Love Sacrificed for Power

Red Skull: To ensure that whoever possesses it, understands its power. The stone demands a sacrifice.
Thanos: Of what?
Red Skull: In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. A soul for a soul.

— Avengers: Infinity War

Human Sacrifice is an evil way of obtaining power, hardly anyone argues with that. But sometimes, when you need more power, a simple sacrifice is not enough. You need something more evil. You need someone really close to you. Your parents, your child... maybe even your One True Love. The price is high... and so is the reward.

Note: the trope isn't about when a relative is simply easier to get one's hands upon than a random person; it's when a random person simply won't do.

Sub-Trope to Power at a Price, Human Sacrifice, Targeted Human Sacrifice, Equivalent Exchange. Compare Sadistic Choice and Kill the Ones You Love, where it's not something good happening if you accept the deal, but something really bad happening when you don't. Can be considered the ultimate example of If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!. In some rare cases, the victim might be willing, in which case we have Heroic Sacrifice. For the inanimate version of the trope, see Sentimental Sacrifice.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Berserk: This is the entire point of the Sacrifice required to become a demon, as first revealed in the Guardians of Desire arc. By consigning that which you most love to be eaten by demons, the would-be Apostle (or Godhand) cuts themself off from humanity and opens themselves to evil.
• Chainsaw Man: Yoru's power allows her to turn anything she "owns" into a weapon. This destroys the object, and the weapon becomes more powerful the more she regrets destroying it. Nothing stops her from doing this to someone she falls in love with—except her own Lack of Empathy preventing such emotions. She ends up Sharing a Body and her power with Asa, who can love people enough to regret sacrificing them, but she's very averse to sacrificing anyone she'd care about that much.
• Naruto: Itachi implied that in order to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, an Uchiha must kill their loved ones. While Itachi did gain it with that method, the truth is that any kind of severe emotional trauma (such as losing a loved one) can awaken the eye; Itachi himself gained it when he was forced to kill his best friend Shisui because the latter knew too much about the conspiracy in Konoha.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: In Season 3, Andrian Geko sacrifices his girlfriend to Exodia so he could obtain the power to control it (something possible thanks to everyone being trapped in another dimension), outright admitting that this matters more to him than her. Surprisingly, she is alright with this and encourages him to hurry up.

Comic Books

• Fantastic Four: The "Unthinkable" arc starts with Doctor Doom apparently turning over a new leaf, discarding his Tin Tyrant look and tracking down his old love Valeria... only to reveal that his true motive was to sacrifice "something irreplaceable" to demons◊, who use her tanned skin to craft Doom a new suit of armor that boosts his previously-neglected magical abilities.

Fan Works

• Dodging Prison & Stealing Witches: There is a ritual that can effectively double one's magical power... at the cost of the person's One True Love.

Films — Live-Action

• Marvel Cinematic Universe
  • In Avengers: Infinity War, you need to sacrifice someone you love in order to get the Soul Stone. For Thanos, this rather limits the options, but, unfortunately, not enough. Red Skull of course, will never get his hands on the stone because he doesn’t love anyone, which is why he’s the guardian.
  • In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, this is the main procedure of the Big Bad Ego the Living Planet, in which he fathers children with women from diverse species to kill their mothers and use their children as human batteries so he can get more power and immortality. That includes Peter Quill and his mother, the latter was affected and died by cancer thanks to him. The extent of love is unclear, but blood connection does seem important.

