Canon true love couples who did not experience love at first sight on the show

[obisgirl]

I’m working on this very long true love monster meta. It covers several sections. The one I’m inquiring opinion about is the Love at First Sight section.

Ariel and Hook experienced love at first sight, but now, I’m adding an extra section, discussing canon true love couples who did not experience love at first sight on the show.

Snowing, Rumbelle and eventually Outlaw Queen will fit into this category.

As a SF ‘shipper, would you also group Emma and Neal in this category as well?

Please keep discussion polite and kind. 

[RumplesGirl]

So we’ve been talking about this in chat (because our forums are wonky right now) but here’s a basic rundown, I think

–True love is a tricky concept because we associate it with the “swooning” “I shall dedicate my life to you” type of cliche storytelling. Eriel is a good example of this, but the writers went this route out of necessity (one episode to build them as True Love instead of taking an entire season, a la Snowing)

–Often times it’s not True Love at first sight so much as “lust” at first sight. All our major canon couples (including both SF and CS) have been “sparky” with each other upon meeting

• Snow stole from Charming and hit him over the head with a rock
• Rumple is instantly drawn to Belle (read Jane’s script) but they bicker with each other in “Lacey”
• Emma steals a stolen car and bickers with Neal only to go out with him for a drink
• Once Emma catches Hook in a lie, she holds a knife to his throat and threatens to feed him to ogres only to climb a beanstalk with him and open up about her life a little bit
• Regina and Robin basically bicker back and forth after he saves her from the flying Monkey

–We have yet to see a major couple who openly despised each other at first only to be come together and be proven as true love.

–We didn’t see any sort of romantic workings with Cinderella and Thomas/ Hook and Milah so we can’t really judge level of sparky–though Milah says that she fell in love with Hook that night in the tavern.

–Going off the title of your thread, obisgirl, the one problem is that pesky “true love” concept. If you’re asking about SF (my own personal bias aside) Emma hasn’t demonstrated true love with anyone yet–apart from motherly true love of Henry

–And I really liked what @KFChimera said in chat: “Well here’s the thing, romantic attraction doesn’t always mean well, love….I think love takes time to really form and so that crush /attraction thing is there but the love, the understanding and true caring comes later”

So do I–as an SF shipper–think that they had love at first sight? Yes but with the caveat that it means something different to each couple based on their own psychology and life experience.

 

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[obisgirl]

I think Neal and Emma are harder to judge because when we were introduced them as a couple, we only saw snap shots of their relationship. Which is different from Snow and Charming, who had multiple episodes dedicated to the building of their relationship in EF.

I will say this though, as far as the love at first sight thing goes, I am using Eric and Ariel as the standard since their whole episode was about love at first sight.

Again, the definition I have is:

Love at first sight is when a person feels an immediate romantic attraction for a stranger. Feelings can be mutual, but sometimes not as we will see.

I also get the feeling, based on Ariel and Eric, it can be mutual but sometimes not (at least right away, anyway). But they’re the example I’m basing it on. Does that make sense?

Also, a character can feel love at first sight for another character but the other character may not feel it for them right off.

Remember, opinions are welcome. That’s why I’m doing this, but remember to keep it polite.

[thorm]

Regina and Robin as True Love?

Why, actually?

[RumplesGirl]

I will say this though, as far as the love at first sight thing goes, I am using Eric and Ariel as the standard since their whole episode was about love at first sight.

I would say they are the cliche love at first sight. But none of our couples–Snowing, Rumbelle, SF, CS, OQ–acted the way Eriel does because they are MAJOR couples. It was love at first sight for Eriel because A and E were only going to spend on episode on them. We didn’t have a whole season to flesh out their TL for each other–like Snowing in S1.

Love at first sight is when a person feels an immediate romantic attraction for a stranger. Feelings can be mutual, but sometimes not as we will see.

I think this is a good definition but by this definition ALL our couples fit into it–even if the denied it for a long time.

So, you were specifically asking about SF–well, about 2 mins after they meet they go for a drink and then (so far as we can deduce) are together from that point on. So there must have been some sort of romantic attraction from the start.

Same with Snowing–remember how they both turned to look at each other. Or how they both went back to save the other when they were in danger? If they didn’t care or didn’t feel something, would they have done that?

