Such go-getters, already starting off a Sibling Rivalry!
Galinda: What is this feeling / so sudden and new
Elphaba: I felt the moment / I laid eyes on you
Galinda: My pulse is rushing
Elphaba: My head is reeling
Galinda: My face is flushing
Both: What is this feeling? / Fervid as a flame, / Does it have a name? / Yeeessssss! / Loathing! / Unadulterated loathing.
Elphaba: I felt the moment / I laid eyes on you
Galinda: My pulse is rushing
Elphaba: My head is reeling
Galinda: My face is flushing
Both: What is this feeling? / Fervid as a flame, / Does it have a name? / Yeeessssss! / Loathing! / Unadulterated loathing.
— Wicked, "What is This Feeling?"
Everyone has heard of Love at First Sight. Two people meet and instantly one or both fall in love. Happiness ensues, except when it doesn't. On the other hand, sometimes people despise each other from the first moment they meet, often before they've even really had a chance to get to know each other. That is Hate at First Sight. When it's mutual, there will be lots of blatant antagonism. When it's one-sided, the target of hatred might be completely confused.
Maybe it's their instincts giving them a hint that they just can't get along with this person (or even that they're evil) or maybe it's just something random and unfounded, but either way one or both characters will simply never get along or at least not without a great deal of trial and tribulation. While you might think that this trope would be particularly common between a hero and a villain, it's actually quite common between two good characters as well.
If for some reason the characters wind up in a long-term relationship, it may be The Masochism Tango. If they ever start liking each other, they will probably have Belligerent Sexual Tension or become Vitriolic Best Buds. Expect a Slap-Slap-Kiss to be the moment when this switches.
May overlap with Disastrous First Meeting. Compare/Contrast Love at First Sight. See also Irrational Hatred.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Attack on Titan: Eren bluntly reveals that he always despised Mikasa when they were kids. He's actually breaking her heart so that she doesn't follow him to his doom.
- In Beelzebub, Hilda and Aoi Kunieda got along okay at first, though Hilda is pretty cold. They didn't hate each other during their first meeting, but they developed a rivalry. However, when Hilda got amnesia, she became a kind, innocent, sweet, and naive girl with an obvious crush on Oga. New Hilda hated Aoi (and Furuichi) at first sight, though.
- Black Clover: While Langris had an entire childhood to build his all-consuming envy of Finral because of growing up with the very real threat of Finral becoming better than him, Asta's mere existence infuriates him to irrational levels. It's bad enough when they first meet and Asta shows him up despite being a loudmouth peasant, but the longer he's around Asta during their two encounters just increases the amount of rage and violence he wants to inflict on him. He was so dead set on killing Asta during their fight at the Royal Knights Selection Exam that it took everything Asta had been saving for Yuno to knock Langris out before he or Langris himself ended up dead. It's particularly notable because while he does still hate them and thinks of them as garbage for various reasons, he doesn't have the same degree of murderous hatred and Unstoppable Rage towards Yuno or the other Black Bulls other than Finral despite them having a lot in common with why he seems to loathe Asta.
- Episode 26 revealed that this happened between Osamu Dazai and Nakahara Chuuya in Bungo Stray Dogs. It also happened between Fukuzawa Yukichi and Ougai Mori, and Atsushi Nakajima and Akutagawa Ryuunosuke.
- A Certain Scientific Railgun: Mikoto Misaka and Misaki Shokuhou are the two Level 5 espers at Tokiwadai Middle School. By the time of the story, they're bitter rivals who occasionally work together. A flashback to their first meeting shows that Misaki had to visibly hold herself back from attacking Mikoto at first sight. Misaki's Only Friend was Dolly, Mikoto's very first clone, who died so the researchers could fine-tune the cloning process. Mikoto didn't know any of this (and in fact never finds out about Dolly at all).
Misaki: [grinds teeth] I never want to see you again. Could you stay out of my sight?
- Izaya and Shizuo in Durarara!! hated each other instantly. Shizuo could tell exactly what kind of person Izaya was while Izaya was constantly unable to manipulate Shizuo due to his hostility. This hatred only grew over the years due to numerous Noodle Incidents during their high school years, and by the time the series starts, there is no hope of any civility between them.
- Fate/Zero: Gilgamesh automatically hates Berserker, seeing him as little more than a mad dog that needs to be put down. Berserker then does a couple things Gilgamesh considers unforgivable (grabbing a weapon Gil launched at him to deflect a Storm of Blades, thus Gil considers some of his treasure forever stained, and cutting down Gil's perch, forcing him to the ground, AKA the same level of the "mongrels"), so Gilgamesh tries to kill him whenever they meet. While Berserker does not personally reciprocate the feeling, his Master Kariya is all too happy to let him kill Gil, since he is the Servant of Tokiomi.
- The Garden of Sinners: Shiki and Fujino hate each other the moment they first meet, maybe due to the rivalry between their clans' bloodlines.
