Basic Trope: A (usually male) character does not accept the advances of a someone who is Not Herself (usually drunk).
- Straight: A drunk Alice offers to sleep with Bob. Bob has a crush on Alice, but he declines and says it would be wrong to take advantage of her.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice and Bob have both been dosed with some kind of Love Potion. Though he is tempted to just give in, Bob is just lucid enough to stop anything from happening.
- Bob turns down Alice's advances due to the fact the she had a single glass of wine. "It's the wine talking" is Bob's way of denying that Alice is just as much in love with Bob as he is with her.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is not opposed to accepting a kiss from Alice, but decides that anything more would be wrong.
- Part of the reason Bob declines Alice's drunken offers is morality, but he also finds Alice rather unattractive in her disheveled rambling state.
- Bob cites his main reason for not accepting her advances as his being gay or asexual, but also notes that her drunkenness gives further reason to not accept her advances.
- Bob refusal to "sleep" with the passed out Alice is Wants a Prize for Basic Decency at best.
- Justified:
- Bob is related to Alice.
- Bob and/or Alice is already in a relationship.
- Bob was raped in the past, so he knows how dangerous it is to play around with consent.
- Bob is a Chivalrous Pervert, but has standards.
- They're in a country (such as Australia) where having sex while under the influence doesn't count as conscentual.
- Inverted: Bob is the one who is under some kind of influence. He almost forces himself on Alice, but comes to his senses long enough to stop.
- Subverted:
- Bob is reluctant to sleep with Alice and prepares to leave, but after she persists he goes through with it.
- Alice gets fed up with Bob refusing her advances and forces herself on him.
- Double Subverted:
- After some initial reluctance, Bob seemingly agrees to sleep with Alice. The next morning she freaks out after finding Bob in her bed, but he assures her that nothing happened and he just fell asleep next to her.
- Alice tries to force the issue, but passes out before she can do anything.
- Parodied: Alice has Bob Chained to a Bed and prepares to have her way with him. Despite having zero control of the situation, Bob still insists that it would be wrong of him to take advantage of Alice like that.
- Zig Zagged:
- Averted: Bob accepts Alice's offer and nobody comments on the Questionable Consent.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "I've dreamt of this moment for so long, and now I have to stop it? Someone up there must really hate me."
- Invoked: Alice acts or gets drunk (via vaporized alcohol) in order to give Bob a Secret Test of Character, wanting to see if he would go through with it. He doesn’t, and she drops hints of him being a self-controlling guy. She finds him more attractive because he resisted.
- Exploited: Carol, who ships Alice and Bob, informs Alice of what happened (or rather, what didn't happen) to bring the two closer.
- Defied:
- Bob is a Date Rapist who scoffs at the idea of turning down sex, no matter who is offering.
- Despite feeling uncomfortable with taking advantage of a drunk Alice, Bob gives in to her advances anyway because he believes that turning down sex from a woman (drunk/stoned, or not) will make him less of a man.
- Discussed:
- Conversed:
- Deconstructed:
- Alice is in the middle of a mental breakdown when she propositions Bob. When Bob rejects her, she assumes that she isn't attractive enough for him and runs off in an even worse state.
- Alice is too humiliated by her drunken proposal to face Bob the next day and starts avoiding him.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob manages to calm Alice down and convince her that he's just tired and that he'd rather do it later the next day, giving her the time to sober up to be able to properly consent while not making her state any worse or taking advantage of it.
- Bob deliberately humiliates himself in some kind of Grand Romantic Gesture, saying it's only fair that she sees him in the same way he did.
- Played For Laughs: Alice list all the kinky, steamy sex stuff she has planned for Bob, which he very reluctantly continues to decline.
Back to Above the Influence
