does somewhat understand Mars Bar's interest in him, the fact that said interest is romantic (and sexual) in nature is something that constantly goes over his head. Later into the comic it's implied he's starting to reciprocate, though.
• Yumi's Cells:
  • Yumi is the subject of at last three unnoticed crushes—with a college classmate who later became her chief editor, with her boss at the office, and with Babi. In Babi's case, Yumi takes pride in noticing Eda's crush on him while being completely unaware that Babi likes her.
  • Woong is confused by Sia's constant mixed signals, but he becomes extra oblivious when she's actually flirting with him.
  • When Babi was in high school, he lent his scarf to a senior and didn't mean anything by it, and she called him out for sending a confusing signal. Later on, Babi is completely unaware of Eda's crush on him.

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