History Main / WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack

* Haruto keeps taking back Yuzuki in ''Manga/ATownWhereYouLive''. She never tells him anything, takes on things that require him to go out of his way to save her, flat out lies to him, breaks up with him without a word, and now after an argument over a misunderstanding on her part (again) she storms out of Haruto's house, blocks his number, leaving him to file a missing persons report with how he can't get in contact with her and no one has seen her. For some reason, he does everything he can to keep her.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Emma and Hook's relationship has a lot of fans questioning why they keep getting back together. In the Season 5A final, Hook tried to send to the Underworld not only her parents, but also her son Henry, the adoptive mother of her son Regina, Robin Hood (a guy Emma and Hook have barely interacted with), and Robin's young son who had nothing to do with the events of Camelot, but still Emma risks said family's lives to save him. Meanwhile, Emma turns Hook into the Dark One against his will before erasing his memories and lying to him for weeks. Then things get worse in Season 6, where Hook again lies to her over an extended period of time about murdering her grandfather and proposes to her under false pretenses, but Emma still spends several episodes after he disappears pinning for him. All of this makes it hard for a lot of fans to swallow them as the True Loves the show paints them as.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Emma and Hook's relationship has a lot of fans questioning why they keep getting back together. In the Season 5A final, Hookt tried to send to the Underworld not only her parents, but also her son Henry, the adoptive mother of her son Regina, Robin Hood (a guy Emma and Hook have barely interacted with), and Robin's young son who had nothing to do with the events of Camelot, but still Emma risks said family's lives to save him. Meanwhile, Emma turns Hook into the Dark One against his will before erasing his memories and lying to him for weeks. Then things get worse in Season 6, where Hook again lies to her over an extended period of time about murdering her grandfather and proposes to her under false pretenses, but Emma still spends several episodes after he disappears pinning for him. All of this makes it hard for a lot of fans to swallow them as the True Loves the show paints them as.

* ''Film/ACinderellaStory'': As stated above, Sam still hooks up with Austin at the end of the film in spite of the latter not coming to her defense when she gets publicly humiliated. Sure, she calls him out on it and he makes amends to her at the end, but still.

* In ''Film/Grease2'', it's obvious that Johnny is only with Paulette because he can't have Stephanie, but Paulette doesn't seem to mind.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'': While Olive Oyl can be flighty in the cartoons, in the newspaper comic, she's outright bipolar, dumping him on a literal whim, coming back to him at the end of the arc as if nothing happened, and making insane demands on Popeye in between. And Popeye never considers not taking Olive back.

* Sakura and Sasuke in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. In Part I, Sakura had a crush on Sasuke despite the fact that he spent most of his time being a moody asshole. While it was initially portrayed as a shallow crush, Sakura develops genuine feelings for him once she understands him better. [[FaceHeelTurn Sasuke eventually abandons his friends for the sake of revenge]]. At one point, [[KillTheOnesYouLove Sakura tries to take him down herself]] to spare Naruto the pain of doing it. She can't bring herself to kill him, and Sasuke stabs her. Despite this, [[SingleTargetSexuality she's still in love with him]] and convinces herself that Naruto can bring him back. [[HazyFeelTurn When Sasuke finally does rejoin the ninja]], Sakura seems conflicted about it. The story begins to portray her obsession with him as being unhealthy, and how no matter what he does, she'll still love him. When Sasuke goes crazy again, Sakura tries to talk him down again, saying that if he ever cared about her he'll stop. Sasuke responds by knocking her out with an illusion that he's stabbing her again. Sasuke directly tells [[ShipperOnDeck Kakashi]] that he has no interest in Sakura, and can't understand why she has feelings for him in the first place, sentiments that most of the fans agreed with. [[spoiler:Despite all that, after a permanent HeelFaceTurn, Sasuke and Sakura end up marrying and having a daughter together (who bizarrely enough looks more like a daughter of Sakura and ''Karin'', if not for that being biologically impossible). For bonus points, Sasuke apparently skipped out on them sometime after she was born. However, in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' anime and in ''NarutoGaiden'' manga Sasuke specifically says: "''My wife'' isn't weak." Which only serves to muddle the issues of their relationship further in [[BrokenBase fans']] eyes.]]

* ''VideoGame/EnsembleStars'': It's extremely unclear why Souma is so undyingly loyal to Keito. Though he insists he owes a debt to him that he would give his life to repay, we've seen zero evidence of Keito doing anything that would warrant that, and even when he first joined Akatsuki Souma admitted he couldn't explain why he felt so strongly about it. But ''Meteor Impact'' takes it to a whole new level: [[spoiler:After Souma lies to him in order to protect a lot of people, Keito rants at Souma at ''great length'' about how terrible, disloyal and useless he is, attacking his entire family and belief system, and revealing that he used Souma to hurt someone he dearly cares about, ending by mocking him cruelly as Souma leaves in tears. He claims he was [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim pushing him away to protect him]], but he never definitively tells Souma that. Instead, Souma reappears at the end of the story, saying that Keito was totally right (though again, he doesn't explain ''why'') and he should just be grateful he wasn't treated worse. The story concludes as though this was a happy ending and proof of Souma's innate kindness and purity.]] The story caused a big backlash in fandom, with many demanding that Keito at the very least apologise properly

* In ''Film/TheAbsentMindedProfessor'', the idea of Brainard abandoning his fiancée appeared in that film as well -- meaning that when Creator/JohnHughes sought to rewrite the script in the '90s for ''Flubber'', he didn't think this was enough of a problem to alter it for the remake.

* In ''Film/{{Flubber}}'', Professor Brainard blows off his wedding to Dr. Reynolds because he lost track of things discovering Flubber. Except this is ''the third time'' he's done that, for the exact same reason. They're back together by the beginning of the third act. [[spoiler:They do get married at the end of the movie... where Prof. Brainard is there ''by video proxy'', meaning he actually made a conscious effort not to show up this time, which is worse than just plain forgetting.]]

* In ''Film/NightmareAlley'', Stan repeatedly rips off and uses everybody he meets, including his girlfriend (and later wife) Molly. But she still loves him, despite the fact that by the end of the film, he's a hopeless alcoholic and even a carny geek.

