Love Martyr



""I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.""

- Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"Fooker: What's wrong with you? Are you sure you're the same chick who crunched my boys? Sam treats you like dirt. He ignores you. He walks all over you. And when half the campus says he cheated on you, you defend him!

Ki: You don't know him like I do! I see past the lies and see him as he really is!

Fooker: Sorry, Ki, if anyone's blind here, it's not me..."

- General Protection Fault, October 13, 2005

A character devotedly in love with someone who is highly troubled or dislikable, the kind of person very few in real life would stick with. The love interest isn't merely a Jerk With a Heart of Gold or even Troubled but Cute: he/she (both sexes can play the Love Martyr role) has serious psychological issues and/or an utterly Jerkass personality which aren't exactly indicators of a healthy relationship.

The Love Martyr is fully aware of their beloved's faults, but willingly endures the insults and troubles they dish out because the Love Martyr believes their unconditional love is enough for both of them and/or strong enough to reform their beloved into a better person. What separates the Love Martyr from the Mad Lover is that the two do get into a relationship, albeit a twisted one, and the love interest is usually said or implied to love them back underneath it all, but the beloved's negative traits outnumber their positive ones to such an extent that their alleged love comes off as more of an Informed Ability than anything. Very often, others will point out to the character that the beloved would make a bad boyfriend or girlfriend, which the Love Martyr will ignore or argue against.

The Love Martyr is supposed to showcase the kind of pure and selfless love that can bring out the good side in even the most damaged and embittered people. If the love interest does show enough redeeming qualities at the start and believably develops into a decent person, the relationship can evolve into a Defrosting Ice Queen and/or a genuine Love Redeems scenario. However, the less evidence that is given of the base goodness or reform capability of the love interest, the less convincing the Rule of Romantic becomes, and the more it seems that the character is only sacrificing himself or herself naively for an unhealthy love. When it's a girl loving a troubled boy, this is often All Girls Want Bad Boys taken to extremes.

More often than not the core of most fanfics written by teenage girls putting Draco in Leather Pants for their Mary Sue and self-inserts to redeem with the power of like-OMG true lub. Or the power of like-OMG good sex - or more accurately the power of IKEA Erotica.

If the Love Martyr is literally killed because of their relationship, and the partner still doesn't make a Heel Face Turn, then the Love Martyr becomes a shaggy dog. Unfortunately, this is the Real Life trope when a relationship ends with one or both partners dying, and shaggy dogs are the realistic and most common result of abusive relationships that the victim doesn't get out of.

Love Martyrs aren't limited to Love Interests alone: siblings who look up to their Jerkass (and sometimes outright evil) older siblings as the best of role models and children who desperately try to please notoriously obstinate parents prove that familial love can hurt too.

Compare Mad Love, where the person unconditionally in love is depicted unsympathetically as hopelessly blind and often Ax Crazy, devoted to someone who doesn't care one bit in return (but is sometimes happy to take advantage of the situation). See also All Take and No Give, Monster Fangirl. Often goes hand in hand with Why Would Anyone Take Him Back.

Can be Truth in Television.

Anime & Manga
"Shishio (to Kenshin): ... (You call this) Murder? Don't judge me with your philosophy. She fully understands me... and I understand her like nobody else in the whole world does..."
 * Mikiya from Kara no Kyoukai fits this trope to a T. In the face of being completely ignored by the decidedly-unstable Shiki, he  It seems to work, insofarin that she does eventually seem to care about him somewhat, but even that has the opposite effect when.
 * Electra from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water who resigns herself to just continue being Shell Shocked Veteran Nemo's surrogate daughter despite her own feelings for him, at least until his real daughter Nadia shows up again.
 * Jean as well, with how he's always taking Nadia's hot and cold personality.
 * Dominic in Eureka Seven. His primary motivation in life is protecting and caring for Anemone, a drugged up Tyke Bomb who routinely beats the stuffing out of him.
 * Hot Gimmick and many other older-audience Shojo works. Hatsumi of Hot Gimmick falls in love with Ryouki, the man who blackmails her into a master-slave relationship over a bought pregnancy test. Despite Ryouki constantly making her feel like dirt for not having her entire world revolving around him and slapping her in fits of jealous rage, she's so stubbornly passive and so emotionally damaged by all the abuse that she sticks with him in the end because she just can't help her feelings and thinks that if they marry, he'll start being nice to her.
 * Shuichi from Gravitation is unconditionally in love with Yuki and even allows himself to be gang-raped for him, despite Yuki constantly belittling him, showing little affection towards him when he doesn't want sex, and even . Yuki does show signs of defrosting as early as Volume 1, but it takes a very long time for him to begin acting like a normal boyfriend to Shuichi.
 * A more comedic example would be Urusei Yatsura. Yes, Ataru's unfaithfulness to his fiancée is supposed to be one of the main sources of humor, but in a more serious portrayal, the question of why Lum, who's got everyone else lovestruck by her, would put up with a lech like him would stick out like a sore thumb, especially when it becomes clear that her electric zaps won't stop his skirt-chasing. Let's not forget that Ataru's "marriage proposal" to her was meant for someone else, Shinobu, in the first place.
 * Well, he did manage to steal her horns... maybe Defeat Means Engagement?
 * This is hinted at throughout the series, more so during the ending (and final movie) -- Ataru may be ugly, kinda stupid, and have the biggest libido in the universe (No, really)... but he genuinely is a really good person at heart. Lum can see through everything he does (being a bit of a lech herself) and puts up with him because of that.
 * An alternative character interpretation of Ataru is that Ataru acts the way he does because he basically hates himself and does not believe himself to be a good person. This is more prevalent in the manga. In the manga, Takahashi draws Ataru to have a very gentle-looking face when he is at his best behavior as opposed to his normal, stupid expression.
 * Subverted Revolutionary Girl Utena almost all the relationships in the series appear to involve Love Martyrs, but in all of them, especially the primary one, disillusionment has already settled in between both parties, and Love Martyrs only stays in the relationship because they're too terrified to live any other way.
 * She was smart enough not to have any extraordinary expectations for their relationship, but Bulma of Dragon Ball Z did put up with Vegeta long enough to have two kids by him.
 * A better DBZ example would be Chi-Chi, who stuck by Goku, despite his having pretty much ditched her and Gohan (and later Goten) to go have fun, in multiple years-long stretches. He was dead in one of those stretches, but that's usually a sign it's time to move on.
 * Ekou of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, who allows Amon to kill her as a sacrifice to master Exodia the Forbidden One and is actually happy that she fits the conditions of the sacrifice (being the person he loves the most). She is reputedly named after a Love Martyr from Greek mythology, the nymph Echo.
 * Mokuba from Yu-Gi-Oh will follow and support his Noble Demon big brother whatever he does (even if he doesn't always approve of his actions). Justified in that Seto is probably the closest thing to a parent Mokuba ever had, and that he acts not half as jerkish towards Mokuba as he does to everyone else.
 * Yumi Komagata from Rurouni Kenshin could be seen as an example, as she lets her lover Makoto Shishio stab through her in order to damage his enemy, and is actually happy that she was of some use to him. Then again, Yumi herself was fully aware of the risk, and Shishio himself explains that to a shocked Kenshin, as he holds the dying Yumi in his arms to comfort her until she passes away.

