Stalker with a Crush - TV Tropes

"Stalking is when two people take a long romantic walk together, but only one of them is aware of it."

• PangPond: Leng and Hong's Chinese cousin Mei from the episode "PangPond in Love 2" goes as far as to try to kidnap PangPond and take him back to China with her, all because she has a massive crush on him.

• For Better or for Worse had a storyline in which Elizabeth was stalked by an obsessed co-worker. For some reason she thought it would be best to dissuade her father from putting a stop to it, which resulted in her nearly being raped and ultimately rescued by Anthony.
• Aldo Kelrast from Mary Worth, who even spawned a meme.
• In PreTeena, Johnson Pinecone teeters on the verge of this in his pursuit of Jeri Keene, always managing to be there and knowing from observation what she likes.
• Luann had Bernice towards Piro, until she kissed him, felt nothing, and ghosted him as a result.
  • It also has Tiffany towards Kip, even though A. Kip is already dating Stef and B. Ox has an incredibly obvious crush on Tiffany.

• Yuri in Faeries' Landing cuts up Ryang's (the object of her obsession) face for breaking up with her, and she can and will do anything it takes to keep any other girls away from Ryang.
• Jae-min in Orange Marmalade follows Ma-ri around a lot at the start and when she accuses him of stalking her he says he's happy when he's watching her. Eventually their relationship becomes more mutual and he stops following her around. Later, when Si-Hoo is introduced, he begins stalking and harassing Jae-Min.
• Sali Tayi from Threads of Time is this way for Atan Hadas. He actually notices when her hairpin (which she gave to Moon-bin as a present of love) is missing, and manages to put two-and-two together remarkably fast (quickly deciding that the best way to resolve everything is to Murder the Hypotenuse). To put it in his words: "I've always been watching you..."

• Played with in WHO dunnit (1995): Bruno keeps a locker full of Trixie's pictures and news clippings, suggesting that he's stalking her out of love. However, the truth is that he's actually her father, Tex, who came back from the dead and is out to protect her.

• The first case on the Sick Sad World episode "Mysterious and Unsolved Cases" features one of these. When said stalker's target is kidnapped and murdered, he takes up calling her mother and saying "I've got her" or "I killed her". Dev and Jasmine speculate he wasn't the killer. Instead, he kept calling because he wanted the target of his obsession found and to continue having power related to her by harassing her mom.

• Stevie Richards started in ECW as Raven's insanely dedicated follower, and then to everyone's surprise, Richards himself was the object of someone's obsession. He was being stalked by then newcomer Francine.
• Steven Richards, when he followed around Victoria in drag, interfering with all her matches.
• WWE wrestler Mickie James's obsession with Trish Stratus went from hero worship, to dressing as Trish on Halloween, to trying to become Trish's lesbian lover (and abducting her boyfriend in the process), to beating Trish severely and licking the blood off her hands afterward. Somehow, when their climactic confrontation for the WWE Women's Championship came, she still got cheered.
  • Possibly because the writing was so over-the-top, it was impossible to take seriously.
  • Earlier, Alexis Laree herself had one in Ring Of Honor, Allison Danger. Danger's case was less obsessive gone too far and more "Laree will be my play thing whether she like it or not" from the very start.
• Around the time Mickie got started in WWE, Kurt Angle was in hot pursuit of Booker T's wife, Sharmell, whom he insisted was a gutter slut.
• Jimmy Jacobs in Ring of Honor. First to his ex girlfriend, The Lovely Lacey, and then to the Panama City Playboy Adam Cole.
• TNA would later rehash the Kurt Angle/Booker T/Sharmell angle with Scott Steiner relentlessly pursuing Bobby Lashley's wife, Kristal Marshall. There was a twist though, as Lashley was a two sport athlete, Kristal began pressuring him to quit pro wrestling and focus exclusively on mixed martial arts, due to TNA's poor handling of the situation, which in turn lead to Lashley assaulting random TNA wrestlers an a bid to get fired when they refused to terminate his contract. Scott Steiner turned out to be a real Unwitting Instigator of Doom, huh?
• Kane would count, but the stalking doesn't last before he just grabs the woman and walks off with her.
  • Kane has done this at least twice, first with Lita and later with Kelly Kelly. The first time he was played as a heel but was gradually shifted to face after the story shifted from him stalking, tormenting, and technically raping Lita, to Lita having a miscarriage and losing their child and Kane going out for revenge against the man who caused it, to eventually Lita betraying Kane for Edge. The second time, Kane was portrayed much more sympathetically from the get go, it starting from an unfortunate misunderstanding. It helped that one, his romantic rival in this case was Randy Orton, and two, that the storyline fizzled out before anything came of it.
  • And, all things coming full circle, Kane was then the target of his own stalker with a crush in the form of A.J. Lee, who was convinced that deep beneath his tormented soul, he really does have a heart. For his part, Kane seemed more confused by this than anything else, possibly because she was simultaneously a Stalker with a Crush for both CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.
• The Undertaker showed hints of this with Stephanie McMahon during his Ministry of Darkness period. He seemingly wanted to marry her to take control of the WWF but he invaded her house, left notes on her mirror, messed with her personal belongings, and had pictures taken of her which he had delivered to Vince in an envelope. He referred to himself as her soul mate and kidnapped her on two occasions. During a sit-down with her father & Jerry Lawler, Stephanie said that Taker was sending her pictures. ^note  On a final note, Stephanie said Taker stripped her, placed her in the dark robes for the ceremony, and repeatedly touched her while declaring that she was his & couldn't do anything about it.
• In the WWE subsidized version of Florida Championship Wrestling, Seth Rollins found himself with a physical and cyber stalker in the form of Paige. She eventually got over it though.
• Samuel Shaw in TNA towards interviewer Christy Hemme. Then he got his own in Brittany.
• Tori (Terri Poch) was this to Sable in 1999 WWE. The original plan was for Tori to be Sable's "sister," but the Les Yay potential was too good for WWE not to use.

