Love Hurts: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|''Love hurts, love scars,

 

 

Forget life-threatening superheroism, acting [[Too Dumb to Live]], and [[Tempting Fate]]. The most dangerous thing any hero can do in any media is... falling in love. Dare to love someone else and you set up yourself and your beloved for a plethora of emotional griefs. Love in [[Real Life]] is responsible for vast quantities of anguished poetry and tragic literature; factor in all the crazy stuff that happens on TV, and drama and disaster are practically guaranteed.

About to commit permanently? Look for an [[Anyone Can Die]] to put a permanent end to the [[Will They or Won't They?]] issue. Forget to [[Never Got to Say Goodbye|say goodbye to your beloved that one time]]? It'll haunt you for the rest of your life. And let's not forget that becoming emotionally attached to one person leaves you open to the stress caused by the [[I Have Your Wife|villain abducting your beloved]] or [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|them even being killed off senselessly]] just to shape you into the [[Anti-Hero]], or at the very least a [[Heartbroken Badass]]. Your love is hurt but alive? [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!]]—they will shove you away. Or perhaps you'd be their [[Second Love]]—if only they didn't think [[Silly Rabbit, Romance Is for Kids]]. Love will make your heart go soft and pitter-pattering into the path to be crushed by the cruel forces of fate against [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]. Small wonder that [[It's Not You, It's My Enemies|so many try to protect their loved ones by dumping them]].

 

 

And heaven forbid if your love turns out to be [[All Love Is Unrequited|one-sided]]. You'll become a [[Crazy Jealous Guy|crazy]] [[Love Hungry]] [[Stalker with a Crush|psycho stalker]] if you don't choose [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|to nobly sacrifice your love]]. Sometimes you'll even go all the way [[Love Makes You Evil|into a full-fledged villain]] with a grudge against humanity because humanity was not kind enough to let you have that one person. Sometimes it's even [[Creator Breakdown|your own creator]] who decides that you can't get them because [[Sour Grapes Tropes|he couldn't get her in real life]]!

 

Counteracted with [[Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends]]. Compare [[Love Makes You Dumb]]. Contrast [[Happily Married]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Anti-Villain|Anemone and Dominic]] of ''[[Eureka Seven]]''. The dangerous drugs she uses to pilot her mech take her [[Domestic Abuse]] Tsundere type behavior way beyond the usual fare. Sure, it can be funny at first to watch her beat the stuffing out of him, but as you gradually realize the depths of his devotion, her cruel indifference or abject violence becomes incredibly painful to watch. On Anemone's side, {{spoiler|when she finally realizes how much he means to her, but believes it's all too late,}} she delivers a gut-wrenching soliloquy, convinced that she doesn't deserve to live. {{spoiler|Amazingly, it all manages to end well.}}

** ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': This is Gendo's [[Freudian Excuse]].

*** One of the main messages of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' (with the addendum "...but you need it.")

* Ayumi from ''[[Honey and Clover]]'' has a bad case of unrequited love for Takumi, who sees her more like his sister. A lot of the first season of the anime is devoted to Ayumi's suffering because of this. Takumi in turn has a hard time with his feelings for (older) Rika.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', "Pirate Empress" Boa Hancock of the Seven Warlords of the Sea has the power to turn anyone who's so much as ''attracted'' to her to [[Taken for Granite|stone]]. And then when she herself falls in love, she might die by it.

** Sanji would be the king of this trope if he ever realized none of the women he's encountered {{spoiler|(aside from the man-ladies)}} ever showed any interest in him.

** Depending on how you interpret the relationship, Zoro towards [[How Dare You Die on Me!|Kuina.]] When you put the possibility in context with [[Celibate Hero|his present lack of interest in sex]], it makes his back story even more depressing.

** It's known that Allied Forces's [[Team Dad]] England has a one-sided crush on someone that has brought him at least 100 years of pain, and widely agreed that it's got to be his former colony America. Despite usually being harsh and drunk, he actually gets moments of being [[The Woobie]] when his love interest America [[Tsundere|shoots him down and sometimes looks like he has fun doing it]]. And then there's [[The American Revolution|*how* they grew apart]]...

