Bastard Boyfriend/Playing With
Basic Trope: Always Male Love Interest whose emotional and/or sexual abuse of his lover is treated as Fetish Fuel.
- Straight: Draco is dating Violet, but is cold, controlling, and sexually abusive even though he really loves her; she loves him back but is conflicted about his behavior. His dominance and her distress are presented as titillating.
- Exaggerated: Draco is an obsessed, possessive Complete Monster who sexually and psychologically abuses Violet, doing everything within his power to convince her that she should submit utterly to his control because of his love, but it's still intended to be sexy and romantic.
- Justified:
- Draco is Troubled but Cute, and his abusive behavior is fueled by his crippling insecurities
- Violet grew up watching the men in her life treat their significant others badly, so she doesn't know anything else.
- Inverted:
- Violet abuses Draco and becomes Ms. Fanservice because of it.
- Draco is dating Violet, and often treats her with kindness. This shows his genuine love for her.
- Or, Draco often insults and belittles everyone else, but is nice to Violet.
- Subverted: Violet gets fed up with Draco's bad behavior and dumps him.
- Double Subverted: ...However, she later second-guesses this and apologizes, allowing Draco to show her how wrong she was to resist her feelings for him.
- Parodied: Violet pursues Draco Pepe LePew-style, begging him to "Hurt me MORE!" Draco is terrified.
- Deconstructed:
- Violet allows Draco to abuse her because she thinks she deserves it.
- Draco is presented as a Domestic Abuser, whose abuse doesn't get romanticized. Violet thinks he's secretly a kind person and he can change, but this is treated as an unhealthy symptom of the abuse he gives her, like it is in Real Life.
- Reconstructed:
- Violet dates Draco, because she's afraid not to, but ends up understanding that abuse is love and they live happily ever after.
- Violet comes to realize that she's masochistic and gets off on his behavior. They enter a consensual BDSM relationship with clearly specified limits.
- Zig Zagged: Draco sometimes abuses Violet on certain days, but treats her like a princess on others. It's not specified rather this is a way Draco keeps Violet thinking she can "change him" and stay in a relationship with him, like abusers in Real Life sometimes do.
- Averted: Violet refuses Draco's advances because her gut tells her that he'd treat her badly.
- Enforced: The audience likes rape fantasy, but they want it in a nice safe romantic concept, so the writers use this trope.
- Lampshaded:
- "He may molest me and order me around me all the time, but that's just how he shows his love!"
- "I know you secretly like it when I do this, Violet. Which means I'm entitled to do whatever I want to you even if you say you don't want me to, so you'd better just admit you enjoy it!"
- Invoked: Draco realises that All Girls Want Bad Boys, and adopts this kind of behavior to his advantage.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Violet realizes how messed up the relationship is and leaves Draco.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "I hate it when complete Jerk Asses get romanticised in fiction. I mean, what is attractive about being belittled and condescended to?"
- Played For Laughs: Draco is a Loveable Sex Maniac who keeps trying to molest Violet despite her violent protests, Violet has a hidden Tsundere side and flirts by berating him for his perviness, and there's lots of Slapstick on both sides.
- Played For Drama: Violet loves Draco with all her heart, and knows that, deep down, he loves her back...but why does he make it so hard to stand by him?
Back to Bastard Boyfriend.