Lover Tug of War

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Mine!" "Mine!" "Stop! You're gonna dislocate my shoulders!"

Most guys would give anything to have the girl of his dreams literally want a piece of him.

But it can get painful if more than one girl wants that to happen.

Watch as each young lady in this tug of war grabs an extremity (usually an arm) and literally tries to take her man away from her rival, in a grotesquely hilarious exaggeration of wish fulfillment. Bonus Points if girls in competition shout this:

"He's mine!"
"No, he's mine!"

A staple of the Harem genre of anime. The unfortunate bloke in question is effectively Made of Iron for the duration of suffering under this trope, especially when the contestants have superstrength.

This trope also shows the chivalrous side of a guy -- he Wouldn't Hit a Girl even to protect himself from this trope. For this reason, a girl is rarely fought over this directly in Distaff Counterpart harems.

See A Lady on Each Arm for the less violent version of this trope.


Examples of Lover Tug of War include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • Archie: Try finding some promotional art for this comic or its (non-Jughead) spinoffs that doesn't depict Betty and Veronica doing this to Archie.
  • Superman: A lot of old comics, specially Lois Lane comics feature Lois Lane and Lana Lang in such a position.

Western Animation

  • Jimmy Two-Shoes: Heloise and Beezy over Jimmy in "The Competition".
  • In one of the earlier color episodes of Popeye, Popeye and Pluto vie for Olive Oyl's affections by pulling each of her arms in opposite directions. (Since she originated in the age of rubber-hose animation, her arms stretch to a length of about 30 feet.)
  • A disturbing one in Superjail where the women from the female prison have a ball with the men, the Twins release spanish flies that drive all the women sex crazy. In one case two girls do this to the point they rip the man's arms off and start dry humping themselves with said arms.

Web Comics