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You Will Not Evade Me

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Thou shall trespass shall not flee from my swamp, cat!

"Get over here!"
Scorpion, Mortal Kombat

This trope specifically refers to a case in which one fighter magically, psychically, or physically forces his or her target to move to the fighter's location, often setting the victim up for a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.

Sometimes your opponent is strong. Really strong. Sometimes, even if you're The Chosen One — and definitely if you aren't — you end up in a fight that's way out of your league. You need to find some means of escape, or at least something to buy yourself some breathing room so that your foe can't just shoot you while you're trying to come up with a Plan B.

So you run away. Maybe you already have a clever escape strategy, or some cute idea that revolves around hiding among cardboard boxes in a warehouse and ambushing him when he comes to find you. Things are looking good ... until your opponent decides to stop you from getting away. Oh, Crap!


Remember, this guy is strong and possibly smart as well. He may even have Psychic Powers or magic. Or both. Or even be a god. Whatever the case, the point is this: he can't be bothered to actually run after you to catch you. No, he's so awesome that he can catch you without even moving. How, you ask? Simple! He teleports you over to where he's standing. Or grabs you with a wire and reels you in. Or extends a really, really long arm and grabs hold of you. Or...

Despite what it sounds like, not related to "Get Back Here!" Boss. Contrast Escape Battle Technique and Switch-Out Move. Compare The Determinator and Super-Persistent Predator. May double as Kick Them While They Are Down or Disproportionate Retribution when the instigator is doing so in a refusal of the victim retreating or surrendering.


The trope namer is EverQuest, in which hundreds upon hundreds of high-level monsters and bosses would state the phrase "You will not evade me (player name)!" before using the teleport variant of this trope.


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    Anime & Manga 
  • The final battle sequence of Digimon: Hurricane Touchdown! features an evil Cherubimon who conjures spheres of gravity that suck the heroes' much smaller digimon into his hands. He then juggles them. See the first minute and a half of this AMV clip for an audiovisual account of Cherubimon's You Will Not Evade Me ownage.
  • From One Piece:
    • Blackbeard's Kurouzu forcibly pulls his target to him. The problem is there's no known way to defend against it (so far), and once he grabs you, you lose your power and open to his powerful melee attacks. You can try to attack him as you're pulled, but he's such a Mighty Glacier he can tank it and hit you anyway. This backfired when he tried this on Whitebeard.
  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Okuyasu Nijimura's Stand, The Hand, can use its power to erase anything its right hand touches to eliminate the space between himself and his opponent. He uses this power to pummel Josuke until it proves to be his undoing, when he gets hit in the head with flower pots his power accidentally drew towards him.
  • Team Rocket's getaways are regularly cut short by Ash and the others in the Pokémon anime. In the first season, Pidgeotto regularly popped their hot air balloon, to the point that in it's final appearance they had become savvy enough to equip themselves with a second balloon and then neutralise Pidgeotto first. A few of their cases they have especially infuriated the heroes, they will stop them from escaping even post-defeat to give them a beatdown, making sure the only way they're leaving is through a "blasting off". "A Seasoned Search" in the Sun and Moon series was a particularly brutal case, Ash and Mallow kept pummelling them as they were limping away, and likely would have kept going if Bewear hadn't stepped between them.

  • Because no normal criminal can ever possibly defeat Batman in combat, they usually run, only to be caught a few seconds later. One notable example had Dick Grayson chasing Roadrunner, a sprinter. Dick fails to catch up with him, comments "To hell with this.", then uses the Batclaw to reel the villain to him.
  • Much like some real spiders, Spider-Man is frequently portrayed webbing his foes and reeling them in with his Spider-Strength when they attempt to flee from him.


