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What's the difference between 'enemies to friends to lovers' and 'rivalmance'?
First off, different writers will have different interpretations of certain tags/genres within fan fiction. This is my take on them:
Enemies to Friends to Lovers shows the progression of two people who start out hating each other, slowly grow closer and then fall in love. It’s a really common trope that you see in a lot of literature and film. One example: an assassin is sent to kill the protagonist, but the two of them get stuck having to work together towards a common goal, even though they don’t trust one another. Over time (usually through a couple “you saved my life when you could have run” encounters) the two of them become friends. They genuinely care for each other’s well-being and they have each other’s backs. Slowly, their feelings become romantic. The closer they become, the more their attraction grows. It may take them some time to admit to these feelings (usually held back by the fact that their circumstances should be pitting them against one another), but eventually they become lovers.
Rivalmance is a bit harder to pin down. A rivalmance could be something as tame as two people who are antagonistic and yet still love each other or something as extreme as two people who hate each other and yet have a sexual relationship. The fan fiction I’ve seen in this category more often than not sways toward the latter.
Rivalmance doesn’t usually have the same progression into kindness as Enemies to Friends to Lovers has. More often than not, the members of a rivalmance still genuinely dislike (and possibly hate) each other. Many times intimacy in a rivalmance is based upon mutual lust rather than love or tenderness. Hate sex is far more likely to show up here.
If we took the same story as above, the assassin and the protagonist still hate and distrust each other, yet there is an undeniable sexual tension between them. They are forced to work together, yet they do not build mutual trust. They may grow to care for each other’s well-being (as in, they wouldn’t want to see the other killed), but it’s more motivated by their circumstances than any real love or empathy. Their intimacy couldn’t really be mistaken for “making love”. Oftentimes there is a power struggle between the two of them throughout all of their interactions and sex is often no different. They are not particularly kind to one another, nor are they very giving unless they expect to receive something in return.