You Will Not Evade Me

WEREHOG WINS
ANIMALITY

"GET OVER HERE!"

— Scorpion, Mortal Kombat

This trope specifically refers to a case in which one fighter magically, psychically, or physically forces their target to move to the fighter's location, often setting the victim up for a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.

Sometimes your opponent is strong. Really strong. Sometimes, even if you're The Chosen One — and definitely if you aren't — you end up in a fight that's way out of your league. You need to find some means of escape, or at least something to buy yourself some breathing room so that your foe can't just shoot you while you're trying to come up with a Plan B.

So you run away. Maybe you already have a clever escape strategy, or some cute idea that revolves around hiding among cardboard boxes in a warehouse and ambushing him when he comes to find you. Things are looking good ... until your opponent decides to stop you from getting away. Oh, Crap!

Remember, this guy is strong and possibly smart as well. He may even have Psychic Powers or magic. Or both. Or even be a god. Whatever the case, the point is this: he can't be bothered to actually run after you to catch you. No, he's so awesome that he can catch you without even moving. How, you ask? Simple! He teleports you over to where he's standing. Or grabs you with a wire and reels you in. Or extends a really, really long arm and grabs hold of you. Or...

Despite what it sounds like, not related to "Get Back Here!" Boss. Contrast Escape Battle Technique and Switch-Out Move. Compare The Determinator, Super-Persistent Predator, Anti-Escape Mechanism and Corralling Vacuum. May double as Kick Them While They Are Down or Disproportionate Retribution when the instigator is doing so in a refusal of the victim retreating or surrendering. Not to be confused with being unable to evade the enemy's attacks, which goes under Always Accurate Attack.

Sub-Trope of Status Infliction Attack, by changing the status of their location.

The Trope Namer is EverQuest, in which hundreds upon hundreds of high-level monsters and bosses would state the phrase "You will not evade me (player name)!" before using the teleport variant of this trope.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Inverted in Black Clover: when Asta enters his Black form, he's able to automatically home in on the strongest source of mana in the area, essentially allowing him to fly.
  • When he starts doing exactly that while fighting Ladros, who is desperately trying and failing to hit Asta with his magic, he panics and tries to fly away as he screams at Asta to get away from him. But because he keeps spamming magic attacks at him, all he accomplishes is making sure that Asta has a trail towards his position.
  • It doesn't work so well for Asta when he manages to trigger his Black form willingly in the Hot Spring Training Camp: because he still can't control his power that well, he ends up flying straight towards Mereoleona, who amusedly punches him away like one would swat a fly.
• Digimon:
  • The final battle sequence of Digimon Adventure 02 M 1 Transcendent Evolution The Golden Digimentals (and by extension, Digimon: The Movie) features an evil entity in the form of a Cherubimon who conjures spheres of gravity that suck the heroes' much smaller digimon into his hands. He then juggles them. See the first minute and a half of this AMV clip for an audiovisual account of Cherubimon's You Will Not Evade Me ownage.
  • In Digimon Adventure: (2020), Monster of the Week Gokumon/Reapermon's left hand doubles as a Grappling-Hook Pistol that it uses to reel MetalGreymon in for a fire attack.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Okuyasu Nijimura's Stand, The Hand, can use its power to erase anything its right hand touches to eliminate the space between himself and his opponent. He uses this power to pummel Josuke until it proves to be his undoing, when he gets hit in the head with flower pots his power accidentally drew towards him.
• In Naruto, Sakura pulls off an impressive one during her fight with Sasori. The puppet master is charging to take down his grandmother having just stung Sakura with his poisoned stinger, which is attached to a cable from inside his stomach (long story). Sakura, rather than let that stand, grabs his cable and begins reeling him in as fast as possible, trying to prevent him from attacking Chiyo. She succeeds in stopping him at the very last second, then gives the cable an almighty tug, bellowing "GET OVER HERE!!", and smashes the puppeteer to bits (too bad it didn't take).
• In One Piece, Blackbeard's Kurouzu forcibly pulls his target to him. The problem is there's no known way to defend against it (so far), and once he grabs you, you lose your power and open to his powerful melee attacks. You can try to attack him as you're pulled, but he's such a Mighty Glacier he can tank it and hit you anyway. This backfired when he tried this on Whitebeard, who's still strong enough to clobber him even with his powers negated.
• Pokémon: The Series: Team Rocket's getaways are regularly cut short by Ash and his friends. In the first season, Pidgeotto regularly popped their hot air balloon, to the point that in its final appearance they had become savvy enough to equip themselves with a second balloon and then neutralise Pidgeotto first. A few of their cases they have really infuriated the heroes, they will stop them from escaping even post-defeat to give them a beatdown, making sure the only way they're leaving is through a "blasting off". "A Seasoned Search" in the Sun and Moon series was a particularly brutal case, Ash and Mallow kept having their Pokemon pummel them as they were limping away battered and swollen from their attacks, and likely would have kept going if Bewear hadn't stepped between them.
• In So I'm a Spider, So What?, the Great Demon King skill prevents the user's target from escaping battle. The target is not only limited in terms of the distance they can be from the Demon King, they are also prevented from using any skill to escape, such as Space Magic.