- In Haganai, almost everyone is some kind of antisocial misfit, so there's a lot of early antagonism of this sort.
- Yozora hates Sena from the moment they meet while Sena wants to be friends, which gradually evolves into an extremely Vitriolic Best Buds type relationship due to Yozora constantly being horrible.
- Kobato also hates Sena from the instant they meet and for much better reasons than Yozora: Sena acts like a creepy stalker towards her.
- Kobato and Maria subvert it, though. They look like they hate each other, but are actually best friends. For Kobato, Maria seems to be the only person she does consider a friend: She avoids all her classmates who want to get along with her.
- Eriri and Utaha view each other this way in How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, and part of it is due to their interest in Tomoya.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Phantom Blood: Dio Brando immediately saw Jonathan Joestar as an enemy the moment he laid eyes on him. Poor Jonathan only wanted to be friends with Dio. It's not until Dio pulls stunts like stealing Jonathan's love interest Erina's first kiss, killing his dog, poisoning his father, and becoming a mass-murdering vampire that Jonathan sees Dio as an enemy. Even then, Jonathan still considers Dio a brother.
- Battle Tendency: Joseph Joestar detests Caesar Zeppeli upon introduction, for one, being a shameless flirt, and two, being better at using Hamon than him. In turn, Caesar hates Joseph because his grandfather, Jonathan, got his own grandfather, William Zeppeli, killed in battle, and generally being inept with Hamon. After enduring Training from Hell, the two became best friends. Sadly, their friendship was doomed to end after an argument that led to Caesar's death.
- Golden Wind: Leone Abbacchio immediately takes umbrage to Giorno Giovanna for no reason when the latter is recruited into Team Bucciarati, and his first act of introducing himself to Giorno is to offer him a cup of "tea", which he actually peed in, although Giorno immediately catches on and finds a way around it. From thereon out, Abbacchio's opinion of Giorno never improves, with him finding Giorno's constant idealism and meticulous planning to be completely annoying, and Abbacchio ends up getting killed by Diavolo before he ever has the chance to warm up to Giorno. However, he did leave behind a Dying Clue about Diavolo that only Giorno could solve, showing that Abbacchio did have a measure of faith in him.
- Konnichiwa Anne: Before Green Gables (2009): Charlotte Hammond to Anne Shirley. She hated the idea of adopting a child into the family (even if it was to babysit their other kids) because of her own prejudices towards orphans, and told Kendrick that Anne should be sent to an orphanage. As soon as he dies, she does just that.
- Maria no Danzai: Okaya did not like the defiant look Kiritaka had in his eyes the day they first met (when Kiritaka saved another of Okaya's victims from being hanged, by the way), and made it his mission to make his life a living hell ever since.
- My Dress-Up Darling: While "hate" may be a stretch, Akira seems to instantly take a dislike for Marin as soon as she lays eyes on her. Chitose takes notice that Akira remained silent during the whole conversation until Marin left the room, and later Gojo accidentally eavesdrops on their conversation in the smoking room, where Akira confesses that she wants absolutely nothing to do with Marin. Then subverted later in Chapter 85, when it turns out that Akira is actually a huge fan of Marin (even calling her "My Princess"), and the real reason she's keeping her distance is because she's embarrassed in front of her and doesn't know how to talk to her.
- One Piece: Luffy and Blackbeard developed an instant dislike of each other the second they realized their tastes for food and drink were the complete opposite of each other.
- In volume 10 and episode 11 of season 2's Oreimo, Ayase and Kuroneko both instantly dislike each other the first time they formally meet. Ayase doesn't like her because Kuroneko broke up with Kyousuke after dating for a while and breaking his heart, while Kuroneko wonders why Ayase is even visiting Kyousuke due to the way she tends to treat him like dirt. She also remembers Ayase from an earlier moment when she first found out about Kirino's Closet Geek tendencies, and how unaccepting she was of it initially.
- In Pokémon the Series, this is basically Harley's reaction to May.
- This also applies to everyone who joins Ash as a companion-of-the-season towards Team Rocket, even if the trio do nothing towards them at first. Sometimes, one-shot characters and entire groups of trainers will also attack them upon first sight as well, depending on the episode.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica: This is Sayaka's attitude with Homura, though justified in that the first time she actually really saw Homura in action, she seemingly attacked her friend, and apparently leaving Mami to die against Charlotte, so it's less "Hate at First Sight" and more "You're a bad person so of course I don't trust you." Homura's refusal to explain herself also contributes to this. The first timeline shows that Sayaka was actually pretty friendly with Homura, and Homura subsequently taking levels in Jerkass and cynicism during the time loops combined with her dedication to Madoka and coldly rebutting everyone else just solidifies Sayaka's dislike of her.
