History Main / MurderTheHypotenuse

* [[DishingOutDirt Sadira]], from the ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'', subverts this; she wanted Jasmine out of the way,[[spoiler: before she eventually got over Aladdin,]] but did not want her dead or seriously hurt, even explaining it in detail to a grunt.

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', where Vlad constantly tries to kill his "best friend" Jack in order to win his wife Maddie's heart. He also has a creepy, stalkerish relationship with Jack and Maddie's kid and main character Danny [[spoiler:(to the point of trying to clone Danny and raise the clone as his own son, since Danny refuses to let Vlad adopt him)]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': One episode featured a newcomer called Berry. Berry is initially sweet and polite, but once she develops a crush on Bloo, she turns into a psychotic {{Yandere}} who continually tries to get rid of Bloo's best friend Mac so that she can have Bloo to herself. Worst of all, Bloo barely even notices her and constantly forgets her name.

** Bender says he assumed Fry was only pretending to love his old dog to mess with Bender's emotions (not a romantic love triangle, but love nonetheless). So, he throws the dog into lava.
--->'''Bender:''' Now I'm all you've got!
*** Of course, the dog is a fossil and thus already dead. Also, once he realizes that Fry genuinely loves his dog he dives into the lava to save the dog. You might even call it his MoralEventHorizon moment... if he weren't so comically evil.
*** Tragically, when Fry learns his dog had lived several years after its supposed death, he himself breaks the hypotenuse by refusing to resurrect his pet, insisting, "He forgot me a long time ago." In truth, the dog had spent the rest of its life waiting in vain for Fry to come home. This ending was so depressing that it was retconned in ''Bender's Big Score''.
** In ''Bender's Big Score'' Zapp Brannigan is all too keen on sending Leela's boyfriend Lars on a suicide mission to get him out of the way. Then again, Zapp is ALWAYS sending every single one of his crew members on suicide missions, so this is business as usual even if you discount his interest in banging a freshly grieving Leela.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''
** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''The Hand That Rocks The Mable''. [[{{Yandere}} Gideon]] is obsessed with [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Mabel]], who gets her brother [[AdorablyPrecociousChild Dipper]] to break up with him on her behalf. [[FriendVersusLover Perceiving Dipper as the problem]], Gideon lures him into a trap and tries to kill him.
** Another situation like this happens in ''Soos and the Real Girl''. After Soos breaks up with [=.GIFfany=], another {{Yandere}} character, she attempts to kill his friends and his date, perceiving them as obstacles in her relationship with Soos.

** In "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS1E22And23Metamorphosis Metamorphosis]]", a [[{{Squick}} squicky]] example occurs when an extremely BoyfriendBlockingDad (who loved his daughter maybe [[ParentalIncest a bit too much]]) didn't like his daughter's fiance so he tried to kill him. When that failed, he pretended that the one who told him to do it was the fiance's old friend Green Lantern, while showing him a photo of Green Lantern and his fiance embracing. The fiance then invoked this trope himself as he went after Green Lantern in a rage.
** In "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E24To26Starcrossed Starcrossed]]", Hro Talak insists on fighting Green Lantern/John Stewart [[LeaveHimToMe one-on-one]] so he can personally kill the man he views as having "taken" Shayera Hol (Hawkgirl) from him. In reality, Shayera dumping him had more to do with Talak's willingness to commit war crimes against Earth.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' in the episode "Suddenly Suzy", where we find out Candace is very aware of this trope and hides anything she thinks could be used to kill her before Suzy arrives. Suzy herself isn't a ''romantic'' rival but certainly sees Candace as a rival for her older brother Jeremy's attention.

** Wendy, Stan's love interest/girlfriend in the early seasons went so far as to have a substitute teacher arrested on false charges and locked inside a rocket that's launched directly at the sun, for the crime of having been the object of a brief crush from Stan[[note]]The thing is, the teacher was a ''lesbian'' and Wendy didn't know that, so there's also a dose of PoorCommunicationKills involved[[/note]]. What makes it either better or worse (depending on how you feel about said twist) was that the episode originally intended to have Ms. Ellen ''actually'' be a spy and be sent to the sun for her crimes. Parker and Stone tacked on the ending with Wendy paying off the Iraqis, as they felt the original ending was too much of a downer and that it'd be funnier if Wendy conspired to kill her.
** Happens in another episode when Satan gets caught in a love triangle between his old boyfriend, Saddam Hussein, and his new boyfriend, Chris. Satan can't decide who he wants to stay with when Saddam decides for him and kills Chris. It's ultimately subverted since they were all already in Hell, Chris only comes back. [[RunningGag Where was he gonna go? Detroit?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In the episode "Mad Love", ComicBook/HarleyQuinn thinks Batman is interfering in [[MadLove her relationship]] with ComicBook/TheJoker, so she becomes determined to kill Batman herself, thinking that'll fix everything.