Comic Books

• Because no normal criminal can ever possibly defeat Batman in combat, they usually run, only to be caught a few seconds later. One notable example had Dick Grayson chasing Roadrunner, a sprinter. Dick fails to catch up with him, comments "To hell with this.", then uses the Batclaw to reel the villain to him.
• Much like some real spiders, Spider-Man is frequently portrayed webbing his foes and reeling them in with his Spider-Strength when they attempt to flee from him.
• Wonder Woman has used her Lasso of Truth in tandem with super strength to drag her opponents towards her. The lasso being nigh unbreakable makes it the perfect weapon for this.

Film

• In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Godzilla gets hit several times by lightning after his initial battle against Mechagodzilla, energising his body and giving him the ability to use a magnetic field. In the final battle, he then uses his magnetism to prevent Mechagodzilla from keeping at a distance, using the field to pull the machine straight towards him. This in turn gives King Caesar a chance to whale on MG once Godzilla grabs hold of the robot with his own vice-like grip.
• Star Wars has a force power called Force Pull, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: You use The Force to telekinetically pull something (likely someone) towards you.
• During the mass-carnage Monsters Vs Security scene in The Cabin in the Woods, the Killer Robot drags a guard to it from across the room so it can cut the guy to pieces. Exactly how it does so isn't clear - the Werewolf and Dragonbat are in the way - but there's a clear view of the guard falling to his knees and then sliding across the floor to his doom.

Literature

• Lucy Ellingson in Pale learns from the faerie a glamour trick that creates an arena in which either she or her opponent must be beaten to leave-trying to flee leaves one right back where they started.

