The Power Of Love / Literature

• In L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, this is what saves Gilbert from dying of typhoid fever, though in a non-magical way. Heartbroken over Anne's rejection and sick as a dog, he gets a letter from Anne's friend, informing him that Anne is not getting married to Roy Gardner (her beau of two years) and advising Gilbert to "try again". He remarks to Anne later that the doctors were amazed at the speed of his recovery after that.
• The Belgariad
  • The only thing that gives Polgara the power to defy the full will of an actual God is the power of her love for another. Destiny has to kill off Durnik because it knows that the only force in existence that can allow her to resist Torak's will — and therefore save the universe — is the love and loyalty to Durnik that his death unleashes. However, as a form of apology, Durnik is destined to live two lives. He is therefore brought back to life as a sorcerer to be a partner for Polgara who is her equal in every way.
  • Zakath is an Empty Shell who is determined to destroy the Murgo race and take over the world. At nineteen, he was on course to becoming Mallorea's greatest emperor until forced to execute the love of his life for plotting his assassination. Learning too late that she was framed by the Murgo King, Taur Urgas, transforms Zakath into a cold-blooded monster hell-bent on revenge; haunted by grief, guilt and self-loathing, he seeks world domination in the secret hope of getting himself killed. After Cyradis unexpectedly helps Polgara and Sadi save Zakath's life from a fatal poisoning, it soon becomes clear that she wields a peculiar influence over him. Destiny needs him for a very important task that will change the world... but only if he can be convinced to let go of his suffering and help the heroes. Garion has limited success with The Power of Friendship until Cyradis deliberately puts her life into Zakath's hands in a secret gambit to cure Love Makes You Evil via Love Redeems.
• The Power of Love was a particularly troubling notion to the Legalists during the Warring States Period, as it could inspire people to defy the government in favour of getting a better deal for their families. Hence, The Book of Lord Shang advises taking measures to keep peasants occupied with nothing more than farming, and to prevent them from having more than a subsistence living.
• In the moving final lines of The Bridge of San Luis Rey, the Abbess Maria contemplates the souls of those who have died and those who are still alive but will come after them. She concludes that love is the only thing that gives life meaning.
  Maria: But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
• Bruce Coville's Book of... Magic: This is what allowed the Rukh bird to gain the titular character in The Wonderworm, as it drove her to make the long and hard journey to the home of Asmodai, the King of Demons, who possessed the Wonderworm and, seeing what drove her, respected her mother's love.
• Scarlett's sister Tella dies at the end of Caraval. Since she wasn't one of Legend's performers, she should not have come back to life, but Scarlett used the power of love to wish her back.
• Chronicles of Nick: Every action done for love yields good long term effects, even if short term is harder to deal with. Meanwhile actions done for revenge or anger always come back to haunt the perpetrator.
• In The Chronicles of Prydain, this is used to make the Pelydryn illuminate the night sky so that it appears to be noon.
• Emily Elizabeth's love is what caused Clifford the Big Red Dog to become so big, even though he was the runt of the litter. The Expository Theme Tune of the Scholastic animated version lays it out — "Clifford needed Emily, so she chose him for her own / And her love made Clifford grow so big that the Howards had to leave their home."
• In Devon Monk's Dead Iron, LeFel has to kill Jeb because otherwise his and Mae's love would protect her.
• In Divergent, Tobias, under Jeanine's mind-control, becomes horribly close to shooting Tris, but the sound of her voice makes him snap out of it.
• The Divine Comedy:
  • Despite every assurance of Virgil, Dante is wholly unwilling to go through the final firewall between Purgatory and Heaven until he hears Beatrice's name. By virtue of that romantic love, Dante summons the courage to go through a fire more intense than anything on Earth to find Beatrice on the other side.
  • The last verse of Paradiso and the Comedy as a whole describes God as "the love that moves the Sun and the other stars." This Happy Ending gives reason for this epic to be called a Comedy since nothing could provide greater joy than to know that the essence of existence is an eternal love between Father, Son, and Spirit.
• In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files Love takes many forms and is shown in many forms, from a parental sacrifice, to True Love's Kiss, to a holy Sword that is empowered by Love, and the revelation that Love, in its purest form, is a form of creation and so when the Universe was made, it was out of an act of Love.
  • To the White Court, a species of vampires (specifically, the Raith family) who feed on human lust, fear, and/or despair, love is poison to the lust-feeders.