"Huey: What loyalty...She accepted my request not to share it with anyone. And Chane, my daughter, chose to lose her voice. Hey, Elmer...do you ever believe a pitiful guinea pig like her will ever experience happiness in it's life?"
 * Naota from FLCL confesses his love for Haruko in the final episode... while she's trying to . At the end of the episode, he wises up and decides not to follow her into space when invited to and she leaves to continue her chase after the Pirate King Atomsk, telling Naota "You're Just a Kid after all."
 * Fate Testarossa in the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, who was fine with being whipped repeatedly by her mother for being a bad child because she remembers a time when her mother was kind and, you know, sane. Unfortunately, her memories aren't quite what they seem...
 * After coming to terms with her feelings about her mother, she still loves her as the one who brought her into the world, but credits her teacher Linith and her adoptive mother Lindy with raising her.
 * At the beginning of the Boys Love manga The Tyrant Falls in Love, we learn that Morinaga has been hopelessly in love with his Sempai Kohai Souichi - who's violent-tempered, staunchly homophobic, and frequently Megaton punches him - for five years. Even Morinaga himself acknowledges the pointlessness of such a love (though that's before a night of binge-drinking and an aphrodisiac gives him his opportunity...).
 * Soi in Fushigi Yuugi loves cold-hearted, emotionally stunted Nakago enough to let him use her for sexual healing and even
 * Spoileriffic example from Princess Tutu:
 * Sister Yukariko Sanada's relationship with in Mai-HiME makes her one of these. She genuinely loves him, but he's more concerned with . She eventually gets fed up with having to go against her own ideals, and after her confrontation with Mai, she.
 * Echidna from Black Cat is this way for Creed. Despite being an extremely attractive, popular and world-famous actress who could definitely find a much nicer man, she chooses to stay by Creed's side. And it's made clear that she doesn't go through with doing evil things because she really likes to - it's all for Creed's happiness. Even though Creed is shown openly to be incredibly obsessed with Train and have very disturbing sexual fantasies about Train. In the anime, it is shown that she notices Creed's unhealthy obsession with Train, and therefore harbors resentment towards Train.
 * In both adaptations, She gets him in the end. In the Anime, Creed even does a Heel Face Turn soon Afterward. In the manga, she gets him more as a nurse maid after he has his major Villainous Breakdown.
 * Takaki Tohno from Five Centimeters Per Second. He has quite a few personality traits in common with Gatsby below, so this was inevitable in any movie with him as one of the romantic leads.
 * Kaname Chidori from the Full Metal Panic Overload gag manga. Due to Sousuke going through extreme Flanderization, she can't actually even be considered a Tsundere in this version, considering that her reactions of lightly smacking him are an under reaction to the atrocities he commits. It's hard to understand why she even continues to have hopes that he'll return her feelings and treat her like a girlfriend, considering how many countless times he's completely ruined their romantic moments without remorse and generally acted like a sociopathic Ax Crazy maniac. Funnily, after the disaster and their ruined moment, she'll be the one who has an epiphany-esque, touching moment where she thinks that she "understands him a bit better now, and should have been more open-minded." Sure, quite a bit of it is played for comedy, but I'll be damned if their relationship doesn't look like an abusive one.
 * The twins Yu Fang and Yu Lan towards Gauron. Granted, he probably did stuff with them that would make them feel that he loved them back. But all in all, he isn't shy about showing that he only really seems to care about using them for his plans to ensnare Sousuke / kill Sousuke's love interest. It's made pretty clear to them that the only one he has eyes for is the 16-year-old boy he has an unhealthy obsession with. The fact that he pretty much ignores all the abuse they go through because of working in Amalgam (including getting repeatedly raped by Gates ever since they were young) seems to be a pretty good indicator that he doesn't care much for their well being. Despite all this, they are still so incredibly in love and loyal to him. "Anything for Sensei" indeed.
 * In the final arc of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni,
 * In a manga-only arc, stabs him in response to him trying to give her a Cooldown Hug. He ends the arc swearing to stay by her side and to always love her. Granted, he does know that she's under the influence of a . In the DS version, he actually doesn't do this, and  as a result, blaming him for . He promptly crosses the Despair Event Horizon, pretty much accepting her conclusion.
 * Platonic/Paternal example from Baccano!: Huey is not a very good father. He emotionally manipulates his daughter Chane on a regular basis and doesn't even think of her as human. Even so, Chane is fiercely and impenetrably loyal to him in a way that disturbs even him.
 * Platonic/Paternal example from Baccano!: Huey is not a very good father. He emotionally manipulates his daughter Chane on a regular basis and doesn't even think of her as human. Even so, Chane is fiercely and impenetrably loyal to him in a way that disturbs even him.