• Charles Gérard in Andrea Chénier is crazy about Maddalena de Coigny and stalks her without getting discovered since he is a Beneath Notice servant in her house until the first act’s end. Then he becomes a revolutionary leader and sends spies after her. She is horrified when she finds out, though at first she thinks he has done it because he hates her.
• Don José in Carmen after she gets tired of him. He eventually kills her when she refuses to take him back.
• The Crucible has Abby Williams, who remorselessly accuses a woman of witchcraft so that she can marry the woman's husband. It backfires. Spectacularly.
  • Even before this, it starts to fall into Yandere territory when it's revealed that Abby drank blood in a charm to murder Elizabeth. Although it's subverted in the end, as Abby leaves before John is executed.
• Der Tod (Death) in Elisabeth. He spends most of Elisabeth's life stalking her because he's very attracted to her.
• In Fangirls, Loony Fan Edna abducts pop star Harry and holds him prisoner in her bedroom because she feels she is the only one who truly understands him. It is implied that most of the other Fangirls are just bad, but they don't act on their obsession.
• Marius and Eponine both qualify in Les Misérables. Eponine stalks Marius, Marius stalks Cosette and uses Eponine as an intermediary in his stalking of Cosette. Only one stalker comes out of it alive.
  • It helps that Cosette would probably be stalking Marius right back if her overprotective father ever let her out of the house on her own. She certainly obsesses over him at home, and once they finally meet, it's Love at First Sight.
• Tom in Murder Ballad becomes this after Sara ends their affair.
• Roderigo in Othello definitely qualifies, chasing Desdemona to Cyprus in his mistaken belief she'll submit. How he expects this to happen when they never actually meet...
  • The fact that Iago was leading him on probably didn't help to discourage him.
• Fosca from Passion is, aside from being a terminally ill Abhorrent Admirer, a Tsundere who emotionally blackmails her target, Giorgio, starving herself when he spurns her and guilting him into writing her a love letter when he finally visits her again. Unusually, Fosca ends up winning Giorgio over - and we're not so sure that's a good thing. What convinces him to go to Fosca is the realization that she would give everything, including her life, for his sake, whereas his current lover Clara won't leave her husband. (This, ignoring that Fosca has one foot in the grave already, and Clara says she'll leave her husband once her infant son is old enough to fend for himself.)
• While it was mentioned in the literature section, The Phantom of the Opera deserves a mention here as well. The title character is a combination of this trope and The Woobie. Even though he's usually portrayed pretty sympathetically, he still has a number of rather creepy lines.

  Erik: Your chains are still mine — you belong to me!