- Bossun and Tsubaki's (not) first meeting in Sket Dance wasn't exactly the best. Basically, Tsubaki barged into the Sket-dan's clubroom and began lecturing them about the school rules, and rather rudely touched upon their Dark and Troubled Past, quickly getting Bossun's hate. Fortunately, their relationship gets better over time, especially after The Reveal, turning their interactions into Sitcom Arch-Nemesis instead. Tsubaki's Jerkass Knight Templar tendencies also gets reduced as the story progress, and used to show his adorkability instead.
- Sakuragi and Rukawa in Slam Dunk. Sakuragi initially hates him because Haruko (his Love Interest) has a crush on him (his first reaction to him is a headbutt), but mostly because he can't accept that Rukawa is definitely the star of the team (with his amazing skills). Rukawa, instead, regards Sakuragi as an idiot with zero experience (despite the fact that he knows that Sakuragi has some hidden talents).
- Yotsuba to Yanda in Yotsuba&!. Yanda tried to enter her house while her dad was away. Yotsuba was taught not to let any strangers in when she's alone. Which leads to her slamming the door on his face. The fact that Yanda enjoys making her angry on purpose doesn't help improve her opinion of him.
- Yuri Is My Job!
- When Hime starts working for the Liebe Girls' Academy salon, her coworker Mitsuki acts nice to her while "in character" at the salon, but quickly makes it clear that she can't stand Hime. It's ultimately subverted in that this is not the first time they met each other. They were friends in elementary school until an incident caused a rift between them, and while Mitsuki recognized Hime at first sight, Hime did not recognize Mitsuki, much to the latter's dismay.
- Sumika, one of the three founding members of the salon, almost immediately took a dislike to her new coworker Goeido, having gotten a bad feeling about her and quickly coming to see her as an untrustworthy Manipulative Bitch.
Comic Books
- Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra: Elektra and Trey hated each other since their first encounter. Things only escalated from there.
Fan Works
- Rei felt an uncontrollable hatred for Kaworu from the moment she met him in Advice and Trust, which only magnified when she actually talked to him. Note that it has less to do with him being an angel, and more to do with the fact that she views him as a threat to Shinji and Asuka's relationship (which is a major Berserk Button for her). To make it all the more hilarious, he later admits that the human half of him finds her being angry to be incredibly attractive. In a supreme case of irony, it was her past-self's love for him that set the entire series in motion.
- AMP: Kyouka towards Katsuki, thanks to learning about his former friendship and current treatment of her best friend (and later boyfriend) Izuku. Meanwhile, Katsuki has no idea where this random girl came from and why she decided to become Izuku's guard dog.
- In the Hazbin Hotel fanfic series Charlie's Angels (Kkat), Alastor and Emily start to dislike each other as soon as they first meet in the first fic's second chapter, "Kings". Emily hates Alastor out of a combination of the way he introduced himself to her just to scare her, his sadistic personality, and the fact he's the soul contractor Husk (whom Emily had previously met at the end of the previous chapter, with full knowledge about the issue with his soul contract) is soul-bound to. While Alastor doesn't fully hate Emily back, he clearly despises that not only does Emily have the power and position to manipulate his bound souls for as long as she wishes and is able to, but is also capable of seeing his own contract, the source of his power and his biggest insecurity that would ruin his reputation in Hell if it ever becomes publicly known. After Emily accepts Alastor's proposed challenge of trying to find a way to break Husk's contract, the two have a strong Teeth-Clenched Teamwork relationship throughout the rest of the fic series, due to their shared affiliation to the Hazbin Hotel in spite of their very different visions.
- crawlersout: Tom dislikes all of Fem!Harry's potential suitors for reasons he can't quite comprehend or explain yet. However, he hates Grindelwald almost immediately, because unlike with those other suitors, he can tell Harry is genuinely uncomfortable in his presence.
- In Earth and Sky, an adult Diamond Tiara describes how she utterly hates Apple Bloom, and has ever since they were placed in the same playpen as foals- even before Apple Bloom actually interacted with her in any way. Even years after they're no longer part of each other's lives, just thinking about Apple makes Diamond go into long, bitter rants about her.
- In Fate/bleached white, Lancer feels an intense and immediate disdain for Caster and Kirei. The former being more rooted in his belief that Caster is untrustworthy and will betray Ichigo, but even Lancer doesn't know why he despises Kirei so much.
- Harry Potter feels this way about Umbridge in For Love of Magic
. He's not entirely sure why, as he's met evil people before, but he feels he'd want to punch her even if she told him he just won the lottery.
- In The Herald and Her Knight, Elster feels an immediate murderous hatred for Adler from the moment she first lays eyes on him, implicitly because she subconsciously remembers how he killed her and interfered with her efforts to reach Ariane in previous cycles.
- Killing Game Deluxe: Leon quickly decides he hates Kokichi shortly after meeting him.
- Metal Gear: Green:
- When UA students Aizawa expelled and never re-enrolled join the MSF and become part of the Ocelot Unit, many of them hold deep resentment and a hatred of the man for unjustly expelling them for not upholding his standards.
