Basic Trope: Opposite-sex platonic partners are the most important people in each others' lives.
- Straight: Alice and Bob are the best of friends. They hang out together for several hours a day, and while not a romantic couple, they are just as close as one.
- Exaggerated: Alice and Bob live in the same house, sleep in the same bed, and spend virtually every waking moment together. Yet they have no romantic or sexual interest in each other whatsoever.
- Downplayed: Alice and Bob are close friends without any romantic tension.
- Justified:
- They have known each other since early childhood, and are Like Brother and Sister.
- Alice and Bob are brother and sister, thus try to avoid Brother–Sister Incest.
- Alice and/or Bob is gay, aromantic, and/or asexual, meaning they have no reason to hide how affectionate they are towards each other.
- Alice and Bob are of different species, and so are squicked out by any idea of romance between them.
- Inverted: Alice and Bob are a dating couple, but everyone thinks they're Just Friends.
- Subverted:
- Alice and Bob are Just Friends at first, but then Stupid Sexy Friend comes into effect.
- Alice and Bob turn out to be Friends with Benefits.
- Alice and Bob eventually get a Relationship Upgrade.
- Double Subverted:
- After dating a few times, they decide that they are Better as Friends after all.
- …who genuinely don't have any romantic interest in each other. Just platonic love and appreciation for each other's sexiness.
- Parodied: At first, Alice and Bob are both married. However, their respective spouses, Charles and Diane, mistake their friendship for romance and leave them.
- Zig Zagged: Alice and Bob seem to take turns wondering whether now is the good time for a Relationship Upgrade. They start and stop dating near constantly.
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob are a romantic couple.
- They are platonic friends, but not especially close.
- Enforced:
- "So far, every character is the same sex as their best friend. Let's introduce a pair of opposite-sex best friends."
- They are the main characters in a children's show, and Moral Guardians won't let the creators show any romantic or sexual relationship in the show, so they just make them a duo of best friends instead.
- Lampshaded: "Are Alice and Bob in love?"
"Not that I know of. As far as I can tell, they're just the best of friends." - Invoked: Alice tells Bob, "I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship, so Let's Just Be Friends." Bob agrees.
- Exploited: Claire, who wants Bob to spend less time with Alice for whatever reason, tells Bob that Alice loves him to drift them apart.
- Defied: Worried that others will perceive their friendship as strange, Alice and Bob drift apart (or start dating).
- Discussed: "Alice and Bob are close, but rather than being a couple, they are the best of friends." "Best friends who live together? Now I've heard everything!"
- Conversed: "It's good to know that at least in TV-land men and women can be friends and not be assumed to want to jump each others' bones in secret." "Huh, that's sounds fresh and unique. Is there a show like this? I wanna watch it."
- Implied: Alice and Bob hang out together a lot, but each of them is dating someone else. Their significant others occasionally complain about how much time they spend together.
- Deconstructed: Just because one happens to be born female and the other male, everyone assumes that they want to be more than friends but are denying it to themselves. Their common "friends" and even family members unsubtly try to set them up with each other. Eventually, Alice and Bob either break their friendship with each other or with their other "friends" because this pisses them off so much.
- Reconstructed: Times change, and said friends realize that not everyone is interested in a Relationship Upgrade... Or still misunderstand the situation and think something like Incompatible Orientation is at work. Either way, they stop nagging Alice and Bob about it.
- Played For Laughs: People repeatedly mistake Alice and Bob for a romantic couple, and this becomes a Running Gag.
- Played For Drama: Their back story reveals that they became friends after they were forced to cooperate.
- Untwisted: Alice and Bob tell others that they are "best friends". Later, they dine out together and say that they "love" each other, implying that they are in love. In the end, however, it turns out that they are nothing more than (overly affectionate) friends.
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