Basic Trope: Two people fall in love after one saves the other's life.
- Straight: Bob saves Alice, causing her to fall in love with him.
- Gender Swapped: Alice saves Bob, causing Bob to fall in love with her.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob saves Alice, and they immediately have Rescue Sex.
- Bob saves Alice, Carol, Donna, and Ellen, and they all fall in love with him.
- Every couples gets together this way.
- Downplayed:
- Bob saves Alice, causing her to be nicer to him.
- Bob saves Alice, and they become best friends.
- Fifteen-year-old Bob saves ten-year-old Alice, and the two come to love each other like a protective big brother and his adoring little sister.
- Alice was already attracted to Bob but in denial; Bob rescuing her makes her admit she's in love.
- Justified:
- Inverted:
- Bob saves Alice, but she gets angry at him.
- Bob saves his wife, Alice, and she breaks up with him as a result.
- Bob puts Alice in danger, and this somehow causes her to fall in love with him.
- Subverted:
- Bob saves Alice and they go out for a cup of coffee...but they go their separate ways.
- Bob saves Alvin. Alvin expects this trope to happen, but Bob is not gay.
- Bob saves Alice, but she mistakenly thinks it was Charlie and falls in love with him while Bob suffers in silence.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice and Bob meet again later and fall in love.
- Bob is bisexual or heterosexual but capable of loving men romantically regardless.
- Parodied:
- Bob saves Alice from a hangnail and ends up Covered in Kisses.
- Alice and Bob go to a "Rescue Romance" dating service, where Alice applies to be a Damsel in Distress and Bob applies to save her.
- Alice spontaneously falls in love with every guy who helps her with something, no matter how minor. Sometimes, a "romance" doesn't even last a day before she falls for someone else.
- Zig Zagged:
- Bob saves Alice, but she doesn't fall in love with him. Then Charlie saves her, and she does fall for him but because he is so much older than her he becomes her Parental Substitute instead of her boyfriend. Then David saves her but she sees him like a brother, to his dismay. Edgar is the one she experiences mutual romantic love with.
- Bob saves Alice, and she falls in love with him, but she's too young for him. Then her big sister Carol starts having feelings for Bob, so Alice starts trying to set them up together so that she can have Bob as her brother-in-law.
- Averted:
- No one rescues anyone else.
- Rescues never lead to romance.
- Enforced: The writers need a way to get Alice and Bob together, and having him rescue her is as good a way as any.
- Lampshaded: "So, Bob, how did you and Alice get together?" "I saved her from Emperor Evulz." "Ah, of course she fell in love with you."
- Invoked:
- Bob hires Charlie to put Alice in danger so that Bob can save her.
- Alice lets herself get into trouble so that Bob can save her.
- Bob saves Alice and decides that he deserves her because of that.
- Exploited: Bob saves Alice, and she falls in love with him. Bob's mother does everything she can to encourage this, because she wants them to get married and give her grandkids.
- Defied:
- After Bob saves Alice, she refuses to fall in love with him. She's grateful, of course, but doesn't believe that is grounds for a relationship.
- After saving her, Bob refuses to let Alice fall in love with him, for fear of taking advantage of her.
- Bob is a grown man, while Alice is a young girl; for obvious reasons, Bob won't let Alice's Precocious Crush on him turn into anything more.
- Alice is a Princess, and Bob is widely assumed to be in it for the Standard Hero Reward. When the king does indeed offer him his daughter's hand, Bob declines and clarifies that he rescued Alice out of loyalty to the kingdom or royal family, and already loves someone else, possibly a teammate who fought alongside him, or a girlfriend who is awaiting his return in their home village.
- Discussed: "You know, Bob, if you do save Alice, she'd be very grateful and impressed." "Charlie, did you forget I have a girlfriend already?"
- Conversed: "Why are Alice and Bob suddenly in love? They hated each other until he saved her." "Nah. It's hard to hate someone who saves you, and it's unlikely he would have bothered if he really hated her."
- Implied: Charlie notices that Alice is suddenly in love with Bob, and it started just after the two were both caught in a fire. He doesn't know the details, but he (and the audience) can guess.
- Deconstructed: Bob saves Alice, causing her to fall in love with her ideal of him—which inevitably shatters when she sees that he's not some perfect ideal hero, causing her to seriously rethink her attraction to him.
- Reconstructed: Bob may be a Jerkass, but saving Alice helps him start to reveal his Hidden Heart of Gold, causing Alice to decide that he's worthwhile after all.
- Played For Laughs: Bob saves Alice, and she falls in love with him—but she turns out to be very annoying, causing Bob to regret saving her.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob saves Princess Alice, and the two fall in love. However, because Bob isn't a prince, Alice's parents try to shut them down.
- Bob saves Alice, and they fall in love—except Alice is already in a relationship with Charlie. When he finds out about this, he is... not happy...
- Played For Horror: Bob saves Alice's life, and she falls in love with him... and decides that she will have him all to herself and will not take "No" for an answer, and will not let anyone else get in her way...
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