How to trope "enemies to lovers"

Prompted by this Ask The Tropers thread.

There's been a series of new accounts that came onto the wiki looking for the "enemies to lovers" concept, and a TLP draft that went dead over concerns about scope. I raised the idea in ATT that maybe we would do better hashing out how to handle the concept here in Trope Talk before attempting a TLP, in order to not have to worry about satisfying the TLP guidelines or premature hats and bombs.

My thoughts on capturing the off-wiki use

First off, this is a preexisting term off-wiki, so I consider changing the name of a hypothetical Enemies to Lovers trope out of the question: people are going to be looking for this name, not some ugly kludge like the other draft ended up with ("Mutual Dislike To Requited Love" for the record).

Second. The way this term is used off-wiki describes a fairly broad family of Romance Arcs, something like what we would consider a Super-Trope. I don't think it qualifies as a full genre in its own right; this is more a Works by Subject situation.

I think the best option here might be to make a sort of disambiguation under the name Enemies To Lovers with a list of tropes that can cover the idea. Like:

“Enemies to lovers” is a common term to describe plot threads in which characters who are mutual enemies later fall in love. Some tropes that may describe what you’re looking for:

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Frequent fighting between two characters indicates love.

• Dating Catwoman: A hero and antagonist are explicitly in love.

• Fire-Forged Friends: Characters who are initially antagonistic towards each other become friends after fighting together.

• Foe Romance Subtext: Romantic subtext between enemies.

• Love at First Punch: Physical or verbal aggression results in love.

• Rivalry as Courtship: Becoming a character’s rival as a form of courtship.

• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: A relationship between a snarky Loser Protagonist and a snarky heroine, where the heroine criticizes the hero for his behavior while still expecting to be taken care of, typically leading to snark from the hero.

Edited by jandn2014 on May 10th 2024 at 2:44:46 PM

back lol

That would probably be for the best.

The reason the draft ended up with such a clunky title was that everyone had their own slightly different version of what the trope actually was, and many examples were more suited to completely different tropes.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Okay, for the sake of argument then, why a disambiguation and not, for example, an indexing supertrope?

Indexing supertrope sounds like a good idea

Not having looked at the draft, my thought is that I'm not entirely sure what trope the most obvious interpretation (in my mind) of the phrase "enemies to lovers" would fall under; Dating Catwoman comes closest, but I think of that as when two characters date while on rival sides. I'm thinking of two characters with a genuinely antagonistic relationship that eventually thaws and becomes romantic, perhaps with a stopover at friendship along the way. The romance is in spite of the antagonism, not because of it as in Belligerent Sexual Tension, Foe Romance Subtext, and Love at First Punch; nor does either party initially intend to start a romantic relationship as with Rivalry as Courtship.

Not to say any of those don't belong on the list, just wondering what this would fall under. It seems to me that the concept of "enemies to lovers" might be broader than can adequately be covered by fairly specific subtropes, so unless we can cover everything else with a fairly small group of new tropes, this might have to be a supertrope with examples.

Yeah, Dating Catwoman is when Foe Romance Subtext isn't subtextual, just a straight-up romance between a protagonist and somebody who is ordinarily an antagonist. E.g. Catwoman outright had Batman's child in some versions of Birds of Prey, or Love After World Domination where a member of a Super Sentai knockoff and the Dark Magical Girl he's supposed to be fighting fall in love.

"Enemies to lovers" can cover that, but it can also cover rivals or members of Feuding Families: Fated Blades from Ilona Andrews' Kinsmen series comes to mind, where the male lead runs the corporate rival to the female lead's company, and they get into an Enemy Mine situation that turns hot and heavy.

Another vote for making it a supertrope rather than a disambiguation. People are going to want to use the link Enemies To Lovers, and will get confused if there's something "wrong" with it. We might be able to get away with 'Enemies to Lovers' Plot, though.

And after this one, it's probably time to look at a number of other fanspeak terms and see if there are appropriate tropes to point them at. Friends To Lovers, Lovers To Enemies (I am sure we have a trope for that one somewhere), that sort of thing.

Friends To Lovers at least is probably covered by Relationship Upgrade.