History Main / HelpMistakenForAttack

* At the climax of ''[[Literature/MrMen Mr. Men: Adventure With Monsters]], Mr. Jelly meets up with a friendly Sasquatch and when Little Miss Scary sees the aforementioned Sasquatch, she ends up believing that the Sasquatch had kidnapped him until it turns out that the monsters they had spent most of the story running away from just wanted the Mr. Men and Little Miss to [[spoiler: have tea with them.]]

* In ''Manga/BoardingSchoolJuliet'', some thugs from the enemy country of Towa ambush Percia, blinding her with pepper spray and tearing open her shirt [[note]]hopefully just[[/note]] to intimidate her. It is at this point that Inuzuka (who is also a Towan, but significantly more honorable) notices what's going on and intervenes, [[BridalCarry picking Percia up]], and running. So when Percia's vision clears a few minutes later, what she ''sees'' is that there's a foreign man touching her while she's half-undressed. Fortunately, Inuzuka is quick to back away, and she has pre-existing knowledge of [[FriendlyEnemy what sort of person he is]], so they eventually sort things out.

* "WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic": In "Lesson Zero", Twilight Sparkle finds [[AllLovingHero Fluttershy]] giving a bear a massage, but it's so violent that Twilight thinks Fluttershy is beating up the bear. Admittedly, so does the audience.

Not to be confused with StabTheScorpion, as that's typically associated with giving the audience a misleading first impression as well. Can result in MadeOutToBeAJerkass.

* ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'': In the album "De Stemmenrover" (the voice thief), Lambik runs into a Japanese princess who is being attacked by bandits, and comes to her aid. While Lambik single handedly fights the bandits, the princess runs away. Lambik wins the fight but then sees another group of armed men coming his way. Assuming they are bandits as well, he defeats them too, only to learn afterwards that they were actually samurai send by the princess to help him.

* ''FanFic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness Act IV'': In chapter 25, Jacqueline blows up Tsukune's house right in front of him [[ForTheEvulz just because she can]], apparently killing Tsukune's sleeping mother inside as well. However, [[SuperSpeed Gin]] managed to get her out in time; sadly, when the neighbors see the big werewolf carrying Kasumi, they automatically assume that he's trying to kidnap her, one even bringing out a shotgun.

** In "Boys Will Be Eds", Rolf's goat attacks Jimmy for his sandwich. As Rolf tries to pry the goat off Jimmy, Sarah appears automatically thinks that Rolf is attacking Jimmy before slamming her racket down over his head and beating him to a pulp.

* Alice's first appearance on ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' ends up this way. Jay passes by her and her daughter, Penny struggling to carry her groceries in the rain, when someone bumps into her causing her to drop them. Jay feels bad for them and goes over to offer to share his cab ride. When Alice sees him approaching, she douses him with pepper spray. Luckily, Jay is not phased by it (he notes that it tastes like jalapeño), and Alice quickly apologizes when she realizes he's trying to help.

* In "WesternAnimation/FriendshipIsMagic" episode "lesson zero" Twilight sparkle finds [[AllLovingHero fluttershy]] giving a bear a massage, but it's so violent that twilight sparkle thinks fluttershy is beating up the bear. Admittedly, so does the audience.

* In "WesternAnimation/FriendshipIsMagic" episode "lesson zero" Twilight sparkle finds fluttershy giving a bear a massage, but it's so violent that twilight sparkle thinks [[fluttershy AllLovingHero]] is beating up the bear. Admittedly, so does the audience.

* On the SoapOpera ''Series/{{Passions}}, local {{Jerkass}} Julian Crane (who is actually a JerkWithAHeartOfGold) is trapped in an elevator with local MarySue Whitney Russell. Julian tries to find a way out, only for glass to shatter and fall into the elevator. Whitney repeatedly screams at him to "Get back!", meaning for him to be careful (he's staying in place to protect her from the shards). Hearing this outside the elevator, her father TC, who loathes Julian, assumes that Julian is attacking her and proceeds to beat the crap out of him when the two finally get out.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "If it Smells Like an Ed", the Eds discover Johnny hogtied. The Kids arrive shortly after and think their attempts at untying him are actually them tying him up themselves.

* John Mulaney has a bit about this (except that the person who he thinks is helping him thinks ''he's'' attacking ''them''). He was waiting for a train in the NewYorkSubway at 2 am, when a woman starts walking away. He assumes that the woman heard the train on another platform and starts following her. They start walking faster and faster until she starts running and he runs after her. It's only then that he realizes that she thinks he's going to attack her and is trying to get away from him.

Not to be confused with StabTheScorpion, as that's typically associated with giving the audience a misleading first impression as well.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', this is a common mistake made concerning Professor Snape's interaction with Harry Potter, particularly in the first book; due to Snape's harsh treatment of Harry, everyone quickly assumes that such actions as Snape staring at Harry's jerking broom muttering to himself are Snape jinxing the broom, but it is finally revealed that he was actually acting to protect Harry from Voldemort's forces in memory of the debt he owed Harry's father and his own affection for Harry's mother.

* In ''TheWheelOfTime'', some adherents of the Prophet assaults some riders, believing that the men were pursuing the women riding in front of them with hostile intent, when they were in fact friends and members of the same group, and were just riding behind them. However, even after the situation has been explained, the adherents do not apologize for attacking or even acknowledge that they were mistaken, claiming that they are still obliged to kill the male riders for threatening a woman.

* ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII'' has Sato trapped under a long piece of wood during a storm, and when Miyagi walks over, Sato thinks the idea is to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown finish him off while he is trapped]], only to find out that Miyaki just wanted to free Sato from the rubble.