#hearthatter

For starters, we need to address the obvious - not all "Enemies To Lovers" are going to be the same. Like, it's not just a dynamic; it's a genre in itself, meaning that dynamics within it can vary. Sometimes you have a "dating Catwoman" dynamic of enemies to lovers (other than the example in the name, I can think of Goldie X Scrooge from Ducktales as an example of enemies to lovers being this kind of dynamic); you can have straightforward enemies to lovers like Rujinu or Zutara, for example, where you can outline them being enemies then slowly becoming friends or lovers. You can also have a volatile enemies-to-lovers dynamic like Catradora, where you go back and forth on how the relationship looks and how healthy it is, and frankly, I do think that Catradora works better for comparison with HeartHatter, but since Catradora isn't exactly the healthiest dynamic in its entirety (it is a journey), I can see why people would be apprehensive of using Catradora as an example without it feeling like an insult.

With Rujinu, we have Rumi initially being enamored with Jinu the first time she sees him, only for 5 seconds later to get a major ick from him once he purposefully disrespects her and reveals his true nature. Then they become full-on enemies, trying to best one another. However, there's a shift when Jinu is the first to learn Rumi's secret. Jinu understands and relates to Rumi's struggles and, in the heat of the moment, protects her secret while still trying to wrap his head around how there's somehow someone like him who seems to be successful in achieving his dream, showing him it is possible (defying Gwi-Ma). From this point on, Jinu reduces antagonism towards Rumi and genuinely wants to get to know her better, even confesses his biggest shame (despite lying by ommission) and while Rumi is initially resistant, due to him still trying to set rules for how their relationship should go (something Rumi's too smart to be fooled into) and it's not until Jinu's own mask slips that Rumi takes advantage of the opportunity to turn the table and dictate her own terms. From this point, Rumi is actively trying to help out Jinu while getting him on her side, with Jinu ultimately being resistant to agreeing to help Rumi simply because his own shame is holding him back, but Rumi does manage to give him some hope. It's not until Gwi-Ma, however, interferes and tortures Jinu back to obedience, making Jinu betray Rumi (and take advantage of her friends) with a heavy heart and abandon hope altogether, crushing Rumi in the process. Even so, Rumi still finds the strength within her to not just defy Gwi-Ma despite losing everything, but also forgive Jinu, which prompts Jinu to sacrifice himself to aid Rumi one last time.

Now let's compare this to HeartHatter. Initially, we have Red knowing about Max's existence as her tutor's son, whom she doesn't hang out with because she's too cool for him (and under the thumb of her controlling mother), until she time-travels and essentially switches circumstances with Max, making him a VK with a terrible relationship with his parent. Since Max is a VK, he clashes with Red as an HK, though since Red is a time traveller who is just trying to understand what occurred, she doesn't exactly return the animosity. We follow this with Max and Red joining together to stop Maddox, so despite distrust on Max's side, they're working together (as Red quickly realises how alike Max is to how she used to be before time travel), with Red even choosing to give him more grace than anyone in the Wondercrew. We have, of course, Red comforting Max after he ends up feeling alienated from the rest of the group because of his father, and Red learning in greater depth how much she indirectly messed up the Hatter family. She, however, keeps it a secret from Max while forming a more meaningful friendship with him. Then we follow with Max eventually learning the truth on his own thanks to Chessy and Oraculum, learning Red's biggest secret up to this point, and he loses it. He freaks out and gets very upset with Red, to the point that, out of his own volition, he devises his own plan just to get back at Red for what she did and ruin her life in return (by brainwashing Chloe and attempting to time travel again for his own selfish gain). Max blames and hates Red for what she did, with Red being apologetic; however, during the final confrontation, Red ends up saving Max's life after his father endangered and almost killed him in his madness, which prompts Max to forgive Red, and prompts Red to promise Max to make amends with him and help him and his dad.

Two 2 stories, with similarities you will find out of context. For starters the beginning of both relationships completely differs, as whereas Rumi and Jinu are very clearly enemies actively trying to take each other down while denying their attraction, and of course being firmly on "good" and "bad" sides of conflict, Red and Max are hardly true enemies as Red doesn't identify Max as her enemy to begin with, while Max hates her more by association than whatever personal she did to him, so I'd argue that at worst Max and Red are just not friends, but calling them "enemies" would be strong.

