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Yet, there's a definite spark between them. "I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."
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 genders 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.
Note: The above quote from Helena makes this Older Than Steam.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- 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.
- 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.
- He slapped her once and everyone called him on it. He also regretted it.
- Shuichi from the Gravitation manga 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 claiming that the only person he loves is a dead man. 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, moreso 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 between Akio and Anthy, 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 Dragonball 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.
- 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.
- Naota from FLCL confesses his love for Haruko in the final episode... while she's trying to kill him. At the end of the episode, 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...
- 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 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 take a fatal sword wound for him.
- Spoileriffic example from Princess Tutu: Rue is practically this trope incarnate. She puts up with her "Father's" emotional and physical abuse, blaming herself for the Raven's behavior and believing she just needs to be a "better daughter." When she taints Mytho's heart with the Raven's blood, he begins to take on her father's abusive personality—but, as Mytho says, she "never stopped loving." In the end, her efforts are rewarded—the Raven's poison is reversed by Rue's declaration of love and Mytho's pure-hearted personality is restored, and he confesses love for her in return and takes her away to be his princess.
- Sister Yukariko Sanada's relationship with the manipulative art teacher Ishigami in Mai-HiME makes her one of these. She genuinely loves him, but he's more concerned with getting the other girls to turn against each other so that Yukariko can be the last one standing, goading her into pulling a Wounded Gazelle Gambit. She eventually gets fed up with having to go against her own ideals, and after her confrontation with Mai, she turns her bow-and-arrows against Ishigami, while tearfully admitting her Love Martyr status as they sink into the ground along with her CHILD.
- 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 underreaction 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 wellbeing. 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, Tomitake saves Takano's life even after she tries to kill Rika and her Nakama.
- 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.
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?
- 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 Matyr, 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.
- 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.
- 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. He WAS really pissed off and upset when his Smug Snake assistant shot her in the back and killed her; IIRC, after he assisted Kaori in his last minutes, he kiled the guy gruesomely and carried Kaori's lifeless body around in his arms
- Sasame from Pretear 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.
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 footpage 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.
Comic Books
- 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.
- Well, considering the girlfriend, is being treated like dirt really such a bad thing?
- You mean like sucking all the nutrients out of her? 'Cause that's usually what plants do to dirt.
Fanfiction
- 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.”
Film
- 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.
- 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 Scottie discovers that she was actually the dead woman he was obsessed with, which was part of a bigger plot, drags her to the same bell tower where she faked her death, and she accidentally tumbles off the roof to her death — this time for real.
- Padme refuses to give up on Anakin Skywalker because...wait, why does she do it again?
- The Force Willed it. More accurately, Skywalker's date-rapist command of it. After all, it's his only specialty.
- Because...he loved her. Whatever else he was, whatever he became, he did love her and he was honestly a better person when he was with her. Note the scene in Episode II when Obi-Wan convinced him to do his duty because it's what Padme would do.
- 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.
Literature
- Despite his abrasive personality, stalking tendencies, and overall dangerous nature, Bella of Twilight loves Edward and is willing to give her life for him . . . repetitively. 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 on danger that she usually places herself to, when she is clearly atracted 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. She gets murdered by him in the end.
- 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.
- Evie from The Frog King puts up with far more from the main character than she should. Until she stops, at least.
- The titular 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 takes the blame for Myrtle's death in Daisy's place, and ends up dying for it. 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.
- Perhaps also Basil Hallward, from The Picture Of Dorian Gray, at least in part. He obviously cares for Dorian Gray very much but Dorian Gray 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 Gray berates and murders him just for coming to visit and speaking of the rumors surrounding Dorian Gray's disreputable acts (oh, yeah, he also gets an acquaintance to destroy the body)! YIKES!
- 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 shouted 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.
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.
- Tora Ziyal of DS 9 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.
- Chief Tyrol may also qualify, in regards to Boomer.
- 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.
- What about Starbuck? Anyone who falls in love with her 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. In the end, their love redeems them both, and they turn good... and then die.
- 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.
- He was much more so when he was with Drusilla.
- Sylar and Elle Bishop of Heroes (pictured above). Sylar lets Elle kill him repeatedly because he loved her and she needed to because he killed her (abusive) father. For a moment they thought they could have a normal life together. But then his powers came back and Elle lied to him, so he killed her.
- 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. It's only in the finale when Sam confesses to being an undercover officer investigating police corruption that she finally turns against him.
- 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. When she is forced to become an informat to the FBI, she tells Christopher and after the third beating she gives him the choice. Christopher chooses the mob and it results in Adrianna's death.
- 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, even when Castiel and Zachariah bribe him with heaven. And virgins.
- 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 in season five, much of "Free to Be You and Me"'s subtext was how unhappy they were without the other.
- 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.
Music
- "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 a Love Martyr 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:
Well I guess, I should stick up for myself
But I really think it's better this way
The more you suffer
The more it shows you really care,
Right? Yeah!
- "Façade" by Disturbed:
...Broken down, hurt again / It never ends
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...
- The entire point of the Vocaloid vid Servant of Evil. Note that there is some severe Tear Jerker present here.
- 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."
Theater
Video Games
- 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. So Yeah.
- 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 betrays the PC to the enemy just to avoid getting tied down by his feelings, 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 in one of the Sensates' halls 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 what a soulless, Manipulative Bastard he was as well as how little he actually cared for the girl who died for him.
- Decus for Alice in Tales Of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.
- Selvaria to Maximillian of Valkyria Chronicles, although she has little, if at all, interest about changing him. Pretty justified since Maximillian saved her from being an eternal lab rat, thus she has dedicated her life for her savior. This being Maximillian, only means it starts to go downhill from there. Not that Selvaria cares...
- 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.
Web Animation
Web Comics
- Dina from It's Walky! There's STILL controversy about her relationship with complete Jerkass Heroic Sociopath Mike, and Dina's dead. Most of the arguments are about whether or not Mike returned her affection at all; for example, he took her to her favorite place in the world, the museum, something her usually nicer ex-boyfriend Walky was never shown as doing (in fact, Walky was depicted as very selfish when it came to his relationship with Dina) and implied that he had loved her to Joe after Dina's death.
- Zebra Girl has most of the cast turn into this as the main character descends into her demonic side. Noticeably lampshaded here.
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). By the middle of the third season, Zuko has his head on straight and declared his full intent to bring down his father.
- 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, as evidenced by the above quote. 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.
- "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.
Web Original
- 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.
Real Life
- Tragically common in abusive relationships of all kinds. Gender, age, etc., doesn't matter.
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