    Tabletop Games 
  • With its fourth edition, Dungeons & Dragons formally introduced the concept of 'forced movement' and with it powers that allow the user to push, pull, slide, or even teleport unwilling targets across the battlefield. One fairly basic example is the first-level druid at-will power Thorn Whip, which on a hit inflicts damage and pulls the target two squares towards the user.
    • Not that it was unheard-of before. Third Edition monsters with Improved Grab pull grappled opponents into their own space, rather than moving into the opponent's space like in a normal grapple. In the earliest editions (and the third, for that matter), the infamous Balor had the ability to yank you into melee range with its whip, where you would get burned by the flames surrounding the demon's body.
    • One of the first such powers to see print actually caused something of an uproar among the fanbase at the time. Not because of its power level as such — it only pulls already-nearby enemies into melee range, ones further away aren't actually affected — but because it was a fighter power (Come and Get It) that felt "too much like magic".
  • Daemon Princes of Slaanesh in Warhammer 40,000 can take the psychic power Lash of Submission, which allows to them move an enemy squad a certain distance. This is often used to bring enemies that are specialized in ranged combat into melee range and out of cover, where the Prince can then attack the (usually hopeless in close combat) enemy units without the penalty for charging into rough terrain. Little wonder that "Lash Princes" are a common sight in tournament level Chaos armies.
    • Additionally, the Lash of Submission is often used to move lots of important enemy units very close together so that all of the Chaos player's mortars/rockets/orbital bombardment/etc. can all be fired for full effect on them simultaneously.
  • Masters of Space in Mage: The Awakening can do this with the "Labyrinth" spell.
  • The DC Heroes RPG has this as the Attraction power.