- When MSF personnel are assigned to UA to guard the school, many of them give the Pro Heroes working there (bar Nezu) Death Glares. Justified as they are all disgruntled, discriminated, and abandoned to be put under warlord or terrorist rule, with the MSF having been the only organization helping them. When the UA staff find out how the MSF came to fruition in Chapter 91, it makes sense while giving them the horrible realization that everything they did or have done in their hero careers was All for Nothing.
- When Lucy meets Yuka in Promise on the Festival Night, she immediately hates her because she senses that she will be a rival for Kouta's affections.
- Hermione Granger disliked Professor (Ale)Xander Harris from the word go in Time and Again due to both his relatively laidback attitude and that unlike most teachers, he doesn't indulge her need to show off what she knows, both not allowing her to answer every question and marking down her essays for giving too much information.
- Alberto Scorfano-Marcovaldo takes an immediate dislike to Vincenzo in The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy, showing the first signs of his budding rivalry with him for Luca's affections.
- In Transformers: MHA, Kyoka and Bumblebee take an instant dislike to Bakugo when they find him bullying Izuku.
Films — Animated
- In Wizards, Avatar and Blackwolf were mortal enemies from the very moment of their birth. Both their powers and their personalities were "polarized like magnets" as the narrator puts it. Avatar is good, benevolent, and beloved by all, while Blackwolf is evil, sadistic, and repulses people by his very presence.
Films — Live-Action
- In Aliens, Ripley immediately detests "artificial person" Bishop upon meeting him in the Marines' mess hall because of her prior experience with a malicious android on board the Nostromo. She warns up to him later on as it turns out that Bishop was Good All Along.
- Die Another Day: James Bond and Gustav Graves take an instant dislike to each other in their first scene, culminating in an absolutely brutal swordfight. While Bond already suspected Graves of having ties to terrorists and that he deals in conflict diamonds, in Graves's case this turns out to be a subversion. He is actually Colonel Moon, one of Bond's past enemies, who is believed to be dead.
- When Django of Django Unchained rides up to Candyland on his horse, Stephen, the head house slave, gives him an utterly hateful Death Glare. This is largely due to his hatred towards his own race in general, which isn't helped by the fact that Django is free and not a slave.
- The High School Musical characters Mr. Bolton and Ms. Darbus have argued since the day they met (incidentally, the same day they were both hired to work at Albuquerque High). Even taking the actual reason for their argument into account, it's clear that they enjoy having an excuse to snipe at each other.
- From the moment she first laid her eyes on him, Madeline sees only the bad stuff in Pepito, calling him a bad hat despite his Establishing Character Moment being a case of Pet the Dog. Her hatred is sealed when he scares her whole class later that night, dressed as a demon.
- Night of the Living Dead (1968): Ben and Cooper from the original and the 1990 remake.
Ben:You know Cooper. I've only known you for a minute or two. But that's enough time for me to see that I don't like you very much. And I'm pretty sure you feel the same about me, so let's just try to stay out of each other's way.
- In the Lindsay Lohan version of The Parent Trap, Hallie and Annie become bitter rivals from the moment they first see each other and see that they look exactly alike. They start to get along after discovering that they are long-lost twins.
- Stargate: The Ark of Truth: During their fight, Mitchell admits as much to Marrick. Considering the latter aided in resurrecting the Replicators to sic them on the Ori, it was fully justified.
Cameron: I knew you were an asshole the moment we met.
- From Tombstone:
Doc Holliday: Look, darling, Johnny Ringo. The deadliest pistoleer since Wild Bill, they say. What do you think, darling? Should I hate him?
Kate: You don't even know him.
Doc Holliday: Yes, but there's just something about him. Something around the eyes, I don't know, reminds me of...Me. No, I'm sure of it—I hate him. - X-Men (Film Series):
- X-Men 1: Wolverine and Cyclops show an immediate disdain for one another before even a single line of dialogue is spoken.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past: Judging by the harsh glare the younger Magneto gives to Logan just before he walks away from the Pentagon kitchen, he plainly dislikes him even though the latter hasn't done or said anything negative. It seems highly unlikely that Erik would remember a rude stranger whom he once tried to recruit in a bar 11 years prior, and even if he did, his behavior is rather antagonistic for such a minor insult.
Literature
- In Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, Gilbert Griffiths has this reaction to his cousin Clyde just from learning of the latter's existence.
At the thought of a cousin who looked like him — possibly as attractive in every way as himself — and bearing his own name, Gilbert chilled and bristled slightly. For here in Lycurgus, up to this time, he was well and favourably known as the only son and heir presumptive to the managerial control of his father's business, and to at least a third of the estate, if not more. And now, if by any chance it should come to light that there was a relative, a cousin of his own years and one who looked and acted like him, even — he bridled at the thought. Forthwith (a psychic reaction which he did not understand and could not very well control) he decided that he did not like him — could not like him.
