Spirit of the Command "Love"?

[OleanderSky]

Does the command "Love" make its victim feel like it is okay to love whomever they Love? Unlike "Charm" which explicitly states that it rewrites all logic, does "Love" leave underlying personality completely unchanged to the point that the victim can experience significant cognitive dissonance? While "Love" is clearly spelled out as an RP-only effect that the victim player can choose to express in a wide variety of ways including being shy, or completely platonic, there are some specifics where I am unsure if they are within the spirit of the effect.

1. The victim is hit to Love someone that normally they would detest, for example an undead creature, a monsrous creature, or a playable race they happen to be vitriolically racist and hostile about. A) Can the victim be horrified by their feelings, or do the feelings seem reasonable (similar to charm)? B) Can this warrant suspicion that mind meddling is involved?

2. The victim is hit to Love someone other than their monogamous partner, either another PC or someone in their character history. A) Can the victim be guilty/horrified by their feelings, or do the feelings seem reasonable (similar to charm)? B) Can this warrant suspicion that mind meddling is involved?

 

[jpariury]

I think the former answers in A in both cases can be appropriate ("I love him, but I hate him! Dammit!" [See: Spike and Buffy], "I love him, but I'm married! Oh woe is me!" [See: every soap opera ever]).

B seems to circumvent the general principle of most of the roleplay-type effects.

 

[Draven]

I'd like to point out that Love doesn't prohibit you from taking hostile action against the person you're in Love with. As it's entirely a RP effect, you can RP what you think is appropriate. For example,

Zeth hates Liches, but a darn annoying female Lich hits him with a Love. He'll immediately feel remorseful, take his time explaining to his dear, darling chaotic fiend of beauty, that he does this only for her own good...sobbing tears of misery while pelting her with Destroy Undeads, Cure Morts, etc. You always hurt the ones you love.

After such an effect wears off, he'd probably suspect some mental effect had impacted him (though he probably wouldn't remember it actually taking effect).

 

[beboped]

Love explicitly doesn't rewrite personality the way that Charm does:

The victim will not act out of character
while in love; he or she may flirt, ask the new
love out for a romantic dinner, write bad poetry,
or perhaps merely pine away from a distance.

It also doesn't explicitly note that the target won't be able to tell they've been Loved, unlike Charm. Love to me is much more of a classic "emotional compulsion": You can't help your feelings for your "Lover", and you'll act however you would if you were in Love with that person specifically. As Draven notes, it doesn't prevent hostile action (and in certain circumstances might require it), and the target probably knows that they've been hit with Love (unless it was a sneaky alchemical mixture).

More directly, I agree that the answer to (A) is "victim can be horrified" and (B) is "They certainly can be suspicious Commands are involved".

 

[Undrask]

My question with this has always been with gay characters. For example, a character of mine is a gay male and was hit with a Love spell directed at a female. Thankfully the compulsion was short enough that it didn't get messy RP wise, but I figure LOVE isn't always ATTRACTION. He basically went about trying to make her happy and do things for her, but it's a kind of vague situation.

My assumption is that the Love spell can't make you physically attracted to somebody due to that being pretty much a date-**** effect (in my uber-liberal mind).

 

[Avaran]

My question with this has always been with gay characters. For example, a character of mine is a gay male and was hit with a Love spell directed at a female. Thankfully the compulsion was short enough that it didn't get messy RP wise, but I figure LOVE isn't always ATTRACTION. He basically went about trying to make her happy and do things for her, but it's a kind of vague situation.

My assumption is that the Love spell can't make you physically attracted to somebody due to that being pretty much a date-**** effect (in my uber-liberal mind).

to fal

It doesn't specifically say that you have to fall in "Love" with a member of the OPPOSITE sex, simply the APPROPRIATE sex.

This causes the victim to fall deeply in love
with the next member of the appropriate sex
seen.

I think it would have been perfectly appropriate for your gay character to not fall in "love" with that female, instead with the first male character he saw.

 

[jpariury]

Love is pretty clearly intended to be of the "attraction" type - certainly "to fall deeply in love" isn't commonly read as "thinks this person is the bee's knees". It also specifies "with the next member of the appropriate sex" (italics mine), so gay characters would fall in love with someone of the same sex, not the opposite. Who casts the effect isn't pertinent to determining who the victim falls in love with.

Oh, and thinking back, I have seen people get smack with a love effect and immediately close their eyes and blindfold themselves to avoid falling in love with "the wrong person", so knowing that you're under the effect has precedent, ime.

 

[Undrask]

Alright, I understand! Thank you.