Romantic rejection can come in many forms, from laughing at someone, to showing disgust, to simply saying no. However, some people, for whatever reason, will choose to express their lack of interest by violently attacking the person they're rejecting. The level of violence can vary from something as simple as a slap in the face to more severe, such as breaking bones.
The reason why someone would resort to violence largely depends on the person in question. Often times the reason why is that the victim of violence wouldn't take no for an answer, and the violence was done to scare them away. Other times, the rejector has a short temper and is willing to attack the rejector for something small, such as asking them on a date or flirting. Other times the rejector is just a jerk who inflicted needless harm for no good reason.
While people rejected in this manner are often turned off by the rejector's violence, some people might continue to insist despite or even because of the violence. In some cases, the person might believe the rejector is either Playing Hard to Get or that they need to be more persistent in their pursuit in order to wear them down and get them to say yes. Other times, the rejected party might be a masochist who either interprets their crush's violence as a sign that they return their feelings or continues pursuing to be harmed more.
Due to double standards about men abusing women, it's very rare for a male to reject a girl this way, and even when it is, the man is usually portrayed in a negative light for it. Other gender combinations are more likely to be Played for Laughs.
Characters who fall under Abhorrent Admirer, Stalker with a Crush, Casanova Wannabe, and Attempted Homewrecker tropes are all common victims of this treatment. Compare Pervert Revenge Mode, which involves someone being beaten for being a pervert. Can be a form of Unnecessarily Cruel Rejection. Compare/Contrast If I Can't Have You… and Not Good with Rejection for cases of people inflicting violence on others for rejecting them. May not be effective if the pursuer is the sort to fall in Love at First Punch or is Too Kinky to Torture. May occur if someone is Ignoring Sexual Orientation.
The claim that someone has found it necessary to react violently to a romantic come-on is often used to justify Homophobic Hate Crimes.
Contrast The Gentle Rejection.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- A Certain Scientific Railgun: Kuroko Shirai is Mikoto Misaka's roommate and an Abhorrent Admirer. She uses her teleporter powers to do things like join Mikoto in the shower or steal her undergarments from under her clothes while cleaning the pool. This results in Mikoto using her Shock and Awe powers to "fry (Kuroko) as black as her name"note .
- Galaxy Angel: Forte keeps running into an octopus alien who falls in love with her at first sight and won't stop making passes at her or declaring his love for her. On one occasion, she tries to drive him off with a submachine gun.
- I Got My Wish and Reincarnated as the Villainess (Last Boss)!: In Chapter 16, Lux attempts to pick up Elizabeth through a Wall Pin of Love. After a brief moment of surprise, Elizabeth promptly punches Lux across the room and out of the window.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood: Poco's sister responds to Dio's offer to keep her as his vampirized concubine by slapping him across the face.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016): When they reunite, Zant professes to a restrained Midna that he wants to rule Hyrule and the Twilight Realm alongside her. When he tries to embrace her, she smacks him with her Prehensile Hair.
- Ranma ½: The series opens with a collective group of students, oft referred to by the fandom as The Hentai Horde, who all agreed to Kuno's terms of a G-rated Best Her to Bed Her that only someone who defeated Akane in combat could date her. So, before Ranma's intervention, Akane had to beat the snot out of around thirty to fifty male students daily.
- School Rumble: Mikoto has an Abhorrent Admirer in the form of Kyousuke Imadori. Imadori's idea of asking her out is to try to cuddle up next to her in bed at night during a trip to the beach, which sees her using her martial arts skills to slam her elbow into his head, driving him off, or to make innappropriate remarks about her chest size, to which she has either used a Paper Fan of Doom to smack him, or once, when he made a huge mound of curry and rice he claimed was modeled on Mikoto's breasts, she delivered a Megaton Punch that sent him across the forest they were camping in.
- Squid Girl: Sanae Nagatsuki is an Abhorrent Admirer to the eponymous character, Squid Girl, and frequently professes her undying love for her. Squid Girl's common response is to smash and/or fling Sanae with her tentacles, or spray her with squid ink. Unfortunately for Squiddie, Sanae is Too Kinky to Torture.