 * Also, Lua and Ladd are a textbook case. Lua, Ladd's fiance, shows unwavering loyalty to her man, even though he's an Ax Crazy serial killer. Somewhat subverted in the fact that he really does love her. Which in his world apparently translates to telling her how much he wants to kill her.
 * For Ladd, "I'll kill you last" --> "I'm saving you for last because you're the person I'll enjoy killing the most" --> "I love you more than anyone else baby!"
 * Ranma One Half has Mousse, whose applicability to this trope is one of the reasons why he can be considered The Woobie. Not only does he continue to long for a woman who clearly is interested in another man, but he can't bring himself to do the Red Sonja betrothal method either. Of course, it's also mentioned that he has challenged her in the past; it's just she's always been able to beat him. It's also mentioned that he can't challenge her in this manner while she's engaged to Ranma (hence his fixation on attempts to Murder the Hypotenuse) and at least strongly implied that as a fellow tribesman it would be neither needed or binding in the first place.
 * Really, depending on a viewer's sympathies, any of the characters caught up in the Love Dodecahedron could come off as a Love Martyr, as all of them honestly try to open their heart to the person they love, but none of them receive any attention from the person they desire. Even Ranma and Akane have no real clue whether or not their feelings for each other are reciprocated.
 * Played for laughs in the Sleep Incense arc. In one of Akane's dreams, she's a love martyr working hard to try and please her beloved Ranma. Too bad he's a perverted Jerkass who treats her like crap and has at least 27 wives. Back in the real world, she tearfully scrubs the floor and looks dramatic, while Ranma wonders what the hell she's dreaming about.
 * Misa Amane from Death Note. She halves her lifespan, twice, for Light's sake, and is shown to be willing to do pretty much anything for him, since he killed the guy who ruined her life when he murdered her parents. And Light... it's made very clear that he has absolutely no interest in her other than using her to kill people. Yes, even when she's only wearing sexy lingerie and is throwing herself at him.
 * This is also the reason the readers pity her, despite the fact she is a mass murderer.
 * Kiyomi Takada gets it even worse. All she wants is to be Kira's goddess.
 * And then there's poor Rem. She loves Misa, even when she knows Misa only has eyes for Light, and when
 * Wormmon is this to the Digimon Emperor. He puts up with all of Ken's abuse in the hopes that one day he would redeem and accept Wormmon as his Digimon. As for the results, let's just say that this anime's a little more on the idealistic side.
 * Probably also Kaori from Akira, though she's not developed as much as some of the others. She's willing to stick by Tetsuo in spite of his extreme psychological instability and the fact that he never really seems to reciprocate her devotion. It ultimately leads to her horrific and pointless death.
 * Following the manga, it can be also said that Tetsuo did somewhat care for Kaori but was already fucked up beyond belief when they met, thus he didn't get a real chance to develop something for the girl beyond making her his partial Morality Chain.
 * from Prétear hovers between this and Mad Love. On one hand, he's genuinely devoted, is willing to sacrifice his life for the girl he loves (and eventually DOES), and does indeed earn her love in the end. On the other hand, he's in love with the Dark Magical Girl, so to earn her love he performs a Face Heel Turn and tries to help her destroy the world as we know it.
 * Wang Liu Mei's Battle Butler Hong Long of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 turns out to be one of these.
 * Mary Magdalene in Chrono Crusade is mostly around to embody this trope in the Backstory. When she meets Chrono, he's a bitter and jaded soldier that even threatens that he'd kill her if Aion orders him to. However, Mary sticks with him, knowing that (as she says) Chrono really "doesn't want to hurt anyone" and continues to reach out to him until he starts to soften. It's played even straighter when it's revealed that This is one of the examples where it works--when we see Chrono in the present day of the story, he still has issues but he's more prone to genuinely make an effort to reach out to people. She also was the key to him betraying the Big Bad and becoming one of the good guys.
 * Athena teaches Hayate the Combat Butler by method of kicking him in the stomach and possible lethal sword combat. When asked by one of his friends how he feels about her ten years later, he decides he loves her.
 * Zetsuai 1989: At one point Kouji cuts off his own left arm so that his family will leave Izumi alone. And it took Izumi quite a long time for him to warm up to Kouji.
 * Ritsuka from Loveless is a platonic version of this toward his older brother Seimei - even the knowledge that Seimei was a as a twisted test of Ritsuka's love and who constantly abused Soubi cannot sway Ritsuka's devotion.
 * Zero no Tsukaima: Sometimes Saito verges on this--on occasion Louise goes beyond mere Tsundere-type behavior into outright sociopathic sadism (such as the time she flogged him unconscious with an actual whip), although this depends on your opinion, given that they're the Official Couple.
 * Rolo Haliburton is this for Lelouch Lamperouge in Code Geass, no matter if his affection for Lelouch is romantic or brotherly. Although Rolo's no saint himself, he became so attached to his 'brother' that in episode 19 he tells Lelouch that even if Lelouch was just using him and the time he spent with him was fake, to Rolo it was real and it meant something to him.
 * Candy Candy: Candy skirts the line sometimes, in regards to Terry.
 * Arguably Doumeki in Xxx Holic for Watanuki. He's willing to make Heroic Sacrifices for Watanuki's sake, even though the latter makes it no secret that he's jealous of him (because he thinks his crush Himawari is in love with Doumeki) and is very much a Tsundere to him. And now, half an eye, a lot of blood, and, he's still devoted solely to Watanuki, who.
 * A rare sibling example is wonderfully demonstrated in the one-shot manga "Smargs Won't Sing", which is Better Than It Sounds.
 * . It does take an extraordinary amount of love and patience to endure that behavior for three years, though, even considering the circumstances.
 * Franz d'Epinay of Gankutsuou. He is willing to sacrifice everything for his childhood friend Albert, whom he secretly loves. Albert, for his part, is completely oblivious to Franz's feelings for him, which leads to lots of Oblivious Guilt Slinging.
 * Gilbert from Kaze to Ki no Uta. He is clearly completely aware of the fact that Auguste goes out of his way to manipulate and hurt him, yet he is completely devoted to him anyway.
 * Zoids: New Century Zero has Harry Champ, a rich kid hopelessly obsessed with firebrand Leena Toros, despite the fact that the latter would (and often does) gleefully blast his mecha to scrap. (Leena has been known to take advantage of this behavior at times.)
 * Sayaka Miki from Puella Magi Madoka Magica becomes a Magical Girl--committing herself to an endless war against Eldritch Abominations--to heal her childhood friend Kyousuke Kamijo, a violinist with severely injured hand whom she has a crush on. She visits the hospital every day to nurse him, believing that "miracles and magic" can bring him hope. Kyousuke, in turn, . In the last episode,.
 * Haku from Naruto.
 * Naruto himself may count as a platonic (or is it) example.
 * Sakura too.
 * If Subaru from X 1999 doesn't count as a love martyr toward Seishirou, then the fans don't know what does. Also,


 * This trope combined with Stockholm Syndrome characterizes most of Jonah Matsuka's relationship with Keith Anyan in Toward the Terra: Keith is actively abusive toward Matsuka, claiming to be using him as a tool for the purpose of exterminating other Mu and telling Matsuka in no uncertain terms that he plans to kill him when that's done, but Matsuka remains convinced that Keith is not as cold and ruthless as he behaves and goes to considerable lengths to protect him. Ultimately, Matsuka shocks Keith by.

