Love Potion: Difference between revisions

Villains may employ other means besides potions for winning someone's love ([[Hypnotize the Princess|spells, brainwashing, illusions, and the like]]) but these usually have a comparable success rate (i.e: ''none''.) If it's particularly potent, it might cause [[Love Is in the Air]] and affect not just the intended drinker but ''everyone.''

 

 

The [[Moral Dissonance|morality]] of magically forcing someone to fall in love, or sleep with, someone [[Double Standard Rape (Sci Fi)|is rarely given much consideration]], if at all. Though it should be noted that in series where genuine Love Potions are common, they are often illegal or at least frowned upon. Still, even purely heroic people too moral to win someone's love by slipping them a potion will often employ said potions as a means of getting the "right" people to fall in love with each other with little regard as to the moral implications. But on the other hand, often it is explicitly stated that love cannot be manufactured, and the love potion is more of a lust/obsession potion, creating a [[Fantastic Aesop]] equivalent to "you can't force somebody to fall in love with you." But yes, depending on the setting, [[Unfortunate Implications|use of it could indeed be likened to date rape]].

** Apparently they also make your girlfriend want to do odd things to your father. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCP3JDTi_xQ Bow Chicka Wah wah]

*** To be fair, TAG will make your Girlfriend's ''mom'' want to do odd things to ''you''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mambpzvJyYM\]

** A '70s ad, for a cologne called "Bacchus," pretended this was the real secret of the Roman army's victories: they arranged to splash the stuff on the men of enemy towns, who were then mobbed by their own (all very beautiful) womenfolk. "Because when a man is irresistible to women, he has more interesting things to do than fight a war."

* Consider also the subtext of the ads for BOD Man fragance spray. Wherein a youth applies the spray and proceedes to play shirtless basketball with his male compatriots, while women look on longingly from behind a chain link fence.

* Parodied by a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x89xAXHd2l8 Specsavers ad] where legions of woman run towards a man spraying himself.. and then stop dead when they see his deeply unfashionable glasses.

** Part of the reason why it failed was because Peorth altered the 'Drop of koi' (affectionate, romantic love) potion to the 'Drop of ai' (passionate love) potion. As Urd explained, it didn't work on Belldandy because it 'was not crude enough' to effect people already in love with each other - i.e. Belldandy and Keiichi.

** As far as the love overeffect goes, Urd's analysis was simply "Potions are not something amateurs ought to mess with"

* A love potion figures into episodes 2 and 3 of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' - but unlike the usual potion, it makes the person who consumes it irresistible to the oppposite sex. Negi brews it to give to Asuna as an apology for embarassing her in front of Takahata-sensei, but because she's angry at him she pours it down Negi's throat before he can explain how it works, with [[Love Is in the Air|predictable results]].

*** At least, once snapped out of it, he has no memories of how far he went, which prevents further grief and awkwardness.

*** Also, at the beginning of the same arc, Kamo reveals to Negi that love potions are indeed illegal (but not as serious as the tree spell because they are temporary).

* When Nagasumi takes one in ''[[Seto no Hanayome]]'', he gets every girl in the show, including the assassin and his ''mother'' falling in love with him. It has the unfortunate side effect of all men hating him, though.

** Not that most of the men in the series don't hate him anyway...

** Later on, Coconut manages to invent a love potion that will cause whoever drinks it to fall madly in love with her. Instead, it turns out that it will make whoever drinks it fall in love with the first person he or she sees - and it didn't even go to the right person. So, while Coconut was trying to make Almond fall in love with her, she accidentally caused a Primeape to fall in love with Eevee.

*** One episode has this happen with Pikachu and Piplup. [[Ho Yay|Both of them are male.]]

* This inadvertently happens to Louise towards her familiar in ''[[Zero no Tsukaima]]''. It's unnerving for Saito, since she's usually firmly on the 'tsun' side of [[Tsundere]].

* A psychological take occurs in ''[[The Sandman]]: Endless Nights'' story "What I've Tasted of Desire." When the protagonist tells a witch she doesn't believe her love potions work, the witch replies that "they don't ''not'' work," in that [[Magic Feather|they give the user the confidence]] to make the first move instead of shyly pining away.

