Lover Tug of War

"Mine!"
"Mine!"
"My arms hurt."

Most guys would give anything to have the girl of his dreams literally want a piece of him.

But it can get painful if more than one girl wants that to happen.

This classic Harem Anime scene consists of each young lady in this tug of war grabbing an extremity (usually an arm) and literally trying to take her man away from her rival(s), in a grotesquely hilarious exaggeration of wish fulfillment. The girls in competition will likely shout this:

"He's mine!"
"No, he's mine!"

The poor guy in question is effectively Made of Iron for the duration of suffering under this trope, especially when the contestants have Super-Strength.

This trope is unrelated to Love Hurts, even though it may hurt literally.

This trope also shows the chivalrous side of a guy — he Wouldn't Hit a Girl even to protect himself from this trope. For this reason, a girl is rarely fought over this directly in Distaff Counterpart harems.

See A Lady on Each Arm for the less violent version of this trope. Cock Fight is a rough—-sometimes VERY ROUGH— Spear Counterpart.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts has Minami and Mizuki do this to Akihisa in the anime adaptation's first opening, highlighting the Love Triangle between them.
• Date A Live: Shido Itsuka ends up in a four-way tug-of-war between Origami, Tohka and the Yamai twins.

• Parodied in the Girls und Panzer spin-off manga Motto Love Love Sakusen, with Darjeeling and Assam pulling on Orange Pekoe. Pekoe, being their tank's loader, is strong enough to pull back and smack them together.
• High School D×D: Early in Season 2, Rias and Asia subject Issei to this wearing nothing but panties and socks.
  • A mild example in the opening credits of Akeno vs. Asia with Issei as the prize.
• Higurashi: When They Cry had this at least twice, between twin sisters at that. Shion and Mion both tug on Keiichi. This is subverted, however, as Shion doesn't actually like Keiichi. She's just pretending she does to joke around. Shion's completely set on Satoshi.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War features a platonic version: In an early chapter, both Kaguya and Fujiwara try to convince Shirogane to join their clubs (archery and tabletop gaming respectively), and end up in one of these situations. The narration declares Shirogane to be "today's winner", since he briefly got to experience what it's like to have a harem fighting over him.
  • This happens again in a later chapter, this time because Kaguya and Fujiwara are trying to teach Shirogane how to perform the Sōran Bushi^note A traditional Japanese dance based off of the motions of fishermen at work. The two girls get into a Technician Versus Performer argument, Fujiwara believing that Shirogane needs to understand the emotions involved while Kaguya argues that all he needs to do is copy the movements precisely. After having his arms tugged on for a while, Shirogane finally understands "the feelings of the net being pulled", and the chapter ends with him having mastered the dance.

• Monster Musume has a triple version with Kimihito being torn between Miia, Centorea and Papi in chapter 5.

• Negima! Magister Negi Magi ...though given the size difference between Negi and his paramours (not to mention their energy level), it's more of a particularly fumble-prone football (either one) game.

• PandoraHearts: To complete their Friend Versus Lover status occasionally Gilbert and Alice will fight over Oz this way with Gilbert declaring Oz as his "master" and Alice calling him her "property".
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Non-human example happens with Axew and a Gothita fighting over Scraggy.
  • A platonic variant plays out when Ash has to choose between finding new Pokémon (Max) or stopping to eat (May).
  • Except for the "lover" part, this is played straight late in the episode "Wake Up Snorlax!", for both the twerps and Team Rocket attempt to pull the flute player in their fight over who gets to take him with them, causing pain to the flute player in the process.
    Flute player: HEY! If you don't let go, you'll each get a half of me!
• The Quintessential Quintuplets has a brief non-romantic example in Chapter 37. Yotsuba has decided to take Fuutarou on a date during Thanksgiving Day, and they just happen to run into Fuutarou's little sister Raiha (who's hanging out with Itsuki). The two briefly start pulling on Yotsuba's arms, and the manga even lampshades the situation calling it "Uesugi sandwich".
• Ranma ½: At one point, Ranma is in a three legged race and ends up with Shampoo tied to one leg and Akane tied to the other. When the path splits they try to go down different paths, with painful results for Ranma. Mousse even gleefully compares it to an old Chinese story where a man was ripped in two by his lovers fighting over him.

• Seitokai Yakuindomo: Pictured above. Parodied in a Not What It Looks Like moment when Suzu is shocked after walking in to see Aria and Shino tugging on Tsuda's arms and shouting "Mine!". They were actually fighting over which one of them Tsuda would help carry heavy stuff for first.

• The end of the Zelda II: The Adventure of Link manga adaptation ends with both Zeldas doing this to Link. As seen here.

Comic Books

• Archie: Try finding some promotional art for this comic or its (non-Jughead) spinoffs that doesn't depict Betty and Veronica doing this to Archie.
• Supergirl and Zatanna do this in the cover of Supergirl Vol. 1 #7, although that scene never happens in the book.
• Superman: A lot of old comics, 'specially Lois Lane comics, feature Lois Lane and Lana Lang in such a position. Superman being Superman, of course, he can take whatever these ladies can dish out.

Films — Animation

• Monster House: Gender Flipped in which DJ and Chowder each grab one of Jenny's arms and try to tug her in opposite directions. Of course, they're also trying to get her out of the way of the Monster House's attack, but each one's insistence on pulling her in his direction is more a hindrance than a help.