  • He gains Christine's trust by impersonating an angel sent by her dead father.
• Mizgir in The Snow Maiden. Ever since he sees the eponymous heroine he follows her wherever she goes. When she's in a crowd, he merely watches her, and whenever she's alone or without anyone able to protect her, he tries to use first bribes and then force to win her. And then it can be seen as quite creepy when he does get her, if only for a short while, thanks to a sort of love philtre.
  • To a lesser extent the Snow Maiden herself for Lel, the attractive shepherd who eventually shuns her because of her frigidity. Justified as she's far too naive and childish for her age and simply doesn't understand that stalking won't endear her to him again. The poor guy can't even sing a love duet with his new darling without the Snow Maiden watching.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Anthony's song, "Johanna", is creepy in a few ways:

  Do they think that walls can hide you?
  Even now I'm at your window...
  I am in the dark beside you
  buried sweetly in your yellow hair
  I feel you, Johanna
  And one day, I'll steal you
  'Til I'm with you then
  I'm with you there...
  Sweetly buried in your yellow hair

  • Although Sweeney and Turpin's versions of "Johanna" take the creepiness to the nth power. Besides, "stalker" implies that Johanna wanted him to leave her alone. She was perfectly happy to have his attention, if only because she really, really didn't want to marry Turpin.
  • Yep to above. It's mainly in the film version that Anthony's song takes on a "stalkerish" feel, particularly with his somewhat creepy bloody face as he sings (since he just got the crap beaten out of him by the Beadle). In the stage version, the two of them actually meet for the first half of the song before being interrupted by Turpin and the Beadle (which involves the Beadle snapping the neck of the poor little bird that was Anthony's gift to her). The second half of the stage version isn't nearly as stalkerish as the film version, and has Anthony ripping apart the bird cage in a rather symbolic gesture.
    • And besides, any stalkerish tendencies that Anthony has towards Johanna are pretty much kicked to the curb in the musical when you look at Judge Turpin, given the uber-Squick of "Mea Culpa". To accuse Anthony of being a perv after that is like being violently attacked by an anaconda and then freaking out at the sight of a grass snake.
  • Also, Mrs Lovett. Not so overt, but definitely there. She's clearly obsessed with Sweeney, and has been for a very long time. Complete with cooing over how "beautiful" he was fifteen years ago, keeping his straight razors in case he ever came back and needed them, and (in the film version at least) keeping his old room exactly the way it was when he left it. Yikes.
• Wicked has not one but two scary stalkers. Petrifying clingy girl Nessarose, out to enslave her beloved's people in order to keep him with her; and Boq, the beloved in question, who doesn't understand Glinda's just not interested. She doesn't even remember his name but he lives in hope.
  • Boq's far more of a Love Martyr, considering that while he acts desperately out of hope that Glinda will notice him, he never actually crosses the line into stalking.