- Urusei Yatsura: Shinobu is constantly hounded by a guy named Soban, who is so grotesque in appearance that even the narration in the manga wonders if he's properly human. Shinobu's typical reaction to him trying to ask her out is to punt him literally across town with a kick or punch.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! (first anime series): Miho responds to Warashibe's attempt to court her (granted, after he tried to strongarm Yugi into pretending to be a mugger he could "save" Miho from) by giving him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown with her briefcase.
Comic Books
- The Powerpuff Girls: In "Buttercup’s Boyfriend" from issue #2, a boy named Tommy offers Buttercup flowers and a heart-shaped box of chocolates, tells her he loves her, and kisses her on the cheek, but Buttercup reacts with disgust and punches him in the face. In the end, he kisses her on the cheek again and she punches him again.
- Tiny Titans: A Running Gag in the series is Terra rejecting Beast Boy's advances towards her by chucking rocks at him.
Comic Strips
- Peanuts: A 1976 story arc revolves around Marcie and Peppermint Patty attending summer camp and Marcie repeatedly reacting violently (via hitting him or pushing him off a dock or into poison ivy) to Floyd, a boy who keeps trying to flirt with her via calling her "Lambcake", because she thinks he's just being sarcastic and doesn't recognize that he's genuinely interested in her.
Fan Works
- Codex Equus: Khakiston the Giant god of Warmongers, Military Dictatorships, and Amoral Warriors, is an Abhorrent Admirer towards Astrid Titanna, Jotunn Goddess of War, having repeatedly tried to court her and repeatedly getting pummeled into the ground by her in disgust. The hilarious part is that he's completely oblivious to her animosity, and due to his warped, violent personality, the fact that she responds by angrily beating him up causes him to see it as her reciprocating her feelings for him.
- DigiXDangan:
- Zigzagged. When Hajime first offers Mahiru to share him with several other girls, she slaps him, not because she's not interested in him, she is, but because she didn't like the idea of being part of a harem and sharing Hajime. Hajime for his part is understanding, which makes Mahiru upset. The mixed signals Mahiru gives Hajime frustrates both of them until Mahiru says she wants Hajime to make her part of the harem despite her saying no. With her actual feelings made clear, Mahiru ends up joining Hajime's harem.
- When Makoto tells Kyouko he wants to have a harem and wants her to be part of it, she tells him she is well within her rights to retaliate to such an offer with violence. She doesn't follow through on it and decides to consent to the harem because she realised after some thinking that joining a harem was the perfect way to stick it to her father.
- Duty of Care
: This trope is Played for Drama when Akane breaks a boy's arm for asking her on a date. When Principle Saito calls her in to the office for it, Akane says that the only way to get boys to stop being persistent is to beat them up; when Saito learns that the boys at Furinkan Highschool would constantly harass her and Akane had to defend herself, he responds that while Akane has a right to defend herself, she shouldn't have to because the boys were in the wrong for harassing Akane.
- Inter Nos: A My-HiME fic set in a Romanesque setting, Takeda is introduced with an immediate interest in Shizuru's bodyguard, Natsuki. Mistaking the relationship for that of master/slave, Takeda, realizing he's getting nowhere with Natsuki on his own, offers to buy her from Shizuru. Shizuru is immediately affronted on Natsuki's behalf, pointing out that not only is there nothing slavish in Natsuki's demeanor or personage, but she's also the last Princess of the renowned Ortygian Dynasty. When Takeda and Shizuru's discussion gets more heated, Takeda draws his sword, which finally gets a response from Natsuki, who came in on the discussion. She uses the chain of her weapon to swing across the room and brings the scythe end down to cleave Takeda's weapon and his cheek, firmly showing she has no interest in him, and is fiercely protective of Shizuru. It is shortly after that that Shizuru and Natsuki become an official couple.
