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Someone is about to be raped, but at the last minute, the rapist is foiled. Violently. This can happen in one of two ways. If the victim is an Action Girl, or just particularly tough, she will fight the rapist off herself. Alternatively, she (or he) will be rescued by someone else. Depending on who does the rescuing, this can fuel Bodyguard Crush or start a Rescue Romance.

Not to be confused with Near-Rape Experience, where the rapist stops of their own free will. Distinct from Date Rape Averted in that there is no date, and the rapist must, by necessity, be stopped violently—no amount of yelling and slapping is going to work as a deterrent.

It is not unknown for the would-be rapist to offer a rescuer a chance to join in (and then be shocked when it makes them angrier).

Popular in fanfiction, especially for the aforementioned Bodyguard Crush and Rescue Romance.

As this is a rape trope, No Real Life Examples, Please!

Examples of Attempted Rape include:


Anime and Manga[]

  • Peach Girl: Momo fights off Kairi's older brother Ryo when he makes advances on her.
    • Sae gets a taste of her own medicine in the form of an obese rapist whom Momo saves her from before he can rape her. Also, Momo rescues Sae again when she is being forced to participate in a porno film.
    • In the sequel series "Sae's Story" Sae is drugged and almost raped by a group of guys at a party. Kanji thankfully rescues her.
  • In Berserk, Casca has people try to rape her several times. The first attempt is stopped by Griffith, who then has Casca kill the would-be rapist herself. The second attempt is fought off by Casca herself, who kills her attackers, the second when the apostle Wyald tries to do her with his wacky manhood, but she is saved by Guts. She had some pretty close calls. HOWEVER, when the Eclipse goes down, Casca is ultimately raped right in front of Guts by none other than the man who saved her from her first sexual assault. She doesn't come out of it very well. It doesn't get easier for her afterward, as there are three more attempts, but luckily she was saved by the Child when some pagans tried to rape her, Guts when the Great Goathead tried to make her his "bride", and then surprisingly, herself when she was almost gang raped by some bandits.
    • Also, Princess Charlotte has to fight off her own half-maddened father's attempt to rape her after her night with Griffith leads to him getting arrested and thrown in the dungeons to be put to the torture. This alienates her from her father to the point of disowning him and refusing to see him when he's on his deathbed, his health having seriously deteriorated because of the guilt of what he had done.
    • And then of course, there's that maddened, anthropomorphic horse-turned-demon that tries to rape Farnese, which triggers a Flashback Echo in Guts to Casca's rape during the Eclipse and sets off his Berserk Button big time.
  • Light's second kill in Death Note was a member of a biker gang who was trying to rape a woman. Light uses the titular Artifact of Doom to send him right into the path of an oncoming semi. This kill proves to Light that the Death Note's powers are real and ultimately leads to his decision to become Kira.
    • But that was only in the anime — in the manga, the scooter gang harassed the girl, and Light only chose the victim because he gave away his name. (In fairness, his attitude towards the note at that point was "Am I supposed to believe this crap?" He wasn't depraved enough to kill someone just for being a pain...yet.)
    • Takada kills a man who is harassing a woman on a subway, as a crucial part of Light's plan.
  • Full Metal Panic has one in Fumoffu, where Chidori tries to stop some guys from assaulting another girl, and in turn becomes the center of their attention. Fortunately, Sousuke was around to save the day.
  • Vega, in full-on psycho mode, breaks into Chun-Li's apartment in the Street Fighter animated movie and intends to rape her before killing her. She proves her Action Girl AND Plucky Girl ID's all over his face. Eventually, Guile arrives to Save The Girl after the whole thing is over.
  • Implied to have happened in Macross Plus. Which is what totally broke the dynamics between Myung, Isamu and Guld. The latter, having been the assaulter, blocked it outta his mind and actually thought Isamu was the rapist; when he recalled the truth, he aknowledged it and decided to go the Redemption Equals Death way.
  • In Kara no Kyoukai, the antagonist of the third chapter/movie is a victim of attempted rape, plus some other rapes in the past, who systematically slaughters anybody guilty of sexual violence who she comes across. She is pretty much the only antagonist in the series whom the main characters do not hold to blame (although they still need to stop her killing other people, obviously). The other attempted rapist in the series is wtfpwned by Shiki and becomes the only Muggle she (or at least her current personality) ever kills. Noticing a pattern in the Nasuverse yet? Remember kids, rape is bad.
  • In Gantz, Kei Kishimoto is almost raped soon after she's introduced. As in, she materializes naked and unconscious in a sealed apartment, and a violent thug, already present, carts her off to the bathroom for "privacy" inside a minute. However, Kato rescues her, and so starts their Rescue Romance.
  • A backstory chapter in Challengers reveals that Souichi's homophobia was caused by almost being raped by one of his male professors. Morinaga came to his rescue, which might have set up a Rescue Romance for the two... if not for Morinaga being a gay guy and Souichi being violently anti-gay after that incident.
  • The Watermelon Island chapters of Ranma 1/2, which provide Kuno with a temporary powerup that puts him well above Ranma's league (and also conveniently give him amnesia that preserves his kendo skills, but does away with his pesky "nobility" and "chivalry") culminate in him terrorizing a thoroughly freaked-out girl-Ranma, making the none-too-subtle threat that he's about to have his way with her and it's impossible for her to defeat him. Since, for once, she really can't beat him up, she outsmarts him so he smacks himself with his wooden sword, which helps him regain his memory.
    • The anime also included a Rescuer version of this trope. One episode has Ranma suffering Loss of Identity after getting smashed on the head in the koi pond, replacing his normal personality with that of a timid, stereotypically nice girl. Towards the episode's end, Happosai attempts to take advantage of Ranma's mangled mentality- and when his attempt to just grope her is foiled, he starts flailing his arms and legs around and crying like a little baby, whereupon "New Ranma" is compelled to offer to let him have his way with her if that will make him feel better. Akane immediateley intervenes and sends Happosai flying out through the window, horrified by this turn of events.
  • This is the act that effectively clinches Aoshima as a villain in his first appearance in Ah! My Goddess. Fortunately, even though Belldandy is caught off guard for a variety of reasons, she manages to stop him with her abilities as a goddess—namely, a liberal dose of lightning. The last episode of the season has a similar scene with an aged-up Skuld as the victim, with older sister Urd stepping in to fry him again.
  • Many moments in the Hentai series Mahou Shoujo Ai (aka Sexy Magical Girl). Often times, the victim is in the middle of it when Action Girl Ai steps in.
  • Happens twice in one episode of Glass Fleet, almost simultaneously: pretty young pilot Eimer gets tossed into a cell full of big scary prisoners, but manages to fend them off long enough for the hero to join her; meanwhile, the Sweet Polly Oliver gets drugged by the villain for nefarious purposes... but he apparently backs off in disgust upon realizing she's not a man.