• Astraeus from Astoria: Fate's Kiss is one of these. He instantly falls in love with her and tries to kidnap her on several occasions in Hades' season 1 and 2 storyline. In season 3 of the game, he becomes a love interest himself.
• The dragon in Dra+Koi falls in love with the protagonist after he hits the reverse scale on her neck, after which she follows him around blowing stuff up until he agrees to date her.
• In Deiz, the player character is one of these towards the director Iris, to the point that he knows when she will walk by above his classroom.
• Miho from Liar Liar (2014) was being stalked by Wakabayashi for a while. She feared for her life but the police couldn't do anything until he physically harrassed her, the adults at school didn't believe her, and everyone insisted she was in the wrong for not giving Wakabayashi a chance. She almost hit a Despair Event Horizon but decided to kill him, though she couldn't get herself to do it so she got Yukari to do so. This event was her Start of Darkness.
• Hibiki from Lux-Pain is this toward Atsuki but is mainly played for laughs because of the situation that makes him seem like one mainly getting Atsuki's number because Atsuki isn't going to give him his number anytime soon and Ryo doesn't have a cellphone in order to give Hibiki Atsuki's number.
• In Shall We Date?: Can't Say No, Subaru stalks the heroine for days, and rescues her from a couple of thugs who try to rape her. It's implied that he later goes back and straight up murders some of the thugs.
• Traditionally, the three main Danganronpa games have a character that fits this role:
  • In the first game Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Toko Fukawa develops an obsession with Byakuya Togami and seems to be the only person in school who is willing to be next to him, to the point where she even calls him "Master" and is absolutely delighted when he insults her. Byakuya on the other hand finds Toko revolting and states multiple times that he wouldn't really mind if she were to get murdered, but her obsession also allows him to boss her around. Additionally, Toko's Serial Killer Split Personality, Genocide Jack, is just as obssesed with Byakuya as Toko is, which does somewhat terrify Byakuya. Despite Genocide Jack murdering every single boy she develops an interest on, she states that Byakuya is probably the only boy she wouldn't be willing to murder.
  • In the second game, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Kazuichi Soda is this to European exchange student Sonia Nevermind because she's a "hot blonde princess". Throughout the game Kazuichi either tries to get Sonia's attention or stalks her in order to admire her, despite Sonia seemingly being interested in Gundham (and vice-versa). Another factor is that Kazuichi tends to put Sonia on a pedestal, when all she ever wants is to be seen as an equal to her classmates. Sonia tries to be polite with Kazuichi at first, but she eventually ends up getting fed up with him when he is unable to tell that she obviously is not interested.
  • In the third game, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Tenko Chabashira often tries to get Himiko Yumeno's attention, but Himiko often ditches her to hang out with Angie or mistreats her due to Tenko making her uncomfortable. It should also be noted that aside from her crush on her, Tenko also finds Himiko constantly bottling up her emotions to be unhealthy for her, and she tries to convince her to express herself more often. After Tenko is murdered, Himiko remembers what she told her before she died and decides to stop bottling what she feels. She also expresses regret to having ignored and mistreated Tenko back when she was alive. Tenko is so far the only Stalker with a Crush character in the series that actually forms a healthy bond with the one she has a crush on, albeit posthumously.
• Doki Doki Literature Club!:
  • Monika is revealed to be one for the player. Not the character you're playing as, the player. All the Disguised Horror Story elements are from her tampering with the game so that she's the best romantic option. She edits the other girls' files so their worst traits are exaggerated, leading to two killing themselves out of Sanity Slippage. When that doesn't work, she deletes them from the game entirely. She also has a habit of railroading options in her favor, such as making the cursor move towards her name when the player is selecting who to help out with festival preparations in Act 2. By the time of Act 3, Monika is the only girl present in a heavily glitched game, who talks openly about her love for the player.
  • Yuri devolves into one in Act 2, as a result of the aforementioned Mind Rape. When she's first introduced, she comes off as a sweet Shrinking Violet who has some darker interests but is otherwise harmless. However, Monika tampers with her, making her increasingly more clingy and unstable while obsessing over the player character. While in Act 1 Yuri was simply the type who'd buy two copies of the same book so that she'd give the player character one in an attempt to impress him, in Act 2 she tries to push the other girls away from him, makes creepy and often perverted comments, and even steals things from him. At the height of her Sanity Slippage, she confesses her love in a crazed manner, only to stab herself to death regardless of the answer. Monika even references the Yandere trope by name when talking about her in Act 3, despite ironically driving Yuri to that state out of a desire to get closer to the player.
  • In one of the endings Sayori also begins going down the same route as Monika: being meta-aware and desiring to have the player all to herself. It's suggested that whoever gets the Club President role gains meta-awareness, which leads them to do irrational things once they know the truth. Fortunately, Monika post-Heel Realization intervenes, blocking Sayori's attempts to take over the game the same way she did. If you get the Golden Ending, however, this plays out differently: Sayori will again reveal that she's become aware of the player, but will actually thank them for going for 100% Completion by trying to get as many CGs as possible through Save Scumming: all she wanted deep down was for everyone to be happy, so she was impressed that you'd go to such lengths.
• Camus O. Laphroaig, Milfeulle's Evil Counterpart, from Galaxy Angel. Interestingly, he comes in two different flavors depending on the medium: annoying in the visual novel and creepy in the manga.
• Shion of Higurashi: When They Cry has an obsessive crush on Satoshi, Satoko's older brother, to the point where she switched places with her twin sister, Mion, to be near him. Depending on the arc, she sometimes has a Big Sister Instinct towards Satoko as a result.
• In Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair, Kotoba Gaikoku is one to Momoko Mori, as while he has been infatuated with girls and boys, he appears to have genuine feelings for her. He constantly sent her letters and followed her around, but was forced to back off when her best friend Kamen Eiga threatened to call the police. Momoko decides to use him as an additional accomplice in her murder plan, since his feelings for her make him easy to manipulate and she can dispose of him without feeling bad about it.
• The main antagonist of Hinata's route of SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky is a man who starts sending photos and anonymous packages to her and her best friend. Outing him and his identity before he can cause any real damage drives the conflict, especially since both girls belong to prominent political families.