Then, of course, we have the difference in reaction when it comes to the big secret. When Rumi learns Jinu's secret, it doesn't ruin her opinion of him; she isn't upset him with pr wants to get back at him for lying to her. In the same vein, when Jinu learns Rumi's secret, not only does he understand what Rumi is most likely going through, he also helps her out. He keeps the secret on his own, and it's not until he's pressed that he reveals it, and still does it against his will. Secrets did not ruin Rujinu in the slightest; however, Red's secret was a dealbreaker for Max. When he learned the truth about her, he immediately turned on her and proceeded to get revenge on her. Yes, Chessy egged him to do it, but she didn't force him to follow through with it, and with how insignificant Chessy is (unlike Gwi-Ma, who directly commands and controls demons, including Jinu), you could argue that Max would betray Red regardless. Max's reaction to Red's secret is far more in line with how Zoey and Mira reacted to Rumi's secret, and even this is a generous comparison because Zoey and Mira were heartbroken over their friendship with Rumi collapsing, while Max was deadset on hurting Red.

There's also, of course, the openness both Rumi and Jinu have for each other and how this openness resulted in the song "Free," along with helping Rumi heal her voice and Jinu regain his hope and soul. It was far from perfect, as Jinu still lied about his family, but in hindsight, that secret didn't mean anything to Rumi or her opinion of Jinu, whereas Max and Red don't have true openness between them. Max doesn't open up more to Red than he does to anyone else, and Red is nowhere close to spilling the beans about what she did. Jinu at least considered telling Rumi the truth and just chickened out of it out of shame; Red would've taken the secret to the grave if Max didn't find out either way. There's also the fact that when Jinu finally confesses the truth (something he did on his own), he takes 100% accountability for what he did wrong off the bat. Red on the other hand fails to do that, and to be fair it is because her situation is more nuanced and she indeed didn't mean to hurt Max, but she still failed to own up to her mistake initially and it wasn't until the final confrontation with Midnight Chloe and later Maddox that Red gained the courage to properly own up to what she did (and even then, there's still a lot of dancing around it).

The betrayal of Jinu and Max was also different, because whereas Jinu was heartbroken to betray Rumi, Max was ok with that. He was ok with turning Chloe against Red and he did so in an even worse manner, because at least Mira and Zoey had a say in how they react to the truth about Rumi, but Chloe (who already knew the truth anyway as she was on it) had a cursed brcelet put on her that made her abandon her morals and inhibitions just to hurt Red for sake of huring her after she felt hurt by her. Like Mira and Zoey at least acted out of self-defense and due to their conditioning of hunting demons, Chloe was under the influence, and Max wasn't sorry for it at all. He instead was focused on getting back at Red.

Red and Max even lack any proper sacrifice. You'd have to completely rewrite Max's character to seemingly still fit his role and the role of a love interest to be believable, but if you do that, you lose what makes Max special in the film in the first place. You will just have a different character altogether.

Now let's talk about StrongHearts and how Luis's story with Red ends up being more in line with Rujinu.

First we have the meet-cute scene in which Luis ends up charming Red, though Red still ends up being pretty apprehensive about it, much like how Rumi would become apprehensive about her attraction towards Jinu. The difference here is that Luis didn't really let Red fall, unlike Jinu, but this also comes down to Luis and Red not being enemies-to-lovers. A different convention, sure, but there are more common beats between Rujinu and Stronheart that are in tune with the core of both pairings rather than surface-level superficial similarities that come apart once you remember where Red and Max's characters are during their developments.

Then we have their first scene together on their own, and Red in general is pretty apprehensive and dismissive of Luis (she never got no love), being highly guarded, which isn't too different from how Rumi was initially with Jinu. We do, however, have Red finally confess the truth to Luis. Yes, she doesn't confirm she's a time traveler, but she confirms a much more pressing issue about her being - that she's an outsider to the reality she found herself in. She confesses to Luis that she's not a perfect princess who likes bows; instead, she prefers swords to sparkles, and she is lost in the new Wonderland that isn't anything like she remembered. She was living a very isolated life and now is blaming herself for ruining everything for everyone the moment she feels freedom for the first time. This is important because this Red is being very real and very vulnerable, and what happens next? Luis UNDERSTANDS.