Literature

• Book of a Thousand Days: This is how animal power can be gained through a deal with the desert shamans. If a person sells their soul to them, he must remorselessly kill a close relative; the more he loved the person he kills, the greater his power will be. After that sacrifice, the desert shaman summons a predator spirit into the person, who then gains the added strength and cunning of that beast as well as the ability to change into its shape.
• Coldfire Trilogy: Tarrant gained his immortality by ritually sacrificing his family.
• In The Dresden Files book Skin Game, the villainous Nicodemus conscripts Dresden into helping him break into Hades's vault for powerful treasures within. Part of this involves a door that can only be opened by the ghost of someone killed in the chamber. The only person Nicodemus trusted to do this was his own daughter, Deirdre, a fact that devastates him, but doesn't stop him.
• The Four Profound Weaves: The last of the titular arts is to weave magical cloth out of bone and death. However, it only works if the weaver truly cares about the death, so Benesret killed her husbands for her magic, and Uiziya's husband when Uiziya asked to be taught. Uiziya ultimately realizes that genuine compassion for the spirits of the dead works just as well, no murder required.
• Inheritance Trilogy: The sacrifice of a loved one is necessary to become ruler of the The Empire because the Top God who sponsors the Arameri dynasty demands that they show their willingness to do anything for the Empire. Also because rulership can only be transferred by the will of a mortal who has temporarily absorbed the power of the dead Top God Enefa, which invariably kills them.
• Judge Dee: According to legend, the judge's Ancestral Weapon (a sword named Rain Dragon) was made by a smith who declared (after failing to make the sword eight times) that if he managed to forge it, he'd sacrifice his wife to the river god. He succeeded, promptly beheaded his wife, and was killed in a thunderstorm right after. The sword ends up used to kill Chiao Tai in the last book.
• Kushiel's Legacy: The Religion of Evil of Drujan honors The Anti-God Angra Mainyu through "ill thoughts, ill words, ill deeds"; its Aka Magi are endowed supernatural powers like a Touch of Death through a ritual wherein they sacrifice someone they love. Ironically, this holds back their leader, the Mahrkagir, from becoming an avatar of Angra Mainyu, since he's a complete monster who's never loved anybody.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: In their world's Mythopoeia — which may or may not have historical basis, thanks to Legend Fades to Myth — there was once a legendary Precursor Hero who fought against and ultimately triumphed against a worldwide catastrophe. In the version of the story told by the followers of R'hllor (the most prominent version in the books) this hero is Azor Ahai, and his success was thanks in part to a magic Flaming Sword he created. The dark side to the legend that's not always told, however, is that after several attempts to forge his magic sword, Azor Ahai finally succeeded by using his own wife, Nissa Nissa, as a Human Sacrifice in his third and final attempt.
  Salladhor Saan: A hundred days and a hundred nights he labored on the third blade, and as it glowed white-hot in the sacred flames, he summoned his wife. Nissa Nissa, he said to her, for that was her name, bare your breast, and know that I love you best of all that is in this world. She did this thing, why I cannot say, and Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstacy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel. Such is the tale of the forging of Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.
• The Warlord Chronicles: At the very end, Nimue uses her former teacher and lover Merlin as a human sacrifice to cast a spell that dooms Arthur and, much to Nimue's chagrin, all of Britain to the Saxons.
• Whateley Universe: From Silver Linings Chapter 2: Parts 2 to 9: The Purple Witch uses magic of this nature, she herself intended to sacrifice her daughter.
  the working to create that conjuration required the sacrifice of something loved.
• Wulfrik: At the end of the novel, having given up his ambitions of kingship over his tribe and finally accepted the fate the Chaos gods had for him, Wulfrik has to kill and dismember his love Hjordis (offscreen, fortunately), using her face, heart, womb and hair as sacrifices in the same way he offers up the skull, heart, guts and dying breath of the monsters and champions he usually kills.

Live-Action TV

• The Bloodride episode "Ultimate Sacrifice" is centered around a rock that gives one money from sacrificing animals (and even people) upon it. The more you are attached to the sacrifice, the larger the amount received.
• One episode of Lois & Clark dealt with Lois' former boyfriend who was obsessed with ancient druids, and was trying to assemble an ancient magical mask while performing human sacrifices along the way. He believed that sacrificing Lois, his true love, would be the final step. Ultimately subverted; he obviously never sacrificed Lois but was able to use the mask's powers enough to give Superman a run for his money.
• Lost Girl: In the season 4 finale, "Bo's heart" must be sacrificed in order to close a portal. This is a controversial thing to ask, since Bo's in a Love Triangle between Lauren and Dyson. That dichotomy is subverted when the answer turns out to be neither love interest but instead her Heterosexual Life Partner Kenzi. Kenzi ends up deciding she's it and sacrificing herself electively, to avoid Bo having to choose.
  Kenzi: No, Dyson; she loves you, yes; she loves Lauren. But you know that it's me. I'm her heart, you know that.
• Once Upon a Time:
  • A Dark Curse requires you to sacrifice the person you love most in the world to cast it. The ramifications and loopholes of this are explored with unusual depth in the third season. In order to work the magic spell that transforms worlds, transporting the entire cast from the Enchanted Forest to Storybrooke, Maine, Regina has to sacrifice her beloved father Henry.
  • More generally in the series, removing your own heart and locking it away increases your magical power and makes you less vulnerable, but at the cost of your positive emotions, leading to increasingly sociopathic behaviour.

