Foe Yay



""Venom... I've been all over this city looking for you! You never call, you never write... It's like I'm the only one interested in making this relationship work...""

- Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

The implications of sexual tension between arch-enemies.

Just as Ho Yay is about the paradoxical situation of implying romance where even the characters' natural sexual orientations make it implausible, this trope intentionally creates an even deeper paradox by subtextually implying love in a relationship that is, textually, the opposite of love.

This trope is much more likely to come into play if one is The Rival and The Only One Allowed to Defeat You, or a Rival Turned Evil. If enemies have to work together, it can give the impression that adversity makes strange bedfellows. Since most heroes and their villains tend to be the same sex, this results in most examples of Foe Yay overlapping with Ho Yay, but opposite-sex foes qualify too. This trope is also very likely to occur if the in-series explanation for the two characters' obsession with each other is that they used to be close friends but had a major, evil-related falling out. See the Doctor Who page and the Smallville entries on the Live Action TV page.

Other times, this trope can be invoked by a villain who seems to be too eager and persistent about trying to convince or force the hero to rule the world together, and eventually appear as a one-sided crush. Terms of Endangerment often feature in many Foe Yay exchanges.

Dark Magical Girls are often depicted as understanding their Magical Girl counterpart far more than anyone else, and after inevitable redemption at the very least become Heterosexual Life Partners, if not more. Watch out for the "Take That!" Kiss, often a Foe Yay marker.

When it ultimately goes from subtext to text, and the two admit that they love each other, it is called Dating Catwoman. Contrast with the Capulet Counterpart. For the villain who really is sexually obsessed with The Hero, see Stalker with a Crush, Mind Game Ship, and In Love with Your Carnage. A major conclusion to Subtext. See also Destructo-Nookie, when they actually do go the whole nine yards.

See also Foe Yay Shipping, for the subjective audience reaction of insisting that after a certain number of such scenes, the two should become a couple (this appeal often lies in the forbidden nature of the relationship, a staple of the shippers diet). Please move non-objective examples to that page. Oh, and be careful: some of the "examples" on here may require Brain Bleach.

Not to be confused with Faux Yay.


 * Anime
 * Katekyo Hitman Reborn
 * Naruto
 * Pokémon
 * Comic Books
 * Film
 * Literature
 * Live Action TV
 * Doctor Who
 * Video Games
 * Dissidia Final Fantasy
 * Western Animation
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender

Advertising

 * Mac/PC, as played by Justin Long and John Hodgman in the Apple ads.
 * David Mitchell and Robert Webb, from the British version, are Heterosexual Life Partners, so naturally this crops up in spades.
 * In the Apple Jacks ads, Cinna-mon seems rather... fond of Apple, in my opinion.
 * Popeye and Bluto in this infamous Minute Maid spot.

Fanfiction
"Saavik: As you requested, I've performed a quick check on your calculations. They are essentially sound, but you've left one-tenth of one percentile unaccounted-for. Vanessa: I didn't think the captain needed or wanted to hear about the Largo/Gryphon slash fans."
 * An in-universe example in Undocumented Features, from Manhunt 4: Sleeping Alone is for Suckers:


 * It would probably be easier to list every work work with two rival characters where this trope hasn't been invoked in a fanfic than to list all the ones where it has. The list wouldn't be long.
 * And wouldn't last long either, Rule 35 of the internet, which is basically a guarantee that Rule 34(If it exists, there is porn of it — no exceptions.) will remain true, states that "If there is no porn of it, it will be made", meaning that if someone notices a lack of porn of something, and happen to point it out, somebody somewhere will be happy to draw/write/find it in pretty short order to fill the vacuum.

Music
"I know that I hate her, even though I love her She's making my heart hurt, I cant describe, describe... How I hate her, everytime I'm with her All I do is want her Why do I even try?"
 * "Hate 2 Love Her" by Blake Lewis is a perfect example of this trope:

"Why should I welcome your dominations? Why should I listen to explanations?"
 * "I Can't Decide" by the Scissor Sisters - as seen in Doctor Who!
 * t.A.T.u.'s "Friend or Foe?". Don't believe it? Check youtube for the staggering numbers of fanvids with this theme.
 * Along the same line of thought is 'Perfect Enemy'.