Ballads

 * In Child Ballad The False Lover Won Back, the heroine chases after her mounted lover on foot. He tries repeatedly to buy her off, until finally he decides to marry her after all.
 * In Child Ballad Child Waters, the hero insists that the heroine dress as foot page and walk on foot while he rides. When she goes into labor and is delivered of his son, he decides to marry her after all.

Comicbooks

 * Harley Quinn. Oh, God, Harley Quinn, going back and forth between a girlfriend who treats her like dirt and a boyfriend who frequently tries to kill her. She bounces back and forth between this trope and Mad Love, depending on how sympathetically her romantic woes are treated in the current story.
 * Mr. Gosh from Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl is the epitome of this trope. He is killed by Lenore countless times, in the worst, possible ways and he still thinks that she kills him "by accident". That's how big his love for her is. (or obsession, you choose).
 * Rayek in Elf Quest. He's a former Jerkass Anti Hero who's trying to repent. His love interest, Winnowill, is an ancient megalomaniac bent on world domination. When she kills herself to gain ultimate power as a spirit, he uses his Chekhov's Skill of absorbing souls into himself in order to trap her inside his mind forever. He can't ever die for fear of releasing her spirit, he can't go near other elves ever again for fear of getting them close to Winnowill, and she torments his mind and body every day of her existence. He still loves her.
 * Sigyn's portrayal in The Sandman is this trope played for as much tragedy as possible. When the blinded, paralyzed Loki is returned to his prison, Odin reminds Sigyn that Loki abandoned her and that she does not need to share his punishment. Sigyn silently refuses to abandon her husband despite everything. As Loki curses her in his impotent rage at his predicament, Sigyn tearfully whispers "I am so happy that you are back, my love." Loki's response is mocking laughter and more curses.

Fan Fiction

 * Caphriel, from "The Sacred and the Profane". ?Caphriel... thought he could somehow make it better, thought his love could seal the cracks in Zirah's sanity, because his love for Zirah was desperate and overwhelming and it felt like a force greater than himself, and in those first few heady centuries he'd thought he could do anything. Then he'd found that no amount of love would ever heal the permanent dislocation of Zirah's mind, but he kept kissing Zirah because... he couldn't seem to stop.?
 * Mao from Code Geass Mao of the Deliverance is clearly shown to be this for C.C., who lies to, tries to manipulate, and ultimately abandons him. He even lampshades this at one point, excusing her actions because she's a Broken Bird and deciding that he doesn't care how she treated him so long as they can be together.
 * In Naruto Veangance Revelaitons, Sakura is willing to put up with any and all abuse Ronan gives her, even being willing to.
 * In Hunting the Unicorn, Blaine is shown as this. It's not as bad as most examples since he's currently with Kurt, but what happened before is worrying. First is his platonic martyrdom, as he constantly makes excuses for his estranged father; then comes the revelation that chaste, oblivious, idealistic Blaine
 * It Got Worse. Blaine is implied to think Sex Equals Love,  Later on, we find out that , which makes it dumber and sadder. And in the nineteenth chapter, after  , the first person he tries to call is his dad. The one who hasn't talked to him in two years because he came out.
 * In the Katawa Shoujo fic, Hisao comments that Lilly seems willing to overlook her father's transgressions, which include leaving her and Akira alone in Japan for six years, viciously insulting her best friend Hanako and calling Yamaku a "cripple school."

Film

 * Sophies Choice: Although the titular choice is (at least in common usage) applied to a Sadistic Choice, she also finally chooses
 * Blades of Glory has a sister who acts as a henchgirl to her selfish and murderous older siblings and adores them despite their overt manipulations and dirt-like treatment of her.
 * She adored them? This troper got the feeling that she was simply resigned to be stuck with them, coupled with the fact that they use her indirect involvement in the deaths of their parents to emotionally manipulate her.
 * Vertigo: Judy is introduced as a coarse, sharp-tongued woman, but her love for Scottie, a man who's interested in her only because she looks like the dead woman he was obsessively in love with, causes her to gradually lose her forceful personality and ultimately her identity. The clincher comes when Judy realizes that Scottie will never love her for herself, but decides that she doesn't care that Scottie is forcing her to change her appearance and clothes to become a replacement for his dead lover as long as it results in him returning her love. And she doesn't even get a happy ending, as in the end
 * Padme refuses to give up on Anakin Skywalker because...well it's hard to say. Probably because he loved her and he was honestly a better person when he was with her, as far as she can tell.
 * Evelyn in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio constantly has a smile on her face and supports her family almost exclusively through winning contests for jingles, since her husband is an alcoholic who spends most of his money on booze.
 * The Maids is all about this: main heroes are two psycho lesbians taking turns to be each other's martyrs.
 * Gelsomina in Fellini's La Strada, Inspirationally Disadvantaged waif whose Love Redeems the brutish Zampano, working from beyond the grave.
 * Mimi in Bitter Moon plays this utterly straight and eventually wishes she hadn't.
 * Mitsuyo in Akunin is in love with the titular villain, Shimizu, even though he's violent and borderline abusive towards her. Even after he kidnaps her and admits to being a murderer, she stands by him and tries to convince her worried sister that he's "not such a bad person".