- In Carpe Jugulum, Agnes Nitt secretly desires to be a "bad girl". Her reaction to meeting the actual "bad girl" Lacrimosa de Magpyr is summed up as "There is such a thing as hate at first sight." Unfortunately for both of them, Lacrimosa's brother Vlad keeps dragging Agnes along with the family because he's madly in love with her, ensuring that the two get plenty of chances to despise each other.
- In David Copperfield, David pretty much has this reaction to Uriah Heep.
- In Forbidden Fruit, Hope St. Germaine and Victor Santos immediately feel contempt for each other at their first meeting, where Santos delivers the money Hope asked for from her mother Lily. Santos hates her for being a Rich Bitch, while Hope hates him for his obvious refusal to bow and scrape for her. This enmity lasts for the rest of the novel, being even more intensified when Santos starts dating her daughter Glory, and culminates in Hope trying to frame Santos for police corruption as payback against him for forcing her to publicly acknowledge Lily as her mother.
- Harry Potter:
- Harry dislikes Draco Malfoy from the start. Partly because of his spoiled attitude (which reminds him of his cousin Dudley), partly because of his lack of sensitivity when Harry mentions he's an orphan, partly because their first interaction includes Malfoy's prejudicial remarks about Muggle-borns (unintentionally insulting Harry's late mother), and partly because he speaks poorly of Hagrid (the first person to show Harry any kindness). This ends up cemented later when Draco sucks up to Harry on the train after finding out who he is (and after being a jerk to Ron, Harry's soon-to-be best friend and eventual brother-in-law).
- Harry's father James and Severus Snape (who later became one of Harry's teachers) hated each other pretty much from the moment they met in their first year. On Snape's end, it's because Snape was The Resenter. James was the Big Man on Campus who was not only equally as skilled as Snape in wizardry but also talented in Quidditch and popular, all while coming from a loving family. Snape, meanwhile, had an abusive father and a neglectful mother, and so he was very ambitious and obsessed with everyone recognizing him as a powerful and clever wizard, gravitating toward the Dark Arts. Additionally, Snape's Fatal Flaw was Pride so anything that could damage it got under his skin deep. James, for the little we do know about him, hated Snape for the Dark Arts thing and also because Snape was friends with Lily, who he fancied (Snape fancied her too). Even when James matured and mellowed out, the mutual hate never went away.
- Harry loathes Umbridge the first time he hears her talking. It becomes pure hate later when Sirius tells him about her anti-werewolf laws, with all the problems those laws meant for Lupin.
- In The Heroes of Olympus, Calypso immediately hates Leo from the moment he crashes through her dining table and into her divine house arrest. She doesn't even talk to him, she just starts screaming at the gods that they must be joking to do this to her. She changes her mind later. Reluctantly.
- "Old Love" is a short story written by Jeffrey Archer. It narrates the story of two Oxford literature students, William and Phillipa. It lampshades that the two of them hated each other and that resulted in a heated rivalry. Both of them pushed themselves to be the top students of their class. Eventually, they end up marrying each other and continue bickering even when they are old.
- In The Sorcerer's Receptionist, the first thing Alois did with his randomly assigned seatmate was challenge her to a game of rock-paper-scissors. She lost, he sneered at her, and from that moment on, she vowed to surpass him academically. It wasn't that Alois was higher-class or a jerk or out to get her specifically- although he was all of those things- but somehow, Nanalie couldn't ignore him like all the other students that were.
- Tolkien's Legendarium:
- The Fall of Gondolin: Idril disliked and distrusted her cousin Maeglin, without really knowing why, almost as soon as she met him, though she didn't hate him. He fell in love with her and being unable to woo her, became so embittered he eventually betrayed their whole city and got it sacked.
- The Silmarillion: Fëanor despised and hated his half-siblings before they were even born, and continued to hate them until he died (and in the afterlife, one can guess). And with the "friendly advice" of the Big Bad Morgoth he became paranoid, thought they were out to get him, threatened to kill Fingolfin in cold blood, and then betrayed his siblings and their families during the Noldorin rebellion. Fingolfin and Finarfin, having done nothing to actually harm Fëanor, were trying to make peace with him.
- In Warrior Cats, Longtail, Sandstorm, and Dustpelt hate Fireheart the moment he joins the Clan, and the feeling is mutual. Eventually Fireheart saves Sandstorm's life and she falls in love with him, Longtail, without the influence of Darkstripe and Tigerstar, eventually becomes loyal to Fireheart (particularly after Fireheart begins to treat him with more respect), and Dustpelt continues to be a bit of a jerk, but in their old age, they begin to relish their rivalry more than anything.
- In 'Salem's Lot, Susan's mother hates Ben almost immediately and fabricates several reasons why. Ben satisfies himself by knowing he gets along with her father, while Susan and her mother have a major fight over it.
- In Twilight, Edward hates Bella at first smell because he blames her for being his "singer". In his POV novel Midnight Sun (2020) he flat-out states that he hated Bella when he first met her because she was endangering his way of life by smelling so good to him. It took him less than a month to completely flip and decide that he loved her.