""From when our gazes met, we were attracted to each other / I want to leave a scar on your back that will never disappear.""
 * T.a.t.U really has a thing for this.
 * "You don't turn me off..." Huh.
 * "I Hate Everything About You", by Three Days Grace. Considering the titular lines are 'I hate everything about you, why do I love you?' it's a pretty clear cut example of this trope.
 * "Oi To The World" by the Vandals.
 * The Vocaloid song "Rondo of Sun and Moon". Foe Yay being pretty much the main theme, is full of lines that suggests that the two characters have this major love/hate relationship going on.

"Love me cancerously Like a salt-sore soaked in the sea "High maintenance" means you're a gluttonous queen, narcissistic and mean You're awful, I love you!"
 * Ludo's Love Me Dead is all about this trope.

"Could it be that you and me Were always meant to be together?"
 * 'Passive' by A Perfect Circle can easily be interpreted this way.
 * 'Face to Face' by Siouxsie and the Banshees, used in the movie Batman Returns to neatly sum up the tumultuous UST-laden relationship between Batman and Catwoman.
 * It may or may not be there in the lyrics, but one of the iron rules of fanvidding is that any ship of this nature will inevitably inspire a vid set to "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails (the "I want to fuck you like an animal" song).
 * "Descent of the Archangel" from Kamelot's Faustian Concept Album Epica is nothing but Mephisto hitting on Ariel in song.
 * "Nemeses" by Jonathan Coulton. Especially noticeable in the third verse.
 * Even more obvious in earlier live versions (like this one)--the chorus's first two lines were as follows:

"Hey, here's a thought when you're done kickin' my face in. You and me grab a bite, and some flirty conversation"
 * "Then Again, Maybe Not" by Kirby Krackle.


 * "What Have You Done Now" by Within Temptation is about two lovers who are also mortal enemies.
 * "Skullcrusher Mountain" by Jonathan Coulton
 * "Blue Like You" by The Megas, a Mega Man fan song, portrays Flash Man as feeling this towards Mega Man.

Mythology

 * Thor and Loki. Thor never seems to like Loki much from the beginning, but Loki certainly had fun getting Thor fitted for a wedding dress.
 * Who wouldn't?
 * Also, Odin and Loki. They were sworn brothers before falling out. When it comes to insults, they have a long list of humiliating anecdotes about each other, especially about "effeminacy". Odin's wife had to make them stop once.
 * Horus and Set, both legendary and canonical.

Newspaper Comics

 * The Argyle Sweater has a rather disturbing example: Aslan and the White Witch.

Professional Wrestling

 * The fall of 2008 Raw storyline between Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Kane could be considered as such, what with Kane speaking in excruciating detail of the pleasure he always took from hurting Rey, even going as far as to describe the feel of his heartbeat increasing and the happiness he got from carrying Rey's mask around with him.
 * The storyline between Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar, the two biggest stars of the Ruthless Aggression Era, revolved in a never ending cycle as tag team partners/rivals/buddies with hints of unresolved tension (and obsession) between the two. It was further hinted with Kurt's confusion of his sexuality and a Take that Kiss, as initiated by Brock.
 * Randy Orton and everyone.
 * Edge vs Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania 26. Edge will spear Jericho when he least expects it.
 * Trish Stratus vs. Lita? Or Mickie James vs. Anyone else? Good old Kiss of Death.
 * Wade Barrett wants John Cena to wash his back.
 * Scott Steiner wants to put Goldberg in the Steiner Recliner so he can whisper in Goldberg's ear that "Size does matter, BITCH!"
 * And then there was Justin Credible's bizarre feud with Stacy Keibler, wherein he came across as a Depraved Homosexual who was insanely jealous of the attention Stacy got from the fans and began harassing her during her promos to an almost stalkerish degree. Notably, he'd interrupt her whenever she was about to do something Fan Service-related, and depicted not only this trope but also quite a bit of Green-Eyed Monster tendencies on top of it all.
 * Perhaps the biggest example though was Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon during the attitude era. The two couldn't stand one another, so much to the point that there was a lot of Belligerent Sexual Tension Subtext.
 * And more than one "Take That!" Kiss.
 * The Test/Scott Steiner feud in 2003 involved matches to determine who would get the services of Stacy Keibler. With Stacy already in Test's corner, the stipulation for their Unforgiven match was that Steiner would belong to him as well if he lost... which indeed happened.
 * On a Raw prior to Wrestlemania XVII, The Miz ambushed John Cena, with the attack culminating in a shot of The Miz looming over a beaten Cena laying by the WWE logo stand, with a particularly sadistic smile.

