Most Couples Are Doomed

[SmidgenofaPigeon]

I mean in film and TV and literature .

Often at the end of a film depicting a great love story I just think...nah....two years max.

Examples:
Rose and Jack if he hadn’t frozen to death. Would she REALLY have been content with a future cut off from society and spitting and ice-fishing her way round America? No.

Satine and Christian from Moulin Rouge. I know she’s dead (and died very beautifully and romantically from TB too) but if they’d had to leave Paris, rattling through Europe dragging a bird cage, it would be no time at all before she realised there’s no freedom in being dirt poor while Christian writes his book, she’d go back to her tried and tested ways in no time to make a few bob, he’d get jealous and she’d piss off to join a chorus line in London, not as the sparking diamond but a cubic zirconia near the back.

Film Harry and Ginny- he’d realise all those years of playing the field as the chosen one was a missed chance, and he’d move out to his own flat where he’d show off his new Nike AirMax to his bewildered children and boast about crazy nights out in the local bar. Ginny would sniff stoically in a beige trench coat and hold it together for the kids.

I’m sure there are loads more.

Brilliant idea for a thread...

@igotfiveonit you made me laugh!! - posting on a thread to tell someone you didn't think they were funny

(tip; if you don't think someone is funny you can just not laugh, you don't have to say 'I'm not laughing'.)

I think the issue with many 'love stories' is the story is the falling in love, which is a relatively rare, real, powerful, all consuming human expereince which makes wonderful drama.
But IRL we might often fall in love with someone very unsuitable, for many reasons, to be good long term partner.
We might be too young, from diffrent backgrounds, not yet unedrstand oursleves, poor financial prospects, diffrent values, seeking diffrent life styles, tricky extended family, as yet unknown personality traits which over time grate etc etc.
None of that diminishes the extraordinary experience of falling in love though.

For a long term partner you need more than that.
Some people may be lucky enough that their singular expereince of falling in love is with someone totally suitable in all other ways and live happily ever after.
For many though a realistion in your early 30s that falling in love hasn't so far led to blissful lasting union, leads to realistic decsions around: you're kind, fun, like me and want the same things as me - shall we give this forever and create a family thing a go?
It's less inspiring as story but maybe a story we should hear more about!

I think Lizzie and Mr Darcy would have lasted. They were aware of each othesr faults but had the same values.
Likewise Emma and Mr Knightley. he understands her devotion to her father but isn't blinded to her faults.

Some of the most intense and passionate love stories the doom is built in and creates the passion e.g. Cathy and Heathcliff or Stephen and Isabelle in Birdsong.

@Profiterolegirl

Rose didn't even make much of an attempt to move over. I'd have got Jack on that big mirror.

I've never forgiven her for that. She could have budged over.

What do we think about Smithy and Nessa? Yay or nay?

I think Yay (and I don't mind that they don't write another…)

David and Natalie.
Anyone?

Yay to Smithy and Nessa.

@Cantbebotheredtothinkofaname - I think you're wrong there. I think Penny just grew up a bit and she was happy to have a baby with Leonard. I loved the way TBBT ended because there is always a chance they can go back to in the future
If she really hadn't wanted kids, Penny was definitely smart enough to take precautions to prevent that happening
I have a theory that Sheldon and Amy will have kids that aren't clever at all, and it'll be Penny and Leonard who have a genius child - I'd love to see how Sheldon deals with that!

I was just thinking about them, PamDenick, I would say yes, they'd make it because of their chemistry as well as their very odd and particular ways.. and their completely self-absorbed natures. Would be hard to stomach, I think.

likeamillpond definitely not to David and Natalie, not seriously anyway. She'd be a fish out of water in his world.

I could see Alan Rickman and his girlfriend though, they'd be a very arty and together couple, totally in tune. I think Emma Thompson was wrong for him, not mercurial enough by a long shot.

I have a theory about Nessa in Gavin and Stacey - in the final episode (the special in 2019) it was mentioned that Nessa is about 17 years older than Stacey - I think she's either Gwen's secret daughter or even Stacey's mum - I know that seems far fetched, but it just seemed really random for them to mention it....
I think Nessa and Smithy would be together now if we were to ever get another episode...

Romeo was ‘In love’ with someone else literally seconds before he laid eyes on Juliette, clearly he was fickle and she was a child and no way they would’ve lasted.

I think Mythbusters did an experiment where basically they proved that two people couldn’t have fit on Rose’s wardrobe door without sinking it, BUT they may both have survived if they’d taken turns. Or something like that.

Richard Gere’s character definitely would have a little bit thought of Julia as always a prostitute and I bet would have brought her street-walking past up in every argument. Hopefully she’d have got sick of that and taken him to the cleaners in a divorce.

What about Dil and Fergus in The Crying Game?

(Spoiler, though not the biggest one...)

I mean, surely after all of THAT, they would go the distance once Fergus was released?

What about Rachel and Ross in Friends, does anybody think they'd really still be together? I think Rachel would have finally told him to go about 6 months after the show ended. She'd have loved the whole drama of the 'did she get off the plane?' but then would have been regretting not making the move to Paris, I think.