Literature

 * The main character, Alice, of The One Who Waited can be said to be at least a partial example of this trope. Particularly come the dramatic end of the book...
 * Despite his abrasive personality, stalking tendencies, and overall dangerous nature, Bella of Twilight loves Edward and is willing to give her life for him... repeatedly. In Breaking Dawn, she's also willing to die for her unborn child that is killing her from the inside. She also risked her life to save her mother on the first book.
 * I would say this is mutual. Edward suffers when he is close to Bella due to having to resist the urge to kill her, when she is in danger that she usually places herself to, when she is clearly attracted to Jacob, and risking her life by having a baby knowing full well that Edward would kill himself if she dies. He still thinks the world of her and would give his... existence for her.
 * Hooker With a Heart of Gold Nancy in Oliver Twist loves the murderer Bill Sykes, who repeatedly abuses her.
 * Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind. He does everything for Scarlett because he is in love with her and believes someday she will realize that she loves him as well, and endures watching her moon over Ashley Wilkes and just generally abuse him.
 * More like a Lust Martyr, but Nathaniel Graison in the Anita Blake series certainly qualifies; the wereleopard, despite being in a love triangle with the series' titular character with fawning devotion to her, had become so submissive and addicted to extreme sadomasochism from his prostitute and male stripper days (to the point where his last pimp had to ensure he didn't become the willing participant in a Snuff Film with any if their clients), he actually threatens to leave the triangle if Anita didn't start sexually using and abusing him like he wanted her to.
 * In Catherine Called Birdy, Catherine's mother notes that her husband is in fact a greedy, mean miser but it doesn't seem to bother her much.
 * Considering it was set in the Middle Ages, she didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
 * Evie from The Frog King puts up with far more from the main character than she should. Until she stops, at least.
 * The eponymous Great Gatsby is a classic example. Everything he does after he meets Daisy -- embezzlement, less-than-scrupulous methods of becoming rich -- is all done to win her heart. He even . Of course, the truly tragic part about all this is that Daisy, while she did have feelings for Gatsby, was merely a beautiful but spoiled, self-centered, and weak-willed woman who almost certainly didn't deserve Gatsby's unconditional love and devotion.
 * To say nothing of.
 * In Orhan Pamuk's "The Museum of Innocence", Kemal's life revolves around Fusun, even if Kemal is engaged to someone else.
 * Perhaps also Basil Hallward, from The Picture of Dorian Gray, at least in part. He obviously cares for Dorian very much, but Dorian blatantly prefers to spend time with Lord Henry, and becomes more and more evil as a result. All Basil can do is look on until Dorian
 * Arguably Dorian's fiancee, Sybil. She falls head-over-heels for Dorian, the point in which she starts to give up on her fantastic acting ability because her love makes it seem false. When he yells at her for this, since it accidentally led to his embarrassment (he brought his friends to see her perform, only for her to do a subpar job), she starts weeping and begging for him to forgive her. And that night she decides to commit suicide, which is even more tragic since Gray repented his actions the next day and was going to visit her to apologize.
 * Diana Mayo of The Sheik. Nevermind that the titular character is an abusive rapist, she falls in love with him and is willing to do anything to please him.
 * Don Quixote: Part II, chapter LX, Don Vicente Tornellas has been shot by his fiancée Claudia Jeronima because she believed that Don Vicente wanted to marry another woman. Don Vicente?s last words are to tell her that he was innocent, never intended to marry any other woman, and then he said before his death: my cruel fortune must have carried those tidings to thee to drive thee in thy jealousy to take my life; and to assure thyself of this, press my hands and take me for thy husband if thou wilt; I have no better satisfaction to offer thee for the wrong thou fanciest thou hast received from me.
 * In KA Applegate's Everworld, David Levin eventually becomes this in his relationship with Senna Wales. Though he is eventually forced to admit that she isn't the angel he'd first thought she was, he repeatedly states that he will not turn against her, he will not leave her behind, and will not stop loving her. It doesn't seem to shake his conviction when Senna uses magic to force him to obey her, rapes him and erases his memories of the act, subjects him to Mind Rape as punishment when he failed to do as she said, uses her magic to kill anyone who gives her an excuse and smirks over their corpses, declares her intention to overthrow all the powers of Everworld and install herself in as a god-like Dimension Lord, etc. Even in the last books, after Senna Jumps Off The Slippery Slope, he remains sympathetic towards her and tries to save her from death,
 * The Last Unicorn: While Prince Lir's beloved Lady Amalthea does absolutely nothing to encourage this or harm/scorn him in any way, he puts himself through the wringer doing ridiculous things and suffering trying to "earn" her love. Then events cause both of them to change emotionally.
 * In Edmond Hamilton's short story "He That Hath Wings," David—born with functional wings—falls for Ruth. Unfortunately, she doesn't find said wings beautiful enough to not be weirded out by them. . Poor guy.
 * Phereniq Kala in Infanta does all that she does out of love for the Oblivious to Love Augon Hunnamek.
 * The protagonist of Mika Waltari's novel, The Egyptian. He gives all he has to Nefernefernefer until he is ruined and needs to start a new life.
 * In JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion, Aredhel has this sort of relationship with Eol. He trapped her in his forest, refusing to let her see her friends or family, and ends up fatally wounding her when she runs away. Even then she begs her brother not to kill him as she lies on her deathbed.
 * Peeta for Katniss in The Hunger Games. He is willing to die for her, although she is too traumatized to let him into her heart
 * This trope is the major theme of Fifty Shades Of Grey, but.