Sports
"Commenter: "Is Weir really a man?" Lysacek: "Oh, yes. Definitely. And what a man...""
 * One of the more common views of Mixed Martial Arts and the associated sport of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, due to both the usual requirement of being lean and physically in shape, and the "ground game." From a fan perspective a standing clinch can look like "hugging," but things can look especially homoerotic once it hits the ground. Of course, from the perspectives of the fighters themselves, they're just trying to win using what techniques they know to work within the rules, i.e. wrapping one's legs around the opponent's waist (the "full guard"), as much as it may resemble the missionary position, is to mitigate damage and block attempts to "pass guard," while setting up sweeps of the opponent to end up on top, or to set up choke holds or joint locks from the bottom.
 * For an example of this view, a mostly work-safe write-up of UFC 83.
 * The weigh-ins. Dear God, the weigh-ins. Shirtless, standing nose-to-nose, both guys giving the most intense Death Glare they can muster? Oh, yeah.
 * Any sports the ancient Greeks ever practiced ever. Gymnopaedia, anyone?
 * Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir, two rival American figure skaters, are infamous for retconning their relationship. In the past, they were obviously quite friendly with each other, but now they both claim that they either don't care about or actively dislike the other. Their most recent scuffle: Evan said that Johnny wasn't good enough to participate in a particular ice show, Johnny called him a slore during an interview, Evan claimed not to have watched that interview...and then it transpired that Evan's castmates on Dancing With The Stars had started calling him a slore.
 * Any Ho Yay implications were unfortunately destroyed when Lysacek Tweeted an incredibly offensive comment about Weir and then refused to apologize for several days.
 * Better theoretical response by Lysacek?

Television

 * In Angel, Angel and Lindsey share a foe yay rivalry, though it could be argued that Lindsey's obsession with Angel is unrequited. In fact, in the series finale when he is gunned down by Lorne, he expresses anger and disbelief not because of Angel's betrayal but solely because after their history as enemies, Angel was not the one to defeat him. See The Only One Allowed to Defeat You

Tabletop Games

 * This trope actually killed one of the vestiges in the Dungeons and Dragons Tome of Magic (3.5 ed.) -- Agares, Truth Betrayed. He deeply respected a recurring adversary, so suspecting a Foe Yay taking place, one of his lieutenants delivered a fake challenge to a duel with that adversary and then murdered Agares.
 * In the Edition War series on the D&D Forums there are at least two cases of foe yay (and technically there's Puppet/Shade but Puppet is Shade's mom so we don't like talking about that).
 * Forgotten Realms has their share, the most famous being the archwizard known as Lord Shadow (Netherese who discovered the Demiplane of Shadow) and, one of the most talented among the hundreds of assassins who hunted him. They tried to kill each other, then saved each other, then decided they preferred the latter. And eventually "vanished" together when attempts on his life became too tiresome.
 * How about Artemis Entreri's obsession with Drizzt Do'Urden?
 * Another D&D example occurred in the Mystara setting with the Immortals (D&D's functional equivalent of AD&D's gods) Ixion and Nyx. Ixion was the reigning Hierarch of the Sphere of Energy, and the Immortal of the sun, light, and fire, while Nyx was a Hierarch of the Sphere of Entropy, and the Immortal of night, darkness, and the undead. They constantly opposed one another, but got along very well in their "off hours," and were clearly attracted to one another. The fluff never made it clear whether they had ever consummated their flirtation.
 * White Wolf's Exalted setting lends itself well to this trope, since two of the "bad guy" exalt types- Abyssals and Infernals- were once Solars in the First Age, and may have been close friends or lovers to Lunars, other Solars, Sidereals, etc.
 * Hell, plain old Solars and Lunars can have this. The nature of the Solar Bond means that Lunars are often lovers to Solars, but can just as often be best friends, boon companions... or rivals who challenge them on every level. And those categories can easily shift.
 * Official characters Harmonious Jade (Solar) and Disciple of the Seven Forbidden Wisdoms (Abyssal), former First Age lovers, seem to have a bit of this going down.
 * Implied to be canon between Deathlords First And Forsaken Lion and Princess Magnificent With Lips Of Black Coral (at least on Lion's side).
 * The Dark Eldar of Warhammer 40000 are quite probably the masters of this trope, as while they fight solely to increase the amount of slaves on which they can inflict horrific tortures, their attitude and behaviour towards this endeavour is distinctly sexual in nature (to the point where they have become Memetic Molesters in some parts of the fandom) and especially in the context of the World Half Empty setting its almost as if that's how they normally get dates. For a specific example, the Eldar after action report for the Dark Eldar campaign in Dawn of War: Soulstorm notes that Archon Tahril was disappointed that Farseer Caerys escaped capture, as he wanted her to be his "personal plaything". Seriously.
 * Whats squickier is that there is fanfiction of that.
 * Chandra and Jace from Magic: The Gathering are implied to have this sort of relationship, judging the flavor text of many of their respective cards. The tie-in works seem to confirm this: they often unite to defeat a common foe and even save each other's lives from time to time, but still chase each other around a lot. In honor of this, Wizards has released a pair of preconstructed decks reflecting the two.
 * This is canon for the Gentry in Changeling: The Lost. Their home dimension, Arcadia, is made of such swirling chaos that the only way for the Gentry to maintain power and coherency there is to make war on one another. So, a Gentry's best friend among the fae is the one who will try their hardest to stab them in the back for tales of glory.
 * And this is sometimes a literal example. The chapter fiction is a romance between characters controlled by opposing True Fae.