* Sakura and Sasuke in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. In Part I, Sakura had a crush on Sasuke despite the fact that he spent most of his time being a moody asshole. While it was initially portrayed as a shallow crush, Sakura develops genuine feelings for him once she understands him better. [[FaceHeelTurn Sasuke eventually abandons his friends for the sake of revenge]]. At one point, [[KillTheOnesYouLove Sakura tries to take him down herself]] to spare Naruto the pain of doing it. She can't bring herself to kill him, and Sasuke stabs her. Despite this, [[SingleTargetSexuality she's still in love with him]] and convinces herself that Naruto can bring him back. [[HazyFeelTurn When Sasuke finally does rejoin the ninja]], Sakura seems conflicted about it. The story begins to portray her obsession with him as being unhealthy, and how no matter what he does, she'll still love him. When Sasuke goes crazy again, Sakura tries to talk him down again, saying that if he ever cared about her he'll stop. Sasuke responds by knocking her out with an illusion that he's stabbing her again. Sasuke directly tells [[ShipperOnDeck Kakashi]] that he has no interest in Sakura, and can't understand why she has feelings for him in the first place, sentiments that most of the fans agreed with. [[spoiler:Despite all that, after a permanent HeelFaceTurn, Sasuke and Sakura end up marrying and having a daughter together (who bizarrely enough looks more like a daughter of Sakura and ''Karin'', if not for that being biologically impossible). For bonus points, Sasuke apparently skipped out on them sometime after she was born. However, in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' anime and in ''NarutoGaiden'' manga Sasuke specifically says: "''My wife'' isn't weak." Which only serves to muddle the issues of their relationship further in [[BrokenBase fans']] eyes.]].

* [[{{Yandere}} Hatori]] and Chiaki from ''Manga/SekaiIchiHatsukoi'' are shown to be the most unstable pairing in the series constantly fighting and accusing each other of cheating on one another. Yet at the end of the episode, they end up making up (at the expense of poor [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Yuu]]).

* In ''Literature/SunMoonAndTalia'', the married king rapes Talia in her sleep, causing her to give birth to twins. Not only does she go off with him when he returns, but is happy to marry him after he makes her hide from his wife, fails to realize the queen tries to cook Talia and her children alive, and finally punished her by way of throwing his wife into a fire. It's probably worth noting that the moral of the story is "The person who is favored by fortune has good luck even while sleeping."

* Haruto keeps taking back Yuzuki in ''Manga/KimiNoIruMachi''. She never tells him anything, takes on things that require him to go out of his way to save her, flat out lies to him, breaks up with him without a word, and now after an argument over a misunderstanding on her part (again) she storms out of Haruto's house, blocks his number, leaving him to file a missing persons report with how he can't get in contact with her and no one has seen her. For some reason, he does everything he can to keep her.

* Ohgi and Villetta in ''Anime/CodeGeass''. In the first season, Ohgi finds Villetta and falls for her while she is in an amnesiac state and forgets she is a Britannian soldier on the other side of the war. In the season finale, she regains her memories and shoots him, helping lead to the failure of the Black Rebellion and the capture of him and the rest of the Black Knights, save for Kallen, C. C., and Urabe. Even so, Ohgi [[AllLoveIsUnrequited still has feelings for her]] and opts to sneak off and meet her in the middle of the second season, knowing she is an enemy spy and fully intends to kill him. Even though they do reconcile shortly after, it is still considered very unsatisfying, as Villetta still manages to act against Lelouch by convincing Ohgi to turn on him in episode 19, even though [[{{Hypocrite}} she's hardly the right person to trust on this]].

* In ''Film/{{Avalanche}}'', David Shelby spends most of the movie not only belittling his ex-wife Caroline but also being a complete jerk to everyone else. After the titular avalanche destroys the ski resort he fought tooth and nail to build and kills many innocent lives [[KarmaHoudini except for him]], the movie implies that Caroline ''might'' get back together with him. When it was shown in the Netflix reboot of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', Crow T. Robot specifically states that if they got back together [[DrivenToSuicide he'd kill himself]].
* In ''Film/TheBoatThatRocked'', Carl takes Marianne back after she sleeps with Dave. She ran off to sleep with him in the ''five minutes'' it took Carl to run upstairs and ask Gavin for a condom. Later on, Dave makes mention that they did it three or four times, suggesting that ''after'' Carl caught them together, they decided to keep at it until she left the next morning. All the while with Carl heartbroken right across the hallway. ''And he takes her back.''* ''Film/ABronxTale'', featuring a taboo-breaking interracial relationship in the eponymous New York borough in TheSixties, has the white protagonist C EasilyForgiven by his black girlfriend Jane for ''calling her brother the n-word''. Sure, her brother actively denied that C was trying to save him from being beaten by his racist friends and was even saying that he was the one that punched him, but that should take more explanation than throwing a slur.
* Ellen agreeing to go out with Vlad at the end of the movie ''Film/Camp2003'' definitely smacks of this, though they ''technically'' weren't dating before - he was leading her on while he had a girlfriend outside of camp, slept with another girl in camp, and moments before asking Ellen to date him, had been offering himself to their gay friend.
* Another GenderFlip example: towards the end of ''Film/CatchAndRelease'' new lovers Grey and [[spoiler:Fritz]] have split up, mostly because he overheard her declaring [[spoiler:[[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend that the relationship]] is [[GutPunch less than nothing]]. ]] (Her attempts to explain are... markedly inadequate.) Despite this, as soon as she shows up at his place, he doesn't even let her get halfway through an apology before the big kiss ensues.

* Averted in ''Film/CrazyHeart.'' Bad Blake is a good guy, but after he gets drunk and loses his girlfriend's four-year-old son in a shopping mall, it's hard to disagree with her when she never wants to see him again, even after the kid is found. When Bad stops drinking and generally puts his life together, he finds she's moved on and is engaged, but the two of them manage to still be friends.
* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Selina Kyle betrays Bruce/Batman repeatedly, and pretty much ruins his life. Because of her deliberate actions, [[spoiler:his fortune is gone, he is captured and given a crippling NoHoldsBarredBeatdown by Bane, and spends months in a prison so horrible it's called ''Hell On Earth.'' Once he returns to Gotham and meets her again, he immediately offers her free deletion of her criminal record in exchange for her doing him a favor, though he still has no good reason to trust her! She does kill Bane before he can kill Batman, but this is ''after'' all of the previously mentioned items. In the epilogue, they're in a relationship, and both have left their lives in Gotham behind]].
* The heroine of ''Film/TheDevilWearsPrada'' should not have taken back her boyfriend - or indeed her entire group of friends. It's worse in that she's presented as being in the wrong all along while they treated her work commitments (and her daring to speak to a man that wasn't her boyfriend) as a personal betrayal. While she didn't need to obsess over her job to the point that she was blowing off an evening with her father to book Miranda a flight out of Miami in a hurricane, her friends generally berated and abused her for even attempting to stay employed - in New York City no less. Note that her boyfriend, as a chef, would likely be working the same crazy unpredictable hours as well, so this just comes off as a DoubleStandard. Then that incredibly dicky bit where she gives them all that nice stuff and they pay her back by stealing her phone when she's taking a work call. Ironically, in the book, her friends were much more sympathetic - and one of them actually ''encouraged'' her to talk to the guy.