    • It's possible that he still raped her even after he discovered she was a woman, as she does wake up completely naked. At the very least, she makes it clear from her Shower of Angst and some later dialogue with the hero that she believes she was raped.
  • Hinako Aikawa, the female lead of the manga Bitter Virgin, experiences an Attempted Rape midway through the series. She is rescued by male lead Daisuke. It is because of this action does she realize not all men are like said rapist.
  • Happens to Sara Ringwalt in Now and Then Here and There, when she is used as a mix of Sex Slave and part of a breeding program. After being successfully raped at least once, she fights off a later attempt and escapes her imprisonment.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, just as Tsukuyomi (her rival/enemy) stripped her down to her undergarments with a Demon Charm, and pinned her down with her chest wrappings sliced off by the Stalker's sword, Setsuna barely managed to summon a floating Tanto to send at the Psycho Lesbian's back, managing to nick her scarf off. Before the battle could go on, Tsukuyomi was telepathically called away by her superior Fate as he was retreating. Of all things, Setsuna was most humiliated by the fact that she was defeated.
  • In Dramacon, the protagonist Christie is nearly raped by her drunk boyfriend Derek---apparently he feels she isn't giving him enough attention due to all the time she's been spending with her crush Matt (who incidentally goes back to try and pulverize Derek after Christie tells him what happened.)
  • This happens to Miaka in Fushigi Yuugi at least three times—thankfully Tamahome keeps saving her.
    • Yuu Watase seems to be particularly fond of this trope, especially with teenage heroines—it also happens at least twice in Alice 19th.
  • In Shoujo Sect, Shinobu gets sexually harassed by one of her many female admirers. The attempt gets interrupted by the interference of Shinobu's childhood friend and love interest Momoko, who promptly knocks down the assailant with a fire extinguisher.
  • In Mezzo Forte, the Big Bad captures the Action Girl and leaves her with his Hired Guns who proceed to graphically rape her. It is an example of Attempted Rape because the girl they rape is NOT Action Girl, but a look-alike robot.
  • In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni those three boys who Rena beat with a bat, had attempted to rape her. That also may have been one of the things that tempted her to suicide.
    • When Shion is consumed by the Hate Plague, it's implied she's going to do this to Keichii. The arrival of a police search party on her family grounds cuts the attempt short.
  • Played straight in Angel Densetsu, soon after Ryoko is introduced (Kitano saves her). Doubly lampshaded too, when some random thugs wants to check out Ikuno's panties.
  • In chapter 9 of Mirai Nikki, Tsubaki threatens to have her followers rape Yuno unless Yukiteru comes out of hiding and confronts her.
    • Not just "threaten", she actually uses her remaining hand to tear off Yuno's blouse and then orders her followers to strip her by force and get ready to gangrape her, saying this out loud so Yukiteru can hear her.
  • In The Five Star Stories Schaft tries to rape Lachesis during the enormous snafu known generally as the Emperor's Rescue Mission. He bites much more than he could swallow, though. But the trope gets then subverted, because not only he manages to escape consequences, but he gets so much impressed that he declares himself Lachesis' eternal knight.
  • In Hot Gimmick, Ryoki saves Hatsumi from several guys who were attempting to rape her by stabbing one of the would-be rapists in the face with a ballpoint pen.
    • Ryoki himself also tries to rape and/or assault Hatsumi several times, but is always thwarted by a third person walking in on them.
  • In Kaze Hikaru, Okita saves Sei from being raped even though they don't even know she is a girl.
  • In the Thriller Back arc of One Piece, Absalom's attack on Nami in her shower has distinct overtones of this.
  • Perfect Blue: Near the end of the film the stalker Me-Mania attempts to rape and kill Mima but she knocks him out by slamming a hammer into the side of his head.
  • Strawberry Panic: Hikari by Kaname, twice. Yaya also comes on to Hikari too strong not long after she was almost raped by Kaname and she shoves Yaya to the ground.
  • Occurs several times in Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest to Akiko Aoshika. Then we learn that she was raped in her Dark and Troubled Past. And then she gets gangraped by Haguro and his Yakuza goons.
    • Kuroda takes a break from blowing up stuff (and students) to try to rape Noriko, the local Meganekko, with his gun. Fortunately, Inugami interrupts him.
  • Elfen Lied: In one chapter The Unknown Man unexpectedly barged into Kouta's house and would have raped and murdered Mayu (just because he could) had it not been for some last minute intervention from Bandou.
    • In episode 5 Professor Kakuzawa drugs and attempts to rape Lucy but she simply beheads him before he can.
  • In Karate Shoukoushi Kohinata Minoru, there's Pedro, the Brazilian martial artist and transfer student. It turns out that he was the masked rapist that went around buttraping a bunch of male martial arts students, and he ends up setting his sights on Minoru, the pretty boy protagonist. Of course, his depraved, rapist tendencies are played as comedy, and eventually the main characters forgive him and have him join their karate club. And even make Minoru room with him. Which results in him trying several times to rape Minoru (including an instance where Pedro went pantless with his junk out, in the middle of the night, to try to buttrape Minoru while Minoru was unconscious and drunk). Fortunately, Minoru was getting sick in the bathroom so Pedro winded up climbing into the bed of one of the karate instructors who quickly woke up and Pedro took that chance to run away.
  • The monster woman Mine tries to rape Nai in the first chapter of Karneval but Gareki ends up saving Nai.
  • In the yaoi manga Under Grand Hotel inmates like Sen are frequently raped. However, on one occasion Sen defended himself against a rapist by poking the guy's eye out with a cross necklace. Another time he was nearly raped before a bunch of guards found out and put a stop to it.
  • In the BL manga Eerie Queerie! there are two examples of this: first in volume two when Mikuni has Hasunama's ghost (because he's in a coma from saving Mitsuo after he was pushed out a window by Kanau) at his command so he decides to have some fun.... Mitsuo goes to Hasunama's body at the hospital to make sure no ghosts kidnap it as their own, he's too late and chases it (later revealed to be Kanau trying to be helpful and returning the body) to the temple where they fall through the screen door and... Mitsuo goes into a fit of rage and beats Mikuni to the point that he has to wear a mask. Then this is never spoken of again and they continue to hang around with the pervert/rapist.
    • The second time is after Mikuni has turned into a baby and the team goes to some mediums to find a way to cure him. Possession takes place, evil curses and charms that stop Mitsuo from moving but fortunately Mikuni saves the day... The fact that his curse ended just in time is lampshaded by Mitsuo: 'how does that work?!'
  • Goshuushou Sama Ninomiya Kun: Reika's alternate personality tries to rape Shungo in the 11th episode, but is forced to stop when told by her subordinate that there are intruders.
  • Speed Grapher: Dr. Nishiya, on Kagura.
  • Queen's Blade: The first frightening scene in the franchise actually played straight, when Nowa-chan is kidnapped by a gang of rapists and thrown onto a stable floor... but thankfully rescued by Echidna at the last second.
