I completely agree with pervertedpages. Love is very important, but it is not enough to sustain a relationship. Perfect love would be, but nobody can really attain perfect love because we are not perfect people *imho*. A relationship is a lot of work. Love is what keeps you from killing each other and is what keeps both people together. But that's bare minimum. You also need trust, respect, courtesy, perseverence, the ability to sacrifice things if it will better your partner in some way...there are a lot of things I probably should list but just can't think of right now. I am not in a bdsm relationship like most of you are; I am learning and beginning to try things...but I am not sure that there is a whole lot of difference. It seems to me that a vanilla relationship and D/s or M/s relationship will all have the same basic components; that the only difference is in the roles each person takes on.

And I agree with denuseri: love is the strength that keeps a relationship tied together, but if all a relationship has is love, without all the other important components like trust and stuff I mentioned earlier, I do not know how that love would be enough to sustain the relationship for a long amount of time without any resentment.