* In ''[[X-Men]]'', Nightcrawler broke up with Amanda Sefton, a sorceress (and his [[Not Blood Siblings|adopted sister]]), the first time because he asked if her magic made him fall in love with her, and she couldn't directly say no.

* [[Archie Comics|Jughead Jones]] has a special button he can put on his crown that makes him irresistible to women. Considering his lack of interest in romance, however, he doesn't really have any use for it.

 

** In two ''other'' Hercules-based movies featured on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', evil queens try slipping love potions to The Big Herc, only by this time he's become [[Genre Savvy]] enough to spill them or spit them out. He then only ''pretends'' to be affected by them.

* The 1992 [[Sandra Bullock]] movie ''[[Love Potion Number Nine|Love Potion #9]]'' takes a different tack from the song of the same name. The "potion" makes (temporary) changes to the voice of the person who takes it such that anyone of the opposite sex hearing them speak is attracted to them - and willing to do anything they ask (and makes members of the same sex hate them just as much). Larger doses escalate the effect dramatically, as the villainess discovers when she reverse-engineers and strengthens the potion (to the point where it's thick as molasses), inadvertently creating a [[Thundering Herd]] of men following her after she chugs it.

* ''[[Shrek]] 2'' has one of these. (If you look carefully, you'll see that the bottle has "IX" written on it.) Fiona's fairy godmother orders the king to pour it into Fiona's drink so that she will fall in love with Prince Charming instead of Shrek. It doesn't work because the king decided not to give Fiona the potion-laced drink after seeing how much she loved Shrek.

* ''[[The Thief of Bagdad]]'' featured the evil Grand Vizier named (what else?) Jaffar, giving the Princess a "Blue Rose of Forgetfulness" which makes her forget all about her love for the hero. (At least until he shows up to snap her out of it.)

* [[Isaac Asimov]], inspired by the [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] operetta ''The Sorcerer'', wrote a short story titled "The Up-to-date Sorcerer," in which the Professor's potion works because of [[Techno Babble]] instead of magic. It's a slightly more ethical potion than the usual sort, as it only works on people who aren't married. Predictably, it ends up making the pretty young girl fall for the wrong person, and all parties involved try to figure a way out of this mess. {{spoiler|When they remember that the potion has no effect on married people, they realize that if the girl marries the guy the potion made her fall for, the potion will no longer work. They do, the potion wears off, they get the marriage annulled, and the girl goes back to dating the guy she was originally interested in.}}

* Averted in [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[The Spirit Ring]]''. Fiametta tries to create a love ring, but her father explains that the spell only reveals true love, not compels it, and that magically induced true love is a paradox.

*** ''Last Call'' has a maenad doses Harry's favorite homebrew beer with a lust-and-violence potion in an attempt to start a riot at a Bulls game to remind people of Dionysus (and teach them "proper respect").

*** In ''Love Hurts'', a Red Court vampire enchants a carnival haunted house ride to make the riders fall in love, hoping to spread true love, which is anathema to White Court vamps; she draws Harry and the cops' attention when people who ''shouldn't'' be in love (like [[Brother-Sister Incest|siblings]]) fall victim and commit suicide.

* A whole industry of non-functional love spells can be found in ''[[Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell]]'', there was also a spell to store emotions in amber, then when the amber melted the emotions spread to those nearby, presumably this could be used on love although the actual examples were courage and fear for your, and their army respectively. It also featured a rather clever use of love spells {{spoiler|Childermass buys a knowingly non-functional spell from Vinculus to use on a princess, bringing the [[Overprotective Dad|wrath of the King]] down on Vinculus. Turns out he needn't bother}}

* This is discussed at some length in Doris Egan's ''Ivory'' series. A sorcerer can't make someone fall in love. Instead, he or she can create a spell that causes the victim to experience a very clinical checklist of symptoms of sexual attraction for the specified target; if the victim isn't suspicious, the result is effective about 80 percent of the time.

* Tom Holt's JWW series, beginning with ''[[The Portable Door]]'', centers around J.W. Wells' famous "love philtre", which always works - it knocks the drinker out for twenty minutes, and they fall in love with the first person of the opposite sex they see. There have to be something like five or six instances of this throughout the series, nearly always with horrific potential. As in all his books, Holt plays fast and loose with consistency, and a love philtre which "always" works somehow generally finds a way to wear off. {{spoiler|At least until the very end of the third book, where the "hero" and "heroine" (I am reluctant to use the words) are finally given such a heavy dose of the thing that they spend the rest of eternity making dovey-eyes at each other.}}

* Some of [[Discworld|Nanny Ogg's]] recipes have a very aphrodisiac-like effect, and people have been known to do [[Hilarity Ensues|amazing]] things after accidentally eating a plateful of something spiced up with her famous Chocolate Sauce with secret ingredients.

* In ''[[Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince]]'', we learn that if not for a love spell/potion, [[Big Bad]] Voldemort wouldn't even exist, since his mother, Merope, apparently used one to make her crush, Tom Riddle (Voldemort's father) marry her. This is actually a subversion of the usual story, because the potion apparently ''did'' work perfectly; however, Dumbledore speculates she began to feel guilty after a while, and willingly stopped giving him the potion in the hope that he would have grown to really love her. Unfortunately, he didn't. Given how starved for love she was (having been raised in a [[Abusive Parents|highly dysfunctional family]]), Merope comes off rather sympathetically.

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Alien Nation (TV series)|Alien Nation]]'' has the Newcomer drug Sardonac, which is ''meant'' to be used by existing couples who want to permanently bind themselves together. In the show, it was abused by an unstable Newcomer woman using it nonconsensually on her boyfriends, and then played for laughs when Matt is the first person one of the victims sees. (Fortunately for all involved, the effects of Sardonac go away after thirty days if there's no sex.)

** Xander tries a love spell in one episode. His aim was apparently off, as every woman he encounters falls for him ''except'' for the one he actually wanted to target (though hints throughout the episode indicated it was because she did love him, but was in denial or was putting on a facade as though she wasn't).

** Subverted and spoofed when Willow appears to be casting a love spell ("Send me the heart that I desire") but is actually playing poker.

* The morality of this is lampshaded in ''[[The IT Crowd]]'', where the love potion turns out to be Rohypnol.

* In ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'', Alex tries to use a potion that makes its two drinkers love each other. It goes wrong when she accidentally drinks both halves of the potion and fall in love with herself.

* A variation occurs in ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' where Ida introduces an elderly rich asian fiancee that loves her despite her heartlessness, turns out she's been drugging him. He gets out in the nick of time when she uses the remainder of the happy pills on the family so they're too content to do anything.

** The brothers learn that Heaven, via Cupid, matched their parents, so that Sam and Dean were born.

** In the episode "Wishful Thinking" a nerdy guy uses a Wishing Well to make his dream girl love him "more than anything." [[Be Careful What You Wish For|It works - The girl loves him so much that she feels pleasing him is more important than her own happiness, and is willing to commit murder to keep them together.]]

* In the eighth season of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', Rimmer deliberately infects himself with a sexual magnetism virus in order to have his way with his female shipmates. He gets caught and sent to the brig [[Prison Rape|where he is reinfected in the midst of his fellow prisoners]].