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[RumplesGirl]

So I’ve been trying to think about what my driving point is here. And I think I came up with this

1) There are third kinds of Love At First Sight: OBVIOUS love at first sight, SEMI-OBVIOUS, and NON OBVIOUS

OBVIOUS love at first sight

• Eriel is obvious–they left no room for interpretation in that (probably included are DwafStar, Cinderella/Thomas and Philora)

SEMI-OBVIOUS

• Snowing–you know it’s got to be true love at first sight because 1) the pilot shows us that they are TL and 2) Disney. THIS is the big thing with couples like Snowing and Rumbelle. You know they are going to TL because Disney told you, so it must be TL at first sight

NON OBVIOUS (if you take off shipping goggles)

• SF and CS. This is the big difference for me. Because Emma is an original character, I don’t know who she is supposed to be paired with. Disney hasn’t prepared me for her. So that’s where our interpretations come in. I say SF was TL at first sight because I think it resembles other. The same can be said for CS.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[professor ratigan]

I think it was Love at First Sight for Victor when he first laid eyes on Ruby back in 1×03, even if he was cursed.

[Gaultheria]

I think it was Love at First Sight for Victor when he first laid eyes on Ruby back in 1×03, even if he was cursed.

I’m trying to imagine what the woman in red would have looked like to the man from the land without colour. The sight must have been overwhelming.

Gaultheria's fanvids: http://youtube.com/sagethrasher

[Phee]

obisgirl wrote:

Love at first sight is when a person feels an immediate romantic attraction for a stranger. Feelings can be mutual, but sometimes not as we will see.

I think this is a good definition but by this definition ALL our couples fit into it–even if the denied it for a long time.

Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily classify “romantic attraction” as translating to “love” in every instance. But if you’re using “romantic attraction” as the definition of “love” then just about every couple will fit.

Neal was instantly taken with Emma, and the attraction might not have been instant for her as well, but by the time we got to the end of their first scene together in the Bug, she’d definitely decided she was attracted enough to go have that drink with him. Whether either of them fell in love in that scene or not, we dunno. Whether either of them fell in love by the end of that drinks date, we dunno. But by the end of that first scene, they’d established enough of an attraction that led to them staying together 24/7 and falling in love at some point.

With Snowing, we know that the moment Charming actually fell in love with her was the Troll Bridge, because he’s actually said exactly that (in 310), but he no doubt felt some sort of attraction to her the first moment they met, and vice versa.

With CS, Hook has been attracted to Emma for some time, but I don’t think he himself considered that attraction as “love” until the kiss, judging by what he said in the Echo Cave about it having been the kiss that made him realise what he truly felt.

With OQ, I think Sean said in a recent interview that he’s been playing it like Robin felt an instant attraction to Regina. She’s the one he addressed and offered his hand to when she and Snow were on the ground. It’s not every day that someone would choose her over Snow in a situation like that, so I think that Robin would have made an immediate impression on her, though I dunno that I’d label that impression as “romantic attraction” on her part, though I’d say it probably was on his part.

So, yeah, basically, if you’re using that definition of “instant romantic attraction = love at first sight” then I’d say lots of couples have it, but I don’t think the two necessarily equate with each other. A person can have an instant romantic attraction to someone, and it can either lead to nothing, or it can develop into love. I guess it might be tempting to say in hindsight, “they were so love at first sight,” but that statement wouldn’t necessarily be accurate, because just because you end up in love with someone, that doesn’t mean that it had to be an “at first sight” thing, it’s just that it developed into love.

I guess in the fairytale sense, I’d classify “love at first sight” as the fireworks moment when a pair first see each other and instantly know it was fate that they’ll be together forever and ever, and I’d probably only classify Eriel as being that, because Ariel had zero doubts he was the guy for her for forever and ever, and he seemed to remember her in a similar sense when he saw her at the ball.

professor ratigan wrote:

I think it was Love at First Sight for Victor when he first laid eyes on Ruby back in 1×03, even if he was cursed.

I’m trying to imagine what the woman in red would have looked like to the man from the land without colour. The sight must have been overwhelming.

I will forever believe that red being the only colour Victor ever saw in his world, and red being the colour of heart he so desperately desired, was foreshadowing for his intended being the girl who always wears red. My kingdom for just one legit, romantic, Frankenwolf scene at some point!

[obisgirl]

@rumplesgirl – I like that you broke down the attraction into three categories, that makes it so much easier to distinguish. I hope you don’t mind if I use that but I will cite this thread.

One more question, @rumplesgirl – in regard to Outlaw Queen, where would you put them in those three categories?

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