Stories where Magic Changes the Rules of Romance?

[Devor]

Someone help me out. I'm looking for examples of stories where the magic changes the way that romance works.

The most well known example is with "True Love's Kiss" breaking some kind of spell, which does a number of things for a story, such as settling the question of whether they're right for each other.

A few other examples leap out at me, mostly from anime.

- A prophecy suggests that two people who don't like each other will have a child who saves the world
- A cute magical being keeps creating RomCom situations for the MC until she gets into a relationship
- A soldier is ordered to romance and then bitterly break up with the girl, hoping to turn her off men, because a romance would break her connection with her dragon
- A werewolf can only fall in love once, with the first person he sees during a blue moon

Then there's the movie Hancock, where the closer the two characters get to one another, the more they lose their powers. There's also the Sword of Truth novel series, where anyone the woman might kisses immediately loses themselves and becomes obedient, meaning that she can't fall in love. Typing it like that also reminds me of the show Pushing Daisies, where the a person's first touch brings someone to life, but a second touch kills them again - since the girl he likes already died once, he cannot touch her again.

Are there other examples, maybe from actual books?

In particular, I'm looking for examples of how the magic of different races might change that race's approach to romance, like with the werewolf example. My own work uses sprites, and I'm searching for ways to interrupt and slow down the romance subplot.

 

[Queshire]

Voldemort was evil because his momma used a love potion on his poppa and conceived him while his poppa was under the influence. =0

 

[Devor]

^ Voldemort himself is magically incapable of love, so him and Bellatrix do count, I guess? That's a dark arc, there. I don't want to read a novel from that POV, though I guess someone might.

 

[Queshire]

*cough* Well, what I was aiming for was that the existence of love potions, mental enthrallment and emotion effects would affect how one would approach relationships.

As for other stuff... Hm, well I don't really have a specific example from a book, but if magical ability is linked to certain family lines then that could either encourage them to spread their wild oats as far as they can or to do the opposite and be very careful about how their blood spreads.

 

[pmmg]

Lady Hawk and Shrek come to mind.

Also Corpse Bride, Little Mermaid (disney), Just about every Vampire tale including Twilight.

Cupid's arrow?

What is the real question? Are you looking for a way to slow down a romance between two sprites? Suppose one fell in the bog of eternal stench. That might do it.

 

[Devor]

Queshire, most of those don’t change an actual romance arc, where the two characters end up together. I guess you could figure a bunch of ways for a love potion to (the MC is under a potion to love the wrong person…) but usually forcing the other person into love isn’t a romance.

I should probably count vampires too, even though I didn’t want to. If love means becoming a monster, that counts.

 

[Devor]

What is the real question? Are you looking for a way to slow down a romance between two sprites? Suppose one fell in the bog of eternal stench. That might do it.

I think the way magic changes romance makes it a strength of the genre and I want to include it. My romance arc has plenty going for it, but I also feel like being sprites should change something, somehow. It seems like a perfect chance to find something strong here.

I guess I should’ve asked in brainstorming instead because I don’t know if I’ll get to something useful going this route, unless someone here is widely read in fantasy romance.

 

[Queshire]

So, from the sound of it you want what amounts to a mechanical difference with them? Not just a societal one?

 

[pmmg]

I think Elfquest did this well with Cutter and Leetah.

When Cutter meets Leetah, she is promised to another elf, but due to something about their natures, she feels called to Cutter. They squabble a lot but in the end cannot deny their nature. Being apart makes them sick. Something like that.

 

[pmmg]

How about, like the way birds and insects choose a partner is by chirping the loudest, or in the right way, suppose for Sprites, its the casting of a spell in the right way that lets the attraction happen, or shows they are ready.

Your typical romance follows a pattern.

Girl is in the wrong place
Dude is cute but a no
Oh wait, he's actually not that bad
Things are complicated and I am not sure.
Okay, I'll go for it
But wait...there something I did not know, or he's still attached to--her.
I was wrong...none of the sentence above is true...but he still needs to show it.
Oh well...He's leaving cause I was a dunderhead.
What...he decided to stay because of me?
It really was true love

If you want that interrupted because of their magic nature, change things are complicated, to I cant, cause our magic auras dont match.

 

[Mad Swede]

The only one that directly springs to mind is the relationship between Garion and Ce'Nedra in The Belgariad, and even then it isn't quite a straight example.

 

[Finchbearer]

Tristan and Isolde, where they devour a love potion. Old chivalric romance.

 

[Stepgingerly]

I feel like this is all over YA fantasy. Anything with the fae, even Dresden Files, tackles this a bit. The Iron King books by Kagawa. All of the lovely trashy werewolf books lean on this too heavily ("bonding" as in the "Dark Hunter" books by Kenyon). Or some books where magic manifests at puberty or in a relationship for some reason. (The first "shift" of a werewolf.)

Just thinking about it now, they seem to fall into at least two categories. There are those books where the magic itself is an impediment to the relationship or the magic makes the relationship hard to handle because it's wild in some way, and those in which the magic is a primary driver of social expectations of one of the two different parties.

I don't know if this is helpful.

 

[Devor]

How about, like the way birds and insects choose a partner is by chirping the loudest, or in the right way, suppose for Sprites, its the casting of a spell in the right way that lets the attraction happen, or shows they are ready.

.....

If you want that interrupted because of their magic nature, change things are complicated, to I cant, cause our magic auras dont match.

Honestly this is kind of a decent start for me... love releases magic, or magic "auras" reveal compatibility, or some kind of magical release being a step in intimacy, I'm not totally sure yet but I think I can develop something out of that.

 

[Devor]

I feel like this is all over YA fantasy. Anything with the fae, even Dresden Files, tackles this a bit. The Iron King books by Kagawa. All of the lovely trashy werewolf books lean on this too heavily ("bonding" as in the "Dark Hunter" books by Kenyon). Or some books where magic manifests at puberty or in a relationship for some reason. (The first "shift" of a werewolf.)

I had to ask the Bing AI to explain the Iron King romance plot, but it was interesting.

Yeah, I've only seen bits and hints here and there, but that's enough to know that the werewolf romance stuff can be a lot.

 

[hammert]

Someone help me out. I'm looking for examples of stories where the magic changes the way that romance works.

Iron King for example.

 

[hammert]

Hatty Potter