This is a huge and major similarity between Rujinu and Strongheart, as Jinu also understood Rumi's situation when he learned the truth. He understood, related, and accepted Rumi as she is. He was even willing to cover for her because he knew she was trying to keep it hidden from her friends. Jinu correctly clocked Rumi and her deal, and Luis? He did too. He correctly guessed that Red is under a lot of pressure due to the expectations put on her, along with a legacy that feels suffocating at times despite seemingly being positive; he understands and relates, and he accepts Red without any judgment. Of course, Luis doesn't understand everything perfectly, much like Jinu himself struggled to understand how half-a-demon can oppose Gwi-Ma, but Luis doesn't question Red; he doesn't try to press the issue; he instead lets Red be comfortable and eases the burden off her shoulders. Red inturn also resonates with Luis and breaks through to him too.

Then, the next scene, they share together, they're on their own private talk in the middle of the night. Not unlike how Rumi and Jinu would continue to meet each other in the dead of the night while being real with each other. This is the moment where they also share a duet together, and both "Free" and "For Once In My Life" are songs that are about feelings of liberation, mutual trust, wanting to get to know each other better, and confessing how much they're affecting each other positively, despite all the odds, and wishing to be in this forever while questioning why what they have should be bad. It also should be noted that both songs happen after main female character is in conflict with their female best friend(s) the fandom ships her with, and how the conversation is about clearing the mind before confronting the issue with her best friend again (Rumi was more successful than Red on this one, though), and there's also something to be said about both Jinu and Luis being respectful towards Rumi and Red here.

Finally, there's also the fact that Luis DOES have his own sacrifice scene, much like Jinu has, and both sacrifices are for Red and Rumi, respectively. Both guys are willing to put their lives on the line and help their girls succeed in whatever means necessary, even a sthe girls are actively winging it in the moment, with both of them confessing they also want to save their boy too (and both failing to do so).

Now, one could argue that if you write Luis off and give all of those scenes to Max, the story would still work, except it wouldn't. For starters, Max has no basis to not be judgmental towards Red when he and Red would be lost behind the door, and Red confessing to him the truth would ring hollow, as Max doesn't have expectations he wants or feels like he has to live up to while blaming himself for all the mistakes he commits. And it's not like Red will tell him the truth about time travel here either, as Max would understandably be upset with Red over it. And since they can't bond like that, then "For Once In My Life" also just rings hollow because neither of them is actually willing to let the other one know what they're truly about; neither of them feels liberated when in the presence of the other. Max feels confused but grateful that Red is not judging him, but Red just feels guilty and sorry for Max. And it should be noted that "For Once In My Life" happens when Max himself already sneaks to search for the Oraculum on his own, so it's not like Max would have an opportunity to sneak out after having a duet with Red without her questioning him (or being on board with his idea) and tonally-wise, it would feel like Max is playing Red only to get what he wants behind her back ("like yes let's pretend we understand each other perfectly now excuse me as I secretly sneak out to do my own thing" ~ Max, probably). And of course we can't have a sacrifice scene when Max is actively being antagonistic towards Red, as he's trying to stop her, not aid her, and since he's the mastermind and essentially in charge, so to speak, of the idea of stopping Red, it's not like he can suddenly stop because Midnight Chloe is not making Max do any of this. We can't even have the meet-cute scene because Max is antagonistic towards HKs, and since Red knew Max beforehand, it's not like she can be swept off her feet with him.

So yeah, long story short, Max and Red are not Rujinu; Red and Luis are Rujinu - enemies to lovers (which, in hindsight, isn't that big of a loss; it's just a lack of seasoning to a ship). While Red and Luis are not very complex or well-written since they're a DCOM relationship unlike Rujinu, they still end up being more alike to what Rujinu is supposed to be and still were very in line writing-wise in what they're supposed to be. Max and Red were never love interests; Max was always a twist-tragic antagonist, and that was his role, so genuinely I ask to not bring Rujinu when discussing Descendants ship, especially HeartHatter, because while I did say I like the latter, I'm beyond peeved when people get too delusional about it, as no, it would never work in canon, end of story.