  • Osanai tries to rape Paprika but the Chairman interrupts and tries to kill her.
  • People tend to think of Nina Einstein from Code Geass as a crazy xenophobe who hates the Japanese just For the Evulz. Sadly, it's way more complex than that. Not only is this trope apparently invoked in her backstory ( she once got lost in a ghetto and barely escaped from being raped there), though spoken of in the series itself, it does occur again during the Hotel episode. Much of the student council gets captured by Japanese terrorists intending to use the Sakuradite conference being held there as a stage to declare their continued existence. Nina, already terrified of Japanese people, goes and accidentally blurts out the highly insulting term for them: Eleven. The terrorist who hears her grabs her, and tells her that "he'll teach her a lesson", with her friends trying to defuse the situation. She's only saved from being gangraped and murdered by the timely intervention of Princess Euphemia, who uses the revelation of her identity to save Nina. Also turns into a rescue crush... If somewhat hampered by Nina's being a lesbian, and Euphemia's... well, not being one, or at least preferring Suzaku.
  • In Cage of Eden, it seems that if you're a girl, this trope follows you around like a lost puppy. Kusuru-sensei, Oomori and Rion were almost raped, and the rest of the girls...well, the same couldn't be said for them, notably Oomori's senpai, who was raped TO DEATH
  • In Gun X Sword, Van has to defend Wendy from a sexual predator in an early episode. She faints after the threat is over, and caring for her gives him a chance to display that he's got a tender side.
  • In Mai-Otome, one of Tomoe's plans to remove Arika as competition for Shizuru's attention is to have her raped (carried out by a gang apparently hired by proxy through Miya), as having sex destroys the nanomachines that Otomes use. Sergay arrives and forces off the rapists, and Nao captures them before subjecting them to her special brand of punishment by dragging them from a boat through the city's canals.
  • This infamously happens in Karakuridouji Ultimo, between Rune and Yamato. It caused a major controversy in the fandom, as some already had a problem with Rune's Ho Yay / Foe Yay with Yamato. Few later, the American Shonen Jump pulled Ultimo out of the magazine.
  • Kaichou wa Maid-sama: Tora Igarashi on Misaki.
  • Weirdly subverted in Kämpfer. Senou is brainwashed and sent to rape Shizuku, but he's such a Chaste Hero that after he pushes her onto the bed, he doesn't know what to do. The would-be victim has to lead him on. Then she gives up and knocks him unconscious.
  • Inu Yasha: Mukotsu captures Kagome and attempts to rape her. Although she's almost paralyzed, she still fights back and attacks him, but while her effort does stop the rape it also manages to infuriate him and he decides to just kill her instead. She's saved first by Miroku and Sango, and ultimately by Sesshoumaru who kills Mukotsu. The anime, however, "softens" this scene into a bizarre marriage ceremony instead.
  • In High School of the Dead Saeko admits that she was almost raped when she was younger and beat said rapist within an inch of his life.
  • Ringo on Tabuki-sensei, in episode 8 of Mawaru Penguindrum. Until then, her attempts to get his attention were treated as Rule of Funny, and her feverish humping of Shouma as Black Comedy Rape; this one, however, was NOT Played for Laughs, as it marks how utterly screwed up she is.
  • In the movie version of Akira Tetsuo and his girlfriend Kaori are captured by the Clown gang, they start feeling up Kaori. Then they rip off her shirt and knock her unconscious, but before they can do anything Kaneda and the rest of the gang arrive to save them.
  • Subverted in Ouran High School Host Club: Kyoya tries this on Haruhi in episode 8, but she's Genre Savvy figures out he's faking.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena: At one point, Nanami gets the Akio Car treatment: her own brother Touga attempts to rape her, which she fights off in fright.
  • Franken Fran: Officer Kuhou was almost raped by a Reality Warper who couldn't control his sexual impulses. He snapped out of it after she fired in the air.
  • Rosario Plus Vampire: Miyabi tries to rape Mizore at one point.
  • Skip Beat gives us Reino in the forest with Kyouko with a spine-shivering creepy lead-up that is completely and utterly ruined by the arrival of the moment's Big Damn Hero: Fuwa Sho
  • Pet Shop of Horrors: In the original manga series, D almost gets raped three times by men; Leon prevents two of them. One of those rape attempts included a kiss and getting to second base.
  • In Saint Beast, Pandora, who is very beautiful and slight for an angel, gets assaulted in the woods by a group of stronger angels. Fortunately Judas happens to be passing by and flies into a rage when he realizes what's happening.
  • Haou Airen: More than once, but special note goes to the Too Dumb to Live triad guys who grab the escaping and BSOD'ing Kurumi and attempt to make her a Sex Slave and Reilan having her schoolmates try to rape Kurumi, out of jealousy and as a part of her Thanatos Gambit.. Hakuron saves her both times, of course. Which doesn't stop him from sexing her up in non-con/dub-con ways, tho.
  • Hellsing: The vampire preacher planned on raping Seras Victoria before killing her, since she was a virgin and he didn't want an "equal" vampire. Fortunately Alucard steps in before it gets to that, although the preacher gets a few good gropes in for effect.
    • Then there's Jan wanting to rape, kill, and rape Integra. In that order.
  • In one episode, a random guy approached Karin and said she has a pretty nice body (which she does). When she tried to get away he grabbed her and pulled her down a alley. Thankfully Karin's sister Anju saved her.
  • Words Worth: Fabris becomes obsessed with Sharon, upon first seeing, her in battle. He brazenly expresses his intention to rape her, and tries to make good on it immediately upon defeating her. Hyde's intervention, and Astral's timely arrival, keeps it from happening.
  • Not a rare occurrence in Basilisk. Yakushiji Tenzen tries this twice on Oboro and once on Kagerou. While Azuki Rousai and Amayo Jingorou both try to rape Okoi. With this many attempts, it kind of makes you wonder, how nobody ever succeeds in finishing the job.
  • In Black Jack, a high school girl goes to Black Jack for surgery on her throat. After failing to observe the rest period after the surgery, it looks like her only chance to speak again is if she stays quiet for a full year, at which point he'd give her a synthetic vocal box. As she takes this challenge, word gets around that she won't scream or say anything, prompting several guys to take advantage of the situation and try to rape her. She saves herself by throwing her school bag across the road, attracting the attention of several passerbys.
  • Claude tries to rape his close friend Marion in Natsu e no Tobira, right after tearfully confessing his love for him. For worse, he's drugged off his ass. Shortly after Claude commits suicide by slitting his wrist opens and then drowning himself; Marion blames himself heavily for it (Claude's death, that is, not the almost rape).
  • In the Burial arc of Saiyuki, 14 year-old Sanzo is pursued by a gang of thieves—one of whom attempts to rape him. Sanzo, who has never previously killed a man, shoots his attacker at point-blank range. Grownup!Sanzo's reactions to sexual advances and comments on his beauty make a lot more sense in that context.
  • Macross 7: Mylene Jenius is drugged and targeted by a female rapist in the Dynamite OVA, In that she is rescued by her bandmates. In the companion manga Mylene Beat, things go much further before a dragon like creature causes Mylene to fight off her Rapist.

