"And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity"
— The Bible, Colossians 3:14
"...for love is as strong as death..."
Wish Fulfillment is an undeniable part of all fiction, and there is nothing at all wrong with it, in and of itself. I Just Want to Be Loved is a specific wish that some members of the audience would like to have fulfilled by the fiction they consume.
This wish is mostly (but not exclusively) expressed by females. Because at least some women believe that family is everything, said women are more likely to care about being loved, as opposed to actually doing something really cool. Feminists of multiple stripes (from Straw Feminist types to completely sane and reasonable feminists) hate this. As such, this trope is seen as having its share of Unfortunate Implications about what women should aim for in life. In spite of these implications, the wish still exists and much media does indeed aim to fulfill it.
Note however that Tropes Are Not Bad. If a work appeals to this wish, it is not automatically Bad Writing or inherently sexist.
Contrast: I Just Want to Be Badass and A Man Is Not a Virgin
Related to: I Just Want to Be Beautiful.
See Also: Wish Fulfillment, I Just Want to Have Friends, I Just Want to Be Normal, I Just Want to Be Special.
— Song of Solomon 8:6
Examples:
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Anime And Manga
- Despite what he'll tell you, this and I Just Want to Have Friends are the primary driving forces for Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist. By extension, Father also wants this.
- Alois from Black Butler. It gets so bad that eventually he doesn't care whether it's Claude, and sells his soul to Hannah instead because she was pretty much the first person since Luka to earnestly say "I love you".
- Miyako Miyamura's goal in ef - a fairy tale of the two. is this, ever since her parents's messy divorce that had them ignoring her completely.
- All Neon Genesis Evangelion's Shinji Ikari ever wanted was someone to love him, and when he finally found that person in Kaworu Nagisa, he lost him in one of the most horribly heart-breaking ways imaginable.
- This, coupled with I Just Want to Be Normal and I Just Want to Have Friends, and besides her wish to Kill All Humans, is what moved Elfen Lied's Lucy all her life. In fact, this is what moves most main characters in this series.
- Seiji from Midori Days.
- Lyrical Nanoha:
- Fate Testarossa just wanted to be loved by her dearest mother who tortures her on regular basis because she hates how Fate (who is a clone) resembles her deceased daughter. She gets everything she wished, though: she gets a new family (the Harlaowns) and later becomes one Vivio's two mommies with Nanoha. People even call the three of them "the Takamachi family". Probably the Most Triumphant Example of this trope in Girls Love.
- On a non-eros(?), Hayate Yagami. From an orphan to being one of the aces, adored by her immediate underlings who are also her surrogate family.
Comic Books
- In Dork Tower, Matt McLimore's ongoing desire to be involved with someone repeatedly pushes him back to his ex-girlfriend, Kayleigh... even while his dream girl, Gilly the Perky Goth, hovers nearby.
- Irredeemable. This is the Plutonian's motivation for being a superhero after spending years in several foster homes with people who were afraid of him. Despite being a respected champion, he's so obsessed with the negative comments and constant demands people give him that it drives him over the edge.
Fan Fic
- There are probably too many fanfics to list that appeal to this wish. The appeal of the Relationship Sue is arguably derived from this wish (as well as the specific desire to be loved by a particular character).
Film
- The main character of (500) Days of Summer has this motivation.
- All of the daughters in Eat Drink Man Woman, to various degrees.
- In Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane is a total bastard who manipulates everyone around him with no interest in or respect for their feelings, but all he really wants is to be loved. He gets yelled at for this by many other characters, but the real problem is Kane's inability to love anyone back.
- In the film version of Coraline, the heroine wishes for a loving family... and learns that you should Be Careful What You Wish For , as love has an ugly side.
Literature
- Twilight fulfills this wish. The whole point of Bella being an Audience Surrogate is so the audience can indulge their wish to be loved by Edward Cullen.
- The Romance Novel exists to fulfill this wish.
- Ayn Rand, in her novel Atlas Shrugged, deconstructs the trope as well as gender-flips it via the character of James Taggart. James wants to be loved, but not for anything he actually does. Rather, he wants to be loved for himself. Not for the benefits he might bring into the life of the person that loves him. Not for any of his virtues or good qualities. He says that he wants to be loved for himself. Ultimately, what he truly wants is to be loved for absolutely no reason at all, i.e. loved in spite of his own worthlessness.
- In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Ford and Arthur try to flatter their Vogon captors poetry to avoid being thrown out of the airlock. The Captain asks them if they're saying that he writes poetry because "Underneath my callous exterior, deep down, I just want to be loved?" Subverted when he announces that he actually writes poetry to throw his callous exterior into sharp relief, and they're going to be thrown out the airlock anyway.
- A male version in Over the Wine-Dark Sea. Sostratos never keeps a Heitaira because he wants one that will really love him and can't quite believe it of a hireling.
- Subverted in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Poor Merope Gaunt.
Music
- Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" shamelessly panders to this wish.
- Most Boy Band songs fulfill this wish as well.
- A Papa Roach song has this line in the chorus.
- Queen's "Somebody To Love".
- There are many romantic ballads featuring the singer singing about how they really love "you" the person they are singing to.
Live Action Television
- Jon Lovitz of Saturday Night Live did an impression of Harvey Fierstein (playwright of Torch Song Trilogy). The parody version of Fierstein had a variant of this as his Catch Phrase. "I just want to be loved. Is that so wrong?"
- Phoebe of Charmed made it her personal mission to find love during the last few seasons. In the end, she got a Cupid. Yay?
Theatre
- Chrysothemis in Richard Strauss's opera Elektra, who does not share her sister Elektra's thirst for revenge, and just wants to be a simple wife and mother — and this wish is what sustains her in her dark, fearful time as a prisoner. (Note: this is not her characterisation in the original Sophocles play.)
Video Games
- The Dating Sim genre arguably exists because of this wish.
- The Collector in LittleBigPlanet, and Liquid Ocelot in the Metal Gear level pack.
- At the climax of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, Robot Buddy R-110 is fatally wounded by the Big Bad and in his last moments he laments, "I only wanted to be loved..." This runs contrary to his recent activities throughout the last act.
- The motivation — and a frequent line of dialogue — for the fallen hero Flambeaux in City of Heroes.
- Mandatory Touhou example: Koishi Komeiji, the extra boss of Subterranean Animism and the little sister of Satori Komeiji. Her kind are mind readers, and sometimes A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read, leading her to closing her evil-eye. When you fight her, her spellcards are all themed with Freudian psychology, including one that looks phallic.
- The Pokémon Mimikyu wears a Pikachu disguise in hopes that people will love it the same way that they love the series mascot.
Western Animation
- Meg Griffin is treated horribly by her family and most of Quahog for her supposed ugliness. She is desperate for affection to the point of mental instability. One cutaway gag shows her 'dating' a corpse. In another episode, Meg accepts a pity date from Brian, her family's talking dog, and becomes obsessed with him after he insults another girl in her defence and kisses her while drunk. Fans debate whether Meg is a Woobie, Broken Bird or comical Butt Monkey.
