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Friends or foes?
Dr. Orpheus: Oh, it must be dreamy to have a costumed nemesis. Chasing you... wringing his gloved hands in concern of your every move...
Dr. Venture: You're kidding, right?
Dr. Orpheus: It just seems so romantic.
"HE'S MINE! HE ALWAYS HAS BEEN!"
—Randy Orton on Kofi Kingston, Raw December 7th 2009
So there's these two guys, right? And they spend 95% of their time thinking about each other, what the other one's planning or doing, and whenever they converse their dialogue is incredibly emotionally charged. Fortunately, there's a nice family-friendly explanation: they're arch-enemies, right? Right...
Fans might be forgiven for imagining there's something else going on here, and that something else is Foe Yay. Like its more popular brother Ho Yay, Foe Yay implies that there are certain sexual emotions that have been sublimated by the characters, in this case, two nemeses. The idea being that because of their defined roles, the two characters must fight, but would subconsciously rather be doing something else that starts with an "F". Got some time to burn? (Of course you do, you're reading TV Tropes.) Google "hatesex". One word.
This trope is much more likely to come into play if one is The Rival and The Only One Allowed To Defeat You, or a Rival Turned Evil. Since most heroes and their villains tend to be the same sex, this results in most examples of Foe Yay overlapping with Ho Yay, but opposite-sex foes qualify too. This trope is also very likely to occur if the in-series explanation for the two characters' obsession with each other is that they used to be close friends but had a major, evil-related falling out. See the Smallville and Doctor Who entries on the Live Action TV page.
Other times, this trope can be invoked if the villain is seen being too eager and persistent about trying to convince or force the hero to rule the world together. Terms Of Endangerment often feature in many Foe Yay exchanges.
In cases of the Masquerade, often the hero and the antagonist do have more in common with each other than anyone else.
Dark Magical Girls are often depicted as understanding their Magical Girl counterpart far more than anyone else, and after inevitable redemption at the very least become Heterosexual Life Partners, if not more.
See also Dating Catwoman, where this is explicit and canonical. Contrast with the Capulet Counterpart. For the villain who really is sexually obsessed with The Hero, see Stalker With A Crush, Mind Game Ship, and In Love With Your Carnage. A major conclusion to Subtext.
Not to be confused with Faux Yay.
Examples
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Advertising
- Mac/PC, as played by Justin Long and John Hodgman in the Apple ads.
- In the Apple Jacks ads, Cinna-mon seems rather... fond of Apple, in my opinion.
Theater
Music
- "Hate 2 Love Her" by Blake Lewis is a perfect example of this trope:
I know that I hate her, even though I love her
She's making my heart hurt, I cant describe, describe...
How I hate her, everytime I'm with her
All I do is want her
Why do I even try?
- This Troper thought the music video for Mr. Brightside was brimming with Foe Yay. It was ostensibly about a younger man and an older man fighting over a woman, but the older man spent more time checking out the younger man than the woman they were fighting over.
- Scissor Sisters "I Can't Decide"
Professional Wrestling
- This troper read KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Kota Ibushi (Pro Wrestling NOAH on July 15, 2007) as Ho Yay turned Foe Yay, with the twist that KENTA and Marufuji (a former regular team) had found replacements for each other in style, attire, and even some physical resemblance... KENTA took his being replaced very, very badly.
- This troper caught at the last Ring of Honor card in Cleveland (Aug. 15, 2008) a match between Austin Aries and Tyler Black. Black's associate Jimmy Jacobs was currently feuding with Aries (something about Jacobs wanting Aries to joining him as a matter of fact) and lets just say the in-ring promo Jacobs and Black cut and the match that followed had me shouting "JUST KISS EACH OTHER ALREADY!"
- The fall of 2008 Raw storyline between Rey Mysterio and Kane could be considered as such, what with Kane speaking in excruciating detail of the pleasure he always took from hurting Rey, even going as far as to describe the feel of his heartbeat increasing and the happiness he got from carrying Rey's mask around with him.
- Randy Orton and everyone.
Sports
- One of the more common views of [1] and the associated sport of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, due to both the usual requirement of being lean and physically in shape (although The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights was an unfortunate exception won by [[Acrofatic Roy Nelson]] no less — albeit by a Right Hand Full Of KTFO), and the "ground game." From a fan perspective a standing clinch can look like "hugging," but things can look especially homoerotic once it hits the ground. Of course, from the perspectives of the fighters themselves, they're just trying to win using what techniques they know to work within the rules, i.e. wrapping one's legs around the opponent's waist (the "full guard"), as much as it may resemble the missionary position, is to mitigate damage and block attempts to "pass guard," while setting up sweeps of the opponent to end up on top, or to set up choke holds or joint locks from the bottom.
Tabletop Games
- This trope actually killed one of the vestiges in the Dungeons And Dragons Tome of Magic (3.5 ed.) — Agares, Truth Betrayed. He deeply respected a recurring adversary, so suspecting a Foe Yay taking place, one of his lieutenants delivered a fake challenge to a duel with that adversary and then murdered Agares.
- In the Edition War series on the D&D Forums there are at least two cases of foe yay (and technically there's Puppet/Shade but Puppet is Shades mom so we don't like talking about that).
