Dragged by the Collar

What do you do when somebody's being stubborn or trying to excuse themself from a sticky situation? Force them into it by dragging them away by their collar, of course!

Getting dragged by the collar is often used as a comedic device, most often in anime (though it does pop up in Western Animation sometimes). The "victim" would, more often than not, be trying to escape an embarrassing predicament (of his own doing) before another person grabs him and drags his butt off to whatever mess awaits him. The victim's loud protests and flailing of arms are optional. Small variants include getting dragged while standing (with the heels skidding on the ground instead of the butt), and stiff, outstretched arms. Sometimes, instead of the collar, characters are dragged by their cheeks, ears, arms, or legs. This is not always used for comedy, however, especially when the one being dragged away is unconscious, injured, or in severe cases, dead.

See also Necktie Leash (which is similar to this, only done for flirtatious or sexual reasons). Compare Possessive Wrist Grab where a character aggressively grabs another's wrist in a display of dominance and The Load in which the victim actually wants to tag along, but the other characters won't let him. Also see Angry Collar Grab. The Drag-Along is a metaphorical version (a character who doesn't want to join the adventure) but may well literally overlap with this trope. For a Darker and Edgier version of this trope, where the very act of dragging causes injury or even the death of the victim, see What a Drag or Ankle Drag, where the person is dragged by the ankle specifically and the person is rarely dragging them for their own good.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Amagami, Haruka gets dragged away from the swim team's Oden stall by Hibiki... followed shortly by a drunk Takahashi-sensei, by the members of Ayatsuji's student council.
• Ayakashi Triangle:
  • In a less forceful example, Suzu has literally pushed Matsuri into doing things he's not comfortable with, including making real friends with Yayo and Lu and going to lunch with Ninokuru and Ponosuke, the latter of which she does while carrying Shirogane along (though both manage to weasel out of it regardless).
  • Matsuri goes to Ninokuru's homeroom asking for him by name, making them think Matsuri is his girlfriend. This makes Ninokuru so uncomfortable, he lifts the much-shorter Matsuri off the ground by the shirt to carry him into the hallway.
  • When Matsuri tries to walk off to guide Suzu home at night, his mother sticks her Combat Hand Fan down his collar to stop him, then calls him overprotective.
• Misaki did this to Haruka in Chapter 3/Episode 5B of Castle Town Dandelion so that they can go home together.
• A Running Gag in Food Wars! is that when Soma's wannabe-rival Takumi tries to get dramatic, it typically ends with his Big Little Brother Isami dragging him off in such a way.
• Hughes does this a lot in Fullmetal Alchemist, prompting Ed to call him a kidnapper.
• Happens in the "darker and edgier and unconscious variant" in the intro scene of the 16th episode of Higurashi: When They Cry (yes, the intro of THAT Arc).
• At the end of the third episode of the Honkai Impact 3rd anime spin-off Cooking with Valkyries, Theresa drags Kiana off for extra training as punishment for skipping her classes.
• The Idolmaster - Makoto does this to the Producer during their date at the amusement park.
• In K-On!, Mio gets dragged by Ritsu to rehearse for their Romeo and Juliet school play. To be fair, Ritsu is also part of the mess — Mio plays Romio and Ritsu plays Juliet in a case of Playing Against Type.
  • Also happens when Azusa drags off Yui to study for her retake tests. Imagine: tiny little Azunyan dragging off a crying Yui...
• Misaki constantly beats up and drags away the Comic Trio in Kaichou wa Maid-sama!.
• One Piece: Zoro has the absolute worst sense of direction in the whole franchise, so sometimes, he's grabbed by his shirt by another one of the crew members when he starts to wander off.
• In Pokémon: The Series, Brock is dragged away from ladies quite often, turning it into a Running Gag.
• It's very common in Ranma ½ to have someone, usually in a despondent mood, drag a bemused Ranma along by his braid (sometimes in the middle of a run, causing him to hover in the puller's wake.) Strangely, he's only slightly bewildered but otherwise nonplussed when they drag him while he's male; when female, it always hurts enough to make her scream and flail around.
• In the anime adaptation of Run with the Wind, Prince is dragged (and even lifted) by the collar at least twice by Haiji when forced to join the rest of the group in some tiresome activity (whether it be a dorm party or their training sessions).
• In Saint Beast, instead of waiting for Shiva to say he'll help them with the festival preparations, Gai grabs his wrist and starts dragging him along with them. This upsets Shiva even further and he violently wrenches away and runs off.
• In the opening sequence of Sands of Destruction, Kyrie gets dragged along by Morte, kind of like how she dragged him into this whole "World Destruction" mess. The game did occasionally feature her tugging at him, but he usually came willingly rather than being dragged.
• Jyoji did this to Lucy in episode 8 of Servant × Service to coerce her into a false date.
• Squid Girl: Ika Musume gets dragged off after getting drop-kicked in the head by Eiko in episode 5.

Fan Works

• In My Huntsman Academia, Team MADE mistakes Izuku for some kind of sex god thanks to Nora, who calls his Glenn Smashes "finger-banging". Izuku is so mortified that he passes out standing up, forcing Weiss to drag him back to their dorm room by the scruff of his hoodie.

Film — Live Action

• In Independence Day, Steven Hiller (played by Will Smith) knocks out an alien and drags its body in the middle of a desert on the way to Area 51, all the while complaining to himself of all the crap he's been through up to that point.
  Steven Hiller: ...AND WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SMELL!?
• A cruel yet ironically justified version happens in Predators, when Royce (Adrien Brody) drags of a critically-wounded Edwin (Topher Grace) after he tried to kill Royce and Isabelle.
• What John Wayne does to Maureen O'Hara (for five miles!) when he brings her along for the climactic showdown with her brother in The Quiet Man.
• Done to horrific effect in Spider-Man 2, when one of Otto Octavius' rampaging tentacles drags away a screaming doctor complete with her futile attempt to cling to the floor with her nails, leaving a straight, clawed-out trail into the dark corner where she was dragged into.
• In Superman Returns, a depowered Superman gets dragged away from Lex Luthor by his henchmen, who then take turns beating him up.

Literature

• The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden was once dragged by the collar of his Badass Longcoat at superspeed by Lara Raith, in an attempt to escape an exploding cave. Being a vampire, she pulled it off (no pun intended) despite being about half his size. Harry later complained that the whiplash nearly broke his neck.
• In Girls Kingdom, the Kokonoe twins love dragging Misaki by the arms when there's somewhere they need or want her, rather than just letting her walk. Misaki has long since learned not to resist, as it's of no use.

Manhwa

• Yureka: Happens when Adol attempts to drag the injured (but irked) Lotto to the top of a pillar.
  Lotto: "I can walk just fine on my own! You want me to change places with Woonha, is that it?! Okay fine! Then stop treating me like a sack of potatoes!"

Theatre

• Elisabeth: Sometimes during "Die Schatten", Death can impatiently haul Rudolf back by the collar. A particularly violent example can be seen here at the 1:09 mark. He also usually does it in order to get Rudolf to bend back so he can be kissed as well.

Video Games

• In Army of Two, if one player gets shot down, the other has to drag his ass off the battlefield and into a safe place to resuscitate him. The banter between Salem and Rios makes this extra funny.
  "Where did you learn first aid, butcher school?"
• In Heavy Rain, when Madison gets killed in The Taxidermist, the killer drags her to his bathroom to stuff her up
  • If Norman Jayden does not survive his encounter with Jackson "Mad Jack" Neville, the chapter may end on Mad Jack dragging Norman's limp body in the general direction of the acid bath he keeps in his garage.
• Happens in Infinite Undiscovery. It's amusing in that Aya is casually dragging and berating Capell at the time for his irresponsibility and Capell — in a suit of armor, mind you — doesn't offer any resistance beyond stubbornly crossing his arms.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure: At the first day of the festival, this happens to Lloyd after he rejects a party invitation from Cecile, then the Seeker sisters come and drag him to a concert; he dodged being teased by three women at the party and ended up with two.

