Love Freak



""Everybody! Love! And! Peace!""

- Selphie Tilmitt, Final Fantasy VIII

Often spouting dialogue about love and justice, this character is naive and lacks common sense; her determination is usually the only thing keeping her from being completely incompetent (even if she is potentially very powerful). She can also act a little hypocritical, being as sneaky or outright violent as the wickedness she supposedly fights.

How satirically this character is portrayed depends on the mood and personality of the lead, although writers design her to be somewhat sympathetic. Nonetheless, it is difficult for the other characters to really dislike her, because she is honestly nice and a loyal friend.

Somewhat like The Messiah, but not as charismatic or as effective, placing this character in a supporting role 99 percent of the time. May admire the Knight Templar at first and continue to do so if the Templar is not portrayed negatively.

See also The Pollyanna, Naive Everygirl, Stupid Good. Occasionally has problems if they're forced to be a Reluctant Warrior.

Not to be confused with the other type of Love Freak.

Anime and Manga
"Vash: Repeat after me! This world is made of...
 * Magikano's dirt-poor, oblivious witch hunter, Marin.
 * Princess Amelia in The Slayers is probably the best-known example.
 * With her father, Prince Phil, being an even more over-the-top gender-flipped version.
 * Might Guy of Naruto is perpetually ranting about love and springtime and passionate, flaming youth (In a completely non-sexual way, believe it or not), and is eagerly imitated by his star pupil, Rock Lee -- this bizarre behavior leads some to believe that a sort of Zeus-Ganymede dynamic exists between the two, but this is merely conjecture. He even persuades said student to undergo a risky operation by promising to 'follow' him if he doesn't survive. Then they tearfully embrace.
 * Strike Man from You're Under Arrest really is incompetent, and is played for laughs.
 * Winner Sinclair from Karin is a spoof, often rattling off words that make no sense in Japanese (he's Romanian) but have something to do with love or determination or whatnot. Nobody takes him seriously. The kicker is, the Knight Templar's his grandfather.
 * Usagi Tsukino, of Sailor Moon fame, has the exact personality traits described above, although most people tend to see her in a simple Magical Girl Warrior role, or from a Messiah mold, as the series flat-out names her the Messiah.
 * Aino Minako, or Sailor Venus, would be another obvious choice - going on about love as much as Sailor Moon, because she's aware she's an incarnation of the goddess Venus/Aphrodite or at least connected to her. She tries to play this up but fails at it as her being unlucky in love despite this is a recuring theme throughout her manga, Codename: Sailor V.
 * Hotaru from .hack//Legend of the Twlight.
 * Ai Tanabe from Planetes always preaches about love and kindness to others. Appropriately enough, her first name means "love" in Japanese.
 * Fuura Kafuka from Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei; also extremely ditzy and played for every drop of satire the series can wring out of her.
 * Do note that on a few rare occasions, hints are dropped that this behavior is nothing but an act, and we should actually be VERY afraid of Kafuka.
 * An itinerant P.E. teacher in a filler episode in the Ranma 1/2 anime.
 * Anzu/Tea Mazaki of Yu-Gi-Oh! seems hardly able to speak about anything but The Power of Friendship. She wasn't as bad in the original Japanese; Anzu allowed herself to be a bit more cynical.
 * Parodied in the Abridged Series with her trying to fix a lightning bolt to the head with friendship.
 * Mokuba is also portrayed this way in Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series, desperately trying to make friends in what amounts to a cast of Jerkass actors. In the original, Mokuba only obsessed over his Promoted To Parent big brother.
 * In Martian Successor Nadesico Yurika's overriding and outspoken faith in True Love and Justice (especially True Love) accounts for about 50% of the "Ditz" in her Genius Ditz personality. The other half is just being generally Cloudcuckoolander.
 * Every single character in Wedding Peach who's on the good side is a Love Freak, including the one who got a (magically forced) Heel Face Turn.
 * Akari from Aria fits this trope like a single glove, though the entire show itself could also be argued to qualify.
 * El in Shugo Chara is a prime example, making speeches about love whenever she possibly can.
 * Albert from Gankutsuou becomes this somewhat, after getting convinced that what matters most for people to marry for is love. Initially, it was Maximilien who thought this way more, but he later became more understanding after hearing Franz tell him that marrying the one you love isn't always the way to bring them happiness. So instead, Albert becomes the one more obsessed with it than Maximilien. Because of his fixation on the idea of true love, he starts questioning his own Arranged Marriage with Eugenie, and frequently talks about how he wishes to truly experience love...
 * Duck/Ahiru from Princess Tutu -- even more so (if such a thing is possible) when she's in Tutu form. More importantly, she's much more eloquent and persuasive about it.
 * Haiji from Ai Kora.
 * Vash in Trigun. "My name is Vash the Stampede. I am a hunter of peace, chasing the elusive mayfly known as love..." Cue Bishie Sparkle.
 * PEACE AND LOVE!

Mayor: ...

Vash: THIS WORLD IS MADE!!

Mayor: Th-This world is made...

Vash: Of Love...and PEACE!!"