** Also, [[Hot-Blooded|Prussia]] might have feelings for either [[The Ditz|North Italy]] or [[Action Girl|Hungary]]. Either way, he's screwed because of their respective romantic ties to [[Perpetual Frowner|Germany]] (Prussia's younger brother and Italy's boyfriend) and [[Meganekko|Austria]] (Hungary's ex-husband and current boyfriend).

** [[Naruto]] is RIFE with this, whether romantic or not. There's Hinata, who {{spoiler|takes a suicidal attack to protect Naruto, whom she loves because he gave her the will [[Plucky Girl|*to not give up ever again*]] }}; Gaara, who {{spoiler|only wanted to be loved, but was hated by everyone until he befriended Naruto, and later cries when facing Sasuke}}; Konan, whose love interest is {{spoiler|none other than Pain}}; {{spoiler|Jiraiya, who was Tsunade's [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]}}; Kakashi, who learned what friendship and love were when {{spoiler|he lost his best friend Obito and then rejected Rin's love for him.}}; etc.

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'': The tragic love between Spike and Julia.

* Love, be it platonic, familiar, or romantic, in the ''[[When They Cry]]'' franchise tends to end in tragedy.

* Akuyuki and Haru (especially ''Haru'') suffer through so much of this ''[[Xam'd: Lost Memories]].''

* One of Hinagiku's fears in ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' is based on this, and it's implied that her fear of heights extends from this. She's afraid of loving someone because her parents left and her older sister has turned to drinking after making sure that Hina doesn't have to deal with the debt and has foster parents, thus she's afraid of loving anyone again, in an effort to keep from getting hurt by them. She may have even turned to her [[Tsundere]] personality because of it. Her admitting ([[Cannot Spit It Out|to Ayumu]]) that she does love Hayate has been shown as an effort because of these fears.

* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. {{spoiler|Sayaka Miki, who becomes a magical girl so that her crush's permanent injuries heal (despite being warned that it won't work the way she wants to), loses said crush to her friend because she [[Cannot Spit It Out|is essentially a zombie as result of being a magical girl leading her to feel that she's unlovable]] (and thus when said friend ''does'' give her the chance to confess first to the boy, she cannot take it.) She becomes increasingly self-destructive ending with her turning into a witch, the creatures that magical girls are tasked to fight. In the end when the [[End of the World Special|universe is reset]] to give all magical girls a happier life Sayaka ''still'' ends up dying. [[Word of God]] says that, in any continuity where she becomes a [[Magical Girl]], she'll be damned to this and can't be saved.}}

** Akane also goes through this for years by having a crush on [[First Love|Dr. Tofu]], a man who's in love with her sister, Kasumi. It isn't until she's 16 that she finally moves on and develops a crush on [[Second Love|Ranma]].

{{quote|'''Akane:''' You can stop your feeble attempts to cheer me up now. I've got a broken heart, remember?

'''Ranma:''' Well, then...

'''Akane:''' Then what?

* The entire plot, point, story and character motivation of Minami Ozaki's [[Zetsuai 1989]]. Period. Heck, even the bystanders get traumatized by the events.

* In chapter 40 of ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'', it is revealed that {{spoiler|succubi can literally die from heartbreak, which seems to be happening to poor Kurumu}}.

* Rune from ''[[Karakuridouji Ultimo]]'' has an unreturned [[Ho Yay|crush on Yamato]] and he [[Attempted Rape|doesn't take rejection well]]. His love for Yamato causes him a lot of heartache.

* Kagetora and Naoe's relationship in ''[[Mirage of Blaze]]''.

'''Desire''': No more than usually; no; and perhaps a little. But only with love. }}

* ''[[Scott Pilgrim]]''. No one is safe from that in that comic. Gets to its extremes with Ramona and Knives though. A chapter is even named 'Love Hurts'.

 

== Fairy Tales ==

 

 

* The ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]'' uses love as a surgical scalpel to subject the characters to unimaginable suffering.

* ''[[Hunting the Unicorn]]'': Blaine is a [[Love Martyr]] who's head over heels for [[The Woobie|his boyfriend Kurt]]. Why does love hurt so much? Because Kurt is Blaine's ''[[Second Love]].''

'''Daniel:''' ...No, you're right. Yeah, total agony. }}

* Any of [[Wong Kar-wai]] 's films, especially ''[[In the Mood for Love]]'' and ''2046.''