Comic Books[]

  • One of the many shark jumps of For Better or For Worse: when Elizabeth is almost raped by her co-worker, Howard Bunt. And Anthony saves her. And it rekindles their relationship... while Anthony is still married to someone else. And instead of taking her to report the crime, he drives her to a park to whine about his miserable marriage and beg her to wait for him.
  • Red Robin aka Tim Drake is put in this situation. . . By R'as Al Ghoul's half-sister, the Daughter of Acheron, sent by R'as himself to do so. Tim was Genre Savvy enough to guess they'd did that, however, and had already asked Cass for back-up. . .
  • In Watchmen, The Comedian attempts to rape Silk Spectre after a team meeting, only to get the crap beaten out of him by Hooded Justice.
    • Rorschach also happens upon a mugging/rape/both in progress.
Cquote1

  Rorshach: Sometimes the night is generous to me.

Cquote2
  • In The Punisher MAX series, Castle comes across a woman about to be raped by a group of thugs in an alley. He doesn't like that.
  • X-Men's Storm was nearly raped as a child by a man from whom she accepted a ride, but killed him with a knife.
  • In her first appearance in New X-Men, the mutant Dust is stuck in dust form after killing a group of men; Fantomex explains that the men tried to remove her burqa, presumably in an attempt to rape her.
  • In Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, it is strongly implied that Squee would have been molested by a man who led him into an alley, before Johnny showed up and smashes the pedophiles face in with a pipe, cuts his hand off and rips his brain out. Johnny does not like child molesters.
    • Johnny doesn't like rapists in general. When crazy copycat fanboy Jimmy arrives, Johnny listens to his list of crimes with disinterest, until Jimmy gets to the point where he raped a girl, whereupon Johnny kills him in an especially gruesome manner. It's implied that a large part of his distaste for rape is the fact that it requires actual physical contact, which he can't stand. He also kills people because he thinks they deserve it for being assholes—which includes rapists.
  • This is the reason why Soontir Fel went to the Imperial Naval Academy and became an Ace Pilot. Back when he was a Farm Boy, he very violently stopped a management's kid from raping someone, and was subsequently blackmailed into going to the academy so that he would not be there to testify at the trial. Much later, the management's kid kidnapped Fel's nephew and was shot by Fel's brother.
  • Psylocke of X-Men once faced an attempted rape by an alternate universe version of her brother, Captain Britain. Fortunately for her, she discovered her previously minimal psychic powers were considerably more formidable than she believed at that point.
  • Occurs near the end of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men to Agent Brand. Some of the Breakworld soldiers are threatening to gang-rape her, whereupon she kills them with her heretofore only barely hinted-at alien superpowers.
  • In Rogue Trooper, when Friday is on the way to Highsight, he comes across a combat mechanic from the opposing side who is about to be gangraped by three grunts. Gaia manages to fend one off, but then Friday shoots the other two.
  • In Return To Wonderland, Calie is fed drugged tea by The Mad Hatter. Just as the sick bastard is about to rape her, she revives and smashes his head with a vase. Then, she breaks off a table leg and proceeds to kick the everloving crap out of him.
  • Played for Laughs in this strip by Quino, slightly NSFW.
  • In Runaways, when the group is trapped in the early 20th century, a man tries to rape Karolina in an alley. She quite literally lights his ass up.
  • Miss Martian from Teen Titans was almost made into having sex with a random guy when her Super-Powered Evil Side took over. Thankfully she gained control quickly, and almost killed the guy.
  • In All Fall Down, the super-heroine Portia experiences this in the middle of a fight when she loses her powers. Rescued by The Ghoul, she spends the rest of the book coping with the indignity of needing to be saved.

Fanfiction[]

Cquote1

 Allen: Uniform Code of Brotherhood Justice Section 2, Line 27: 'any form of sexual assault of any kind by a member of the Brotherhood is considered a Class 1 Offense against the Messiah, punishable by summary execution.'

Cquote2
    • By the same author, Forward involves this happening twice with River. The first time, she is nearly raped by Niska's men, but is saved by working together with a pissed off Jayne. The second time involves Reavers and paralyzing darts, which is averted by a sword-and-Bible-quote-slinging Book.
  • My Immortal has Snap forcing Enoby to choose to stab Vampire or have Draco get raped. Snap tries to rape him anyway, but Enoby performs the Cruciatus Curse at the last second.
  • In the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fic "Rarity's Generous Plan," Applejack does actually get raped, but she was supposed to be raped one or two more times in addition to that! Luckily, Big Macintosh comes in to beat the crap out of the rapists and save her before it goes that far.
  • In Soulless Shell, Leif catches Arnold, a former member of the council who escaped after he was sentenced to death for rape, trying to rape a young mouse maid. Leif kills him on the spot after transforming into a demon.
  • In any Danny Phantom fanfiction where Danny starts dating Kitty, Johnny 13 is usually just about to rape her when Danny swoops in.
  • A Plance fic in the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom has Pidge being forcibly undressed and nearly raped by a Galra soldier before Lance rescues her. Pidge pouts that she didn't like feeling scared and in need of rescue, giving Lance a thank-you not out of line with most Tsunderes.
  • A Fire Emblem fic had Lyndis subjected to this in her past, since the author decided having her family and her whole tribe killed wasn't traumatic enough. And needed an excuse for Kent to coddle her, of course.
  • A Final Fantasy VII Mary Sue fic has the Sue stripped naked and assaulted by a male SOLDIER, only for Sephiroth to barge in on them and yank the guy off of her. The would-be rapist smugly asks Sephiroth if he wants a turn with her, only to be thrown to the ground while the Sue huddles naked and scared in a corner.

Film[]

