History Main / AbuseMistake

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/SolitaryPinion'', Dr. Remedial Oath has a teenage patient with fresh tissue over much of her body, signs of large numbers of broken and healed bones, no cutie mark, difficulties with walking and speaking and fear of unicorn magic. He interprets this to be the result of years of abuse at the hooves of a unicorn. The reality, which he has yet to discover, is that she's a human teenager [[BalefulPolymorph recently transformed into a pegasus]], who hasn't managed to adjust to her equine body yet. The [[DamnYouMuscleMemory poor muscle control]] continuously caused her to fall down, to the point that she toppled, overcompensated, and tumbled into a lake, nearly drowning because of her difficulties moving her limbs. Everyone believes it might have been a [[DrivenToSuicide suicide attempt]] because of the [[DespairEventHorizon despair]] born of the horrible abuse she suffered through, and mistake gratitude towards her saviors as bonding with the first ponies to ever show her kindness -- [[MetaphoricallyTrue technically true]], but certainly not to that extent.

* ''Anime/EngageKiss'': Kisara and Ayano both have feelings for Shu, and neither are very fond of sharing him.

* ''Series/{{Sisters}}''. Second-youngest sister Georgie's therapist queries whether she had been molested by anyone, citing that it is frequently a cause of the depression and anxiety that she's been battling. That very night, Georgie apparently has a flashback of her father touching her inappropriately. Within weeks, she's not only convinced that her father repeatedly molested her, she accuses her mother of turning a blind eye to it and her sisters of being in denial as well (when they repeatedly deny being similarly abused), claiming that it would explain the myriad of problems that ''they've'' had, accusing her husband of being unsupportive, and ultimately cutting them all out of her life, all with her therapist's encouragement. Only months later, watching one of her sisters, a doctor, examining her ill son, does she realize that what she remembered was not her father abusing her, but ''examining'' her, as he was a doctor as well. She's horrified to realize that the whole thing was a ploy by her therapist to isolate her from her loved ones and ultimately seduce her.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'' has two little boys (one of whom would grow up to become the Redeemer) whose abusive father claims to the other churchgoers that they play a lot of tackle football. Until Spawn violently murders him, that is.
[[/folder]]

* A ''Sentinel'' fanfiction called "Intervention" has two of Blair's students kidnap him and try to get him to admit on tape that Jim has been abusing him. Blair's many injuries--all of which have perfectly innocent if rather bizarre explanations--had led them to think that this was happening.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/SolitaryPinion'', Dr. Remedial Oath has a teenage patient with fresh tissue over much of her body, signs of large numbers of broken and healed bones, no cutie mark, difficulties with walking and speaking and fear of unicorn magic. He interprets this to be the result of years of abuse at the hooves of a unicorn. The reality, which he has yet to discover, is that she's a human teenager [[BalefulPolymorph recently transformed into a pegasus]], who hasn't managed to adjust to her equine body yet. The [[DamnYouMuscleMemory poor muscle control]] continuously caused her to fall down, to the point that she toppled, overcompensated, and tumbled into a lake, nearly drowning because of her difficulties moving her limbs. Everyone believes it might have been a [[DrivenToSuicide suicide attempt]] because of the [[DespairEventHorizon despair]] born of the horrible abuse she suffered through, and mistake gratitude towards her saviors as bonding with the first ponies to ever show her kindness -- [[MetaphoricallyTrue technically true]], but certainly not to that extent.
* In the ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'' ContinuationFic ''FanFic/ShadowOfTheDragon'', Sakura gets her face slammed into a locker door by the [[{{Poltergeist}} vengeful spirit]] of Reiko Ichimai, who blames Sakura for her death, leaving a bruise on her forehead. Since ghosts are InvisibleToNormals and Syaoran was the only other person present at the time, Teikei, the school disciplinarian, initially assumes that Syaoran attacked her until [[CameraFiend Tomoyo]] provides proof that he is innocent.
* ''Fanfic/ForHisOwnSake'':
** Naru sees a stranger teasing a woman he's walking with. Assuming the worst, she attacks. Turns out the guy was trying to convince his ''wife'' to play a fighting game at the arcade with him, and teasing her about how she wasn't good at them.
** The same story also {{Deconstruction}}s ''Manga/LoveHina'''s reliance on both types. Its title references how Keitaro has wised up and is leaving the Hinata Inn after living there for three years in order to get away from its toxic environment, and explores what happens when the more violent girls' behavior [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome is taken seriously]].
* In ''Fanfic/{{Shatterheart}}'', Kurogane and [[spoiler:R!]]Syaoran share a passionate kiss when [[InterruptedIntimacy Fai walks in on them]]. Since Fai doesn't [[LockedOutOfTheLoop know]] that Kurogane and Syaoran are together and Syaoran is actually [[OlderThanTheyLook 21]] despite looking 16, he comes to the not-unreasonable-given-the-circumstances conclusion that Kurogane is sexually abusing him.

