Line #38 Series/IMayDestroyYou


1	[[quoteright:334:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2020_6_3_ef8902d1_0435_4158_a5e0_1b61b2354f6f_png_2000x3000_66.jpg]]
2	''I May Destroy You'' is a 2020 British drama series, a co-production between Creator/{{HBO}} and Creator/TheBBC.
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4	Arabella (Creator/MichaelaCoel, ''Series/BlackEarthRising'' and ''Series/ChewingGum'') is a writer struggling to work on her second novel after a smash hit. Then she wakes up unable to piece together the events of the night, and begins to suspect she may have been sexually assaulted. If she can't remember, how could she have consented?
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7	!! ''I May Destroy You'' provides examples of the following tropes:
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9	* AccompliceByInaction: [[spoiler:Simon is this to Arabella's rape. He ditched the very drunk, very high Arabella in Camden to go hook up with Alissa, his other woman.]]
10	* AThreesomeIsHot: Ultimately {{Subverted\|Trope}}. [[spoiler:Terry]] proudly flaunts the fact that she's had one to her date, but he helps her realize that she'd been [[spoiler:tricked into having it]]. Thus, she later comes to view the threesome in a more harrowing light.
11	* AutobiographicalRole: Arabella is a loosely fictionalized version of Coel, struggling with assault and a potential SophomoreSlump[[invoked]] after a first successful work about a dark-skinned black millennial woman similar to ''Series/ChewingGum''.
12	* BeautyIsBad: Rather than being ugly and unkempt, Arabella's rapist [[spoiler:David]] is shown to be a realistic variant of a rapist. He's superficially charming, good-looking, and well-dressed, with finely coiffed hair. It's TruthInTelevision that not all monsters look ObviouslyEvil or repulsive. Likewise, Arabella is attracted to another man who sexually assaulted her, [[spoiler:Zain Tareen]]. In general, all of the rapists shown are pretty good-looking people.
13	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Arabella accepts that she may never find real closure with her rapist, decides to move on, is ultimately able to finish her book. Terry also lands a job in a commercial and is in a happy relationship.]]
14	* DespairEventHorizon: Arabella crosses it in episode 8 after [[spoiler:the police tell her that the investigation for her rape case led to no leads and has to be closed.]]
15	* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Thoroughly PlayedForDrama with regards to Kwame and Nilufer. Bella reacts badly to finding out that Kwame didn't tell Nilufer he was gay before having sex with her, because she's very sensitive about consent after being raped twice. It's having sex under pretences, she points out, but Kwame also asserts that Nilufer literally pressured him into having sex with her -- which is true, as shown in the scenes of them in bed. That's also [[QuestionableConsent rape-y]] on Nilufer's side. However, Bella doesn't believe him.
16	* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: PlayedWith. Malik's rape of Kwame is brief but unpleasant to watch as it's very clear what's happening and Kwame keeps asking him to stop. It is portrayed as similarly traumatizing. However, it takes him longer to realize he was actually raped, and law enforcement does not take him as seriously as they do Arabella.
17	* FirstWorldProblems: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] when Arabella has a breakdown on the bus in Episode 4; she keeps on reminding herself that there's a war in Syria and hungry children out there. Of course, rape isn't really a mere first-world problem. This is expanded upon in her monologue scene.
18	* FreudianExcuse: Invoked in the final episode, where Arabella [[spoiler: imagines a scenario where David was assaulted and decided to take out his pain by inflicting rape onto others. Of course, this is only in Arabella’s head and it’s likely that David was never a victim in the first place.]]
19	* GreyAndGrayMorality: A running theme within the series, especially in regards to the main trio. “The Alliance” (a FlashbackEpisode) shows this at play, when Terry and Arabella were in college with Theodora. Theodora has sex with Ryan, but he takes photos of the encounter without Theo’s consent. Theo then cuts herself and later accuses Ryan of raping her to explain her injuries. Arabella and Terry believe that Ryan is being framed for rape (which is correct) and reveal the photos to the principal, not realizing that Ryan had taken them without Theo’s consent, to clear him and show solidarity. This exonerates Ryan - who doesn’t get punishment for taking the photos nor is ever found out apparently. Then we later learn about Theo’s history: [[FreudianExcuse she was coached by her mother to accuse her father of sexually assaulting her in order for her mum to get custody of her during an acrimonious divorce, which explains (but doesn’t excuse) her actions against Ryan]]. The episode shows that the characters (Arabella, Terry, Theo) do either morally questionable/outright terrible things or alternately believe someone is completely innocent without the benefit of the full context on the issue. None of the girls are exactly “bad” in the traditional sense because they believe they are doing what’s right even if how they go about it is either out of context or just the way they were brought up.
20	* HeroicSeductress: In the three finale's {{Imagine Spot}}s, Terry distracts [[spoiler:David]]'s friend Michael by flirting with him, such as giving him a lap dance, as Bella approaches [[spoiler:David]]. The exception is the third version, where ''Michael'' is the one grinding on her instead.
21	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Arabella and Terry, who have been sister-like friends since their school years. They are fond of saying "your birth is my birth, your death is my death" to each other.