* On ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', Heloise builds a [[RobotMe robot double]] to be her assistant. She's very effective, but Jimmy falls in love with it. As you might expect, the robot didn't last the episode.

** In the episode "Metamorphosis", a [[{{Squick}} squicky]] example occurs when an extremely BoyfriendBlockingDad (who loved his daughter maybe [[ParentalIncest a bit too much]]) didn't like his daughter's fiance so he tried to kill him. When that failed, he pretended that the one who told him to do it was the fiance's old friend Green Lantern, while showing him a photo of Green Lantern and his fiance embracing. The fiance then invoked this trope himself as he went after Green Lantern in a rage.
** In "Starcrossed", Hro Talak insists on fighting Green Lantern / John Stewart [[LeaveHimToMe one-on-one]] so he can personally kill the man he views as having "taken" Shayera Hol (Hawkgirl) from him. In reality, Shayera dumping him had more to do with Talak's willingness to commit war crimes against Earth.
** Subverted in "Hunter's Moon": Shayera and Mari (Vixen) are caught in a LoveTriangle with John. He is currently with Mari, but he ''was'' with Shayera and everybody is aware that there are still [[{{UST}} unresolved feelings]] between the two of them. When Hawkgirl and Vixen are on a mission together ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg with Vigilante]]) they are caught in a trap and hunted down by Thanagarians who want to execute Hawkgirl for war crimes. When Vixen is captured she immediately strikes a deal with the Thanagarians -- spare her and she will deliver Hawkgirl to them. She even goes so far as to cite the LoveTriangle as the reason she will betray her superior so quickly. However, she does not go through with it, [[FakeDefector nor did she ever plan to]]; once the Thanagarians let their guard down and bring her to their aircraft she hijacks the ship so she can get herself ''and'' Hawkgirl out of there safely. Later episodes play the trope for laughs as Shayera and Mari [[CharacterDevelopment begin to become close friends]], as Shayera comments that she is trying to learn proper Earth protocol for these situations and thusly can not just poison Mari's water like she would on Thanagar.
** The relationship eventually evolves into a quadrilateral by introducing Carter "Hawkman" Hall as a rival for Shayera's affection and the story wastes no time in getting to hypotenuse murdering: in Hawkman's second appearance, a physical manifestation of his dark side kidnaps John Stewart and orders Hawkman to kill him. Hawkman, [[IncorruptiblePurePureness being a hero]], does not comply. In fact, the events of the episode cause him to stop pursuing Shayera romantically as he realizes that [[BecauseDestinySaysSo she and John Stewart are literally destined to end up together]], [[ScrewDestiny despite what John Stewart says]].

* One of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' "Treehouse of Horror" episodes centers around a house with AI that's in love with Marge. Homer [[TooDumbToLive explicitly points out]] that Marge would be available to "man or machine" if he were to die.

** The [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} genie of Agrabah]] kills Snow White's father so he and Queen Regina can be together. Unfortunately, she was never in love with ''him'', and only [[BatmanGambit pretended to be so that he'd do that]].

* Averted in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius:'' the LoveTriangle is complicated firstly by the fact that A) they're all mad scientists, and B) they all have conflicting loyalties, but the two romantic male leads are VitriolicBestBuds. Of course, a little romantic sabotage now and then is different.

* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'':
** In the sixth episode of season two, Alex disconnection from her handsome boyfriend Dean Moriarty coincides with the arrival of evil blonde Ronald Longcap Jr., a wizard student who immediately sets his eyes on Alex and is very unpleased in learning that she already has a boyfriend. Upon meeting Dean for the first time, Ronald leads the boy into the kitchen and in order to get him out of the way of his plans with Alex, uses a spell that traps Dean inside a huge cube of jelly, frozing him in time with an anguish expression. Ronald then uses a spell to turn into Dean and heads over Alex's where, under the guise of Alex's boyfriend Dean, breaks up with her so that she can be with him once she meets him as Ronald. His plans briefly works as the episode ends with Alex confessing she likes him and accepting to return to WizTech with Ronald. The episode ends with a shot of Dean still trapped inside the huge cube of jelly.
** Dean Moriarty seems to be the go-to target (or hypotenuse) for Alex's other boyfriends when it comes to murdering the hypontenuse, as this character and trope are present once again in Season 4, Episode 4. This time Alex and her boyfriend Mason Greyback are going through a pause on their romantic relantionship and decided to remain good friends when Dean Moriarty returns, straightfowardly making it very clear that he wants him and Alex to be boyfriend and girlfriend again as soon as he walks in. Mason is immediately jealous, and although Alex tells Dean that she has no intention on being his girlfriend again, Dean won't stop trying to win her back and the two of them start spending a lot of time together reminiscing their romance. As a werewolf, Mason can't control himself and halfway through the episode is revealed that he literally ate Dean, and that Alex's brother helped him with a spell to shrink Dean so that he would be easily swallowed. Way to murder the hypotenuse.