Tabletop Games

• In Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition, monsters with Improved Grab pull grappled opponents into their own space, rather than moving into the opponent's space like in a normal grapple. In the earliest editions (and the third, for that matter), the infamous Balor had the ability to yank you into melee range with its whip, where you would get burned by the flames surrounding the demon's body.
  • Fourth Edition formally introduced the concept of 'forced movement' and with it powers that allow the user to push, pull, slide, or even teleport unwilling targets across the battlefield. One of the first such powers to see print actually caused something of an uproar among the fanbase at the time, but because it is described as a taunt that goads people to attack someone in melee, and doesn't take into account that many enemies are either too smart or too mindless to respond to that.
    • This was the entire point of certain builds of 4e's Swordmage class; one of the Aegis spells you could choose would let you teleport enemies that ignored you to your position. Another would let you do the inverse, and teleport to the enemy instead.
  • Fifth Edition saw the return of Thorn Whip as a Druid cantrip, while adding a similar cantrip, Lightning Lure, for wizards and sorcerers. Generally, pulling an enemy toward you is not such a great plan if you're a Squishy Wizard, but since Eldritch Knights can use Wizard cantrips...
• Lancer:
  • The IPS-N Blackbeard's Reinforced Cabling can initiate a Grapple at a distance, knocking enemies Prone and dragging itself in to start chopping. It also has the Omni-Harpoon, which will spear five enemies in range, knock them down with a gaping wound and drag them in Prone and Immobilized into the Blackbeard's waiting sword/chainaxe. Its alt-frame, the Empakaai, dumps the grappling hooks in favor of a colossal grappling claw that gives it ways to auto-grapple anything it hits in Melee and both crush it and cook it to death with it.
  • The IPS-N Caliban has a proactive and hilariously mundane example: Every time it inflicts Knockback on an enemy (which is all the time with its shotgun-heavy arsenal), it can use Pursue Prey to move an equal number of spaces directly towards said enemy, apparently just running after it while it's still in flight to ensure it'll be in range to blast the poor sap open again.
  • The SSC Black Witch has a Magnetic Cannon capable of yanking enemies directly towards itself - and more importantly, towards its waiting allies. It also packs the Ferrous Lash, Perimeter Command Plate and the Mag Field to mess with enemy movements in other ways, whether it's rearranging them or making sure they cannot run. Naturally, none of this works on Biological foes.
  • The SSC Death's Head is more unusual: It doesn't mess with enemy movements or bring you closer to them. Rather, it simply reveals their HP, Structure and Speed and ensures they cannot hide from you, whether it's normally or through Invisibility. The Death's Head all-seeing range and weapons will do the rest: When you pack a Railgun and targeting systems, all you need to know is where your target is and physics will do the rest.
  • The HORUS Balor's Nanobot Whip will drag its targets right next to the wielder on a Critical Hit - and right next to a Balor is not a good place to be, since that's where its Scouring Swarm and Hive Frenzy can eat you alive.
• Daemon Princes of Slaanesh in Warhammer 40,000 can take the psychic power Lash of Submission, which allows to them move an enemy squad a certain distance. This is often used to bring enemies that are specialized in ranged combat into melee range and out of cover, where the Prince can then attack the (usually hopeless in close combat) enemy units without the penalty for charging into rough terrain. Little wonder that "Lash Princes" are a common sight in tournament level Chaos armies.
  • Additionally, the Lash of Submission is often used to move lots of important enemy units very close together so that all of the Chaos player's mortars/rockets/orbital bombardment/etc. can all be fired for full effect on them simultaneously.
• Masters of Space in Mage: The Awakening can do this with the "Labyrinth" spell.
• The DC Heroes RPG has this as the Attraction power.

