Bodyguard Crush / Video Games

• Beyond Good & Evil,: Double H over the heroine, Jade. The fact that she rescued him from an alien torture chamber doesn't help... Nor does the fact that he wears shining armor... And he selflessly dives to catch her when she falls, spouting a line in a sappy voice... And let's not forget his sudden attempt to kiss her. His official description even states that he's "selflessly devoted to her."
• In Demon's Souls, this appears to be the case with the knight Garl Vinland and Maiden Astraea, if they aren't outright lovers. When Astraea accepted the Demon's Soul, all of her knights turned on and tried to kill her, save for Garl, who remained by her side. Garl refers to her as "Dearest Astraea", and will defend her to the death. Astraea herself is equally devoted to her knight and will commit suicide out of grief after the player kills him.
• Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories
  • There's this type of relationship between Adell and Rozalin. After mistakenly summoning her and binding her to follow him around, Adell swears he'll protect Rozalin with his life. Rozalin swears she'll kill him for the indignity he's caused her. They become attracted to each other. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Taro also feels this way about Rozalin, to the point that he practically became Rozalin's servant just so he could fit this trope.
• Dishonored:
  • This is hinted at and confirmed by Word of God. Empress Jessamine expresses a fondness for Corvo that is rather hard to take as simply platonic affection. A few characters actually ponder this themselves, with Lydia considering asking Corvo about this but deciding that it'd be too rude to do so. Similarly, it's also heavily hinted that Emily is likely Corvo's biological daughter considering how close he is to her. The Empresses' words during the Opening Narration just add fuel to the belief that she and Corvo were lovers. You don't say "When you are near, my heart is at peace" to just anybody after all. Emily herself seemed to have a crush on Corvo when she was ten:
    "If you don't marry my mother, will you marry me?"
  • Dishonored 2 confirms that Emily is Corvo's daughter in its opening tutorial when she outright calls him "Father," and a biography about Corvo in Emily's safehouse further reveals that nearly everyone in Dunwall Tower knew or at least suspected that Corvo and Jessamine were romantically involved.
• Deliberately engineered by Orion in Dragalia Lost, who makes a point only accepting female clients specifically in hopes of this trope taking effect. He winds up taking the Prince/Euden as his first male client—for the same reason.
• Drakengard: Furiae has one of these crushes. Too bad it's her brother, Caim.
• In Exit Fate, Ayara has this kind of relationship with her commanding officer, Daniel Vinyard, deserting her post so she could track down and join him after he was accused of being a traitor. She routinely insists on accompanying him into the more dangerous places (fortunately she's a very good fighter) and has a heartbreak when she feels the growing size of the Elysium Army puts a distance between them. She can also relate well to Jasper, who has a similar situation with his own commander, Erin.
• Final Fantasy loves this trope.
  • Inverted in Final Fantasy VI, where Locke apparently pledges to bodyguard any girl he gets a crush on. One of the girls he pledges to protect is the mightiest soldier of The Empire's army, and the other is a walking nuke and very sadly by the fact that Locke's pledges are the product of the guilt he feels from failing to protect his first love, twice.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Aerith hires Cloud as a bodyguard with the promise of a date. At first Aerith noticed how much Cloud resembled her ex Zack, but if the player gets the date with Aerith she expresses romantic interest in finding the real him. Cloud seems to have a complex about failing to protect her in Advent Children, as she was killed in the original game by the Big Bad Sephiroth.
  • The previous generation example is Vincent and Lucrecia. Vincent was hired to work as a bodyguard protecting Lucrecia while she worked on the JENOVA Project, and fell for her. When she rejected his proposal he decided I Want My Beloved to Be Happy ... even though her own choice of partner was Hojo and the JENOVA Project resulted in disaster for all involved. He perceives this as his own failure to protect her and joins the party out of a desire to both get revenge on Hojo and atone for standing by while everything went south.
  • Final Fantasy VIII: Squall loves Rinoa, though that's less of a bodyguard (although he does that too) and more of a hired gunblade deal.
