History Main / BreakHisHeartToSaveHim

* This trope shows up a number of times throughout J.R.Ward's BlackDaggerBrotherhood series. Example: [[spoiler: Rehvenge revealing his life as a coldblooded drug-dealer/pimp to his LoveInterest Ehlena in order to drive her away so she wouldn't find out he's half ''[[TheSociopath sympath]]'' and, worse still, marked for torture and certain death. Thankfully she saw through the act eventually and [[IGotBetter helped to]] [[EarnYourHappyEnding save him]].]]

* In Volume IV of ''Fanfic/ThePrivateDiaryOfElizabethQuatermain'', Elizabeth is blackmailed into marrying the villain, [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Ben Everett]]. If she didn't go through with it and put on the happy bride act, he would have her surrogate brother Tom killed and have [[spoiler:Skinner, who loves her but CannotSpitItOut,]] framed for it. Unfortunately for the villain, the rest of Elizabeth's {{Nakama}} figures out what's up.

* SweetValleyHigh: Steven's girlfriend Tricia begins acting distant towards him. He concludes that she's seeing someone else and confronts her with this. When she doesn't deny it, he dumps her. Little did he know that she was dying of leukemia and of course, was pushing him away in the hopes that he would be over her by the time she passed away.

* Frequently seen on [[SoapOpera soap operas]], of course.

* Frequently seen on soap operas.

* Rukia pulls this on Ichigo in ''{{Bleach}}'' when her brother comes to collect her for the crime of giving Ichigo her powers; its obvious Ichigo isn't strong enough to beat him and will mostly be killed if he continues further, which she knew he would. This lays the groundwork for the [[RescueArc Soul Society Arc]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', Macbeth does this to Gruoch, whose [[ArrangedMarriage been betrothed]] to somebody else:

* You could consider Robin's assault on the other Titans in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' this. Considering Slade had a way to kill them all with a push of a button, his only viable responce was to do as he asked for their sake. Including not holding back against them when he commits crimes for Slade.

-->''"You're a great actress, Satine. Hurt him. Hurt him to save him."''

* You could consider Robin's assault on the other Titans in ''TeenTitans'' this. Considering Slade had a way to kill them all with a push of a button, his only viable responce was to do as he asked for their sake. Including not holding back against them when he commits crimes for Slade.

* In {{Gargoyles}}, Macbeth does this to Gruoch, whose [[ArrangedMarriage been betrothed]] to somebody else:

* Ace attempts to do this for Luffy in ''OnePiece'' [[spoiler:as Luffy plunges headfirst into the battle at Marineford and is attacked on all sides by the [[PsychoForHire Seven Warlords of the Sea]] and [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Marine officers]] in an attempt to [[RescueArc rescue Ace from his execution]]. Ace shouts for Luffy to go away, stating that they have their own crews and Luffy is under no obligation to rescue him. He even states that it would be "humiliating" to be saved by a "weakling" like Luffy, all the while silently begging for Luffy not to involve himself in Ace's mistake. [[IdiotHero Luffy]] of course just ignores this and [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming shouts that he's Ace's little brother and promises to save Ace even if it killed him]]. Awww]].
** There are earlier instances of this before that, such as when Nami had returned to Arlong Park, trying to act coldly to the then forming Straw Hats in order to keep them from Arlong's wraith. It doesn't work of course and in fact, against all odd, they end of beating him and his crew. In Chopper's flashback, his father figure Hirulik does this to spare Chopper from seeing him slowly die from an incurable disease [[spoiler: And later in the series during Robin's flashback, her mother tries to do this to spare her from the World Government but she can't deny her daughter's pleas to her and breaks down. Robin does this herself to the Straw Hats to protect them from the World Government.]]

* You could consider Robin's assault on the other Titans in Teen Titans this. Considering Slade had a way to kill them all with a push of a button, his only viable responce was to do as he asked for their sake. Including not holding back against them when he commits crimes for Slade.

** Bella also does this to her father to some extent, shouting at him and basically [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calling him a loser in every way.]] She does it so she can justify her flight from the "evil" vampires and in order to protect him.

** Also by Eleven to [[spoiler: Amy Pond]].
--> ''I can't save you from this. There's nothing I can do to stop it...I've stole your childhood and now I've led you by the hand to your death.But the worst thing is; I knew. I knew this would happen, this is what always happens. Forget your faith in me. I took you with me because I was vain. Because I wanted to be adored....I'm not a hero. I really am just a mad man in a box. And its time we saw each other as we really are.''

* In season 2 of ''SailorMoon'', when Mamoru starts to have horrifying images [[spoiler: through Chibi-usa]] about the future where Usagi is in grave danger, so he decides to break up with him to protect her, but Usagi doesn't take it so well at first, and Mamoru can barely keep up the facade of not liking her since he can still assist her and the other Senshi in fights against Droids.

