Near-Rape Experience

A person nearly rapes another person. The first person then takes a step back, goes into My God, What Have I Done? mode, and reacts with horror. They often run from the scene. Basically, it's the realization that "If I keep going now, I will have raped this person." In return, the near-rape victim is always badly shaken but often forgives their attacker later because they had the self-control to stop.

This trope also covers other My-God-I-am-nearly-a-rapist situations, such as drunk people stepping back just in time, grudgingly paying attention when your partner says no, or realising that maybe your rough consensual sex is getting a bit too rough and taking a deep breath for a minute.

Keep in mind that this is not about remorse or guilt after the act, but the attacker must stop of their own free will (although a degree of persuasion on behalf of the potential victim is allowed), not as a result of being fought off or somebody else stopping them. Contrast Date Rape Averted, Attempted Rape, Dude, She's Like in a Coma.

In Real Life, the victim is generally less forgiving, as even when it doesn't go all the way it is a shockingly traumatic experience.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Used loosely in a British cautionary advert where a young teen watches himself through a glass window as he forces sex on his struggling girlfriend, at that point convinced she wants it. The teen is banging on the glass, crying, and shouting "You're raping her!" at his other self, who cannot hear. The advert ends with the warning, "If you could see yourself..."

Anime & Manga

• This happens to the main character of After School Nightmare, Mashiro, an intersex boy with female genitals, when Sou attacks and strips him, intending to rape him to "prove" he is a girl. When Sou taunts him, telling him he's "nothing like a real guy", Mashiro replies that if a real man is someone willing to hurt anyone to get what they want, then Mashiro really isn't one. Taken aback, Sou lets Mashiro go.
• At one point in Berserk, Guts almost rapes Casca due to the strain of constantly fighting the monsters that are drawn to their brands and watching over Casca in her post-Eclipse state (which isn't made any easier seeing as Guts is desperate for Casca's emotional and physical intimacy, adding that she also gets indecent a lot). His stress and desires eventually get to be too much for Guts, and he almost succumbs to his inner Beast. Luckily Guts stops himself before things go any further, but not before pinning her on the ground, forcibly kissing her and biting one of her breasts, and the emotional damage inflicted on Casca is done.
• This happens in the Boys over Flowers episode "Domyoji Tsukasa Snaps". When Makino starts crying during their Forceful Kiss, Domyoji stops.
• Done twice virtually identically by Rumiko Takahashi, in the one-shot Fire Tripper and in a very early episode of Maison Ikkoku. In both cases, the male lead is very drunk and basically tries to pull the old Gone with the Wind sweep her up and carry her to his room bit. In neither case was the relationship at that level at the time; both female leads are a mixture of scared, worried, (slightly) touched, and quite angry. In both cases, our boy passes out before things get too scary, which frees the object of his "affection" to get really annoyed/angry/disgusted. Both times, our hero remembers nothing about the incident the next morning, which really gets them in trouble.
• In the second Fushigi Yuugi OVA, Miaka was almost raped by Tasuki, who was being manipulated by a villain. He stops when she starts crying.
• Subverted in Gankutsuou when a character nearly rapes his fiancee but stops not because of a My God, What Have I Done? revelation, but because he simply decides to pick up where he left off after they're lawfully married. However, it's never clearly stated whether he actually succeeded or not the first time around.
• Karakuridouji Ultimo: After being screwed by a Reincarnation Romance-slash-Gender Bender leaving him loving someone who now sees him solely as a best friend, Rune partners with the embodiment of Jealousy and attempts to rape Yamato so that Yamato will love him back. He stops at the last minute though, realising he's too attached to Yamato to really go through with something horrible just to sate his own jealousy.
• In Moe Kare, Arata brings a—nearly unconscious—drunk Hikaru to his apartment. He has her in his bed, mostly undressed, before realizing that he doesn't want her to cry the next morning.
• The main character in Mysterious Girlfriend X acts this way after he gets a bit carried away after his girlfriend gave him permission to touch her breast, as seen here.
• In Nyotai-ka Dogged Nice Guy Makoto, tired of lavishing his money and attention on women who don't reciprocate, attracts a goddess' attention when he wishes he could be a woman so someone would pay attention to him for a change. Unfortunately, after the goddess grants his wish and makes him a woman Makoto learns that the grass actually isn't greener on the distaff side when his very first date decides he's going to get sex in exchange for his money and attention and is not going to take no for an answer.
• Subverted in Ouran High School Host Club when Kyouya pretends he's about to rape Haruhi to teach her that bad things could happen to her if she acts recklessly. She doesn't buy his act and calls his bluff.
• A poignant scene like this happens in The Rose of Versailles: Upon hearing Oscar choosing to live as a man in the navy, her ward Andre, who at this point is going blind due to an injury, tries to rape her. It's when he rips Oscar's shirt off and she starts crying that he stops. He even confesses his feelings for her after that.
• Shimoneta: In episode 4, Tanukichi begins receiving love letters from a possible stalker. So he and Ayame decide to lure them out by leaving a note on the door saying it was unlocked and that he reciprocated. When Anna sees the note inviting her in, she takes it as a love confession and assumes they wanted the same thing. So she binds Tanukichi, then strips him and herself, but doesn't go further than making out with him^note she didn't know what else to do since her parents never taught her about intercourse. Ayame walks in at that moment, causing Anna to become flustered with embarrassment, gather her clothing, and leave.
• Also happens in Simoun. In this case, the woman about to commit rape is forgiven by the victim, and they later begin their relationship anew as close friends.
• You're Under Arrest!: A vacation episode has a pair of guys sneak into Aoi's room to take advantage of her, while she's sleeping. Minutes later, they leave the room stunned after finding out she had a penis. Aoi was a male patrol officer who "went native," while working undercover to catch would-be muggers and rapists.