Films — Animated
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Mole tries flirting with Kida when the expedition makes contact with the Atlanteans. When he whispers something... obscurely offensive. She rebuffs him by punching him square in the face. Despite one of their own being punched, the other members of the expedition approve.
Dr. Sweet: Whoo! I like her!
Audrey: Hmph! About someone hit him. I'm just sorry it wasn't me! - Hercules (1997): In Meg's introduction scene, Phil attempts to flirt with her by climbing into her lap and making kissy faces. She's rather repulsed by this and forcefully shoves him away, causing him to fall into the river.
Films — Live-Action
- Singin' in the Rain: Parodied when, during his "Make 'Em Laugh" song, Cosmo picks up a lifesized dummy, pretends to flirt with it, kisses it, and has it slap him to the floor for a joke.
Literature
- Barchester Towers: When Mr Slope, not completely sober, tries to propose to Eleanor and puts his arm around her waist, she jumps away and slaps him in the face.
- I Fell Into a Reverse Harem Game!: Exaggerated and Downplayed. The Protagonist proposes to her concubine, Kairos, but he is mind-controlled by a god at that exact moment and fatally stabs her.
- Quidditch Through the Ages: In the aftermath of a match where the Heidelberg Harriers were defeated by the Holyhead Harpies, Heidelberg captain Rudolf Brand proposed marriage to rival captain Gwendolyn Morgan. She promptly concussed him with her broom.
- Sword Oratoria: When Lena first tries pursuing Bete's affections, she gets so pushy Bete resorts to violence to make her go away. Unfortunately for him, Amazons like Lena tend to fall in love with a man who defeats them in the first place, and as such, they tend not to let violent rejections deter them.
Live-Action TV
- The Americans: In a sixth season episode, Paige is having drinks at a bar when a classmate and a friend of his come up to her and chat her up. Paige is fine with this until the friend starts making sexist remarks, at which point she decides to leave. When the friend, who's drunk, tries to grab her, Paige shows up her training with Elizabeth and pushes him away, hard enough for him to fall on the floor. Interestingly enough, Elizabeth is not happy when she hears about this, because she doesn't want Paige to call attention to herself.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: It's a Running Gag, every attempt by Will's friend Jazz to hit on Hillary results in a Smash Cut to Jazz getting thrown out of the house (literally thrown).
- House of Anubis: Combined with a Lame Pun Reaction. Alife, in a vampire costume, tries to pick up a girl at a party. She laughs and slaps him in the face. He returns to Jerome to reveal that his pickup line was "fancy a bite?". Both laugh, unbothered by the rejection.
- Katteni! Kamitaman: When Tatari asked if he could marry her, Mari smashed a vase on his head. Though considering Tatari is a yokai who resembles an adult man and Mari is an elementary schooler, her reaction is understandable.
- Mighty Med: While explaining some parts of human culture to Skylar Storm, Kaz shows her what peek-a-boo is. She nearly attacks him, and explains that in her culture, covering your face and then showing it is a marriage proposal. Kaz asks why she tried to take his head off in response.
Skylar: [shrugs] That's how we say no.
- The Muppet Show: Gonzo occasionally shows romantic feelings for Miss Piggy, who typically responds with a karate chop that sends him flying.
- The Orville: In "Primal Urges", Klyden becomes frustrated with his husband Bortus' lack of intimacy and decides to initiate divorce proceedings in the traditional Moclan manner — by stabbing Bortus in his sleep.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places", when Worf gives Quark advice on courting a Klingon woman with a traditional romantic overture, Dax chimes in to add that the traditional rejection is... physically unambiguous. (Knowing the Klingons, delegating the task to a bodyguard is probably part of the snub.)
Dax: Well, either she accepts your offer or she has her bodyguard shatter every bone in your body.
Music
- The song "Una Mujer de Bandera" from Spanish band Hombres G starts with a guy trying to get closer to a woman who acts violently against him every time he gets closer to her. It is later explained that the guy is a Stalker with a Crush and likes to watch her doing exercise in the gym while hiding in the lockers.