Films — Live Action

• In Once Bitten, Mark, half turned into a vampire, is trapped between the Countess' spell and his love (and unsatisfied lust) for his girlfriend Robin. The explicit tug happens in a very weird musical scene.

Fan Works

• Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Germany and Japan does this to Italy. He did not take it well.
  Closer to those petal-soft lips—"Ahem."—Moment. Ruined. Glaring at the raven, the blond bent down as well, pulling the Italian closer to him. Only to be pulled back. And forth. And back. And forth.
  "GUYS!" The pair immediately ceased their tug-of-war at the sole shout, the sought pouting. "I don't want either of you to fight over me! EVER!"
• A sidestory of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has Ash experiencing this during his 15th birthday, with two girls who want to dance with him.
• Amity and Willow do this to Luz as they're fighting over her in Weakness.

Live-Action TV

• Big Time Rush: In the episode "Big Time Party", Logan imagines this happening with his two lovers, Mercdes and Camille. There is then a cut back to reality, in which James and Carlos stare in a confused manner at Logan, as he jerks himself back and forth with his arms outstretched.
• Star Trek: Voyager: In the episode "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy," B'elanna Torres and Seven of Nine literally do this to the Doctor in one of his daydreams.

Pinball

• Tales of the Arabian Nights: The final battle with the evil genie is basically this, with the genie and the player dueling for a (captive) princess. Successful shots on the player's part pulls her closer to his side, while poor pinball skills will cause the genie to exert more pull instead.

Myth & Religion

• The Bible: A metaphorical variation in the Judgement of Solomon: Two women were brought to Solomon each claiming to be the mother of a baby. So Solomon ordered that the baby be chopped in half, giving the baby to the woman who broke down and begged Solomon to give the baby to the other woman if it would spare her child.

Theme Parks

• In vein of a scene from the cartoon it's based on, this occurs in Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges at Universal's Islands of Adventure. One of the ride's first scenes has Popeye and Bluto doing this on Olive Oyl, with Popeye pulling both of her arms and Bluto pulling both of her legs.

Webcomics

• Ménage à 3 has used this at least twice, reflecting the artist's fondness for Archie comics:
  • Yuki and Sonya do it to Gary here. And of course, neither of them want to share, as when Gary suggests getting together with both of them, they give him a joint Death Glare.
  • It happens to him again a few hundred strips later, with Senna and Sandra, the minor twist there being that Sandra wants his geeky advice rather than his affections. Note that, in both cases, Gary's inability to resolve the question indicates passivity rather than chivalry.

Western Animation

• Ed, Edd n Eddy: A non-romantic version happens in the episode Scrambled Ed, the kids do this to poor, sleep-deprived Edd: the other Eds pull at his legs, Kevin pulls at his left arm, and Sarah and Jimmy pull at his right arm.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: A non-romantic version happens in the episode "Keeper of the Reaper". When Billy finds out his family is moving away he grabs Grim but Mandy retorts saying Grim belongs to her, Grim suggest they should stop fighting like spoiled children and instead fight like spoiled adults; setting the premise for a Courtroom Episode.
• Jem: A Gender Flipped version happened during an Eye Catch, where the titular character was pulled between her childhood love Rio and fellow rock legend Riot, both pining for the love of the same girl but each with one of her personalities (Jerrica for Rio and Jem for Riot).
  • There's also the "Deception" Music Video in which Jem is Angsting over having lied to Rio about being two different people. In it, Jem and Jerrica tug on his arms from different directions and Rio literally tears in half. what looks like purple confetti comes out too. Subverted in the fact that Jem and Jerrica are the same person. Rio just doesn't know that. He is officially with Jerrica but kisses Jem and occasionally acts like they're together.
• Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart: A non-romantic version happens at the end of "Lonely Kid", after Mao Mao finished telling the tale of his one and only childhood friend. Adorabat and Badgerclops get into such a tug-of-war fighting over who is really his best friend, while Mao Mao is just so happy someone cares about him that much he starts crying Tears of Joy.
• Popeye: In one of the earlier color episodes, Popeye and Bluto vie for Olive Oyl's affections by pulling each of her arms in opposite directions. (Since she originated in the age of rubber-hose animation, her arms stretch to a length of about 30 feet.)
• Steven Universe: A slight variation occurs in "Open Book", when Cloud Connie (wearing a wedding dress) pins Steven into an uncomfortable position to get him to tell the real Connie (who takes up her sword, ready to fight for Steven) how he really feels about the novel:
  Cloud Connie: I know you like her! And I know you want her to like you too.
  Steven: No, don't listen!
  Cloud Connie: That's why you can't tell her the truth, but you ''want'' to! You wanna tell her!
  Steven: No!
  Real Connie: Get off of him!
  Cloud Connie: Tell her, Steven!
  Steven: [grunting] I— unggggh...
  Cloud Connie: Tell her!
  Steven: Mmmmrng... — I liked the ending of the book!
  Real Connie: What?
  Steven: I-I thought it was sweet that Lisa and Archimicarus got together in the end! They were always so thoughtful towards each other, and I was so happy when they found the spell to make him human, and I loved every page about the cake, I wanted to draw a picture of it! I'm-I'm sorry I pretended not to like it, I just didn't want you to think less of me. [Cloud Connie vanishes]
• A disturbing one in Superjail! where the women from the female prison have a ball with the men, the Twins release spanish flies that drive all the women sex crazy. In one case two girls do this to the point they rip the man's arms off and start dry humping themselves with said arms.

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