Comic Books

• Robin: Darla Aquista is revealed to have prepared a bed for the two of them on the night Tim has Superboy intervene in the date she'd forced Tim on. Her chillingly out of touch words later that night imply she's only giving him room instead of forcing herself on him further because he saw her commit a murder that evening and she still thinks it's an eventuality he'll come to her on his own.

Fan Works

• In the Pokémon fanfic The Dark Side of Innocence, James is given a drug by Giovanni that makes him aggressive. The drug increases his desires towards Jessie however he has enough will to stop himself from hurting her.
• Dungeon Keeper Ami: In A Deal with the Devil (DARK), it's Inverted, when Ami's first Reaper is using rape as a threat, but she escapes by teleporting away:
  [Ami] struggled to shake her head. "I don't trust you."
  
  Which left him with a bit of a problem. [...] He had no problem with torture [...] Lack of experience [...] left most of his victims dead before any desirable results could be achieved. [...] Hmm, what could he do that wouldn't cause too much damage? He snorted at the thought. Him, worried about causing too much damage. Then he had a bright idea. She was a female, so...
  
  "A stupid choice. I see you need some more 'convincing'."
  
  Ami felt true terror at the malice expressed in those few words. Then, a scaled hand reached down, and grabbed a hold of the front of her sailor senshi uniform. Her body jerked as the demon gave the garment a violent tug, and with an agonised ripping noise, the front half came off. Oh no. No! No! NO! Not that! Ami froze in horror as she felt the chill of the dungeon air on the exposed skin of her chest. I wish I had died instead! I wish I was a real Keeper and knew how to get out of this situation! Having barely finished the panicked thought, she felt a surge of energy from the dungeon heart, as if she had just re-affirmed their connection. The next moment, she was gone.
• Not Completely, Altogether Here: In chapter 14, Glinda goes into a frenzy after finding her parents graves in the yard of their abandoned house. She's stricken with a frigid feeling and feels a sudden need to warm herself using her girlfriend Elphaba. Glinda starts forcibly kissing Elphaba's body, but it doesn't make her feel any less cold. To make matters worse, her kisses literally burn Elphaba's skin. She snaps out of it quickly but Elphaba is still left seriously injured. Elphaba would have died if not for a healing spell.
• In the Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic Prison Island Break Shadow breaks into the infirmary during the riot arc and threatens to rape Amy, but is talked down by her in a scene that echoes Shadow and Amy's ARK scene in Sonic Adventure 2, concluding with him breaking down in tears. Then more convicts turn up and Amy admits she can't talk them all down at once.
• In the Frozen fanfic Retribution this very nearly happens to Anna, thanks to Hans. It comes out of nowhere, is brief, and then hardly mentioned at all throughout the rest of the fic. For the reader, the suddenness of it can be jarring and interrupt the flow of the story.
• In Shatterheart Kurogane pins down Syaoran and threatens to rape him after the latter expresses disappointment that nothing happened when they were drunk. He backs off when he sees that Syaoran is terrified of him.