Video Games

• Templars in Aion can do this to large groups of enemies by using energy beams.
• Arcana Heart's Medein (magnet arcana) powers can draw opponents closer to the wielder.
• Assassin's Creed: Connor and Edward Kenway, Shay Cormac, and Eivor Varinsdóttir can use rope darts to pull enemies to themselves. Connor, Edward, and Shay can also use them to hang enemies by the neck from trees and clotheslines.
• In Atlas Reactor, the Frontliner characters all have moves that pull opposing targets to them.
• In Awesomenauts, Leon Chameleon can snare enemies and draw them closer with his tongue. Since people then try to run away from him, and he has a Back Stab power, this comes in handy.
• In the Batman: Arkham Series, Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Red Hood, Bruce Wayne, and Deathstroke can use their grapnel guns for this.
• BioShock Infinite
  • The "Undertow" Vigor, which lets Booker pull enemies in with a stream of water.
  • Burial at Sea introduces a Big Daddy that can uses his drill to pull Booker to itself, even from skylines.
• Iron Tager is the only character in BlazBlue without the ability to dash. He compensates with a host of magnetism-based moves that pull his opponent towards him.
• The "Teleport Foe" ability from City of Heroes does this as well. This is a power that is available to any Player Character as early as level 6. The Gravity Control set also has "Wormhole" as one of its higher-level powers, which is an AoE version of this that also stuns those pulled through it.
• Several enemies in Darkest Dungeon will pull your back units to the front, usually to ensure that their side will be able to Shoot the Medic First. Likewise, some classes such as the Occultist or the Bounty Hunter are able to return the favor.
• The Deathslinger from Dead by Daylight has a harpoon gun that impales a survivor and reeling them toward him within melee distance. The survivor can break the chain by going through objects.
• In the Devil May Cry series:
  • In Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, the Kalina Ann has a move in Gunslinger style for pulling enemies to Dante. However, since Gunslinger is so situational, it doesn't see much use.
  • In Devil May Cry 4, Nero's Devil Bringer can Snatch small enemies to Nero. This time, it's an integral part of the system.
  • DmC: Devil May Cry has an entire weapon devoted to pulling enemies towards Dante or Dante towards enemies, and it's similarly integral to the combat system.
  • In Devil May Cry 5, Nero loses his Devil Bringer, but gains a wire attachment for his Devil Breakers that mimics his old Snatch ability. He regains the Snatch properly once he awakens to his true Devil Trigger, and the Snatch and Wire Snatch are interchangeable from that point forward.
• Diablo III:
  • The Barbarian's Ancient Spear allows him or her to yank an enemy into melee range for some well-deserved melee beatdown.
  • The Butcher's meathook attack from the end of Act I allows him to do this to you, with the added bonus of stunning you once you're in melee range and opening you up to a free attack.
• Pudge from DotA and Dota 2 is famous for being able to do this to both enemies and dying friends.
• Some bosses in Dragon Age: Origins could do this, most notably the Revenants. It becomes an active power for the warrior class in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
• The original EverQuest, an MMORPG, allows many high-level monsters and bosses to use the "summon" ability against the player at the top of the monster's aggro list. This ability instantly teleports said player to directly in front of the monster within its melee attack range, regardless of how far away that player has fled and regardless of whether the monster can still see him or her. An immediate and instant melee attack always follows it, usually for full damage and a stun if the poor sap was trying to flee. This ability can be used every ten seconds or so and helps ensure that the monster in question can always "catch" fleeing opponents or over-aggressive spellcasters who try to compensate for their fragile armor by keeping a lot of space between themselves and their opponent. Summoning equalizes things, pulling the target instantly into melee range for a good old fashioned beatdown, often resulting in quick and potentially humorous deaths when this target is not a tank. Best of all, when a player is summoned in this fashion, everyone in the immediate area will know it — because the monster doing the summoning will say, "You will not evade me (player name)!"
  • Summoning was put in the game as a way to prevent players from using ranged damage to kite high-end melee focused monsters. The mechanic has since become infamous among the game's players, both for its quirky "You will not evade me!" line and because of how irritating or deadly it can be to get summoned in the heat of a battle. Instantly warping to the location of a boss while trying to run away (or simply reposition one's character) is very disorienting and often results in being hit from behind, which is likely to interrupt spells and/or stun you.
  • Many spoofs of EverQuest gameplay logs (such as the fan-famous "Veeshan's Peak raid log") make humorous use of the summon mechanic and the beatdowns that ensue as a result of its use.