- Rhea in Wizard and Glass instantly loathed the young and beautiful Susan. Susan tried to clear the initial bad impression, but the antagonism remains through the rest of the story.
- Darkstalker and Indigo from Wings of Fire first met each other when Indigo nearly killed Darkstalker for being an animus dragon. The two intensely distrusted each other after that.
Live-Action TV
- In Dexter, Lieutenant Doakes is implied to have been antagonistic to Dexter from the jump. Downplayed, because Doakes is harsh with everyone. However, he can sense that something is just off with Dexter, which makes him come down extra hard on Dex.
- A 3rd Rock from the Sun episode involved Dick getting upset that a cafeteria lady hated him. This is pretty bizarre when you consider how Dick is usually apparently okay with several regular and recurring characters disliking him. In fact, when he got angry that she didn't even hate him for an actual reason, Nina replied "Does she need a reason? 'Cause I can give her reasons."
- Dead Like Me has George reacting this way to Daisy when she first shows up.
George: I hated her instantly.
- Neatly summed up on Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, approximately thirty seconds after Chloe meets June's new Alpha Bitch pilates pal:
Chloe: Oh! I just realized! I hate you.
- In the pilot for Enlisted, Staff Sergeant Hill gets a twofer as soon as he arrives. He meets his rival/UST counterpart, who considers herself well above his level of professionalism, and a moment later meets the wargames contractor, who lets it be known he's an overpaid blowhard who disdains the Army. Hill's only comeback to this brazen intro is:
Hill: Wow. I've never hated somebody so fast in my life!
- In Game of Thrones, Sansa dislikes Daenerys from the first time they meet. Daenerys tries to smooth things over later on, but never gains her trust.
- House: Vogler instantly takes a dislike to House because he refuses to wear a lab coat. His further investigation into House's department just solidifies his belief that House is an insubordinate money drain. House, for his part, immediately recognizes Vogler as a wannabe dictator and doesn't hesitate to tell him as much to his face.
- Step-siblings Derek and Casey from Life with Derek, whose conversation starts out like this:
Casey: I'm sorry, we haven't met-
Derek: And I'm ok with that.- After which follows some snarky replies from both sides, with Casey concluding he's the most 'arrogant, insensitive, rude person' she has ever met.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Halbrand and Galadriel hate each other from the very moment they met on the raft. He is very suspicious of her, and Galadriel dislikes him for how he calls her out on her hypocrisy about dressing up her hatred for Orcs into heroism.
- On M*A*S*H, Hawkeye and BJ's first impression of Charles Winchester isn't a particularly good one:
BJ: Let's avoid the Christmas rush and start hating him now.
- Then there's Winchester's predecessor, the even more Jerkass-y Frank Burns:
Frank: What I don't understand is, why do people take an instant dislike to me?
Trapper: It saves time, Frank.
Frank: Well, we got along fine for the first two weeks.
Trapper: Exactly, Frank. And that time was absolutely wasted.
- Then there's Winchester's predecessor, the even more Jerkass-y Frank Burns:
- Pam & Tommy: Rand and Tommy immediately get off on the wrong foot during their first meeting. Rand believes strongly in spirituality, so when he sees one of Tommy's tattoos, he immediately goes on an unprompted lecture about the tattoo's meaning. Tommy admits he just got it because it looked cool, clearly annoyed by Rand's comments.
Theatre
- In Wicked, Elphaba and Galinda (i.e. the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda in their college years) sing "What Is This Feeling?", sung almost as if it is a lover's ballad, except instead about love at first sight, it's this. Unlike most examples of this trope, they eventually become close friends with heavy romantic subtext.
Tabletop Games
- In Planescape, this was how the Blood War started, eons ago, before mortals appeared. The Chaotic demons of the Abyss met the Lawful devils of Baator. They hated each other, they fought, and never stopped. The war of genocide between the two that has gone on since then where untold billions have been slaughtered is as simple as that.
Video Games
- .Hack//GU: While Anti-Hero Haseo is prickly towards anyone he meets for the first time, he takes a particularly strong dislike for Sakaki right off the bat which is later proved to be well justified.
- Alan Wake: Alan's wife Alice hopes to get him to meet Dr. Emil Hartman, a psychiatrist who specializes in treating writers and other creative types like Alan. Alan openly expresses annoyance at Hartman's smug expression on the cover of a magazine, and when they do meet in person at the Bright Falls police station (after a very stressful night for Alan), the first thing Alan does is punch the other guy in the nose. Hartman turns out to be far worse than even Alan's negative first impression.
- Doom (2016): The Doom Slayer develops an instant dislike for Samuel Hayden right out of the gate. In particular, it is Hayden's Utopia Justifies the Means attitude regarding Argent energy that seems to drive his antipathy, as he already knows that such rationalisations never end well. Hayden's subsequent actions over the course of the game and the sequel only serves to amplify the Doom Slayer's negative impression. Despite engaging in some Teeth-Clenched Teamwork, the two eventually come to blows at the end of Ancient Gods Part I.
