"Yusa Chiemi! That spin kick you gave me... Hit me in the right spot! Go out with me, please!"
-Hirata, Jun'ai Tokkou Taichou
They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, but if that first impression involves you insulting, smacking or punching anyone with an arrogant personality, then you'd best watch out. You may have just made yourself a cruel and brutal enemy...
...and if they
don't become your enemy, they may become something
even worse.
Yes, that's right. The snobbishly
bishonen Student Council President, the hulking school bully, the stuck-up
Libby -- admire them, grovel before them, and they'll barely take any notice of you. Make a snide, cutting remark about their attitude or launch your foot into their face, and they'll be putty in your hands. It is not known why people with
Jerkass tendencies tend to go gaga over the people who stand up to them -- most likely it is a way of saving face. "I let that girl beat me up because I thought she was cute," is a far, far less embarrassing excuse than "I let that girl beat me like a red-headed step-child because her mad Kung Fu skillz far outstrip my own."
The hero or heroine who puts the bully into their place very rarely appreciates his or her amorous attentions. This is because bullies are usually villains, and villains tend to have a rather perverted and/or amoral approach to most aspects of their lives, including love. Bully Love tends to be a rather obsessive and one-sided affair, which can be
played for comedy if the object of their affections is equally strong and aggressive (and if they're not, the whole thing can just
come off as damn creepy). Some heroes find themselves completely flustered by a bully's attentions, especially if the bully is female and the hero is a male who has
qualms about hitting women. An aggressive heroine with no such qualms against violence may likewise find it hard to launch into a bully who is less physically strong than she is -- and even if he's a gigantic brute, the heroine
may find herself feeling just a
little bit guilty about tossing him into a wall if he's approaching her with hearts in his eyes and a bouquet of flowers in his arms.
Occasionally, the bully may try to reform in an effort to win the heart of his beloved. In series where
Status Quo Is God, this oftentimes will not go very well. If the villain becomes pathetic enough in his or her endeavors, the hero/heroine may start to love them out of pity. This can lead to a
Slap Slap Kiss type of situation wherein the protagonist and the bully enter into a period of bickering which may eventually bear fruit as a full-fledged romance, although most often it will just be milked as a source of comic relief.
See also
Hot Amazon,
Well Excuse Me Princess. Compare
Dating Catwoman.
Examples:
- Tenshi Na Konamaiki has the "bully falling in love with the girl who disciplines him" angle as part of its main plot, although this situation has a twist -- the girl the bully falls in love with is not what she seems. Well, actually, she is. Kind of.
- Akane from Ranma 1/2 often became the object of boys' affections because of her rambunctious attitude. In the second movie, Nihao My Concubine, the boy-prince chooses Akane to be his bride (from the hundreds of other candidates available) after she smacks him. Similarly, Upperclassman Kuno's obsessive love for Akane and "the pigtailed girl" seems to grow the more they beat him into submission.
- The trope is actually codified into the law of the Chinese Amazons and thus effectively defines Shampoo's relationship with Ranma: ever since he defeated her while in his male form, she considers him her husband.
- Domyouji Tsukasa, the leader of the snobbish clique in Hana Yori Dango, falls for Makino Tsukushi, the Plucky Girl, who isn't afraid to slam her foot into his face and undress him as a Jerkass.
- Military nut Giroro on Keroro Gunsou fell for Natsumi after she navigated his booby traps, dodged his missile fire, and smacked him out the window with her school bag.
- Gone With the Wind has Rhett Butler falling head over heels in love with Scarlett after witnessing her not-so-ladylike behavior and being on the receiving end of her insults. Likewise, Scarlett probably fell in love with him because of his sexy boorishness and his refreshingly brutal frankness in a world where no one ever calls anything by its right name. (And just note how ga-ga she goes over him after he drunkenly grabs her and whisks her away upstairs to bed.)
- Older Than Steam example: In Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew, Petrucchio finds Katherine's shrewishness, wit, and stubbornness not only impressively equal to his own but a sporting challenge to overcome.
- A slightly older example would be Britomart and Artegall in The Faerie Queene, who first met in a brutal, bloody swordfight grudge match while the former was disguised as a man.
- Beatrice and Benedict from Much Ado About Nothing get a double dose of this: They're equally matched masters of wit who save their best efforts for each other; their constant volleying of insults has lasted for years. This makes them dear friends at the start of the play -- each one genuinely enjoys the wordplay and battle of wits -- and by the end of the play they've realized that they're actually in love, and get engaged. None of this stops them from zinging each other.
- Subverted by poor Makoto of Sailor Moon fame, whose horrid luck with love persisted despite her ability to wail on any and all bullies. She fared better in the live-action adaptation, but this trope was irrelevant in the relationship.
- Code Lyoko: Yumi and Ulrich first met as sparring partners in a martial arts class.
- In Greek Mythology and Epitome of the Bibliotheke, Achilles falls in love with the Amazon queen Penthesilea at the precise moment that he kills her, which is very tragic and makes this one of The Oldest Ones In The Book.
- In Blue Drop, Hagino tries to strangle Mari when they first meet in the dorms. It is needless to say that their relationship is a tad strained for a while after that, although they keep hanging out with each other.
- In Jun'ai Tokkou Taichou the school's most troublesome delinquent, Hirata, asks out the main character Chiemi after she punishes him him for causing trouble.
- In Clarissa Explains It All, Clarissa stands up to a bully to stop him from picking on her brother. Before she can even land the first blow, he starts serenading her. A later episode has her resolve this issue, but before the end he's crooning to her again.
- Jackie's sudden crush on Hyde after she breaks up with Kelson on That '70s Show. Textbook example -- Hyde never actually changes his relationship to her, mostly consisting of unremitting cruel snark, even after they actually begin dating.
- Arguably, Ukyo from Samurai Seven only became more obsessed with Kirara after she refused to become part of his harem.
- In Stargate SG 1 when Daniel and Vala first meet, Vala shoots him with an energy wrist blaster and later beats him up (including whacking him in the groin with a fire extinguisher) and Daniel shoots her with a painful stun gun twice. However, in the final episode they have a Last Minute Hookup (although time travel undoes it).
- One of the myriad reasons Hot Blooded Shizuma Kusanagi is attracted to The Hero Ryoko Mitsurugi in Real Bout High School is because she's the only one who can beat him in a fight.
