Basic Trope: Lust gives a character power.
- Straight:
- Bob is able to win a fight against Vile Carl when Alice offers him victory sex afterwards.
- In an inversion of Distracted by the Sexy, Bob gets a Heroic Second Wind when Alice flashes her boobs at him.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice promises Bob a kiss if he wins the fight. Even though Bob is beat to hell and back, it's still a Curbstomp Battle in his favour.
- Bob notices Alice is bathing in a hot spring on the other side of Mordor and stampedes to get a peek with the relentlessness of a Terminator, killing Emperor Evulz, Vile Carl and The Legions of Hell in a nanosecond when they try to get in his way.
- Downplayed:
- Bob's lust for Alice gives him motivation, but doesn't grant him power or strength.
- Bob motivates himself by thinking about a number of everyday things he'll get to do after defeating Vile Carl, sex with Alice being just one of these things.
- Justified:
- Bob is a magic user and magic is affected by emotion; the stronger Bob's lust for Alice, the stronger his magic is.
- The prospect of victory sex with Alice is an excellent motivator, and sometimes that's all it takes.
- Inverted:
- The Power of Hate
- Alice is Bob's fiancee and it's the promise of a nice little evening with Netflix and chill and no sex that makes him soldier on in the middle of an X-rated orgy of violence and sex.
- Bob has Virgin Power stemming from his totally chaste nature.
- Subverted:
- At first, Alice's offer doesn't seem to help Bob at all-he's still getting beaten...
- Bob is motivated Alice's offer of "some stuff we could do in bed" but it turns out he just wanted a well-deserved nap.
- Double Subverted:
- But then Alice offers the possibility of chains and whips, and Bob knocks out Carl with the next punch.
- And once he's well rested, he has sex with Alice, confirming this was his motivation.
- Parodied:
- The power of lust is a literal power source.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Bob is either a Chaste Hero or Celibate Hero.
- Enforced: The execs demand the writer put some Fanservice into the dark, emotional finale. The writers find the best way to put this in is to portray an Imagine Spot with Bob's lustful thoughts about Alice.
- Lampshaded:
- "From cleaning a house to battering an evil sorcerer, nothing gets a job done better than a man expecting to get laid."
- Invoked: Alice doesn't like the Big Bad anymore than Bob does, but she's virtually powerless. So she deliberately tags along with Bob to help him win fight via providing motivation.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Bob refuses the victory sex with Alice, for his own reasons.
- "Bob, I won't do it with you ever. Not even if you were the last man on Earth. Or if you managed to kill every demon on the planet with your bare hands."
- Discussed: "Lust is an excellent motivator. I shall now demonstrate: Bob, kick his ass and I'll let you bang me!"
- Conversed: "Bob's getting his ass beaten. How long until Alice offers sex and he gets more powerful?"
- Implied: Bob's actual motivation is not discussed, but Alice gives him a lustful look shortly before he defeats Carl.
- Deconstructed:
- Bob becomes dependent on sex with Alice as his only motivation, losing all reason to fight otherwise.
- Alice tells Bob she'll have sex with him so he can win, but she didn't actually want to have sex with him, hoping he'll forget. Afterwards, Bob feels entitled to have sex with Alice.
- People could Rape, Pillage, and Burn without impunity due to the Power of Lust.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob finds other reasons to fight, but sex with Alice is still his main source of motivation.
- Alice changes her offer to being his personal love coach to help him find another girl to have sex with, and Bob accepts this.
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob has very weird fetishes, and Alice is highly Squicked out whenever he wins a fight, because she knows what it means...
- Played For Drama: The real reason the thought of sex with Alice motivates Bob so strongly is because he doesn't want to die a virgin, and this is a proxy for his fear that he hasn't accomplished anything in his life.
- Played For Horror: There is nothing on Earth that can stop Bob's lust-powered super-strength. Not even Alice not giving her consent…
Back to The Power of Lust
