Bi-weekly response - Does love really conquer all?
Yeah it does. Or rather, it can.
In a way.
If by 'conquer' one means 'against all odds, against death and reason and whatever else, love makes sure those IN love end up and stay together' - then no, demonstrably sometimes it doesn't.
But is 'lovers being together / happy together' all that love is?
Nope. At least I don't think so.
It's also cherishing, acceptance, and wanting - actively - that the other person - or people - are ... themselves. Fully, gladly, if possibly, happily. As a muggle writer would term it, 'grokking' the other person.
I think that THAT can conquer all. (Whether it does or not? Depends on how strong it is, and how strong the person feeling it is.)
Love being victorious does not necessarily mean lovers ending up together. It doesn't necessarily mean, if they do, a smooth ride. It doesn't necessarily mean that they stay together forever. It doesn't necessarily mean even that either or both (or more) of the parties LIVE even. It's still love, and it can still win.
Merlin, even staying away, or walking out, from the person you love can be a victory for love, if that is what they do want and what will make them happier. (Ha, am I one to talk? But that would NOT have made me happier, and it most definitely wasn't what I wanted! So the reference does not apply.)
All it takes for love to win is for you to - give a part of yourself to someone, and embrace who they are.
If we lose them, that part goes away from us forever; but who they are - stays with us. Also forever.
Death, disasters, other loves, changes and revelations about the other person - cannot break that. Not with a thousands swords. And it's intangible - you cannot see it, you cannot feel it, you cannot track it down, not with a thousand bloodhounds.
But it exists. And it meets all that the Universe can throw at it. And it survives, outlives the rest.
Thereby conquering the rest. All the rest.
Well, at least potentially. Sometimes what we think is love is not that strong. Sometimes WE are not that strong, and give it up; either trying to claim back the part of us we've given away, or trying to banish the person we've cherished from our hearts and souls.
Those are not failures of love. They are failures of us.
And all people make mistakes.
And we still love them.
ooc: cookies to those who can place where the two major fannish references are from.