    • If a White Court vampire attempts to feed on a person who is, or was in a deep loving relationship, the vampire will be burned. Years after Harry last slept with Susan, who was the last woman he was with, the Love created from that night remains with him so he is protected until he has sex with another person.
    • Even symbols of love can be dangerous, a wedding band burned one vampire while a rose given in love to another causes the vampire who touched it to be poisoned by the rose's thorns. Even if the mortal genuinely loves the vampire, that love can be dangerous. One vampire with a mortal lover wears a thick coat between his neck and the hand-knitted scarf she made for him so it doesn't burn him.
  • On a more ambiguous note, Harry is only able to help Susan, who has been bitten and partially transformed into a Red Court vampire and is drugged and newly bloodthirsty break out of it when he tells her he loves her. It's beautiful and tragic.
  • There also exists Amoracchius, The Sword of Love^note Once called Excalibur. It contains a Nail that is one of the three that pierced Jesus Christ. Anyone who wields it in proper cause is a major power in that world. There also exist Swords of Hope and Faith, but it's slightly implied that Love is the greatest of them. If a person is wielding it in defense of a loved one, the Sword will grant the person its power and protection. One Knight was a family man with lots of kids and a wife, as well as a love for his fellow man. This fit well with the purpose of the Knights of the Cross isn't to smite evil, but help those who have fallen into its grasp a chance for redemption, and only kill if there is no other choice. The Sword is also aware of the wielder's intentions and will permit some to use it in unique situations. Harry once witnessed a half-human half-monster mother, whose kind are repelled by holy objects, take up the Sword to defend her child from worse monsters.
  • Later in the same battle with the monster-mother, when Susan, that monster-mother, has killed and took in the blood of her victim, and so transforming her into a soulless Red Court vampire, her love for her and Harry's daughter helps her hold onto her humanity long enough for Harry to sacrifice her on an altar the Red Court planned to kill the child in a dark ritual. Instead, Susan's sacrifice allows her, now one of the youngest Red Court vampires, to send this horrible death curse back up her vampire-sire line, killing any "siblings" who are older, then her "parent", and then any brood-siblings of the "parent", children of the brood-siblings, and up the line further until all who are "older" than she are now dead. As the Red Court originated with just one vampire and Susan is just five "generations removed", she ends up wiping out nearly of all the Red Court vampires.
  • Uriel tells Harry, "Whatever you do, do it for love. If you keep to that, your path will never wander so far from the light that you can never return." Taking this advice, Harry departs so far from the light that very few people have ever returned. How these factors will interact in future books is anyone's guess.
  • Queen Mab has a healthy respect for this emotion.
    Mab: So many terrible things are done for love. For love will men mutilate themselves and murder rivals. For love will even a peaceful man go to war. For love, man will destroy himself, and that right willingly.
  • True Love's Kiss is sometimes the only way to break enchantments on couples set by fae. See that page for more information.
  • Ghost Story demonstrates the love of a Band of Brothers group. Fitz is a street kid who leads the younger boys in his care with love and respect, while they all serve under fear their leader Aristedes. Aristedes uses his ability to move fast and a Compelling Voice to be The Fagin of this band. After two other characters wound Aristedes and Fitz stands up to him, Aristedes commands a boy named Zero to kill Fitz, but using nothing more than his words and the deep bond he has with Zero, Fitz gets him to drop the knife Zero is holding and frees the boys of Aristedes' control.
  • One character even equates Love with the Creation of Universe. Especially when one considers many are conceived during an act of unconditional love. Major Spoiler for Skin Game. And so when Lash, shadow of a Fallen Angel, willingly died to save the life of Harry Dresden, her host, she did so out of her genuine and unconditional love. What remained after that merged with the bit of Harry's soul he gave her and from it something new was created: A child. A spirit of Intellect carried inside Harry's head, though he didn't know this. She has all the knowledge of a Fallen Angel but nurtured on the feelings of love Harry has for his friends and family.
• Dune: Doctor Yueh is Beneath Suspicion as The Mole due to his Sukh mental conditioning which prevents him from purposefully taking another life. While suborning Sukh conditioning is supposed to be impossible, the Harkonnens' Mentat Piter De Vries claims that with the right lever one can move a planet. Yueh's wife Wannah is that "lever". When Yueh eventually betrays the Duke, he tells him that some things have greater sway over his mind than his conditioning.
