(This is a repost from July 2021)

What is it about the love at first  sight  trope  that drives people mad ? Why is it sworn  off by most novelist? The last time it was  used  by  a novelist  was  2008 in Suzanne Collins , Hungers  Games . The last time it was used in a film  was  2018’s  Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation. And  in  2017 for the TV Show  Billions. And before  2008  when Suzanne Collins  used   the trope  , it wasn’t used  since 1977  in the book The Silmarillion by  J R.R. Tolkien . So yeah  fiction novelist simply do not use  it anymore that much .

I ask again  what is it about the love at first sight trope  that all  novelist swear against?  Is  this trope  simply  cursed ?

 But first lets  answer this question what  is love at first sight as used  in fiction?

Love at first sight is a  common  convention  and trope  within  literature  where a person   feels immediately  attracted  to  another upon  meeting them for the  first  time.   The    term love at first  sight  originated from Greek mythology   meaning    madness  from   the gods  and  if you had it,    it was a clear   sign  that you  were affected  by Cupid ‘s   arrow .  And if you were pierced  by the love dart   you would   immediately  be overwhelmed  with desire and love sickness  and become  spellbound and charmed  by the intended.

Examples  of how  this  trope  has been used is in:

• Romeo and  Juliet 

• Aladdin 

• Frozen

Even  though these  examples  used the trope  well  some believe  that the trope  is difficult to write  and  is unable  to  be  believable in a story.  For a love at first sight storyline   to actually   work  there  needs  to be  a Plausible connection between the characters .  But others   believe  the trope as fantasy  so anything goes  and so it’s easy for them to write. Moreover love  at first sight simply does not  and cannot exist  but attraction  and lust  at first  sight  can.   

And that is easily assessed  to what people are really writing.   But   it easily   becomes  cliché  if the  writer  is not careful .  And so that’s  what happens and that’s  why the writer  fails  at writing this type of story.

The characters  need to be attracted to each other and have chemistry   enough that   readers  will care about the romance at  hand. But  the characters  themselves  also have to be interesting on their own  reserves . If not the  this  love  at first sight  storyline  can fall  apart before it even gets started . Lastly in order for a full fledge plausible  love at first sight story  it  can  help   if you develop  the romance over time and show  it subtly  throughout the novel. 

Okay so my answer to the earlier  question  is  its not cursed  it   just  merely  overused and  wrongly   executed .  There is no reason a writer cannot  use it and turn the trope’s  clichéness  around  like  for  instance  Frozen did.   They parodied the crap out of  the trope  and you can’t  say  you didn’t  have a couple of laughs  about  it. I sure  did.  

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What are your thoughts about the love at first sight trope?

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