Love Will Lead You Back

"Well, it's your mind that tricks you into leaving every time.

Love will turn you around, turn you around.

Well, it's your heart that talks you into staying where you are.

Love will turn you around, turn you around."

— Kenny Rogers, "Love Will Turn You Around"

The end of a relationship is hard. What's easier? Believing the lost partner will come back someday. Whether they broke up or the partner is away at sea, lost at war, or even tragically, unarguably dead, this character believes their love with come back one day.

If there are other characters around, they are likely to perceive this as denial and encourage her to start seeing other people, but she won't hear of it, because she has to be available when he returns.

A popular topic for songs but can be found in other media as well. This is Truth in Television, and can be particularly tragic when Bob is not merely gone, but actually dead. Done well, this can evoke a sense of sadness and an admiration of the character's dedication. Done poorly, the pining character may leave the audience saying "get over it!" Done really poorly, the pining character comes off as a Stalker with a Crush.

Compare Love Nostalgia Song, where the narrator reminisces fondly on a past love but has since moved on. Contrast Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (which this trope can potentially evolve into). See also The Mourning After.

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Examples:

Anime And Manga

• Inverted in The Secret Agreement, where Iori isn't worried about Yuuichi running away from him because his own love will always lead him towards Yuuichi.

Film

• This is basis of a good bit of the plot of The Princess Bride. Westley is rather miffed to find that Buttercup fell into despair upon hearing that he'd been murdered by pirates, and asks why she didn't wait for him instead of agreeing to marry Prince Humperdink. When Buttercup protests that as far as she knew he was dead, Westley gently reproaches: "Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while." Buttercup takes this to heart, and through the rest of the film remains calm and secure in her conviction that, no matter the situation, Westley will always come for her.

Literature

• Subverted in Washington Square: Catherine starts off feeling this way about Morris, but soon comes to terms with the fact that she had been exploited, and when he does return twenty years later, she has no longer has any interest in him.
• Subverted in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, where it is strongly implied that Emily murdered her lover and spent her time in "mourning" sleeping next to his corpse.
• This is basis of a good bit of the plot of The Princess Bride. Westley is rather miffed to find that Buttercup fell into despair upon hearing that he'd been murdered by pirates, and asks why she didn't wait for him instead of agreeing to marry Prince Humperdink. When Buttercup protests that as far as she knew he was dead, Westley gently reproaches: "Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while." Buttercup takes this to heart, and through the rest of the film remains calm and secure in her conviction that, no matter the situation, Westley will always come for her.
• Subverted in Twilight, where in the second book Bella is convinced Edward will never love her, never did love her and will never come back... after he said he was leaving for her safety only. In fairness, he did say she would never see him again and would be better off forgetting about his existence entirely. (Though Bella did do a pretty lamentable job of listening to anything beyond the "I'm leaving you forever" part.)
• Ginny Weasley, for Harry Potter, when he goes on his quest during Book 7. Although she was "pretty cut up" about their breakup, as any sixteen-year-old girl would be, she knew perfectly well that Harry only broke up with her because he wanted to keep her safe, and never gave up on him.
• There's a Cornish myth in which a princess falls in love with a nobleman from another country; he has to return home to protect his lands, and they cannot be together because she's already engaged. The princess inherits her father's throne and starts a war with her betrothed so she will be free to marry her lover when he returns for her... even though he promptly got married to someone else after returning home.
• Dollanganger Series: Chris—the eternal optimist—spends the duration of Petals on the Wind (about 15 years) holding out hope that Cathy will come back to him someday. While she tells him to move on, they have a Will They or Won't They? relationship throughout that time, and all the Held Gazes and Longing Looks do somewhat undercut her words.
  Chris: During all those years I waited, I somehow knew eventually she'd be mine as long as I held fast to my faith, and kept the flame of my first love burning. It was so easy for her to love other men. It was impossible for me to find any woman who could compare. She took me for her own when I was about your age, Jory. Be careful whom you love first, for that is the girl you will never forget.

Live Action TV

• Friends: Rachel on Ross marrying Emily:
  Rachel: You know how Ross and I were on again, off again, on again, off again? I guess I just figured that somewhere down the road, we would be on again.
• Lost: After the plane crash that kicks off the series Rose insists her husband Bernard, who was in the bathroom at the rear of the plane, is still alive even though his section of the plane is missing. Jack assumes she's just in shock from the accident and gently tries to talk her around. In season two it turns out Rose was right, Bernard is one of the handful of "Tailies" who landed on another part of the island and the couple are eventually reunited.

Music

• The Trope Namer is Taylor Dayne's "Love Will Lead You Back":
  Love will lead you back
  Someday I just know that
  Love will lead you back to my arms
  Where you belong
  I'm sure, sure as stars are shining
  One day you will find me again, it won't be long

• Jewel's "You Were Meant for Me":
  Dreams last for so long
  Even after you're gone
  I know you love me, and soon you will see
  You were meant for me
  And I was meant for you

• Vaya Con Dios, "I Don't Want To Know".
  He'll come back to me in the end
  Isn't that so?
  I don't want to know
• A.C.T.'s "The Money Tree" is a cynical take on this trope:
  The day will come
  He'll come running to me
  The day the sun turns black
  And there's a money tree

• The Script's "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" is a strange take on this trope. The man literally won't move until she comes back.
  'Cause if one day you wake up and find that you're missing me
  And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I could be.
  Thinking maybe you'll come back into the place that we meet.
  And you'll see me waiting for you on corner of the street.

• "Every Light in the House is On" by Trace Adkins is about a man whose wife has gone off 'to find herself.' He promised to leave a light on in case she ever decided to come home. When she finally does, she discovers that he's turned on every light in the house (and then some; the front yard is described as lit up like a runway) so she'd know he still wanted her back. A happier ending than this trope frequently gets.
• The Dixie Chicks' "Travelin' Soldier":
  Our love will never end
  Waiting for the soldier to come back again.
• "Widow in the Window" by Great Big Sea is from the perspective of a guy who'd like to be the 'someone new' the woman goes out with:
  And he won't be back,
  Can't you realize that?
  And he's laughing at your sorrow
  How can I explain,
  Your love is all in vain.
  While he wastes your precious hours,
  I could fill your days with flowers.
• Delta Goodrem - "I Can't Break It to My Heart" ("If I still believe you love me / Maybe I'll survive / So I tell myself you're coming home...") also ''Lost Without You".

• Marillion - "Out of this World", referring to the real life tragedy of Donald Campbell's death during a water speed record attempt. The Tear Jerker is knowing that love didn't turn him round.
  What did she say?
  I know the pain of too much tenderness
  Wondering when or if you'll come back again
  Wanting to live for you
  And being banned from giving
  But only love will turn you around
  Only love will turn you around
  Only love
  Only love will turn you around
• Odyssey/Mortimer's "Gone (Like a Whisper)" is about the singer's ex being taken in by an abusive boyfriend, with the former hoping she will change her mind before the latter breaks her into staying with him.
• XYLØ - "I Still Wait For You", which starts with the narrative of the breakup and then aches for reconciliation.

Theatre

• Miss Saigon has the duet "I Still Believe" about this trope where both Kim and Ellen sing about their love for Christopher and the hopes he'll return (in Kim's case that he'll literally come back for her, and Ellen wants him to trust and tell her what's upsetting him).

Video Games

• Show Within a Show example: The opera from Final Fantasy VI, "Maria and Draco".

Visual Novels

• Averted in Daughter for Dessert when Amanda moves out of the protagonist's apartment. The protagonist is convinced (rightly) that Amanda won’t come back unless he can somehow find her and explain his side of his and Lainie’s story.

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