Films — Live-Action

• American Beauty has a variation. Although Angela is willing, she's also a teenager and a virgin, meaning that if Lester goes through with it he'll likely be committing statutory rape. He sees her for the first time as a young, vulnerable girl rather than an object for his fantasies, and his lust is quickly replaced by a more paternal sort of affection.
• In Don Juan DeMarco, the title character relates a tale where he's sold to the lusty Sultana Gulbeyaz. He resists her overtures, and for a few seconds she seems prepared to use violent means (a knife at his throat) to force his cooperation. But then she opts to try tactile persuasion instead (it works.)
• In Eden Log, the man almost rapes the botanist when he hallucinates that they are making love. He pulls back when he realizes what is actually happening.
• In Five, Michael attempts to force himself on Roseanne before she tells him that she is pregnant.
• The title character of Hundra pins a man to the wall with the intention of raping him but backs down when he explains the concept of male arousal to her. They end up falling in love and having consensual sex later.
• Kiss Me (2011): Tim, after he manhandles Mia in bed, looks like he might be about to rape her. He stops himself though and draws back from doing anything worse.
• In the second film of the Samurai Trilogy, Miyamoto Musashi nearly forces himself on his Screaming Woman/Neutral Female love interest, Otsu. She doesn't want it, and Musashi carries on well past the point where it's clear she doesn't want it. He catches himself before he actually does it, though. He is so ashamed and disgusted with himself that (after running away from Otsu) he quietly says "I renounce the love of women" and walks off into the sunset (and the credits), marking his Character Development from an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy to a zen Martial Pacifist.
• A variation is used in Schindler's List. Nazi Captain Amon Goeth develops a creepy infatuation for his Jewish maid and makes an abortive attempt to force himself on her while she's standing motionless and frightened in a wet shirt. He stops himself, but not on any moral grounds; he accuses her of "seducing him" because he considers her an inferior, and beats her senseless instead.
• In the pre-Hays Code drama She Had to Say Yes, Loretta Young's character is nearly raped by her boyfriend when he suspects she's a "loose woman". After she stops resisting and asks if that's all she means to him, he stops himself. Then, not only does she forgive him, she ends up offering herself to him in the end.
• In the film version of The Sheik, the male protagonist intends to rape his female counterpart, but when he oversees her crying and praying he doesn't actually go through with it.
• In Siberiade, Phil grabs Nastya, rips her dress apart, and throws her down on the hay in the barn. Then he seems to come to his senses and walks out. She gathers up her clothes and leaves.
• In Within Our Gates, a white man is about to rape a black woman when he sees a distinctive scar on her chest and realizes that she is his long-lost daughter.
• In Withnail and I, Uncle Monty is about to force himself on the protagonist, before the protagonist lies and claims to be in a secret relationship with Withnail, which causes Monty to have a sudden attack of conscience.