* In ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/6607459/chapters/15117019 Birds of a Feather]]'', Laurel has come up with various lies [[CutHimselfShaving to explain the injuries she got as a vigilante]]. Oliver quickly recognizes them as lies and concludes "someone's hurting her". Technically he's ''right'', [[RightForTheWrongReasons but not in the way he thinks]].
* Not exactly innocent, but in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3148571/1/Ultimate-Danny-Phantom Ultimate Danny Phantom]]'', Valerie's dad discovers her and Danny's secret identities this way; he sees her injuries after one of their battles, takes her explanation of how she got them out of context, and assumes that Danny is Valerie's DomesticAbuser; she [[EveryoneHasStandards doesn't have it in her]] to falsely accuse him.
* Izuku initially mistakes Inko's refusal to talk about his father and trauma in ''FanFic/ConversationsWithACryptid'' for signs of past domestic abuse until she clarifies that Hisashi never directly harmed her - their marriage was very happy until he up and vanished on her, and currently she's stressed out because he's her only source of income, and she can't even divorce him for his abandonment. This gets even worse when the option is brought up that he's a criminal, and thus might not have even used his real name. [[spoiler:Hisashi was indeed a criminal, but the lovestruck dork did, in fact, use his real name and never intended to abandon his family. He's horrified when Izuku spells out what his leaving meant.]]

* In ''Fanfic/BadIdea'', [[WesternAnimation/YoungJustice Wally]] arrives with a broken nose from trying to vibrate through a wall, but Artemis (who had an abusive father for much of childhood) believes he received it from one of his parents.
* ''FanFic/TheFlashSentryChronicles'': In the Season 6 chapter "Spike's Heartbreak", Spike arrives at Carousel Boutique hoping to spend his day off with Rarity. He quickly realizes something isn't right when the door is unlocked, Rarity doesn't seem to be around, and a lot of furniture seems to have been knocked over and lazily put back. He hears a noise coming from Rarity's bedroom and what he thinks is Rarity screaming in what he assumes to be pain and quickly rushes to "save" her. He bursts into her bedroom and finds her laying on her bed with [[spoiler:Lightning Blitz]] on top of her, kissing her neck, with both of them shocked by his sudden appearance. Spike tackles [[spoiler:Lightning]] off of Rarity in anger, thinking that he was trying to rape her, and attacks him. Rarity quickly pulls Spike off him though and explains he wasn't doing anything she didn't want him to do, and that the two of them are a couple.
* A somewhat PlayedForLaughs example in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10154133/1/Give-em-Something-to-Talk-About Give'em Something to Talk About]]'', where after Zero wins Suzaku in his chess match against Schneizel, the Black Knights fear Zero is keeping Suzaku as a sex slave. Doesn't help that Zero says that Suzaku belongs him and is keeping him at his side in chains or having him chained to his bed, with his shirt lifted up and his lips covered in red. It's enough that the Black Knights decide to drug Suzaku and drop him back on Brittanian soil. However, it turns out that Lelouch was merely keeping him as company, while the chains were meant to stop him from rolling off of the bed. Once Kallen (who knows his identity) tells him that he and Suzaku can start a romantic relationship after the war instead of Lelouch controlling him, he yells in pure shock.
* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/30117411/chapters/74184552 Black Canary: Rebirth]]'', Laurel gains numerous injuries as the Black Canary, and has to keep thinking of [[CutHimselfShaving various lies to explain them]]. Tommy and Billy Malone see them all for the lies they are, and eventually conclude that she's being abused by her father (which would handily explain why she's lying). In a twist, she actually ''is'' being abused by Quentin, it's "just" that said abuse is emotional not physical. [[spoiler:At first]].

** In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/5989717/chapters/13763533#workskin Aftercare]]'', Marinette discovers an aching bruise on Adrien's stomach, and doesn't believe him when he says [[CutHimselfShaving it was an accident]]. Adrien suspect this trope is in affect and quickly assures her his father wouldn't hit him. [[AvertedTrope In actually]], Marinette ''knows'' where the wound came from, because she saw him get it from an Akuma while he was Chat Noir.

* ''Friendly Neighborhood ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Peter is a high school science teacher whose identity is made public after the events of ''ComicBook/CivilWar''. The first time he returns to class, one of his students remarks that she noticed he always wore long sleeves to cover the bruises on his arms and assumed that Mary Jane was beating him.