Romeo was ‘In love’ with someone else literally seconds before he laid eyes on Juliette, clearly he was fickle and she was a child and no way they would’ve lasted.

I always thought that's kind of the implication, though? They're in young teenage love, made even more intense by the fact it was Juliet's first and Romeo's cure for previous heartbreak, and the fact that their families disapproved and her father disowned her over it; it's like a perfect storm for letting passion overtake all and creating a situation where they feel they have no choice but to do something like that.

I don't think it's supposed to be about their eternal love as much as the sadness that they couldn't just do this teenage thing in a healthy way because of the background that engineered the tragedy and deaths.

Same with all the Grease couples. It's about young love; as a youngster you think it'll be forever. As you get older, Danny's line that "that'll never happen" and they'll surely all stay together and in contact at uni and beyond looks more and more naive and you start realising he's almost certainly wrong. But you don't feel that way at the time.

Harry and Gunny were crap, but not as bad as Hermione and Ron.

@Wizzbangfizz

I think it was largely acknowledged that Jonny and baby were and only ever would be a summer fling and her "bit of rough" as she was off to college and the peace core and he was presumably back to painting and decorating

No, he'd go back to/start up with Penny, I just don't see him as a painter and decorator though looking at my walls here I'd employ him any day were he still around.

Anna and Kristof are well suited

I disagree. When Elsa gave him the title of 'Official Ice Master and Deliverer" she was presumably either having a snarky joke, given that she can make ice with her bare hands or alternatively was signalling her frustrated acceptance of her sister's useless boyfriend and giving him a made up useless job to keep him out of trouble. In 5 years he'll be like so many husbands of minor European royals, feeling emasculated, spending too much time at the gym and start chasing younger models or being used as a puppet for a coup by Weselton or as a sales guy for a dodgy set of bankers out to exploit the natural resources of Arundel. Yes, I do have 3 children and have therefore spent too much time thinking about this.

Love that premise @DriveMeCrazy1974

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe

likeamillpond definitely not to David and Natalie, not seriously anyway. She'd be a fish out of water in his world.

I could see Alan Rickman and his girlfriend though, they'd be a very arty and together couple, totally in tune. I think Emma Thompson was wrong for him, not mercurial enough by a long shot.

Alan Rickman & girlfriend would last until there were responsibilities like paying the mortgage and picking up the kids and keeping the house clean, and then he'd get bored and think that she'd become dull & go off looking for another, younger girlfriend who can be carefree and mercurial because she don't yet have the weight of caring obligations to tie her down. And repeat ad infinitum.

@JosephineBaker

Harry and Sally and Lizzie and Darcy last forever and are happy together. Anna and Kristof are well suited.

Finn and Rapunzel will be happy because I love them and I need them to be. Plus he's the hot Disney hero, and she deserves a hottie after all she's been through.

Arial and her obtuse Prince won't be.

Lizzie and Darcy definitely but Lydia and Wickham, I'm surprised they made it to the end of the book, I can never decide who was the more annoying so maybe, as my late mother would have said, together they don't spoil anpother couple!

Can I just point out that David and Patrick in Schitts Creek will be together forever as they are the most in love on-screen couple ever...

And Alexis will forge a fabulous career in New York but will end up with Ted.
Eventually.

Harry & Sally will drive one another to distraction but will stay together.

Harry Potter is too damaged & self-absorbed for a long term relationship. He will eventually go off the rails, have a massive mid-life crisis and Ginny will have had enough & chuck him out. Or LTB.

The couples in The Holiday always confused me. I like the film and it’s a cute ending but there’s a real “...and then what happened?”

Also Ted and Robin from HIMYM - know the twist with those two was always meant to be that they were the perfect couple who found each other at the wrong time but I never felt it. Yellow umbrella > blue french horn 🙂

@CuntyMcBollocks

I think you're wrong about Rose and Jack. Rose did all of the things she planned to do with Jack in honour of his memory, and she kept him alive in her heart for all of those years.

I was going to say exactly the same

witheringgrowan... I don't think that would happen, neither of them seem at all child-oriented. I think they'd just have a fantastic life, doing exactly what they like, apartments everywhere in every major city, from all the money they've saved from having children.

They'd crash and burn on a motorbike one day, doing a ridiculous speed... and die in each other's arms, quite happy...

Agree that’s there’s the ‘but what next?’ with The Holiday, Pretty Woman and some of the Love Actually stories.

The falling in love is always so quick isn’t it? Jude Law has only known Cameron Diaz a couple of weeks in the holiday, ditto Edward and Vivienne in pretty woman, Colin Firth and the Portuguese woman spend a few days together and no real conversation due to the language barriers.

Yay to Nessa and Smithy, tbh I could never really see what there was between Gavin and Stacey that made them so in love.

@benorjerry (and any other P&P commentators) have you read/watched "Death Comes to Pemberley"? I watched the series on the BBC a few years ago, though haven't read the book, and thought it was a very creditable follow up.

Set 6 years after the events of P&P - Lizzie and Darcy are on slightly wobbly ground and prone to bickering and Lydia is putting on a front for her marriage knowing full well Wickham is shagging everything in sight behind her back.