Tabletop Games

• 1001 Science Fiction Weapons has the Witherslant Masters, who sell futuristic weapons in a Little Shop That Wasnt There Yesterday. Normally, the price for one of their gun is assassinating a certain number of people as chosen by them. However, their Omega Model gun (one only available if specifically requested), has a much simpler price — killing the one whom the client loves the most. Mind you; he's not told who the person is, he must figure it out on his own.
• Chronicles of Darkness: Mother Liesel sustains her immortality with ritual Blood Baths that require the sacrifice of someone who loves her — a weighty prerequisite with an equivalent payoff, per the Power at a Price rules of Blood Magic. She runs a charismatic Cult to maintain a supply... the magic doesn't require reciprocation or consent.
• Curse of Strahd: The dark vestige Vampyr can grant players the knowledge of how to turn into a fully-fledged undying vampire without being bitten by one and thus becoming their thrall. The first step in this ritual is to kill another person who loves or reveres you and to drink their blood. According to contradictory lore, the module's Big Bad, Strahd von Zarovich, may have become a vampire this way, specifically by killing and exsanguinating his adoring younger brother Sergei.
• Exalted: Ascending through the tiers ("Circles") of sorcery requires increasingly great sacrifices on the sorcerer's part. The 2E corebook gives "casting aside" their One True Love as an example of what might be needed to unlock the last, and strongest, Solar Circle.
• The Gates of Hell:
  • Amdusius grants power to children who kill their own parents. If the parents are dead, another two persons are designated by the Duke.
  • With Bael, a person must personally kill someone close to him (a wife or a child, for example), just to get an audience.
• Mage: The Awakening: The Prince in Tatters, an Abyssal spirit of betrayal, will only form a pact with a summoner who offers up someone who sincerely loves them.
• Pathfinder: Summoning Rituals require a payment suiting the summoned Outsider's alignment and power level. As Chaotic Evilinvoked Corrupters, Succubi gladly trade their services for the sacrifice of a beloved family member.
• The Chaos Gods of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 really love this trope; sure, they'll give power to anyone who commits atrocities in their names, but they reserve the biggest boons for those who sacrifice their own loved ones to them in exchange for power. Anyone can slaughter their enemies, and given enough time you can get comfortable with killing innocent strangers, but it takes someone truly fallen to sacrifice their family and friends for the Chaos Gods' approval.

Theatre

• A more literal example is present in The Ring of the Nibelung, where Alberich gains the ability to forge the titular Artifact of Doom by renouncing Love, sacrificing his capacity to feel any sort of affection in exchange for the promise of power over the world.

Video Games

• Crusader Kings II: In the Monks and Mystics DLC, admission into the Assassins requires a character to murder their spouse or a close relative as part of their initiation.
• Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: Arkham sacrificed his wife to demons in a bid to become a god.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
  • The Ebony Blade, signature weapon of the Daedric Prince Mephala, grows more powerful if used to murder someone who trusts the wielder.
  • Boethia the Prince of Plots demands a sacrifice of someone who trusts the player enough to follow them into battle before they will allow the player to retrieve the Ebony Mail.
• Fable
  • After Jack of Blades is defeated in Fable, you are given a choice between destroying the Sword of Aeons that Jack spent the game trying to claim, or using it to kill your sister Teresa and unlocking its power for your own use.
  • In Fable III, the Bloodstone Bludgeon grants a damage bonus if the wielder uses it to kill five people who love them. There's also the Tenderiser, which gains the ability to corrupt its wielder if they use it to kill three spouses.
• Final Fantasy X: Yuna learns that to acquire the Final Aeon someone she is close to must sacrifice themselves in order to be transformed into said Aeon.
• Late in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, after Berkut is driven insane by the revelation that Alm is the true heir to the Rigelian throne and that everything he ever fought for or believed in was All for Nothing, he sells his fiancée Rinea's soul to Mad God Duma in exchange for the power to kill Alm in a mad attempt at revenge.
• The Granstream Saga has a rare heroic example. Before being able to fight the Final Boss, Eon is faced with the Sadistic Choice to sacrifice the soul of one of his two Love Interests to power up the MacGuffin, as its power is equal to the feelings invested in it, and there is no way out of this choice.
• In Little Goody Two Shoes, it turns out that this is the final price for getting a wish from Ozzy; the wisher must sacrifice their closest loved one as the Good Company so he and his Co-Dragons can eat them. In the three main endings, including the one canon to Pocket Mirror, Elise ultimately makes this choice with either Rozenmarine, Freya, or Lebkuchen to get her wish for a wealthy lifestyle granted, albeit extremely reluctantly, and the guilt of sacrificing her true love for profit and luxury haunts her for the rest of her opulent yet miserable life.
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: Completing the Lich Mythic Path requires the Player Character to make a Human Sacrifice of their current Love Interest.
• Planescape: Torment: The Nameless One's Practical Incarnation willingly sacrificed Deionarra at the Fortress of Regret, knowing that her feelings for him would bind her soul there and allow him to use her to get through it. He ultimately failed in his quest but her spirit was able to help his next incarnation. This is actually an inversion; he used her love for him but had none for her.
• Vagrant Story: Guildenstern stabs his fiancée Samantha and offers her up as a sacrifice in order to obtain the power of The Dark.

Visual Novels

• Full Metal Daemon Muramasa: This trope is the central crux of the Law of Balance. That in order to use the power of Muramasa, one has to abide by the curse to kill a loved one for everyone slain in hatred. Though, unusually for this trope, it didn't start out from evil intentions. The Law of Balance was originally created to teach humanity the folly of self righteousness, that for everyone killed that you deemed evil, you also killed someone else's good. Unfortunately however, things went horribly, horribly wrong.

Western Animation

• Young Justice (2010): The villain Harm murdered the only person he ever truly loved, his own sister Greta, to obtain the "Purity of Heart" required to wield the magic sword Beowulf, since someone who's pure evil is capable of it.

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