Basic Trope: A character falls in love with someone who beats them up.
- Straight: Alice beats the crap out of Bob, and he later falls in love with her.
- Exaggerated: Alice beats Bob within an inch of his life, and he immediately asks her to marry him.
- Downplayed:
- Alice punches Bob and he likes her a bit more after that.
- Alice and Bob are two martial artists taking part in the same tournament, and Alice just beat Bob during the finals. Bob was the only contestant who gave her a challenge, and on his side, he has a healthy respect for skilled martial artists which Alice obviously was since she beat him, and the relationship starts from there.
- Justified:
- Bob admires the way that Alice actually stands up to him.
- Bob hails from a Proud Warrior Race where violence is a common form of courtship.
- Best Her to Bed Her
- Bob is an Amazon Chaser.
- Bob is a masochist.
- Inverted: After Alice acts nice to Bob, he hates her and wants nothing to do with her.
- Subverted: Alice knocks Bob around. He still dislikes her.
- Double Subverted: But after she hurts him some more, he finds that he likes her.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Bob doesn't change his opinion of Alice after he gets beaten up.
- Enforced: "We need a scene that sets the tone of Alice and Bob's Belligerent Sexual Tension."
- Lampshaded: "I dunno when I fell for Alice — maybe it was after she punched me?"
- Invoked:
- Alice likes Bob and knows he likes pain…
- Alice goes into underground fight-clubs in order to get a date.
- Exploited: Alice beats up Bob and then blackmails him into dating her, knowing that the revelation that a girl beat him up would make him lose his social standing.
- Defied:
- "Did I hit you so hard you got brain damage? That's a ridiculous basis for a relationship!"
- "There's no way I will ever fall in love with a girl because she beat me up."
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Alice sucker-punches Bob and puts him on the ground. When he wakes up, his only response is a dopey grin and a soft "Wow!"
- Deconstructed: Bob may be in love, but Alice punched him the first place because she genuinely doesn't like him. His attempts to pursue her afterward just piss her off more (and make her more violent), which just makes Bob more persistent, and pretty soon the whole thing starts to look like
an abusive non-relationship. - Reconstructed: Alice's punch attracts Bob because he's a brawl-loving Boisterous Bruiser; fortunately so is she, and once they get to know each other better they evolve into a really awesome Battle Couple.
Back to Love at First Punch