Theater
"I swear to you- I will be there..."
 * Shakespeare's tragedies are rife with this trope... Tybalt/Romeo? Check. Cassius/Caesar? Check. Iago/Othello? Check. Coriolanus/Aufidius? Check. Antonio/Shylock? Check. And in this case, people with fancy degrees actually spend too much of their time researching and writing about it.
 * In cases like Tybalt/Romeo, it's much more obvious when a female is cast as Tybalt; the results are very interesting...
 * Tybalt and Romeo? What about Tybalt and Mercutio!?
 * The comedies aren't free, either. Valentine/Proteus, anyone?
 * Nor are the histories, which give us Hal/Hotspur and Richard II/Bolingbroke.
 * Especially Iago and Othello. Some of his lines even seem jealous of Desdemona and homoerotic enough to suggest that Iago really is deluded enough to imagine a (completely one-sided) romantic relationship with him and Othello. Somehow, this seems a bit more plausible than his whole motivation being jealous over Cassio's promotion.
 * Jean Valjean and the original Inspector Javert from Les Misérables. Hey, the woman whose child you've sworn to raise as your own has just died from an STD? No problem—just sing a song with your sworn nemesis!


 * It doesn't help that during the One Day More song at the 10th Anniversary Concert where each "group" shares a microphone (Marius and Cosette, the Amis de l'ABC, while Eponine and Gavroche are alone) Valjean and Javert sing on the same mike.
 * Billy Budd, also the book, but especially the opera. I mean WTF. Claggart has a crush on Billy who's too naive to notice it. And he sings a long aria about the boy's beauty and how he "cannot enter" where "love stills lives and grows strong" and therefore he must destroy Billy. It's not even subtext, it's clearly slashy. Not to mention he steals Billy's scarf and pervs over it. And runs around with a phallic symbol.
 * Depends on the production, but Puccini's Tosca sometimes has this between Tosca and Scarpia.
 * It isn't evident (or at least it isn't as obvious)in the novel The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but the musical adaptation contains several hints of foe yay. The best example is the song Confrontation. During the song, Jekyll and Hyde are fighting for dominance and it becomes a Fight Club-like Mind Game Ship. It is more prominent in this production, which decided to portray Jekyll and Hyde as two different actors. Note at 2:13, when Hyde pounces onto Jekyll and flips him over, how Jekyll is sprawled on the floor and thrusts his hips upward.
 * From Wicked: "My pulse it rushing, my head is reeling, what is this feeling, fervid as a flame - does it have a name? YES! It's loathing!" Clearly loathing. Totally not lust or anything. Of course, Elphie and Galinda later develop a Romantic Two-Girl Friendship, and they got the Word of Gay treatment, so...

