Basic Trope: An Age-Gap Romance where the younger one is in the "spring" of their life (no more than 39) while the older one is in the "winter" of their life (at least 60) with at least a 30 years age difference between them.
- Straight: Alice and Bob are lovers. Alice is 21, Bob is 65.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is 18, Bob is 81.
- Mayfly–December Romance.
- Downplayed: Age-Gap Romance.
- Justified:
- Alice and Bob live in a culture where men don't marry until they're financially secure, but women marry young to improve their chances of safe childbirth.
- Likes Older Men and/or Likes Older Women.
- A royal Arranged Marriage.
- Alice is a Gold Digger and Bob is a wealthy man.
- They really do love each other.
- Bob might be old, but he's still handsome.
- Inverted: Alice and Bob are as close to the same age as possible (Twincest may apply, as that's as close as it gets in most cases).
- Subverted:
- Alice is actually 43, but through some means, looks a lot younger than she really is.
- Everyone assumes Alice is much younger and comments about it, but it's actually a Mayfly–December Romance; Alice looks 21, but is centuries older than her now-elderly spouse.
- Double Subverted: Then it turns out Bob is also much older than he looks like.
- Parodied: The bride hasn't even hit puberty yet, and the groom is Older Than Dirt.
- Zig Zagged: Time-Travel Romance.
- Averted: No one in the story dates outside their own age category.
- Enforced: "Our male lead, Bob Oldguy, is a box-office hit even in his fifties, but we need a younger actress for the female lead to sell the merchandise. How about Alice Ingenue?"
- Lampshaded: "Isn't she a bit young for you?"
- Invoked: Fiftyish Bob takes classes at the local college in hopes of scoring with sorority girls by flaunting his superior breadwinning skills.
- Defied: Bob decides not to go out with the much younger Alice after all; it's more sensible to stick with women of his own maturity level.
- Discussed: "Have you seen our new neighbors? She's barely out of college, and he's retired. I heard she used to be his student."
- Conversed: "I hope I can still get the young women when I'm Bob Oldguy's age. Did you see the girl they matched him with in his latest film?"
- Implied: Alice and Bob's ages are never mention but based on the fact that Bob looks like he's in his 60s while Alice looks like she's in her 20s, the audience can assume there is this trope going on.
- Deconstructed:
- The generational differences between Alice and Bob cause strain in their relationship, and they eventually break up to seek partners closer to their own ages.
- They are happy together... for a few years. Then, Bob dies, and Alice is left alone and heartbroken.
- Reconstructed:
- But Charles and Diane, despite their age difference, find enough in common that their love can survive misunderstandings, and form a stronger bond because of it.
- The only significant difference is their age. For example, the May is noted to be more emotionally mature than their peers, or the December is a Cool Old Person.
- Played For Laughs: "No, Bob, you must be mad, you’re way too old for me! You’re eighty and I’m just twenty! (beat) I’m going to marry Charlie — he is seventy-nine!"
- Played for Drama: "Bob, why are you attracted to me? It can't be my maturity, we have too many generational differences, and your health will most likely decline before mine. So tell me, what do you see in me? And why should I be with you?"
Back to May–December Romance, you crazy kids and/or senior citizens, you.
