there is this particular Thing™ that all three of these enemies to lovers relationships share: I'm gonna call it "The Doomed Proposal"

we have our hero and villain, who for some reason have found themselves in (a) situation(s) where they work well together https://twitter.com/SolarLilith/status/1349065428509863937

...can get along, connect emotionally, and possibly have sexual/romantic tension. the hero may or may not acknowledge this to any extent, but if they do, at this part of the story they don't wish to act on it because of the villain's villainous ways.

The villain, on the other hand, DOES act on it, by offering something that goes against the hero's values, in a fashion similar to a marriage proposal. this act can be a brilliant source of catharsis for whatever tension has been shown between the two.

all three villains in the ships I mention, do this in some way, offering their love interest a life together, and in all three cases, the heroes reject them.

this confuses, upsets, and angers the villain, and their relationship becomes fraught, even more so than before

but the villain didn't misread their relationship. this proposal was always doomed from the start, adding an extra layer of tragedy to their dynamic.

the villain offers a life together with the unspoken implication that their love interest abandons their heroic role

in two of the cases I mentioned, the villain is inviting the hero to join them in villainy, which at this point the hero cannot accept.

the hero rejects the idea of abandoning their heroic role or cause, but not the villain themself.

but the villain doesn't see it that way.

this is worse when the proposal isn't seen for what it is - a declaration of love and desire for a romantic relationship. this is normally becuase the villain doesn't make this explicitly clear like in the examples I mentioned (but this may not always be the case)

the villain interprets the rejection as a rejection of their romantic interest and sometimes, even themselves, despite reading their dynamic correctly. this misalignment causes confusion and anger, then hatred towards the hero, and doubles down on their villainy

whereas the hero just sees this as them re-iterating that they are a hero that wants to do hero things, the villain's negative reaction to this causes a feeling of loss and sadness in the hero - they were right to not entertain the idea of being with their villain love interest -

- in any real capacity, despite longing for them still. it is a level of tragedy that makes it so much more cathartic if such enemies are able to reconcile their flaws and differences and become lovers

it's one of the best aspects of E-T-L for me, it's a source of catharsis AND extra conflict, a delicious, extra obstacle that needs to be overcome for any potential relationship to be realised, which imho is what all E-T-L dynamics ought to have