    Video Games 
  • Templars in Aion can do this to large groups of enemies by using energy beams.
  • Arcana Heart's Medein (magnet arcana) powers can draw opponents closer to the wielder.
  • In Atlas Reactor, the Frontliner characters all have moves that pull opposing targets to them.
  • In Awesomenauts, Leon Chameleon can snare enemies and draw them closer with his tongue. Since people then try to run away from him, and he has a Back Stab power, this comes in handy.
  • BioShock Infinite
    • The "Undertow" Vigor, which lets Booker pull enemies in with a stream of water.
    • Burial at Sea introduces a Big Daddy that can uses his drill to pull Booker to itself, even from skylines.
  • Iron Tager is the only character in BlazBlue without the ability to dash. He compensates with a host of magnetism-based moves that pull his opponent towards him.
  • The "Teleport Foe" ability from City of Heroes does this as well. This is a power that is available to any Player Character as early as level 6. The Gravity Control set also has "Wormhole" as one of its higher-level powers, which is an AoE version of this that also stuns those pulled through it.
  • Several enemies in Darkest Dungeon will pull your back units to the front, usually to ensure that their side will be able to Shoot the Medic First. Likewise, some classes such as the Occultist or the Bounty Hunter are able to return the favor.
  • In Devil May Cry 3, the Kalina Ann has a move in Gunslinger style for pulling enemies to Dante. However, since Gunslinger is so situational, it doesn't see much use. In Devil May Cry 4, Nero's Devil Bringer can Snatch small enemies to Nero. This time, it's an integral part of the system. DmC: Devil May Cry has an entire weapon devoted to pulling enemies towards Dante or Dante towards enemies, and it's similarly integral to the combat system.
  • Diablo III:
    • The Barbarian's Ancient Spear allows him or her to yank an enemy into melee range for some well-deserved melee beatdown.
    • The Butcher's meathook attack from the end of Act I allows him to do this to you, with the added bonus of stunning you once you're in melee range and opening you up to a free attack.
  • Pudge from DotA and Dota 2 is famous for being able to do this to both enemies and dying friends.
  • Some bosses in Dragon Age: Origins could do this, most notably the Revenants. It becomes an active power for the warrior class in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
  • The original EverQuest, an MMORPG, allows many high-level monsters and bosses to use the "summon" ability against the player at the top of the monster's aggro list. This ability instantly teleports said player to directly in front of the monster within its melee attack range, regardless of how far away that player has fled and regardless of whether the monster can still see him or her. An immediate and instant melee attack always follows it, usually for full damage and a stun if the poor sap was trying to flee. This ability can be used every ten seconds or so and helps ensure that the monster in question can always "catch" fleeing opponents or over-aggressive spellcasters who try to compensate for their fragile armor by keeping a lot of space between themselves and their opponent. Summoning equalizes things, pulling the target instantly into melee range for a good old fashioned beatdown, often resulting in quick and potentially humorous deaths when this target is not a tank. Best of all, when a player is summoned in this fashion, everyone in the immediate area will know it — because the monster doing the summoning will say, "You will not evade me (player name)!"
    • Summoning was put in the game as a way to prevent players from using ranged damage to kite high-end melee focused monsters. The mechanic has since become infamous among the game's players, both for its quirky "You will not evade me!" line and because of how irritating or deadly it can be to get summoned in the heat of a battle. Instantly warping to the location of a boss while trying to run away (or simply reposition one's character) is very disorienting and often results in being hit from behind, which is likely to interrupt spells and/or stun you.
    • Many spoofs of EverQuest gameplay logs (such as the fan-famous "Veeshan's Peak raid log") make humorous use of the summon mechanic and the beatdowns that ensue as a result of its use.
    • The Magician class of player characters get a level 55 spell named Call of the Hero that allows them to summon an ally to their location using the same game mechanic. By contrast, the magician version has a 12 second cast time (although it can be reduced to as little as 6 seconds with the proper abilities and/or equipment) and a comparably long recast. Saying "You will not evade me!" to creep out your ally is optional, but why would you not?
    • Some particularly summon-happy bosses also have an ability named "Call of the Zero" (likely in parody of the magician spell above) which allows them to summon their target even more often than monsters that lack it. A boss with this ability can alternate using it and the regular summoning mechanic for even more disorientation and preventions of escape.
    • On the other hand, it is still possible to get away from any monster in the game by successfully "zoning" to another area of the world, casting an evacuation spell, or using an aggro-clearing ability (such as Feign Death) at the right time. Those aren't always options, though.
  • Final Fantasy VI has a rather unusual example of this. When your party encounters a monster known as the Zone Eater on the World of Ruin's version of Triangle Island, the monster will begin to inhale your party members — drawing them inside itself. Once the last party member is inhaled, you find yourself in a cavernous dungeon (presumably within the Zone Eater's body, or through some sort of dimensional rift therein) complete with random battles, treasure chests, and an Optional Party Member, Gogo.