  • Early on in Training Day, Hoyt stops a rape attempt on a girl while on patrol. This comes back to help him later on when the girl's cousins are about to kill him and then realize he was the one who saved her.
  • Both the movie and comic book of V for Vendetta have this happening to Evey. She's saved by the title character.
  • Happens in the first Spider-Man movie. A gang attempts to gang-rape Mary Jane, then Spider-Man shows up and kicks their asses, earning Spider-Man the iconic upside down kiss.
  • The Supergirl movie has the title heroine beat up two truckers who try to rape her (of course given that she's super strong it doesn't go very well for them). Amusingly, one is Matt Frewer in a pre-Max Headroom role.
  • Back to The Future has an interesting example, in that it follows a staged instance of Date Rape Averted.
  • Teeth: A rape is quite violently ended by the titular teeth. 'Nuff said.
  • In Hard Rain, The deputy tries to rape Karen after the sherrif makes it clear that there could be no witnesses.
  • Terry Tsurugi in the grindhouse flick The Street Fighter stops a guy trying to rape Sarai Hammet, the woman he's been hired to protect by a Dragon Lady who has since turned against him. And he does it by tearing the guy's balls right off. Yeah, it's that kind of movie.
  • A subversion of sorts occurs in Revenge of the Ninja; a woman is about to be attacked/raped, the titular ninja turns up, eliminates the beefy assailant in about three seconds, then hypnotizes the would-be victim and sends her off on an errand.
  • Quantum of Solace: General Medrano's going to do this to some poor hotel waitress before Camille enters the room and proceeds to kick his ass.
    • Considering that in the past the General had also succeeded in raping Camille's sister and mother, it's poetic justice.
  • Face Off: Castor Troy (as Archer) roughs up Archer's daughter's boyfriend when he tries to does this to her after parking up his car in front of Archer's house.
  • In Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan a pair of street thugs drug and try to rape Final Girl Rennie, who is only saved when Jason (whose chased Rennie all the way from Crystal Lake) shows up kills the two thugs, impaling one with a syringe and smashing the head of the other off a hot steam pipe.
    • Similarly, Gibb of Freddy vs. Jason presumably ingests some date rape drugs at a rave and falls unconscious, with a glow stick covered sleaze happening upon her a few minutes later. As the guy tries to rape Gibb, who should come along but Jason, who impales the two of them with a broken tractor harrow. Also near the end, when Lori, trapped in her nightmare by Freddy, while wearing a nightgown, is about to raped by said madman before waking up.
    • As one reviewer put it: "We learn that Jason objects to forced sex even more than he does to the voluntary kind. And good on him for that."
  • In one scene in RoboCop, the titular cyborg interrupts an attempted rape. The attacker then tries to use his victim as a human shield, not knowing just how accurate Murphy's gun-targeting systems now are.
  • An attempted rape in a nightclub parking lot and what happens to the rapist afterwards starts the crazy roadtrip in Thelma and Louise.
  • In Gone with the Wind, in a scene toned down considerably from its counterpart in the book, Scarlett is attacked by two hobos while riding through a poor part of town.
  • 28 Days Later: Jim's bloody rampage ends with him rescuing his love interest, Selena, from the soldiers who planned to rape her. Arguably leads to an atypical Rescue Romance, with Action Girl Selena falling for Jim — admittedly this had already been set in motion earlier in the movie.
    • He was moving so fast and violently, she thought he was infected, and was ready to kill him until he came to a full stop before her. When asked if she would have killed him, she says "In a heartbeat".
  • Hud has the title character nearly raping housekeeper Alma while drunk. His nephew Lonnie stops him.
  • When the Bride in Kill Bill wakes up from her coma, she immediately plays pretends to still be asleep when a nurse and a john come in the room. She discovers that the nurse has been pimping out her comatose body as well as taking liberties with it himself- and that her reproductive plumbing has been damaged so that there's no worry about it being discovered. Unluckily for them, now that the Bride's conscious, even paralyzed from the waist down she promptly brutalizes the john and waits next to the door to do the same to the nurse.
  • Freddy keeps getting up close and personal with Nancy throughout the R Emake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, but it comes to a peak in the climax, where he traps her on a bed and starts feeling her up. Crisis averted when Nancy's friend finally wakes her and they kick the spit out of him.
  • There was an attempted rape scene in, of all movies, Beethoven's 2nd. Yes, a PG-rated family movie. Made even worse by the fact that both characters (the rapist and the victim) were underage. The victim is saved in the nick of time by Beethoven. This scene was heavily criticized by many critics as seeming out of place in an otherwise innocuous comedy.
  • In Book of Eli a character is about to be raped when the would-be rapist recieves an arrow to the... well let's just call it a case of poetic justice.
  • In Slugs, Pam manages to fight off the would-be rapist and run away, but ends up slugfood.
  • In Alien3, a group of prisoners attempt to rape Ripley, but she struggles and Dillon shows up with a crowbar.
  • In The Expendables, a pair of Garza's soldiers who are not terribly bright try to rape Sandra while she is being help captive in the palace's basement. Then Ross shows up, and expresses his disagreement with their actions. And his disagreement is very sharp.
  • Girl with a Pearl Earring: Van Ruijven to Griet.
  • King Einon does this to Kara in Dragonheart, and she stabs him to drive him away. It works. In the expanded novelization of the film, there's no attempt — he does rape her.


Literature[]

  • A man at a party tries to rape Jelka Tolonen in David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series. Really not a smart idea, as he is beaten more than half to death.
  • The One Who Waited, the main character, Alice, is nearly raped after refusing to have sex with a childhood friend after their first date.
  • Both types of foiling happen in A Song of Ice and Fire: Sansa is rescued from rape twice, once from an angry mob and once from a creep with busy hands. Cue Bodyguard Crush: the first rescue is performed by the Hound, and during the second, her first thought of who's come to rescue her is immediately, and illogically, that it's the Hound once more. In the second variety, Action Girl Brienne bites the ear off a man who tries to rape her, which proves to be a sufficient turnoff. Of course, then he throws her in a pit to fight a bear, but what can you do?
  • Happens in every single one of The Sword of Truth books. Some women actually fight off their attackers. Others are saved by men. And a whole mess of 'em aren't so lucky.
    • Subverted in the first book when Richard shows up to rescue Kahlan, but later figures out that due to her magic powers she wasn't actually in any danger.
  • When Honor Harrington was a Midshipwoman at the Saganami Island Naval Academy, another Midshipman, Lord Pavel Young, took great offense when Honor rebuffed his romantic overtures in public one day. To teach her a lesson, he approached her in the showers one night in an attempt to reiterate her proper station with respect to his noble birth. She took exception to his efforts. Her birth on a high-gravity world and extensive studying of martial arts, not to mention her presence on the Saganami Island unarmed combat team, allowed her to violently thwart his efforts to rape her, and were sufficient in insuring his necessary recuperation at the Island's hospital facilities. Honor never did report his actions to the Commandant, as she feared that nobody would believe that the noble son of the wealthy Earl of North Hollow would have been interested in the unattractive daughter of a Sphinx yeoman, and their bitter rivalry would stalk her throughout their years of military service.
  • In Twilight two men herd Bella towards their two friends in order to do this. Luckily Edward arrives just in time.
    • In New Moon while Bella and Jessica are going out, Bella believes she sees the would-be-rapists when she realises that she hears Edward's voice while in danger. Because of this she approaches them but Jessica convinces Bella to stop. It turns out not to be the same guys anyway, and in fact in Midnight Sun we find out Edward had gotten them arrested before that point.
  • In The Bourne Identity, the novel, not the movie, Marie is almost raped and murdered by one of Carlos' Mooks before Jason decides to save her.
  • In Cloud of Sparrows, Emily is almost gang-raped by her three adoptive brothers; they are only stopped when their mother walks in.
  • In Sandy Mitchell's Warhammer 40000 novel Scrouge the Heretic, while Kyrlock and Elyra are waiting to get on the off-planet ship, their guide tries to rape Zusen, a telepathic girl who is also waiting. When Elyra objects, he tells her that she can join the fun. Kyrlock says that Elyra wouldn't, but he would — and thereby gets close enough to brain him. Elyra shoots him as well. Zusen, between her fragile emotional state and her ability to read in his mind what he intended, is overwhelmingly grateful at first, and rather withdrawn after.
  • In Lloyd Alexander's The High King, the final volume of the Prydain Chronicles, Princess Eilonwy finds herself a prisoner of the outlaw band led by the ruffian Dorath, who had menaced protagonist Taran in the preceding book. Once Dorath realizes who Eilonwy is to Taran, he says that when she's reunited with the hero, he will find that she has few charms left. It's never explicitly stated that he intends to rape her, but the implication is there; the language is vague enough for young children to realize only that she's in danger. Before he can actually lay a hand on her, however, she's rescued by a group of wolves and bears.
  • In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40000 Horus Heresy novel Fulgrim, Serena starts crying and claims Attempted Rape to get Lucius to help cover up her murder.
  • In the Backstory of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Caliban tried to rape Miranda.
  • In Edgar Rice Burroughs's A Princess Of Mars, Tal Hajus declares that he will rape Dejah Thoris. John Carter intervenes. With Tal Hajus dead, they try to escape.
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 "If we make it, my chieftain, the debt of Helium will be a mighty one; greater than she can ever pay you; and should we not make it," she continued, "the debt is no less, though Helium will never know, for you have saved the last of our line from worse than death."

