Succubus in Love

Sometimes a devil lady wants more than just "the D".

Catherine: Maybe I'll skip out on work today...
Vincent: You're slacking... getting kinda lazy aren't you?
Catherine: Oh come on... It's not like there are any men out there hotter than you.

—Catherine, "True Chaos" Ending

What do you get when you have a being of pure carnal desire navigate romance without sex? You get this trope.

Often, demons such as succubi, incubi and other creatures associated with Lust have a culture of sex. Feeding, mating, and bonding are reliant on the act, so in terms of intimacy this is all that they know. And they're often really good at the seduction and sex parts. Now, take that same being, and throw them into a situation where romantic love comes into play—suddenly they're thrown out of their element and are left scrambling to understand how sheepish and awkward they've become in relation to their mark and they may be unable to use their old tricks on them.

Oftentimes, this may be the result of the person being immune to the charm effects most succubi possess. In this case, they have to work much harder to get their target and in the process, actually fall in love with them. They may also be attracted to a genuinely kind person.

If the work is more explicit, it can be a case of Bigger Is Better in Bed or Sex–Face Turn. Though, with the former, it might be more in love with the endowment than the person themself. Sexual Karma and True Love Is a Kink might be in play if the succubus enjoys the act of intimacy with their lover more than their previous emotionless sex life.

A common source of drama might be how the sex demon's natural powers affect the relationship, such as being a Living Aphrodisiac causing Questionable Consent issues, or Life Drain powers making the demon unable to be intimate with their lover without causing them harm or worse.

An evil succubus might even become redeemed by the act of falling in love, and maybe even becoming an Ascended Demon. But if the evil succubus' affections are not reciprocated, she might become an Abhorrent Admirer, Entitled to Have You, Stalker with a Crush, or even turn into a Villainesses Want Heroes situation.

Subtrope of Interspecies Romance. This can lead to relationship dynamics such as Dating Catwoman, I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me, Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places, More Experienced Chases the Innocent, Pitbull Dates Puppy or Unequal Pairing. See also Ladykiller in Love and Reformed Rakes for the mundane versions of this trope.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The Ancient Magus' Bride has Redcurrant, who is a leanan sídhe. They are more vampire-like creatures, who drain the life out of their lovers in exchange for bestowing them talent to their given craft. However, she actually falls in love with Joel, who she has been siphoning for a long time. However, she denies being in love with him until after he dies. Afterwards, she decides to never find another lover again, preferring to starve herself.
• I Brought Home A Succubus Who Failed To Find A Job has Nono, who is seen as a failure of a succubus since she is unable to charm men. She ends up getting taken in by Yuuki and the two end up falling in love. This actually causes Nono to charm Yuuki once they confess. Later it's revealed that succubi were originally creatures of love that only chose one person to be with. There is a more explicit version of the story.
• Interviews with Monster Girls has the succubus Sakie Satou, who falls for Tetsuo Takahashi. This is because Tetsuo is one of the few males to actually be partially resistant to her succubus charms, which are always in effect. Because of her attraction towards him, she even tries to be sexier around him to win him over.
• Monster Musume has the succubus subspecies of devils. As a species, they do have a high sex drive and sleep around. However, they also want to find a person to love and they also stay loyal when they do.
• My Balls centers around Satou Kouta whose balls contain The Queen of Terror and the Succubi trying to free her. One of those devils is Elyse who performs a Heel–Face Turn after falling for Satou.
• Rosario + Vampire: One of the main characters is Kurumu Kurono, who is in love with the protagonist Tsukune. Unfortunately for her, Tsukune doesn't reciprocate her feelings, which stands a very good chance of killing her as a result.
• Tale Of The Corporate Succubus features a succubus named Lily whose job it is to cause wet dreams in men to gather their essence. Then she finds a victim, an overworked and unappreciated salaryman like herself, who uses her "dream of absolutely anything" powers to do things like play video games with her, eat cooked food instead of takeout or speak to his deceased father. Naturally, the dude is Oblivious to Love while she Can't Spit It Out (and the lewdest thing she can imagine herself doing with him is holding hands). Her coworkers aren't much better, like the older succubus chiding a young teenager for trying to find pornography.
• Lotte no Omocha has the title character Astarotte a.k.a. Lotte choose a human named Naoya for her harem in order to be able to drain his, erm... "essence" for sustenance. As the series progresses, however, she and Naoya genuinely fall for each other, and the end of the manga sees them getting married.
• The Secret Devil-chan is a Otokonoko Genre manga about Kurosaki Sou who summons a succubus to take his virginity, only he never specified it to be a female succubus, so he stuck with a feminine male demon who won't leave him alone until he takes his virginity and of course falls in love with him the the process.
• Vermeil in Gold: While succubi are name dropped as existing, it isn't clear yet if Vermeil herself is one, but her nature, powers, etc. are close enough to qualify for the trope. Sure enough, it is realizing Alto doesn't just lust for her but loves her, and later realizing how she too has fallen in love with him, that makes her blush and impacts her confidence. She even panics a bit that she could be ill or damaged in some way when she notices how her body starts to feel around Alto (raised heart rate and such). Her inexperience with love doesn't impair her long though, as that same love ends up making her even more passionate.
• Yuuutsu-kun to Succubus-san: The main premise of the manga is Sakuma trying to make Yuu express his sexual desire to get his energy, with no avail, as he's just too depressed to even function. Instead of finding someone else, she decides to stay as his protective roommate to make him feel better, often forgetting what she's here for.