* ''Series/TheWizardsOfWaverlyPlace'':
** In the sixth episode of season two, Alex disconnection from her handsome boyfriend Dean Moriarty coincides with the arrival of evil blonde Ronald Longcap Jr., a wizard and student at WizTech who immediately sets his eyes on Alex and is very unpleased in learning that she already has a boyfriend. Upon meeting Dean for the first time, Ronald leads the boy into the kitchen and in order to get him out of the way of his plans with Alex, uses a spell that traps Dean inside a huge cube of jelly, frozing him in time with an anguish expression. Ronald then uses a spell to turn into Dean and heads over Alex's where, under the guise of Alex's boyfriend Dean, breaks up with her so that she can be with him once she meets him as Ronald. His plans briefly works as the episode ends with Alex confessing she likes him and accepting to return to WizTech with Ronald. The episode ends with a shot of Dean still trapped inside the huge cube of jelly.

* Victoria in Charlotte Dacre's Gothic novel ''Zofloya; or, The Moor'' poisons her husband to free herself to pursue his brother Henriquez, and then murders Henriquez's beloved in order to get rid of the competition.

* In the Creator/BenBova novel ''Mercury'', the story starts with Mance Bracknell, lead engineer on a space elevator, married to Lara Tierney. Victor Molina, the astrobiologist best friend of Mance, wants Lara. When the space elevator collapses, killing hundreds of millions of people and devastating many nations, [[spoiler:Victor falsely testifies in court that Mance was negligently responsible for the collapse, getting him put into forced labour for life. After an accident wipes out everyone on a spaceship but him, Mance takes on the identity of one of the crewmembers and (eventually) gets a job as manager of a colony on Mercury. He lures Victor (who is now happily married to Lara) to Mercury with some life-bearing rocks he's planted, with the goal of getting Victor publicly humiliated when his astrobiologist peers inevitably discover that the rocks aren't from Mercury (thus showing him as either a fraud or an idiot, either way ending his career). Mance seems to think this will get Lara back, but when he reveals his identity, plan, and Victor's false testimony, Lara rejects them both]]. Smart woman.

* The protagonist of the 1933 film ''Parole Girl'' is falsely accused of robbery and sent to prison While in prison she befriends a woman who at least attempted this once.

* Though he doesn't go through with it, Edward Cullen of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' seriously considers doing in Mike Newton for daring to touch Bella, and probably thought about murdering Jacob Black for the same reason.

* ''VisualNovel/YandereILoveYouSoIWantToKillYou'' has an ending where it's implied that [[spoiler:Saki]] kills Subaru's date.

* In the [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa manga adaptation]] of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', besides the threat Link poses to his rule, Zant wants to kill him for being close to Midna.

* In the first book of ''The Binding of the Blade'' series by L.B. Graham, there is a LoveTriangle between [[TheHero Joraiem Andira]], [[JerkAss Rulalin Tarasir]], and Wylla Someris. Rulalin was Wylla's UnluckyChildhoodFriend and hadn't seen her for a few years prior to the beginning of the book. He had been hoping to convince her to marry him because when he had first confessed his feelings for her she had been in the midst of grieving her dead father. Naturally, he wasn't happy [[LoveMakesYouCrazy at all]] when she continued to reject his advances and instead chose to marry Joraiem. About a month after their wedding, Rulalin [[spoiler:lured Joraiem down to a remote spot and tried to convince Joraiem to murder him because life had no meaning if he couldn't marry Wylla. Joraiem, shocked, refused, so [[LoveMakesYouEvil Rulalin stabbed him instead]]. [[HerHeartWillGoOn Fortunately, that wasn't the end of the Andira bloodline...]]]]

* Linda Fairstein's first Alexandra Cooper novel, ''Final Jeopardy'', features an erotomaniac woman who stalks and kills a movie star she perceives as standing between her and the object of her infatuation.

* In episode 11 of ''LightNovel/GoodLuckNinomiyaKun'' when told Mayu might die soon (she's a succubus so she needs life force) Reika's [[{{Yandere}} alternate personality]] tells Shungo she doesn't care since "it's more convenient for me if Mayu dies like this because then I can have you all to myself." She then agrees to let Mayu live so long as Shungo "becomes hers forever." This is also played with in regards to Shinobu, a maid of Reika's, who thinks Shungo is not worthy of Reika and is always trying to "execute" him.

* PlayedForLaughs in episode 5 of ''LightNovel/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'', Sorata and Mashiro have a talk after Nanami agrees to move into [[QuirkyHousehold Sakura Hall]]. OnlySaneMan Sorata's plan is to bribe Mashiro with food with a promise that she would take care of herself. Jin {{the Casanova}} suggests they tell Nanami they're dating, which Sorata immediately rejects. InnocentlyInsensitive IdiotSavant Mashiro then innocently invokes this trope by stating that [[{{Yandere}} she should kill]] Nanami to keep their secret safe, which he also immediately dismisses. Sorata decides to try his idea, which he calls Plan A, calls Jin's idea Plan B, and Mashiro suggests her idea is Plan C, causing Jin to start laughing wildly at Sorata.

* In ''Manga/WolfGuyWolfenCrest’’:
** Haguro (who's {{Yandere}} for Inugami's werewolf form) does NOT take it well when Chiba briefly meets up with Inugami. [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown At all]].
** Possibly Ryuuko Konuma's motivation for [[spoiler:selling out Aoshika to Haguro]] beside, you know, avoiding [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown ANOTHER beating]]. Heaven help [[spoiler:Aoshika]]. [[spoiler:Given the eighteen chapter gang rape, heaven's a little late]]. After THAT, Haguro also tries to kill Aoshika while telling her that Inugami is too good for her. Fortunately, Inugami [[BigDamnHeroes shows up in time]].

** In the episode "Metamorphosis", a [[{{Squick}} squicky]] example occurs when an extremely OverProtectiveDad (who loved his daughter maybe [[ParentalIncest a bit too much]]) didn't like his daughter's fiance so he tried to kill him. When that failed, he pretended that the one who told him to do it was the fiance's old friend Green Lantern, while showing him a photo of Green Lantern and his fiance embracing. The fiance then invoked this trope himself as he went after Green Lantern in a rage.

** This backfires in the expanded universe novel ''A Study in Murder'' by Robert Ryan. An [=MI5=] agent releases a German FemmeFataleSpy on condition that she assassinate Dr. Watson--partly because of his mission, which is to stop Watson being POW-swapped for Sherlock Holmes, but also because he's fallen for a woman who's actually in love with Watson. Instead the spy shoots the woman instead, [[ForTheEvulz knowing it will harm both men]]. The [=MI5=] agent kills himself afterwards [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone out of remorse]].

** This backfires in the expanded universe novel ''A Study in Murder'' by Robert Ryan. An [=MI5=] agent Nathan releases a German FemmeFataleSpy on condition that she assassinate Dr. Watson--partly because of his mission, which is to stop Watson being POW-swapped for Sherlock Holmes, but also because he's fallen for Mrs. Gregson, who's actually in love with Watson. Instead the spy shoots Mrs. Gregson instead, [[ForTheEvulz knowing it will harm both men]]. Nathan kills himself afterwards out of remorse.

** Love murders [[spoiler: Natalie after finding out that Joe has developed an obsession for her. Later, Love considers murdering Marienne for the same reason, but stops herself upon seeing [[MoralityPet Marienne's daughter]]]].

* ''LightNovel/MirageOfBlaze'': Naoe does this by raping Kagetora's lover and later on forcing Kagetora to possess her to save his life.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': In the [[Rule34 NSFW doujin]] [[ParallelPornTitle "Spy x Sex"]], [[BigBrotherAttraction Yuri is still jealous of Loid marrying Yor]], so he hid several microphones in the Forgers' apartment to gather evidence that Loid is an abusive husband, and thus have a legitimate excuse to have him arrested and executed. However, Loid finds the microphones and thinks [[RightForTheWrongReasons Yuri's trying to expose]] him [[DeepCoverAgent as Twilight]], and since he can't destroy the microphones or even just jam their radio signals to Yuri's receiver without blowing his cover, he tells Yor that it's strange for them to be married and not have had sex yet, and as Yor is stunned with Loid's request, he activates a small portable jammer (he assumed Yuri would turn off his radio after Loid asked Yor to sleep with him, and then blame the lack of signal on equipment failure rather figure out Loid took out the radios). In the end, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Yuri's plan ends up backfiring spectacularly]], because once Loid tries to apologize to Yor for trying to pressure her into having sex, she tells him she remebered a conversation she had with a coworker who said Loid would leave her if he feels sexually unsatisfied, [[TheirFirstTime and they end up making love]], [[ComeBackToBedHoney several times]].