* ''Film/FailureToLaunch'' is a rare GenderFlip version; the man is expected to take back his girlfriend, even though said girl had only pretended to be in love with him to drive him out of his parents' home (see, if you boost a man's self-esteem by dating him, he'll start doing things for himself and it'll stick even if you dump him later on) and he's understandably ''pissed'' when he finds out.
** On top of that: Not only was she only pretending to be in love with him for most of the movie, but there's also the fact that EVERY SINGLE THING he knew about her was a lie she made in order to seem more interesting to him, including that she had a dog that had to be sacrificed. Near the beginning, she said that the only thing she didn't do was have sex with the people she "helped". Guess what she does the moment she learns that he's about to dump her? Yeah, exactly. Also, even by the ending of the movie, she never actually regrets the fact that she made a living out of lying to people, only this one, and only because he found out and became enraged. His friends and family then go as far as tying him to a chair and locking him in a closet in order to force him to take her back. They try to tell the viewer that she's also stuck there since the doors to the house are locked, but said doors are mostly made of glass. If anything, she could at least have untied him so he could break the glass with the chair.
* In ''Film/{{Flubber}}'': Professor Brainard blows off his wedding to Dr. Reynolds because he lost track of things discovering Flubber. Problem: This is ''the third time'' he's done that and apparently the first ''two'' times, the reason also being variants of "I forgot." They're back together by the beginning of the third act. [[spoiler:They do get married at the end of the movie... where Prof. Brainard is there ''by video proxy'', meaning he actually made a conscious effort not to show up this time, which is worse than just plain forgetting.]]
* ''Film/Godzilla1998'': It's stated that Audrey dumped her fiancé Nick without even a note eight years prior [[CareerVersusMan to focus on her reporting career]] (which never panned out). After a reencounter, Nick (who still holds a flame for her) tentatively lets her back into his life, only for her to ''immediately'' steal classified information from his tent the moment his back is turned and then running away again, resulting in Nick being booted from the Godzilla operation for the security breach (and it ends up for naught anyway because Audrey's slimy boss steals the credit for the report). But despite stabbing him in the back ''twice'' for selfish reasons, inadvertently nearly causing the end of the world (because Nick getting kicked off the operation results in his idea of Godzilla having a nest being discredited [[InsaneTrollLogic for some reason]], even though it turns out to be completely right), and the fact she learned nothing from it (since she gets caught snooping about after Nick, ''still'' trying to get her breakthrough scoop), he still decides to get back together with Audrey in the end.
* ''Film/GoodLuckChuck'' outright deconstructs this trope by having our "good guy" Chuck veer off in a tear of obsessive, controlling, paranoid, and downright creepy-stalker behavior after spending the night with Cam. Eventually, he stops, is willing to set up a date with another man for her, and later explains himself and apologizes, sincerely saying he's willing to leave her life if she wants him to. In most movies, his crazy actions would just win the girl over, but here he actually has to work at it.
* It's obvious that Johnny from ''Film/Grease2'' is only with Paulette because he can't have Stephanie, but Paulette doesn't seem to mind.

* The end of ''Film/HighlanderEndgame'' has [[spoiler:Duncan reunite with his Immortal PsychoExGirlfriend, Kate [[note]]who was [[RememberTheNewGuy never seen or mentioned]] in the TV series, and whose existence directly contradicts a major plot point that Duncan was never married and never would marry[[/note]]. Kate, who hated Duncan for activating her immortality against her wishes and tried to kill him repeatedly. Kate, whom he will inevitably have to fight to claim The Prize, anyway. Kate, who was actively helping the BigBad of the film]]. Note that this only happens in the extended DVD version. In the theatrical release, [[spoiler:she's]] DeaderThanDead.
* ''Film/{{Hitch}}'' has the reporter Sara, who spends most of the film trying to expose the title's "Date Doctor" while (unknowingly) going out with him. She ends up exposing him, destroying his anonymity and business, and almost destroys another relationship. She does so under the misguided belief that Hitch only helped jerks get laid based on ''one'' incident where she only had half the facts (the jerk acted on his own) where a friend of hers got hurt, proving she is a lousy, not to mention unethical, reporter; you don't write a story with one viewpoint, and you don't write a story in which you're ''personally involved''. [[WhatTheHellHero Hitch calls her out on all of this]], as well on women like her making dating impossible for ordinary guys. Although she later gives him a heartfelt apology, Hitch very deservedly refuses to accept it. It ends when Hitch later ''goes to her door to beg for '''her''' forgiveness!'' After that, she responds to his begging for forgiveness by basically just deliberately jerking him around for a while. Just for her own sadistic amusement. It's only after she further breaks his heart and makes him plead a bit more that she finally takes him back.
* A ''double'' example in ''Film/HowToLoseAGuyIn10Days'', in which ''both'' partners start the relationship under false pretenses and with ulterior motives since she's trying to get dumped and he's trying to hang on and keep his job. Both halves of the deception are revealed; both parties are hypocritically furious and dump each other, then decide in the end that they're meant to be together after all.

** Lee spends most of the film sidelining Rachel in favor of [[PlatonicLifePartners Elle]], including bailing on their date and leaving her outside the cinema for 40 minutes in the dark. His idea of apologizing (the ''first'' time) is to publicly air their relationship problems at school, after which he continues to neglect her and fails to tell Elle they want space even when Rachel gives him an ultimatum. [[spoiler: It's unsurprising that Rachel dumps him, only for them to get back together after Elle sets them up to smooch at the kissing booth...even though this addresses none of the problems they've been having]].
** A lot of viewers felt that Elle and Noah's attempt at a LongDistanceRelationship just proved they were a toxic couple and would be better off apart; [[spoiler: Elle is both deeply [[ClingyJealousGirl insecure]] about Noah cheating on her ''and'' hypocritically unfaithful to him with Marco, while Noah doesn't confide in Elle about the problems he was having at Harvard and hides that he's hanging out with Chloe due to her jealousy, which makes her assume the worst]]. They repeatedly demonstrate they both lie to each other, fail to communicate and can't trust each other, on top of living thousands of miles apart, but [[spoiler: the end of the movie has them happily reconciled]].
* The film ''Film/LifeDrawing''. Mark Ruffalo's 'hero', a struggling artist is a complete ass to the female lead when they are together, being patronising, insulting and indifferent/hostile to her life and beliefs as a member of the USAF while she tries to take an interest in his - her worst and only crime is being BookDumb and (mildly) [[TheDitz ditzy]].
* Stan in ''Film/NightmareAlley'' repeatedly rips off and uses everybody he meets, including his girlfriend (and later wife) Molly but she still loves him, despite the fact that by the end of the film, he's a hopeless alcoholic and even a carny geek.
* Many viewers of ''Film/Passengers2016'' found Jim's action of [[spoiler:intentionally taking Aurora out of cryogenic suspension and dooming her to die on the ship instead of being able to continue her life on another planet purely because he was lonely and found her attractive and then deceiving Aurora into believing that he ''saved'' her instead]] to be unbelievably creepy and Aurora's forgiveness of him after being initially furious when she finds out the truth to be undeserved. [[spoiler:To be fair, she only forgives him after he saved all the lives of the ship (hers included) and found a way to put her back into cryogenic sleep, thus fixing his mistake.]]
* Mary from ''Film/RadioFlyer'' takes back her new husband even though he is an abusive alcoholic who beats her sons Mikey and Bobby, even after one of his beatings puts Bobby in the hospital, she forgives him despite this and tells him to stop drinking, he doesn’t and the beatings continue, she finally dumps him after he is knocked out and arrested during Bobby’s flight on a homemade airplane to escape his abuse.
* In ''Film/WallStreetMoneyNeverSleeps'', the protagonist is in a relationship with Gordon Gecko's daughter Winnie. When he meets Gecko, she refuses to have a relationship with her father and warns the protagonist about him. The protagonist then starts to see him behind Winnie's back, and the pair plot to win her over. The protagonist then finds out that Winnie has a fortune on a foreign bank account and persuades her into giving ''all'' of it to his pet project. They're then double-crossed by Gordon, the truth is discovered, and Winnie promptly dumps the protagonist. So far so good, but here's the kicker: [[spoiler:the protagonist hunts down Gordon and literally trades access to his and Winnie's unborn child in return for him giving the money back - money that Winnie doesn't care about, mind you. The movie ends with Gordon hunting the crazy kids down and giving a speech asking Winnie to take the protagonist back. In that speech he also lets slip that he not only knows the child's gender, but that the protagonist is its father too, effectively telling Winnie that her ex betrayed not only her yet again, but their son as well. What happens next? Happily ever after of course]]!
* ''Film/WomanOnTop'' has the main character break up with her boyfriend because he cheated on her, merely because she always had to be the one on top during sex (she got motion sickness otherwise) meant he was looked at as less of a man. He sings her some songs and she immediately accepts him back. (Not helped by the fact that her love interest for most of the story is a good man, and she broke up with him after what comes down to a simple lovers spat but was treated like it was a violation of trust.)