    • Protip: If you don't feel like being zone-eaten at that particular point, have one (or more) of your party make for the hills. When the battle ends, your party will be intact and on the right side of the world.
  • Inverted in Final Fantasy X: The Bevelle bossfight takes place on top of the airship, which can be told to get in close or back off. When up close, every party member can attack, but so can the boss. When far off, only magic and Wakka's thrown ball can hit the boss, but it can't hit either, while the airship can fire missile salvoes at it (but only up to three times). Moving the ship closer (or the boss moving) takes up a turn.
  • Final Fantasy XIhas a mechanic very similar to EverQuest's, but with the much less memorable line "(player name) is drawn in!" This is frequently abused during one of the Chains of Promathia missions. One boss is in the back of a dungeon, behind dozens of monsters with true-sight (can see through invisibility) and locked doors. Instead of fighting your way to the back, most players opt to have the alliance (of up to 18 players) wait at the entrance, while one lone character (typically a thief, who can open the doors without keys; or alternatively a thief to open the locked doors, and whomever is best at sneaking for the rest of it) runs to the back. As soon as that character is detected by the boss, the entire alliance is drawn in, from across the zone.
  • Final Fantasy XIV has some enemies that can pull in party members before unleashing a strong attack on them. The Warrior's Holmgang skill draws in their target and binds them in place so that they can't get away while the Warrior's HP cannot go below 1. The Paladin's Tempered Will ability the anti version of this trope by preventing draw ins and knockbacks.
  • In Doom mod GMOTA, Lord Blazkowicz can use his grappling hook to pull enemies to melee range, so he can easily strike them down with his sword. The Bonelords also can pull you into their melee range by using rocket fist attacks.
  • In God Hand, the Chain Yanker God Reel move allows Gene to pull a target to himself. As a bonus, the right cross he follows it with stuns them.
  • Parodied in the April Fools Day 2009 "update notes" for Guild Wars. The assassin skill Scorpion Wire was reportedly changed to summon the afflicted foe to location of the person who cast it — a likely Shout-Out to Scorpion the ninja. (Normally, the skill teleports the assassin to the afflicted foe.)
    • And again in the sequel, where Scorpion Wire returns, now pulling the enemy to you. Necromancers get a similar skill, Spectral Grasp.
  • In Heroes of the Storm, Stitches, like Pudge in DOTA, has a hook that pulls in enemies.
  • The final boss in inFAMOUS grabs you with some kind electric tether and pulls you to the center of the arena if you try to leave. He even says "You're not going anywhere" when he does it.
    • In inFAMOUS 2, a DLC power gives you the ability to hook your enemies and fling them toward you.
  • In Injustice: Gods Among Us, Batman tends to play this way. Although he says "Get Down Here!", and it is an anti-air move using his trademark {{grappling hook pistol]]}}.
    • He even lampshades his similarity to Scorpion's fighting style whenever he clashes with him.
  • Several characters in League of Legends are known to play this trope straight:
    • Blitzcrank can do this to anyone on the enemy team with his ability Rocket Grab, usually followed up by uppercutting the target into the air. He is commonly banned because of the fear that he will land that one Rocket Grab onto a squishy carry in the late game, or that he will land tons of grabs during laning (where he is usually paired with the team's ranged carry) and set off a snowballing effect.
    • Thresh has a hook similar to Blitz's grab that trades the full pull-in for an option to have Thresh dash to the enemy.
    • Nautilus can pull enemies in to close the distance.
    • Darius can potentially pull the whole enemy team close with his ability Apprehend.
    • Diana and Orianna downplay this trope a bit with their area-of-effect pulls.
    • The trend continues in a way with Illaoi, while she doesn't have a way to physically pull enemy champions to her, what she can do is pull an enemy champion's spirit right from their body and force it to stand before her while she freely beats the tar out of it, echoing some damage to the spirit's owner. Should the spirit be slain or the owner run too far away, they become a vessel for some time, and while they're safe from Illaoi herself doing further damage, they are no longer capable of evading Illaoi's God. Who will send Combat Tentacles from any walls the vessel stands near that freely take a swing at the poor chum. Leading to some situations where Illaoi can kill you from the other side of the map.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable : The Battle of Aces allows Signum to use her Whip Sword to do this. Admittedly, the range is a bit lacking.
  • In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, various characters have different ways of bringing opponents to them. Super Skrull and Spencer have extendable arms, Spider-Man shoots out a web to grab them, and Magneto uses his magnetic powers to briefly immobilize opponents and force them right in front of him.
  • Mass Effect 3 introduces the Lash biotic ability, which yanks mooks towards the user at massive speed. If there's any upward angle to their movement, they're typically catapulted straight off the level. Lash was actually a massively upgraded version of Mass Effect 2's Pull biotic power, which levitated a mook and pulled them toward you with much less force than Lash did.
