LogFAQs > #956419982

So say you have a story about a young man who takes it upon himself to protect a young woman, as her knight of sorts because she saved his life by nursing him back to health after a mercenary band he was with raided her village and he was backstabbed for trying to stop it. From there...

Scenario A: The guy falls in love with the girl but doesn't make a move for a long time because of his supposed chivalrousness only to learn the girl actually hated him for his role in destroying her home and only helped him because she wasn't aware who he was (she was out in the forest when the raid happened and the guy was dressed more like a knight than a raider because of his fixation on them so she assumed he was just an unlucky traveler or something while she helped him) and she only stayed with him after learning the truth because she had nowhere else to go and eventually wanted to kill him herself when she got the chance.

Scenario B: The guy assumes the girl must secretly hate him since (in this version) she was there to witness the raid herself and he assumes she only helped him because of the tenets of the religion she's devoted to preaching forgiveness so he keeps his distance from her emotionally and romantically as they travel together but in reality she actually does like him because she got to see his bravery in trying to defend her home in person but his insecurity and inferiority about his status causes him to start mistreating her after her declaration of love to "prove" he's right and she must hate him to avoid cognitive dissonance.

Scenario C: Both the guy and the girl like each other but because they belong to two different cultural groups who are currently at war (which is why the guy's mercenary band didn't mind killing everyone in the village instead of stealing from them since it was technically enemy territory) and with the guy considered a deserter by his own people and the girl considered "unclean" by her people for traveling with an enemy man no matter where they go they're hunted down and persecuted and beyond that whichever side wins the war they both lose.

Scenario D: Both the guy and girl hate each other from the get go but they team up to get revenge on the mercenary band leader who nearly killed the guy and ordered the attack on the girl's village, with both of them falling deeper into darkness, the guy forgetting his dream of one day becoming a noble knight and the girl losing her religion and faith in humanity over the course of their petty and ultimately meaningless quest, both of them sowing the seeds of hatred and revenge in the hearts of others that they wrong.

Scenario E: Both the guy and girl grow to like each other with ups and downs along the way to the culmination of the guy being knighted for protecting the girl as it turns out she was a long lost princess raised in secret away from the capitol but who takes the throne after the two effectively end the war by showing the bond the two people can forge (and many in the royal family were killed so she is also the legitimate queen by succession), except at the end this is all revealed to be a wild fever dream by the guy back when the girl (who he falls in love with instantly) was trying to nurse him back to health at the start of the story only for him to die shortly afterwards.