* When Edward leaves Bella in ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} New Moon]]'', she goes into a catatonic state for months and is slowly restored to normal only with the help of her best friend Jacob, who is also in love with her. After Edward returns, she takes him back as if nothing had happened. Really, there are quite a few points in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' where many readers were left wondering why Bella puts up with Edward. He frequently belittles, controls, and manipulates her well into the last book, and [[LoveMartyr she hardly ever calls him on it]]. In one memorable scene, Bella comes back from a shopping trip and full-out admits to herself that she knows that Edward will be breaking into her car and checking her odometer to see if she told him the truth about where she went out to.
** Bella can be pretty emotionally manipulative to Edward too, though not anywhere near as bad as he is to her. The mere idea that they might break up causes her to flip out and she makes him promise that he will never hurt or leave her as long as she wants him around. During their temporary break-up in ''New Moon'', she puts herself in several life-threatening situations because she doesn't want to live if she can't have him. When they do get back together, she feels the need to bring up her exploits on quite a few occasions and unleashes the guilt trip. She treats it as if it would have been HIS fault if she killed herself because [[SarcasmMode it's clearly entirely his fault that she wasn't able to handle the break-up]]. Never mind that the only reason he broke up with her was for her safety.
*** She does the same thing about sex and wanting to become a vampire. It would be decent of her to respect Edward's desire not to have sex before marriage and stop constantly pushing him because he did explain that it was important to him. If the genders were reversed and ''he'' was pressuring ''her'' for sex, even with Edward's stalking and controlling behaviour, Bella would probably be seen as the bigger creep.
** Also played with when it comes to Jacob Black. He's introduced as one of the nicest and out-and-out most good people in the series, who is actually friends with Bella due to common interests and helped bring her out of her depressive shell after Edward ran off in ''New Moon''. Jacob eventually develops feelings for Bella, but she's still hung up on Edward, and the moment he re-enters her life she drops Jacob. That's when his ugly side starts coming through since he gets insanely jealous of Edward on numerous occasions and tends to take his jealousy out on Bella. He forces her to kiss him three times in ''Eclipse'' with a not-so-subtle rape overtone to the interactions and in ''Breaking Dawn'' he gets so angry with her that he starts to violently shake her, resulting in Edward AND Jacob's own pack having to intervene.
* Ana breaks up with Christian at the end of ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'', because she realizes they're sexually incompatible after he hits her with a belt; she isn't turned on by it ''at all'' and is disturbed that Christian gets off on her pain and humiliation. Then there's Christian [[StalkerWithACrush stalking]] Ana and trying to [[ControlFreak control]] all aspects of her life, which she finds irritating at ''best''. However, at the start of the next book, Christian tells Ana he's changed and wants her back to have a 'vanilla' relationship. Even though it's been a mere five days and Ana has no proof of Christian's claims, she takes him back almost instantly.
* In ''Harvesting the Heart'' by Creator/JodiPicoult you kind of get this feeling with both characters. The book is about a woman, Paige, who leaves her doctor husband Nicholas and young son because her mother did the same and she didn't know how to mother. On Nicholas' point of view, why would you take back a woman who just leaves a young baby with and doesn't come back for two months? On Paige's side, why would you get back with someone who was ready to divorce you and get a restraining order?
* ''Literature/InDeath'' series: Siobahn Brody and Patrick Roarke. Patrick beat up Brody a lot. She had a kid - Roarke - and wanted Patrick to marry her and make a proper family. Unfortunately, she supposedly didn't find out until later that he was ''already'' married, and was just using her to bear him a son. She was taken to an abuse shelter along with Roarke. However, she ended up going back to Patrick with Roarke, because she wanted her son to have a father. Unfortunately, Patrick was furious that she ran away from him ''and'' with his son. So in a combination of fury and YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness, he murdered her. Roarke was unhappy when he discovered all of this years later.
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: Played with in ''The Jury''. Karl Woodley and Paula Woodley do not love each other, in fact, they ''loathe'' each other. Karl abused Paula, and broke every bone in her body! The Vigilantes, upon finding this out, go to Karl's house and break every bone in ''his'' body! Despite the fact that Paula apparently had had it with his abuse, and despite the fact that the book even had an AuthorFilibuster on DomesticAbuse, Paula went back to Karl! You can be sure at least one reviewer thought the title of this trope. However, ''Collateral Damage'' either reveals or retcons this by saying that Paula did not actually take Karl back so much as the US government pretty much dumping him into her hands! Karl happens to be best pals with the President of the United States, as well as his National Security Advisor. It is not clear if the government knew what Karl was doing, or if they turned a blind eye to it, but it certainly makes the government come off as stupid and thoughtless. Karl did have to resign thanks to becoming wheelchair-bound. Paula ends up taking great pleasure tormenting him for all the years he tormented her! Not once does divorce or seeing a psychologist come up in any of this, not once!
* ''Literature/{{Crescendo}}'' has Nora and Patch serve as this for each other. On one hand, Patch is creepy, smug, has few issues with using his powers to MindRape Nora and flat-out admitted in the previous book that he first knew of her because he decided to stalk her to kill her for his own benefit. Anyone would think Nora would be well-off to be rid of him, but she does nothing but whine and cry over how much she misses him. On the other hand, Nora goes straight into {{Yandere}} territory, screaming at Patch for so much as talking about another girl (a girl Nora has a bad history with, granted, but Patch is trying to discuss something serious), stalking ''him'' after breaking up with him, planning to have sex with a drunk friend to spite him, and stealing the diary of a girl she thinks Patch is dating, because clearly that's the best way to verify the information. Most people would see that behavior as a sign to get away as quickly as possible, but Patch seems to find it irritating at worst and ''amusing'' more often than not.