- In Duel Savior Destiny, Taiga and his magic teacher Downy loathe each other from the moment they first meet. It's not until the final route that they actually have a conversation that isn't completely hostile.
- Final Fantasy:
- Tidus' narration in Final Fantasy X makes it clear that he thought Maester Seymour was bad news from the moment he entered the story. He also makes this remark if you choose the "Talk" command in the first boss fight with Seymour.
Tidus: I knew you were bad news the first time we met!
Seymour: Oh, my sincerest apologies.
Tidus: SEYMOUR! - Lightning towards Snow in the Backstory of Final Fantasy XIII, mainly because of the epic clash of their personalities and because he plans to take her precious Serah (her little sister and his fiancee) away from her. It doesn't help that Snow is generally quite oblivious to this and keeps trying to treat Lightning as a sister-in-law already.
- Tidus' narration in Final Fantasy X makes it clear that he thought Maester Seymour was bad news from the moment he entered the story. He also makes this remark if you choose the "Talk" command in the first boss fight with Seymour.
- Early on in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Aqua walks past Lady Tremaine and her daughters and immediately detects a horrifying amount of darkness in the trio. She plots to assassinate them right away to protect that world, but the Fairy Godmother stops her. They become Heartless anyway.
- Kingdom Hearts III: Sora, Donald, and Goofy first see Prince Hans drag Queen Elsa back to her kingdom for execution. Like the Tremaines, Hans' extreme darkness in his heart was detected by the trio in an instant, and Sora plots to kill him if it means protecting Elsa.
- This happens twice in the Resident Evil series, and both times just by the protagonist looking at a picture of the person they're going to hate:
- In the original Resident Evil 4, Leon finds a portrait of Saddler in the village and concludes he's not someone he would like. (This is changed in Resident Evil 4 (Remake), wherein there are still portraits of Saddler around but Leon doesn't comment on them.)
- Resident Evil 7: If Ethan looks at a photograph of Lucas Baker, the description of the photo is "You don't know him, but you get the feeling he's an asshole."
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl: His Smash Taunts reveal that Snake has an immediate and unexplained dislike of Sonic. Epileptic Trees abound regarding possible causes, most of which are meta at best, but as far as Snake himself is willing to say, there's no reason; he just doesn't like him.
- In X-Men Legends, it's mentioned that the Professor and the Shadow King experienced this.
Visual Novels
- In Amagami Miyu instantly has a great deal of loathing for Morishima Haruka, who finds her to be incredibly cute. At first it looks like this is a measure of jealousy due to Miyu being Miyu, but later arcs show that Miyu is quite supportive of her brother's relationships.
- Kyousuke despises Usami from the moment they first meet in The Devil on G-String, though he does his best to hide it. Her passion for justice, her last name, her slovenly attitude and her nosiness grate against the antihero Kyousuke. That said, she is the main heroine of the story, but Usami has to put up with a lot before that.
- In Fate/stay night, Shirou has this reaction at least twice and for similar reasons both times, though he doesn't really consciously recognize it.
- He and Archer are instantly in opposition because Shirou recognizes that Archer embodies his ideals as a hero of justice, but absolutely despises his methods. Archer, in turn, views Shirou as a naive fool whose insistence on fair play, honor, and trying to help everyone will just get even more people killed and will lead him to being crushed by his ideals like Archer himself, who is Shirou's future self.
- He's also instantly hostile to Kotomine Kirei, though at first he thinks it's just because Kotomine is The Gadfly and really knows how to push his buttons. However, he may also sense on some level that Kotomine isn't trustworthy. To put a final complication on things, Shirou realizes at the end of the Heaven's Feel route that deep down he kind of likes Kotomine because they have so much in common as individuals who lack a sense of self, but knows that he must fight him because their goals—saving humanity and destroying it—are diametrically opposed.
- Yaginuma and Reiji are implied to have been instantly antagonistic towards each other in The Shell, though they'd already met before the story began. It's not hard to see why: Yaginuma goes out of his way to be a jerk to everyone because of his own traumatic background.
- Akiha has a tendency to hate people quickly in Tsukihime. She instantly takes a dislike to both Ciel and Arcueid. As far as Ciel goes she has pretty solid reasons: Ciel is a member of an organization that often opposes non-human beings such as herself. Arcueid, on the other hand, pisses her off because of how whimsical she is as well as being too close to her brother.
Webcomics
- In Homestuck one form of Troll Romance is called kismessitude, a romantic relationship based around hate instead of love. When Karkat sees John for the first time on his computer screen, Karkat instantly develops a "hate-crush" on John and believes him to be his destined kismesis.
- In I Love Yoo, Kousuke hates Nol from the first moment they meet, however, this doesn't have much to do with Noel's first impression, but rather certain ideas and fears that Yui has put in his head.