See also HelpMistakenForAttack, FriendlyWar, CasualKink, and SafeSaneAndConsensual for non-abusive stuff that can be mistaken for abuse. Compare YouJustRuinedTheShot, for cases where the "victim" was an actor in a movie rather than a participant in a sexual game. Contrast RomanticizedAbuse (with the subtropes BastardBoyfriend and BastardGirlfriend) as well as DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale for situations that are clearly abusive but the audience isn't really intended to care. Also compare NotWhatItLooksLike and AccidentalPervert.

* In one episode of ''The Trouble with Girls'' (a James Bond parody about a reluctant MartyStu named Lester Girls), our hero rescues a man from getting tortured by a beautiful woman. However, the "victim" gets mad at him for ruining the scene. What first [[WrongGenreSavvy looked like]] the BastardGirlfriend kind of FanService turned out to be a simple [[SafeSaneAndConsensual consensual]] CasualKink.

* Not exactly innocent, but in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3148571/1/Ultimate-Danny-Phantom Ultimate Danny Phantom]]'', Valerie's dad discovers her and Danny's secret identities this way; he sees her injuries after one of their battles, takes her explanation of how she got them out of context, and assumes that Danny is Valerie's BastardBoyfriend; she [[EveryoneHasStandards doesn't have it in her]] to falsely accuse him.

* In ''Fanfic/TheUndeadSchoolgirlDeadPulse'', Shoto's own history with his abusive father causes him to assume Bakugou is a BastardBoyfriend towards [[GenderFlip Izuku]]. While Bakugou is a former bully, he's also Izuku's best friend and is concerned both by how casually she harms herself and that she's so painfully naive that she attempts to befriend everyone she meets, including those she really shouldn't.

* A somewhat PlayedForLaughs example in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10154133/1/Give-em-Something-to-Talk-About Give'em Something to Talk About]]'', where after Zero wins Suzaku in his chess match against Schneizel, the Black Knights fear Zero is keeping Suzaku as a sex slave, stating that Suzaku belongs him and keeping him at his side in chains or having him chained to his bed, with his shirt lifted up and his lips covered in red. It's enough that the Black Knights decide to drug him and drop him back on Brittanian soil. However, it turns out that Lelouch was merely keeping him as company, while the chains were meant to stop him from rolling off of the bed. Once Kallen (who knows his identity) tells him that he and Suzaku can start a romantic relationship after the war instead of Lelouch controlling him, he yells in pure shock.

* In the 2000 remake of the ''Series/TheFugitive'', the already suspicious Inspector Gerard becomes convinced that Richard Kimble is his wife's murderer when witnesses who saw them jogging in the park the day she was killed claim to have seen him grab her and throw her to the ground. They didn't -- the HappilyMarried couple was simply playing and goofing off.

* Seen in Lena's segment of the ''Literature/TheJoyLuckClub''. Raised by an overprotective mother, Lena hears noises from their neighbors' walls and believes that abuse is going on. Fortunately, she's relieved to learn that they are only playing and later hears that these are clearly laughs of joy and love beyond the wall.

* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'':
** Shortly after moving back in with his father Tim gets called into his school councilor's office with a black eye. The woman tries to get Tim to accuse ''Bruce'' of having hurt him even though the injuries only showed up after Tim stopped having any regular contact with Bruce out of costume. He's getting them on patrol as Robin and her assumption doesn't even make sense with the timeline as it would if she'd suspected Jack.
** When Tim's friend Ives is working as the mascot at a SuckECheeses, he comes to school so bruised that Tim suspects he is being abused.

* In ''[[Comicbook/RobinSeries Robin]]'', when Tim's friend Ives is working as the mascot at a SuckECheeses, he comes to school so bruised that Tim suspects he is being abused.

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', [[AxCrazy Bangladesh]] [[ComedicSociopathy DuPree]] has a bit of an obsession with Tarvek, apparently dating from when they were both in Paris and Bang had kidnapped him. It seems to be PlayedForLaughs at the [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120222#.VvhUw-IrLIU start]] but when you start thinking about what she's actually saying -- ''"Hey, do you still have those little '''scars?'''"'' -- FridgeHorror starts to set in. It's recently been confirmed that [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20160318#.VvhVyuIrLIU yes, Bang did physically torture him]], and the fact that Gil has now set her to work as his bodyguard whilst he's asleep is more than a little worrying.

[[quoteright:230:[[WebComic/BugMartini https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2012_10_02_punch_drunk_love.png]]]]

** Nabiki tries to explain to [[LordErrorProne Kuno]] that in regards to the cute girl he's in love with (Ranma's girl self) and his school rival (Ranma's boy self), "Her body? Her soul? Both belong to Ranma." Kuno promptly comes to the conclusion that female Ranma is being held prisoner by a brutish, abusive male Ranma. It's implied by Nabiki's tone, expression, and [[TheTrickster personality]] that she gave a poor explanation on purpose to make the situation worse.