* In ''Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me'', Freddy keeps getting back together with the titular Laura Dean in spite of Laura selfishly breaking her heart over and over again. Unlike many other examples of this trope, however, the narrative is very aware that Freddy really ''shouldn't'' be taking Laura back and the entire plot is about her slowly coming to realize that she shouldn't stay in a toxic relationship just because she loves the other person.
* A friendship version occurs in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' when Harry asks Cho why she would defend and justify what Marietta did. Since Marietta betrayed Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge, who would gladly expel everyone involved for breaking her rules, you can't blame Harry for getting upset as to why Cho would stay friends with someone who just stabbed her in the back. As Harry puts it, "She sold everyone out, including [[EtTuBrute you]]!"
* Somewhat justified in ''Holy Fools'' by Joanne Harris. l'Ailée blames Guy LeMerle  for leaving her pregnant and alone, and only works with him under protest when he arrives with a new Mother Superior. Not helping is that to ensure her cooperation, he takes her daughter and puts her up for fostering, using the young and naive Mother Superior to give the order; Guy suspects that the child is his but hopes not since it would make him feel guiltier about using the child as a bargaining chip. l'Ailée as the "widow" nun Soeur Auguste refuses to trust him, and eventually [[spoiler:undermines his scheme because it will kill the Mother Superior, but reveals the local bishop as Guy LeMerle's father, which was his end goal all along. She then rescues him from execution on charges of impersonation and conspiracy, but tells him that's because she didn't want his death on her hands, and leaves him to his own devices]].  This renews Guy LeMerle's interest in her, but l'Ailée doesn't want anything to do with him. [[spoiler:It takes several months for l'Ailée to settle in a new life with her daughter that she agrees to give him a second chance when as a show of contrition he dances with her in disguise. Even so, it's not a guarantee that they'll stay together, or she'll ever trust him again]].
* This is also mentioned in ''Literature/ZoeRosenthalIsNotLawfulGood'' with both Zoe and Simon, as well as Meldel and Todd.
** Zoe is convinced that she and Simon are meant to be childhood sweethearts supporting each other, but [[spoiler:her fandom friends say that if she has to hide going to conventions while visiting colleges for them, then it's a hint that perhaps he's not the perfect guy for her and she knows it. They're proven right when Simon breaks up with Zoe for the crime of taking his little sister to a convention and lying about it, following a show that he hates due to the amount of blood, and he may have cheated on her with a coworker]]. Needless to say, Zoe realizes that she [[spoiler:did love Simon but didn't actually know him, and he wasn't the perfect guy. In fact, he was worse than ''her''; lying about going to a convention and lying about your college choices are on different levels than wrong. Simon at least has the decency to look embarrassed about it when his ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend/Other Woman meet at a convention and he finds out his boss is a fan of the show]].
** As for Todd and Meldel, they have a SlapSlapKiss dynamic that is exhausting. Todd always interrupts Meldel and talks down to her, while Meldel tells him off for being a condescending jerk. Zoe notes that if they were not in fandom, they would have broken up a long time ago. [[spoiler:There's also the fact that Todd makes an embarrassing video of Zoe that goes viral, without Zoe's consent and turning her into a fandom laughingstock. While it ends up saving the show they were watching, Zoe doesn't attend conventions with her friends for months and when she gets the courage to attend one-- her friend and parents make her go to help mend her broken heart-- people sing the song in the video when they recognize her. That would have been grounds for Meldel to break up with Todd and make him pay consequences]]. Instead, she says his punishment is he'll be in her next book. Yeah.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Buffy dates Spike on and off throughout later parts of the show, in spite of his trying to kill her multiple times, attempting to rape her and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking making a sexbot version of her]].
** Buffy's souled boyfriends weren't much better. Angel lost his soul, went on to try and kill Buffy and her friends, and yet when he got his soul back Buffy decided to get back together with him (despite the risk of him losing his soul again and when he was ''saying to her face'' that he wants to sleep with her and doesn't care if it'll cost him his soul). Riley seemed nice to begin with but when he went to the vampire equivalent of a brothel in order to get bitten because he felt Buffy wasn't paying enough attention to him (when she was protecting her sister from a Hellgod and thought her mother was dying), Buffy dumps him... only to be convinced by Xander five minutes later that she should go after him because he's a "once in a lifetime guy" (when by this point he's done pretty much everything to prove that he's the total opposite). Buffy's taste in men [[PoorJudgeOfCharacter just kind of sucks in general]].
* Lily dumps Marshall shortly before their wedding and runs off to UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco at the end of season 1 of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. She returns, begging forgiveness at the beginning of Season II. To the show's credit, the damage she caused Marshall isn't [[HandWave Hand Waved]], and she spends much of the beginning of season 2 getting back into Marshall and Ted's good graces. But since the show is told in flashback, we already know Marsh and Lily end up together.
** Done particularly well in the ChristmasEpisode after they get back together. Lily is cleaning up, plugs the answering machine back in, and hears Ted calling her an offensive word in an old message for Marshal (left during the break-up period). Ted tries to apologize and explain, but Lily won't hear it, so he takes back the apology and calls her out on abandoning not just Marshal, but him and all their friends, and never having apologized to Ted about the way she acted.
** It's a RunningGag that Marshall's mother [[ObnoxiousInLaws never forgave Lily for this]].
** The rest of the group asks this of Ted when he considers getting back together with Zoey at the end of season 6. You know, the woman who tried to destroy your career, manipulated you, lied to you, and secretly taped your conversations so that she could screw you over? Why ''wouldn't'' you take her back?
*** It goes both ways. Throughout the season, Zoey fought as hard as possible to prevent the destruction of the Arcadian Building. After she finally manages to convince Ted to agree to help her, he ends up betraying her at the last second and ensuring the building's destruction. One has to wonder why would Zoey want to get back with Ted after what he did. Alternatively, Zoey knew Ted was in a precarious position, so she should have known there was not much he could have done, and she lied about erasing the recordings she blackmailed him with.
** Robin and her ex-boyfriend Simon, who waited to dump her until after she helped him load all his band's equipment into his van and then told her he was leaving her for Louise Marsh because her parents had a pool. Despite all her friends telling her she shouldn't go back to him, she still does and at the end of the episode, Simon dumped her the same way he did the first time - after moving his band's equipment to his van and for the same girl, Louise Marsh, because now her parents have a Jacuzzi.
** Ted and Jeanette. Jeanette was a crazy StalkerWithACrush who frequently broke Ted's things over minor offenses. After they break up, Ted wanted to get back together with her, much to the disappointment and frustration of his friends. Future!Ted admits this was a big mistake and their second break up ends with Jeanette setting most of Ted's belongings on fire.
