Loving Bully

You sometimes hurt the ones you love.

Fran: ...WHO ARE YOU?! Are you telling me that all those years that you put dishwater in her coffee, and changed her lip balm for glue stick, and called her a cow, you were flirting?!
Niles: What, no good?

—The Nanny

When someone bullies someone else because they have a crush on them. This is usually because they aren't sure how to convey their feelings properly or are so overwhelmed by their feelings they have a hard time getting them out. Often the bully is a Tsundere.^NoteThere is actually a sub-type known as "sadodere", combining the words sadistic and sweet. The target of the bullying is generally under the impression that the bully is simply mean and has no clue the bully has a crush on them.

This is generally Played for Laughs and won't normally get into serious violence unless the target is Made of Iron. This sometimes overlaps with Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male. Romanticized Abuse and Domestic Abuse are the significantly less innocent Sister Tropes, and Fetishized Abuser is the Darker and Edgier one. An extreme form is Lacerating Love Language, when affection is expressed not just through hostility but through outright violence. Contrast Mad Love, a generally comedic trope wherein the one in love cannot figure out that abuse is not the sign that their beloved returns their affections. Romantic variations of the Fair-Weather Foe might claim they were actually this to manipulate an enemy into getting with them.

If the bully eventually changes their ways, this becomes Reformed Bully or Bully Turned Buddy.

