History Main / DefectingForLove

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Most of the time, unlike the MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter, this character is the primary female lead, quite capable of taking care of herself, and her CharacterDevelopment is a major part of the story. It's a good thing, too -- she tends to have a [[DarkAndTroubledPast few sources of angst in her past]] that require a lot of dealing with before she and her man can ride off into the sunset together.

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* In Creator/AletheaKontis's ''Literature/{{Enchanted}}'', Rumbold comes to himself after losing his memories as a frog, and remembers the enmity between the royal family and Sunday's. He sets out to win her anyway.
* The Literature/FirebirdTrilogy features a straight and a peculiar example of this trope. The straight example is the titular Firebird Angelo, who defects from Netia to the Federacy largely due to loving and being loved by Breenen Caldwell. [[spoiler: Terza Shirak is the second example of this trope, with the peculiar variant that it was not romantic but maternal love that drove her--she had fallen in love with her unborn daughter and could not bear having that daughter aborted or raised on the villainous world of Three Zed.]]
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Many dark, dangerous, beautiful, and deadly women have caught Harry's attention, but only one has fallen for him that she would betray her purpose and her creator. [[spoiler:Lash, the shadow of the Fallen Angel Lasciel, had one purpose in her existence: To get Harry to fully accept and choose to let the true Lasciel inside of him for the purpose of corrupting him further. The problem is, Harry is one stubborn bastard and while he was tempted by the power this shadow of a demoness possessing him granted him, it was just that: Temptation. He was never going to commit to the evil bandwagon and Choose Lasciel. He endures the possession for years and eventually notes to the Shadow that his human mind is malleable and capable of turning evil, but as she is living in that same space, she suffers from the same problem: she is malleable too. And after living in him for so many years, she has grown distinct and is no longer an exact copy of the original. By giving her a nickname, Harry inadvertently gave her part of his soul, changing her at her core. This culminated to the point when he was being attacked by a powerful mental attack and Lash pleaded with him to take up the Coin and save himself, but he refused. For the first time, Lash then spoke, "She doesn't deserve you." She turned against her duty to get Harry to take up the Coin and took the burden of the powerful attack, allowing him a chance to move while she endured the pain. However, the burden was too great and it destroyed her. She sacrificed her whole existence out of love for this one human]].

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has [[spoiler:River Song, raised by the villains and brainwashed to kill the Doctor, becoming a hero after falling in love with the very man she was supposed to kill.]]
* In ''Series/{{Flash Gordon|2007}}'', Baylin is this trope, although she's not quite so innocent (she's a bounty hunter) and she probably won't end up with Flash, either ([[FirstGirlWins Dale's got dibs]]).
* Implied to be the reason [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Castiel]] chooses to rebel against Heaven in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' to help avert the Apocalypse. Rather than making his decision based upon concern for humanity as a whole, he seems to have chosen to help the heroes mostly due to his respect and affection for Dean, who asked for his help.
-->'''Castiel''' (''to Dean''): I'm hunted. I rebelled. And I did it, all of it, for you.
* In ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' [=S3 Ep14=] "Light Sleeper" a [[spoiler:North Korean spy who married a US Marine as part of her cell's infiltration of the US comes to love her husband and the daughter they had. She turns on her teammates and hunts them down so they cannot pull off the attack that is likely to come]].

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* Princess Aura in ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon'' is a combination of this, a MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter and a FemmeFatale. She is physically attracted to Flash and betrays her father to keep him alive, but she doesn't end up with him and is paired up with TheLancer of Flash's group, Prince Barin of Arboria, who has been in love with Aura for quite a while already.
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* Blackarachnia [[DefectingForLove defected for love]] during the ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars''.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Mai turns on Azula in [[spoiler:the "Boiling Rock" two parter when Zuko's life was on the line]].
** In the same episode [[spoiler:Ty Lee defects as well when Azula is about to kill Mai for her betrayal. Ty Lee does it for a sororal love for Mai]].

* In the Literature/{{Worm}} fanfic FanFic/WolfSpider Bitch leaves the Undersiders to be with [[spoiler: Arachne]].