*** Also lessened somewhat by various dialogues during this time. Ted admits on several occasions that his positive outlook on romance has been taken hits over the years, and he is starting to feel outright despair that he'll never find someone to love. Part of his thinking is that Jeanette obviously is attracted to him, so maybe he can make it work if he tries hard enough.
** Barney and Robin. Barney lied consistently and didn't apologize for his lies simply stating the fact that the man who Robin fell in love with was a liar and that magic, lies, and illusions are part of his charm so she should just accept that. I'm paraphrasing of course. It was a clever way of getting her forgiveness without actually apologizing. He also did a cute magic trick with flowers so that makes all the lying okay. However, Barney addresses this at their wedding, where he makes only one vow-- that he will never, ever lie to her.
** And finally, [[spoiler:Ted and Robin in the finale. While a good point is made that Ted always had feelings for her, her behavior throughout the episode, which is basically tantamount to abandoning her friends because she was no longer comfortable with their dynamic, simply does not sit well with a lot of fans]].
* ''Series/SexAndTheCity'' star Carrie is constantly taking back Mr. Big no matter how many times he bails on her or is an ass to her. In this case, it is presented more that she has a constant lust and chemistry with him that she knows rationally will not end well. Carrie's friends even call her out on it when she gets back with him the second time.
** Carrie as well, when she cheats on Aiden with Big. Repeatedly and with no apparent sense of guilt. She does confess to Aiden, and begs him to forgive her, even saying "You ''have'' to forgive me!" He briefly takes her back after some hesitation due to her violating his trust once, but they end up breaking up permanently, probably in part because she never did anything to make him believe she was sincere.
* ''Series/TrueBlood:'' There is a serious question about why Sookie Stackhouse would ever take Bill Compton back after EVERYTHING he's done up to this point: We find out in season 3 that Bill [[spoiler: arranged for the Rattarays to beat the shit out of Sookie so he could pretend to be a hero to her, drug her with his blood (which was both a tracking device and a powerful aphrodisiac), and manipulate her into falling in love with him. When Eric finds out about what Bill did, Bill tries to have Eric and Pam killed in order to keep his secrets, and later tries to gaslight Sookie into believing he has her best interests in mind, all the while never planning to reveal to her his mission from Queen Sophie Anne or what he allowed the Rattarays to do to her.]] This becomes more egregious in season 5 when Bill [[spoiler: betrays her again by not only allowing Steve and Russell to go after Sookie to harvest her (despite being a Chancellor in the Authority and having the power to stop it, but choosing not to because he didn't care at that point), but also tried to bully Jessica into turning Jason (Sookie's own brother) into a vampire against his will just to spite Jessica for trying to defy him (which only fails because of Jessica's quick thinking), and later tried to have Jason killed at the Authority when he sicced the Authority guards on them and tried to destroy the Authority Headquarters (with Eric, Nora, Tara, Jessica, Pam, Sookie, and Jason inside) after becoming Billith. And that's not even getting into how nasty and cruel Bill was towards Sookie in season 6.]] All of this should be grounds for Sookie cutting Bill out of her life and never wanting anything to do with him again. However, the show completely glosses over this in favor of [[spoiler: getting Sookie and Bill back together in the last season.]]
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'' reunited with her ex, Duncan Kane, despite the fact that he dumped her without an explanation, ignored her every time she asked him why, and sat idly by as their peer group turned on her. She later finds out why Duncan broke it off: [[spoiler:He thought she was his half-sister. [[KissingUnderTheInfluence But he slept with her anyway.]] But Veronica had been accidentally roofied as well, so she didn't remember consenting and spent an entire year thinking she'd been raped ([[RetCon Turns out she had been]]. But that's a whole different issue)]]. Granted, it doesn't last. Mostly because she fell for Duncan's best friend, Logan Echols - the son of [[spoiler:the man who murdered Lily Kane, Veronica's best friend]] and one of the ringleaders of the "Treat Veronica Like Trash" brigade, and the same guy who had been starting to sexually assault her with a bunch of other guys before Duncan saved her. This is a non-issue to her for some reason.
* Played with when it comes to Phoebe/Cole on ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', as after Phoebe kills Cole to vanquish The Source of All Evil inside him, he steals powers from the Demonic Wasteland to return to life and get back with Phoebe, only to have her keep saying, "You're evil, you're evil, you're evil." This is a guy who became a DA to put criminals in jail and counter the demonic side he was born with, helped Phoebe escape the Underworld, ultimately had his demonic side vanquished, became The Source only as a side effect of helping slay the previous Source, came back from the dead solely because of his love for Phoebe and kept trying to prove he was a good person, only giving up completely after she and her sisters tried to kill him again. There's a reason many fans referred to Phoebe as Phoe Me after Season Five, and in this case, the main question fans had was why Cole would take her back.
* Leo on ''Series/WillAndGrace''. He keeps leaving on doctor's missions in Africa after marrying Grace, pays her no attention when she finally decides to go with him, and cheats on her after she leaves, leading to their divorce. She keeps going back to him and ultimately has his baby.
* In season six of ''Series/GilmoreGirls,'' Logan sleeps his way through his sister's bridal party, with the excuse that he thought and Rory were broken up while she thought they were "on a break." Yes, that's right. The writers ''unironically'' [[Series/{{Friends}} Ross-and-Rachel-ed]] their main couple. Rory is talked into forgiving him even though she's clearly upset. To make it worse, Jess pops back in at this time, has his life together, gives her a much-needed wake up call to get hers together, and is clearly still interested in her...and she decides to go back to the man who cheated on her with multiple women, didn't care if she found out about it, never takes responsibility for it, and ends up leaving her a season later because she's not ready to get married and move across the country directly after college graduation.
* The writers of ''Series/GossipGirl'' managed to turn their SuperCouple into this. Most fans still want Chuck and Blair to get back together, but it's difficult to see how Blair will be able to forgive Chuck for selling her to his creepy uncle in exchange for a hotel.
** Somehow they actually managed to turn it around into fans questioning why ''Chuck'' would ever take ''Blair'' back. This due to massive CharacterDevelopment on his part while she became increasingly self-centered and unlikable. Also, that he was a complete LoveMartyr for her for several seasons while she constantly toyed with his emotions.
** Serena took back [[TookALevelInJerkass Dan]] after he admitted he had been trying to make her fall in love with him again so he would be able to gain material to ''write an article about it trashing her publicly''. He didn't go through it and Serena's taste of men had already been proven to be... debatable, but still. Also, platonically, the rest of the gang to Dan after he was [[spoiler:revealed to be Gossip Girl]].
** In a platonic sense, Serena and Blair, frequently to each other.
* In ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' Johnny [=DiMarco=] dumps Alli because he doesn't want to admit to Holly J that he's dating a ninth-grader. She takes him back after this and continues to pine after him.
** Also, Ashley takes Craig back after he cheats on her with Manny and attempts to justify it by calling her a prude.