Truth in Television for some small children who lack the concept of relationships and usually grow out of it.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Semimaru from 7 Seeds starts off as a regular bully, teasing everyone but Natsu especially. He later mellows out and his teasing is definitely more good-natured when Natsu begins to improve herself and Semimaru falls for her.
• Tamayo and Kotaro's relationship in the anime version of Angelic Layer falls into this, as well as Childhood Friend Romance. They had known each other since they were four, and Tamayo had been using Kotaro as her go-to target to practice her martial moves on, to his utmost annoyance. However, during the Beach Episode, Tamayo confesses that she is in love with Kotaro and that he's her first love. In the manga, though, Tamayo and Kotaro's relationship is completely platonic, and Kotaro ends up with Misaki.
• In one FAQ of Bleach Rukia says that someone was a schmuck towards her in the Shinigami school because he couldn't tell her his feelings. Unsurprisingly, chapter -17 (a bonus chapter) seems to indicate that that someone was Renji. They end up married in the epilogue.
• In Bokura no Hentai, a bully mocks pre-transition Marika and calls her "gay" in a derogatory way. After she comes back to school as a girl, he still mocks her and thinks she's "disgusting" but he begins crushing on her.
• Played for Drama in Boy's Abyss. Reiji's Childhood Friend Gen started abusing him relentlessly as they became teenagers, but it's quickly revealed that he's a yandere for him.
• Boys over Flowers: As Tsukasa develops feelings for Tsukushi, he thinks of more ways to bully her. Obviously, she doesn't get the hint.
• Deconstructed in Daily Lives of High School Boys: Habara was a feared bully known as "Archdemon" who terrorized every boy in her neighborhood, but especially Toshiyuki Karasawa, her next-door neighbor, eventually giving him several large scars that would never go away. Fast forward eight years, and it becomes clear that she harbors a small crush on Karasawa, who, unfortunately for her, is traumatized by her bullying to the point where he can barely interact with her normally.
• In Digimon Ghost Game, Kiyoshiro's tsundere partner Jellymon acts like this towards him, bullying him relentlessly for his cowardice and forcing him to use the -sama honorific with her but gives him the Affectionate Nickname of "Darling".
• The main concept of Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, with the main character being the target of the titular underclassman's affections, with their initial interactions ending with him breaking down in tears. There's more emphasis on the bullying in the original webcomic, where Nagatoro is a straight-up sadist, while the later serialization tones it down to make it closer to teasing, with her toning it down when he's noticeably enraged.
• Great Teacher Onizuka: Subverted with Anko, who bullied Noboru before falling in love with him, and stopped her abuse after Onizuka helped her uncover her true feelings.
• Hello! Sandybell: Charles, the neighborhood's residential redheaded asshole, has a crush on Sandybell. This is most apparent when he's ready to throw one of his own friends under the bus to get her approval. She's also the focus of his bullying because it gets her to pay attention to him.
• The unnamed couple in Natsuneko's one-shot manga Her Desire, with a twist that the bullied girl actually likes it that way.
• Youdou from I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School has had a crush on Unoki since grade school, but she mostly shows her love through bullying and pulling mean-spirited pranks on him. In her case, she doesn't do it because she's struggling to understand or express her feelings for him properly, she's just a sadist who gets off on watching him squirm. Either way, her actions have only made Unoki afraid of her and destroyed any chances of the two of them actually becoming a couple. She does realise this, but as she admits later, she can't stop herself because she's worried that if she ever moved on or if Unoki ever forgave her, the two of them would no longer have anything keeping them together.
• I Cut Ties With The Beauties That Always Made Fun Of Me, But It Seems That They Actually Love Me: Features a deconstruction in Kurosaki, who teases Miyamoto as her way of expressing her crush on him. He has no idea of this and just views her as someone who is highly critical of him.
• Lady!!: Maa-kun often teases Lynn, but that's because he likes her. He has a Crush Blush around Lynn and often thinks about her, even becoming jealous when he sees fawning over another boy.
