Basic Trope: Someone knows what romantic love is, but can't tell when they're in it.
- Straight: Alice falls for Bob but can't tell why she's obsessing over him or why she has butterflies in her stomach, at one point thinking she must be losing her mind.
- Exaggerated:
- This happens every time Alice falls in love.
- There's a Love Dodecahedron, except none of the characters realise they're in love with the others.
- Downplayed: Alice considers that she might have a crush on Bob, but can't tell for sure.
- Justified:
- Alice and Bob are preteens, and Bob is Alice's first crush.
- Alice doesn't fall in love very often.
- Bob is much older than Alice, and she didn't realise it was possible to fall in love with someone that much older.
- Alice is demiromantic.
- Inverted: Alice thinks she's in love with Bob, but she's actually just impressed by his grades.
- Subverted:
- Alice gets dizzy around Bob and wonders why... it turns out to be because she's allergic to his cologne.
- Alice is in love with Bob and says, "Why am I obsessing over him?! I must be losing my mind!" ... However, it then turns out that she knows she's in love with Bob, but seeing as she didn't like him at first, she thinks only a crazy person would fall for him.
- Double Subverted:
- While Alice is actually allergic to Bob's cologne, she still feels the butterflies in her stomach when he switches to a cologne that she is not allergic to.
- Parodied:
- Alice goes on many dates and even decides to marry Bob. She still somehow can't put her finger on why she did that though.
- Zigzagged: Alice first thinks she's in love with Bob, then that she's going insane, then that she's allergic to his cologne, then that she's afraid of him... and whichever one is true is left up in the air, with the evidence leaning in all directions.
- Averted:
- Alice knows perfectly well that she's in love with Bob.
- There is No Hugging, No Kissing.
- Alice doesn't know what love is.
- Enforced: The writers want to keep Alice and Bob in a Will They or Won't They? situation.
- Lampshaded: "What?! How can she be absolutely crazy about me and not even realize it?!"
- Invoked: Alice is currently in a situation where she and Bob are too busy for a relationship, so she chooses to repress her true feelings for the time being. When they get into a less busy situation, Alice takes the time to realize her feelings and starts a relationship with Bob.
- Exploited: Diane wants a shot with Bob but knows that Bob is interested in Alice. Diane knows that Alice is unknowingly in love and takes the gamble of getting Bob to ask her out. When Alice hesitates and gives a non-committal answer due to not knowing her true feelings, Bob is dejected, leaving Diane to pick Bob right up.
- Defied: "Every time I'm near him, I feel so anxious, I wonder what it could be... No, I shouldn't play dumb, this must be love!"
- Discussed: "I'd know if I was in love... wouldn't I?"
- Conversed: "Why is it that so many fictional characters don't know if they're in love? Usually it's hard to miss."
- Implied: Alice says that she is not in love with anyone but is also obviously nervously flustered when she is around Bob. The story reveals that they are in a relationship at the end, but it's never explicitly revealed that Alice loved Bob back then or if it was something else.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice and Bob would be a great fit for one another, but because Alice never realizes her true feelings, she never asks Bob out.
- Reconstructed:
- Although Alice does not realize her true feelings, they are obvious to everyone else, including Bob. Bob asks her out and then Alice finally realizes that she is in love with Bob.
- Played for Laughs: Alice is a hypochondriac and thinks that her feelings for Bob are a disease.
- Played for Drama: The reason Alice doesn't realise she's in love is that she has never had much, if any, human interaction for her whole life.
- Played for Horror: Alice is a Stalker with a Crush that does not know she has a crush. She harasses him, follows him everywhere, and even breaks into his house without understanding why. This relentless stalking traumatizes Bob and Alice feels that she has gone absolutely insane.
Back to Unknowingly in Love.