• Earth's Children: When Ayla and Mamut fall into a comas after consuming a dangerous psychotropic root in The Mammoth Hunters, Jondalar pleads with the Earth Mother to return Ayla to him, prompting them to wake up. Mamut and many other people believe that Jondalar's strong love for Ayla was what brought them back; Mamut even believes that Jondalar may the only person able to bring Ayla back if her spirit is lost. When the same thing happens to Ayla again in The Land of Painted Caves, Ayla is only able to find her way back and regain consciousness because she hears Jondalar telling her he loves her and pleading with her to come back.
• In Virgil, Eclogues: "Omnia vincit Amor"^note Love conquers All. and "Et nos cedamus Amori..."^note And we too yield to Love...
• In The Elenium and The Tamuli, there is the goddess Aphrael. Her "real" form is an adult woman, but she always appears to everyone as an eight-year-old girl. This allows her to use The Power Of Love on everyone. When a cute young girl asks to sit in your lap, no one can refuse. Once she sits in your lap and gives you a kiss, she will get her way on everything she wants.
• In Ella Enchanted the main character (Cinderella) is cursed to always be obedient, no matter who gives her orders. When the prince she loves proposes to her, she is horrified because she is certain that someone will use her to hurt him (and her wicked stepmother and stepsisters immediately order her to say "yes"). She promptly tells him that she is cursed (violating one of the oldest and strongest orders that her parents gave to her). Ella goes on confessing to him and explaining why she can't marry him for two pages before she realizes that her curse has been broken by The Power Of Love.
• A central theme in The English Patient is the question of whether love can transcend national boundaries in wartime. The short answer? Yes. The long answer? Yes, but the results aren't always pretty, and don't necessarily last.
• A major theme of The Faerie Queenes third book is the greatness of love and its distinction from lust. Britomart's love for Arthegall is one of her major motivating factors in adventuring on and Spenser himself repeatedly describes love as the noblest thing in the world.
  "Well did Antiquitie a God thee deeme, / That ouer mortall minds hast so great might, / To order them, as best to thee doth seeme, / And all their actions to direct aright / Thou doest effect in destined descents, / Through deepe impression of thy secret might, / And stirredst vp th'Heroes high intents, / Which the late world admyres for wondrous monime[n]ts."
• In The Fangs of K'aath, the power of love in the heroes is able to repel the minions of the titular demon as if they are physically burned and cancel out a magic poison at the book's climax.
• In Galaxy of Fear: The Planet Plague, Tash gets infected with The Blob Monster Virus and thanks to it becomes more irritable and driven by thoughts of Revenge for Alderaan. Negative emotions seem to speed the progression, and at the climax she's oozing slime and having blob goo tendrils waving out of her skin and has to stop and instead focus on what she's fighting for and her love for the dead. The tendrils drop off. She's not cured, but it handles the symptoms until she can be taken to be treated. Vaguely justified, in that she's Force Sensitive and a doctor earlier exposited about the illness.
  "Your body has a certain temperature, and usually it creates certain kinds of chemicals in your blood, your brain, and all the different parts of your body. But when your body changes — as when you are angry, or sad, or when you are sick — your body temperature changes, and your brain sends signals to produce different chemicals. Somehow this virus affects those signals and feeds off of them."
• The running theme of The Gargoyle is that no matter how much tragedy that the Narrator and Marianne Engel go through, including their maybe past-lives, their love for each other is strong enough to carry them on to the next life.
• Subverted in the Georgina Kincaid series by Mead. The heroine is a succubus, feeding on life force through sex. Every time she has sex. It means that she cannot sleep with the one she loves, ever, because that would shorten his life.
• Gods of Mars: When the Big Bad strands the protagonists on a dying planet, Bielanna saves them by harnessing the rogue trader Roboute Surcouf’s love for his ship and crew to open a portal leading back to his stateroom aboard said ship.
• In the Harry Potter series, love is considered to one of the most powerful sources of magic ever. It is also what saved Harry from Voldemort in his infancy, and is cited as the secret power he has over You-Know-Who.
  • On the other hand, love is the reason for Severus Snape's decision to betray Lord Voldemort, who could neither understand nor detect this decision because it was motivated by love. Voldemort's blindness to the emotion also leaves him vulnerable to the Malfoy family's betrayal. It's patently obvious to anyone watching (ie. Dumbledore, Harry) that any of those three would sell him down the river in a heartbeat to save the other two.