Web Comics
"Wonderella: Whaa?! I fight you all the damn time! Hitlerella: You call that fighting? I spend weeks building a huge death machine... Then you show up, flip it on its back, Wham! Bang! and you're gone! I need someone who will listen to my monologues, Dana. Someone who'll be there till the police show up. Wonderella: Hitlerella, I swear I am that someone."
 * Fuse: Bastardface often teases Starkeeper by telling her how much he likes her.
 * Penny and Aggie: Despite seeing it first through the eyes of Sara's suppressed lesbianism... well, let's just say these two gave her subconscious plenty to work with, and indeed, the main plot thread in the last third of the strip is the two of them realizing she was probably right after all.
 * The Non-Adventures of Wonderella lampoons it in this strip.


 * This is a bit of a running gag on Wonderella, mostly with Hitlerella as the foe but occasionally Jokerella assuming a more "unrequited crush" position.
 * It comes to a head in this Super Stupor.
 * String Theory has major Foe Yay between Schtein and...well, everyone. Especially true in his competitive relationship with  Dr. Langstrom, and fellow prison inmate Drew Mac Manus.
 * Langstrom has a tendency to address Schtein as 'Hervy' and 'darling'. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.
 * Mac Manus and his prison gang actually corner Schtein in the showers, and the possibility of rape seems very, very real.
 * The Adventures of Dr. McNinja has our favorite McNinja and . In fact, this trope turned out to be.
 * There's always 'The Event' from Order of the Stick when Belkar, drunk on New Year's, grabbed Vaarsuvius and kissed him/her. Fortunately for V, Belkar didn't remember a thing afterwards. V made a point of increasing his/her explosive rune usage on Belkar as a direct result of this incident.
 * Lackadaisy : Viktor and Mordecai. Mordecai kneecapped Viktor just before leaving the Lackadaisy Gang, but they have a history. At the very least, they were the closest thing either of them had to a best friend.
 * Megatokyo's Piro and Miho had a somewhat nebulous relationship some time prior to the start of the comic, and Miho maintains that they were "lovers," though Piro contends otherwise . Miho, for her part, has spent the majority of the comic playing various mindgames with Piro, up to an including attempting to seduce his best friend, Largo (who hates her even more than Piro does, making this almost an example of a Foe Yay love triangle).
 * Parts of Sinfest have vaguely 'couples' counseling'-type moments with God and Satan... Also, the third panel of this strip. For the lulz.
 * Oh, come on. I can't be the only one who saw a little foe yay between Seymour and Lil Evil.
 * In Unwinder's Tall Comics Unwinder starts Shipping Jaded Lament and Colonel Gunarm after watching a few episodes of Tokyo Delta Jetlag D.
 * In Girl Genius, Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer) and Gilgamesh Wulfenbach have a lot of this going on, according to Othar's sister. She also reassures him that she's okay with it, having been desensitized to homoeroticism during her time among the mechanical narwhal pirates.
 * Word of God has also implied that Othar views Agatha as a potential love interest.
 * Some het examples is Zola towards Gil and Tarvek. She seems to have Villainous Crush on Gil and regards Tarvek as hers.
 * There's also the Foe Yay between Gil and Tarvek, which stems both from misinterpretations of past events as well as from the fact that they're both chasing after the same girl. The fact that lately they've been getting along a lot better, with Gil having twice endangered his life to save Tarvek's, has made it seem that their relationship may be changing to Vitriolic Best Buds instead. Many fans, hoping for an OT3 ending, play up these angles, especially since the authors have done this sort of thing in previous works.
 * Homestuck has this in spades... specifically, it is one of the four cornerstones of troll romance, represented by the suit of Spades much as "normal" romance is represented by Hearts. The Trolls call it "caliginous" romance, based on completely hating the other person's guts, followed not long after with Black Queen/Jack Noir given as an example. It even plays a role in the trolls' complicated reproduction cycle, since each troll must supply the Mother Grub with DNA from a pitied one and hated one.
 * Homestuck has this in spades... specifically, it is one of the four cornerstones of troll romance, represented by the suit of Spades much as "normal" romance is represented by Hearts. The Trolls call it "caliginous" romance, based on completely hating the other person's guts, followed not long after with Black Queen/Jack Noir given as an example. It even plays a role in the trolls' complicated reproduction cycle, since each troll must supply the Mother Grub with DNA from a pitied one and hated one.