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    • In The Chessman of Mars, Tara is to be put of as the stakes in Gladiator Games. A noble comes to see what she is like before fighting, and she stabs him. She is still put up as the stakes—and she and another woman are to be the prizes of the winning side, not just one of them. Fortunately, the hero manages to get in the game, and fill his own side with men who will support him.
  • In Wen Spencer's Endless Blue, Butcher tries to rape Eraphie Bailey, and Mikhail shoots him to death.
  • In Gone with the Wind, Scarlett is attacked by "a big ragged white man and a squat black negro" while riding through a bad part of town.
  • Pick a series by Piers Anthony. Any series by Piers Anthony.
  • In the Dragonlance novel 'Dragons of Spring Dawning' both types of foiling occur when Bakaris attempts to rape Laurana. First Cloudcuckoolander Tasslehoff Burrfoot comes to her defense, stabbing Bakaris right when he has Laurana at his mercy. Then with Bakaris distracted Laurana attacks him in a frenzy and succeeds in killing him.
  • Speak: Andy Evans tries to rape Melinda in her broom closet at the climax but she fights him off.
    • The girls' lacrosse team helped.
    • Subverted offscreen before the book started. He did rape her.
  • In Tracy Chevalier's novel "Girl With A Pearl Earring" (adapted into a film in 2003) van Ruijven, a patron of Johannes Vermeer, accosts Griet one morning while she's hanging up laundry, pushes her against a wall, and tries to tear her clothes from her but is stopped when Cornelia arrives asking what he's doing. His intentions are made more apparent in the film when he tells her that she's "ripe as a plum but still unplucked".
  • In the Bloody Jack series this pretty much occurs every book towards the titular Jacky.
  • In Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Warhammer 40000 Night Lords novel Soul Hunter, an attempt to deprive the Night Lord Talos of two slaves he values goes awry when the men sent to do it drag Eurydice off for this instead. Talos, having saved the other slave, charges into a stronghold of his enemies to get her back, killing the men involved. One of them would have gotten away if only he had fled; Talos had retrieved Eurydice and only thought of getting her to safety.
  • This trope tends to end badly in Digital Devil Story. The first time, Loki's trying to use his Naughty Tentacles on Yumiko but her neck is snapped by her jealous teacher before Loki can do the deed. The second time, Loki tries to rape the goddess Izanami herself, but he is defeated by Nakajima before he can do the deed.
  • In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Red Nails" Olmec tries this on Valeria. The rescue is even worse.
  • In L. Jagi Lamplight's Prospero Lost, Miranda is passionate about rapists ever since the time, in the Backstory (of this and The Tempest) when Caliban had tried to rape her.
  • Happens to Erik in Susan Kay's Phantom by Javert. He escapes by murdering him, with a knife.
  • In the Left Behind book Kingdom Come, an unbelieving under-100 "natural" attempts to assault a female "glorified" in the hopes of siring a child that may be able to live past 100 years of age without becoming a believer. God foiled the attempt by having the would-be rapist die in her arms and then incinerated. Given that in the book series the "glorifieds" are not able to sire or have children, this would have proved to be pointless.
  • In Across the Universe, Amy goes out jogging in the middle of "the Season", which is basically when the population of the ship is dosed up on hormones to encourage them to reproduce. She doesn't consider how potent the hormones are, and finds herself caught by a group of guys who want to have sex with her and can't tell that she's unwilling. Also, one of the guys in the group is unaffected by the drugs and just wants to rape her. She's saved when another unaffected person knocks the guys over the head and takes her inside.
  • Occurs twice with the same characters in Cerberon. After Junapur loses a challenge to rescue Thedrik, Lubek attempts to rape her, but is stopped by Cathern. Later, in a very creepy scene, he tries to rape her again while she's sleeping, and she stabs him to death.
  • Lord Arlington in the Louisa May Alcott book The Inheritance tries to seduce Edith many times but each time she rejects him. The final time she rejects him he reacts very angrily and it's implied that he means to rape her but Lord Percy shows up and Arlington departs.
  • The first book in the Good Intentions series opens with Garrison intending to rape Lorelei and Rachel.

Live Action TV[]

  • Happens to Edith in an episode of All in The Family. At first, her attacker—he had posed as a cop, pretending to be searching for a rapist in the neighborhood—is too smart for Edith's attempts to fight him off, but eventually, she shoves a burning cake in his face and kneeing him in the groin, causing him to fall onto the porch and forcing him to flee.
    • And to Gloria in an earlier episode, although that one happens offscreen and is less about the assault itself than her reaction to it: Gloria decides not to press charges against her attacker due to the humiliation she'll face in court.
      • Of course, when Gloria finds out that Edith isn't planning to press charges either, she is duly outraged, to the point of bringing her mother to tears by screaming that she's ashamed of her and declaring, "You're not my mother anymore!." This is less hypocrisy on Gloria's part than overlooked continuity on the part of the writers; still, the failure to Call Back the earlier episode was a missed dramatic opportunity.
        • And Gloria had a cop telling her what her attacker's defense attorney would do if she did press charges. In Edith's case, that guy had already been caught more than once but no one would step forward. Nothing really was stopping her but herself. And Gloria's attempted rape was mentioned more than once in that episode.
        • Or else it is Gloria's way of working through her guilt. Daughters can feel as though they can correct their mistakes by living vicariously through their mothers just as mothers live vicariously through their daughters.
  • Heroes: Claire almost gets raped by the Jerk Jock of her school, but he ends up killing her before he does anything. (She got better.)
    • She gets revenge by ramming his car into a brick wall. While he's in it. She gets better. He doesn't. And then her dad has the rapist's memory wiped. All of it.
    • Claire was almost raped again in season 4, this time by Sylar as part of an intended Deus Sex Machina.
      • It's debatable whether or not he actually wanted to rape her—he had to touch her to use Lydia's ability, so he kissed her. Creepy as hell, but he didn't seem to be ready to go further than that. The fact that he got stabbed in the eye with a pencil deterred him either way, though.
  • In Battlestar Galactica, Cally bites off part of an attempted rapist's ear.
    • Helo and Tyrol arrive just in time to save Sharon from her would-be rapist. The extended version on DVD shows them interrupting the rape instead.
  • Spike attempts to rape Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, requiring Buffy to fight him off.
    • With their relationship the way it was, an eventual misunderstanding seemed inevitable. But half the fanbase treats the incident as Attempted Rape (he was using force, he hurt her, and he had to be fought off) and the other half as Near-Rape Experience (rape was never his intent and he backed off when he realised the misunderstanding). The two sides... don't get along well.
      • This is an interesting example because it could be argued as both since it has characteristics of both. It could be claimed Attempted Rape because some of Spikes dialogue pretty clearly implies that he knows what he is doing, ie. he's trying to force her to realize her love for him with rape (his words are more graphic). Yet, it could be claimed Near-Rape Experience because a later bit of dialogue after she fends him off plays like he only just realized what he almost did, in a what have I done moment.
    • Xander tried to rape her in "The Pack" (while possessed by a hyena), though nobody was surprised that Buffy fought him off.
      • And Xander was almost raped by Faith.
        • Raped nothing. She tried to seduce him and then strangle him after realizing that she couldn't convince him to stay quiet about her killing a man.
          • It could be viewed as attempted raped (he firmly told her a few times that he wasn't interested in sex) and attempted murder.
          • Angel certainly took it as rape, going so far as attack Faith with a baseball bat.
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 "He forgot the safety word, is that it?"