  • Word of God states that the reason that Molly Weasley was made to kill Bellatrix Lestrange was to show that a mother's love is far more powerful than an obsessive, fanatic love.
  • Used subtly in Deathly Hallows. Harry's love for his girlfriend Ginny helps keep him together after Ron ditches him and Hermione.
  • At its basic core, The Power Of Love in Harry Potter means the ability to care about another person, even more than about yourself. This is what Harry has and Voldemort lacks, and this is why Harry is always surrounded by close friends and reliable allies, that would die to protect him, and why Voldemort only has groupies and vultures with him, held in line with fear.
  • The ultimate example of how love is his power is near the finale of the story when Harry, to protect his friends, allows himself to be killed. His love for them was so great that he willingly gave up his life, and in so doing destroyed the Horcrux embedded within him, leaving Voldemort (closer to) mortal and vulnerable. More than that, his willingness to die for them provided everyone in the castle with the same type of protection his mother left in him. Voldemort could not imagine somebody willingly dying for another and so didn't realize the significance of the sacrifice.
• The Heroes of Olympus series:
  • This is how Piper saves Jason. Either that or he was Only Mostly Dead.
  • Arguably, while she does have feelings for Jason, it may not have had anything to do with that— she simply Charmspoke his soul to keep it from going to Hades. Still technically fits the trope, since only children of Aphrodite, goddess of love, can do this...
  • It was revealed in the second book that the Doors Of Death are open and heroes can escape death for the same reason that monsters reform almost instantly. The Power of Love probably helped, but Gwen got back by herself, so...
  • In The Son of Neptune Percy's memory has been wiped but Amnesia Missed a Spot: the name of his girlfriend Annabeth. Their relationship was too strong to erase completely, and his feelings for her motivate him to keep fighting throughout the book. It pays off: He gets both his memories and Annabeth back.
• In Robert E. Howard's The Hour of the Dragon, this is what inspires Zenobia to rescue Conan the Barbarian from the oubliette.
• Everything Peeta does in The Hunger Games is motivated by his love for Katniss. Until he is hijacked into hating her and wanting to kill her in Mockingjay. And then he managed to bring himself back from the hijacking thanks to that.
• Journey to Chaos:
  • Generally speaking, love is one of the domains of Chaos (as is all emotion) and used for holy chaos magic.
  • In the third book, Mana Mutation Menace, Eric's Declaration of Protection to Annala enables him to overcome ordercraft mind control (with chaotic assistance from Annala herself).
  • Also in the third book, The Four Loves are essential to the only known method of curing "monsanity", A.K.A. mental mana mutation. Even after the Face–Monster Turn, there is at least one person that the new monster refuses to attack. This person can then help a specialist restore the victim's sanity.
• Tom Holt J.W. Wells & Co. series:
  • In The Portable Door, the only way to get the swords out of the stones to get a hold of the keys on the end is to have two people who are in love pulling them.
  • An even more bizarre version comes from You Don't Have to be Evil to Work Here. Screwing with True Love actually causes the entire Universe to go a bit out of whack, and maths stops working properly.
• In The Kane Chronicles, Carter Kane has been poisoned by a magical poison. His sister Sadie Kane can only heal him if she learns his true name. She does not find out about him until she tells him that he is her brother, and she will always love him, no matter what she knows about him. This shows that he means a lot to her, although they do not always get along well.
• In Kushiel's Legacy, perfect selfless love is the key to "make of the self a vessel where there is no self", and thereby hear the True Name of God. Phedre achieves it when she offers herself as a sacrifice in her soon-to-be adopted son's place.
• Legacy of the Dragokin: Kalak uses this to temporarily overturn Mordak's control and then to exorcise the monster from his own body in addition to Zarracka's.
• Lensman: This is what enables Clarissa to find and bring back Kinnison after he went through the Hell Hole and was trapped in a far off dimension that not even Mentor and the children could find. The chapter's even called "The Power of Love".
• The Lightlark Saga: It's mentioned that if you fall in love with someone on Lightlark, you can gain access to your love interest's abilities and vice versa. Terra and Poppy both want Isla to seduce King Oro to get access to his powers and gain an advantage in the Centennial (especially as she has no powers of her own). In the end, Oro is able to use Wildling magic to save Isla's life, revealing they've fallen in love (Isla is the ruler of Wildling), but Grim can't use Wildling magic anymore because Isla no longer loves him.
