Love at First Sight. It's a staple of Fairy Tales, love songs, and the Disney Animated Canon. Two characters meet, and fall deeply, madly, passionately in love with each other immediately. This is one of the most common and oldest story archetypes.
Depending on where a story falls in the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, Love at First Sight is either a recipe for Happily Ever After or eventual disillusionment and heartbreak. Of course, even if the characters really are perfect for each other, they can still be Star-Crossed Lovers who are destined to be apart, or simply can start a relationship based on this trope and develop it into a deeper and more sincere one.
Note that this trope is compatible with Oblivious to Love. In a Love Epiphany, it can suddenly dawn on the character that they are in love and have been for some time, from their first meeting.
Sometimes, only one character falls in love at first sight. That character usually spends the rest of the story trying to win the heart of the other one. If the character is heroic, you usually get a pleasant courtship. If the character is unattractive or otherwise repellent to the other, they're an Abhorrent Admirer. If the character is a villain, they become a dangerous Stalker with a Crush, because Love Makes You Evil.
Compare Chic and Awe, Fourth-Date Marriage, The Dulcinea Effect, and the vocal equivalent Love at First Note. The Serial Romeo is a character who falls into this over and over again. Engaging Conversation happens when two acquaintances hit it off and one jokingly proposes marriage. The opposite is Hate at First Sight.
Not to be confused with the manhwa, the Harry Potter fanfic, the Once Upon a Time fanfic, the 2023 film, or the kinetic novel with the same name, or the Chinese drama Love At First Fight.