"Shirly: We'll throw them into eternal darkness. In other words... love.
 * Shirly from Fairy Tail. While not the standard (she's a villain), her first appearance consists of her simply talking about love.

Shirly: Reitei sama will never love me now!"


 * Fran Madaraki of Franken Fran is a self-described "lover of love" and frequently performs procedures that she believes will bring couples together. Although she's far from incompetent-- she may be the second best surgeon in the world, after her creator-- she's extremely naive and her medical ethics are questionable at the very best.
 * Elmer C. Albatross of Baccano is a hardcore example, to the point where his behavior often stops being annoying and becomes seriously disturbing (such as when he cheerfully encouraged a young girl to smile after her fiancee was murdered right in front of her). This is probably because he doesn't see any inherent meaning or morality in the world, so instead he just wants everyone to be happy.
 * From the same creator comes of Durarara, a  who just wants to love anyone and everyone. Of course, since she's, this dream can only end in disaster.
 * In The World God Only Knows, Keima Katsuragi always blabbers about love... in games. He's rather detached from reality (to say the least), but he's anything but incompetent.
 * In "Magician's Academy" specifically episode 5 introduces who loves everyone and wants to share this. Seeing as
 * Yuuri from Kyou Kara Maou, who becomes king of the Demons and sets out to end thousands of years of racism by reaching out the Humans with compassion and never distrusting anyone, ever. Because he has such good support, it works. Mostly.
 * America from Axis Powers Hetalia is a good candidate for this - though he's mostly got a hero complex. He does mention in a pretty famous comic strip in which, and anyway - a 'hero' complex has everything to do with love and justice. Though does preaching that they'll save love and justice count?
 * Riruka Dokugamine from Bleach is something of an example, as she proclaims her Fullbring ability to be The Power of Love. Her power is supposedly compatible with anything she loves (which are mostly stuffed animals and other cute girly things). However, she has some Tsundere tendencies that prevent her from being a complete example.

Literature

 * The children of Aphrodite in "Percy Jackson and The Olympians".
 * The main character in Invisible Man is a good example of what happens when one of these people actually gets followers (most of whom are absolutely desperate for someone to guide them out of the hell they're living in.) It doesn't go well, but only because he's also a Horrible Judge of Character and an Unwitting Pawn.
 * Madeline Bassett. "The stars are God's daisy chain." That is all.
 * In the Disgaea novels we meet Flonne's parents, Terre and Elle, two Happily Married angels who may be even bigger love freaks than their daughter.

Live Action TV

 * In Scrubs, the psychologist character believed that love and happiness motivated everybody on some level, and resident bastards Dr. Cox and Kelso couldn't convince her that "People are bastard coated bastards with bastard filling."
 * Cupids and Whitelighters in Charmed.

Theatre

 * Hope from Urinetown, whose insistence on "following your heart" ends up Moral of the story: Don't put the Love Freak in charge.