Literature

• Chronicles of the Kencyrath: Ganth, half-crazy, almost rapes his seven-year-old daughter Jame, before he realizes what he's about to do and runs from her. The memory of this is told in flashbacks in book 4, To Ride a Rathorn, and in the short story collection Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry.
• The Dinosaur Lords: Falk nearly catches Melodia alone and unguarded, but fortunately her handmaiden manages to defuse the situation by tactfully threatening to call the guard. She's not so lucky the second time, and the trauma of being raped stays with her for the rest of the books.
• This happens at least once in The Last Of The T En, where the main male character is once possessed by something evil and nearly rapes the heroine, but realizes what he's doing and stops 'himself' from doing it, and also in a rather dodgy scene in her bedroom. Both times he says, "I'm not really like that," or some variation of the theme...
• In Lost Voices, Luce's Creepy Uncle Peter drunkenly pins her to the ground and starts yanking at her jeans. Mistaking her for her dead mother, he says, "Alyssa? Alyssa, I didn't mean it." When he realizes she isn't Alyssa, he runs away and leaves her next to the cliff.
• Marino almost rapes Scarpetta in one of Patricia Cornwell's later books. Because he's under the influence of some strange drug at the time, Kay forgives him. No one else (including Marino himself) does the same after and several subsequent books bring it up, usually when someone is trying to discredit Marino or imply Kay goes too easy on him.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • A very drunk Sandor Clegane pins Sansa Stark down on her bed and makes her sing him a song. He leaves before going any farther but later admits to her little sister that he had indeed intended to rape Sansa and possibly regrets not doing so. Making things more complex is the fact that Sandor had previously saved Sansa from a mob intent on raping her during a riot, and the fact that Sansa seems to like her memory of this incident.
  • And again with Sansa and Tyrion. Only after making her strip does he realize that going through with it would be rape. Since this all takes place in the Crapsack World of Westeros, him not taking his (twelve-year-old) wife by force is seen as a magnanimous gesture rather than simply coming to his senses.
• The Storm And The Splendor has such a scene, although Rud makes it clear soon afterward that he has a very loose definition of "willing."
• A darker version occurs in Where Are the Children?. Parrish intends to molest Missy and gets as far as partly undressing her, but is interrupted by Dorothy calling to say she intends to show his house to a potential buyer within an hour. Parrish has to quickly find a place to hide Missy and her brother; he never tries to abuse Missy again but only because he never gets an opportunity to do so.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Spike nearly raping Buffy, probably assuming her protests are part of another round of aggressive and forceful sex play.
  • Creepier version in "Consequences", when Faith almost rapes Xander, then stops herself - opting just to kill him instead.
• Dark Desire: Darío throws Alma down on the bed and appears to be intent on rape, but then (looking shocked at himself as she protests while struggling under him) he pulls back.
• In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will tries to trick his girlfriend into bed after she tells him she wants to be celibate until marriage by setting up a fake wedding ceremony for the two of them. He later backs down after the guilt sets in.
• On Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in Season 15, serial rapist/murderer William Lewis nearly rapes Olivia Benson twice. The first time he is interrupted (and thus not the trope), but the second time he changes his mind at the last possible moment; he anticipates Olivia trying to resist his assault and when she remains mute and refuses to resist his advances, he is displeased and backs off. Although Lewis decides not to rape her, what he decides to do next proves to be just as traumatic.
• Legend of the Seeker: Kahlan almost has sex with Richard when he's been Confessed and commanded to be with her. She changes her mind at the last minute though, realizing that it's wrong.
• On One Life to Live, Todd is literally this close to raping his wife Blair (he's infuriated at having discovered that she lied to him about being pregnant to get him to marry her and to get her hands on his money) when he looks down at her and sees not her face, but that of his previous victim.
• In the first season of Sugar Rush, Kim is so desperate to bed Sugar that she even considers date-raping her, going so far as to invite Sugar over for the evening and preparing a huge stash of pills with which she intends to use to drug Sugar. However, she spends the whole episode debating to herself whether what she's doing is right or wrong, and eventually decides against it, feeling horribly guilty.
• The Umbrella Academy: In "Kindest Cut", Allison seeks out her sometimes-love-interest Luther for Sex for Solace. He turns her down, half because he now has a new love interest who he wants to be monogamous with, and half because he feels like Allison is just using him. Angered by this rejection, Allison uses her Compelling Voice to make Luther stay and want her. As she does the magic, he says, "Allison, please; don't do this." She keeps going. Under the influence of the powers he starts kissing her and it looks like they're about to have sex on the pool table. Allison looks Luther in the face, and he's trembling, implying he's Fighting from the Inside. Then she says, "Stop." It's an Ambiguous Situation—it could alternatively be read as her realizing what she's doing and feeling bad, or getting overwhelmed by the intensity of the whole thing more generally, or because Luther's magicked fervor is too intense and he's being too rough. When Allison says it, for a split-second it looks like Luther can't stop—like Allison did the spell too well and it can't be halted now. It's a momentary Hourglass Plot. Then she yells "STOP!", the spell is broken, and he jerks away from her. Both leave visibly shaken without another word to each other.
• The Walking Dead:
  • A drunken Shane nearly forces himself on Lori in "TS-19" until her resistance makes him stop and think about what he was doing.
  • In "The Dead Come Knocking", the Governor forces Maggie into a Shameful Strip and forces her down as if to rape her. When she makes clear that it won't break her, he stops.

Music

• Many PVs of the Kurousa-P Vocaloid song "Cantarella" featured this, though the song is based on historical gossip about a consensual relationship that's shocking for different reasons. Keep in mind that a lot of versions change up the exact characters featured (i.e. Gakupo or Len replacing Kaito as the male lead and Rin replacing Hatsune Miku), but many of them end up like this:
  • Some versions have Kaito spike a cup of wine and gets Miku to drink it and pass out. In some versions, he then attempts to rape her but stops when the sight of her brings up their childhood memories together, followed by her waking up and telling him she loves him, waking up and killing him, or never waking up at all due to overdose or poisoning.
  • In other versions, Miku was either awakened early or never drugged. In these versions, Kaito corners her and hesitates or at least ties her up before the scene pans away.

Tabletop Games

• In the supplement City of Stories for the first edition of Legend of the Five Rings, there's the story of the noblewoman Bayushi Omoto. A servant of her family attempted to rape her, encouraged by her beauty. In order to stop the assailant, Omoto scratched and cut her own face to make herself undesirable. She was later rescued, but felt the attempted rape was a divine punishment, and commited suicide. In City of Lies, the version of the scenario book intended for GMs, it is revealed that the entirety of this story was a lie. Omoto is alive and intact, though her psychological issues makes her a hazard for her family's honor.

