Near-Rape Experience

A person nearly rapes another person. The first person then takes a step back, goes into My God, What Have I Done? mode, and reacts with horror. They often run from the scene. Basically, it's the realization that "If I keep going now, I will have raped this person." In return, the near-rape victim is always badly shaken, but often forgives their attacker later because they had the self-control to stop. Forgiveness is a lot less likely in Real Life.

This trope also covers other My-God-I-am-nearly-a-rapist situations, such as drunk people stepping back just in time, and reluctantly paying attention when your partner says no.

Keep in mind that this is not about remorse or guilt after the act, but the attacker must stop of their own free will (although a varying degree of persuasion on behalf of the potential victim is allowed), not as a result of being fought off or somebody else stopping them. Contrast Date Rape Averted, Attempted Rape, Dude, She's Like, in a Coma.

No Real Life Examples, Please

Advertising

 * Used loosely in a British cautionary advert where a young teen watches himself through a glass window as he forces sex on his struggling girlfriend. The teen is banging on the glass and shouting "You're raping her!" at his other self, who cannot hear. The advert ends with the warning, "If you could see yourself..."

Anime and Manga

 * Done twice virtually identically by Rumiko Takahashi, in the one-shot Fire Tripper and in a very early episode of Maison Ikkoku. In both cases, the male lead is very drunk and basically tries to pull the old Gone with the Wind sweep her up and carry her to his room bit. In neither case was the relationship at that level at the time; both female leads are a mixture of scared, worried, (slightly) touched and quite angry. In both cases our boy passes out before things get too scary, which frees the object of his "affection" to get really annoyed/angry/disgusted. Both times, our hero remembers nothing about the incident the next morning, which really gets them in trouble.
 * The classic Studio Gainax example isn't End of Evangelion, but Wings of Honneamise Royal Space Force. Especially jarring because the guy is otherwise a good guy and hero, and the girl (even if she's a Deconstruction of the Messianic Archetype) doesn't care about it by the next scene, even using Politeness Judo on his apology attempt.
 * Also happens in Simoun. In this case, the woman about to commit rape is forgiven by the victim, and they later begin their relationship anew as close friends.
 * Subverted in Ouran High School Host Club when.
 * Subverted in Gankutsuou when a character nearly rapes his fiancee but stops not because of a My God, What Have I Done? revelation, but because he simply decides to pick up where he left off after they're lawfully married. However, it's never clearly stated whether he actually succeeded or not the first time around.
 * At one point in the Berserk manga,
 * In the second Fushigi Yuugi OVA,
 * This happens in the Boys Over Flowers episode "Domyoji Tsukasa Snaps". When Makino starts crying during their Forceful Kiss, Domyoji stops.
 * Karakuridouji Ultimo: After being screwed by a Reincarnation Romance-slash-Gender Bender leaving him loving someone who now sees him solely as a best friend, Rune partners with the embodiment of Jealousy and attempts to rape Yamato so that Yamato will love him back. He stops at the last minute though, realising he's too attached to Yamato to really go through with something horrible just to sate his own jealousy.
 * The main character in Mysterious Girlfriend X acts this way after he gets a bit carried away after his girlfriend gave him permission to touch her breast seen here.
 * In Moe Kare, Arata brings a--nearly unconscious--drunk Hikaru to his apartment. He has her in his bed, mostly undressed, before realizing that he doesn't want her to cry the next morning.

Film

 * In the film version of The Sheik, the male protagonist intends to rape his female counterpart, but when he oversees her crying and praying he doesn't actually go through with it.
 * In the second film of the Samurai Trilogy, Miyamoto Musashi nearly forces himself on his Screaming Woman/Neutral Female love interest, Otsu. She doesn't want it, and Musashi carries on well past the point where its clear she doesn't want it. He catches himself before he actually does it, though. He is so ashamed and disgusted with himself that (after running away from Otsu) he quietly says "I renounce the love of women" and walks off into sunset (and the credits), marking his Character Development from an Arrogant Kung Fu Guy to a zen Martial Pacifist.
 * In American Beauty, Lester finally has the cheerleader he's fantasized about for the entire movie. She's not protesting, but she's a terrified under-aged virgin, and Lester stops himself short.
 * YMMV on the "terrified" part. "Slightly nervous about her first time" might be closer to the mark. After she tells him she's a virgin, she quickly insists, "But I still want to do it!"
 * In Don Juan Demarco, the title character relates a tale where he's sold to the lusty Sultana Gulbeyaz. He resists her overtures, and for a few seconds she seems prepared to use violent means (a knife at his throat) to force his cooperation. But then she opts to try tactile persuasion instead (it works.)
 * In the pre-Hays Code drama She Had to Say Yes, Loretta Young's character is nearly raped by her boyfriend when he suspects she's a "loose woman". After she stops resisting and asks if that's all she means to him, he stops himself. Then, not only does she forgive him, she ends up offering herself to him in the end.
 * In the film version of Watchmen, The Comedian is interrupted.