Live-Action TV

 * Dr. Molly Clock from Scrubs notes that, as a psychologist, it's not surprising that she's attracted to emotionally damaged people. She stayed with her first boyfriend even after he stole a car and totalled it in the ensuing chase.
 * Da'an of Earth Final Conflict loves his son Zo'or, even after his repeated attempts on his life, and has even covered up for him a couple of times.
 * In Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Tora Ziyal was in love with Garak almost since their first meeting, despite the amount of frustration it caused her father (even pushing him to leave the station, join the Dominion, and leave her stranded on the other side of the front line). When Garak goes to see her body when he learns she was killed during the Dominion occupation of the station, Kira comments that Ziyal loved him. Garak says that he never understood why, and now he never will.
 * Wilson puts up with an amazing amount of abuse from House in the name of friendship.
 * House has also forgiven some bad behavior from Wilson, such as not telling him he'd cured a patient, thinking it would teach House humility, but instead plunged him back into Vicodin abuse.
 * And let us not forget Dr. Allison "I like damaged people" Cameron. In her backstory, she fell in love with a man who she knew had a terminal illness, and basically married him just so he wouldn't die alone.
 * Adama from Battlestar Galactica is more than willing to do it to himself for Roslin's sake, even though she herself treats him quite well.
 * Ellen slept with Cavil and stole resistance plans to keep Saul safe and then drank what she knew to be poison when Saul offered it to her.
 * Anyone who falls in love with Starbuck better gear up for some serious abuse.
 * Juken Sentai Gekiranger: Mele, madly in love with Evil Overlord Rio, arguably counts, although Rio does have his Pet the Dog moments proving that he does care for her.
 * Check out this classic Saturday Night Live parody of the Phil Donahue Show. Phil Hartman, RIP.
 * Niles of Frasier, in the earlier days of Maris, which was shown retroactively when he's broke and panicking (he can't bring himself to go back this time, though): "Life with Maris wasn't so bad. It was my fault, after all! I was too rigid, I was always making demands! Eat something! Unlock this door! Don't throw that!"
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Some fans regard the Buffy-stricken Spike as such.
 * When he was with Drusilla. She spent half of season 2 openly flirting (if not more) with Angelus right in front of Spike while he was in wheelchair. She also took Angelus' side in the final battle in the season finale, and then left Spike for a chaos demon. She seemed to "adore" Spike only as long as he was exactly the kind of big bad strong vampire she had helped mold him into because that's what she wanted in a partner.
 * Harmony regards herself as such in relation to Spike. He hardly ever hid the fact that he found her annoying and was only using her for sex, and (later on) as a Buffy substitute. He even staked her just because he was irritated by her blabbering (it didn't kill her only because she happened to be wearing the Gem of Amara)... and she still came back. Eventually when Spike tied up Buffy and Drusilla and was ranting over his spurned affections for them both Harmony finally had enough, yelled at him for ignoring his "actual" girlfriend in favor of drooling over them, shot him with a crossbow, tried to stake him, then broke up with him for good.
 * Sylar and Elle Bishop of Heroes.
 * Life On Mars. WPC Anne Cartwright supports Sam Tyler despite his bizarre behaviour and the fact that she doesn't believe his story about being from the future. In one episode Sam decides that the only way to return to 2006 is to bring down his colleagues over a death-in-custody. Despite the fact that, if true, it would mean she'd be wiped out of existence, and if not, Sam has violated the unspoken "code of silence" among police of the era, Cartwright still agrees to stand by Sam.
 * In The Sopranos, Adrianna is this to Christopher. She believes that deep down Christopher is a good person and would choose her over the mob in a heartbeat.
 * Dean and Sam from Supernatural put up with a lot of each other's major issues.
 * Sam shuts off in season four, getting so bad even Dean doesn't know if Sam's human anymore. But he says he'll take Sam as is anyway,.
 * Sam forgives Dean for dragging him back to life when he basically had a DNR, because Dean didn't want to be alone.
 * Despite a mutual decision to separate.
 * Also with John and Dean: For a while, no matter how shitty John got, Dean would either forgive him completely or try and blank it out as best he can.
 * And then, of course, there's poor Castiel. Whether you're a shipper or not, he gives up literally everything for Dean, loses his Grace, his faith and (twice) his life - choosing to remain on Earth after every other angel has left in an apocalyptic world and breaking at the edges, and he did it, all of it, for Dean.
 * Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl prostitutes herself to a man she loathes for Chuck Bass. However, she then realises that it's not healthy to love someone so much you'd literally do anything for them, and ends the relationship.
 * By season five the tables have turned and Chuck is now a Love Martyr for an increasingly unlikeable Blair.
 * Sterling "Stink" Patterson in The Adventures of Shirley Holmes has shades of this for Molly Hardy, the main antagonist. In the beginning he's little more than a flunkie for her sociopathic plots, and he goes along willingly even though he knows it's wrong, just because he likes her. Eventually he figures out that she's just using him, and splits away from her.
 * Beck and Jade from Victorious. He's perfectly aware of her blatant rudeness and other faults. They usually make up at the end.
 * For example, in the episode Jade Dumps Beck, Jade gets jealous that he's hanging out with an attractive celebrity. But she instantly regrets it and gives him a rottweiller. Even though it almost kills his dad, they make up.
 * Degrassi: Alli’s first boyfriend, Johnny, ignores her in public, shows the naked pictures she sent him to his friends and lies about being a virgin. Her second boyfriend, Drew, cheats on her and tries to lie about it and she takes him back. Even Bianca points out she must have low self-esteem to take back a cheater.
 * Lancelot manages to be an inversion and a literal example of this. Despite the fact that Guinevere would have made him very happy, he leaves her after noticing that Arthur is in love with her, believing himself unworthy of her affection and Arthur to be "the better man". This breaks her heart, and he pines away after her for years before finally returning to Camelot to find that she's in a happy relationship with Arthur. He ultimately takes Arthur's place in order to fulfill his vow to Guinevere to keep Arthur safe.
 * While he does love her, and it's not a one way street, some of the things Mike pulls on Kate in Sea Patrol feel like this though it's subverted by Kate knowing this and NOT being happy with it and she calls him out when it gets too far.
 * While he does love her, and it's not a one way street, some of the things Mike pulls on Kate in Sea Patrol feel like this though it's subverted by Kate knowing this and NOT being happy with it and she calls him out when it gets too far.

Music
"I've been a martyr for love
 * Depeche Mode's "Martyr" is this trope.

I need to be by your side

I have knelt at your feet

I have felt your deceit

Couldn't leave if I tried"

"Well I guess, I should stick up for myself
 * "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis comes immediately to mind as an example.
 * On another note, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus' song "Your Guardian Angel" is probably meant to sound sweet and romantic... but some of the lyrics, if applied to less-than-ideal situations, seem very much to be Love Martyr talk. The song even contains the lyrics "Use me as you will/Pull my strings just for a thrill," which gave this troper pause when she discovered them.
 * The song "Self-Esteem" by The Offspring is an excellent example of this trope. It's narrated by an Extreme Doormat who is very aware of the way his girlfriend treats him, he just has too little self-esteem to expect anything better. She sleeps with his friends, blows him off, uses him when she's drunk, and tells him he's "like a disease." He plans to break-up with her, but never does. The chorus ends like this:

But I really think it's better this way

The more you suffer

The more it shows you really care,

Right? Yeah!"