  • Final Fantasy IX: Zidane quickly becomes infatuated with Garnet. While he definitely does as much guarding as her offiical knight (Steiner) he's officially her kidnapper (though she asks him to kidnap her, so it's kind of her asking for his help as in the previous two games).
  • Final Fantasy X: When a summoner makes the pilgrimage, they bring guardians. Romance often ensues. In fact, according to Yunalesca, love of some kind is required for the guardian to become the Final Aeon.
    • Summoner Yuna and her guardian Tidus become a couple on the way.
    • Summoner Dona and her guardian Barthello are a couple. This is more evident in Final Fantasy X-2 after they retire.
  • Final Fantasy XVI: Margrace is accompanied in his travels with a beautiful lady knight named Jote, and their relationship is eventually confirmed to be this.
  • Dissidia Final Fantasy has a few teasing's here and there. There's Cecil teasing the Onion Knight over his protectiveness of Terra, a slight ship tease between Vaan protecting Terra, and the closeness between the Warrior of Light and the goddess Cosmos, especially as the former is revealed to be a Manikin of Cid of the Lufaine and the goddess is revealed to be a Manikin of Cid's wife.
• This is one of Fire Emblem's favorite tropes. Pick any game and there will be at least one character (if not more) infatuated with their charge.
  • Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem:
    • Both Camus and Hardin fall in love with Princess Nyna after taking it upon themselves to guard her. Though the feeling is mutual between Camus and Nyna, both examples end tragically; Camus loses his memories and falls in love with another woman, and Nyna's inability to return Hardin's affections even after their political marriage helps make Hardin susceptible to Gharnef's corruption.
  • Princess Sheena and her mercenary bodyguard Samson are implied to settle down with each other after the end of Mystery of the Emblem.
  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776:
    • Midir is in love with his liege Lady Edain; it's up to the player whether Edain returns his affections.
    • Erinys has loved her liege Prince Lewyn since childhood (Lewyn himself once had a crush on Erinys's older sister Annand); though pairing them is optional in Genealogy, Thracia 776 reveals that they did in fact marry.
    • It's also heavily implied that Princess Isthar's childhood friend and guardian Reinhardt is in love with her. Unfortunately for him, she's in love with Prince Julius. Doubly unfortunately for him, Julius loves her back and is a major Yandere to boot, threatening to kill Reinhardt if he ever comes near Ishtar again.
  • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade:
    • Dorothy is implied to possibly have feelings for Saul, the priest the St. Elmine Church assigned her to guard, even if she's annoyed by his endless attempts to flirt with every attractive woman he meets.
    • Clarine tries to invoke this by asking Lance to be her knight in their supports, but Lance reminds her that he's already Roy's knight.
    • There's also some possible subtext between Sue and her bodyguard Sin in their supports.
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade:
    • Lady Lyndis has a lot of people whom she can enter into a relationship with, including her knights Kent and (possibly) Florina and her Mysterious Protector Rath.
    • Erk can end up marrying either one of the women he's assigned to protect, Serra and Priscilla.
    • This might also be the case for Sain, another one of Lyndis's knights, but he seems to be more partial to supporting Kent's feelings. Besides, he's clearly crushing hard on Priscilla during their supports, and outright invokes this trope by getting himself assigned as Priscilla's knight in their A-Support (though their lack of a shared ending makes it clear he never wins her heart).
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones:
    • Eirika's potential suitors include her family's knights Seth and Forde; Seth in particular is her personal guard and has harbored feelings for her since the start of the game.
    • In a slight twist, Vanessa will become Prince Innes's bodyguard in their A-Support after the two all but confess their love for each other.
    • One of the bosses in Eirika's path is Carlyle, a general and bodyguard of Queen Ismaire who is manipulated into evil thanks to his unrequited love for his queen.
    • Myrrh and Ephraim are Like Brother and Sister, with the latter taking the "protective big brother" role, but there's some hints Myrrh is developing an actual crush towards him.