 * Hark! A Vagrant parodies this with a pirate and his nemesis, who each carry pictures of the other with them at all times.
 * It's probably just me reading into it too much, but I got a little of this vibe from Litchfield and Author from Instant Classic. They used to work together, Litchfield refers to him as "Auteur" (which for him is a pet name) on occasion, and Litchfield tries fairly fervently to get Author to join Studio Litchfield again and work with him as co-director. Plus, Author seems to be the only person Litchfield likes even a little.
 * Spacetrawler: Growp's final words to Emily are that he wants to kill her because he loves her.
 * Eerie Cuties has a few rather hilarious moments when Tiffany Winters tried to become a proper vampire slayer the second time. Three pages and a few blushes later, she becomes the second known living thing after her catboyfriend one of many, many... many friends to whom Layla is really nice and hugs her "nemesis" in tears.
 * Tiff has similar Les Yay with Faith in in Magick Chicks. Faith clearly cares for Ash as well. When they aren't fighting. Well, Faith calls him "lover" then, as well...
 * The situation is one-sided and insincere, though. Faith is a Schoolgirl Lesbian who uses psychic seduction as a tool of social dominance in an all-girls school. Ash is her actual lover. Tiff is straight, wants to be the new Alpha Bitch, and despises her; Faith wants to control her and her power.
 * A quick throwaway gag from Shortpacked: Olbermann, O'Reilly admit secret love, tonight at 11.
 * This sequence between Kin and Scorpion Kin where they discuss the advantages of her tail's sensitivity.
 * One Princess Pi comic ended with Pi

Web Originals
"Liam: (regarding Vladimir Von Helson) Dude, he's totally into you."
 * Homestar Runner. Of course, the rivalry between Strong Bad and Homestar isn't nearly as bad as most examples; Homestar is far too dumb to realize Strong Bad's annoyed by him, and Strong Bad is more of a Sitcom Arch Nemesis than anything. This doesn't, however, stop this dynamic duo from starring in countless fanfics, a few of which are Foe Yay.
 * The series itself made fun of this in the Strong Bad Email "fan club", wherein Strong Sad writes a Strong Bad fanfic that edges into SB/H* Slash Fic territory before it's interrupted.
 * The Nostalgia Critic and the The Angry Video Game Nerd got shipped in a fan fiction which Bennet the Sage read out loud to everyone.
 * The number of AVGN/NC fics in existence is rising, going from the one mentioned above (which is widely considered to be junk or just a Troll!Fic) to all of these: an apocalypse!fic and a sexpollen!fic (both of which contain as many pairings as possible), a genderswap!fic and a "reimagining" of the final battle.
 * That apocalypse!fic also shipped Dr. Insano/Linkara. And now Bennet has read that one too.
 * With such gems such as "You diabolical cream puff!" the prolific use of the phrase 'Nerd-On-Critic Action' to refer to their epic fight, and the fact that for their retrospect video they use the song 'Ghost Love Score,' it's kinda hard NOT to ship them just a little bit. We fangirls have built pairings on MUCH less.
 * James Rolfe is kinda horrified by it. When asked at a convention what he felt when he first discovered it existed, his face spelled pure terror, referring to it as "the creepy art?"
 * On the other hand, Doug Walker found the art hilarious when Benzaie quizzed him about it. And as he's the one who coined the phrase "Nerd-On-Critic action" (along with lampshading it with Chester's review) and scored the retrospective to "Ghost Love Score", it's safe to say that he knew what he was doing.
 * The feud between Benzaie and That Dude in the Suede ended in a love confession (it was brought again on Ben's ''A Frog In Chicago Again V Log). No, that's not fanfiction.
 * Ever since she bashed three of his movies in a row, there are people who ship The Nostalgia Chick with Michael Bay. Yes, really.
 * Nostalgia Chick/Nostalgia Critic should count, too.
 * This trope, coupled with The Chew Toy and possibly Jerkass Woobie, is the main reason why the Critic is a such a Launcher of a Thousand Ships. He fights with everyone, therefore he gets paired with everyone.
 * The Sentinel and the Overseer have their respective superweapons, a portal and a trident...
 * Plus, they were childhood friends! Adorable childhood friends! And the Overseer's description of the Sentinel did cause Liam to comment "Hot"... and the Overseer didn't disagree.
 * Somebody's forgetting Halloween 2007 and all the vampires invading Gino's personal space.