"...Broken down, hurt again / It never ends
 * "Façade" by Disturbed:

Frightened and trembling / Did she fall again, an accident

Her eyes encircled in black again / I can't believe that she's still with him

For how long will you try? / How long until you walk away?

Your facade can't disguise / the fact you're in misery..."

"I’d catch a grenade for ya
 * The lyrics to "Grenade" by Bruno Mars are a bit disturbing, considering the lengths the singer would go for...whoever.

Throw my hand on a blade for ya

I’d jump in front of a train for ya

You know I'd do anything for ya..."

"This Tainted Love you give me
 * Even more disturbing when its implied she was abusive to him. "Black black, black and blue, beat me 'til I'm numb. Tell the devil I said hey where you go back to where you're from."
 * The video is even more disturbing than the song. Rather than a scattershot of examples of how devoted to her he is and how cruel she is, he spends the entire video dragging a piano across town for her, by himself and with nothing but a rope, past bums and bridges and cars and stunned and at one point hostile onlookers. When he arrives she's with another man, spots him through the window and doesn't seem to particularly care.
 * The entire point of the Vocaloid vid Servant of Evil. Note that there is some severe Tear Jerker present here.
 * In another video dealing with the Kagamine twins, Monochrome Ward, Len was going to be killed by scientists (hinting to be a failed experiment), but Rin switched places with him without the scientists knowing.
 * Carole King wrote a song called "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)" where her husband/boyfriend/lover beats her, but she stays with him because "If he didn't care for me/I could have never made him mad" and "He hit me, and I knew I loved him/When he took me in his arms/With all the tenderness there is/He hit me, and he made me feel."
 * As Dave Barry put it in his Book of Bad Songs: "We can only speculate whether OJ had this on the cassette player during the Bronco chase."
 * It's probably more complicated than that, but Sheryl Crow's "Strong Enough" can certainly sound like a woman looking for one of these: "When I've shown you that I just don't care/When I'm throwing punches in the air/When I'm broken down and I can't stand/Will you be man enough to be my man?"
 * Tainted Love

I give you all a boy can give"


 * Too beautiful by He is we.
 * "Fistful of Love" by Antony and the Johnsons is crafted from the same clay as "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)", with the whole "You hit me out of love" concept. Bonus points for its total Lyrical Dissonance.
 * Weird Al Yankovic's "You Don't Love Me Anymore" kinda counts, as the guy stood for all the terrible things the partner has done (Including cheating on him with an entire hockey team and a variety of murder attempts), and only now is noticing she probably is Ax Crazy and doesn't love him anymore.
 * Quite a few Lullacry songs have this feel, such as Crucify My Heart and Heart Shaped Scars. The latter's Lyrical Dissonance adds to its creepiness.
 * "Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man". The narrator's lover is lazy and stays out late and she even admits she can’t come up with a reason why she loves him.
 * "Beat Me" by The Tiger Lillies. The majority of lyrics boils down to "beat me till I [verb]" followed by "I will, I WILL love you".

Mythology

 * Sigyn stuck with Loki despite his infidelities, murders, and mad antics. To date, nobody is really sure why.
 * Medea gave up everything to stay with Jason, until he broke up with her.

Theater

 * Posner in The History Boys.
 * In Starlight Express, the long-suffering dining car Dinah struggles with her undue devotion to her Jerk Jock diesel engine boyfriend Greaseball. She decides to give up on him after he dumps her for the observation car Pearl, but her friends convince her that racing with the electric engine Electra will make him jealous (and thus cause Greaseball to desire her again).
 * Cyrano De Bergerac: This play deconstructs this trope by showing us the personality necessary to be a Love Martyr and that they don't even need a Jerkass Lover to become one. This trope is Invoked, deconstructed and justified by Cyrano, but never played straight by Roxane: At Act I, he confess to Le Bret that because he has an ugly nose, he cannot aspire to the love of even a graceless woman. So naturally, he’s in love with the most beautiful woman, Roxane. When Le Bret lampshades that Cyrano’s charisma can win Roxane’s love and urges him to confess, Cyrano invokes this trope saying that his only fear is Roxane mocking him after that. After Act II, is clear for the audience, but not for Cyrano, that Roxane would never do such a heinous act. Cyrano still don’t accept it and prefers to invoke this trope again helping the fair Christian to win Roxane’s love. This trope is deconstructed and justified showing exactly the type of guy who can play this trope, and that guy doesn’t even need a real motive (is clear Roxane never was the JerkAss lover Cyrano imagines). At Act IV, after an ultimatum, Christian forces Cyrano to confess, and Cyrano seems he could avert this trope for only a moment, until he would invoke it again after Christian death. Justified because Cyrano’s personality and upbringing forces him to be the Love Martyr.
 * Helena from A Midsummer Nights Dream is one of these for Demetrius. Played for laughs, and she ends up marrying him in the end, but disturbing all the same.