* A villainess in an episode of ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' used as massive amount of love potion on the workers of the Daily Planet causing everyone to fall in love with someone else, with [[Clark Kent]] being the only one immune to the effects. It also can only work if that person is at least attracted to the first person they saw. Or any person they see before the potion wears off. This also turns into the earliest episode where [[Lois Lane]] should be able to discover the identity of [[Superman]]. Under the spell Lois says that Clark looks like Superman, but she dismisses this line afterwards, but clearly remembers. However it is unclear why Lois is not suspicious of Clark's immunity to the spell. She clearly does not accept his claim he has no feelings for her, and if she does she is totally blind to the ways of men. The claim of no feelings does not mesh with how he had interacted with her so far. She clearly remembers what she did under the spell, since she remembers and that would include his lines that amount to saying he will not give in because he will not take advantage of her, even though he has dreamed of her doing things along the lines of what she is doing. The moment she comes to is also the moment that he professes a deep desire for her. The one thing that might prevent Lois Lane from figuring out that Clark Kent is superman is that when superman gets exposed to the potion in stopping the even more nefarious plans for it, he pretends to be under its power, and gives Lois the same moral dilemma of resisting or accepting the overtures of a spellbound lover. Why Clark being able to resist where Superman was overcomes does not raise more questions than it answers for the unstoppable, award winning investigative reporter Lois Lane is not at all clear.

 

 

* ''[[GURPS]] Technomancer'' doesn't shy away from the moral implications, outright calling the Elixir of Love (along with the Elixirs of Lechery and Drunkenness) a "date-rape potion."

* In both ''[[Tabletop Game/Vampire The Masqerade|Vampire The Masqerade]]'' and ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'', the blood bond, or vinculum, has similar effects to a love potion. A human or vampire who's made to drink another vampire's blood three times becomes bound to them for a long time; as long as the bond is in effect, they can't bring a hand to harm them, even if they hate their guts. Needless to say, most vampires do ''not'' want to get caught in one of these.

* In ''[[Seventh Sea|7th Sea]]'' there's "Godiva's Tears", a powerful aphrodisiac used to lower a victim's inhibitions (and gives said victims a penalty towards resisting any Seduction attempts). Likewise, master practitioners of ''sorte'' magic can strengthen or even create Passion strands between two targets out of the blue, albeit temporary.

* In ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'', players can create mind control devices; using them sexually is the second highest level of [[Karma Meter|Transgression]] alongside rape or serial murder.

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' 3.5 had a love potion that essentially functioned as a [[Charm Person]] spell, complete with limited duration.

 

 

* Played for Drama in the last opera of ''[[Der Ring Des Nibelungen]]'' when [[Manipulative Bastard|Hagen]] uses a love potion on [[The Hero|Siegfried]] that makes him forget any other woman and fall in love with his half-sister, the purpose of this is to ensure that: she will get married, Siegfried will retrieve a bride for his half-brother, and {{spoiler|he will get the ring}}.

* Sometimes a potion doesn't have to "make" someone fall in love with another, but instead just [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|make them forget who they are and whom they may currently be in love with]]. In [[Richard Wagner]]'s ''[[The Ring of the Nibelung|Der Ring Des Nibelungen]]'', Siegfried is given an "Ale of Forgetfulness" which makes him forget all about Brünnhilde, his beloved, whom he then captures and gives to the people who drugged him. (This later prompts Brünnhilde to enact a terrible revenge once she learns about the potion, so nothing good really comes out of using it.)

* This is the plot of ''The Sorcerer'', one of the earlier [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] operas.

 

* A short series of quests in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' involves a student becoming sick after drinking an unfinished love potion. And then falling in love with the teacher. Eventually, it turns out she fell in love with him because he stayed by her side while she was sick, not because the love potion worked.

** There's also the Ranger ability Love Potion, which sets a trap that inflicts Charm.

* Normally an avid man-chaser (and magnet), Nikki from ''[[Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al Revis]]'', soon tires of the many admirers that she attracted. The solution her friends make? A Love''less'' Potion. It worked well for her. Maybe a little ''too'' well. Things went from bad to ''worse''. Well, [[Hilarity Ensues|worse for]] [[Butt Monkey|Nikki]], [[Hilarity Ensues|that is...]]

* ''[[Higurashi]] Daybreak'' and its single-episode anime adaptation revolve around a pair of magatama that will cause its holders to fall in love with each other. In the anime version, Rena accidentally swallows one of them, and the other one passes around from one person to the next, ''including a [[Les Yay|female character]]''. Needless to say, [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** The love potion appears in a side quest in ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon]]'' where Oberon uses it on Titania after she falls for Raidou.

