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.