22	* ImAManICantHelpIt: Malik's excuse for raping Kwame in the fourth episode:
23	-->What can I say? I'm a bad boy.
24	* ImagineSpot: Arabella imagines three confrontations with [[spoiler:David]], her rapist, in the finale:
25	** In the first scenario, she [[spoiler:teams up with Terry and Theo to drug David and beat the shit out of him.]]
26	** In the second scenario, Arabella [[spoiler:takes David home where he confesses some vulnerable truths about himself, before being arrested.]]
27	** In the third scenario, Arabella [[spoiler:takes David home and sleeps with him, with her being in charge the whole time.]]
28	* InnocentlyInsensitive:
29	** Terry is this to Kwame when she gives a speech about how Arabella only ''seems'' fine after being raped because he's not paying enough attention to her signs of trauma. Her speech is completely astute and insightful, which is why it's especially heartbreaking for Kwame to not have anyone else realise he's just been raped too. But it's a tricky situation anyway, because focusing your attention towards someone you ''already'' know to have been raped is not a bad thing at all.
30	** Kojo, Arabella's dad, frequently makes cutting remarks to his children that he clearly thinks are all in good fun, not realizing how uncomfortable this makes them.
31	* ItsAllAboutMe: Biagio gets enraged about Arabella's rape because he, as a drug dealer, has to go to the police station to deposit a DNA sample.
32	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:David]], Arabella's rapist, is never arrested. And neither is [[spoiler: Malik]].
33	* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: The premise of Arabella's third ImagineSpot in the finale. Instead of Terry playing HeroicSeductress by distracting Arabella's rapist's friend with a lap dance, ''Michael'' is the one grinding on her. Arabella also takes [[spoiler:David]] home and their sex acts that are at first pretty standard cis, straight sex acts suddenly shift to something more unusual ([[spoiler:Arabella, a cis woman, penetrating a cis man]]).
34	* MoustacheDePlume: GenderInverted. [[spoiler:After Arabella publicly outs him as a rapist, Zain is kept on by their mutual publisher -- but he publishes under a female pen name to deflect any association.]]
35	* NonconformistDyedHair: Arabella has pink hair in the present and purple hair in the past. She's a free-spirited feminist writer.
36	* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted ''hard'' in the third episode. Arabella is remembering a night three months earlier when she visited her friend in Italy and the two hooked up with different guys at a local bar. She was having her period, and before they go out we see her changing her maxipad. ''Then'', just before having sex with her hookup, she remembers it's that time of the month and tells him. He's OK with period sex, despite her warning that she has a heavy flow, and after he puts a towel on the bed we actually see her remove her used tampon. [[RuleOfThree But only what happens next]] kills the mood: she passes a blood clot onto the towel, and we see that on screen, too.
37	* RapeAsDrama: Reconstructed. Arabella was raped, but as it's based on Coel's real-life experiences, it also shows a lot of the details, such Arabella switching between being seriously traumatized and making jokes and behaving "normally", and her repeated insistence on not calling it rape. This also goes for the other victims of rape or sexual assault, like [[spoiler:Terry]]. At one point, [[spoiler:Terry]] very casually mentions wanting to visit Arabella's support group for rape victims after finding out that she'd been [[spoiler:tricked into having a threesome]]. Though the request is nonchalant, it's clear that the incident had an effect on [[spoiler:Terry]] too.
38	* SarcasticConfession: When at the police station to give statements regarding Arabella’s rape, Arabella (who is there alongside Terry and Kwame) is asked what her boyfriend Biagio does for a living. Terry nonchalantly tells them that he’s a drug lord, which earns looks from Arabella and Kwame. She then states that she’s kidding.
39	* SexyShirtSwitch: Arabella does this with Zain's shirt following their first night together [[spoiler:where he took off his condom without her knowledge or permission during their initially consensual round of sex]]. They seem to have fun together [[spoiler:as she's still in denial that it was rape, but she soon realises that Zain ''is'' a rapist, even if it was a "subtler" form of rape]].
40	* SlippingAMickey: PlayedForDrama. Alissa believes she was spiked, and this matches up with Arabella's experience.
41	* TokenWhite: The main cast is black except for Arabella's roommate Ben, former classmate Theo, and one of the officers investigating the case, Beth. None play a very large role besides how they interact with Arabella.
42	* TragicVillain: {{Invoked\|Trope}} in Arabella's second ImagineSpot in the finale, but also Played With. In this version, [[spoiler:David]] was a victim of rape himself. While it's a sympathetic backstory, he also confesses that he's committed ''many'' different types of rape. Being an ImagineSpot, it's also doubtful that he really did have a tragic past.
43	* {{Tuckerization}}: Arabella shares her surname, Essiedu, with Kwame's actor Creator/PaapaEssiedu.
44	* UnsettlingGenderReveal: Downplayed. In the penultimate episode, Terry learns that her date Kai is a trans man. Although she is initially a little unsettled and uncomfortable by this revelation, she moves past it and [[spoiler:they end the show in a relationship]].
45	* WhatDidIDoLastNight: A very serious version. Arabella can't remember what left her with a head injury or how she ended up in the toilet.

Context Series / IMayDestroyYou