* Mamoru does this to Usagi for a while in ''SailorMoon''.

* Happens to Rose Tyler in the new series of ''DoctorWho''.

** There are earlier instances of this before that, such as when Nami had returned to Arlong Park, trying to act coldly to the then forming Straw Hats in order to keep them from Arlong's wraith. It doesn't work of course and in fact, against all odd, they end of beating him and his crew. In Chopper's flashback, his father figure Hirulik does this to spare Chopper from seeing him slowly die from an incurable disease [[spoiler: And later in the series during Robin's flashback, her mother tries to do this to spare her from the World Government but she can't deny her daughter's pleas to her and breaks down.]]

** Another example occurs in ''Lover Enshrined'' wherein [[spoiler: Qhuinn]] is basically marked for death after [[spoiler: cutting open his cousin, Lash's, throat]] so [[spoiler: he]] plans to go underground. On the way [[spoiler: he's]] caught by [[spoiler: his best friend Blay, who says he'll never abandon Qhuinn. Qhuinn resorts to outing his buddy and confronting Blay about [[LongingLook watching him]], making it sound as though he's disgusted by his friend.]] A TearJerker moment, to say the least. [[spoiler: Like Rehv's ploy, this is thankfully seen through and at least partially resolved after awhile, leaving the two on friendly terms again.]]

* This trope shows up a number of times throughout J.R.Ward's BlackDaggerBrotherhood series. Example: [[spoiler: Rehvenge revealing his life as a coldblooded drug-dealer/pimp to his LoveInterest Ehlena in order to drive her away so she wouldn't find out he is half [[TheSociopath ''sympath'']] and, worse still, marked for torture and certain death. Thankfully she saw through the act eventually and [[IGotBetter helped to]] [[EarnYourHappyEnding save him]].]]

* This trope shows up a number of times throughout JRWard's BlackDaggerBrotherhood series. Example: [[spoiler: Rehvenge revealing his life as a coldblooded drug-dealer/pimp to his LoveInterest Ehlena in order to drive her away so she wouldn't find out he is half [[TheSociopath ''sympath'']] and, worse still, marked for torture and certain death. Thankfully she saw through the act eventually and [[IGotBetter helped to]] [[EarnYourHappyEnding save him]].]]

** Another example occurs in ''Lover Enshrined'' wherein [[spoiler: Qhuinn]] is basically marked for death after [[spoiler: cutting open his cousin, Lash's, throat]] so [[spoiler: he]] plans to go underground. On the way [[spoiler: he's]] caught by [[spoiler: his best friend Blay, who says he'll never abandon Qhuinn. Qhuinn resorts to outing his buddy and confronting Blay about [[LongingStare watching him]], making it sound as though he's disgusted by his friend.]] A TearJerker moment, to say the least. [[spoiler: Like Rehv's ploy, this is thankfully seen through and at least partially resolved after awhile, leaving the two on friendly terms again.]]

* Rukia pull this on Ichigo in ''{{Bleach}}'' when her brother comes to collect her for the crime of giving Ichigo her powers and its obvious Ichigo not strong enough to beat him and will mostly be killed if he continues further.

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* In the ''NinjaHighSchool: Shidoshi'' series, Tetsuo goes against his grandfather in hopes of becoming the clan leader and getting out of an arranged marriage so he can marry his true sweethear, Nanashi. However his grandfather is too strong and, realizing that he'll kill Nanashi if he continues to defy him, Tetso puts on a jerkass performance in order to drive Nanashi away and keep her safe.

* Ace attempts to do this for Luffy in ''OnePiece'' [[spoiler:as Luffy plunges headfirst into the battle at Marineford and is attacked on all sides by the [[PsychosForHire Seven Warlords of the Sea]] and [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Marine officers]] in an attempt to [[RescueArc rescue Ace from his execution]]. Ace shouts for Luffy to go away, stating that they have their own crews and Luffy is under no obligation to rescue him. He even states that it would be "humiliating" to be saved by a "weakling" like Luffy, all the while silently begging for Luffy not to involve himself in Ace's mistake. [[IdiotHero Luffy]] of course just ignores this and [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming shouts that he's Ace's little brother and promises to save Ace even if it killed him]]. Awww]].
** There are earlier instances of this before that, such as when Nami had returned to Arlong Park, trying to act coldly to the then forming Straw Hats in order to keep them from Arlong's wraith. It doesn't work of course and in fact, against all odd, they end of beating him and his crew. In Chopper's flashback, his father figure Hirulik does this to spare Chopper from seeing him slowly die from an incurable disease [[spoiler: And later in the series during Robin's flashback, her mother tries to do this to spare her from the World Government but she can't deny her daughter pleas to her and breaks down.]]