Theatre

• Gérard in Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier has been obsessed with Maddalena since childhood, and after he comes into power, he tracks her down for about an act and a half. When she comes to him for help, he tries to rape her. Just as she resigns to her fate for her beloved’s sake, he stops, moved, and decides to help her and Chénier instead. He’s too late and Chénier and Maddalena, who decides to share his fate, are executed, but she forgives Gérard and they part as friends.
• Be More Chill shows a gender-inverted example. When Jeremy is lured into a bedroom with the belief that his girlfriend Brooke has a surprise for him, the very drunk Chloe comes onto him despite his protests. While the SQUIP does force him to not walk away and he accidentally calls her "the hottest girl in school," he still very loudly protests her advances. Luckily, he is able to get away before anything serious happens when Chloe's ex-boyfriend Jake storms in angrily, the SQUIP turns off, and Brooke witnesses what she thinks is her boyfriend cheating on her.
• In Vincenzo Bellini's La sonnambula Amina, the eponymous sleepwalker, accidentally comes to Count Rodolfo's room during one of her nocturnal walks. Rodolfo at first tries to take advantage of her unconsciousness, but bethinks himself in time. For the rest of the opera, he is one of the good guys, and when Amina’s romantic rival frames her for cheating, he defends her.
• Shakespeare's comedic Pericles, Prince of Tyre has a 15-year-old girl kidnapped by pirates and sold to a brothel. Clients pay to have their way with her but she is so virtuous, they repent and become upstanding, respectful citizens.
• Another of Shakespeare's comedies, Two Gentlemen of Verona nearly ends in tragedy when one of the titular gents decides in a fit of frustration that he'll force his beloved (who is in love with the other gent) to love him by raping her. Gent #2 shows up and talks him down before anything happens.

Video Games

• In Digital Devil Saga, Heat forcefully kisses Sera but stops when he sees her tears. To Heat's credit, he hasn't a clue what he's doing.
• In Yakuza 4, Taiga Saejima accidentally ends up pinning the underaged Haruka to the ground. Him having just been in prison for twenty-five years, there's a long, frightening pause before he gets off of her, and they both seem very disturbed afterwards.

Visual Novels

• During one chapter of ef - a fairy tale of the two., Kuze tries to rape Mizuki to make her want to stay away from him. He doesn't go through with it at the very last minute, but it scares her pretty badly; Kuze becomes disgusted with himself shortly afterward, and gets a karmic heart attack while wangsting.
• Nicole: As far as Love Interests go, a variation occurs toward the end of Jeff's route; in this case, it's not a sudden realization of what he's doing, but rather that he never intended to do it in the first place. He just wanted to make Nicole hate him by scaring the hell out of her. Not that it makes it much better, but at least the intent was never there — no matter how she reacts, he'll back down. Hell, the best way to shut him up is to dare him to do it, which gives a +5 boost to the relationship^note THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED IN REAL LIFE. The implication is that as much as he wanted to scare her off, what he needed was to hear that she knew him well enough to know that it was all bullshit. Still, the scene is genuinely creepy and frightening and wrong on every level, and it's played that way. Nicole shivers when he first touches her and she realizes what he's doing, but it's from nerves, not any kind of enjoyment or desire. At no point during the scene does she feel anything besides fear and, once she realizes his true intent, severe annoyance and anger.
• The Tsukihime Visual Novel, several times. At one point, a glimpse into Arc's own mystic eyes switches Shiki into Rape Mode. If you don't immediately stop when given the option, you suffer an unrelated Karmic Death not long after. Shiki also nearly (or actually) rapes Kohaku, depending on the route. Like with the above example, actually going through results in a Karmic Death.

Web Original

• Protectors of the Plot Continuum: PPC exorcisms in rapefics almost always happen just in the nick of time to prevent the rape, for reasons of dramatic tension. The rapist characters tend to react with horror upon realising what the badfic was making them do.
• Survival of the Fittest:
  • Subverted with Adam Reeves, who gets the 'My God, What Have I Done?' moment, then decides to keep going. That more or less cemented what an utter bastard he is.
  • J.R. Rizzolo's torture of Laeil Burbank almost starts out with a rape scene, but then Riz decides it'd be a better idea to cut out her eye instead. This was due to Riz' handler planning a rape scene, but deciding at the last minute that he wasn't up for it.

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