 * Thanks to some demented fangirl on /y/, everyone/Yahtzee is now considered canon. Yes, in that exact order.
 * Most of the Ho Yay on Red vs. Blue happens between teammates. However, with half the cast tasked to try and kill the other half, this trope does crop up now and then, particularly between Caboose and Donut.
 * This trope is the entire point of Waiting for A Miracle.
 * The Joker Blogs: Much like in the film that inspired it, The Joker makes some stunningly suggestive remarks to Batman. "We belong together. There's a wedding ceremony upstairs, just waiting for us to make it official ..."
 * Throughout Cracked.com's 5 Writing Tips for the People Who Send Me Death Threats, writing a death threat is treated the same as writing a love letter.
 * Lenore and Mr. Gosh, though Lenore considers him a nuisance, and kills him alot. She does fall for him, once though.
 * In Greek Ninja, the arch enemy  hits on Sasha and keeps making remarks about her looks, however she repells his advances.

Real Life

 * You actually know people like this - Even if nobody has ever done this to you (or you never did it to anyone else) you know someone who's done this with someone they hate. It's one thing if they are seen around someone they claim to hate so much in grade school where attendance is compulsory; but another to see people on The Internet and outside of school saying "I hate you" and then intentionally seeking you out.
 * Parodied by The Onion: "Sexual Tension Between Arafat, Sharon Reaches Breaking Point"
 * This was done in at least two skits by the Royal Canadian Air Farce. One was a musical number where they sing the original song "You Don't Bring Me Bagels Anymore" to each other. The other was dialogue-less, as they meet, and in the interest of diplomacy start giving more and more respectful gestures to each other... until they give each other a manly, backslapping hug...and the slaps turn to caresses...
 * Pope Sixtus V (1585–90) confirmed the excommunication of Elizabeth I of England from the Catholic Church and promised the King of Spain a huge sum of money if his Armada was successful in deposing her. He nevertheless had great respect for her courage and determination and is quoted for expressing regret that he could not marry her, because "our children would have ruled the world".
 * Speaking of Elizabeth I and Philip II of Spain—back when he was married to her sister, Philip helped keep Elizabeth alive, and upon Mary's death, proposed to Elizabeth. Elizabeth refused, of course—but she kept a picture of him in a closet in her chamber, and was quite miffed when he married Elizabeth Valois of France.
 * Hitler and Stalin. Stalin obsessively collected details about Hitler's personal life after the war, and Hitler seemed unusually keen on possessing the very city that bore Stalin's name.
 * Everyone could see this "relationship" early on. Just look at this newspaper picture (which had the caption "How long will the marriage last?" in describing the initial Soviet-Nazi treaty).
 * There was a New Yorker cover that showed Obama and (HILLARY) Clinton in bed together.
 * She wants to be under Barrack Obama, Bama, Bama, eh, eh, eh!
 * Japan certainly caught on quickly!
 * Cicero and Catiline. This is cemented about halfway through Cicero's first speech when he refers to his bed in the diminutive.
 * Not to mention their portrayal in Robert Harris's (granted, fictional) Cicero trilogy, notably in the second book, Lustrum: "A few rows back, Catilina watched Cicero with almost lascivious interest."
 * People have already made many jokes about Barack Obama being close with Hugo Chavez, after they cheerfully greeted each other despite bad relations. On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart mentioned that this was like fanfiction. Ooh boy.
 * The Benetton ad campaign titled “Unhate” took the Foe Yay subtext that lives among political figures and their international counterparts and took it to the next level. Warning. Not safe for sanity.
 * Joe Rogan once got into a fierce argument with fellow comedian Carlos Mencia about stealing joke material. During the argument, Carlos mocks him by saying that the reason he's so obsessed with him is that he's secretly in love with him.
 * The rivalry between Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes in economics.
 * Hamilton/Jefferson ftw! Powder wigs and knee-breeches and political and personal hatred - not to mention that they were arguable the two sexiest Founding Fathers (though in two very different ways)
 * Oh, but Hamilton/Jefferson has nothing on Adams/Jefferson. Best of friends turned into the worst of enemies due to politics, especially the election of 1800. There are historians dedicated to these two and their relationship. To top it all off, both of them died on the same day hours from one another. The day of the year? July 4, American Independence Day.
 * Don't forget that Adam's final words were "Thomas Jefferson still survi--". He was wrong; Jefferson had died earlier that day.
 * Jefferson and Adams have a touching ending, too. In their August years, not wanting to die without having explained themselves to each other, they struck up a correspondence that accumulated one hundred and fifty letters between them. Then, of course, died within hours of each other fifty years exactly after the Declaration was ratified by Congress.