* In ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', when Niles' marriage to Maris begins falling apart, there are several occasions where Maris tries to win him back, often causing Martin and Frasier to pretty much ask this question. Differs in that Niles generally listens to them, or had concluded that he didn't want to get back with her on his own after the first time he did take her back right at the end of their marriage, only for her to promptly turn around and cheat on him with their marriage counselor. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and he never seriously considered taking her back again. Later on, when they've almost finalized their divorce, Maris begs him once again to reconcile, sending him gifts and love letters, only for him to explicitly invoke this trope to her face. [[{{Yandere}} She tries to sue him for every cent he has in retaliation.]] Yeah, there's a reason the writers felt there was no way any actress could do her character justice. Of course JerkassHasAPoint and it's unclear why she wants ''him'' back; he's been emotionally unfaithful and pursuing Daphne for years by the first time she cheats on him (it's actually the crux of the lawsuit, and he only gets out of it through blackmail).
* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'' during a flash-forward Jack, while engaged to and living with Kate, has a bad day. He then goes home, sends the nanny home early, and proceeds to get drunk and high while home alone with her adopted three-year-old son. When she gets home he demands to know where she's been. She tells him she's been doing something for Sawyer, his former romantic rival, but won't tell him what it is out of loyalty to him. Jack yells at her, telling her that Sawyer "chose" to stay on the island and it was Jack who saved her. In a later episode, we learn that is patently untrue. Sawyer jumped out of the chopper because it was too heavy and swam back to the island. He had no reason to believe that they would not be able to come back for him. And then, to cap off the argument, when Kate tells him quite reasonably that if he has a drug problem he needs to leave and get help because she can't have him like that around her son, he yells at her, telling her that he's not really her son, she's not even related to him, with the implied meaning that because he is Aaron's biological uncle, he has more of a right to raise him than her, even though she's been mothering him since he was a few months old and clearly loves him and only wants what's best for him. In the show's end she tells him she loves him and they get back together in the afterlife.
** Also worthy of mention, one night, post-breakup, Kate shows up in Jack's bed, lying practically catatonic. He asks her what happened to Aaron and she tells him to never mention Aaron to her again. It's clear that she's gone through something traumatic. She kisses him and he doesn't stop her. He proceeds to take advantage of her exceedingly vulnerable state and has sex with her. He also shows no concern for what happened to his nephew.
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Glee}}'', Finn breaks up with Quinn once he realises that she lied to him about him being the father of her baby, and the fact that she cheated on him with his best friend. So, when he breaks up with Rachel in season two and actually gets back together with Quinn, his excuse of "when we kissed, there were fireworks" just doesn't seem good enough to justify it. The trope is played with when Finn admits that he doesn't really trust Quinn AT ALL due to her track record (she cheated on Finn with Puck, and in getting together with Finn, she cheated on Sam) and that he can't quite justify why he's actually with her again. This trope could also be applied with Finn and Rachel since they break up and get back together more times than you can count, and they usually break up over something stupid - the break up that caused Finn to date Quinn again, for example, was caused when Rachel found out that Finn lost his virginity to Santana (while they weren't together, mind), and she decided to cheat on him with Puck to get her own back. The audience ''knows'' that they're going to keep getting back together, but you have to wonder why they keep doing it.
** Then we see the example invoked with Jesse St. James. Jesse was a mole for Shelby Corcoran, who wanted Jesse to reveal indirectly that Shelby is Rachel's biological mother. After he transferred to New Directions, he briefly dated Rachel, only to go back to Vocal Adrenaline the minute she learned the VA coach was her mother, and lured her for the VA team to egg her. While it's implied his teammates forced him to hurt Rachel, it does not excuse ''any'' of his actions. Unsurprisingly, the entire Glee club in season two is ''furious'' at Jesse when he's hired to offer feedback. Kurt bluntly tells Rachel that Jesse didn't love her, he "made breakfast on her head". It's not like Jesse even has the decency to apologize to the team he betrayed and tries to suck up to Rachel. [[spoiler:The only sensible thing she does that season is turn him down. Jesse has to wait several years for CharacterDevelopment to kick in, to prove to Rachel that he is truly sorry]].
* In the third season of ''Series/MrRobot'', Angela starts to blatantly psychologically abuse Elliot and work with Mr. Robot behind his back to make Stage 2 successful. Justified that she was brainwashed by Whiterose, this doesn't ignore the fact that she badly treated Elliot throughout the majority of the season, and before that, she didn't give him the care that he needed. And when he found out about her betrayal, she ignored the accusations as if she doesn't remember doing this to him, didn't care about the fact that he was heartbroken and upset and pushed him away after she was done with him. Despite the hell she put him through, he still forgave her even if she didn't apologize to him. Unfortunately, Angela later accuses him of manipulating her after seeing Leon in his apartment when [[{{Hypocrite}} she herself did the same thing to him]]. So it's unknown if Elliot will ever take her back.
* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', Amy Pond skips out on fiancé, {{childhood friend|Romance}}, and all-around DoggedNiceGuy Rory to gallivant around the universe with a dashing young ([[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld looking]]) Gallifreyan. Granted, it's a time machine, so she should have no trouble making it [[{{Pun}} back in time]] for the wedding, so that's not TOO bad... until she kisses and attempts to seduce the Doctor. Even this alone wouldn't be quite enough to qualify for this trope -- relationships can survive infidelity -- but Rory has to hear about it from the Doctor, not Amy, and she never apologizes or takes ''any'' responsibility for her attempted dalliance. When confronted, her response is along the lines of, "Well, we never really ''did'' anything." Right...only that's because the Doctor rejected her, not for lack of trying on her part. In fact, the Doctor made Rory a companion specifically because it was making him extremely uncomfortable. Rory expresses understandable concern about the lack of loyalty his prospective wife displays, but being the ExtremeDoormat that he is, nothing ever comes of it, and the whole incident is [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness seldom mentioned again]].
** There's a ''bit'' of justification in all this. Amy met the Doctor first when she was a little girl, saw him do some incredible things, and then spent the rest of her childhood and adolescence trying to get over him, only for him to return when she's an adult, bringing back all her childhood dreams of traveling in time and space (not to mention proving that she was right about it having happened). She traveled with him initially to fulfill a lifelong dream, and then she almost died, several times. Plus, it's not like they picked Rory up and they just pretended her infatuation with the Doctor never happened. The episode "Amy's Choice" was all about her confronting whether she really wanted to be with Rory or the Doctor, and she made the choice in a very decisive way. It didn't solve ''all'' their problems, but it certainly reaffirmed her commitment to Rory, in everyone's minds.
* Why would Gordon take back Barbara Kean in ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' as she constantly makes extremely stupid and reckless decisions that only cause Gordon more problems? [[spoiler:It turns out, [[NotHisSled he doesn't.]]]]
* ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'': Eric towards his wife Heidi, who he catches performing oral sex on a bellhop on their wedding night, in their bridal suite. Later on, she fakes EasyAmnesia of the whole thing. Eric ''still'' agrees to remarry her, and stays with her after she secretly drugs him with male potency pills she bought from some guy in a parking lot. Why on Earth would anyone tolerate such a potent combination of deceptiveness and stupidity? Ultimately {{subverted|Trope}} when they mutually split up in the series finale.
* ''Series/LastManStanding'': Ryan got Kristin pregnant during their senior year of high school and promised her that he would support her. When she decided to keep the baby, he ditched her to go to college and earn ADegreeInUseless. Meanwhile, she had to give up her future to raise Boyd by working as a waitress in a run-down diner while continuing to live with her parents because she couldn't afford to move out. He eventually decides to take responsibility and return after graduating but leans on Kristin to do most of the disciplining and be the breadwinner so he can go on social crusades and protests when not trying to indoctrinate Boyd with his ultra-left wing ideals.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': Gender inverted in the case of Oliver and Felicity. After Felicity's increasingly hypocritical behavior during Seasons Three and Four, her rants about not wanting to marry him in ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'', and then selfishly interrupting Barry and Iris' wedding vows at the end of said crossover to tack on her own wedding to Oliver, after Barry and Iris' original dream wedding had already been ruined by ''invading Nazis from another earth'', just about everyone except the most diehard Olicity shippers wondered how Oliver could stay with her after all that, let alone marry her. It seems even the writers predicted how the audience would react to this -- the following episode of ''Arrow'', "Irreconcilable Differences", forcibly shilled how "in love" Oliver and Felicity were, as if they were trying to convince the fans of that fact.
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': Mutual case with Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter. Essentially, the two divorced because of Bobbi's job as a spy meant she had to conceal information from Lance, even when working together, and he felt he couldn't trust someone who could lie so easily. He ''then'' spent every day after the divorce bad-mouthing her to everyone who'd listen, calling her a "hell-beast", a monster, and generally making her sound like she'd viciously abused and gaslighted him, but it's clear nothing of the sort happened, and when we see her politely ask him to give her space, he massively over-reacts. However, if Lance has such difficulty trusting women, ''why'' is he pursuing a relationship with a professional spy? Meanwhile, with how explosively he responds to even the calmest request for space, it's a question why Bobbi would stay with him, never mind why she would take him back after he'd spent so long actively harming her reputation and dumping their dirty laundry out onto her colleagues and friends, which realistically would be ''very'' humiliating.

* In season six of ''Series/GilmoreGirls,'' Logan sleeps his way through his sister's bridal party, with the excuse that he thought and Rory were "on a break." Yes, that's right. The writers ''unironically'' [[Series/{{Friends}} Ross-and-Rachel-ed]] their main couple. Rory is talked into forgiving him even though she's clearly upset. To make it worse, Jess pops back in at this time, has his life together, gives her a much-needed wake up call to get hers together, and is clearly still interested in her...and she decides to go back to the man who cheated on her with multiple women, didn't care if she found out about it, never takes responsibility for it, and ends up leaving her a season later because she's not ready to get married and move across the country directly after college graduation.

* In season six of ''Series/GilmoreGirls,'' Logan sleeps his way through his sister's bridal party, with the excuse that he thought and Rory were "on a break." Yes, that's right. The writers ''unironically'' [[Series/{{Friends}} Ross-and-Rachel-ed]] their main couple. Rory is talked into forgiving him even though she's clearly upset. To make it worse, Jess pops back in at this time, has his life together, gives her a wake up call to get hers together, and is clearly still interested in her...and she decides to go back to the man who cheated on her with multiple women, didn't care if she found out about it, never takes responsibility for it, and ends up leaving her a season later because she's not ready to get married and move across the country directly after college graduation.

* In season six of ''Series/GilmoreGirls,'' Logan sleeps his way through his sister's bridal party, with the excuse that he thought and Rory were "on a break." Yes, that's right. The writers ''unironically'' [[Series/{{Friends}} Ross-and-Rachel-ed]] their main couple. Rory is talked into forgiving him even though she's clearly upset. To make it worse, Jess pops back in at this time, has his life together, gives her a wake up call to get hers together, and is clearly still interested in her...and she decides to go back to the man who cheated on her with multiple women, didn't care if she found out about it, and ends up leaving her a season later because she's not ready to get married and move across the country directly after college graduation.

* In season six of ''Series/GilmoreGirls,'' Logan sleeps his way through his sister's bridal party, with the excuse that he thought and Rory were "on a break." Yes, that's right. The writers ''unironically'' [[Series/{{Friends}} Ross-and-Rachelled]] their main couple. Rory is talked into forgiving him even though she's clearly upset. To make it worse, Jess pops back in at this time, has his life together and is clearly still interested in her, but she decides to go back to the man who cheated on her with multiple women, didn't care if she found out about it, and eventually leaves her because she's not ready to get married straight out of college.

* Late in the game, Katherine will break up with Vincent because he is cheating on her with the eponymous character VideoGame/{{Catherine}}. [[MultipleEndings In Katherine's Good and True endings]] the two ultimately get back together, even getting married in her True ending. The reason for ''why'' he is being taken back is that [[spoiler:since Catherine was a succubus and only an ''illusion'' in their world, Vincent ''didn't actually cheat'' on Katherine. He merely attempted to cheat on her]]. Possibly. It's unclear [[spoiler:how much control he has over his encounters with Catherine considering that he's always drunk and can never remember his encounters with her]] and the player can choose to send her messages that try to discourage her.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': Harley Quinn to ComicBook/TheJoker. She is head over her heels in love, goes mad, gives up her life as a psychiatrist for a life of crime all for her "Mr. J" and he can't take a few moments out of his day to "rev up his Harley". He abandons her, rats her out, abuses her, tries to kill her, and yet she always ends up by his side again sooner or later. However, she's actively called out on this by pretty much the whole rest of the cast, especially Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/PoisonIvy, but is too far into MadLove to really understand why he's bad for her. Depictions set chronologically after the series in the DCAU do show that she ends up finally realizing how bad the relationship is after a stint in jail and permanently leaves the Joker as part of her attempt to go legit.