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    • And there was Katrina almost being raped by Warren under the effects of a device that suppressed her will. She was less than happy about it when it wore off just in time. Her calling them out on it and the events that followed cemented Warren's slide into Complete Monster territory and started Jonathan down the road toward his Heel Face Turn.
    • In Go Fish a member of the swim team tries this on Buffy. She begins by breaking his nose, but doesn't get much further than that because Snyder shows up, and of course accuses Buffy of leading him on.
    • Later in the episode the swim coach offers Buffy to be pack raped by his team of monster fish. When she escapes and he is trapped with them instead...
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  • In Supernatural episode Houses Of The Holy, Dean violently prevents a guy from raping a woman the guy's asked out on a date. Leading into a Car Chase and Gruesome Death. Yay!
  • Happens twice in the pilot episode of Gossip Girl, both times with the same character as the perpetrator.
  • In a season one episode of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Grace is almost raped, but she manages to avoid it by threatening her attackers with a broken bottle and by getting some timely assistance from Ricky. The whole thing was picked up on a nearby building's security camera and, for no apparent reason, the local news and general populace treated the footage like it was the funniest thing ever.
  • In the intro to the second season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, it appears that Sarah is about to be raped by one of the men who stole the Turk. However, that makes John angry. Thou Shalt Not Kill goes out the window.
  • In Dollhouse, Boyd Langton punches a fellow Handler through a plate glass window Just in Time to prevent a rape.
    • This is not entirely played straight, however, as the aforementioned handler had already committed the crime off-screen more than once. It was also a set-up — Boyd was hiding nearby, waiting for the handler to try it again and get punched through a plate glass window.
  • In Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's episode Undercover, Olivia is almost raped by a Correction's Officer. Finn busts in at the VERY LAST SECOND and stops it from happening.
  • In a fifth season episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Donna is almost raped by the Campus Rapist who has been terrorizing her college. He breaks into her apartment, waits for her in the dark, ties her up, and prepares to rape her (delighting in her reveal that she is a virgin) when her ex-boyfriend, David arrives to rescue her. David miraculously figures out something is wrong when Donna calls him Dave and runs in with a baseball bat, knocking out the rapist.
  • In the the television version of Friday Night Lights, Tyra is attacked by a rapist outside a restaurant where she she was to meet her tutor for a missed study date. Tyra manages to fight off the rapist herself when he tries to drag her into her truck to rape her by burning him with the truck's cigarette lighter and repeatedly slamming him with the truck door. Her tutor, Landry, then arrives to comfort her.
    • In the second season premiere, Tyra's attacker is back and stalking her. He attempts to attack her again outside a convenience store and in an example of Chickification, this time she needs Landry to defend her. Landry then murders the rapist as he's escaping by hitting him in the head with a lead pipe. The murder and subsequent cover-up is the catalyst for Landry and Tyra to have a romantic relationship.
  • In Misfits, Alisha's power is the ability to induce this.
  • Oz: Episode 4.16 "Famous Last Words" – Beecher's parole comes up and the Aryans wish to interfere with it, Said warns Vern Schillinger not to interfere but Beecher is denied his chances at parole for another year. Schillinger and Robson attempt to rape Beecher after the cancellation, but Said defends him by stabbing Schillinger and Robson and then is charged with attempted murder.
  • True Blood: At the very end of the episode "Release Me," Sookie is about to raped until Godric (whom Sookie has been trying to find for the entire episode) bursts in and grabs the would-be rapist off of her by the neck. The episode concludes with Sookie's "Godric?" and a Reaction Shot, thus ending with a Cliff Hanger.
    • Also, at the very beginning of the following episode "Timebomb," Godric then kills the rapist by snapping his neck.
  • The OC: Towards the end of the second season after taking cocaine Trey tries to do this to Marissa but she fights him off.
  • Twice in the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series, both times to Yeoman Rand. First attempt was the titular Charlie in Charlie X, foiled by Kirk. Second time was Captain Kirk's evil twin in The Enemy Within, foiled by Rand herself. Come to think of it, it's really not surprising she wasn't back for the second season....
  • Happens in the first episode of Carnivale — Sofie gets jumped by a couple of gas station attendants and Ben shows up and knocks one of them out with a pipe, while Sofie knocks the other out with a can while he's distracted. This leads to some uncomfortable slut-shaming from Jonesy when she gets back to the Carnivale.
  • This happens to Mia, Roxie's daughter, in the pilot of "Eastwick", but Roxie and Darryl save her.
  • Step by Step: In addition to at least four episodes where each of the teen-aged sisters (Dana, Karen and Al) are would-be victims, Dana (Staci Keenan, playing the eldest of the three) was nearly attacked by a middle-aged man when the two are alone at a bus station. The set-up gag that led to this scene had Cody annoying Dana about a wild dream where she was going to be attacked by a man in a suit. Dana, who is trying to prepare for a college interview at a Chicago-area university, tells Cody to go away after he intrudes on her interview, thinking the college dean is the predator (he was trying to brace her as they were viewing the Chicago skyline), but Cody still feels bad vibes and shows up just in time to run Dana's would-be assailant off.
  • Diff'rent Strokes: In the 1984 episode "The Hitchhikers," Arnold and Kimberly accept a ride from a seemingly genial man who invites them to his apartment. It is at the apartment where he reveals his true self as a psychopath, drugging Arnold and nearly raping Kimberly. Arnold is able to escape and provide enough details to rescue Kimberly in the proverbial nick of time. At the episode's end, Conraid Bain (who played the series' patriarch, Phillip Drummond) gave a PSA where he urges anyone who is a victim of sexual assault to contact the police.
  • Happens in A Different World. Dwayne Wayne jumps onto the roof of the car to stop it.
  • In the In Plain Sight episode "Stan By Me", Mary Shannon is mistakenly kidnapped and held captive for several hours. One of her captors attempts to rape her and — with her being very much an Action Girl — it doesn't end well for him. She shoots him. Repeatedly. And then escapes.


Music[]

  • In the Insane Clown Posse song "Under the Moon," the narrator is sent to prison after killing a guy with his father's .45 for trying to rape the unnamed love interest of the song.

New Media[]

  • I Love Bees has its Action Girl protagonist Jan fight off a guy trying to rape a woman as a gang initiation test.