Videogames

 * In Princess Maker 2 you can make your adopted daughter fall in love with you if just scold her enough after she has done something bad, but in order to make her feel guilty you have to overwork her to the point of near-exhaustion, risking that she will die from sickness.
 * Jack tries to scare Shepard away with this in Mass Effect 2, but if he persists she will soften somewhat.
 * The Warden takes a lot of flak for his relationship with Morrigan, from her and from others, in Dragon Age. Makes the end of Witch Hunt that much more heartwarming, actually.
 * Bishop from Neverwinter Nights 2, with the main character as much as the fandom. Bishop is a Chaotic Evil ranger who's a flat-out jerk, insults and humiliates other characters (including the hero) on a regular basis, keeps his mind in the gutter and is proud of it, and entertains the philosophy that if you can't take care of yourself, then you don't deserve to live - to put it mildly. With influence, he can develop a grudging respect and eventually a sort of unhealthy obsession with the PC by the end of the game, up to the point when he, even though the PC may have never infringed on his freedom and free will in any way. The best compliment he can manage is "I don't hate you as much as your uncle..." Despite him being a complete jerk, the PC can choose to stick out for him and support him to the very end, even despite multiple people voicing their opinion that he is not to be trusted, including a former girlfriend of his. Also, most of his fangirls seem to be crazy about him because of a secret desire to reform him as much as sheer bad boy attraction.
 * Deionarra of Planescape Torment, literally martyred by her love for The Nameless One in one of his earlier lives. There's a recorded memory where the Nameless One can feel just what it was like, from her side of the story, one of the most emotional and painful points of the game.
 * Possibly more heartbreaking is the fact that the player also gets to see the earlier Nameless One's side of the story, and
 * for in Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World.
 * of Valkyria Chronicles, although . Pretty justified since
 * Just about any of your potential love interests should you pursue the Way of the Closed Fist in Jade Empire, who will go bad themselves, if you use the right dialogue, for love of you. Since for all of the initial philosophical pretenses the Closed Fist plays out in-game as pretty much 99% Jerkass/Chaotic Stupid, your character is likely to be pretty much about as unlovable as they come.
 * Dandy is a minor example in Ghost Trick. Beauty constantly insults him, and yet he keeps talking about who to invite to their hypothetical wedding. Given some of his dialogue, he may actually enjoy the abuse.
 * Princess Ishtar of Freege from Fire Emblem Jugdral, an Anti Villain who is in love with the imperial prince Yurius, who is sort-of the Big Bad of the game and the reincarnation of a dark god in any case. She ends up dying in a last stand against the hero's army as they come to defeat Yurius.
 * Litchi Faye-Ling in Blaz Blue, while not openly admitting it, shows that she truly loved her colleague Lotte Carmine, despite him showing himself to be a glory-seeking man with serious inferiority complex and saw her as utterly annoying in his progress as a researcher. To the point that when he turned into Arakune, she would stop at nothing to save him, despite other people considering him a lost cause, including subjecting herself to the same corruption he was dabbling,
 * To Lotte's credit, in two of Arakune's endings, he pulls himself together long enough to either save Litchi from her own corruption erasing her memories of him in the process or beg her to abandon him and seek help from Kokonoe. Her love for him was at least partially reciprocated.

Visual Novels

 * Jane in the backstory of Shikkoku no Sharnoth. She eventually realized that what she wanted from M couldn't even be given, though.
 * Quite a few of your clients in Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney (or suspects in Ace Attorney Investigations) will confess to murders because they want to protect the one they love, with the usual twist being that their lover was the one who actually did it. And then there's Terry Fawles
 * Familial example:
 * The only major subversion, really, is

Web Animation

 * Taken to an extreme/absurd level (in a high school setting no less!) in Vinnie Veritas excellent animation, Eres Veneno ++.

Web Comics

 * Dina from It's Walky! There's STILL controversy about her relationship with complete Jerkass Sociopathic Hero Mike, and . Most of the arguments are about whether or not Mike returned her affection at all; for example,  and
 * Zebra Girl has most of the cast turn into this as the main character descends into her demonic side. Noticeably lampshaded here.
 * Deconstructed by Bug in "What the Movies Have Taught Me About Love".
 * In General Protection Fault, Ki becomes this as her relationship with her fiance Sam deteriorates when he faces pressure on several fronts, notably his parents being opposed to him going out with her. Even as rumors spread of him cheating on her (which are never explicitly confirmed but strongly implied to be true) spread, she remains loyal to him until.
 * In Digger, there's

Web Originals

 * Whateley Universe example: Peeper and Greasy. Peeper shares a room with Greasy. Peeper beats Greasy if someone humiliates Peeper or hits Peeper, and he may hit Greasy for other reasons too. Peeper seems to only care that Greasy will do anything for him, and will work insane hours trying to build whatever Peeper wants to misuse. Peeper isolates Greasy from friends and fellow inventors, and reminds Greasy that Peeper is the only person Greasy has. It looks like the most abusive relationship in all of Whateley Academy. If Greasy isn't a Love Martyr, he's got to be really, really close.
 * The Nostalgia Critic has had drunk sex with Spoony about a year after being raped by him, praised the Harley/Joker dynamic for being true to real-life Domestic Abuse (how there's something about them that makes you keep coming back) and called his abusive mother "my world".
 * Nella from The Nostalgia Chick started out like this, taking all the punishment to make the Chick look better, but has steadily grown a backbone since the Dark Nella Saga and can now call the Chick out on her bullshit.
 * Jean Teasdale of The Onion is a Deconstructive Parody of this concept. She stays with her husband Rick despite what could be called a horrible homelife.

Western Animation

 * Zuko of Avatar: The Last Airbender is blindly devoted to his Evil Overlord father who burned his face, banished him on a wild goose chase, and sent his sister to either capture or kill him -- just one of the main traits that makes him The Woobie. But because that's not sad enough, his Uncle Iroh is just as solidly devoted to a nephew who treats him like dirt (albeit on-and-off).
 * Iroh doesn't really qualify, since he was definitely trying to be a positive influence on Zuko and succeeding, which kind of contradicts the basic concept of a love martyr.
 * Marge Simpson is a good example of this. Interestingly, Homer often does make an effort--if it weren't for Negative Continuity and Flanderization, Marge wouldn't even be on the same continent as this trope, with all the "Homer learns to be more supportive/loving" episodes that have been done.
 * Hell, even Homer became this in "Strong Arms Of The Ma". Marge is taking steroids because she got mugged, is going out of control and actually forces him into sex. Next morning comes around, he's limping, acting like a kinda-creepy Stepford Smiler and, at the end of the episode, manages to get her back to her normal self again with a sweet-hearted speech.
 * Family Guy: "Did you ever stop and think 'Wow, I'm married to that?'" To be fair, the series does play with the idea rather than just playing the trope straight.

Real Life
"Love has nothing to do with what you're expecting to get, only what you're expecting to give - which is everything. What you receive in return varies, but that really has no connection with why you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving."
 * Tragically common in abusive relationships of all kinds. Gender, age, etc., doesn't matter.
 * More optimistically, it's also common in very devoted, non-abusive relationships, and especially can seem like this when one member of a couple is going through a difficult time. The website Love Gives Me Hope has many examples.
 * Of all people, Katharine Hepburn, during her relationship with Spencer Tracy. He did genuinely love her, but he had an alcohol problem and would frequently fly into rages and even hit her. No matter what happened, though, she never left him. One quote from her autobiography explains the whole philosophy behind this trope: