History Main / WoundedGazelleGambit

* As indicated by the page quote, [[TheLibby Sae]] from ''PeachGirl'' is a master of this. Most of the conflict in the first arc is driven by Sae convincing people that Momo is bullying her.
** In fact, she seems to rely a little too much on this tactic; even in circumstances where it's obvious she's lying, this is still the first thing she'll always pull.
* Used in at least two episodes of ''CaseClosed'' (''DetectiveConan''). One where the killer turns out to be the deceased, and another where the killer stabs himself to allay suspicion. Suspects will sometimes attempt this to deflect suspicion from themselves, but of course Conan sees through them all; one victim was injured because she was trying to pull one of these on her fiancé to be.
** In at least two other cases the killers planted evidence against themselves in such a way as to make it look like they were being [[FramingTheGuiltyParty framed]].
** And the case of a robber who lured his former partners onto a ship on the pretext of splitting the loot from a robbery past the statue of limitations, kills them, then shoots himself, making it look like one of his dead partners did it before they killed themselves.
** Averted in a case where [[spoiler: Ran thought that the karate champion she fangirled was the murderer, but he was planting evidence ''against himself'' to divert attention from the true murderer, his BrokenBird girlfriend. He ''was'' arrested too, but for TakingTheHeat.]]
** And another case has [[spoiler: Ran and Sonoko's old schoolteacher murdering her colleagues for being involved in the death of a student, and to make believe one of the "victims" was the killer, she knocked Sonoko out with chloroform and then lied on the floor to make it look like both of them were attacked.]]

* ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma ½]]'': Ukyo used this in ''Ukyo's Secret Sauce'' but with a twist. She implicates her LoveInterest Ranma as the one who has injured her (by cheating on her with Akane, since Ranma spent the night in Akane's room). Since Ranma was already feeling guilty about wrecking her special sauce (and letting her think it was her failure) he falls for it pretty badly. Afterwards Ukyo comments to herself: "Wow, tears really do work."
** Ranma himself has done this a few times. Most prominently in ''Team Ranma vs. The Legendary Phoenix'', where he attempts to use it (as "the pigtailed girl") to trick Kuno into getting rid of a bird that is constantly attacking Ranma and which Ranma can't hurt, due to its paralytic gaze.
* In the first Martial Arts tournament in ''DragonBall'', Ranfan's entire strategy revolves around screaming when her opponent is about to hit her and striking while their guard is down. Well, that and stripping.
** Piccolo in his fight against Goku, faking having been defeated only to [[BreathWeapon Shoop Da Whoop]] a careless Goku through his chest.

* Played for laughs in ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'', where the effect of Blair/Rei's [[MoeMoe "Maiden In Love"]] card is to make puppy eyes at the male monsters of her opponent and turn them against each other since they can't bring themselves to attack her.
** Marik too. He called himself Namu, his brother called himself Marik, and Bakura's crazy half pretended to be the not crazy half of his split personality.

* In ''RealBoutHighSchool'', wannabe ninja Asuka Kuronari pulls this during her fight with real ninja Kyoichi Kunugi. She pulls down her mask and cries her eyes out while telling him her life story, why she thought she could be a ninja if she tried hard enough, and asks him to look at something: a smoke bomb, which she immediately deploys, giving her cohort Xiaoxing the chance to attack him.
** While the tactic fails to defeat him, he is so impressed by her deviousness (contrary to what ''{{Naruto}}'' may claim, this is a good trait in a ninja) that he leaves the battle and declares that she ''may'' be a real ninja after all.

* [[TheLibby Rika]] from the manga ''DevilBesideYou'' does this to protagonist Kayano in order to get attention from Takeru and have him break up with Kayano. Being the JerkassStu he is, it works magnificently.

* A 40's ''{{Batman}}'' features a short one: A low-level crook fires a bullet through his own hat (which he's holding in his hand), while yelling "DROP IT, WAYNE!!" He proceeds to put the hat back on and tosses the gun to Bruce Wayne, [[WhatAnIdiot who catches it]]. The police barge in and see Bruce Wayne with a smoking gun in his hand, and a hole in a bystander's hat.

* Linda Fiorentino's character in ''TheLastSeduction''.

** A similar thing happens in ''The Class of 1984''. A student is caught doing something wrong in the boys' bathroom. Instead of taking his punishment, he beats himself up by doing things, like banging his head into the paper towel dispenser. When security arrives, they think the teacher is trying to beat up the student.

** This is also used in the very similar comic ''Queen Bee'', when the protagonist's rival garners sympathy for herself [[spoiler:by using her telekinetic powers to hit herself in the head with a lunch tray]] and blame the protagonist.

** Agatha Christie uses this trope on several occasions. In fact, if someone survives an attempt on their life in one of her books, there is a 90% chance they did it themselves.

*** [[spoiler:Subverted in that Black was intending to do exactly what (he thought) Pettigrew had just done for him.]]
*** But played straight in that Peter did frame Sirius for the Potters' betrayal. And it's highly unlikely that anyone would have faulted Sirius, given what Peter had [[TheQuisling done to deserve it.]]
** In the same book, Draco Malfoy used his (healed) injury from a hippogriff to get special treatment, eventually leading up to his dad using political leverage to order the hippogriff's execution.

* There's a [[FranzKafka Kafka]] story about this.

* The entire point of Ann Coulter writing ''Guilty'' is to allege that the American Far Left has been pulling this on its right-wing opponents for several decades, with the Right being too dumbfounded by some of the allegations to intelligibly fight back.
** But this book is doing that for the right-wing people. It makes the right-wing look like the victims of "false victims." But this is a "chicken and egg" situation, so don't bother deciding who is the lion and who is the gazelle.
*** Of course. Ann Coulter is the ''queen'' of the WoundedGazelleGambit.

** A suspect tries the same thing by head-desk on ''{{CSI}}''. Someone just points out that they can prove it was self-inflicted. Suspect sulks and asks for an aspirin.
* ''{{Law and Order}} [[{{SVU}} Special Victims Unit]]'' gives a NightmareFuel spin to it. A woman going through a horrible divorce had sex with her divorce lawyer and then falsely accused her husband of raping and beating her [[TheUnfairSex getting everyone's sympathies and effectively ruining her ex-husband's reputation]]. The ex-husband, who until then was a more or less normal guy, [[BerserkButton snaps so violently]] at the fake accusation that he ''[[KillItWithFire sets his abusive and bitchy evil ex-wife on fire]]'', killing her.
** ''[[ItGotWorse It gets worse.]]'' [[spoiler:Even on her deathbed, confronted by Olivia with the truth, she '''still''' accuses her ex-husband of a crime he didn't commit, effectively ruining the lives of herself, the husband, and most tragically, their daughter. All so she could win a divorce settlement.]]
** Another episode involved a young woman enticing the least creepy guy on the sex offenders' online registry (he was 19, his girlfriend was 17, and her parents did not approve) into a hotel room for sex during a convention and had her friends beat her up, faking evidence of a brutal rape complete with perp, so her family could sue the hotel for allowing some random rapist into the premises. She plea bargained herself out of a jail sentence, but was hauled off for felony murder after the guy she framed was [[PrisonRape raped and killed in prison]] before he could be exonerated.

* In ''{{Dexter}}'', Lila has rough sex with Angel Batista and then takes a date rape drug to accuse him of rape. Earlier in the season, she torched her apartment to get sympathy from Dexter.
** In the same season, Dexter himself uses this tactic by headbutting Doakes and walking out of a conversation held in private, successfully provoking Doakes into attacking him in front of everyone else, which leads to Doakes' suspension from the police department and definitely makes Dexter out to be an innocent victim of Doakes' animosity:
---> '''Dexter''': I own you. BAM!

* ''BurnNotice'' talks about a variant of this, calling it "Double Blackmail," where the blackmailer will make it look like they are being blackmailed as well, so that the mark is more trusting. It is referred to as being "[[OldestOnesInTheBook Older than the Pyramids]]".
** In Season 3, Michael comments that injuries can help with cover stories, and hurts himself a few times.
** Playing on her knowledge of Michael's childhood,[[spoiler: Evelyn pretends to be a battered wife]] in Season 1 so that[[spoiler: Michael will help her track down the man she has been hired to kill. ]]
* ''{{Highlander}}'' (the TV version) mixed this with a classic BatmanGambit: Suspected in a series of beheadings committed by another Immortal, [=MacLeod=] comes to this Immortal... unarmed, followed by police, and pretending not to know what the other Immortal is talking about. When the other immortal takes his sword out, the police move in. The Enemy Of The Week gets away, but [=MacLeod=] is cleared anyway.

* On an episode of ''TheInside'' Rebecca cornered an EnfantTerrible in her tree house and was questioning/intimidating her about the murder she had committed. When the little girl's mother called for her, she fell backwards out of the tree house, breaking her arm, and she claimed the FBI agent pushed her. No one in the agency blamed her but Melody did seem impressed that Rebecca had pulled her gun on a 10-year-old.

* Tristan from ''AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall'' isn't above playing up his injuries to gain sympathy from a young lady, or to score a free drink.
** He exaggerates the difficulties of his work so that the crusty farmers will coddle him and, yes, give him a beer or other alcoholic beverage afterwards. The first time we see this, he's leaning exhausted against the sympathetic farmer, looking completely drained. Then, when the farmer's not looking, he smiles and winks at James.

* In one episode of ''{{Lie to Me}}'' there are two interesting twists on this trope.
** A soldier [[spoiler: claimed she was raped by her commanding officer.]] She was lying, but [[spoiler: he did rape another soldier under his command. Eventually, the team says she was telling the truth in order to put him behind bars.]]
** At another point, Lightman goes to the house of a man who he suspects is hiding his granddaughter, who is needed for this case. She's nowhere in sight, so Lightman steals the old man's cane, throws it against a table, and yells "Ow! Ow! Stop hurting me!" The woman instinctively rushes into the room, thinking her grandfather is in danger, before realizing she's been caught.
* In ''V-2009'', Anna invokes this trope by [[spoiler:having [[AbusiveParents her daughter]] and Tyler's love interest, Lisa, severely injured in order to claim that she was attacked by the Fifth Column, thereby getting Tyler to want to be near her as protection.]]

* This even happens in ProfessionalWrestling, of all places. A favorite tactic of the late Eddie Guerrero would be, when the EasilyDistractedReferee's back was turned, slam a chair on the ground, throw it to his opponent, and then lay down like he'd just taken a chair shot. Ref turns around, sees the "carnage", and DQ's the opponent. And this was while he was a {{Face}}, mind you.
** In fact, this is exactly what he did (to Mr. Kennedy) in his last match before he died (may he rest in peace).

* Lince Dorado has started using this in CHIKARA. It being a lucha libre promotion, unmasking an opponent is grounds for disqualification. He waits for the referee to turn his back, takes his mask off, throws it at his opponent, and lays on the ground, covering his face. Instant DQ.
** This spot has also been performed on MTV's wrestling program ''LuchaLibreUSA''

** Which is odd, seeing how Fake Tears lowers Special Defense by two levels, yet all bite attacks are mitigated by normal Defense.
** Not in the generation it was introduced. Bite/Crunch are Dark, which ran exclusively off Special Attack. The elemental attack type split wasn't until the next generation.
** Not to mention Vulpix as well, [[AllThereInTheManual which is directly stated]] in the [[http://veekun.com/dex/pokemon/vulpix/flavor Pokédex]] to feign injury as escape from a strong foe.
* Bad Girl, the Rank 2 assassin in ''NoMoreHeroes'', will sometimes drop to her knees and cry. Fall for it and [[OneHitKill you're dead]]. However, due to her severe emotional disturbance, sometimes she really ''is'' crying - [[spoiler:if one hand's on the bat, she's faking it, but if they're both on her face she's wide open.]]
** The Witch from ''Left4Dead'' works identically. Her crying can be heard long before you even come across her. However, the characters already know to stay away from her (and will warn the others when they hear one) and it's even one of the tips you can get on the loading screen.

* This is pretty much THE modus operandi of Bendy in FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends.

** Not too far off as we're not sure what is in those pancakes Stewie scarfs down.
*** Which is what [[spoiler:the foster family he's stuck in later]] figures - that "pancakes" is some sort of euphemism for crack.

* Ashley Todd, a volunteer for the [=McCain=]/Palin campaign in 2008, claimed that she went to withdraw money from an ATM when a ScaryBlackMan mugged her and, upon seeing her [=McCain=] bumper sticker, carved a "B" into her face. She declined medical attention for her injuries, but quickly notified the media about her politically-motivated victimization. She got sympathy calls from [=McCain=] and Palin and the story made the rounds for about a day before she was brought in for questioning and cracked under pressure, revealing she fabricated the entire thing and inflicted the injuries herself. Notably, the "B" she carved into her own face was backwards, as though done in a mirror.
** See also the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawana_Brawley Tawana Brawley case]], the [[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E3D61231F933A05751C1A9679C8B63 Morton Downey, Jr. "skinhead attack"]], and Crystal Gail Magnum of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Duke_University_lacrosse_case Duke Lacrosse alleged rape case]].

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Smith Susan Smith]]
** The rare male example, [[http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/September-October-08/On-this-Day--White-Boston-Man-Kills-Pregnant-Wife--Blames-Imaginary-Black-Man.html Charles Stuart]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Anderson Jesse Anderson]], [[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E4D61639F932A05752C0A960958260 Robert Harris]].
* In some ways, Diana. After the break-up of her marriage to Prince Charles, she gave a series of interviews in which she tearfully described her unhappy life as his wife, essentially blaming the ''entire'' thing on him. This despite the fact that she was at least as adulterous as he was: whereas Charles seemingly had only one mistress, she was rumored to have had several lovers. [[TheUnfairSex This helped very much frame Diana in the better light, making Charles the bad guy in the situation.]] It helps that [[BeautyEqualsGoodness she was attractive and he very much isn't]]. Of course, Diana ''was'' in a genuinely difficult and unhappy situation, but she was not entirely the wounded innocent she made herself out to be.
** "Not entirely" might be an understatement. She could be unpleasant bordering on abusive, especially to those who weren't in a position to make her look good to the public (such as members of the media and representatives of charities). It has been suggested that she suffered from borderline personality disorder: "I hate you, but don't leave me!" The above mentioned interview in fact quite upset at least William in how slanted the whole thing was.
** Everything written here ignores the fact that Charles really didn't want to marry her. He wanted to marry Camilla Parker Bowles but couldn't. So no wonder Diana felt the victim: she married a man who was in love with someone else from the start. "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." It was wrong of him to marry her in the first place, but there was enormous pressure on him.
** Diana WANTED to marry Charles, she wanted to be a princess. And given her connections to the court she HAD to have known all about Camilla. Frankly there is something rather attractive about a man who prefers a horse-faced middle aged woman to a gorgeous blond model type.

* A considerably milder example would be the younger siblings that pretend to howl in pain and act as though you've hit them in order to get their way/get you in serious trouble.[[hottip:* :Actually hitting these siblings when they try this will either make them stop or cause you to deserve your coming punishment. Either way, you win.]]
** Comedian John Heffron has a joke about this; whatever he was doing to annoy his brother would lead his brother to yell out [[YouFailBiologyForever "I can't breathe!",]] leading to Heffron being grounded.

* Admiral James Stockdale - when he was a prisoner of war in ''The Hanoi Hilton'', Stockdale was told he would be paraded in public for propaganda purposes. To keep this from happening, he split his own scalp open with a razor, then beat his own face to the point where he was unrecognizable.
** Wrong trope. Stockdale's self-mutilation wasn't for sympathy, but to deny the enemy his face for propaganda purposes, and thereby keep both his and his nation's honor. One could say (though one should be beaten for saying it) that it was to [[IncrediblyLamePun 'save face'.]] What one ''should'' say about it is that it's a {{Crowning Moment of Awesome}} for the Admiral.

** Similarly, some historians believe the English parliament partially organised the gunpowder plot, in an attempt to encourage the english to support their new king James I.

** [[http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/fulldisclosure/2007-03/0441.html Some people claim]] that Kathy was a SmallNameBigEgo who silenced criticism of her books and that she had it coming. (That same hyperlinked article also claims that Kathy was a victim of sexual abuse and that that [[JustifiedTrope justifies her overreaction]].) Also, Kathy hasn't been seen or heard from since this incident, save for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Kathy_Sierra#Allegations_of_harassment_.26_NPOV a hate-filled reply to Seth Finklestein on the talk page for her Wikipedia article]]...in March 2010, three years after he dropped the whole thing! That could actually be a troll posing as her, though...
* Every FalseFlagOperation.
* [[http://abcnews.go.com/US/acid-attack-victim-fake/story?id=11626901&page=1 Bethany Storro]], apparently.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnchausen_syndrome_by_proxy Munchausen syndrome by proxy]], where persons cause injury either to themselves or others (specially their kids, which doubles as AbusiveParents) to gain attention.

[[SparklingGenerationValkyrieYuuki http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/HeadStabby.jpg]]
[[caption-width:400: Sleipnir's idiocy just makes it that much easier ]]

* Megatron pulled this in ''{{Transformers}}: The Movie''; He pleaded for mercy when Optimus had him cornered while reaching for a gun Optimus couldn't see.

* Palpatine pulls this off in ''StarWars'' when he pretends his ugly deformities are the result of a Jedi's attack.
** They were a really indirect result of the Jedi attack. Better reasons could include the fact that he's evil, that he used a bunch of his stamina shooting lightning, revealing that evil, and that he's 8 gazillion years old.

* Inverted in ''TokyoGodfathers'' when Hana shouts at a group of people to draw them closer together by making himself the villain. He even explains it with a reference to a RedOniBlueOni story right afterwards.

* This trope forms the backbone of the DC Comics miniseries ''IdentityCrisis''. When Elongated Man's wife Sue is murdered, it looks like an isolated incident; until Jean Loring, ex-wife of The Atom, is nearly killed as well. It seems someone is murdering the spouses of superheroes, and the hero community comes together to try to figure out which supervillain might be behind it. Except, of course, that it's not a supervillain; it's Jean, who staged her own attempted murder to both throw suspicion off herself, and to send the heroes on a wild goose chase by making Sue's murder look like part of a larger series of killings. And, in keeping with the scenario at the top of the page, it turns out she did it all [[{{wallbanger}} to get a man's attention.]]

* In the Canadian film ''Trojan Horse'' the presidential candidate hero/villian hires an assassin to shoot him non-fatally during a speech, implying his opponents are using serious dirty tactics as well as giving himself the opportunity to fake a near-death religious experience.

* In ''TheJoyLuckClub'', one of the women tells her backstory, in which she goes to live with her mother and her mother's second husband. It turns out that the husband has several wives and the second one frequently employs this trope by sickening herself by eating large amounts of opium and pretending to be dying so she could have her way. It gets to the point that she doesn't even need to eat opium to trick her husband. [[spoiler:Ultimately, the narrator's mother goes one step further and actually ''does'' commit suicide by opium to ensure that her daughter is best treated and the second wife loses power]]. Possibly subverted in that the husband was extremely superstitious and feared angering a woman who would potentially come back to haunt him, rather than feeling sorry for her.

* In Japanese drama ShokojoSera (based on ALittlePrincess), DeanBitterman Mimura Chieko told a wealthy man that she was victimized by heroine Seira, claiming that Seira [[BlatantLies lies and treated '''her''' horribly when she was kind to Seira]] in order to gain his sympathies. Subverted in that [[MysteriousProtector the man]] knew the truth of how Seira was treated at the school and didn't fall for it one bit.

** And the case of a robber who lured his former partners onto a ship on the pretext of splitting the loot from a robbery past the statue of limitations, kills them, then shoots himself, making it look like one of his dead partners did it before they killed themself.

* Bakura when he teamed up with Marik to trick Yugi's grampa in ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}''.

* In ''FullMetalAlchemist'' chapter 71 Winry starts fake crying in the car in order to make sure she can stay and tag along with the Elric brothers and Darius on their trip into a northern mining town.

** Another episode involved a young woman enticing the least creepy guy on the sex offenders' online registry (he was 19, his girlfriend was 17, and her parents did not approve) into a hotel room for sex during a convention and had her friends beat her up, faking evidence of a brutal rape complete with perp, so her family could sue the hotel for allowing some random rapist into the premises. She plea barganed herself out of a jail sentence, but was hauled off for felony murder after the guy she framed was [[PrisonRape raped and killed in prison]] before he could be exonerated.

* Played for laughs in ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'', where the effect of Blair/Rei's [[MoeMoe "Maiden In Love"]] card is to make puppy eyes at the male monsters of her opponent and turn them against each other since they can't bring themselves to attack her.

* In ''Beethoven'', veterinarian Herman Varnick, does this because he wants to use Beethoven for an ammunition test. Varnick comes to the Newton's home and stages an "attack" by Beethoven on him, by putting ketchup on his arm to look like blood, and says that Beethoven bit his arm. Varnick says Beethoven must be euthanized or he will press charges, so George takes Beethoven to Varnick to be euthanized. Later the Newtons discover the lie when Varnick's bandages are ripped off, revealing the absence of bite marks.

* ''BattlestarGalactica''. Baltar's lawyer Romo Lampkin is nearly killed by a bomb blast in "The Son Also Rises". In the following episode we see him limping around with the aid of a cane during Baltar's trial. After the trial is over, Romo leaves the cane with Lee and walks off normally.

* Saffron milks this trope for all it's worth in ''Firefly''. She is introduced in ''Our Mrs. Reynolds'', where she claims to have been given to Mal in marriage as payment for helping her town out. She then spends most of the episode skulking around the ship, being ridiculously submissive to Mal and implying that she believes that he will kill her if he doesn't want her (a deleted scene also has her stealing food because she claimed she didn't know when Mal "would let her eat"). Not only does this garner her sympathy from Mal (over her alleged past of being dominated and shaped into a submissive StayInTheKitchen woman), but it gets her the sympathy of most of the crew (who think that Mal is being a bully for finding her over-the-top behavior annoying at first). [[spoiler:Then, of course, she goes and knocks out part of the crew and leaves them for dead.]]

The TropeNamer is ''PeachGirl'': At one point, TheLibby's explanation of how this trope works includes the line "What would you assume if you saw a wounded gazelle next to a lion?" (Note that, in RealLife, certain prey species—most notably, certain shorebirds in the plover subfamily—will feign being injured to lure a predator away from their young.)

Almost every mystery series has at least a few episodes where the culprit turns out to be one of the victims. Also a common ploy of the FemmeFatale and TheVamp in FilmNoir stories.

* This trope forms the backbone of the DC Comics miniseries Identity Crisis. When Elongated Man's wife Sue is murdered, it looks like an isolated incident; until Jean Loring, ex-wife of The Atom, is nearly killed as well. It seems someone is murdering the spouses of superheroes, and the hero community comes together to try to figure out which supervillain might be behind it. Except, of course, that it's not a supervillain; it's Jean, who staged her own attempted murder to both throw suspicion off herself, and to send the heroes on a wild goose chase by making Sue's murder look like part of a larger series of killings. And, in keeping with the scenario at the top of the page, it turns out she did it all [[{{wallbanger}} to get a man's attention.]]

* In Shinji And Warhammer 40k, Shinji gets Gendo arrested by punching himself in the face.

* ''SparklingGenerationValkyrieYuuki'' has Loki (yes, THAT [[NorseMythology L]][[MagnificentBastard o]][[{{Jerkass}} k]][[HeroicSociopath i]]), who, acting under orders from [[BigBad Surt]] [[spoiler: and/or as a StealthMentor]], convinces his son that Yuuki forced him to stab himself. Sleipnir [[MinionWithAnFInEvil who had completely forgotten he was there to fight Yuuki]] is easily convinced, since then [[ItsPersonal it was personal]]. SoYeah...

* In Japanese drama ShokojoSera (based on ALittlePrincess), DeanBitterman Mimura Chieko told a wealthy man that she was victimized by heroine Seira, claiming that Seira [[BlatantLies lies and treated '''her''' horribly when she was kind to Seira]] in order to gain his sympathies. Subverted in that [[MysteriousWatcher the man]] knew how Seira was treated at the school and didn't fall for it.

* As indicated by the page quote, Sae from ''PeachGirl'' is a master of this. Most of the conflict in the first arc is driven by Sae convincing people that Momo is bullying her.