Enemies to lovers

[sholio]

I ended up nominating a few things for Enemies to Lovers (hush, I'm using it as a bribe for finishing my other assignments xD) and this made me spend some time thinking about which of my ships actually qualify - I had some trouble coming up with a third fandom, and trying to figure out where exactly I'd draw the line. (Like, I wouldn't call Sam/Bucky E2L - more like people who mildly antagonize each other to friends/lovers. But some might!)

So I got to wondering how other people define it. I selected check boxes since some people might have more than one answer. I mean, *I'm* not even sure where I fall in all of this!

Poll #33342

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 60

View Respondents

How would you define Enemies to Lovers? (or Enemies to Friends, if you're not a shipper)

View Answers

Must try to kill each other (or at least want to), or be on opposite sides of a conflict with life-or-death stakes
21 (35.0%)

Rivalries like sports rivalries are fine, but there needs to be a strong personal element and/or unhealthy fixation on each other (not just regular sports team conflict)
26 (43.3%)

Any kind of rivalry or antagonism will do
12 (20.0%)

For me it's about the Vibe™ - from distrust/antagonism to trust, whatever form that takes
27 (45.0%)

I do not accept it as proper E2L if there's any softening at all - they must remain antagonists
0 (0.0%)

I know it when I see it but don't get too fussed about definitions
9 (15.0%)

My thoughts are too complex for your ticky boxes (answer in comments)
2 (3.3%)

Not my trope so I don't care, but I want to click something.
3 (5.0%)

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah a definitely think a lot of it is in the writing (and especially in POV), which is why I also checked the “vibes” box :D (and yep, both of the vibes you describe would work well for me as E2L transitional phase).

And agreed about the Dragaera vibes - Vlad and Aliera never feel like enemies (heck, Aliera and Morrolan feel more antagonistic a lot of the time than Aliera and Vlad. It probably is down to how they first met, as you say, but also I guess Aliera has less Jhereg prejudice because of [stuff in Paarfi which I think you haven’t read yet?]. I don’t know why the Easterner thing doesn’t bother her more… the reincarnation thing? she feels equally above baseline Dragaerans?

And then there’s Vlad and Sethra, who are antagonistic for about 2 minutes in Taltos but mostly Sethra is just amused and Vlad comes to his senses I guess. (And Sethra does of course have the advantage of knowing Vlad better than he realizes, thought it’s never been clear to me how much she uses that sort of advantage…)