"This is true love. You think this happens every day?"
What makes for a memorable love story? If you ask fandom, it's not exactly Noah and Allie in The Notebook (thank God). What's fascinating is that love stories, for people so entrenched in media and bathed in pop culture, they need to be something extra. Putting it baldly: They need to be a little fucked up. That's not to say that the love is fucked up, the pure thread of the pair's devotion to each other is never in question. He doesn't beat her and she doesn't cheat on him, they don't tear each other down. To borrow a phrase from General Hospital's Lucky, they're a "permanent lock." But the premise is a bit questionable, the story doesn't always have a happy ending (usually because someone dies) and when you break it down to the basics, you're left thinking, "Um, wow, these people are a little weird."
Battlescarred soldier with no sense of humor carries picture of woman around everywhere, goes back to 1984 to rescue said woman, and is summarily deflowered by her after confessing his undying love.
Haughty princess finds self attracted to cocky pilot, but makes out with long-lost brother instead.
Farm boy leaves teen sweetheart, fakes his death for three (or five) years, and returns only to run around dressed like a pirate and kidnap the sweetheart.
Elvish babe gives up immortality to stick with brooding ranger who doesn't want to be king and ends up chilling out by her lonesome long after the guy kicks off.
Mild mannered country boy with dual identity issues falls for ambitious reporter, but she falls for his other incarnation. He doesn't tell her he's both guys until they've been involved for years.
240 year old vampire lurks in shadows, stalks teenage girl, doesn't bother telling her he's a creature of the night until they get frisky and he almost bites her.
For the sake of argument, I stuck with "bulletproof" OTP examples, rather than non-canon ones or more subject-to-interpretation ones. For instance, there's, "Self-destructive party boy uses best friend's drunk ex-girlfriend as a tequila salt lick, unwittingly contributes to her eventual rape, spends school year verbally abusing her, but it's okay because once she learns his mom might have offed herself, they fall in love." That one didn't quite work. There are all kinds of love stories where one party has hurt the other, or they've hurt each other, and it's dysfunctional and it's ugly, and you 'ship them anyway. That's a different kettle of fish. I'm sure Buffy and Angel skate the edge of bulletproof OTP for some people, but I would put them alongside Han and Leia or Kyle and Sarah before I put Logan and Veronica there. Or GH's Sonny and Carly (He shot her in the head! Talk about not being bulletproof!) or Jack Harkness and whoever he's shagging this week.
To quote another emo TV teen, "True love stories never have endings." I think we'd all like to believe that despite the vacation in pirate garb, Westley would never cheat on Buttercup or otherwise do her wrong. He came back from the dead for her! That's it. Done. There's nobody else for them. And, sure, it didn't quite work out that way for Buffy and Angel because they weren't wrapped up in a 2 hour movie-- 7 seasons on her show and five seasons on his and you had Riley, Spike, Cordelia, etc. But, for me, even in the full throes of my Buffy/Spike love, I always thought Angel was the end game. That when all was said and done, and he Shanshu-ed and they finished saving the world, they'd get to rest, they'd get to be together.
Very few couples these days have that inevitability factor. I mean, I love ATWT's Luke and Noah, but I don't think they're going to be together, adopting orphans, when they're 40. And The Doctor, by concept alone, is never going to settle down and be with someone, no matter how blue in the face you want to get about Rose or Martha. But Kyle came back for Sarah, Han thawed out of carbonite still loving Leia, Arwen loved Aragorn for decades. As screwed up as the circumstances may be, as freakish as some of the undying devotion may be, it's incredibly romantic and touching as well.
It's funny, because I *almost* summarized GH's Luke and Laura up there, but I realized when you break it down, they're right there with Logan and Veronica or Sonny and Carly: It's a purported "true love" that was born of an awful act of violence and betrayal. I will never accept that a "supercouple" comes from rape. I may *like* a couple that's screwed up, violent, dysfunctional, whatever, and even drink the Kool-Aid, but don't piss on me and call it rain: It ain't True Love.
And, now, to cap off this Valentine's Day, here are (in no particular order)...
1. Buttercup and Westley, The Princess Bride.
2. Han and Leia, the Star Wars trilogy.
3. Clark and Lois, DC Comics/various TV shows.
4. Reese and Sarah, The Terminator.
5. Baby and Johnny, Dirty Dancing.
6. Vivian and Gabriel, Blood and Chocolate (book).
7. Simon and Katie, As the World Turns.
8. Rahul and Anjali, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
9. Warren and BJ, Santa Barbara.
10. Kashyap and Laj, Solva Saal.
11. Vicky and Adam, A Ring of Endless Light (book).
12. Robin and Stone, General Hospital.
13. Preston and Meg, The President's Daughter series.
14. Gambit and Rogue, X-Men, Marvel comics/various cartoons.
*No, Buffy and Angel aren't actually on my list. Despite "seeing" the OTP-ness, I never actually LIKED them. Ditto for Arwen and Aragorn.
