Basic Trope: A character is able to save the person they love with a kiss.
- Straight: Alice is put into a magically induced coma by an evil sorceress, and Bob is able to wake her up with a kiss.
- Exaggerated: Bob is able to cure anybody with any kind of illness with a kiss.
- Downplayed: Alice wasn't in a coma, she was just woozy from heat exhaustion. Bob kissing her made her heart speed up.
- Justified: Bob has an hitherto unknown healing ability, the kiss is the skin-to-skin contact needed to save Alice
- Inverted: Bob is able to harm people he hates with his kisses.
- Subverted: Bob kisses Alice, but she doesn't wake up.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob kisses Alice, but she doesn't wake up... quickly. It takes a few moments for her to come to.
- Bob kisses Alice, and she doesn't wake up. Bob's sidekick, Charlie, says, "No, man, a Real Kiss, like this," and proceeds to give Alice a big, sloppy kiss with lots of tongue. She wakes up.
- Parodied:
- Bob is a hippie who loves everyone, so he is hired by various royalty with comatose daughters to wake them up.
- Alice is a total narcissist. Bob awakens her by placing a mirror on her lips.
- Bob thinks it's a true love's kiss, but after several tries (and learning the hard way), Bob eventually figures out he's supposed to lick her elbow to break the curse.
- Bob kisses Alice, but she doesn't wake up. Then, Charlie steps in to kiss her instead, and that works. Alice then admits to bob she's been already dating Charlie for a month.
- Bob is told that only true love's kiss can break the spell, It actually just makes him fall asleep too, as well as the piles of other sleeping knights who've tried to rescue Alice.
- Bob places true love's kiss on Alice, but because the kiss can also turn animals back into humans, Alice suddenly turns into a very unpleasant anthropomorphic donkey upon awakening.
- Alice wakes up to her heroic prince charming... only to realize he's a socially inept man who's a little too touchy for his own good.
- Alice wakes up from the true love's kiss... then falls asleep... but she wakes back up... but then she's asleep again... and it goes on and on...
- Zig Zagged: Bob kisses Alice, and she wakes up. Except then she falls back into a coma. Except it turns out it was just heavy sleep, because her body needed rest to work off the curse.
- Averted: The curse can only be cured with the MacGuffin.
- Enforced: "Our young audience loves The Power of Love, so that's how Bob will break the curse!"
- Lampshaded: "Why is it always a kiss? Surely there's a potion or a countercurse?"
- Invoked: "Kiss her, idiot! It always works!"
- Exploited: The true love's kiss can also effect those awake, so if Bob kisses the sorceress, he can put her to sleep and get the upper hand.
- Defied: The sorceress considers true love's kiss as a Curse Escape Clause, but figures that would be too obvious and comes up with something else.
- Discussed: "Ten shillings says it's broken by a kiss... yup, right here; 'true love's kiss.' Pay up."
- Conversed: " “Why is it always "true love's kiss" anyway?"
- Deconstructed:
- Bob and Alice were dating, but he wasn't in love with her, so he can't wake her up.
- Bob kissing Alice while she's unconscious and unable to consent is technically sexual assault.
- Reconstructed:
- …but Charlie does love Alice, but he was afraid to say anything. He kisses her and her curse is cured.
- Alice isn't quite pleased to have been kissed while in a coma, but acknowledges that the coma was the bigger problem and lets Bob off the hook.
Maybe your True Love's Kiss can take you back to the main page...
