Got Over Rape Instantly

"A girl who was almost raped doesn't invite another man into her bed two hours later."

— Shae, Game of Thrones, "Baelor"

A character trope that typically occurs when someone is sexually assaulted or an attempt is made, but the person is saved or escapes, and then immediately expresses romantic or sexual interest in their savior or another love interest without displaying or having to deal with the expected signs of shock an/or trauma. ^note

In most cases, the assault is never mentioned again and the victim suffers no impact on their ability to engage in romance or sexuality. If the victim recalls or internalizes anything about the assault, it's only the gallantry of the one who saved them.

If the victim expresses no immediate romantic or sexual interest after the sexual assault but moves on without ever having to address the trauma, see Angst? What Angst?.

This trope is sometimes Played for Laughs. It is most prevalent when writers that are usually men either didn't consider or didn't want to realistically address how the assault would impact the victim, often because All Women Are Lustful or Rule of Sexy. Most commonly, it is employed to:

Advance the character's relationship with their love interest for a Relationship Upgrade.
"Cleanse" the victim of the Attempted Rape through Sex for Solace or Intimate Healing.
Introduce a new romantic interest to the protagonist as a "Meet Cute" combined with a Disposable Woman Stuffed into the Fridge while avoiding the need for pesky character development or romantic buildup.
Reward the protagonist's good deed of preventing Attempted Rape with Rescue Sex or Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex, courtesy of the victim they just rescued.

In most cases, the character receiving the assault victim's sexual or romantic interest waits at least one scene or chapter before indulging the victim's desire. If the victim is The Not-Love Interest or they are Just Friends, the receiver may reject the victim's advances altogether. In other cases, the receiver is Oblivious to Love or simply chooses not to appease the victim's desires until later in the story because The Women Are Safe with Us.

Women victims of sexual assault are most likely to be characterized under this trope. Men are less likely to be depicted escaping sexual assault situations but this trope frequently applies when they are as All Men Are Perverts and A Man Is Always Eager.

While Real Life victims can have widely varying responses to rape or sexual assault, generally speaking, they do not tend to be interested in getting it on within minutes of the assault ending. Most victims experience shock and many require immediate medical attention. After an assault, the victim's trauma often impacts their ability to engage in sex or romance and it can take years of therapy or longer to fully address.

No Real Life Examples, Please! noreallife

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Common companion tropes

Contrasting tropes

Rather than the assault being prevented or forgotten, it instead becomes the victim's core characterization or a main plot point.
Not to be confused with a victim falling in love with their abuser. For that, see A Match Made in Stockholm.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Classroom of the Elite: In the anime episode "There Are Two Kinds of Lies", Sakura is sexually assaulted by her stalker and is saved by Ayanokoji. Within seconds of the police taking her attacker away, Sakura blushes and shows romantic interest in Ayanakoji.
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu:
- In one episode, Ena Saeki leaves a love note for Sousuke in his locker, but he blew it up without reading it. She waits to meet him, and is almost assaulted by a group of thugs. Kaname buys a few moments, putting their attention on her. Before they can do anything, they're hit from out of nowhere by rubber bullets, and Sousuke reveals he was there in a gilly-suit the whole time. Ena Saeki is grateful for the rescue but heartbroken that Sousuke doesn't acknowledge her feelings and detonated her letter. Kaname is used to being in danger around Sousuke, maintaining status quo.
- In another episode, Kaname and Kiyoko are fleeing a different group of thugs after Kaname hit one of them thinking they were running a scam. Before they can capture the girls, however, they are stopped by Issei Tsubaki, who then chides the girls for causing a commotion behind his shop. Kaname puts a bandage on a small cut on his hand, and tells him if he'd been nicer, she'd have given him a kiss, as well, before saying she was just kidding and leaving with Kiyoko.
Hidoku Shinaide: Nemugasa is almost raped by a female friend of Akira's and is saved by Maya. Maya even stresses to Nemugasa what was about to happen and Nemugasa cries, thankful that he was saved and that Maya didn't betray him like he previously thought...And then Maya hauls him over to a love hotel where the two have sex all night.
Highschool of the Dead: Hirano saves Asami from Shimada's attempted rape. Immediately afterward she thanks him on the rooftop and heavily implies that she's available and interested in him.
Kamisama Kiss In one of the early episodes, Mizuki kidnaps Nanami and tries to rape her, only failing due to Tomoe showing up at the last second. Nanami instantly lets it slide and actually ends up inviting Mizuki into her home, where he goes on to become one of her most loyal companions. While Tomoe remains bitter about this, Nanami never brings up the matter again.
Downplayed in Let's Start An Inn On The Dungeon Island. The main character Sanada Shirou is immediately subjected to attempted Prison Rape upon arriving at the new world, the rape only stopped by a senior officer who was bringing a high-value prisoner and ordering the offending soldiers elsewhere, passing Shirou off to the prisoner, Princess Christia, in lieu of her "last wish." Shirou hooks up with Christia, after she dotes on him for a while and makes it clear she's gentle, kind, and would never, ever force herself on him.
- In later chapters, Shirou expresses eagerness to have sexual relationship with one of the expeditionary soldiers of the same Imperial army who had tried to rape him. However, when he sees their armor he immediately feels nauseous and realized that he still has the trauma from his unpleasant first impression of the new world.
My Love Story!!. Takeo rescues Rinko from a train molester. Rinko immediately falls in love with Takeo, baking him sweets and finding ways to be around him, and the effects of the assault on her are never addressed.
Ranma ½: Kuno is trying to invoke this trope by "rescuing" the beautiful pig-tailed girl from the clutches of the "Zvengalli", Ranma, even pantomiming Ranma taking advantage of the pig-tailed girl. Of course, what Kuno doesn't know is that Ranma and the pig-tailed girl are, in fact, one and the same.
Skeleton Knight in Another World: In "The Wandering Knight Sets Out to Make the World a Better Place", the opening scene begins with a graphic sexual assault against two women that is thwarted by the skeleton knight. Within minutes, both assault victims are smiling and blushing at the hero and one indicates a desire to marry him. This is an Adaptation Deviation from the original Light Novel, where the women are just grateful.