Audio Play

• The anthology series A Life with the Incubus focuses on the demon boy of the album preying upon their girlfriend-to-be in the hopes of obtaining nourishment for the night, but over repeated interactions with them begins an awkward romance instead. There is still plenty of sex going on, but these usually take place during the feeding scenes in the viewpoint character's dream world and the actual sex scene occurs in real life as the climax to their relationship.
• A script used for various ASMR roleplay videos uses this general concept as a base. One of the more well-known renditions of said script (which has been adapted and altered many different times by various users) tells the story of a person (the listener) summoning a succubus to keep them company. Rather than wanting to use said succubus for sex (which the succubus wholly expects to be uncomfortable at best and violent at worst), the listener just genuinely wants company to ease their loneliness. The succubus doesn't buy it, but begins to genuinely fall for the listener as days, months, and sometimes a year pass with the listener not making any sexual advances and just trying to make their succubus partner happy while cuddling said succubus. The succubus, in turn, begins to lighten in mood and looks forward to seeing the listener. Some variants even have the listener being given a magical method by the ruler of the succubi wherein the listener can summon said succubus any time they want and the succubus can turn down summoning contracts with others (effectively making the listener and the succubus a couple).

Comic Books

• Black Moon Chronicles: Hellaynnea the succubus pledges herself to Wismerhill after he defeats her in combat, becoming his lover and later his Top Wife. Although she still occasionally feasts on human souls, her relationship with Wismerhill also brings out a softer side in her.
• Hellblazer: Issue 60 details the forbidden romance of an angel, Tali and a succubus, Chantinelle. Chantinelle originally sought to seduce the former in order to improve her social standing in hell. Though that went as well as expected she ended up falling for him in the process due to Tali's natural virtuousness transforming lust into love.

Fan Works

• Queen Chrysalis is a G-rated variant in Ask Fluffle Puff, as a changeling who feeds off of love. She initially pursues Fluffle Puff to drink up her bottomless love, but instead grew genuinely fond of Fluffle, leading to them living together in harmony, with a lot of Ship Tease involved.
• A Loud Among Demons has this between Verosika Mayday and Lincoln, the pop star succubus falling for Lincoln's kind heart and virgin innocence; the other female members of her crew following suit.
• There's More Magic Out There: Aurore Beauréal is a succubus, though her succubi abilities have given her confidence issues. She enters in a relationship with Fey changing Sabrina Raincomprix, who is asexual and loves Aurore in a purely emotional capacity.

Films — Live-Action

• Featured in the plot of the 1966 Religious Horror film Incubus. A village of succubi tempt the broken men that pass by, tricking them in order to sacrifice their souls to Hell, but one of them — a younger succubus named Kia — runs into a man named Marc (played by William Shatner of all people) and quickly finds herself derailed from her mission by experiencing the most lethal thing for her kind: love. Not only does this leave Kia existentially conflicted, her sisters summon an incubus to claim revenge on Marc for "defiling" her, and things get very bad very quickly.
• SiREN (2016): The eponymous "Siren" is actually Lilith, a Succubus summoned from Hell to be a Sex Slave and prostitute for a greedy businessman. When she meets the protagonist, Jonah, who is in the middle of his bachelor party, she takes an immediate liking to him and chooses him to be her mate. Despite how it sounds, this is NOT a good thing. For one, her demonic form is ghastly and hideous and for two, succubi mate for life, meaning that she will always claim him for as long as he lives and possibly even after that. At the end of the film, he tries to strike a bargain with her: he frees her from her enslavement on the condition that she leave him and his friends alone. She agrees...for a time. Some time later, after having a night of passionate sex with his wife, Jonah finds his wife actually asleep on the couch and has to beg Lilith not to kill her. So he agrees to go with her wherever she wants and be hers on the condition that she doesn't harm his wife.

Literature

• In the Tais Teng book Dead Eyes, the main character Arno is seduced by one of the Evil Sorceror's servants on his orders, a succubus-type demon who used to be a human. By the end, when the rest of the villains turn on and destroy each other, she's given an opening for a High-Heel–Face Turn and tells him that she might learn to love him.
• The Dresden Files:
  • White Court Vampires are humans born with a Hunger, an emotion eating demon attached to their soul that remains dormant and gestating until they feed for the first time (when the young vampire loses their virginity, at least for the White Court's chief House, whose demons feed on lust and are repelled by true love). Despite the cultural and natural inclinations towards lust without love, there are occasions when a White Court Vampire does fall in love.
  • Thomas Raith is in love with his human girlfriend Justine. For a long time, if they were intimate, then Justine's touch will burn Thomas because the last time she was with someone (Thomas himself), they engaged in an act of true love. Thomas also has to feed to sustain himself, and humans typically don't survive being fed on long-term. However, they make it work with Polyamory.
  • Thomas's little sister, Inari Raith, was a nascent vampire who was in love with a young man who she worked with. Despite what her dad thought, they were truly in love with one another, and if her first time was with him, it would actually have exorcised her Hunger and she would become fully human. During her appearance, she had to come to terms with the results of her Hunger constantly being thwarted, not knowing what was going on with her own body. Later Thomas and Inari's older sister do promise to fill in Inari on her family legacy and go let her live her own life with her boyfriend, getting her a proverbial Bus ticket in the deal. Inari's fate is left unknown, but it's implied that she had her own happy ending.
  • Connie Barrowill, another White Court pre-Vampire ...not fully transformed. Her lover, whom she truly loves, is Irwin Pounder. He himself is a Half-Human Hybrid with the other half being a Sasquatch, which gives him a supernaturally powerful life-force so strong that he's unharmed by her feeding on him during sex.
• Felix Castor: In the first book, the succubus named Ajulutsikael is freed and adopts the human name "Juliet". In later books, she eventually finds domestic partnership with a woman. Felix observes that while Juliet's love is not exactly the same as a human's, her commitment to Susan seems genuine.
• Monster Girl Encyclopedia has a species-wide example of this. Monsters in the setting are all Cute Monster Girls who want to fall in love with a man and have lots of sex with him. They used to be conventional, predatory monsters, but in the past a succubus managed to become Demon Lord and infused her energy into all other monsters, changing them into their current forms.
• Nightside: Zig-zagged with Pretty Poison, who was sent to play the part of Sinner's one true love in exchange for his soul. She was faking, but his love for her was genuine enough to keep him out of hell and keep her at his side out of pure fascination. Ultimately, she comes to love him back and even Takes the Bullet for him, which enables her to become an angel again.
• In Good Luck! Ninomiya-kun, there's Mayu Tsukimura, a succubus who is afraid of men but whose charm powers are always on. She is part of a love triangle for Shungo who is able to partially resist Mayu's charm.
• Overlord (2012): This trope is examined thoroughly within the characterization of Albedo, the closest thing it has to a female lead. When she was a videogame NPC, Albedo was designed as a succubus with an outwardly composed, ladylike, and gentle demeanor but with a secretly selfish and impulsive side, with the very last line of her character description being that she is "quite a slut". However, as a joke, the Villain Protagonist Momonga rewrote that last line to read "She is deeply in love with Momonga", and after she and the other characters of Nazarick became real, that description became hard-coded into her personality. Though she is a succubus, she is also a virgin because she doesn't want any other man except Momonga (who changes his name to that of his guild "Ainz Ooal Gown" in the hopes that his partners from the game will find him). Unfortunately for her, Ainz has his emotions suppressed by his undead avatar, meaning that he cannot and will not reciprocate her feelings or satisfy her urges. This leaves her deeply frustrated, although she has no choice but to accept and repress these feelings. In later volumes, it becomes clear that her repressed and lingering feelings for Momonga are actually more of a problem than anyone realizes; notably, the description states that she is in love with Momonga, meaning that she is actually unhappy that he has changed his name. It's thus hinted that she is secretly attempting to locate and assassinate any former members of Ainz Ooal Gown both so that "Ainz" will have no threats to his power and also so that he will have no reason to continue to go by that name and return to being her beloved "Momonga".