Literature

 * Mark does this in Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold; for added Squick value, the near-rapee is a twelve-year-old girl (who, as a clone and an impending victim of having her progenitor's brain transplanted into her body, has had plastic surgery to make her look older). Subverted in that Mark does not originally stop himself out of remorse -- he stops because he is physically unable to continue, due to a seizure. By the time he is able to continue, he's been dragged away from the scene and put in confinement. The remorse arrives afterward.
 * The Storm and the Splendor has such a scene, although Rud makes it clear soon afterward that he has a very loose definition of "willing."
 * In P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles of the Kencyrath,, half-crazy, almost rapes his seven-year-old daughter  , before he realizes what he's about to do and runs from her. The memory of this is told in flashbacks in book 4, To Ride a Rathorn, and in the short story collection Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry.
 * In Nathaniel West's The Day of the Locust, Tod fantasizes about raping Faye and nearly does so at the campsite with Earle and Miguel.
 * This happens at least once in The Last of the T'En, where the main male character is once possessed by something evil and nearly rapes the heroine, but realizes what he's doing and stops 'himself' from doing it, and also in a rather dodgy scene in her bedroom. Both times he says, "I'm not really like that," or some variation of the theme...
 * Seen in A Song of Ice and Fire when a very drunk Sandor Clegane pins Sansa Stark down on her bed and makes her sing him a song. He leaves before going any farther, but later admits to her little sister that he had indeed intended to rape Sansa and possibly regrets not doing so. Making things more complex is the fact that Sandor had previously saved Sansa from a mob intent on raping her during a riot, and the fact that Sansa seems to like her memory of this incident.
 * And again with Sansa and Tyrion. Only after making her strip does he realize that going through with it would be rape. Since this all takes place in the Crapsack World of Westeros, him not taking his (twelve-year-old) wife by force is seen as a magnanimous gesture rather than simply coming to his senses.
 * Svidrigailov nearly rapes Dunya in Crime and Punishment.
 * Marino almost rapes Scarpetta in one of Patrica Cornwall's later books. Because he under the influence of some strange drug at the time, Kay forgives him.

Live Action TV

 * Spike nearly raping Buffy, assuming her protests are part of another round of aggressive and forceful sex play. He immediately feels remorse and tries to set things right.
 * Bizarre twist in "Consequences", when Faith almost rapes Xander, then stops herself - opting just to kill him instead.
 * In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will tries to trick his girlfriend into bed after she tells him she wants to be celibate until marriage by setting up a fake wedding ceremony for the two of them. He later backs down after the guilt sets in.
 * George and Bree in Desperate Housewives.
 * General Hospital's Luke and Laura fit this as well as Rape Is Love.
 * In one of the more disturbing scenes of Supernatural, Meg-In-Sam nearly rapes Jo. When s/he knocks her unconscious though, s/he ends up tying her to a post and emotionally tortures her instead. This is, after all, a show airing at 9pm on The CW; there's only so much darkness they can have.
 * In the first season of Sugar Rush (TV), Kim is so desperate to bed Sugar that she even considers date-raping her, going so far as to invite Sugar over for the evening and preparing a huge stash of pills with which she intends to use to drug Sugar. However, she spends the whole episode debating to herself whether what she's doing is right or wrong, and eventually decides against it, feeling horribly guilty.
 * On One Life to Live, Todd is literally this close to raping his wife Blair (he's infuriated at having discovered that she lied to him about being pregnant to get him to marry her and to get her hands on his money) when he looks down at her and sees not her face, but that of his previous victim.

Theater

 * Shakespeare's comedic Two Gentlemen of Verona nearly ends in tragedy when one of the titular gents decides in a fit of frustration that he'll force his beloved (who is in love with the other gent) to love him by raping her. Gent #2 shows up and talks him down before anything happens.
 * Another of Shakespeare's comedies, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, has a 15-year-old girl kidnapped by pirates and sold to a brothel. Clients pay to have their way with her but she is so virtuous, they repent and become upstanding, respectful citizens.

Video Games

 * In Digital Devil Saga, Heat forcefully kisses Sera but stops when he sees her tears. To Heat's credit, he hasn't a clue what he's doing.

Visual Novels

 * in Crescendo or not, depending on what choice the player makes.
 * During one chapter of Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two.,.
 * The Tsukihime Visual Novel, several times. At one point, a glimpse into Arc's own mystic eyes switches Shiki into Rape Mode. If you don't immediately stop when given the option, you suffer an unrelated Karmic Death not long after. Shiki also nearly (or actually) rapes Kohaku, depending on the route.

Web Original

 * Subverted in Survival of the Fittest with Adam Reeves, who gets the 'My God, What Have I Done?' moment, then decides to keep going. That more or less cemented what an utter bastard he is.
 * J.R. Rizzolo's torture of Laeil Burbank almost starts out with a rape scene, but then Riz decides it'd be a better idea to cut out her eye instead. This was due to Riz' handler planning a rape scene, but deciding at the last minute that he wasn't up for it.
 * PPC exorcisms in rapefics almost always happen just in the nick of time to prevent the rape, for reasons of dramatic tension. The rapist characters tend to react with horror upon realising what the badfic was making them do.
 * Vocaloid's song Cantarella featured this.
 * The original tale has Kaito spike a cup of wine and gets Miku to drink it and pass out. In some versions, he then attempts to rape her but stops when the sight of her brings up their childhood memories together, followed by her waking up and telling him she loves him, waking up and killing him, or never waking up at all due to overdose or poisoning.
 * In other versions, Miku was either awakened early or never drugged. In these versions, Kaito corners her and hesitates or at least ties her up before the scene pans away.
 * There are yet other versions with Gakupo in place of Kaito or both replaced by Len and Rin respectively.