Fan Works

In Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness, immediately after the reveal that Lavender Brown is being regularly raped by Crabbe and Goyle hard enough to leave bruises, Neville sees her and Seamus sleeping together, which all characters and the narrative treat as a fix for her trauma. A later story in the series, the one-shot "More Realer", has Ron effectively force Hermione into sex after she's repeatedly, brutally raped, and this too is treated as a magic cure for her trauma.
A Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia fic, "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," has this (also overlapping with Rescue Sex) after Zofian knight Mathilda is saved from her imprisonment at the hands of the traitorous Evil Chancellor Desaix, who also intended to rape her before having her executed. Once she is settled back in with the Deliverance, she is reunited with her lover Clive and asks him to make love to her.
Downplayed in the From Eroica with Love fanfiction drama Alles Klar, Klaus and Dorian have hot, intimate sex after surviving torture and (mostly) getting over the trauma of rape together.
In Knight in Shining Armor, a bunch of bullies beat up Mami Tomoe and then try to rape her. Madoka finds Touma Kamijou, who proceeds to burst in and beat the shit out of the bullies in the nick of time. Immediately after the danger is gone, Mami Tomoe blushes around and appears infatuated with Touma Kamijou.
In the X-Men: Evolution fic My Friend, My Lover (NSFW), Duncan attempts to assault Jean during a party, angry over their breakup. Scott (Jean's Friend with Benefits) finds them in time and drives the Jerk Jock away. As soon as they're alone, Jean asks Scott to help her get the feeling of the bastard's hands off her body.
Deconstructed in The New Retcons: While Anthony's intervention in Elizabeth's Attempted Rape initially helped rekindle their relationship, things sour after their marriage, as the more Elizabeth reflects back upon the incident, the more she questions his Skewed Priorities. Why, for instance, did he insist that she not report the incident? Why, instead of taking her to the police, did he take her to the park and make the incident all about himself by pleading for her to "wait for him" while he figured out how to deal with his first marriage? Eventually, she discovers that her own mother Elly deliberately invoked this, arranging the rape attempt in hopes that Anthony would save her.
Subverted in Not Powerless: After the Sludge Villain nearly raped him, Izuku is left extremely uncomfortable with the notion of exploring any type of sexual intimacy in the future. It takes considerable therapy for him to slowly work through his trauma.
In The Silent Horse, Ranma and Akane's relationship starts when she rescues him (in his female form) from a gang that wants to gang-rape him.