 * The Duke of Wellington had a 14 foot tall nude statue of Napoleon in his entry hall. Really.
 * Because it was a free gift. The British Government bought it for him.
 * You still don't have to put it out on display.
 * You do if they gave it to you expecting you to hide it.
 * Actually, considering Napoleon wasn't the most attractive of military geniuses, You'd more have to consider it a testament to Wellington's sheer steel-plated will (and possibly, a testiment to his lack of gag reflex).
 * New Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. They've been "flirting" with each other for years, but now that they'll (most likely) be fighting for the right to lead the country, things can only get... more interesting...
 * Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell during the New Labour years, and possibly since, too; Mandelson also with David Cameron's now Chancellor George Osborne more recently.
 * It's one thing to be outraged about an openly gay student body president at your alumnus, it's quite another to create a blog devoted to harassing and defaming said college student and his friends and family via Facebook screengrabs, calling him a gay Nazi elitist racist and "protesting" outside his house like a crazy teenager. And the grown man who's doing this cyber-bullying is an assistant attorney general who claims his actions are "political, not personal". He was eventually fired after it became clear to his boss that he was doing his cyber-bullying at work and not on his own time.
 * See here "How not to come out of the closet".
 * This actually happens with Hatedoms, too. There is a good reason that this trope is listed on the Hate Dumb page as an example of Hate Dumb, too! It's actually kind of...interesting how people seem to be talking about and/or keeping tabs on shows they claim to hate. It evidently seems like they're doing something right...since they're spreading word of mouth and are more than often encouraging people to see it to see how bad it is. (This often leads to Critical Backlash, too.)
 * Justin Bieber. Just look on twitter and with a straight face deny that the hatedom and Fan Haters aren't Foe Yay with them.
 * Heck, look at the comments in YouTube! It's safe to say that a good 95-100% of any music videos out there will have numerous comments trashing Justin Bieber or his fans, and any other video will have a 50-75% chance of having a comment like that.
 * Even if the video has nothing to do with music whatsoever, there is still a 40% probability someone will bring up the biebster as an example of something bad. Just Let It Go !
 * For a group of people who hate Twilight so much, it's kind of surprising how many of them go out to buy or read every single book or see every single movie based on the franchise. It's also amazing to see how many members of the hatedom constantly bring it up in conversation.
 * This is more justified of subverting a famous excuse from the fanbase that they did not 'read the books/seen the movies', therefore they should not criticize it. After all, you can't logically hate something if you don't know a thing about it.
 * However; at the same time, the hatedom just refuses to MOVE ON. The franchise really owes a good portion of its popularity (and revenues) to the free advertisement the Hate Dumb keeps giving.
 * There are Christopher Nolan "haters" on the director's IMDb boards who post at least every hour, which suggests a different kind of obsession entirely.
 * Anime-style art as well as fan art on Deviant ART. Most of the truly mediocre stuff would be forgotten - if not for the fact that people just won't shut up about it.
 * If you look at the official boards for any MMORPG, you'll notice people who claim to have quit the game years ago or found something better yet still seem to be logging in again and again.
 * This actually happens a lot with other games; too. It's quite amazing to see how many people claim to have left the fandom yet still buy and play every single game that's come out ever since.
 * Wal-Mart has a Hatedom that keeps coming back again and again to buy stuff from them despite openly detesting it. Even when they have a choice.
 * This was lampshaded in Persona 4 with the Hatedom of Junes.
 * If you've ever worked customer service, not just Wal-Mart or its equivalents, you've seen these customers. You know them - the kind who say you lost them as a customer yet you see them come back again and again.
 * Politics. There is absolutely no need to describe anything involving that. AT ALL. And we mean it.
 * Muammar Gaddafi and Condoleezza Rice: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/gaddafi-condoleezza-rice-album-_n_936385.html
 * Although this was strictly one-sided. Rice thought is was hella creepy.
 * Bill Maher (liberal comedian) and Ann Coulter (conservative pundit) have a strangely mixed relationship. While obviously they argue a lot, being of very different ideologies (though still more similar on some subjects than you might expect) there are times when Bill Maher will defend Ann Coulter, like when she was an interview guest on his show, and he shouted at other interview guests for being so dismissive towards her.
 * Nicki Minaj & Lil' Kim anyone?