Video Games

 * The Trope Namer here is Angel Trainee Flonne from Disgaea, who is actually called a "Love Freak" in the game.
 * So much of a love freak, that she can't so much as jump in battle without saying the word in some of the games.
 * Kim Kaphwan of the Fatal Fury series has made it his life's goal to eliminate evil and stand for justice and truth... as well as strong-arming criminals into his "reformatory" program of intensive training . Later on in the series, he seems to gain the ability to Detect Evil, as his eyes glow yellow whenever he meets up with an evil character. Indeed, fans often use Kim's "evil sense" as a way to determine whether or not a character is truly a villain. His son Jae Hoon also follows suit, and sometimes labels someone overconfident but not completely evil like Gato... EVIL!
 * Tizoc/The Griffon is a Justice Freak who is not from the Kim family. Justified, because he is somewhat of an idol to children and has to uphold the "hero of justice" persona for their sake. Like Kim, he also has a special intro against evil people.
 * Colette Brunel in Tales of Symphonia, at her most ditzy, is this trope. Not only does she have a lot of post battle lines about "justice and love" that annoy Lloyd and Kratos, but she at one point states her intention of asking someone who wanted to kill her two minutes prior about why the would-be assassin would want to do that "when we become friends".
 * Alfina from Grandia III, as shown in this Penny Arcade strip.
 * Fenthick in the first chapter of Neverwinter Nights is possibly the most naive character ever to have been placed in any position of authority anywhere.
 * Before you learn of her backstory, Leliana in Dragon Age appears to be one.
 * Aino Heart, the main character from the all-girls fighting game Arcana Heart is a literal Love Freak, up to the point that her Arcana is a love elemental. Hell, her ahoge is heart-shaped. Her win quotes all espouse the virtues of love over fighting, and since there are no guys around for her to use these on, this can lead to some...interesting interpretations.
 * Yes!
 * There are actually TWO examples of this in Sengoku Basara. First is the traditional Love Freak Zabii. And second is the Justice Freak in the same vein of Kim Kaphwan, Azai Nagamasa.
 * The third game adds Magical Girl parody Tsuruhime.
 * In Samurai Warriors, conversely, Azai Nagamasa gets the Love Freak treatment (since his tragic relationship with Oichi is one of his defining traits in Japanese depictions), but shares the Honor Freak and Justice Freak roles with Naoe Kanetsugu. (Interestingly, )
 * And of course, Koei's poster boy for Justice Freak is actually Ma Chao. He can't go two or three sentences without using the word 'justice'. The people from Wu mock him for it.
 * In World Heroes, Rasputin is a flamboyant old man with fruity poses, and sometimes very big hands or feet, but never stops spewing the virtues of love. He is most famous for his Super Move Garden of Love where he... drags the enemy to the ground through a garden of flowers, with his face implanted on it, and there are some... suggestive things happening. All we can trust is those heart signs coming out of it. Squick.
 * Sora from Kingdom Hearts is more of a "Friendship Freak", but his often cut-scene covering speeches about how nobody can defeat one, who's got friends, love and a strong heart could easily compete with that of your average Love Freak.
 * To be fair, the Keyblade and general metaphysics of the game world seem to agree with him.
 * And anyone who disagrees will probably get a skyscraper thrown into their face.
 * Aqua from Birth By Sleep is almost as bad as Sora when it comes to friendship speeches and philosophies. But, even moreso than Sora, it's best not to disagree with her. Ven also qualifies: whenever he's not fighting the Unversed or running after the friends he already has, he sums up his goal as "just trying to make friends".
 * Shyna Nera Shyna of Silhouette Mirage could count, as she's constantly spouting things about the importance of her mission and calling herself the "Messenger of Justice", when.
 * Cruelly deconstructed in .hack//G.U. in the form of Atoli. Her Love Freak attributes drive her to be close to an anti-PVP guild (where PVP is Serious Business in the game). She is so much of a Love Freak Haseo basically went nuts. What nobody knows is that . To twist the knife further, her most trusted friend/mentor . Oh, and did I say she met him in  ?
 * Selphie from Final Fantasy VIII.
 * Polka from Eternal Sonata.
 * Bang Shishigami, THE NINJA OF LOVE AND JUSTICE, from Blaz Blue.
 * Death Spank is a Hero of the Downtrodden, Dispenser of Justice and Vanquisher of evil. The word Justice is present in some way or form in almost every conversation he has.
 * The Pokémon Luvdisc is apparently one.
 * Pokémon Black and White's N tends to be regarded as such by his detractors.
 * Furfur and Zepar from Umineko no Naku Koro ni. It's worth noting that they're named for Goetic demons who have the power to impel love between men and women. However, while they're very fond of talking about love in the most over-the-top manner possible, they certainly aren't naive about it.
 * While she does not preach to others, the ever-cheerful Milfie from Galaxy Angel loves pretty much everyone. This also makes her the easiest to perform well in battle and the Lucky Star is already generally better than the other ships to begin well.
 * Cynthia, the eccentric weapon shop owner from Ar Tonelico 2 (Video Game). She very frequently brings up her loving relationship with the protagonist (hint: only she thinks there is one) and insists that weapons be forged with massive amounts of love.

Web Comics

 * Subversion: Grace from El Goonish Shive gives a Love Freaky speech, before it is revealed she was reading it from a book.
 * The fact that this is on here as Grace's only Love Freaky thing is seriously distressing. Remember, this is our favorite technically not "technical pacifist" who loves pervert with a heart of gold Tedd for who he is.
 * Piffany from Nodwick.
 * Julie from Our Little Adventure.
 * Gamzee from Homestuck counts as one, given his chill attitude and friendly nature. This is notable because his entire species is typically very violent and murderous, while he is the exact opposite.

Web Original

 * Orn "Dutchy" Ayers of Survival of the Fittest v4. At one point, he makes a speech to the cameras that he and his friends will prevail over Danya and the game due to The Power of Friendship, saying that friendship will always win over evil. Worth noting, though, is during this speech he is showing the camera (which is broadcasting to live television) the island's map, in an attempt to help any rescuers find where they are. He's also portrayed a lot more sympathetically than most.
 * Seto Kaiba, of all people, is this in season 0 of Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series. It's even more disturbing to both Yugi and the audience considering What regular Kaiba is.

Western Animation

 * The Tick and most of his supporting cast are also incompetent and played for laughs.
 * Almost everyone around The Tick becomes a Deadpan Snarker in response to him. American Maid is at least competent.
 * Optimus Prime started out like this in Transformers Animated with his "we're all just cogs in the Autobot machine" speech. He got over it very, very quickly around the time they got attacked by Megatron.
 * Teen Titans' Starfire.
 * The Care Bears are the embodiment of this trope, though Love-A-Lot Bear shows this the most.
 * In the play within a play, The Boy in the Iceberg, in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Katara (a young, teenage Mama Bear, water-bending, Badass) is portrayed as something like this - an overly emotional "hope"-freak who can't go five minutes without launching into an inspirational speech about the value and power of hope (with tears in her eyes). The portrayal strikes a little close to home but nobody in the group wants to say anything (the real Katara's temper is not to be messed with).
 * Heart Throb from the original My Little Pony cartoon.
 * Henry Killinger from The Venture Bros is a much more soft spoken variant.