• K-On!: Ritsu is a platonic (or not) version of this trope towards Mio; Ritsu is often teasing, scaring, and pushing Mio past what she can tolerate, but it's made clear time and time again that she cares for Mio and wants her to stop being so afraid of everything.
• This is how Seo acts towards Wakamatsu in Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun. He noticed she specifically targets him by throwing the ball at his face, stalking him at lunchtime, making him buy her things and carry her stuff...to then taking him to a diner and buying him some food and even buying him some souvenirs. Nozaki immediately can tell that she likes him.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka's mistreatment of Shinji is an example of this that's very definitely not Played for Laughs. Keeping with the Deconstruction theme that the series is famous for, an inability to express attraction in any other way is treated very seriously, with all the sadness and horror such a mental state implies.
• Yuki Katsura in Oku-sama wa Mahou Shoujo, the leader of the two bullies at school, is really just acting on an immature crush, but he learns to show it a little better later on. Ultimately, he pretty much saves Wonderland by confessing to Cruje.
• In Onihime VS, Arima and her girl posse relentlessly bully and molest poor Setsuna...because Arima is in love with him. It's exactly as messed up as it sounds.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Nurse Joy from Pokémon: The Original Series suggests this about Ash and Misty.
    "What's the saying? You only hurt the ones you love."
  • In Pokémon the Series: XY, Serena's Mirror Universe counterpart takes this approach with Shrinking Violet Alternate Ash, bullying him for being a crybaby while still clearly enjoying his company.
• Deconstructed in Trash Skill Gacha: Ellis Rifeld is Crest Bahurst's fiancée at the beginning of the story and loves him... but regularly humiliates him, spreads Malicious Slander about him to destroy his reputation and keep everyone from approaching him, and when she learns his school-appointed sparring partner is Minuet Mycelin, she ramps up what she does to poor Crest because of her jealousy. This causes Crest to greatly resent and hate her, to the point that, when she offers to save him from exile to the [Lower World] (an execution in all but name) in exchange of becoming her slave, he spits on her and tells her to go screw herself, choosing death over having to deal with her for one more minute.
• Urusei Yatsura: Subverted with Ryoko and Tobimaro. Ryoko has been pranking and tormenting Tobimaro with cruel and dangerous pranks since childhood, yet also claims to be in love with him, usually causing her brother, Mendo, to beat up Tobimaro. It's not clear if she's serious about her "love" for him, since she's a notably sadistic Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, has said the same thing about other people her brother dislikes such as Ataru, and once said how she loves Tobimaro... in pain. This is further parodied in that despite Tobimaro being consistently and openly terrified of Ryoko, most of the characters in the story think it's romantic.
• Venus Puts Fur On Me has its "heroine", Shirosaki Hana, as a very twisted version of this. Behind closed doors, she's a violent, sadistic jerk to one boy, Nakajima, in particular, and harms him whenever things don't go her way. "Her way", surprisingly, is getting gratuitous bullying and public humiliation, courtesy of him, just so she can be happy. The story implies more than once that her aggressively sadomasochistic tendencies are her way of processing a crush on the boy, with several arcs devoted to her trying to get him out of reach of other girls like her as he is her toy.
• Wandering Son:
  • Played with. Doi doesn't bully Nitori because he likes her, he bullies her because she's feminine. This doesn't stop him from being attracted to her once she grows her hair out though. By high school, the attraction disappeared over time as Nitori became increasingly masculine-looking.
  • Early on, Anna would tease and make fun of Nitori. This is implied to be due to her Sugar-and-Ice Personality. Later they become the Official Couple and Anna's negative aspects disappear.
• You and Me:
  • Masaki is older than the norm but still counts. After Shun gives her a bandage for her scrapped knee, Masaki spends the rest of the second episode bullying him. They eventually become friends.
  • When the boys work at a kindergarten, they meet a brash boy with a crush on his classmate. She's Oblivious to Love while he is something of a bully towards her.