- Haley and Crystal in The Order of the Stick met in the thieves' guild and within moments had lethal grudges against each other; Crystal remarks that she's wanted to kill Haley since "that day," at which point the comic cuts to the flashback of their first meeting. This cemented Crystal as Haley's rival, meaning she would always be at the same level as Haley or better.
Web Video
- The reaction of Android 16 in Dragon Ball Z Abridged after meeting Goku, whom he's been programmed to have an obsessive urge to kill, is this. It's played very much like the inversion; music plays in the background, and 16 gets so tongue-tied that he retreats, embarrassed.
- Season 3 of The Guild introduces Riley, whom Codex initially tries to befriend, but during their first conversation, Riley reveals she's more of an FPS girl than an RPG player, and any chance of friendship quickly dissolves. From that point, Codex sees Riley (who is more self-assured, confident, and outgoing) as a rival, especially when she starts dating (and torturing) Zaboo; Riley, for her part, barely remembers who Codex is.
- In Two Best Friends Play, while playing The Walking Dead (Telltale), Matt mentions how much he usually hates child NPCs in video games, and how impressed he is at the writers for making Clementine likable. Then Duck shows up, and Matt's reaction—before Duck even has a chance to speak—is "Oh hell no." For the rest of the playthrough, Matt interacts with Duck as little as possible and laughs at Duck's misfortunes.
Western Animation
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Downplayed in "The Conqueror". Ma-Ti doesn't hate Zarm, but he distrusts him from their first conversation. Unlike the others, he can tell that the stranger's heart is empty and he doesn't feel comfortable with him. There's a very good reason for this; he's Gaia's Evil Counterpart.
- DuckTales (1987): In "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", Launchpad and Courage immediately become rivals because both of them want the boys' respect. Courage's unpleasant demeanor and lack of any real-life ability don't help matters.
- Final Space: A flashback in episode 1 reveals that Gary developed a dislike for his assigned Robot Buddy KVN the moment he met him.
- Hazbin Hotel: In "Dad Beat Dad", when Charlie's dad Lucifer visits the Hazbin Hotel, he and Alastor immediately antagonize each other. Lucifer ends up being the first character who manages to make Alastor mad enough to drop his Affably Evil act and outright make a Precision F-Strike.
- Kaeloo: Pretty and Stumpy start to hate each other from the first time they meet.
- The Legend of Korra: In the fourth episode "The Voice in the Night", Korra lays eyes on Asami Sato for the first time and instantly gives her a jealous Death Glare, before even knowing her name, just from seeing her with Mako! It takes the heroine a few episodes to warm up to the "prissy, beautiful, elegant rich girl" who eventually becomes her best friend two seasons later once their Love Triangle with Mako is resolved and ultimately her girlfriend in the series finale.
- Discussed in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Triple Threat". After accidentally inviting both Ember and Thorax to Ponyville for a diplomatic visit, Spike conspires to keep them meeting out of fear of this trope happening. After the Two-Timer Date hijinks nearly result in the two coming to blows when they think the other is hurting Spike, Ember and Thorax not only end up bonding fairly quickly, but they even manage to give each other advice about the very problems they came to Spike for help with.
- The Owl House: Being the Logical Latecomer, Luz Noceda immediately sees the oppressive, destructive and petty side of the Coven System even before she understands its mechanics, and so naturally comes to fear and hate its ruler, Emperor Belos, almost as soon as she knows he exists (his consuming the soul of a Palisman while she watched also made for a bad first impression). While Eda shares her distrust, most of the denizens of the Boiling Isles either are Conditioned to Accept Horror or simply haven't personally witnessed enough atrocities to care. Bad as its Individuality Is Illegal proto-fascist system is, even Luz is shocked when she discovers that Belos' villainy and the harm the Coven System causes goes well beyond even her wildest fears.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Homer's Enemy", a new worker joined the power plant named Frank Grimes, who represented an average person dropped into the world of The Simpsons. He quickly became Homer's Enemy, as noted in the episode title, due to how appalled he was at how lax and incompetent Homer Simpson was while still having such an idyllic life, which just keeps getting worse as the episode continues. At the end, his hatred gets the better of him, and in a fit of anger grabs raw electrical wires while ranting and is killed instantly. At his funeral, a sleeping Homer asks to change the channel and everyone laughs.
- "Black-Eyed Please" featured Tina Fey as a substitute teacher who kept vindictively insulting and punishing Lisa Simpson for no apparent reason at all. She eventually admits the reason being that she thought Lisa was one of those beautiful, popular girls who use only their looks to succeed instead of their smarts. Lisa, however, is happy that someone actually thinks she's popular and pretty.
- SpongeBob SquarePants has Gary the Snail and Squidward Tentacles giving off this impression since their introduction during the episode "I Was A Teenage Gary". Their animosity towards each other was ongoing since.