**I had to leave off pairs like LFN's Michael and Nikita because despite loving them SO HARD, they fall into the "people who abuse each other" category.
*** I'm including 2 soap opera couples that were cruelly torn apart by meanie writers. My capacity for denial is very deep.
Battlescarred soldier with no sense of humor carries picture of woman around everywhere, goes back to 1984 to rescue said woman, and is summarily deflowered by her after confessing his undying love.
Haughty princess finds self attracted to cocky pilot, but makes out with long-lost brother instead.
Farm boy leaves teen sweetheart, fakes his death for three (or five) years, and returns only to run around dressed like a pirate and kidnap the sweetheart.
Elvish babe gives up immortality to stick with brooding ranger who doesn't want to be king and ends up chilling out by her lonesome long after the guy kicks off.
Mild mannered country boy with dual identity issues falls for ambitious reporter, but she falls for his other incarnation. He doesn't tell her he's both guys until they've been involved for years.
240 year old vampire lurks in shadows, stalks teenage girl, doesn't bother telling her he's a creature of the night until they get frisky and he almost bites her.
For the sake of argument, I stuck with "bulletproof" OTP examples, rather than non-canon ones or more subject-to-interpretation ones. For instance, there's, "Self-destructive party boy uses best friend's drunk ex-girlfriend as a tequila salt lick, unwittingly contributes to her eventual rape, spends school year verbally abusing her, but it's okay because once she learns his mom might have offed herself, they fall in love." That one didn't quite work. There are all kinds of love stories where one party has hurt the other, or they've hurt each other, and it's dysfunctional and it's ugly, and you 'ship them anyway. That's a different kettle of fish. I'm sure Buffy and Angel skate the edge of bulletproof OTP for some people, but I would put them alongside Han and Leia or Kyle and Sarah before I put Logan and Veronica there. Or GH's Sonny and Carly (He shot her in the head! Talk about not being bulletproof!) or Jack Harkness and whoever he's shagging this week.
To quote another emo TV teen, "True love stories never have endings." I think we'd all like to believe that despite the vacation in pirate garb, Westley would never cheat on Buttercup or otherwise do her wrong. He came back from the dead for her! That's it. Done. There's nobody else for them. And, sure, it didn't quite work out that way for Buffy and Angel because they weren't wrapped up in a 2 hour movie-- 7 seasons on her show and five seasons on his and you had Riley, Spike, Cordelia, etc. But, for me, even in the full throes of my Buffy/Spike love, I always thought Angel was the end game. That when all was said and done, and he Shanshu-ed and they finished saving the world, they'd get to rest, they'd get to be together.
Very few couples these days have that inevitability factor. I mean, I love ATWT's Luke and Noah, but I don't think they're going to be together, adopting orphans, when they're 40. And The Doctor, by concept alone, is never going to settle down and be with someone, no matter how blue in the face you want to get about Rose or Martha. But Kyle came back for Sarah, Han thawed out of carbonite still loving Leia, Arwen loved Aragorn for decades. As screwed up as the circumstances may be, as freakish as some of the undying devotion may be, it's incredibly romantic and touching as well.
It's funny, because I *almost* summarized GH's Luke and Laura up there, but I realized when you break it down, they're right there with Logan and Veronica or Sonny and Carly: It's a purported "true love" that was born of an awful act of violence and betrayal. I will never accept that a "supercouple" comes from rape. I may *like* a couple that's screwed up, violent, dysfunctional, whatever, and even drink the Kool-Aid, but don't piss on me and call it rain: It ain't True Love.
And, now, to cap off this Valentine's Day, here are (in no particular order)...
1. Buttercup and Westley, The Princess Bride.
2. Han and Leia, the Star Wars trilogy.
3. Clark and Lois, DC Comics/various TV shows.
4. Reese and Sarah, The Terminator.
5. Baby and Johnny, Dirty Dancing.
6. Vivian and Gabriel, Blood and Chocolate (book).
7. Simon and Katie, As the World Turns.
8. Rahul and Anjali, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
9. Warren and BJ, Santa Barbara.
10. Kashyap and Laj, Solva Saal.
11. Vicky and Adam, A Ring of Endless Light (book).
12. Robin and Stone, General Hospital.
13. Preston and Meg, The President's Daughter series.
14. Gambit and Rogue, X-Men, Marvel comics/various cartoons.
*No, Buffy and Angel aren't actually on my list. Despite "seeing" the OTP-ness, I never actually LIKED them. Ditto for Arwen and Aragorn.
**I had to leave off pairs like LFN's Michael and Nikita because despite loving them SO HARD, they fall into the "people who abuse each other" category.
*** I'm including 2 soap opera couples that were cruelly torn apart by meanie writers. My capacity for denial is very deep.