Basic Trope: An antagonistic character is redeemed due to their love of another character.
- Straight: Alice and Drake fall in love, and it leads to him having a Heel–Face Turn.
- Exaggerated: Drake becomes an Ascended Demon when he receives a hug.
- Downplayed:
- Drake the villain becomes an Anti-Hero after falling in love with Alice.
- Drake falls in love with Alice and abandons his evil ways, but he's still a jerk.
- Drake used to be a jerk before he met Alice, and Took a Level in Kindness as result of falling in love with her.
- Justified:
- Drake lived a life among a family and friends who didn't care about him and never knew what true love is... Until now. He'll do whatever it takes to become a genuinely good person.
- Drake and Alice were friends long before Drake's Start of Darkness, but Evulz faked Alice's murder and convinced him that The Hero killed her. When Drake see's Alice again old feelings begin to awake.
- Feeling unloved/unlovable is the whole reason Drake became evil in the first place; isolation does things to the mind and eventually he wanted revenge against those who shunned him. It took Alice's compassion to show him the light.
- Drake simply does love Alice that much, enough to want to work on his own flaws in order to be the person she deserves.
- Inverted:
- Alice decides Drake is worth hell, and has a Face–Heel Turn.
- The Power of Hate ends up redeeming a character, because the one he/she hates is a genuinely evil entity!
- Subverted:
- Drake and Alice fall in love and he shows greater mercy to both his subordinates and his victims but he remains loyal to Emperor Evulz.
- Drake is The Mole and is just using Alice.
- Drake falls in love with Alice and performs a Heel–Face Turn as a result. However, due to circumstances that prevent them from being together, such as Alice not reciprocating Drake's feelings, he despairs and slips back into evil.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice never stops loving Drake, and it's enough to inspire him to have a Heel–Face Turn.
- Drake becomes the mask and starts to fall for Alice.
- A while after returning to villainy, Drake remembers how much better he felt during his brief time as a good guy. Thus, he makes a greater effort than before to become a moral person, and is happy to simply be friends with Alice.
- Parodied: Drake is the Big Bad hellbent on destroying the world, however the second a dog brings him a glass of water on its own violation, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn and becomes The Cape.
- Zig Zagged: Drake falls for Alice and becomes a good guy, but when she dies he goes back to being evil. However, he got enough experience with Good Feels Good to feel conflicted and want to change, but feels he cannot do it without Alice there to guide him. Then Alice comes back from the dead, and Drake rushes into another Heel–Face Turn so he can join her. Unfortunately, by the time they meet up her friends have already told her about Drake's previous Face–Heel Turn and she decided to hook up with Bob instead.
- Averted:
- Drake and Alice never admit their feelings for each other and stay on their respected sides.
- Love has no baring on one's alignment.
- Enforced: Drake is a Draco in Leather Pants, might as well give him a redemption arc to please his fan girls.
- Lampshaded: "Why is he such a nice guy now?" "Maybe he has found love."
- Invoked:
- I Can Change My Beloved.
- Drake wants to turn from his evil ways, but he suffers from Chronic Villainy, so he pursues Alice in the hope that her love will redeem him.
- Exploited: Bob realizes that Drake is starting to fall for Alice, and deliberately encourages their relationship in order to persuade Drake to make a Heel–Face Turn.
- Defied: Drake and Alice fall in love, but Drake has deeper reasons for his alignment, such as having Blue-and-Orange Morality, though he respects Alice's position even if he disagrees with it. After much discussion Drake and Alice come to an understanding and she accepts that she's going to be Dating Catwoman for as long as they're together.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Drake's Heel–Face Turn is met with distrust from Alice's friends and Evulz sees it as a betrayal. Alice and Drake find themselves against Evulz, with seemingly no back up.
- Reconstructed: Alice's friends are suspicious but learn to accept Drake and Alice's love and accept him in their group, provided that Drake wears a Restraining Bolt for a while. In the meantime, Drake is their Token Evil Teammate.
- Played For Drama: Drake's love is realized, but Alice and Bob are in a relationship. When Bob is being tortured and possibly about to be killed by Evulz, Drake attacks Evulz and allows himself to get killed for Bob's freedom.
Back to Love Redeems.