Theatre
- EPIC: The Musical: When Odysseus realises his polite but firm rejections do nothing to dissuade Calypso from trying to seduce him, he escalates to threatening to kill her, saying he's a married man. The threat proves ineffective since Calypso reveals she's a goddess, and the mortal Odysseus has no hope of following through on his threat.
Web Animations
- Bowser's Kingdom: In episode six, Hal tries to get a girlfriend; the first two girls he tries to flirt with, Wendy 'O Koopa and a Pinata, respond to his pickup lines by punching him.
Webcomics
- The Order of the Stick: Hilgya is thoroughly estranged from the one-night stand who fathered her child, so when he tries to make an Honorable Marriage Proposal, she wordlessly kills him with a Flame Strike. She does resurrect him after.
Hilgya: I reserve my right to respond to idiocy with cleansing divine fire.
Web Videos
- In the YouTube Poop Canterlot High Hits a new Low, Twilight responds to Flash Sentry asking her to the dance by kicking him across the yard and into his car, which then explodes in a giant fireball.
Western Animation
- Batman: The Animated Series: The episode "Beware the Creeper" features the title character pursuing Harley Quinn, who is in a dedicated relationship with the Joker. This trope comes into play.
Creeper: Aww, sweetie got a boo-boo? kissy noises
Harley: (clocks him with her hammer) Aww, creepo got a concussion? - Chowder: In "A Faire to Remember", Panini gets jealous that Chowder is hanging out with another girl named Marmalade. So, she gets Ceviché (who’s madly in love with Panini) to pretend to be her boyfriend to try to make Chowder jealous. However, since Chowder has no romantic interest in Panini, it doesn’t work. Ceviché then suggests to Panini that they should kiss to "make it more convincing". He then starts kissing Panini on the cheek over and over while she yells at him to stop. Panini then runs away from him, and he chases her, trying to kiss her some more. Panini then picks up a giant rolling pin and whacks Ceviché with it, pounding him into the ground. Ceviché then says, "I think you broke my tailbone."
- The Fairly OddParents!: Played for Laughs in "Love Struck". At the beginning, a boy is seen asking Trixie to be his Valentine; she rejects him by pulling an ejector lever that causes him to be catapulted out of the premises, landing quite painfully on the pavement outside. She later rejects Timmy's Grand Romantic Gesture in the same manner.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Irwin has a crush on Mandy and continues to pursue her despite the number of times she's physically harmed him in response to his gestures.
- Hey Arnold!: Played for laughs and implied with Brainy, who has shown some attraction to and constantly stalks Helga Pataki, only to get punched in the face for it. Downplayed since Brainy is never trying to ask Helga out when she punches him, just catching her at a bad moment.
- Johnny Bravo: A regular occurrence. An episode will almost always begin with or involve Johnny hitting on women with terrible pick-up lines and pet names, only to be aggressively turned away. Usually with pepper spray, a stun gun, or in one case, a scooter.
- The Loud House: Subverted in "Heavy Meddle". Lincoln's sisters insist that Ronnie Anne is only tormenting him to mask her crush on him and tell him to kiss her. He does this, only to get punched in the face offscreen, making it seem like she really is just a jerk. Ronnie Anne later gives him a Beef Bandage and an apology note, revealing that his sisters were right after all.
- Martin Mystery: In "Curse of the Looking Glass", Martin’s first scene shows him hitting on an unnamed girl, who responds by slapping him in the face hard enough to send him flying backwards. The episode ends with him hitting on Jenny, who kicks him in the face, sending him flying backwards a second time.
- Muppet Babies (1984): Gonzo's unrequited love for Piggy is given more attention than in the parent show. Piggy typically reciprocates with violence, usually offscreen and often involving his nose.
- The Owl House: Played with in "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door". When Luz destroys the Tunnel of Love Hooty set up for them, Amity interprets it as Luz rejecting her and disliking the very idea of them being a couple. In reality, Luz was embarrassed by how tacky the tunnel was and just wanted to admit her feelings to Amity in a better way. Fortunately, they manage to sort it all out and get a Relationship Upgrade at the end of the episode.