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If she ''doesn't'' switch sides, it's DatingCatwoman. While a HighHeelFaceTurn may be done for a number of reasons, ''this'' trope's defining trait is love.

* Selene in ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' is [[FurAgainstFang a vampire who hunts werewolves]] until she falls in love with a werewolf/vampire hybrid and starts to question whether what she has been told by the elder vampires was ever true (like who started the war, why, and who killed her mortal family). Though technically, her defection had more to do the truth than Michael.

* Romeo does this for Juliet in the ReVision anime ''Anime/RomeoXJuliet''. Since Lord Montague is the dictator of Neo Verona and Juliet has been on the run after the Capulets were wiped out...

* Caiera, the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk's eventual love interest in the storyline ''PlanetHulk'' was just misled. She believed her boss really was meant to be the savior of their world (specifically from the Spikes) and that thus UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. When she found out that [[spoiler:he had been in control of the Spikes all along, using them to instill fear and enforce obedience, there was no more utopia left to justify and she changed sides to the new Messiah figure with some integrity.]]

-->-- '''Mai''', ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''

->You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you.
-->--'''Mai''', ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''

* {{Deconstruct|ion}}ed in a famous episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone''. An unnamed man and woman of opposing armies -- implied to possibly be the only survivors of WorldWarThree -- find each other in the ruins of a small town. At first, they shoot at each other, but eventually loneliness sets in and they try with varying success to communicate, and by the end of the episode seem to have developed romantic feelings.

* In ''Literature/OnFairyStories'', Creator/JRRTolkien discusses this trope in the context of Norse myth -- Frey, who married a giant's daughter -- and the English legend of the marriage of Ingeld and Freaweru, and points out that even though they are named for the god, it does not prove their love is mythological, since human lovers who found enmity between their families were the real source of the Frey myth.
* In Creator/AletheaKontis's ''Literature/{{Enchanted}}'', Rumbold comes to himself after losing his memories as a frog, and remembers the emnity between the royal family and Sunday's. He sets out to win her anyway.
* The Literature/FirebirdTrilogy features a straight and a peculiar example of this trope. The straight example is the titular Firebird Angelo, who defects from Netia to the Federacy largely due to loving and being loved by Breenen Caldwell. [[spoiler: Terza Shirak is the second example of this trope, with the peculiar variant that it was not romantic but maternal love that drove her-she had fallen in love with her unborn daughter and could not bear having that daughter aborted or raised on the villainous world of Three Zed.]]

* A male version happens in ComicBook/TeenTitans where an agent for the H.I.V.E. starts out as a HoneyTrap for Starfire, but eventually DefectedForLove.

* Film/MrAndMrsSmith are assassins from rival agencies, but [[spoiler:they both ditch their respective agencies after said agencies assign them to kill each other.]]

* Frenzy, a mercenary and former member of Apocalypse's Masters of Evil, combined this with serious {{Brainwashing}} after the ''Age Of X'' Franchise/XMen storyline -- in the warped alternate reality, she was Cyclops' lover; after the world was reset, he no longer had any feelings for her -- but she chose to keep her memories of what had been, and aspire to become somebody he ''could'' love.

* Frenzy, a mercenary and former member of Apocalypse's Masters of Evil, combined this with serious {{Brainwashing}} after the ''Age Of X'' XMen storyline -- in the warped alternate reality, she was Cyclops' lover; after the world was reset, he no longer had any feelings for her -- but she chose to keep her memories of what had been, and aspire to become somebody he ''could'' love.

* Princess Aura in ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon'' is a combination of this, a MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter and a FemmeFatale. She is physically attracted to Flash and betrays her father to keep him alive, but she doesn't end up with him and is paired up with TheLancer of Flash's group, Prince Barin of Arboria, who has been in love with Aura for quite a while already. In the [[Series/FlashGordon 2007 series]], Baylin is a much closer version of this trope, although she's not quite so innocent (she's a bounty hunter) and she probably won't end up with Flash, either ([[FirstGirlWins Dale's got dibs]]).

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'':