* See: ''[[500 Days of Summer|Five Hundred Days of Summer]]'' .

* ''[[The Sword in the Stone]]''. Three words: heartbroken girl squirrel.

* ''[[Kamen Rider]]'', at least in the new generation, is as fond of this trope as it's fond of [[Anyone Can Die]]. On the rare occasions where a love interest to a major character is still alive by season's end, the relationship between them will likely have ended instead.

* ''[[Highlander the Series]]'': According to [[Word of God]], Duncan MacLeod has had "four great loves" in his life. All four are dead, and not of natural causes. In one flashback, a gypsy curses him, saying that he will "bury many women but marry none" - but his bad luck seemed to have started even before that..

* ''[[Torchwood]]'': {{spoiler|The only conceivable reason Ianto would've been in that room with the 4-5-6 is his absolute faith in and love for Jack, and then everyone Jack loves causes him terrible terrible pain in the end.}}

* ''[[Doctor Who]]''. All of the Doctor's companions "break his hearts".

* [[Incubus (band)|Incubus]]' aptly titled song "Love Hurts", although it could be considered a subversion; the chorus is, "Love hurts, but sometimes it's a good hurt and it feels like I'm alive".

* Sing with me...[[Joy Division|Love, love will tear us apart again]]...

* "... that's the pain that cuts a straight line down through the heart, we call it love ..." - [[Hedwig and The Angry Inch]]

* [[Aerosmith]], "Falling in Love (Is Hard On The Knees)".

* ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'' centers around a [[Love Triangle]] between three perfectly honorable, admirable people who all like and respect each other, two rivals who try as hard as they can to make the girl happy instead of fighting over her, and the original [[Playing Cyrano]] plot that isn't revealed until death has taken too many members out of the picture for anyone to be happy.

* A fact of life for Fiyero, Elphaba AND Glinda in Wicked (and Boq and Nessarose for that matter). Elphaba even comments on it during Defying Gravity 'Well if that's love/it comes at much to high a cost'

{{quote|'''Stone''': Whoever said 'Time heals all wounds' never knew anyone like Bobbi.}}

* [[Next to Normal]]:

== Web Comics ==

* [[MAG-ISA]] - The message is, [http://mag-isa.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/156004 "Love hurts...but you need it."]

** He gets off easy compared to Oasis, who has literally ''died'' multiple times because of her [[All Love Is Unrequited|unrequited love]] for Torg.

* ''[[Digger]]''. Ed's backstory. [[Domestic Abuse|Dear God, Ed's backstory.]] And through it all he never, ever stopped loving. Oh, Ed.

* ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest for The Wicked]]''

** Prince Ricardo, being [[Minor Flaw Major Overreaction]] embodied, goes around breaking hearts as quickly as he can rescue princesses—and is none too happy himself.

** Claire and King Gareth appear to have been [[Happily Married]], but he went to war. Now they are separated; Claire won't explain what happened to her child, and refuses to meet him because she feels too guilty; and Gareth signed a peace treaty because he was too heartbroken over the news of his wife.

 

 

** And then there's Sokka who had {{spoiler|his first love perform a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] and become the new moon spirit.}}

* At ''[[Chowder]]'' episode ''At Your Service'', Panini threw some tacks to the running Tall Legged Chowder, and when he is trapped in the middle of the tacks, he stated that ''Love Hurts''.

{{quote|''"Sometimes love hurts, Pud'n, [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner|and I love you a lot]]."''}}

{{quote|'''June:''' I'm sorry she had to leave, Henbud.

'''Henry:''' I'm not. She was ''killing'' me! }}

* Three words: [[Total Drama Island|Total. Drama. Island.]]

** Trent develops a relationship with Gwen, only for Heather to screw it over through a [[Xanatos Roulette]] and {{spoiler|send him packing}} after he and Gwen manage to patch things up. Come [[Total Drama Action]], he gets jealous over her getting closer to [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|Duncan,]] which leads to his obsession with the number nine and {{spoiler|throwing challenges so that Gwen's team would win, which leads to her dumping him so the competition would be fairer.}} Ouch.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Love Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Romance Novel Plots]]