  • The Magician class of player characters get a level 55 spell named Call of the Hero that allows them to summon an ally to their location using the same game mechanic. By contrast, the magician version has a 12 second cast time (although it can be reduced to as little as 6 seconds with the proper abilities and/or equipment) and a comparably long recast. Saying "You will not evade me!" to creep out your ally is optional, but why would you not?
  • Some particularly summon-happy bosses also have an ability named "Call of the Zero" (likely in parody of the magician spell above) which allows them to summon their target even more often than monsters that lack it. A boss with this ability can alternate using it and the regular summoning mechanic for even more disorientation and preventions of escape.
  • On the other hand, it is still possible to get away from any monster in the game by successfully "zoning" to another area of the world, casting an evacuation spell, or using an aggro-clearing ability (such as Feign Death) at the right time. Those aren't always options, though.
• Final Fantasy VI has a rather unusual example of this. When your party encounters a monster known as the Zone Eater on the World of Ruin's version of Triangle Island, the monster will begin to inhale your party members — drawing them inside itself. Once the last party member is inhaled, you find yourself in a cavernous dungeon (presumably within the Zone Eater's body, or through some sort of dimensional rift therein) complete with random battles, treasure chests, and an Optional Party Member, Gogo.
• Inverted in Final Fantasy X: The Bevelle bossfight takes place on top of the airship, which can be told to get in close or back off. When up close, every party member can attack, but so can the boss. When far off, only magic and Wakka's thrown ball can hit the boss, but it can't hit either, while the airship can fire missile salvoes at it (but only up to three times). Moving the ship closer (or the boss moving) takes up a turn.
• Final Fantasy XI has a mechanic very similar to EverQuest's, but with the much less memorable line "(player name) is drawn in!" This is frequently abused during one of the Chains of Promathia missions. One boss is in the back of a dungeon, behind dozens of monsters with true-sight (can see through invisibility) and locked doors. Instead of fighting your way to the back, most players opt to have the alliance (of up to 18 players) wait at the entrance, while one lone character (typically a thief, who can open the doors without keys; or alternatively a thief to open the locked doors, and whomever is best at sneaking for the rest of it) runs to the back. As soon as that character is detected by the boss, the entire alliance is drawn in, from across the zone.
• Final Fantasy XIV has some enemies that can pull in party members before unleashing a strong attack on them. The Warrior's Holmgang skill draws in their target and binds them in place so that they can't get away while the Warrior's HP cannot go below 1. The Paladin's Tempered Will ability the anti version of this trope by preventing draw ins and knockbacks. A more heroic version used by Healers is the ability Rescue, which draws a targeted ally towards them. This is usually done to pull stubborn or clueless players out of powerful AOE attacks or into safe zones. This helps the healer by not having to waste their time and MP having to heal or raise them from otherwise completely avoidable damage.
• In Doom mod GMOTA, Lord Blazkowicz can use his grappling hook to pull enemies to melee range, so he can easily strike them down with his sword. The Bonelords also can pull you into their melee range by using rocket fist attacks.
• In God Hand, the Chain Yanker God Reel move allows Gene to pull a target to himself. As a bonus, the right cross he follows it with stuns them.
• Parodied in the April Fools Day 2009 "update notes" for Guild Wars. The assassin skill Scorpion Wire was reportedly changed to summon the afflicted foe to location of the person who cast it — a likely Shout-Out to Scorpion the ninja. (Normally, the skill teleports the assassin to the afflicted foe.)
  • And again in the sequel, where Scorpion Wire returns, now pulling the enemy to you. Necromancers get a similar skill, Spectral Grasp.
• In Heroes of the Storm, Stitches, like Pudge in DOTA, has a hook that pulls in enemies.
• The final boss in inFAMOUS grabs you with some kind electric tether and pulls you to the center of the arena if you try to leave. He even says "You're not going anywhere" when he does it.
  • In inFAMOUS 2, a DLC power gives you the ability to hook your enemies and fling them toward you.
• Injustice: Gods Among Us:
  • Batman tends to play this way. Although he says "Get Down Here!", and it is an anti-air move using his trademark Grappling-Hook Pistol. He even lampshades his similarity to Scorpion's fighting style whenever he clashes with him.
  • Swamp Thing can do this by stretching his arm.
  • Wonder Woman can do this with the Lasso of Truth.
• Several characters in League of Legends are known to play this trope straight:
  • Blitzcrank can do this to anyone on the enemy team with their ability Rocket Grab, usually followed up by uppercutting the target into the air. They are commonly banned because of the fear that they will land that one Rocket Grab onto a squishy carry in the late game, or that they will land tons of grabs during laning (where they are usually paired with the team's ranged carry) and set off a snowballing effect.
  • Thresh has a hook similar to Blitz's grab that trades the full pull-in for an option to have Thresh dash to the enemy. He's just as tricky to escape thanks to the number of slowing abilities he can bust out like a literal cage and a knock-up strike.
  • Nautilus can pull enemies in to close the distance.
  • Darius can potentially pull the whole enemy team close with his ability Apprehend.
  • Diana and Orianna downplay this trope a bit with their area-of-effect pulls. In the latter's case, it's actually her ball that pulls enemies closer, which can pull in enemies to Orianna herself when it's attached to her.
  • The trend continues in a way with Illaoi, while she doesn't have a way to physically pull enemy champions to her, what she can do is pull an enemy champion's spirit right from their body and force it to stand before her while she freely beats the tar out of it, echoing some damage to the spirit's owner. Should the spirit be slain or the owner run too far away, they become a vessel for some time, and while they're safe from Illaoi herself doing further damage, they are no longer capable of evading Illaoi's God. Who will send Combat Tentacles from any walls the vessel stands near that freely take a swing at the poor chum. Leading to some situations where Illaoi can kill you from the other side of the map.
  • Pyke is capable of this as well with his Q, throwing his knife/harpoon at his enemy and then reeling them in.
  • After his 2019 Rework, Mordekaiser now gets in on the action with his new Death's Grasp ability, summoning a giant hand to pull in fleeing enemies for a beating.
• Legends of Runeterra, being based off the above, keeps the ability with Challenger, keyword allowing attacking units to pull in blockers.
  • Thresh keeps his hook. Diana gains Challenger when she activates her Nightfall effect.
  • Nautilus and Darius on the other hand have lost their ability to pull enemies in. Nautilus instead makes weak enemies too scared to block him at all, forcing the opponent to sacrifice one of their bigger units or take massive Nexus damage, while Darius' Apprehend is a standalone spell which stuns an enemy to prevent it from blocking anything (and allows you to attack an extra time if you have Darius on the field).
  • Lee Sin combines Challenger with Barrier, allowing him to both choose an enemy to attack and to prevent retaliation damage. His signature spell allows you to give Challenger to any unit on the field.
  • Leveled up Elise grants both Fearsome and Challenger to all spiders on the field (including herself). Standard use is to make weak spiderlings challenge enemy's big units, while the leftover small fry can't block the fearsome attack of bigger spiders.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces allows Signum to use her Whip Sword to do this. Admittedly, the range is a bit lacking.
• In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, various characters have different ways of bringing opponents to them. Super Skrull and Spencer have extendable arms, Spider-Man shoots out a web to grab them, and Magneto uses his magnetic powers to briefly immobilize opponents and force them right in front of him.
• Mass Effect 3 introduces the Lash biotic ability, which yanks mooks towards the user at massive speed. If there's any upward angle to their movement, they're typically catapulted straight off the level. Lash was actually a massively upgraded version of Mass Effect 2's Pull biotic power, which levitated a mook and pulled them toward you with much less force than Lash did.
• Minecraft has the fishing rod, a tool normally used to catch edible fish in bodies of water. However, it can be used to catch and pull in any mob. It's especially useful against ghasts, which are easily killed by melee attacks but typically keep their distance, flying high above you while shooting a steady stream of fireballs.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • Scorpion is a yellow-clad ninja whose trademark move involves hurling a kunai into his opponent and then using a wire attached to the kunai to quickly pull the opponent into melee range. The ability is accompanied by one of his catchphrases: "C'mere!" or "Get over here!" This is one of the most famous examples of this trope.
  • Mortal Kombat X introduces Takeda, who has a variation that also plays with this trope. This is justified, as Scorpion was his adoptive father and trainer for a good chunk of his life.
• In Overwatch, Roadhog's signature move is using his chain hook to pull opponents in and then mow them down with his scrap gun.
• Makoa from Paladins uses a dredge anchor to snag and reel in enemies to be blasted by his cannon. He'll sometimes even say "Get over here!" as a Shout-Out to a certain famous yellow-clad ninja known for this move.
• Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time: The Teleportato Mine explodes zombies for massive damage in a 3x3 area, but not before forcefully teleporting the 3 zombies closest to the house right on top of it, ensuring that they will be caught in the middle of the blast. Leveling it up allows it to teleport more zombies onto it, up to eight at maximum level.
• Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare: Z7 Mechs have access to the Biotic Pull ability, allowing them to target and yank a plant from as far as 50 meters away toward it.
• [PROTOTYPE 2]: If you try to leave the rooftop where you fight the Final Boss, he'll snag you with a tentacle and smack you hard onto the floor for extra punishment.
• Rising Thunder: Talos's two non-standard Grapple Moves start pulling the enemy toward him shortly after he starts charging them. One of his possible gamma specials also yanks the enemy slightly closer to him—approximately the same amount that a medium attack would push them back.
• In River City Girls, the third phase of Abobo's boss fight starts with him using his breath to draw in Misako and Kyoko and tossing them over his shoulder when either gets close enough.
• Sly 2: Band of Thieves has The Contessa, who will reel you in with webs if you try to leave. And drop you in front of her, shortly followed by a rush attack. Strangely enough, she can do this even when she's falling off the arena herself.
• When fighting against Venom in the Spider-Man (2000), don't try escaping by crawling up a wall. He'll grab you, yell "GET OFF OF THAT WALL", then pull you off of it.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • The game has several abilities (for both players and NPCs) that pull an enemy to the user.
  • A particularly common form for strong or elite NPCs is for them to pull a player into melee range, and then instantly use a second ability to knock them back to mid-range. They do this because they are jerks. And also because the player can't use abilities while flying through the air, but mostly the jerk thing.
• Characters with tethers (ranged grabs) in Super Smash Bros. could count. This includes each Link (with the hookshot, or the clawshot)^note Not counting Breath of the Wild Link from Ultimate, Samus Aran (grapple beam, or plasma whip as Zero Suit), Yoshi (his tongue), Lucas (the rope snake), Ivysaur (vines), Olimar (Pikmin), Pac-Man (Galaga tractor beam),Isabelle (fishing rod), and Byleth (Sword of the Creator).
• Terraria:
  • If a player attempts to escape the Wall of Flesh by climbing out of the Underworld, the Wall will grab them with an undodgeable tentacle called "The Tongue" and pull them into its mouth while they are helpless to resist. (Trying to escape via teleportation will simply instantly kill the player.)
• Them's Fightin' Herds: Arizona has a special grab attack where she uses a lasso to pull enemies closer. Sometimes she'll even shout "Come 'ere!" as a shoutout to Scorpion.
• Grapple users in Titanfall 2 could use them to hook enemy Mooks and even Pilots and pull them over(Usually to kill with a Melee attack). This did nothing to stun the victim, however, and a canny player could turn around and shoot the grappling player(or even Melee them first if they were fast enough). Other skilled players could catch a pilot in the middle of a Nuke Eject and simply cut the grapple short, leaving them to be caught in their own blast.
• Ultra-V's Ranged special in War of the Monsters was a chained Rocket Punch that would stun the opponent and pull them over for further punishment.
• Warframe: A grappling lash attack features in several different ways in this game:
  • various enemies can hook players to drag them in to melee, such as the Scorpion unit or Ancient Infested.
  • the Warframe Valkyr can shoot a grappling line that either does this or acts as a rapid transport if it hits scenery.
  • Mag has a pull ability that can send multiple enemies ragdoll towards her.
  • even your pet can get in on the action. The Helminth Charger can both perform a Foe-Tossing Charge and use a retractable proboscis to hook enemies and pull them in.
  • Stalker, being Implacable Man, can teleport the player he chose as his victim to his location. But because of this developers did not give him simple ability to jump which any mook in the game has.
  • Certain MOA enemies on the Orb Vallis pull an odd inversion: they hook you with a grappling line, but it's to rapidly pull them towards you, and deliver an electrified dropkick to your face.
• In World of Warcraft, there are many examples.
  • Abominations are undead golems who have grappling hooks that they can use to yank enemies towards them. This comes in very useful for the ones in Undercity who act as the City Guards.
  • The Death Knights in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion have an ability to do this. The difference being it's the player doing so, which led to many Scorpion-related macros.
  • Every high-level boss in the game also does this, unless there's a door that closes behind you or some other mechanic that prevents you from even trying to escape. Numerous non-boss creatures also do this, from undead constructs pulling you to them with hooked chains to various spiders using strands of web to drag you back, Spider-Man style.
• XCOM 2's War of the Chosen expansion introduced the Skirmisher Hero Unit, which has a Grappling Hook they use to get around, but their "Justice" ability lets them also attack humanoid enemies with it to yank them into Ripjack range. They can also invert this trope with their "Wrath" ability, in which the Skirmisher pulls themself into a foe, no matter their size, then strikes with the Ripjack.
• zOMG!: "The world turns inside-out as you are drawn inward to the Giant Stone Coatl!" This particular boss is stationary, so it uses this power to bring you in range of its breath laser; if you play keep-away, only its minions can threaten you otherwise.

Western Animation

• In Teen Titans, the elastic villain Madame Rouge attempts to pull this one on Kid Flash. It works at first, despite Kid Flash's obvious superpower. Emphasis on "at first".

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