Basic Trope: A character stays with their significant other despite their major, major flaws.
- Straight: Alice is dating Bob, who is violent, abusive, and drinks like a fish. She stays with him because she truly loves him.
- Exaggerated: Bob beats Alice bloody and has nearly killed her on more than one occasion, but she sticks with him.
- Downplayed: Bob is kind of a jerk, but Alice stays with him.
- Justified:
- Bob really does have a very deeply Hidden Heart of Gold, and Alice is trying to bring that out of him.
- Alice has incredibly poor self-esteem and thinks she can't do any better.
- One or both grew up in a household where their parents were going through a similar situation, so they think it's normal.
- Alice's parents arranged the matched and brainwashed her into overlooking all of Bob's faults no matter how severe.
- I Can Change My Beloved
- Alice thinks she deserves it.
- Every time Alice thinks about leaving, Bob says or does something that changes her mind because he's a Manipulative Bastard or because he really does care but has anger issues and is mentally unstable.
- Alice thinks Bob is a Tsundere.
- Bob actually is a Tsundere.
- Alice belongs to a religion that looks down upon divorce.
- Inverted: Bob is a saint, but Alice refuses to stay with him because she thinks she doesn't deserve him.
- Subverted:
- Alice puts up with some of Bob's shenanigans, but leaves after things get too hairy.
- Bob is a hostile jerk, but isn't to Alice.
- Double Subverted: Then she comes back after a while, because she feels like Bob needs her.
- Parodied: Bob threatens Alice with a switchblade, beats her silly, and drinks until he blacks out, but she just ignores it for the sake of love...until he leaves the toilet seat up! THEN she ends the relationship... By punching him so hard he busts through a solid concrete wall and becomes A Twinkle in the Sky!
- Zig Zagged: It turns out many of Bob's supposed flaws are only based on rumors, but Alice is the abusive one. Then, Bob leaves her, because he thinks she doesn't deserve him. (Or Alice & Bob have a Relationship Revolving Door)
- Averted: Alice leaves after the first sign that Bob appears to be evil.
- Enforced: ??
- Lampshaded:
- "Let me guess, you love him, right? That's why you keep letting him do that?"
- "Dude, seriously! She isn't worth it! That kind of romance is asking for a Darwin Award!"
- Invoked: Bob is truly a horrible person, but he makes sure to undermine Alice's self-esteem to the point where she feels like she can't do any better.
- Exploited: Bob has a history of dating insecure girls precisely because they're more likely to put up with his faults. Alternatively, Alice loves broken and deeply flawed boys, and dates them precisely to fill the holes in their hearts and watch them build up from their broken initial state.
- Defied: "If you hit me again, I'm gone. I don't care if we're dating."
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "What Does She See in Him?? She does all the work keeping them together and he's just abusing her love!"
- Deconstructed:
- Alice stays with Bob until he beats her into the hospital...or the morgue.
- Bob tried his best to not look abusive but actually supportive, rough edges aside, when wooing Alice. But after marriage, Bob shows his true colors of being abusive. Alice now regrets sacrificing everything for his sake, because she's now trapped in a hellish marriage relationship.
"Why are you going back to Love Martyr? That's a horrible page!" "No it's not! You just haven't seen the real page, beneath the surface!"