* In ''[[Fairytale Fights]]'', love potions can be thrown or used in glory attacks to stun enemies or drank which fully heals you and makes you temporarily invincible.

 

 

** "I love Zoe so much! I can hardly contain myself! I love her enough to die for her! I love her enough... to kill!" ... "KILL KILL MURDER KILL STABBITY STAB STAB STAB KILL"

* It more-or-less works in ''[[Yang Child]]'', where a [[Mysterious Watcher]] slips a love potion to the heroes ''in order to inconvenience them'', at least displaying a bit of [[Genre Savvy|Genre Savviness]]. And even then, it ends up on the "wrong" target and is used ''way'' after B.B. date.

* ''[[Nodwick]]'''s latest story arc is of the "First person you see" variety. Needless to say, [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* In one ''[[Oglaf]]'' [http://oglaf.com/potion/ strip] (Warning: SFW), a man drinks a love potion that was supposed to be given to the woman that he wanted to fall in love with him, and he falls in love with the potion.

* The potion used on Rava in ''[[Galtar and the Golden Lance]]'' works fine. It was when it wore off that it hit the fan.

* A Pluto short on the ''[[House of Mouse]]'' has Pluto finding Magical Love Arrows in a dumpster. As it turns out, there's a reason those arrows were in the trash: they don't fly straight and Pluto ends up hitting the wrong target.

* While not a love potion, Wade of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' creates a modern love laser beam that causes the much older Monique to fall in love with him. It works exactly as planned, until the effect wears off and she's pissed at him. Later, the villain comes in possession of the love laser beam and uses it for massive annoyance.

** Another example could be of the Moodulators which caused Kim and Shego to fall for Ron and Drakken respectively. Of course, the [[Fandom]] speculate that this only brought out feelings that were already there.

** [[All Myths Are True|Cupid]]'s love arrows. They eventually wear off unless they're specifically made to last forever.

** The first time Timmy became Norm's "master", he tried to use the second wish to make Trixie fall in love with him, he believed to have outwitted Norm by wording his wish to make Trixie Tang fall in love with "Timmy Turner". Trixie then started loving and kissing everyone named Timmy Turner. To Timmy's displeasure, the wish he made to undo Norm's other disasters made the wish on Trixie wear off right when it'd be his turn to be kissed.

* Happens with Cupid's arrows in the ''[[American Dragon Jake Long]]'' episode "The Love Cruise". When Cupid goes on vacation, he leaves his magical bow and love arrows in Grandpa's care. Jake can't resist borrowing Cupid's equipment and using it to play matchmaker on his school's "Love Cruise", including pairing himself with Rose, who he feels no longer has feelings for him. Chaos ensues, including Fu falling in love with himself, the captain of the ship falling in love with the Statue of Liberty and abandoning his post and Rose hating Jake because of what happens when the person hit by the arrow already loves the first one they see.

* The Valentine's Day episode of ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' turns Sarah and Jimmy into a pair of trouble-making cupids.

* Subverted on ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' when Helga buys a Fall-Out-of-Love Potion... of course, {{spoiler|turns out it was just some grape soda}}.

* One episode of [[Donkey Kong Country (animation)|Donkey Kong Country]] had Bluster Kong, with help from the Crystal Coconut, mix up a love potion to win Candy Kong's affections. Unfortunately, K.Rool gets his hands on it. However, the potion wears off, and a second dose causes the subject to feel ''hate'' instead of love, and back to love the next dose. As Cranky Kong says, "There's a thin love between love and hate!"

* One episode of [[The Mask (animation)|The Mask]] had a gypsy woman with a love potion that actually turned its victims irresistible to anyone of the opposite gender. When a sample fell on Mrs. Peenman, Stanley (a.k.a. the Mask) and Kellaway fell in love with her. When Stanley asked for a solution from the gypsy, she told him anyone that the potion wears off soon except when the person who fell in love with the user used some magical object. (the last part might have been made up to trick Stanley into giving her the mask) In the end, the potion fell on her, causing all men other than Mask to chase her, allowing the hero to chase the other girls.