  Cecile: Someone sure is popular, aren't they, Lloyd?

  Lloyd: Popular? I feel more like a toy, if anything.

• A part of Snake's skill set in the Metal Gear series. Works both ways (Snake can drag away conscious soldiers by putting them in a chokehold, and for the unconscious/dead, by the torso or legs).
• This is played for laughs in the original Persona 5, when Ryuji gets dragged away by a pair of two extremely persistent flirtatious gay men. He later escapes and calls out the player for running away despite the fact that the game gives the player no choice but to abandon him. Thankfully Ryuji is a former star track runner.
• Pyramid Head can be seen dragging off and raping one of the Mannequins in Silent Hill 2.
• Suikoden:
  • In Suikoden, this is how Sheena gets recruited. It's not shown explicitly due to graphic limitation of its day, but his spoken words spell them all out when Lepant, his father, drags him off to your HQ.
    Sheena: Ouch! Ouch! I'll do what you say, so don't pull my ear!
  • In one side-quest in Suikoden II, Tengaar and a village chief NPC will set up an obviously fake "trial" for Tengaar's boyfriend Hix to prove himself a true warrior, requiring him to retrieve certain items. Hix will fall for the act completely and dash straight out to get each trinket upon being told where it is. Depending on the player's choices, Riou can either be just as gullible as Hix, or he can point out all the oddities of the situation (Tengaar sneezing when she should be unconscious, for instance), at which point Hix will drag him off anyway via this trope.
• After defeating Rayquaza in the Subspace Emissary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Fox is ready to leave but Diddy wants him to help rescue DK. Fox wouldn't hear any of it so Diddy just grabs him by the collar and drags him. The scene is later repeated when Falco arrives, with Fox gleefully following as Diddy does the same to him.
• In Baek's Tekken 5 ending, Hwoarang gets dragged away (complete with puppy-dog eyes) by his master after he caught his student fighting with some thugs.
  • Dragunov also drags away Devil Jin (by the horns, no less!) in an in-game cutscene in Dark Resurrection.
• One of the Boring, but Practical skills introduced in Tenchu 2.

Web Animation

• In episode 5 of RWBY, Weiss drags Ruby by the collar after seeing that her only other option is Jaune. Ruby seems quite happy about it.

Webcomics

• In Chibi Miku-san, Defoko often has to drag Momo away from Chibi-Miku when she gets a little bit too affectionate.
• In Girl Genius Tarvek grabs Gil by the collar to drag him out of the line of fire when Gil's a bit slow to react
  Tarvek: Have you no survival instincts at all?!
• In the Moon Shadow supplementary comic for Honkai Impact 3rd, Fu Hua is ordered to head on a mission to Singapore, so she takes along Kiana as a rookie and promptly drags the latter by the collar, mentioning that HQ approved her request since it would save Kiana's grades. Kiana isn't too thrilled by this and struggles as hard as she can while being dragged away, even ripping off the dorm room's door, much to Himeko's chagrin.
  Kiana: Kyaa! I don't wanna go! Mei! Save me! Nu~uuu~uuh~!
  Himeko: That brat has no idea how friggin' expensive it is to fix that door.
• In Tower of God, Anaak Jahad and Hatz have made the decision to take part in an extremely challenging test for the sake of a friend, they coolly walk off the stage they are on, dragging a screaming and protesting Shibisu, their other teammate, behind them by the back of his shirt.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: Just before entering the Mother of Olm's ear, Sasha immediately refuses to participate by doing a sudden 180 degree turn. Cue Anne dragging Sasha by the cape of her uniform as Sasha cries about doing the ordeal.
• Casey Bats Again: When Casey sees the doctor coming and gets so angry at him he tries to beat him up, the girls have to drag their poor daddy back home.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Toy Store of Doom", when the Toy Barrel closes for the night, a dad has to drag his son by his arm in order to get him out of the store. The boy runs to the toy he wants, but his dad pounces on him and continues to drag him.

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