• Charles Dickens tended to like this trope, but particularly in the case of Little Dorrit, when Love triumphs over parental abuse, economic swindles, psychological imprisonment, and hidden wrongs.
• There is an interesting use of this trope at the climax of Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series. Just when it seems as if the Big Bad Storm King is about to be unleashed on the mortal world, The Hero Simon finally understands why he's been Dreaming of Things to Come about the creature's backstory as the Sitha prince Ineluki. It is to prepare him for the realization that the reason for Ineluki's desire to destroy existence is how brutally he suffered in life trying to defend his people from the depredations of mankind. This revelation allows him to do the one thing that doesn't feed the Storm King's power — forgive him, which weakens him just enough for Miramele to kill his physical host.
  Simon: No... I will fear you, but I will not hate you.
  Camaris: Forgiven... yes, let all be forgiven...
• In Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, The Power Of Love drives the magical rings that Oberon and Titania give Prince Rupert and Jennifer. Unfortunately, along comes The Vamp with a Love Potion and then they must soldier on without the magic.
• In Teresa Frohock's Miserere: An Autumn Tale, Lucian's deliberate attempt to keep from loving Lindsay, to protect her, weakened him; when he realized it, he let himself love her.
• Molly Moon has a scene in the third book where Molly is able to unlock the true power of her time-travel crystal (this one only allows her to go back, not forward) when she begs it to let her get back to the people she loves. She explains this to the villain, who doesn't understand love, and therefore ends up in prehistoric times on his own, while Molly is able to go through time more easily by channeling her love into the crystals.
• In Night of the Assholes, Todd and Barbara discover that genuine love and caring renders the assholes into a pacified state and manage to escape the house and the crowd of assholes surrounding it by making love. It is kept vague whether or not it was genuinely working or if the assholes were just toying with them.
• Isaac Asimov and Janet Asimov's Norby and the Queen's Necklace: Norby is comatose after the replica necklace gets attached to him. Jeff has to concentrate on his Touch Telepathy and invest in his love for his friend, first to contact the Others, then to break the necklace safely. The Other helping him makes it explicit that it is Jeff's love for Norby that is needed to save Norby's life.
• Of Fire and Stars: Dennaleia, whose magic still operates via emotions then, utilizes her love for Mare to focus it so she can rescue her.
• In Once Upon a Marigold, Marigold's love for Christian heals him of his arrow wound. Granted, she already had some magical ability thanks to a gift from a fairy at her christening.
  Doctor: There's a faction that says laughter is the best medicine, and a smaller one that says love is.
• In The Phantom of the Opera, Christine's genuine compassion for Erik (despite not condoning his actions towards her) is enough for him to realize the error of his ways, pull a Heel–Face Turn, and let her go free.
• In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero in Hell, Miranda learns how the Sibyl acts as the instrument for the love of one of The Powers That Be.
• Averted in Ravelling Wrath. Even though Rinn and Yali love each other, Yali explicitly states that Rinn's love would not be enough to stop Rinn from killing her under the Blood God's influence.
• In The Reckoners Trilogy Megan speculates, with some disgust at the cliché, that this is what allows Epics to resist the corrupting nature of their powers - then does a Verbal Backspace when she realizes what she just admitted. It turns out to be courage in any case.
• The novelization of Revenge of the Sith invokes this to turn the book's ending, a bit harsher than the film's, more bittersweet.
  The dark is generous, and it is patient, and it always wins — but in the heart of its strength lies weakness: one lone candle is enough to hold it back.
  Love is more than a candle.
  Love can ignite the stars.
• Schooled in Magic: Discussed and mocked in Work Experience. Some of the ballads about Emily claim she defeated Shadye by using this, to her embarrassment, finding the idea it could work on a monster like him absurd.
• In the Siren Novels trilogy, sirens use their magic to seduce and murder men. The best protection a man can have against their powers is true love for someone else.
• In Space Beasts, The Power of Love is what drives the plot. The Prophecy that sets the plot in motion states, "If a virgin human male loves a humanimal female with all his heart and he loses his virginity to her, then the universe will be altered and all intelligent beings will become equal."
• In the Star Wars Legends (Fate of the Jedi: Ascension) Jaina Invokes this for the above-mentioned events, while vouching for Ben's Sith Apprentice girlfriend, Vestara:
  "I don't want to get too sentimental here, uncle Luke, but don't underestimate The Power Of Love. It's pulled two family members back from the Dark Side already. Ben's sixteen, but he's not a fool."