- Forgotten Realms has their share, most famous participant was archwizard known as Lord Shadow (Netherese who discovered the Demiplane of Shadow) and Alashar, one of most talented among hundreds of assassins who hunted him. They tried to kill each other, then saved each other, then decided they prefer the latter. And eventually "vanished" together when attempts on his life became too tiresome.
- White Wolf's Exalted setting lends its self well to this trope, since two of the "bad guy" exalt types- Abyssals and Infernals- were once Solars in the First Age, and may have been close friends or lovers to Lunars, other Solars, Sidereals, etc.
- Official characters Harmonious Jade (Solar) and Disciple of the Seven Forbidden Wisdoms (Abyssal), First Age lovers, seem to have a bit of this going down.
- The Dark Eldar of Warhammer 40000 are quite probably the masters of this trope, as while they fight solely to increase the amount of slaves on which they can inflict horrific tortures, their attitude and behaviour towards this endeavour is distinctly sexual in nature (to the point where they have become Memetic Molesters in some parts of the fandom) and especially in the context of the World Half Empty setting its almost as if that's how they normally get dates. For a specific example, the Eldar after action report for the Dark Eldar campaign in Dawn Of War: Soulstorm notes that Archon Tahril was disappointed that Farseer Caerys escaped capture, as he wanted her to be his "personal plaything". Seriously.
Web Originals
Webcomics
Mythology
- Thor and Loki. Thor never seems to like Loki much from the beginning, but Loki certainly had fun getting Thor fitted for a wedding dress.
- Also, Odin and Loki. They were sworn brothers before falling out. When it comes to insults, they have a long list of humiliating anecdotes about each other, especially about "effeminacy". Odin's wife had to make them stop once.
- Horus and Set, both legendary and canonical.
- Satan and Jesus. Satan spends the better part of the New Testament trying to stop Jesus from getting himself crucified.
- Also Satan and God, or the Antichrist and Jesus, or the Antichrist and God. Or all four at once in a tag team match.
Real Life
- Parodied by The Onion: "Sexual Tension Between Arafat, Sharon Reaches Breaking Point"
- This was done in at least two skits by the Royal Canadian Air Farce. One was a musical number where they sing the original song "You Don't Bring Me Bagels Anymore" to each other. The other was dialogue-less, as they meet, and in the interest of diplomacy start giving more and more respectful gestures to each other... until they give each other a manly, backslapping hug...and the slaps turn to caresses...
- Pope Sixtus V (1585-90) confirmed the excommunication of Elizabeth I of England from the Catholic Church and promised the King of Spain a huge sum of money if his Armada was successful in deposing her. He nevertheless had great respect for her courage and determination and is quoted for expressing regret that he could not marry her, because "our children would have ruled the world".
- Hitler and Stalin. Stalin obsessively collected details about Hitler's personal life after the war, and Hitler seemed unusually keen on possessing the very city that bore Stalin's name.
- From the time of their brief alliance in 1939-41 there are also an abundance of drawings like this one◊. And here I thought the 30s/40s were a "purer" time.
- Hitler was the only person who Stalin trusted. He didn't even trust his mother, but he trusted Hitler. Smart Stalin. Very smart.
- Election candidates in general, most notable in American elections given the country's two-party system. Think about it. Two people striving for a goal that only has room for one of them. They are constantly thinking about each other, wringing their hands in anticipation of the other's next move, they are probably the first person the other thinks of when they wake up in the morning and the last person they think of when they go to bed at night. And there is the fact that there are people who DO write fanfics about politicians...
- This troper has seen several fics involving Axl Rose from Guns N Roses and Kurt Cobain from Nirvana thanks to their well known feud.
- Cicero and Catiline. This is cemented about halfway through Cicero's first speech when he refers to his bed in the diminutive.
- People have already made many jokes about Barrack Obama being close with Hugo Chavez, after they cheerfully greeted each other despite bad relations. On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart mentioned that this was like fanfiction. Ooh boy.
- Joe Rogan once got into a fierce argument with fellow comedian Carlos Mencia about stealing joke material. During the argument, Carlos mocks him by saying that the reason he's so obsessed with him is that he's secretly in love with him.
- Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud. Their rivalry was legendary...
- Hamilton/Jefferson ftw! Powder wigs and knee-breeches and political and personal hatred - not to mention that they were arguable the two sexiest Founding Fathers (though in two very different ways)
- Oh, but Hamilton/Jefferson has nothing on Adams/Jefferson. Best of friends turned into the worst of enemies due to politics, especially the election of 1800. There are historians dedicated to these two and their relationship. To top it all off, both of them died on the same day hours from one another. The day of the year? July 4th, American Independence Day.
- Don't forget that Adam's final words were "Thomas Jefferson still survi—". He was wrong; Jefferson had died earlier that day.
- And all this after Adams nearly [[{{1776}}]] drove him to homicide...
- The Duke of Wellington had a 14 foot tall nude statue of Napoleon in his entry hall. Really.
- I always thought that there were something fishy about Napoleon and his rivals...but a 14 foot tall nude statue...WHY?
- This Troper and That Troper.
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