Comic Books

• In The Umbrella Academy, Diego is sharp with everyone, but especially Vanya, who broke up with him a few years ago. Since Vanya is no gentle flower herself, any conversation between them inevitably degrades into a deadlock of insults and hurt feelings like the one that pushed Vanya off the edge into evil. (To be fair, this is not entirely Diego's fault.)

Comic Strips

• In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin does this to Susie from time to time. Hobbes calls him on it but Calvin claims he really does hate her. This is coupled with Author Appeal due to how well the characters bounce off each other due to the "weirdness repels" dynamic. Calvin acts weird to get Susie's attention, Susie's repulsed by it, and Calvin takes this as a cue to act even stranger.
• Crabgrass: In a Valentines day-related arc starting with this comic, Maxine, the local school bully, seemingly falls in love with Kevin, something Kevin is naturally uncomfortable about. Ultimately subverted, however; she gave him the wrong card and is actually in love with another Kevin.
• Linus in Peanuts once told Charlie Brown about meeting a cute girl once. He claimed that he was so nervous around her that he couldn't think of anything to say...so he opted to hit her instead.

Fan Works

• Apprentice and Pregnant: Firepaw freely admits that he bickers with Laurelpaw because he honestly doesn't know any way of communicating with her.
• Back to Zero: As kids, Butch would tease Jessie and try to get her attention because he had a crush on her. Jessie didn't like this and thought it was a silly way of showing that you liked someone.
• In Candy for Your Thoughts?, Cody, desperate to get Sierra off his back, claims that Noah has a crush on her and that his snarky comments amount to this trope. He mentally adds that no one over the age of ten actually acts that way, but Sierra is willing to believe it. The fic ends with a Maybe Ever After for Noah and Sierra.
• Do You Believe in Fairies? deconstructs how Candace and Julius are canonically portrayed as an Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo in Harvest Moon: Animal Parade. Julius' bullying left her with a severe stutter that worsens when she gets nervous, along with being cripplingly shy. In addition, he never quite grew out of this, still invading her personal space and offering up insulting critiques. As a result, she can't stand being around him.
• In Friendship is Witchcraft, Diamond Tiara hides her crush on Apple Bloom by bullying her.
• In A Sky Of A Million Stars: It's implied Katsuki's bullying of Izuku was veering into this. This is deconstructed, as Izuku reciprocated his feelings but didn't know those feelings existed; therefore, having the object of his affections treat him so badly only helped further his depression.
• Hater Good Side Story Swayed Decisions, a Breadwinners and Pickle and Peanut crossover: Sophee pranks and insults SwaySway because she has a crush on him, but while he admits he had minor feelings for her as well, they shouldn't be together because she's being so cruel.
• The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Diamond Back, as Wind Breaker finds out late in the story.
• Giselle in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines is a downplayed example towards Joe. She's not shown bullying him directly but encourages the rest of her class to apply Tough Love on him to get him to improve his performance (they're considered the "Golden Generation" and he's the dead last). Ultimately, the way they treated Joe drove him to quit the school and find his own path, which greatly saddened her because she actually liked him.
• A Possible Encounter for a Phantom: Bonnie picks on Danny and treats him rudely in an effort to hide how she's secretly crushing on him.
• In The Wound's Still Bleeding, 10-year-old Kakashi begins picking on her teammate Obito so that Obito will notice her more. Even if it's negative attention, it's still attention to her.
• In episode 55 of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Kaiba claims that he is this to his little brother.
• Mentioned in Zelda and the Manacle of Cahla; Zelda's adoptive cousin Amir has made her miserable since they were kids because he's jealous that his grandmother appears to favour her and he hates Hylians, but Zelda's friend Iona considers Amir has a crush on her. Zelda's response? "Or he's just a bully."

Films — Live-Action

• In the French lesbian romance film Besties, when her group is preparing the cyberbullying of Zina, protagonist Nedjma already can't take her eyes off the photos of Zina from her social media profile. She comes to regret what the group has done to Zina when her feelings for the latter get stronger and the relation starts.
• John Bender in The Breakfast Club acts like a dick towards everyone but to Claire he's especially rude. It's shown as the film goes on that he's harboring a crush on her.
• In Daddy's Home, it turns out that the bully girl who picked on Dylan has a crush on him.
• In the opening scene of He's Just Not That into You the child version of Gigi, one of the characters, is abruptly pushed off a jungle gym by a boy. When she tearfully asks why he did that, he yells, "Because you smell like dog poo!" In trying to comfort her, her mother claims, "Do you know why he did that? Because he likes you!" As an adult, Gigi angrily points out that telling girls this sets them up for years of ill-treatment at the hands of men because of being conditioned to believe that it's actually a form of affection.
• By the end of Hot Fuzz, the Andys have graduated from standard Jerkasses to this trope, where Angel's concerned.
• In Le Placard, Felix Santini always picked on the protagonist Francois Pignon. When Pignon is about to get fired, his new neighbour advises him to let the firm "accidentally" think he's gay, so he could use discrimination charges to secure his position. Santini grudgingly starts befriending him so as not to appear homophobic but goes overboard quickly, practically starts courting him, and becomes so obsessed it costs his marriage. Pignon's lack of interest visibly upsets him. After his divorce, he asks Pignon to be his housemate for practical reasons, but when Pignon refuses, he starts such an Unstoppable Rage he has to be restrained and sent to a hospital.
• In Welcome to the Dollhouse, Brandon likes Dawn and he treats her terribly.

Literature

• Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan: All of the violence, torture, and death that Dokuro inflicts on poor Sakura is her way of showing affection. The anime adaptation's opening theme makes this even more obvious, with the lyrics saying that all the awful things she does to Sakura is how she shows her love.
• Referenced in The Catcher in the Rye. Phoebe says that a boy pushed her down the stairs, to which her brother proclaims that the kid probably likes her.
• In Dragon Bones, Beckram bullies his cousin Ciarra by telling her that he finds her hair pretty - his brother explains it is not what he says but how he says it that scares Ciarra, who is mute and a bit childlike. They end up married in the sequel when Ciarra has recovered from her psychological problems and can speak.
• The titular Horrible Harry used to be this for his classmate Song Lee. His first in-book interaction with her is simply terrorizing her with insects and trying to scare her with finger puppets, and plenty of more examples came up over the early series. However, he's blatantly harboring a crush on her, and they eventually become friends once he tones his behavior down around her.
• Infinite Stratos: Downplayed and Deconstructed with Houki. While she doesn't go out of her way to terrorize Ichika, he admits sometimes she can be really scary. Over time, Houki admits her time apart from him didn't do her personality any favors; as she believed she used kendo as a way to remember him, but upon beating her opponent so hard to the point of making them cry, she admitted she was only indulging in senseless violence.
• Invoked in Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. The titular character is bullied by the boy who sat next to her in elementary school. Her teacher tells her that he bullies her because he likes her.
• In Social Queue, Zoe goes on a date with Aidan Miller, one of her many former bullies, in order to write an article about it for Bubble. To her shock, Aidan tells her that he picked on her because he liked her, and his behaviour was a response to what he thought was rejection. Zoe is so startled that she has an anxiety attack, flees the restaurant, and ends up crying over ice cream. In her article, she attributes his belief that bullying is an acceptable way to express romantic feelings to toxic masculinity.
• Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: In the Alternate Timeline Web Novel series known as the Marie Route, Leon, who was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold in the first place, is this verbally with Marie, who isn't afraid to hit him back verbally or physically.

Live-Action TV

• On Best Friends Whenever, Cyd is implied to have been this to Naldo in the fourth grade when she had a crush on him. She used to punch him in the arm and shush him, which Naldo likes even though it hurt him.
• In the first season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jake Peralta ruthlessly teases Amy, even going so far as to make her go on the "worst date ever" as a result of losing a bet. Jake's best friend Boyle sees right through it, likening him to a little boy pulling a girl's pigtails because he likes her. Thankfully, he eventually grows out of it enough to just tell her his feelings, and the two end up the show's Official Couple.
• Spike to Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though he goes quite a bit further than most. When he first starts to sense that he might be attracted to her in Season 4, he sets out to kill her immediately but comes to accept it after he gets the opportunity and finds he doesn't have it in him.
• The Dick Van Dyke Show: There's a girl in Richie's class who bullies him because she likes him.
• In Drake & Josh, Mindy Crenshaw gave Drake and Josh hell in her first few appearances. While she does legitimately hate Drake, she teases Josh because she likes him. The two become a couple after that and a pretty stable one at that.
• In Glee, Dave Karofsky bullies Kurt for being gay, and it turns out Karofsky has a crush on him and is heavily in denial about it. He even gives him a Forceful Kiss in the episode "Never Been Kissed".
• In Good Luck Charlie, Jo Keener bullied Gabe because she liked him.
• iCarly: Sam to Freddie. They do become a couple at one point, but it doesn't work out and they ultimately decide that they're Better as Friends.
• In an episode of Living Single, Regine found out that her childhood tormentor Vinnie (of the rap group Naughty by Nature) only acted that way because he had a crush on her.
• On Malcolm in the Middle Reese tries this with a girl in school that he has a crush on and then doesn't understand why she hates him as a result and cries in his room after things go badly. Malcolm then tries to help by telling him to do things to her that wouldn't make her cry, so he joins her cheerleading squad. It's far from the only time Reese has ever done this since bullying is his go-to approach for everything.
• In a rare case of this being the case of both parties, Vince and Howard are hinted to be this to each other in The Mighty Boosh.
• The Nanny: A rare adult version. Niles spends most of the show insulting and tormenting C.C. Babcock. In season 6, it's revealed that he loved C.C. all along and all the insults and pranks were flirting. They get married in the last episode.
• Sex Education: With Eric and Adam.

Roleplay

• Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues:
  • Barbra has a jerkish personality and repeatedly needles Jacob for being selfish and ignorant. However, it has been said that she thinks he's cute.
  • Tamasin has a crush on Ciro, as she wants to have a relationship with a nice, kind boy. However, she's also a part of Nadine's gang and goes along with them when they bully Ciro.

Video Games

• Cyberpunk 2077: During Judy Alvarez's personal quest, "Pyramid Song", when you two go diving in Laguna Bend, where Judy grew up, you can find an abandoned doll. Judy will be very surprised, and she will tell V that it used to belong to Jenni Chapman, who Judy had a crush on when she was a kid. She used to steal her doll and hide it, to have an excuse to help her look for it and spend some time with her.
• A quest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim involves stopping Braith, a young girl, from picking on a boy, Lars, around her age. When you talk to her, she reveals that "If he'd just kiss me, I wouldn't have to beat him up." You can then discover her issues with her parents, who constantly shrug off her attempts to ask for advice about Lars because they're too absorbed in their own business.
• If the Avatar in Fire Emblem: Awakening reaches S-Support with Lissa, she confesses that she was pranking him to get his attention.
• Not a romantic example, but in Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Sebastian states that Lili's bizarre obsession with tormenting Asuka is a "show of affection" on her part.

Visual Novels

• Kokichi Oma of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony spends much of his time manipulating, lying to, and messing with his fellow students, with Shuichi, Miu, Keebo, and Himiko being some of his favourite targets, but he doesn't seem to actively dislike any of them. In fact, the ones he picks on most he also seems oddly fond of - Shuichi is one of the few people he comes to genuinely respect since Shuichi solves the murders and finds the truth behind each case and attempts to "recruit" him to his organisation, he spends a lot of time Slut-Shaming and insulting Miu while well-aware she likes being treated that way, provides her alibi in the second trial and respects her talent as the Ultimate Inventor enough to come to her with several blueprints, and forces Himiko to confront her repressed emotions about Tenko's death and even claims he "loves" her at one point (which Himiko lampshades by commenting a boy will often act mean to a girl he likes).
• A Little Lily Princess: Lavinia acts this way towards Sara in her route, along with being a Manipulative Bitch. This causes a bit of a Broken Aesop, as in Lottie's route, Sara warns her that she should get away from anyone who hurts her, even if they occasionally have good moments together. Lavinia's treatment of Sara aligns pretty much perfectly with that sort of relationship, yet Sara still puts up with the abuse.

Web Animation

• Etra chan saw it!: Tachibana used to pick on Tsutsuji back in elementary school because he had a crush on her. In high school, he no longer bullies her and later saves her from Akamatsu but is still too scared to tell her how he feels.

Webcomics

• Deconstructed in Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Lucy constantly torments and abuses Mike, who is both her Butt-Monkey and Living Emotional Crutch. When she finally manages to confess her feelings to him, Mike angrily rejects her, pointing out that he's already in a Long-Distance Relationship and has no interest in hooking up with his abuser. Matters only get worse when he realizes that several of their friends were aware of Lucy's feelings and actually support them getting together...despite not doing anything about the way she treated him. As well as the aforementioned Long-Distance Relationship. Mike's anger over all this makes him a massive Jerkass (not that you can blame the guy) and rips the friend group completely asunder.
• Jeremy the Scout in Cuanta Vida continually slings homophobic slurs at Jordi the spy — until he works himself up to confessing his attraction to him, sparking a Relationship Upgrade and markedly improved manners.
• Ruth behaves this way to Billie in Dumbing of Age. It's also deconstructed as both of them realize the relationship is not healthy.
• In El Goonish Shive, Grace suspects Tony is trying to hide "his obvious attraction to [Tedd]".
• In Gunnerkrigg Court, Parley acts like a very tactile tease towards Andrew while she Cannot Spit It Out; even Antimony, The Spock, lampshades the fact that she always finds excuses to touch him. After their Relationship Upgrade, she tones it down a bit. For Andrew's part...
  Antimony: Why do you let Parley talk to you like she does?
  Andrew: Hmm... I guess mainly because I think she is hotter than hell.
• Deconstructed in Karkat Goes To A Convention, when after Vanessa admits that she bullied Nan because she was an Armoured Closet Gay, Nan fires back and says Vanessa's crush doesn't excuse the bullying she put her through for years.
• This is one of the main plot points in Long Exposure. Ever since middle school, Mitch has bullied the crap out of his crush Jonas instead of actually letting him know he feels. It's a major source of conflict when Jonas, who's now scared shitless of Mitch, is paired together with him on a science project. Mitch's feelings for Jonas are later reciprocated.
• Omocat's Pretty Boy starts out as this, where the titular character's bully slowly falls in love with him. He eventually stops the bullying and becomes a better man.
• Discussed and deconstructed near the end of this strip of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Even if you get that someone is picking on you because they like you, why would you want someone who shows affection through bullying?

Web Videos

• BlastphamousHD discusses a real-life incident of this in his BHD Storytime series, and it almost cost him his life when the girl's gang-banger fiancé found out about it.
• Sword Art Online Abridged: Suguha Kirigaya has an unhealthy tendency to hurt those closest to her.
  • She treats Recon like your average Jerk Jock would treat a nerdy kid, but she has a huge crush on him, and occasionally drops hints in the form of homemade cupcakes and..."sewer handies".
  • She has been a massive bully to her older brother Kazuto since he quit kendo, to the point of turning him into a Spear Counterpart version of herself, but in Episode 17 she confesses to him in tears that she was never able to fully hate him.

Western Animation

• An episode of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters had Oblina put on a human girl disguise and go undercover as an elementary school student to study humans Jane Goodall-style. One of the first "discoveries" the monsters make about human culture comes when a boy starts teasing Oblina on the school bus, and a girl tells her, "He must really like you." The monster scientist conducting the study (observing it all on a hidden camera) tells the class, "Take note how humans show love by administering pain."
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: It becomes blatantly obvious early on that Cindy's rivalry with Jimmy is just her attempt to mask and deny her massive crush on him — something Jimmy himself goes through in regards to her. As the series goes on, this gradually fades out as Jimmy and Cindy become closer friends, and by the time of the last episode, they were openly flirting, footsie and all, which served as great gossip fodder for Libby's talk show segment on the news (the main plot of the episode).
• Craig of the Creek has a deconstructed example with Wildernessa. "Breaking the Ice" reveals that she has a crush on Craig. However, her past experiences of being bullied for her love of animals have resulted in her trying to cover it up by insulting his lack of knowledge on the subject, with her possibly seeing it as witty banter, but coming off more harsh due to poor social skills. This comes to a boiling point when Craig, finally fed up, calls her out on her hypocritical attitude towards people, considering she's human herself. After seeing where her behavior has gotten her, she later apologizes to him and makes an active effort going forward to try and not constantly tear him down. Sure enough, she ends up Taking the Bullet during Capture the Flag and gives him an Interrupted Declarationof Love. Though he does later get the message and they end up together.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • The Kanker Sisters are utterly head over heels for the Eds, as well as their worst tormentors. Somewhat unique in that their amorous feelings are completely known to their victims, and the bullying usually involves the girls forcing themselves on the Eds.
  • Sarah falls in love with Edd in a season 1 episode and apparently gets over it. However, it's sometimes implied she still has a crush on him in later episodes and confirmed by her diary in "For Your Ed Only". This doesn't stop her from beating him up and treating him like crap. She writes in the diary that if she shows any mercy, people will be walking over her. So you could say she's sort of a Tsundere type A towards him.
  • Invoked in "High Heeled Ed" after Sarah brutally attacks Eddy in her usual way:
    Ed: I think Sarah likes you, Eddy.
• In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episode "One Crazy Summoner", the gang's helping a Harry Potter parody named Nigel Planter win the love of a girl he has a crush on, and at one point in the episode, Billy suggests that Nigel give the girl a noogie or throw a kickball at her — explaining that's what the boys at his and Mandy's school do when they have a crush on a girl.
• Hey Arnold!:
  • Pictured above: Helga towards Arnold. It's so infamous that it's become the Trope Codifier in all but name. Despite this, hers is Played for Drama just as much as it is Played for Laughs. "Helga On The Couch" reveals why she is this way. Her Dysfunctional Family caused her to fall for Arnold after he was the only person nice to her growing up and she got teased by her other classmates for it on the first day of preschool and lashed out in the way she often does in the present day. Out of fear of being bullied again and being rejected by him, she bullies him so no one ever finds out.
