Playing With / The Jailbait Wait

Basic Trope: A character waits for their Love Interest to reach the age of consent.

• Straight: Late 20s - Early 30s Bob is in love with sixteen-year-old Alice, but waits until her eighteenth birthday to reveal his feelings for her.
• Exaggerated:
  • Bob has been waiting for Alice since before she reached puberty.
  • Bob actually sets a clock to count down to the exact second Alice's eighteenth birthday begins.
  • Bob is Really 700 Years Old and knew he and Alice were meant to be long before Alice was even born.
  • The exact moment Alice came out of the womb, Bob got out a calendar, waiting for her to turn eighteen.
  • Bob treats Alice as if she was a small child right up to the point she comes of age.
• Downplayed:
  • Alice is only a few days away from her eighteenth birthday when Bob falls in love with her.
  • Now that celebrity Alice is of age, Bob can talk to his friend about how hot she is.
  • Bob and Alice both reach the Age of Consent one year apart from another.
• Justified:
  • Bob doesn't want to get charged with statutory rape for getting involved with Alice.
  • Bob actually wants to marry Alice, and needs to wait until she turns eighteen so he can legally marry her without having to get parental consent.
  • Bob considers Alice emotionally unready for a serious relationship yet.
  • Where they live, the age of consent is 18.
• Inverted:
  • Sixteen-year-old Alice waits until her eighteenth birthday to confess her feelings to Bob.
  • Bob desperately races to reveal his feeling to Alice before her eighteenth birthday (whether because of the Dreaded 18th Birthday or not).
• Subverted:
  • Bob confesses his feelings for Alice (with a nod to how she is underage, of course).
  • Alice only looks like a teenage girl, she's Really 700 Years Old.
  • Alice reveals that she is of age in her country or region.
  • Bob tries to wait, but Alice keeps pushing regardless. Bob decides to avoid her, rather then risk breaking the law.
  • When Alice finally reaches the age of consent, Bob is still uncomfortable because Alice looks like a teenager.
  • Alice reaches the age of consent but is uncomfortable with how Bob waited for her, and she's not attracted to him due to their age difference.
  • While the relationship might be legal for Alice and Bob, it doesn't make it any less weird or creepy in Charlie's opinion so he decides to put a stop to it.
• Double Subverted:
  • But he tells her he'll wait for her to turn eighteen...
  • Bob doesn't know that, and decides to wait until she's older.
  • Although Alice is sixteen, the age of consent in the jurisdiction in which Alice and Bob live is fifteen.
  • Bob plans to take Alice to his country or region, and thus must wait till she is an adult by his laws.
  • Bob then discovers Alice is finally legal, and comes back to find her.
  • Alice and Bob escape Charlie and the relationship becomes official.
• Parodied:
  • Bob has been waiting since he and Alice met as kids!
  • Bob and Alice are only a few weeks apart in age and had already made love when they were both underage... But the second Bob turns 18, both of them suddenly feel immense guilt over being in a "pedophilic" relationship and puts a pause on it for the weeks until Alice also turns 18, with most of their friends simply shaking their heads at the stupidity of it all.
  • Where they live, the age of consent is 50, the only thing that Alice can do during the wait is hoping she won't hit menopause before or during her fiftieth birthday.
• Zig Zagged: Bob is initially attracted to Alice, but once he finds out Charlie has the same plans with her he becomes disgusted with himself. He then concludes that he and Charlie are Not So Similar and continues to pine after Alice.
• Averted:
  • Bob gets involved with Alice despite it being illegal, not caring about the laws or believing he will not get caught.
  • Alice and Bob are both consenting adults already, so this is moot.
  • Either Alice or Bob lied about their age until their partner reached the age of consent.
• Enforced: Small Reference Pools, Hollywood Provincialism, an attempt to avoid Squick.
• Lampshaded: "Hey, Alice, you eighteen yet?"
• Invoked: Bob has recently turned eighteen, and just notices Alice.
• Exploited: Alice tempts Bob rather brazenly and makes him do all sorts of out-there things for her.
• Defied:
  • Alice and Bob live in a place with "Romeo and Juliet Laws" that provide for teenagers with an age difference of three years or less not to be charged with statutory rape for "interacting" with members of their peer group.
  • Even if such laws don't exist in their jurisdiction, Bob believes Alice is fair game because he and she are both in High School.
  • Alice and Bob refuse to let anyone limit their love for each other, deciding only their own opinions matter.
  • Alice and Bob decide to start relationships with people their own ages.
• Discussed:
  • On Bob's end:
    Bob: Does wanting her make me a creep?
    Dennis: Not if you're so willing to wait for her.
  • On Alice's end:
    Alice: Bob the physics teacher is really cute, isn't he? I think he's a bit interested in me, too... Guess he is just waiting to say it until I'm older so people won't think we're weirdos!
    Charlotte: ... I think his wife would call you more than that...
• Conversed:
  Emily: Waiting for a minor to become an adult is creepy and a massive waste of one's time.
  Fran: Love comes in all forms, and legality isn't some natural compulsion to meet. Frankly being willing to wait years to be with their beloved just to satisfy arbitrary human laws is commendable patience.
• Implied: Though Bob seems to be fond of Alice, there's numerous important factors requiring his attention. Thus it isn't certain if he's explicitly waiting, or just too busy to actually strike up a relationship.
• Deconstructed:
  • Alice and Bob waste years just waiting to make their relationship legal, cheating on each other as they waited as they became sexually frustrated. Ultimately by the time they can be together, they've moved on to people they were legally allowed to be with.
  • Alice and Bob are genuinely disturbed about being attracted to each other; Alice is creeped out by the very idea of an older person being attracted to her, while Bob is deeply confused and disgusted with himself for having these feelings for Alice. Although Charlie suggests that Bob wait until Alice reaches the age of consent, Bob is too disturbed by his newfound ephebophilia to act on it and he decides to move on from Alice.
• Reconstructed: Though Alice and Bob may have to wait to "better their understanding of each other", they otherwise act as any other couple and regularly hang out together. They also deliberately do abstinence to make it even sweeter once they're legally allowed to be together.
• Played For Laughs: Bob has clearly marked Alice's eighteenth birthday on his calendar, yet unwittingly ignores the clearly impatient Alice in the meantime.
• Played for Drama:
  • Alice and Bob spend all their time pining for one another.
  • Bob is a gross predator who has groomed Alice for most of her teen years, and she goes with him once she has turned eighteen because she is too thoroughly brainwashed to see it for what it is.

---

Back to The Jailbait Wait.

---