    • Though the two are never officially stated to get together, Rennac never tries very hard to leave L'Arachel despite his constant complaints about serving as her bodyguard.
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn:
    • Gatrie develops one for Astrid after becoming her bodyguard, to the point where he doesn't seem to be able to flirt with her as easily as he does with other girls.
    • Sothe is very protective of Micaiah, and it's the primary reason he stays in her army despite their disagreements. The odd part is that even though they can get married in Radiant Dawn's ending, they still refer to each other as family (and Brother/Sister) regularly.
    • The knight Geoffrey has a huge crush on Princess Elincia, as seen in his support conversations and other dialogue. It's seemingly doomed given Elincia's unsubtle crush on Ike in Path of Radiance. Then it is requited in Radiant Dawn; after it becomes clear that Ike cares for Elincia in a non-romantic way, she starts growing out of her feelings for him and into her role as The High Queen... which allows her to grow closer to Geoffrey, leading to their marriage in certain endings.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening: Since most of the party can marry almost anyone else of the opposite sex, this trope abounds:
    • Lissa can marry her bodyguard Lon'qu or her knight Frederick, the latter doubling as her First Love.
    • Chrom's potential wives include his knights Sully and Sumia. Cordelia's Unrequited Love for him also could count, as she's technically another one of his knights.
    • Virion and his loyal if exasperated retainer Cherche can end up marrying, despite Cherche constantly shutting down her lord's flirtations.
    • Though he's not technically her bodyguard, Gaius is very protective of Maribelle, as he wants to atone for taking part in a plot against her father. Again, the two can eventually fall in love. Maribelle could potentially have this dynamic with Henry as well, as in their S-Support he offers to be Maribelle's Knight In Blood-Stained Armor.
    • From the second generation, the closest would be Chrom's daughter Lucina and her closest companion ( and Cherche's son) Gerome. Double if Gerome's father is the aforementioned Frederick.
  • Fire Emblem Fates:
    • The Avatar is a Prince or Princess, and depending on their gender, they can end up marrying their battle butler Jakob, their Ninja guard Kaze, or their ninja maids Felicia and Flora (Jakob and Kaze for a female Avatar, Felicia and Flora for a male one).
    • In a similar vein, Takumi's retainer Oboro already has a crush on him before their supports even begin, and unlike the above-mentioned Chrom and Cordelia they can actually marry.
    • Niles's devotion to Prince Leo has strong shades of this, with a side of I Owe You My Life.
    • Among the Second Generation characters, Ophelia considers herself sworn to Forrest's service just as her father Odin is sworn to the aforementioned Prince Leo (aka Forrest's father), and she can be... excessively fierce in her attempts to protect the prince, to the point of nearly attacking street merchants whose perfume caused Forrest to cough. If they reach an S Support, Forrest proclaims his love for her and she reciprocates.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses has Hubert von Vestra, the Number Two and Battle Butler to the Adrestian princess-to-be-empress Edelgard von Hresvelg. Coming from a lineage of those who maintained the household affairs and security of the Hresvelg dynasty through generations, he serves the princess as her unflinchingly loyal defender, and confirms in his A-Support with Edelgard that he's been in love with her since childhood.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses also has Dedue Molinaro, bodyguard (naturally) and best friend of Faerghan crown prince Dimitri after the latter saved him during their shared Dark and Troubled Past. While he holds Dimitri at arms' length due to concerns about propriety, he confesses in their A-support that he's always wanted to be Dimitri's friend, while Dimitri tells him that he's "''irreplaceable ... cherished''." Their paired ending details how they were inseparable for life and 'as close as family', and ultimately buried together.
    Dimitri: Dedue ... Yes, you will call me your friend, again and again. No matter how many hardships I must endure...
    Dedue: I will do all I can to bring about that world as well. To be your friend ... is what I have always wanted.
• Grandia II, Ryudo towards Elena. At the start of the game, her father recruits him to escort Elena to carry out a ceremony. The mission becomes more involved and Belligerent Sexual Tension evolves into genuine fondness.
• Half-Life 2: Played straight and flipped a few times in Episodes. Alyx Vance is sometimes escorted by Gordon, and when Gordon loses his weapons, she becomes the bodyguard. She has an obvious hero worship and geekette attraction to Gordon, which her father openly encourages.
• Halo 5: Guardians: Warden Eternal gives off a certain vibe of this, given his obsessively fervent desire to protect Cortana, and his calling her "my Reclaimer".
• Legend of Mana: Jumi always come in pairs as a Guardian and a Knight, and they are expected to be devoted to one another in ways that blur the boundaries between duty and love. And gender doesn't matter, either.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Her behavior in some of the cutscenes already suggest it, but finishing Kass's sidequests and listening to his teacher's song at Rito village will confirm that Princess Zelda had fallen for Link, her appointed knight. As it turns out, Kass's teacher had been a Shiekah poet for the Hylian royal court who had been Zelda's age 100 years ago, and had fallen in love with her. However, she only had eyes for her knight, which left the poet jealous and resentful. After the Calamity Ganon appeared, the poet witnesses Link sacrifice himself protecting Zelda and Zelda's dormant power awakening through her love for him. After which, he decided to write the hero a song to be passed down to him when he finally awoke. It's this song that Kass performs to Link, which reveals the extent of Zelda's feelings for him. How Link feels, however, is purposely ambiguous and left up to the player to decide via dialogue options with NPCs.... at least, in the English version. The Japanese version's Adventure Log makes his feelings on Zelda more explicit, with rather significant romantic undertones.
• Mega Man Zero: Zero and Ciel is certainly an inversion, as Ciel quite clearly has a crush on Zero, and he doesn't show any feelings for her or at least recognition of her feelings. It's directly addressed in the 4th game where Neige and Craft were once in a relationship, and she seems to show that she can relate to Ciel in the ending, as both Zero and Craft were reploids and thus the situation is similar.
• In the Blade of Galadriel DLC of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Eltariel's bodyguard is an orc by the name of Krimp the Enchanted who is obsessed with elves and thus has fallen in love with her. Eltariel for her part treats him with disgust and barely tolerates his presence.
• Neverwinter Nights:
  • Nathyrra and Valen are totally there as combat support.
  • In the same vein, in KotOR I: Did the Jedi Council really have to assign Carth, Bastila, and/or Juhani (as appropriate to PC gender/preference) to help you? Granted, each has legit reasons to help even without orders or romantic entanglements - but it's much more fun when you consider the possibilities.
    • Inverted somewhat in Knights of the Old Republic if you're playing a female. Even though you are a VERY powerful Force-user and the mind-wiped ex-Dark Lord of the Sith, Carth is still very protective and insists "Let me protect you; from yourself, from the Sith. You HAVE to let me try." Never mind you could probably have wiped the floor with him six levels ago... Ditto with Juhani, albeit in a much subtler manner.
  • Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords:
    • The ex-Sith Assassin Visas Marr, particularly (but not only) if you are the male Exile. This is very quiet (apart from the breathlessly devoted, "My life for yours"...), and will only make itself apparent if you are NOT a dog kicking Sith bastard, and are nice to her when you've defeated her. Yes, Defeat Means Bodyguard Crush.
    • Atton Rand remains protective of the Exile and consistently anxious for the Exile's approval, to the point that Kreia is able to blackmail him with it, whether the Exile is Light Side or a crazed dog-kicking Sith bastard. It's most apparent with a female Exile, but it's there with a male Exile too.
  • In Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer, both of the romance options for male characters that made the final cut began watching over the hero to keep him safe.
• Persona 3: Played with, in that Aigis initially simply declares that she "must protect" the protagonist, but it quickly becomes apparent that she has feelings for him, as well.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky: Apparent inversion (liege seemingly in love with bodyguard, although that may be a matter of interpretation) with Celebi (technically a gender-neutral Pokémon, but it acts feminine (and kinda Tsundere) and has the "Shiny" pink coloration instead of its normal green) for Grovyle.
• In the Puyo Puyo series, Rulue's bodyguard Minotauros is hopelessly in love with her, even though Rulue would rather be with Satan. Minotauros himself fully supports her crush regardless, though.
• Part of the premise of first-person shooter Red Steel, between the protagonist and the (quickly kidnapped) girl in distress. The relationship had progressed to the point where the two had gotten engaged, and the kidnapped happens when introducing the future husband to her father to ask permission to marry.
• At the end of Resident Evil 4 Ashley asks if Leon wants to go to "her place" for some overtime. He declines.
  • While downplayed, Ashley develops a crush on Leon by the end of Resident Evil 4 (Remake) as well, offering to put in a word with her father (the US President) about having him assigned to her security detail. He turns down her offer, but it is overall a heartwarming moment as he acknowledges her growth throughout the whole ordeal of escaping from the parasite-infested cultists who kidnapped her, telling her that she doesn't need him to protect her as she has proved that she is capable of handling herself. This might also be an example of Leon being a Clueless Chick-Magnet.
• Romancing Saga 3: Julian's quickly smitten with Princess Monika in the introduction phase, and his personal scenario gives him the choice of becoming her new bodyguard. Going by how he's her bodyguard in all other scenarios, he does become her bodyguard. An ending that he and Monika share is where Julian gets granted a noble title, to make him eligible to get married to Monika.
• Samurai Warriors: Kunoichi's crush towards her lord Yukimura is hinted at and became the main focus of her Musou mode in the 3rd installation of the game.
• In Star Stealing Prince, Erio is implied to have such feelings towards Astra, but doesn't speak up about it due to thinking it's creepy to feel that way.
• Suikoden
  • Suikoden V
    • Gender inverted. There is a non-professional relationship of some kind between Prince Freyjadour and his bodyguard Lyon, especially if he gathers all 108 stars. Given that Lyon was raised by Frey's parents, there's also a Not Blood Siblings element.
    • Lelei and Lucretia is a rather strange relationship since the woman Lelei is guarding is definitely the Onee-sama, and it's ambiguous whether she returns Lelei's feelings. Lucretia's own preferences, at least, seem to match up, as Cathari mentions that she and Lucretia were once "more than friends." Lucretia's relationship with Lelei is made rather less ambiguous (or, alternately, given a Relationship Reveal) when, on the night before a big battle, Lucretia suggests that she and Lelei get some rest, and Lelei asks if Lucretia wouldn't mind staying up just a little longer - after which the screen fades to black. After the war, the two of them vanish, presumably together. On a side note, if you have Oboro dig into Lelei's past, he comes up with the following:
      Oboro: "Lelei used to be a guard at Agate Prison, but she fell for Lucretia's pretty — I MEAN, she was concerned about Lucretia, as she came with her. Now she's kind of Lucretia's...assistant."
  • Suikoden III has Gender Inverted Example #2: Thomas is the Lord of Budehuc Castle and Cecile is the Captain of the Guard. She all but publicly confessing her crush for Thomas (including making meatballs for his lunch)
• Tales Series:
  • In Tales of the Abyss, it's implied that this is the case between Anise and Ion, as well as Arietta and Ion.
  • Regarding Tales of Symphonia, the Tales of Fandom 2 DVD reveals that Kratos Aurion has feelings for a princess whom he protected before he met Lloyd. Four-thousand years before.
• Tears to Tiara 2: Daphnis is a Wholesome Crossdresser Meido who's Happiness in Slavery that he get to protect his master and childhood friend Elissa. When he's about to pull a Heroic Sacrifice so she can escape, she quickly realizes she loves him back.
• Utawarerumono: When Touka's clan becomes someone's bodyguard, they're supposed to bear their child (assuming they're female) which makes her... eagerness... to be his bodyguard make a little more sense, no?

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