Theater[]

  • In The Lion King, the portion of the song The Madness of King Scar, where Scar tries to seduce Nala, the scene is at first played humorously and then abruptly switches to this with Nala screaming, "Get away from me!" and finally scratching him across the face with her claws to get him to stop.
  • In West Side Story, Anita is roughed up and nearly gang-raped by the Jets when she tries to deliver a message from Maria to Tony.

Mythology[]

  • Athenians explained the name of the Areopagus by saying the first trial there was when Poseidon prosecuted Ares for murder, over the death of his son Alirrothios. Ares was acquited on the defense that he was protecting his daughter Alkippe from being raped by Alirrothios.
  • Many Greek women managed to escape in transformation: Daphne into a laurel, from Apollo, and Cornix into a crow, from Neptune, for instance.

Video Games[]

  • In Assassin's Creed I, Altair can save women in the streets who are being harassed by gangs of armed thugs who are threatening and groping them. Though it's never exactly stated what they intended to do, the rescued citizens indicate just what they believe the thugs were planning. If you bother listening to the guards chatter, they are accusing the women of stealing from someone in front of them. Whether that's an excuse or not is not known.
    • In the sequel, when Vieri de Pazzi ambushes Ezio and his family outside Monterigionni, he says that "I have such things planned for your mother and sister!" He doesn't outright say it, but its very clear what he's going to do. Fortunately, Ezio quickly introduces Vieri's goons to his hidden blade, and then Uncle Mario crashes the party.
      • If it wasn't outright clear in the second game, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood makes it evident that Vieri would have done such a thing, as during a flashback to Ezio's pre-Assassin life, he tries to rape Cristina Vespucci when she returns home, after having rejected his advances so often. Luckily, Ezio comes along and sends him running, after giving him a nice beating, of course.
  • In FEAR 2: Project Origin, the plot indicates that Alma is trying to "consume" Becket whenever she attacks him hand-to-hand, because of the psychic signal he emits. In reality, though, Alma was trying to rape him, as shown in the final cutscene after she apparently succeeds, and is pregnant with Becket's child.
  • In Atlach=Nacha, Kanako is attacked by three delinquint students who try to rape her. Hatsune arrives at the place where they're attacking her. Hatsune also happens to be a Giant Spider in human form and is hungry...
  • In the Dating Sim True Love, the Player Character must save one of his prospective love interests from a rapist who's actually one of the teachers of their school and has sexually abused other students in the past to score either with her or with his beautiful teacher who was told about his abuses by one of the victims and was trying to track the guy down
  • Happens to the player's adoptive daughter in Princess Maker 2, if she loses her duels with the bandits (be the two males or the single female) in the Adventure routes. Cube arrives in time to drive them away and take the injured girl back home, tho.
  • Dragon Age gives the player two different ways to do this in the City Elf origin: Breaking into the castle as a male in order to save the kidnapped women, or grabbing a weapon from a guard and start gutting them as a female. Not so "Attempted" for the protagonist's best friend
  • In Dragon Age II's "Dissent" quest, you're out to stop Ser Alrik from using the Rite of Tranquility on a young runaway female mage with which he intends to use as a potential sex slave. In the quest "Who Needs Rescuing", a young girl was protected from a group of would-be gang rapists by Feynriel, who uses his Fade powers to kill her assailants while they were still awake.

Visual Novel[]

  • Fate Stay Night, "Unlimited Blade Works" route, Shinji tries to rape Rin. Lancer stabs him into submission. Twice. This is part of the reason that it's Lancer's Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • In Tsukihime, Shiki attempts to rape Arcueid due to a brief bout of insanity, brought on in part by the combination of an unexpected surge of his natural monster-slaying instincts and the attraction and growing affection for her that he's been trying to avoid up to that point. Though, unlike Shinji, he is the protagonist so he CAN succeed if the player wants to. However, going through with it will get Shiki killed by her later due to her own brief bout of vampiric insanity.
  • Yume Miru Kusuri: The climax of Aeka's route features one of these. Kouhei promptly overpowers the would-be rapist's gang and rescues her in a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Kanna's route in Yu No has her nearly raped by the detestable Houjou. However, the protagonist notes that scummy as Houjou is, it's simply not in his character to do something that bad. It raises questions as to what exactly is going on and why he was trying in the first place.


Webcomics[]

  • Close call in Bittersweet Candy Bowl when a mugger attacks Lucy. It doesn't go too well for him.
    • Final Fantasy Cat was about to do this to Daisy, but Abbey intervened
  • In this General Protection Fault storyline, Ki reveals that the reason she broke up with her former fiance Sam was because when she went to have sex with him, and was unable to go through with it, he tried to rape her, but she fled and Fooker fended him off. He tried to apologize, but she told him that what he did was unforgivable, and returned his ring.
  • In Spinerette, a pair of drunken frat boys jump the newly-empowered Heather and get their hindquarters handed to them. Subverted, they only wanted to scare her.
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  Frat Boy: "We're not rapists, we're merely douchebags!"

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Web Original[]

  • In The Gamers Alliance, Ax almost ends up raped twice by her friend Refan when his demonic side takes over. The first time she deals with Refan herself by using a Groin Attack, and the second time Shyralis saves her.
  • Whateley Universe example: Nex, the mutant ninja assassin at Whateley Academy beats up Fey, and when she fights back, decides to move up to rape and murder. He gets stalled by Stalwart, who's an annoying inventor who has been following Fey around, and he rips Stalwart apart. Fey then has time to heal herself and use her magic to kick ninja ass. Stalwart gets a Rescue Romance out of the deal.
  • This is played for laughs in Ask That Guy Violates Ma-Ti, where Ma-ti knocks Ask That Guy unconscious. He proceeds to rape Ask That Guy, because apparently the viewers are there to watch someone get raped.
  • In Survival of the Fittest version 1, Johnny Lamika ambushes and tries to rape Adam Dodd. However, before things can get too far, Adam manages to bring out his taser and fend Lamika off, before proceeding to beat him to death.
  • In Darwin's Soldiers, Calchas' Cold-Blooded Torture of Shakila was seconds away from ending in rape when Dr. Shelton intervened.
  • Stalker tries to assault Hanami in Book III of Tasakeru. She uses her Green Thumb to plow her would-be attacker through her wall.

Western Animation[]

  • Betty Boop was a victim of this in the cartoon short Boop-Oop-A-Doop. In this cartoon, Betty is a circus performer who is lusted after by the Ringmaster. At night, the Ringmaster accosts her in her tent and threatens to rape her until Koko the Clown comes in to rescue her. A daring plot for a cartoon made in 1932, a supposedly "purer" time.
  • The early Looney Tune Bosko's Knight-Mare has Honey abducted by the villainous Black Knight. He carries her to his castle and actually gets her down onto the bed before our hero intervenes. (It's even more amazing when you realize that our hero and his girl are African-American and the Black Knight is... er, White.)
  • Disney's Bambi, believe it or not, provides an animal kingdom example. After Bambi and Faline meet each other again as adults and become "twitterpated", the rival buck Ronno shows up and begins forcing Faline apart from Bambi. It was mating season, and it was pretty clear Faline was not willing to go with him. . . However at this moment Bambi's Berserk Button is pressed, and he fights and beats Ronno, earning Faline as his mate.