Basic Trope: Someone who has been married and divorced two or more times.
- Straight: Bob has been married to Alice, Claire, and Diane, and all of those marriages ended in divorce.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob has been married and divorced hundreds of times.
- Even his Bratty Teenage Daughter is able to sustain a relationship longer than his marriages!
- Not only did all Bob's marriages end in divorce, they all ended in a Toilet Seat Divorce at that.
- Downplayed:
- Bob was married to Alice, but that marriage ended in divorce, and he wound up marrying Claire. But he and Claire are far from Happily Married, and go through a trial separation (even though they're technically still married).
- Bob has many spouses at once.
- Bob gets an annulment (either a civil one or a religious one) instead of divorcing.
- Justified:
- Bob has a nasty habit of cheating on his wives when he gets tired of them, and just marrying The Mistress after the angry wife leaves him, only to find that Wanting Is Better Than Having. Rinse and repeat.
- Bob is Married to the Job, which takes a toll on his actual marriages.
- Bob is In Love with Love; he just doesn't have what it takes to get past the initial "schmoopy" phase, or gets burned out after the Will They or Won't They? question is finally answered.
- Bob tries to "fix" these women, only to find (and never truly learn) that he can't change or fix other people.
- Inverted: Bob is Happily Married to his first wife, Alice.
- Gender Inverted: Alice has been married to Bob, Charles, and Dan, and all of those marriages ended in divorce.
- Subverted:
- Although Bob has been married multiple times before, not all of those marriages ended in divorce.
- The neighbors think it's this trope, but actually Bob is The Bluebeard, and just really good at hiding it.
- All of of Bob's wives are still part of his harem.
- Double Subverted:
- But many of them did.
- When Bob gets tired of any one of his wives or concubines, he simply ignores them in favor of someone else. (Generally someone new to the harem.)
- Parodied:
- The preacher hands Bob's new bride unsigned divorce papers, saying, "You're going to need these."
- Bob goes through a "divorce montage" while his daughter has a "High School breakup montage" on the other side of the screen.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Bob isn't married to anyone.
- Alice and Bob divorce, but Bob doesn't remarry.
- Enforced: "We want to have a character who was in a serious relationship with Bob that ended badly. In fact, we want several characters like that!"
- Lampshaded: "To my lovely bride Emily, who proves that life is a buffet, and there are seconds... And thirds...and fourths... And fifths!"
- Invoked: Bob finds that spending long hours at work is causing lots of fights between himself and Claire...and that Claire possibly has her eye on the pool-boy.
- Exploited: Jane, who runs a wedding business, lives near Bob, knowing he's always getting married.
- Defied: Bob cuts his hours at work, starts spending more time with Claire, and they work through their problems. Things may not have worked out with Alice, but he is determined not to let that happen again.
- Discussed: "Hey, we got another wedding invitation from Bob."
- Conversed: "That marriage won't last...something is seriously wrong with that guy."
- Implied: Bob announces that he and Emily are getting (or have gotten) married, and no one is surprised or happy.
- Deconstructed:
- The common denominator for these marriages is Bob. The problem is most likely, therefore, to be some personal issue of his than a problem with any of his wives or girlfriends.
- Also, with divorce comes Divorce Assets Conflict, alimony, child support, legal fees, etc. Is Bob able to financially handle that?
- Not to mention, custody issues if children and/or pets are involved.
- Reconstructed: Bob works through his personal issues and becomes a better person. His next marriage or relationship works out better.
Back to Serial Spouse.