Live-Action TV

• Lost Girl features bisexual succubus Bo Dennis as its protagonist, who spent the last ten years of her life on the run because she kept accidentally killing her sex partners due to lack of any control over her powers. She eventually learns to control these powers through her relationships with Lauren, a doctor who studies fae, and Dyson, a wolf shifter, both of whom she falls in love with.
• The Gates Features a young succubus falling in love with a muggle, with the expected problems as her power awakens.

Music

• In Vocaloid song "Ochikobore no Succubus" ("The Fallen Succubus"), Miku is a succubus who fallen in love when she realizes her mark (Len) was the young boy whom saved her back when the war between humans and monsters broke out. They keep their relationship in secret since most people still hate the monsters. Unfortunately for them, this doesn't end well as the townspeople soon found them out and killed Miku.

Podcasts

• Metamor City: John, Kate's incubus boyfriend, starts to go from a casual sex relationship with her to something more romantic in The Lost and the Least while she's on psychiatric leave and she starts leaning on him for support. His boss, who tends to think of mortals as playthings and sustenance, sees his growing affections for her as a meaningless distraction.

Tabletop Games

• Pathfinder:
  • Nocticula, a Demon Lord and the first succubus, became lovers and rivals with the succubus Shamira after Shamira infiltrated her bedchamber. Their relationship was extraordinarily unusual for Chaotic Evil demons, all the more so when Nocticula became a Chaotic Neutral goddess yet remained Amicable Exes with Shamira.
  • The Worldwound brings us the dysfunctional relationship between the succubus Zelmisdria and green dragon Azrivauxus. The dragon switches between seeing Zelmisdria as her lover, mother, and daughter depending on her mood. Their status as of the closing of the Worldwound is unknown.
  • Then there is Arueshalae, the potentially redeemable succubus who is a major player in closing the Worldwound. She can become a Chaotic Good servant of Desna, the goddess of dreams, luck, and stars if things work out, and Love Redeems can be part of her redemption.

Video Games

• In Catherine, Catherine herself is a succubus who seduces men to bring them to the Nightmare. However, she actually falls for Vincent to the point of ignoring other marks. There's even two endings in which they end up getting married.
• Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance has Seraphina who is part of the succubus race. She is in love with Killia partly because he is immune to her Balor Gaze.
• Divinity: Original Sin II: Almira the succubus begins a Monster/Slayer Romance with the Divine Order acolyte Mihaly while imprisoned by the Order. He helps her escape and her personal quest involves freeing herself from her old alliances so they can be together in peace.
• EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Mayard, the Dream Demon King, is a high level incubus which Kurogane's family has been sworn to oppose for 48 generations. He has also seemingly fallen in love with the 48th generation Kurogane, constantly flirting with her when he has the opportunity and proposing marriage. While there might be doubts of his intentions given his status as an incubus, they do start to address each other in more familiar tones if she agrees to give herself over to him to save her from bleeding out and the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue shows them enjoying tea together with Yukiko and Idea.
• Planescape: Torment: One of the Nameless One's potential love interests is the succubus Fall-from-Grace. However, as an Ascended Demon who abhors the thought of tempting mortals to their doom, she's under a Vow of Celibacy and won't do anything more intimate than a kiss. Fall-from-Grace also runs the Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts, where patrons can indulge in any kind of stimulation besides the physical kind.
• The H-Game Succubus in Wonderland has the player character Reto in a world of succubi and able to recruit succubi as party members. They all have Relationship Values that can be built up, and Lewis and Carroll in particular are shown to love Reto. The sequel Carroll in Wonderland shows this trope even more, as it focuses more on character interactions and the plot is driven by Carroll wanting Reto to stay in Wonderland.
• The Darkstalkers manga Vampire Savior: Tamashii no Mayoigo ^note Vampire Savior: The Soul's Lost Child has Lilith Aensland befriending a human Canon Foreigner named John Stately, whom she falls for after he was treating her kindly despite knowing what she is.
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: Arueshalae (see the tabletop section) is a potential party member and romantic partner. Much of Arueshalae's romance is given to her conflicting feelings over the Commander and whether what she is feeling is 'love' or her instincts as a Succubus to own and dominate the Commander trying to assert themselves.
• In Rune Factory 5, Ludmila plays with this. She's a succubus who's hopelessly in love with the protagonist, regardless of their gender or whether or not they're dating someone else. However, succubi in the Rune Factory universe are not actually powered by sex or desire; rather, they're more generalized Emotion Eaters (though they do prefer to eat happy emotions). However, Ludmila is by far the most sexually forward Romance Sidequest option in the franchise, openly lusting after the protagonist with openly flirty dialogue, meaning that she, personally, resembles classical depictions of succubi even though other succubi in the universe don't.