Film - Live-Action

Alien³: Ripley is held down and almost penetrated by four prison inmates before being saved by their leader. Within hours she willingly has sex with Clemens, the prison doctor, without any reference or mention of the previous assault.
Austin Powers: Felicity Shagwell is raped by Fat Bastard - he puts his weight on top of her and does it without her consent. She is clearly terrified. However, she displays no sign at all of being traumatised afterwards and continues to flirt with Austin.
Back to the Future. George ends Biff's sexual assault against Lorraine after which point she immediately appears infatuated with George and the assault is never again mentioned or addressed.
Easy A: Anson attempts to coerce Olive into sex. Woodchuck Todd who was nearby offers her a ride after she escapes. Though Olive cried briefly on the drive home, the situation never comes up again and the two ride off into the sunset without further mention.
Faust: Love of the Damned: Dr. Jade De Camp is targeted by the satanic villains after she gave the hero Jaspers the willpower to disobey Hell. A group of thugs sexually assault her in a subway station, but Jaspers saves her in his demonic form and takes her back to her apartment. She immediately has sex with him.
In A History of Violence (2005), when Edie learns of her husband Tom's crime-filled past and double life, Tom chases after her to stop her from leaving and she slaps him. During their fight, Tom grabs Edie by the neck and attempts to force himself on her. Only when he realizes what he is doing and stops, Edie pulls him back in herself and they have passionate violent sex on the staircase.
The Midnight Meat Train: Downplayed. Leon saves a young woman named Erika from a potential gang rape by luring her assailants into view of a subway security camera. She responds by planting a deep and very personal kiss on his lips but immediately runs off to catch her train while he snaps a few flirty pictures of her.
In the crime film Payback (1995), ex-convict Oscar lusts after his former prison guard's wife Rose and he attempts to force himself on her. Rose manages to fight him off but then she smiles and pulls him back in and they end up having sex in the kitchen where her husband almost catches them in the act. Despite his near-rape attempt, Rose actually embarks on a passionate affair with Oscar because he paid attention to her when her husband wouldn't.
Robin Hood: Men in Tights: The Sheriff of Nottingham sexually assaults Maid Marian with a jackhammer to break her chastity belt. She is saved by Robin and immediately Marian tries to engage him in intercourse but is thwarted by Broomhilde.
Spider-Man: Spider-Man saves Mary Jane from a group of men attempting to gang rape her. She immediately has no problem giving him an upside-down kiss afterwards and the assault is never mentioned again.

Literature

Male victim in Between Worlds: Jason is sexually assaulted in a bar bathroom by a pair of Interior officers, and is rescued by his squadmate Freyxh. He struggles to acknowledge that it even was an Attempted Rape because of his Earth upbringing (unlike humans, female Shil'vati are generally bigger, stronger, and more aggressive than their males) and feels more weirded out by the experience than violated. Jason then spends the evening helping Freyxh wash off the pepper spray they used against the attackers before having sex with her in the tub.
The Demon Princes: In "The Face", Kirth Gersen rescues Jerdian Chanseth, the girl he has a crush on, from Attempted Rape. They end up spending the night together.
Zigzagged in Heralds of Valdemar, when Herald Talia is subjected to rape and torture before her love interest Dirk, her near-daughter, and several divine beings pool their resources to save her. She seems all right at first, but starts to panic when she realizes she's not actually mentally recovered enough to want sex. A month of separation and some actual therapy are needed before she's ready for a physical relationship with Dirk.
Judge Dee: In "The Chinese Gold Murders", Mrs. Koo (née Miss Tsao) is kidnapped and raped, then her rapist murdered in front of her. She manages to escape being Buried Alive, then runs into a monk who attempt to rape her as well, but he suffers a heart attack when another man comes along and threatens him. The man hides her on a floating brothel, paying the madam so she doesn't have to take any clients. The madam decides to put her to work anyway, but is scared into bringing Mrs. Koo to the tribunal when she tells her she's a witness to a murder. And then Mrs. Koo's husband and father disown her in public (according to the laws of the time she should have committed suicide due to being Defiled Forever). Small wonder that she declares she's done with anything to do with sex for life, and that's before it's revealed they too are criminals. Fortunately the judge's Top Wife takes her into the household, and several books later Miss Tsao is the judge's Third Wife.
Kane Series: In "Undertow" handsome and strong barbarian Dragar saves beautiful and noble Dessylyn from some street thugs who attempt to rape her. The two go on to become lovers.
Lord Marksman and Vanadis: After Elen is rescued from Greast, who did pretty much everything short of rape (he was saving that for when Tigre was around to see it), she becomes increasingly sullen, and later confides to Tigre that she can't get over the experience even though she counts herself lucky that she still has her chastity. Tigre then requests to take her virginity then and there, which they both recognize as insensitive after what she went through, but Elen agrees to it as Intimate Psychotherapy.
The Mists of Avalon: After Gwenhwyfar is kidnapped by Meleager she is rescued by Lancelet, but not in time to prevent her rape. Gwenhwyfar begs Lancelet to "take this unclean feeling from" her and he does, practically over Meleager's dead body.
A Song of Ice and Fire: Tyrion's backstory provides a Double Subversion. When he was a teenager, he and his brother Jaime rescued a girl named Tysha from men who intended to rape her. Tyrion comforted and took care of Tysha, and they quickly developed feelings for each other and made love, even getting married. However, Tyrion was later told that Tysha was a prostitute and the whole scenario had been set up by his brother so Tyrion could lose his virginity. Or at least that's what Tyrion believed for over a decade; Jaime eventually confesses that their father forced him to go along with this story because he didn't approve of Tyrion marrying a common girl. According to Jaime's account, Tysha wasn't a prostitute and really did fall that hard for Tyrion after he rescued her, which infuriates Tyrion.
Twilight: Bella is cornered by a group of men who verbally harass her before being saved by Edward who indicates they would have assaulted her. She exhibits no symptoms of stress or trauma and shows even more interest in Edward, including going on a date with him that same night. The ordeal is rarely mentioned again and when it is, Bella is pretty nonchalant about it. In New Moon, she even accepts a motorcycle ride from a man she thought was one of the harassers in the vain hope Edward (who has left her) will swoop in to save her again.