  • Minecraft has the fishing rod, a tool normally used to catch edible fish in bodies of water. However, it can be used to catch and pull in any mob. It's especially useful against ghasts, which are easily killed by melee attacks but typically keep their distance, flying high above you while shooting a steady stream of fireballs.
  • The Mortal Kombat series has Scorpion, a yellow-clad ninja whose trademark move involves hurling a kunai into his opponent and then using a wire attached to the kunai to quickly pull the opponent into melee range. The ability is accompanied by one of his catchphrases: "C'mere!" or "Get over here!"
    • Mortal Kombat X introduces Takeda, who has a variation that also plays with this trope. This is justified, as Scorpion was his adoptive father and trainer for a good chunk of his life.
  • In Overwatch, Roadhog's signature move is using his chain hook to pull opponents in and then mow them down with his scrap gun.
  • Makoa from Paladins uses a dredge anchor to snag and reel in enemies to be blasted by his cannon. He'll sometimes even say "Get over here!" as a Shout-Out to a certain famous yellow-clad ninja known for this move.
  • Plants VS Zombies Garden Warfare is a very chaotic team-based 12 vs. 12 Third-Person Shooter pitting mutate Plants against surprisingly intelligent Zombies. Melee classes such as the Chomper and Super Brainz are pains to deal with as they make frequent use of their respective skills Goop and Turbo Twister.
    • Goop sticks enemy zombies in place while heavily restricting camera movement, leaving them helpless to an easy kill or swallow. With a mere 5 second cool down to boot. If not the Chomper, the produce artillery behind will finish you off.
    • Turbo Twister not only grants Super Brainz 50% Damage Reduction to his already high health, but also slows all plants unlucky enough to be near him. It also boosts his movement speed. Good luck running from that.
    • A third skill used by the Z7 Mech, Biotic Pull, targets and yanks a plant from as far as 50 meters away toward it.
  • [PROTOTYPE 2]: If you try to leave the rooftop where you fight the Final Boss, he'll snag you with a tentacle and smack you hard onto the floor for extra punishment.
  • Rising Thunder: Talos's two non-standard Grapple Moves start pulling the enemy toward him shortly after he starts charging them. One of his possible gamma specials also yanks the enemy slightly closer to him—approximately the same amount that a medium attack would push them back.
  • Sly 2: Band of Thieves has The Contessa, who will reel you in with webs if you try to leave. And drop you in front of her, shortly followed by a rush attack. Strangely enough, she can do this even when she's falling off the arena herself.
  • When fighting against Venom in the PS1/N64/Dreamcast Spider-Man game, don't try escaping by crawling up a wall. He'll grab you, yell "GET OFF OF THAT WALL", then pull you off of it.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic
    • The game has several abilities (for both players and NPCs) that pull an enemy to the user.
    • A particularly common form for strong or elite NPCs is for them to pull a player into melee range, and then instantly use a second ability to knock them back to mid-range. They do this because they are jerks. And also because the player can't use abilities while flying through the air, but mostly the jerk thing.
  • Characters with tethers (ranged grabs) in Super Smash Bros. could count. This includes each Link (with the hookshot, or the clawshot), Samus Aran (grapple beam, or plasma whip as Zero Suit), Yoshi (his tongue), Lucas (the rope snake), Ivysaur (vines), and Olimar (Pikmin).
  • Warframe: A grappling lash attack features in several different ways in this game:
    • various enemies can hook players to drag them in to melee, such as the Scorpion unit or Ancient Infested.
    • the Warframe Valkyr can shoot a grappling line that either does this or acts as a rapid transport if it hits scenery.
    • even your pet can get in on the action. The Helminth Charger can both perform a Foe-Tossing Charge and use a retractable proboscis to hook enemies and pull them in.
  • In World of Warcraft, there are many examples.
    • Abominations are undead golems who have grappling hooks that they can use to yank enemies towards them. This comes in very useful for the ones in Undercity who act as the City Guards.
    • The Death Knights in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion have an ability to do this. The difference being it's the player doing so, which led to many Scorpion-related macros.
    • Every high-level boss in the game also does this, unless there's a door that closes behind you or some other mechanic that prevents you from even trying to escape. Numerous non-boss creatures also do this, from undead constructs pulling you to them with hooked chains to various spiders using strands of web to drag you back, Spider-Man style.
  • XCOM 2's War of the Chosen expansion introduced the Skirmisher hero unit, which has a Grappling Hook they use to get around, but their "Justice" ability lets them also attack humanoid enemies with it to yank them into Ripjack range. They can also invert this trope with their "Wrath" ability, in which the Skirmisher pulls themself into a foe, no matter their size.
  • zOMG!: "The world turns inside-out as you are drawn inward to the Giant Stone Coatl!" This particular boss is stationary, so it uses this power to bring you in range of its breath laser; if you play keep-away, only its minions can threaten you otherwise.

    Western Animation 

Alternative Title(s): You Shall Not Evade Me, Get Over Here


Example of: