Friday Five: Favorite Fictional Couples
If you’re like me, and without an actual Valentine this weekend, I’m bringing you a cyber gift - My top 5 fictional couples for my first Friday Five in a long time. Read about them, watch them, get your vicarious dose of romance from them. You know you want to!
I cannot believe I narrowed my favorites down to the top 5. This was hard for me. So hard. You really have no idea. I even went and borrowed some fan videos from some fantastic vid makers on youtube for your enjoyment.
Five: Peter and Wendy
From Peter Pan.
Peter Pan is one of my favorite novels of all time. Forced to choose, gun to my head, it’s probably the story I would pick as best. It’s so deliciously imaginative and so amazingly bittersweet. I hear some of you out there who are saying that Peter and Wendy weren’t even really a couple. And you’re right. Because falling in love is a very grown up thing to do for a boy who can never grow up. It’s probably a strange choice. But Wendy is a little girl who is so terrified to become an adult that she runs away to an imaginary land with a boy who’s stories she made up, and then develops a crush on him, only to realize she can’t be a child forever. I feel like this is an origin story for anyone who becomes a writer. Tell me I’m wrong. It’s also so tragic, because even though Pan can’t love her back, he promises not to forget her, promises that he’ll come to listen to her stories every week, but eventually he stops coming, and she grows up. Heart wrenching.
Four: Michael and Maria
From Roswell.
How much did I (and do I still) love Roswell. It was such a great idea for a tv series that went a little crazy there in the middle. Michael and Maria were not the stars of the show, but the sidekicks to the main characters, and they began my love of the bickering BFFs. My love for that style of pairing knows no bounds, I kid you not. They didn’t even like one another when they were first introduced, but their chemistry was so crazy it could melt your television. They would fight, decide to be friends, hook up, hate one another, date, find a new love interest, and then save one another’s lives in just a few episodes. In reality, a relationship like theirs would probably be just as exhausting as it was explosive, but I could not get enough of them. They remain one of my favorite aspects of the show to this day.
Three: Monica and Chandler
From Friends.
I feel like anyone in my age group has to have a favorite Friends pairing, right? Who hasn’t at least seen a handful of episodes? It was such a surprise when these two hooked up, and I was immediately a champion for their relationship. I hadn’t realized how much I wanted them to be together until it happened. Commitment phobic Chandler who had been a family friend for years, and Monica who was already planning her wedding and her children’s lives without having anybody to share it with? It seemed like such an ill fit, but they balanced each other out perfectly. Chandler telling Monica he loves her when she has a turkey stuffed on her head is still one of the best moments in television history. It was such a perfect scene.
Two: Ron and Hermione
From Harry Potter.
I don’t care about these people who think Hermione belonged with Harry, or that Ron and Hermione would have a completely dysfunctional marriage. There is something really great about two characters who are complete and total opposites who still care so incredibly deeply about one another. Would they possibly have had multiple trial separations down the line? Sure. Probably. But I can’t help but think Hermione would mellow over time and Ron would mature. Compare the first novel in the series to the seventh (without the epilogue, let’s be real here people) and look how much the two of them have grown, on their own and together. Both of them led lives that made them realize the value of compromise. I think they would eventually come to have this incredible balance. And I adore them.
One: Joey and Pacey
From Dawson’s Creek.
I cannot say enough how much I love this show. As a kid, I watched it with my mom, and as I got older, it became one of my favorite things on television. Yes, it is overdramatic and soapy. It was the first of the modern teen soaps. Yes, these teenage characters have ridiculously amazing vocabulary for their age (I cannot tell you how much my verbal skills improved by watching this show as a twelve-year-old). This show was a turning point in teen TV. And if you are at all a fan of teen television, of stories of friendship, you should watch this show. There are some truly awful episodes. But the Pacey and Joey storyline that stretches the course of the show makes everything that the audience could become annoyed with worthwhile. Pacey is my favorite television character of all time. He is a trouble maker, a sarcastic sidekick that you think is just there for comedic relief. And somewhere along the way, the boy starts to grow up. And he begins to mature before anyone else on the show. He has a true character arc, something that is rare amongst sidekicks on television. He (slowly) learns from his mistakes, makes something of himself. And a lot of that has to do with how his antagonistic relationship with Joey progresses. I don’t think I have every, nor will I ever love a fictional couple more than these two. They are magic.
How funny. Even the literary relationships I count amongst my favorites made it to the screen.
Whew. Like I said, hard. Those of you who know my obsession with teen and tween tv are likely shocked that the likes of Sam/Freddie and Oliver/Lilly didn’t even make my top 5. I mean, in the TV world alone there are at least a dozen other couples that I love. You add in the cinematic and the literary? I just cannot stop shipping apparently. It’s funny, because I’m not a romantic person in real life. I think I’m just a fan of characters I love getting a chance at happiness, and if part of their happiness can come from a person, I want to see it. (The only truly tragic couple I’ve ever loved is Peter/Wendy.)
Honorable mentions go to these pairings who are not actually couples… yet. All of them are on current shows I watch, and I just can’t wait to see them take that next step: Fitz/Simmons (Agents of SHIELD), Oliver/Felicity (Arrow), Mike/Max (The Following). I think they could very well end up on my top five one day, bumping a couple of these people off.
What's your favorite fictional couple?
I cannot believe I narrowed my favorites down to the top 5. This was hard for me. So hard. You really have no idea. I even went and borrowed some fan videos from some fantastic vid makers on youtube for your enjoyment.
Five: Peter and Wendy
From Peter Pan.
Peter Pan is one of my favorite novels of all time. Forced to choose, gun to my head, it’s probably the story I would pick as best. It’s so deliciously imaginative and so amazingly bittersweet. I hear some of you out there who are saying that Peter and Wendy weren’t even really a couple. And you’re right. Because falling in love is a very grown up thing to do for a boy who can never grow up. It’s probably a strange choice. But Wendy is a little girl who is so terrified to become an adult that she runs away to an imaginary land with a boy who’s stories she made up, and then develops a crush on him, only to realize she can’t be a child forever. I feel like this is an origin story for anyone who becomes a writer. Tell me I’m wrong. It’s also so tragic, because even though Pan can’t love her back, he promises not to forget her, promises that he’ll come to listen to her stories every week, but eventually he stops coming, and she grows up. Heart wrenching.
Click to viewFour: Michael and Maria
From Roswell.
How much did I (and do I still) love Roswell. It was such a great idea for a tv series that went a little crazy there in the middle. Michael and Maria were not the stars of the show, but the sidekicks to the main characters, and they began my love of the bickering BFFs. My love for that style of pairing knows no bounds, I kid you not. They didn’t even like one another when they were first introduced, but their chemistry was so crazy it could melt your television. They would fight, decide to be friends, hook up, hate one another, date, find a new love interest, and then save one another’s lives in just a few episodes. In reality, a relationship like theirs would probably be just as exhausting as it was explosive, but I could not get enough of them. They remain one of my favorite aspects of the show to this day.
Three: Monica and Chandler
From Friends.
I feel like anyone in my age group has to have a favorite Friends pairing, right? Who hasn’t at least seen a handful of episodes? It was such a surprise when these two hooked up, and I was immediately a champion for their relationship. I hadn’t realized how much I wanted them to be together until it happened. Commitment phobic Chandler who had been a family friend for years, and Monica who was already planning her wedding and her children’s lives without having anybody to share it with? It seemed like such an ill fit, but they balanced each other out perfectly. Chandler telling Monica he loves her when she has a turkey stuffed on her head is still one of the best moments in television history. It was such a perfect scene.
Two: Ron and Hermione
From Harry Potter.
I don’t care about these people who think Hermione belonged with Harry, or that Ron and Hermione would have a completely dysfunctional marriage. There is something really great about two characters who are complete and total opposites who still care so incredibly deeply about one another. Would they possibly have had multiple trial separations down the line? Sure. Probably. But I can’t help but think Hermione would mellow over time and Ron would mature. Compare the first novel in the series to the seventh (without the epilogue, let’s be real here people) and look how much the two of them have grown, on their own and together. Both of them led lives that made them realize the value of compromise. I think they would eventually come to have this incredible balance. And I adore them.
One: Joey and Pacey
From Dawson’s Creek.
I cannot say enough how much I love this show. As a kid, I watched it with my mom, and as I got older, it became one of my favorite things on television. Yes, it is overdramatic and soapy. It was the first of the modern teen soaps. Yes, these teenage characters have ridiculously amazing vocabulary for their age (I cannot tell you how much my verbal skills improved by watching this show as a twelve-year-old). This show was a turning point in teen TV. And if you are at all a fan of teen television, of stories of friendship, you should watch this show. There are some truly awful episodes. But the Pacey and Joey storyline that stretches the course of the show makes everything that the audience could become annoyed with worthwhile. Pacey is my favorite television character of all time. He is a trouble maker, a sarcastic sidekick that you think is just there for comedic relief. And somewhere along the way, the boy starts to grow up. And he begins to mature before anyone else on the show. He has a true character arc, something that is rare amongst sidekicks on television. He (slowly) learns from his mistakes, makes something of himself. And a lot of that has to do with how his antagonistic relationship with Joey progresses. I don’t think I have every, nor will I ever love a fictional couple more than these two. They are magic.
How funny. Even the literary relationships I count amongst my favorites made it to the screen.
Whew. Like I said, hard. Those of you who know my obsession with teen and tween tv are likely shocked that the likes of Sam/Freddie and Oliver/Lilly didn’t even make my top 5. I mean, in the TV world alone there are at least a dozen other couples that I love. You add in the cinematic and the literary? I just cannot stop shipping apparently. It’s funny, because I’m not a romantic person in real life. I think I’m just a fan of characters I love getting a chance at happiness, and if part of their happiness can come from a person, I want to see it. (The only truly tragic couple I’ve ever loved is Peter/Wendy.)
Honorable mentions go to these pairings who are not actually couples… yet. All of them are on current shows I watch, and I just can’t wait to see them take that next step: Fitz/Simmons (Agents of SHIELD), Oliver/Felicity (Arrow), Mike/Max (The Following). I think they could very well end up on my top five one day, bumping a couple of these people off.
What's your favorite fictional couple?