Live-Action TV

Arrow: Roy Harper saves Thea Queen from Attempted Rape by gang members and is stabbed in the process. She then kisses him in the hospital room and they eventually go on to have a relationship.
Game of Thrones:
- Deconstructed in "Baelor", Tyrion relates an incident from his youth where he and Jaime rescued a peasant girl named Tysha from a gang of rapists. That same evening, Tyrion and Tysha have sex and were so head-over-heels for each other that they wed. It turned out that Tysha was a prostitute and Jaime arranged the incident as a Confidence Building Scheme for Tyrion to lose his virginity. Their father found out and everything ended in tears. Shae, the audience to this story, tells Tyrion that the sham should have been obvious from the start since someone who was nearly raped isn't going to have consensual sex that same night.
- Decon-Recon Switched in "The Gift" where Gilly is cornered and almost raped by two Night's Watch recruits, only to be rescued at the last minute by Sam (whom they beat the living crap out of) and Ghost (whom they flee from). While Sam is recovering from the beatdown, Gilly thanks him for his bravery by having sex with him.
Within a month after being brutally raped and beaten, One Life to Live's Barbara jumped into bed with a man she'd been attracted to for a while. This is the same show where it took two years for Marty Saybrooke to recover from her gang rape.
Within one year (2005), so many of Passions characters were raped that it was known by fans as "The Year Of The Rapes". Adding insult to injury is that the writers played this trope to the hilt—only one victim—who was reacting to being raped a second time—displayed any of the above mentioned tropes that commonly happen after a sexual assault, while everyone else went on with their lives as normal.
Quantum Leap: In 5x05 "Killin' Time" a serial killer that Sam has leapt into escapes from the waiting room and picks up a sex worker. Al arrives and saves her before he can rape and/or kill her. Seconds after the escaped fugitive choked her and held a gun to her head, she offers Al a freebie, which he turns down because he doesn't have time. To make it even more ridiculous, on top of almost being murdered, she's just found out time travel and body swapping is real.

Music

In the final verse of "Poor Little Angeline", Angeline seems rather eager to have sex with the blacksmith after he just saved her from being raped by the squire.

Theatre

Don Giovanni:
- At the end of the first act Zerlina is assaulted by Don Giovanni offstage, but narrowly escapes. In the second act, presumably just a few hours later, she's seemingly back to her old cheerful self, and sings an aria to her fiancé Masetto about the romantic "remedy" she has for the injuries the Don has given him. That said, she shows murderous rage when she seemingly encounters the Don again, which doesn't abate even when it turns out to "only" be his servant Leporello in disguise: in the second edition of the score, she even ties Leporello to a chair and threatens to carve him up with a shaving razor.
- Averted with Don Giovanni's other near-rape victim, Donna Anna, whose father is also killed when he fights the Don in her defense. She spends the rest of the opera in a traumatized state of grief and rage, and refuses when her fiancé Don Ottavio tries to comfort her by suggesting that they get married the next day. Instead she insists on postponing the wedding for a year, "for my heart to heal."

Video Games

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: It is revealed (through suppressed memories) that Ezio and Cristina started their relationship after he saved her from an implied Attempted Rape by Vieri de Pazzi.
Dragon Age II: Implied. The nobleman's daughter falls in love with Feynriel after rescuing her from being gang-raped. She asks Hawke to help her find him so she can "thank him properly".
Happens in the second Fear Effect game, when Rain gets strapped to device that was clearly violating her, she cracks jokes about it with her lover Hana and an hour later takes part in a Distracted by the Sexy scheme with Hana to get access to a private elevator.
In Heavy Rain, Ethan can have an Optional Sexual Encounter with Madison who was attacked by a serial killer and nearly raped at gunpoint during the preceding day. This does not appear to cause issues for her in this encounter.
Ride to Hell: Retribution: Some quests have Jake save a woman from sexual assault. After he saves her, the game cuts to them having sex, and Jake's health is restored. The woman is then never seen or mentioned again.

Visual Novels

True Love Junai Monogatari: The Protagonist rescues Mayumi from a Near-Rape Experience that can lead to him romancing her.

Got Over Rape Instantly

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