Visual Novels

• In the erotic visual novel Cute Demon Crashers, the three incubi and one succubus who accidentally find themselves stuck in the protagonist's home (after her wish for a partner she can have a casual fling with accidentally summons them) are friendly but interested more in lust than love. However, depending on the protagonist's choices it's possible for the one she has sex with to develop stronger feelings for her and decide to come back with an interest in forming a longer and deeper relationship, which she reciprocates.
• Seduce Me: Since incubi and succubi can feed off of more types of romance than sex in this universe, the love interests are able to pursue different kinds of relationships with the heroine while still remaining nourished. Some routes even have them continue to live with her, no sex involved. A played straight example of the trope, however, may be seen in Erik, who is the most overtly flirty of the incubus brothers but becomes a gentleman for Mika when trying to court her.

Webcomics

• Bromodachis features an Incubus named Sky falling in love with a human man named Keith. While their relationship is mostly a typical Romantic Comedy set up, one comic shows that Sky secretly fears that he might succumb to his instincts and kill Keith (though Keith assured him that these fears are unfounded).
• Dangerously Chloe: The main plot focuses on a boy named Teddie who accidentally summons Chloe, the titular succubus. Per the rules of their contract, if they make love, Teddie's soul will go to Hell, which he naturally doesn't want nor is interested in doing. So of course they try to find loopholes to nullify it, only for Chloe to find herself genuinely attracted to him.
• Love Sickubus has this as the main plot point, as it focuses on a succubus named Sophia who falls in love with a human who was her original target. She takes a human form and dates him, but naturally she doesn't "eat" him. This causes problems for her.
• My Pet Succubus: Zig-zagged example. Giselle, the succubus in question is summoned by a witch named Natasha but their relationship is more akin to a parent and child which is familial love. Giselle does fall in love with an angel named Alice however.
• My Succubus Girlfriend is a story about a succubus trying to steal the soul of a virgin. Unfortunately for her he is entirely unamused and ignores her. In her attempts to seduce him, she ends up falling for him.
• The Order of the Stick: The Linear Guild has Nale and Sabine, a Lawful Evil human and a succubus. The two are actually very committed to each other, even though Sabine, as a literal incarnation of illicit sex, finds it normal to have sex with four other partners while out on a three-hour errand. As her kiss is hazardous to humans, Nale at one point claims to buy "elixirs of Negative Energy Protection in bulk".
• Sinfest: While it is debatable whether or not Fuchsia is a succubus or just a devil, she did routinely use sexuality to lure men into making terrible deals, involving selling their souls. Then she met Criminey, who proved all but immune to her charms, and thus was even more alluring to her. Ultimately she ran away from her job to be with him.
• As a rare male example, Tom from Zoophobia is an incubus who has a tendency to become attached to his victims, and often kills those who reject him. He briefly dated Addison, but they have since broken up, something he is not happy about.

Western Animation

• The Changelings from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic are a more G-rated version of this trope. They are shapeshifters who feed on the love of others. However, they usually steal from them. Later in the series, it is revealed that they don't have to steal from others and that it's more effective when the love they get is genuine.

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