  • A flashback reveals that Arnold's paternal grandparents were like this when they were his and Helga's age.
• Johnny Bravo: In the season 3 final "Get Stinky", Johnny's childhood bully Stinky Brownstein moves back into town and is now romantically interested in him. Johnny is extremely suspicious, with him having to deal with years of humiliation and pain to the point of greatly disliking Stinky even though she's a 10/10 babe. Although Johnny is proven to be right at the end of the episode, it is heavily implied that Stinky does have genuine romantic feelings for him.
• When Lincoln from The Loud House tells his sisters that he's being bullied by a girl, they start to Squee and assume she's doing it because she has a crush on him, so they convince Lincoln to ask her out. Subverted when this only results in Lincoln coming home with a black eye. Turns out the girl really is just a bully. Double subverted when she then throws a raw steak through his bedroom window with a piece of paper attached with an apology and her phone number on it. His sisters were right after all! By the end of the episode, he and Ronnie Anne, the bully, are dating. However, that relationship quietly fizzled out somewhat.
• My Goldfish is Evil: Desmona is this for Beanie, with her rudeness towards him being frequently punctuated by slips of the tongue making it clear she has a crush on him.
• An episode of Recess had a boy who was harassing Gretchen admit he was this trope after being confronted (the other half of the episode had him acting as a Dogged Nice Guy/Stalker with a Crush).
• Rugrats:
  • Chuckie once had a suitor like this. After trying to be nice to her and it failing, he becomes a Loving Bully for her as well. Then he sees her picking on another boy...
  • Betty, Phil and Lil's mother, explains that she had picked on Howard when they were kids until much later when he realized she was this.
  • In the spinoff All Grown Up!, Tommy is being picked on by a girl, with Kimi and Lil suggesting that she's doing it because she likes him. They're wrong, the girl really does hate Tommy because she had a role in one of his films, but Tommy cut her scene out (mainly for time).
• The Simpsons: When Bart develops a crush on a girl, Nelson gives him advice that amounts to "bully her to win her love." Nelson gives Bart a piece of gum to stick in her hair, then adds an additional piece of gum. "Who knows, you may get lucky."
• There was an episode of Totally Spies! where a boy that used to pick on Clover when they were in grade school asked her out on a movie date because he liked her and wanted to make up for all the crap he put her through. She spends a good chunk of the episode trying to figure out how to get her revenge during the date, until coming to the conclusion that, maybe, he actually means it. Right after the movie starts, he pulls another prank on her, revealing that he never really changed. She dumps her drink on his head and storms out.
• Producing Parker: Parker spent her high school years being picked on by the most popular boy in school, who is reunited with her as an adult and seemingly wants to make amends for his bullying (having gained enlightenment after giving the Dali Lama a wedgie). Parker, who had a crush on him despite how he treated her, is reluctant to trust him and instead, decides to get revenge on him at their high school reunion, but then he confesses that he was this trope during a slow dance, making her regret her planned revenge and trying to cancel it. However, after she attempts to abort the prank resulting in it happening to her (resulting in her being stripped of her dress to the Goofy Print Underwear in front of everyone), she's forced to admit what she was trying to do, at which point he rejects her (while admitting he was mostly just hoping for sex rather than anything serious), and takes back his jacket so she has to get home in just her underwear.

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