Basic Trope: A work insists that everyone must have a Love Interest by the end of the story.
- Straight: Within the Five-Man Band, Hiro ends up marrying Cindy, Lance gets the Standard Hero Reward and marries the princess Sarah, Brock is Happily Married from the start and reunites with his wife at the end of the story, and Sam catches the interest of the conveniently single dancer during their victory celebration and has a Last-Minute Hookup with her.
- Exaggerated: The story has over 100 named characters. None of the surviving ones are single by the end, including the Team Pet, the ghost and the non-sapient robot.
- Downplayed: The protagonists are each given a love interest (including the Tagalong Kid), but all the relationships end in a Maybe Ever After.
- Justified:
- The story spans over a long time, and most people there end up in a relationship at some point in their lives.
- The characters live in a place with heavy societal expectations that everyone should get married. Or they are all subject to Arranged Marriages.
- Inverted: None of the cast have any romantic connections with one another. Those who start the story as a couple either break up, or one of them dies.
- Subverted: Hiro marries Cindy, Lance marries Princess Sarah, Brock reunites with his wife. Sam catches the interest of Darla the dancer, but she's not his type.
- Double Subverted: At least at first. In the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, it is revealed that Sam ends up marrying Darla after all, after finding out that she's Smarter Than You Look.
- Parodied: The characters realise that the story is about to end, and the single people suddenly go on a desperate search for a love interest (even the Celibate Hero and the Oblivious to Love guy) so that they won't be left alone by the time the credits roll.
- Hiro tells Sam "Now that we're done with saving the world, you really oughta think about finding a girlfriend." Sam waves it off and says he's not really interested in anyone... then locks eyes with a random, never-seen-before woman and immediately starts making out with her.
- Zig Zagged: The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue shows Sam, who was the only one without a Love Interest in the main story, being Happily Married to someone. However, it also shows that Hiro and Cindy broke up because their passions and goals were far too different from each other's. But then the second and third chapters of the three-part epilogue shows Hiro and Cindy each finding a more suitable partner.
- Averted: The work ends with just as many singles as there are couples.
- Enforced: The writer's original draft doesn't involve all characters being paired up, but the executives pushed the decision of pairing up every character in the story, due to the belief that one needs romance in your life in order to be "complete". The work is also required to show that characters getting into relationships is an inherent part of personal growth.
- Lampshaded: "Look, I know we just met, but everyone else has a partner except us, so... wanna dance?"
- Invoked: Sam, knowing that all his friends have partners, decides to hook up with the first single person he meets so that he won't have to be Alone Among the Couples.
- Exploited: Sam is of a noble family, and Darla is a Gold Digger. She takes advantage of his desperate desire for a partner to marry him quickly and start getting rich.
- Defied: Hiro tries to get Sam together with Darla, as they're both conveniently single. Sam tells him that he's fine being single and Hiro should mind his own business.
- Discussed:Cindy: Why are you so insistent on having Sam hook up with Darla? They can't stand each other!
Hiro: Nobody deserves to be alone, Cindy. Give them some time, and love will find a way. - Conversed: "What does the writer have against singles, really? Why must everyone end up with someone, even though the relationship makes no sense?"
- Deconstructed: The characters get into relationships, despite not really wanting to, because of the weight of societal expectations and the fear of being judged for not having children. Hiro and Cindy realise that their love was mostly built on stress relief and short-term thinking from all the life-threatening situations and that they're not actually very attracted to each other. Sam and Darla's marriage falls apart because Sam realises that he is asexual and was in denial about it. Princess Sarah and Lance are Like Brother and Sister and feel no romantic attraction towards each other, but the king pressures them into an Arranged Marriage that makes both of them miserable in order to continue the royal bloodline. So far, Brock is the only one that actually has a good relationship with his wife, though that might be because he's The Big Guy and thus never gets much focus in the first place.
- Reconstructed: Although the various relationships were not always good ideas, they end up leading to better situations and being ultimately good for the characters' growth. Hiro and Cindy go back to being good friends after realising that their romance wasn't working out. Hiro ends up Happily Married to a more suitable partner, while Cindy is fine being single. After Sam comes out as asexual, he and Darla reconnect and form a close friendship which causes Darla to feel comfortable enough to come out as bisexual. Darla ends up happily married to another woman. Princess Sarah and Prince Lance are still friends and agree to have whatever affairs they want outside of their political marriage. After becoming king and queen, they raise their own son to be open-minded and encourage him to marry someone he loves.
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