  • In the Expanded Universe, Qui-Gon Jinn explains that love, a connection to others, is a prerequisite for becoming a Force Ghost.
• In Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough for Love, the subject of love is debated extensively by the characters. It is Lazarus Long's opinion that love is the only thing that could make life worth living for thousands of years, and being loved can go so far as to cause complex computers to become self-aware.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth, war, ambition and violence seldom render good results, let alone positive long-term changes, because the Dark Lords are simply better than everybody else at using power and strength to achieving their goals. On the another hand, love, mercy, kindness...are forces which few people take seriously, even though more often than not they save the world.
  • Beren and Lúthien: When Morgoth steals the Silmarils in The Silmarillion, the Ñoldor Elves swear to go back to the Middle-Earth and make war upon him until getting their jewels back. Several centuries later, their armies are being crushed and all their power has not availed them to even see from afar the shining of one Silmaril. Enter Beren, who does not care for shiny jewels but is given the impossible task to bring one Silmaril to Thingol in exchange for his daughter's hand, and Lúthien, who has no use for Silmarils either, but will not leave Beren alone...and they achieve out of love for each other what whole armies driven by pride, ambition, greed and revenge failed to do. Their love also proves to be stronger than the laws of metaphysics when Beren dies and his soul lingers in the Halls of Mandos instead of abandoning the world forever -as Humans are meant to-, because his wife asked him to wait for her.
• The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign features an unusual example where it's the Big Bad who benefits from this. At the end of the fifth volume, the White Queen is next to the love of her life, Kyousuke. An army of Unexplored-Class Materials — beings more powerful than gods, whose very nature is to seal the Queen's power — is approaching with the intention of killing her, and Kyousuke would undoubtedly be killed in the crossfire. But the Queen manages to defeat them all, while ensuring that not a single attack hits Kyousuke.
• Universal Monsters: In book 5, this is what allows the Creature From the Black Lagoon to create a mate for himself.
• Uprooted: Used alongside powerful magic to purify people of the Wood's corruption, which traps their minds in torment and uses their bodies as Meat Puppets. The magic finds their minds, but they break free by reaching out to someone for whom they feel strong, mutual love.
• In Warm Bodies, the power of love brings a zombie back to life.
• In Warrior Cats, one of the usual gifts a leader is imbued with while receiving their nine lives is love — usually of the sort a mother has for her kits, which is described as being unexpectedly fiercely strong. In Tallstar's Revenge Daisytail even says during the ceremony that there is no power stronger than love.
• In The Wheel of Time, The Chosen One becomes more and more nihilistic and self-destructive as a result of the memories of his past life, when he was driven mad and killed his entire family. What brings him back from the brink?
  Why? Rand thought with wonder. Because each time we live, we get to love again. ... If I live again, then she might as well!
• Wind and Sparks cycle by Alexey Pehov is a rather cynical Dark Fantasy full of subversions, yet the trope is played surprisingly straight. The greatest magician in history wrote a lot about how powerful love is, but nothing about how to harness that power. Probably he never did. The heroes studying his papers discard that bit as useless. Yet they unwittingly manage to use it several times. Only in the end the Physical God explains everything to the narrator protagonist Ness. To properly teach all sides of magic "spark" the first teacher has to strongly and sincerely love somebody. Ginora loved her stepdaughter to the point of shortening her life to save her, Layen loved Ness and frequently risked her life for him, Shen started teaching Rona after they fell in love... this also applies to the Big Bads before their Start of Darkness. Later they grew too bitter, wallowing in their grievances too much, and the sparks they kindled were flawed, if not outright dark.
• The Witcher: In The Last Wish Geralt notes that true love has magical power. In the book's various vignettes two curses are broken by it.
• In Andre Norton's Witch World novel Year of the Unicorn, Gillian's love inspires Herrel to take on the rest of the Were-Riders.
• A Double Subversion in Wizard's First Rule. The subversion is in Kahlan's power which uses a person's love to make them a slave to her will. This completely destroys a person, with no possibility of reversal, and causes her to be hated and feared, despite being the de facto ruler of the land. The double subversion comes in the climax, where Richard's love for Kahlan protects him from her power, allowing them to get together.
• In A Wrinkle in Time, Meg is able to save her little brother Charles Wallace from being possessed by IT through the power of her love for him. She suspects that if anyone ever offered love to IT, IT would shrivel up and die.

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